It’s undeniable that spending time outdoors and in nature lifts our spirits and makes us feel more centered and at peace. When we breathe in fresh air, and enjoy the beauty of trees, streams and oceans, we naturally tend to feel more connected to ourselves and others.
Over the past decade, scientists have been exploring why nature — and dirt specifically — is such a powerful tool in improving our mood. According to researchers, the secret may lie in the mi¬crobes （微生物）of the soil. One bacterium specifically----Mycobacterium Vaccae （M. Vaccae） —has been identified as having the power to affect our moods and cognitive function as well.
Experiments conducted at Sage Colleges in New York found that contact with M. Vaccae can increase serotonin levels in the brain — a chemical that is associated with higher levels of happi¬ness ,increased focus, and reduced anxiety. In order to explore how the bacteria can improve learn¬ing, researchers Dory Mathews and Susan Jenks experimented with mice in a maze. Mice that in¬gested the bacteria navigated the maze twice as fast as the control group and proved less anxious as well.
Humans can absorb M. Vaccae just by playing in the dirt. We take in it when we breathe, we consume it in organic vegetables, and it can also enter our bloodstream through skin contact, espe¬cially where we have open cuts. This may explain why children in school perform better after break.
Neuroscientist Christopher Lowry at the University of Bristol in England believes that he has i- dentified why this incredible bacterium works. "What we think happens is that the bacteria activate immune cells, which release chemicals called cytokines that then act on receptors on the sensory nerves to increase their activity. ”
Beyond the power of M. Vaceae, scientists have been proving for decades that exposure to dirt, and the huge number of microbes found in dirt, can strengthen our immune system. When our body comes into contact with bacteria, it stores die infonnation in a type of library and can then use that information to fight sickness and infection more effectively.
Happiness, focus, less anxiety......I’ll take a double dose of dirt; please!
1.What raises people’s spirits while spending time outdoors?
A. Air. B. Trees.
C. Water D. Dirt.
2.How does M. Vaccae work?
A. By working on sensory nerves. B. By fighting sickness and infisction,
C. By strengthening the immune system. D. By making immune cells active.
3.According to the text, what does the author intend to do next?
A. Provide some advice on reducing anxiety for readers,
B. Summarize the previous paragraphs about lifting one’s mood.
C. Explain how he or she will expose himself or herself to dirt.
D. Introduce a new topic related to dirt for discussion.
4.What can be a suitable title for the text?
A. Fight Sickness and Infection More Effectively
B. How Getting Dirty Can Actually lift Your Mood
C. Let’s Take a Deep Breath of Fresh Air
D. Enjoy Beauty and Naturally Connect to Others
I have learned something about myself since I moved from Long Island to Florida three years ago. Even though I own a home in Port St. Lucie just minutes from the ocean, an uncontrollable urge wells up to return to Long Island even as others make their way south. I guess I am a snowbird stuck in reverse. Instead of enjoying Florida’s mild winters, I willingly endure the severe weather on Long Island, the place I called home for 65 years.
I’m like a migratory bird that has lost its sense of timing and direction, my wings flapping a- gainst season.
So what makes me fly against the tide of snowbirds? The answer has a lot to do with my reluc¬tance to give up the things that define who I am. Once I hear that the temperature on Long Island has dipped into the range of 40 to 50 degrees, I begin to long for the sight and crackling sound of a wood fire. I also long for the bright display o£ colors — first in the £all trees, and then in the limits around homes and at Rockefeller Center. Floridians decorate too, but can’t create the special feel of a New England winter.
I suppose the biggest reason why I telum is to celebrate the holidays with people I haven’t seen in months. What could be better than sitting with family and friends for a Thanksgiving turkey din ner, or watching neighbors’ children excitedly open gifts on Christmas? Even the first snowfall seems special. I especially enjoy seeing a bright red bird settling on a snow-covered branch ( My wife and I spend winters at a retirement community in Ridge, and I’m grateful that I don’t have to shovel.）
While these simple pleasures are not unique to Long Island, they are some of the reasmis why I come back. Who says you can’t go home?
1.What does the underlined word "snowbird" in Paragraph 1 refer to?
A. A person spending winter in a warmer climate.
B. A bird seen chiefly in winter.
C. A person permanently living in a foreign country.
D. A bird flying to the south in winter.
2.What’s the difference between Florida and Long Island?
A. Winters in Long Island are milder.
B. The snowbirds in Long Island are rarer.
C. Weather in Long Island is severer.
D. Long Island is nearer to the ocean.
3.What did the author miss most when he was in Florida
A. The cold temporature. B. The colorful light display.
C. The family gathering. D. The winter landscape.
4.What’s the author’s purpose in writing the text?
A. To praise the beauty and warmth of his hometown.
B. To describe his dream to be a free bird.
C. To explain the reasons for moving from his hometown.
D. To express his feeling of missing his hometown.
The popular image of the mountain climber is of a person carefully climbing a steep cliff with a network of safety ropes, but it is not the only kind. Many climbers now enjoy bouldering. It’s more accessible and better for the environment.
What is bouldering? Bouldering is a sport that involves climbing on, over, and around boulders up to approximately twenty feet above the ground. Participants employ no safety ropes. | |
Why boulder? improve your climbing skills by focusing on basics places to climb, such as climbing walls at gyms and parks, easy to find less time commitment to bouldering than to mountain climbing intellectual and physical enjoyment as one solves problems | Bouldering Terms crimp: a very small handhold foothold: a place where one may place a foot to aid in climbing boulder jug： a very large handhold that is easy to use problem:The path up a boulder is referred to as the "problem"that one must solve. The " solutionis the sequence of moves one makes up and over a boulder. |
Here is an example of a climber addressing a bouldering problem.
Figure 1: The climber has two routes she could take, one to the left and one to the right. The left one appears easier because it has a jug within easy reach, but look what happens if she chooses that direction. She gets stuck on the rock and has to go back down. Sometimes that is even more difficult than going up.
Figure 2: The climber takes the one to the right this time. Using a foothold and placing her righ hand in a crimp, she is able to lift herself up and locate other handholds. After only a few moves, she is able to throw her leg over the top of the boulder and pull herself up.
1.What can we leam about bouldering?
A. It is a popular indoor sport.
B. It is a kind of climbing without ropes,
C. It needs maps and equipment.
D. It is a steep cliff climbing.
2.Why does bouldering become popular?
A. Because it challenges the limits. B. Because it is not readily available.
C. Because it builds minds and bodies. D. Because it ia a team game.
3.According to the example, what is the right route usually like?
A. It is a shortcut. B. It a dead end.
C. It is tough but to the top. D. It is lined with jugs.
假设你是李华，你的英国笔友Mike即将完成学业，不久前来信就是否到中国工作询问你的意见。请根据以下提示回一封电子邮件：
1. 建议他可以来中国；
2. 阐述你的三条理由；
3. 承诺可提供帮助。
注意：1.词数不少于100字;
2.文章开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数；
3.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Mike,
I’m very glad to have received the letter you sent me last week.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Best wishes.
Yours truly,
Li Hua
阅读表达
Tim Harris, a young man with Down’s syndrome(唐氏综合症), hasn’t let his disability stop him from opening a restaurant in New Mexico.
Tim’s Place, a restaurant in Albuquerque, New Mexico, serves up traditional diner favorites such as blueberry pancakes, bacon, eggs, and cheeseburgers—all with hugs. Considered as the “world’s friendliest restaurant,” it has served more than 32,400 hugs to hungry customers. The restaurant’s owner, Tim Harris, has made it his mission to hug every visitor who comes in.
Harris, who has Down’s syndrome, has never let his disability get in his way. Since age 14, he’s promised to own a restaurant. He got a part-time job and worked as a restaurant host when he was in high school, and then graduated from Eastern New Mexico University with certificates in Food Service and Office Skills. After that, with his family’s help and support, Harris’ childhood dream became a reality. Alongside the Mexican and traditional American food, Tim’s Place’s menu offers “calorie-free” and “guilt-free” hugs.
“I love giving all the customers a hug because I want them to feel comfortable and connected and being around friends,” Harris told Albuquerque The Magazine. Customers seem to love it too. Many of the regulars have been going every week ever since the restaurant opened. To his family’s knowledge, Harris is the only restaurant owner in the United States with Down’s syndrome. But they’re hoping he won’t be the last.
Harris wants to show other people with disabilities what’s possible. “We’ve had several families with young children with disabilities who have come in or written, saying they never thought this would be possible for their sons or daughters. It’s altering the way they’re thinking as they’re raising their young children.” Harris’ mother, Jeanne, told KRQE News 13.
1.Why is Tim’s Place called the “world’s friendliest restaurant”? (no more than 8 words)
2.What is the customers’ attitude towards Harris’ service? (no more than 5 words)
3.What message does Harris want to deliver to the disabled? (no more than 10 words)
4.What does the underlined word “altering” in Paragraph 5 mean? (1 word)
5.Would you like to have breakfast in Tim’s restaurant? Why? (no more than 15 words)
For as long as there have been gifts, we naturally make choices based on the recipient (接受者). But what if we have been wrong all along and that we could turn things around, which not only made gift buying easier, but the recipient happier?
In 2015, psychologists Lauren Human and Lara Aknin conducted an online survey, which suggested that when people buy gifts, they prefer to choose something based on the recipient’s personality and tastes. Most people also said that they preferred receiving gifts bought with them in mind: gifts for them.
But Human and Aknin wondered if this approach to giving failed to take advantage of the way we connect as people. So they sent 78 volunteers into a shopping centre before Mother’s Day. Half were told to buy a card that “reveals(揭示) your knowledge of the recipient” while the others set out to buy a card that “reveals your true self”. After the purchase, the givers who had thought partly of themselves reported feeling emotionally closer to their mothers.
To find out how that approach goes down with recipients, the psychologists did another test, asking more than 100 students to choose a song on iTunes to give to a friend, partner or family member. Each half of the group received the same instructions as the card buyers. Results revealed that recipients of songs that revealed something of the givers felt closer to them than those who received gifts bought only with them in mind.
Human and Aknin suggest it might apply to all gifts. “If building stronger social connections is the underlying (潜在的) goal” of a gift and surely it should be—then we “may well be advised to offer more self-reflective gifts”. In short, for a present to be meaningful, you need to give away a bit of yourself, even if there is a risk that the gift might not so closely suit the recipient’s practical needs or tastes as one acquired purely with that in mind.
Moreover, giving something of oneself can be a safer act, the psychologists added. Because it reduces the risk of revealing poor knowledge of a recipient by attempting to buy something that fits their character—and failing.
But a note of caution here: what the research does not examine is the potential risk in repeated, unsympathetic giver-centered giving, which, according to Human and Aknin “could signal self-obsession” —and nobody wants to reveal that about themselves.
1.From the Mother’s Day card test, we can conclude that .
A. gifts chosen with the giver in mind work well on the giver
B. most people choose gifts with the recipient in mind
C. most people choose gifts based on their personal tastes
D. gifts chosen with the giver in mind work well on the recipient
2.What do the underlined words “them, them” refer to in order of appearance?
A. The recipients; the givers. B. The givers; the recipients.
C. The givers; the givers. D. The recipients; the recipients.
3.What does the author think is the significance of gift giving?
A. Making the giver’s life happier.
B. Showing one’s knowledge of the recipient.
C. Establishing and strengthening social connections.
D. Meeting the recipient’s practical needs.
4.Which of the following is Human and Aknin’s advice on gift giving?
A. Choose gifts that reflect more of yourself.
B. Just focus on your own tastes when choosing gifts.
C. Buy something that fits the recipient’s character most.
D. Be careful not to signal your true personality.
5.Which is the best title of this passage?
A. The tradition of gift giving. B. The purpose of gift giving.
C. The effect of gift giving. D. The psychology of gift giving.
