To learn to think is to learn to question. Those who don't question never truly think for themselves. These are simple rules that have governed the advancement of science and human thought since the beginning of time. Advancements are made when thinkers question theories and introduce new ones. Unfortunately, it is often the great and respected thinkers who end up slowing the progress of human thought. Aristotle was a brilliant philosopher whose theories explained much of the natural world, often incorrectly. He was so esteemed by the scientific community that even 1，200 years after his death, scientists were still trying to build upon his mistakes rather than correct them!
Brilliant minds can intimidate upandcoming thinkers who are not confident of their abilities. They often believe they are inferior to the minds of giants such as Aristotle, leading many to accept current paradigms instead of questioning them.
I, like many thinkers of the past, once believed in my mental inferiority. I was certain that my parents, my teachers—adults in general—were always right. They were like a textbook to me; I didn't question what was written on those pages. I respected them, and accepted whatever they told me. But that attitude soon changed. My mind's independence was first stimulated in the classroom.
A stern, 65yearold elementaryschool science teacher once told me that light is a type of wave. I confidently went through years of school believing that light is a wave. One day，however I heard the German exchange student mention that light could be made up of particles. As the others laughed at his statement, I started to question my beliefs.
Maybe the teachers and textbooks hadn't given me the whole story. I went to the library, did some research and learned of the lightasawave versus lightasaparticle debate. I read about Einstein's discovery of the dual nature of light and learned the facts of a paradox(悖论) that puzzles the world's greatest thinkers to this day. Light behaves as both a particle and a wave, it is both at once. I realized I had gone through life accepting only half of the story as the whole truth.
Each new year brought more new facts, and I formulated even more questions. I found myself in the library after school, trying to find my own answers to gain a more complete understanding of what I thought I already knew. I discovered that my parents and teachers are incredible tools in my quest for knowledge, but they are never the final word. Even textbooks can be challenged. I learned to question my sources, I learned to be a thinker. I once believed that everything I learned at home and at school was certain, but I have now discovered to reexamine when necessary.
Questions are said to be the path to knowledge and truth, and I plan to continue questioning. How many things do we know for sure today that we will question in the future? At this moment, I know that our sun will burn for another five billion years, and I know nothing can escape the gravity of a black hole. This knowledge, however, may change in the next 20 years—maybe even in the next two. The one thing we can control now is our openness to discovery. Questions are the tools of open minds, and open minds are the key to intellectual advancement.
1.In the first paragraph, Aristotle is taken as an example to show that ________.
A. he is the greatest and respected philosopher of all time
B. huge influence of great thinkers may block human thought
C. advancements are made when thinkers question theories
D. great thinkers often make mistakes and then correct them
2.What does the underlined word “intimidate” in Paragraph 2 mean?
A. Frighten. B. Encourage. C. Strength. D. Persuade.
3.The author began to question his previous beliefs because ________.
A. what he learned from textbooks before turned out to be wrong
B. he was inspired by the different ideas from an exchange student
C. he was laughed at by other students for his unacceptable statement
D. he was not satisfied with his life and desperate to achieve success
4.According to the passage, the author ________.
A. looks down upon great thinkers all the time
B. never doubts what he has learned in the textbook
C. always throws himself into the laboratory
D. determines to be a thinker and questioner
5.We can conclude from the last paragraph that ________.
A. the author is not quite sure about his future
B. we human beings don't dare to predict future
C. questioning is necessary to promote advancement
D. the theory of black holes will change in two years
6.What does the passage mainly talk about?
A. Following rules. B. Challenging yourself.
C. Questioning giants. D. Predicting future.
Chemists have sped up evolution, harnessing a process that can take millions of years in the natural world and using it—in months or weeks—to make unusual molecules that today are used for everything from “green” biofuels(生物燃料) to cancer drugs. Today that speed and efficiency was rewarded with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Frances H. Arnold won half of the 2018 prize for directing evolution in a test tube, speeding up the natural selection of the most productive enzymes(酶) to drive chemical reactions. The other half of the prize went to George P. Smith and Sir Gregory P. Winter.
All three scientists took Charles Darwin's idea of natural selection, in which molecules(分子) or organisms accumulate mutations(突变) in a slow, random process, and figured out ways to identify and select specific mutations that improve the ability of molecules such as proteins and enzymes. By picking and choosing enzymes with improved abilities and repeatedly refining them, Arnold ended up with one that performed 256 times better than the original.
“This was a revolution based on evolution，” says Claes Gustafsson, a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry. “Now you can use these enzymes to speed up reaction and to replace poisonous chemicals.”
Arnold began her line of research in the early 1990s. In a speech several years ago she said the notion of improving on the natural course of evolution was an idea that needed to come from an outsider. “Twentyfive years ago it was considered the lunatic fringe(狂热者，极端分子)，” Arnold said in 2014. “Scientists didn't do that. Gentlemen didn't do that. But since I’m an engineer and_not_a_gentleman._I_had_no_problem_with_that.”
Smith's research, begun in the 1980s，used a bacteriophage(噬菌体). Genes code for proteins, and Smith got his phages to display those proteins on their outer coats. He then used antibodies to fish out the proteins he was interested in. This process is called phage display. The ability to select specific proteins, cycle their genes back through the phage, and again fish out the best ones sped up natural selection.
Winter put the genes for antibodies inside phages，got the phages to produce antibodies on their coats, and used a small molecule to fish out only antibodies that had a particular kind of binding site(结合部位), so Winter had developed a way of producing highly efficient antibodies in a short period of time. Because of this, Claes says, “Now we can use antibody drugs with greater efficiency and fewer side effects.” Of the 15 mostsold drugs on the planet, she says, 11 are now made by processes based on this method.
1.Why does the Nobel Prize in Chemistry go to Frances H. Arnold?
A. She followed Charles Darwin's idea of natural selection.
B. She found ways to use viruses to produce powerful proteins.
C. She developed a way of producing highly efficient antibodies.
D. She directed evolution and accelerated the natural selection of enzymes.
2.What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 5 imply?
A. She was regarded as a lunatic fringe.
B. She dared to break through conventional idea.
C. She took advantage of her gender(性别).
D. She was supported by other scientists.
3.What attitude does Claes Gustafsson hold towards the use of antibody drugs?
A. Critical. B. Ambiguous. C. Casual. D. Favorable.
4.What's the best title for the passage?
A. Revolution in Evolution Wins 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
B. Three Scientists Speeding up the Natural Selection of the World
C. Charles Darwin's idea of natural selection becoming outdated
D. Scientists Finding a New Method for Wresting with Cancer
Before 1815 producing in the United States had been done in homes or shops by skilled artisans(工匠). As master craft workers, they passed on the knowledge of their trades to apprentices and journeymen. In addition, women often worked in their homes parttime, making finished articles from raw material supplied by merchant capitalists. After 1815 this older form of producing began to give way to factories with machinery tended by unskilled or semiskilled laborers. Cheap transportation networks, the rise of cities, and the availability of capital and credit all stimulated(刺激) the shift to factory production.
The factory changed that. Goods produced by factories were not as finished or elegant as those done by hand, and pride in craftsmanship(工艺) gave way to the pressure to increase rates of productivity. The new methods of doing business involved a new and stricter sense of time. Factory life necessitated a more rigid schedule, where work began at the sound of a bell and workers kept machines going at a constant pace.
The first generation to experience these changes did not adopt the new attitudes easily. The factory clock became the symbol of the new work rules. One mill worker who finally quit complained revealingly about “obedience(服从) to the dingdong of the belljust as though we are so many living machines”. With the loss of personal freedom also came the loss of standing in the community.
In this newly appearing economic order, workers sometimes organized to protect their rights and traditional ways of life. Craft workers such as carpenters, printers, and tailors formed unions, and in 1834 individual unions came together in the National Trades' Union. The labor movement made progress in the decade before the Panic of 1837, but in the depression that followed, labor's strength collapsed. During hard times, few workers were willing to strike or engage in collective action. And skilled craft workers, who led the union movement, did not feel a particularly strong bond with semiskilled factory workers and unskilled laborers. More than a decade of agitation(抗议) did finally bring a workday shortened to 10 hours to most industries by the 1850's, and the courts also recognized workers' right to strike, but these gains had little immediate impact.
Workers were united in feeling angry or upset about the industrial system and their loss of status, but they were divided by ethnic and racial antagonisms(对立), gender, conflicting religious perspectives, occupational differences, political party loyalties, and disagreements over tactics(策略). For them, the factory and industrialism were not agents of opportunity but reminders of their loss of independence and a measure of control over their lives. As United States society became more specialized and differentiated, greater extremes of wealth began to appear. And as the new markets created fortunes for the few, the factory system lowered the wages of workers by dividing labor into smaller and less skilled tasks.
1.What can be inferred from the passage about articles produced before 1815?
A. They were primarily produced by women.
B. They were generally produced in shops rather than in homes.
C. They were produced mostly in large cities with large transportation networks.
D. They were produced with more concern for quality than for speed of production.
2.What does the complaint from a mill worker in Paragraph 3 convey?
A. Clocks did not have a useful function in factories.
B. It was difficult for workers to adjust to working in factories.
C. Factories were most successful when workers revealed their complaints.
D. Workers sometimes quit because of the loud noise made by factory machinery.
3.The author identifies political party loyalties, and disagreements over tactics as two of several factors that ________.
A. created divisions among workers
B. caused work to become more specialized
C. encouraged workers to demand higher wages
D. increased worker's complaint of the industrial system
Four Apps to Boost Your Productivity
When working or studying, you can only focus for so long before your mind starts to wander. The Pomodoro Technique(番茄工作法) helps you avoid this issue by breaking your day up into 25`minute focus sessions followed by fiveminute breaks. Here's a quick dive into the Pomodoro Technique, followed by 4 of the best Pomodoro timer apps to help you get started.
Focus Booster (Web, Windows, macOS，iOS, Android)
● It lets you adjust the lengths of your focus and break sessions.
● Your data syncs across Focus Booster's web, mobile, and desktop apps.
PomoDoneApp (Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android)
● It lets you filter your data with powerful reporting options.
● With its Chrome extension, you can blacklist certain websites during your focus period.
Tomatoes (Web)
If you're struggling to stick with the technique and need some additional motivation, Tomatoes offers a solution: motivation via competition.
Get your coworkers involved, and compete against each other. It might even lead to useful data if one person in particular who works from home wins frequently.
Timerdoro (Web)
Sometimes, you need timers for more than just pomodoros. In that case, Timerdoro has a solution.
● It lets you create as many timers as you want to go off throughout the day.
● It reminds yourself to do multiple things throughout the workday.
1.We can learn from the passage that ________.
A. Focus Booster helps users switch from focus to break sessions regularly
B. PomoDoneApp is ideal for motivating users to complete multitasks
C. Tomatoes offers assistance to those who prefer to compete with others
D. Timerdoro creates as many timers as possible to blacklist some websites
2.Which of the following timer apps can show the advantage of coworkers competing with each other?
A. Focus Booster. B. PomoDoneApp. C. Tomatoes. D. Timerdoro.
I just finished reading Rachel Held Evan's book A Year of Biblical Womanhood. There was one particular part of the book that really made me think.
She did a bit of ______ and found that the majority of the world's cocoa beans come from West Africa where there are ______ working conditions and child slavery. And the children get there by ______， and once there, they are often ______ treated. She came to an important ______， “The coffeeandchocolate experiment forced me to find an ______ fact to which I think most Americans can ______: I had absolutely no idea where the majority of my food came from.”
Well, that was going to be a(n) ______ for me. I have supplies of ______ to eat. Mike knows to stop on his way from work if I am nearing the ______. Often he buys me bags of chocolate chips. I ______ chocolate in other rooms so I don't have to ______ with my kids. And now I am finding out that the money I spend on my ______ is actually paying for something I am ______ to.
I will have to make a ______. I will have to be more ______ of where my chocolate comes from (as well as look into other foods and goods I consume). ______， I live within walking distance from a fair trade shop that has a large and delicious ______. So far, Divine Milk Chocolate made in the USA is my ______ choice.
And, maybe it costs a bit more money, and that means I have to ______. But, as it has been said, “When you know better, you do better.”
1.A. research B. explanation C. revision D. prediction
2.A. favorable B. permanent C. terrible D. impressive
3.A. boycotting B. informing C. appealing D. kidnapping
4.A. equally B. badly C. formally D. warmly
5.A. agreement B. approval C. conclusion D. definition
6.A. unsuitable B. unforgettable C. unchangeable D. uncomfortable
7.A. relate B. contribute C. report D. reply
8.A. notice B. problem C. failure D. threat
9.A. chocolate B. milk C. bread D. fish
10.A. day B. shop C. end D. job
11.A. pick B. check C. make D. sneak
12.A. quarrel B. deal C. share D. reason
13.A. addiction B. recreation C. admiration D. collection
14.A. accustomed B. opposed C. devoted D. engaged
15.A. mess B. mistake C. change D. schedule
16.A. ashamed B. informed C. capable D. conscious
17.A. Luckily B. Actually C. Previously D. Certainly
18.A. element B. selection C. production D. adventure
19.A. former B. last C. first D. late
20.A. turn up B. pay off C. pay back D. cut back
— He spent little money in repairing the roof. Now the rain has ruined half his furniture.
— ________. This is a plain example.
A. A penny saved is a penny gained B. Many a little makes a mickle
C. Penny wise and pound foolish D. From saving comes having
