Using a computer or smartphone at night can cause us to pile on the pounds，new research has revealed．
The study found a link between blue light exposure(blue light is produced by smartphones and computers)and increased hunger．It found that exposure to blue light increases hunger levels for several hours and even increases hunger levels after eating a meal．Blue light exposure has also already been shown to cause decreased sleepiness in the evening，increasing the risk of sleeplessness．
The leading researcher，Ivy Cheung，from Northwestern University in Chicago，said，“A single three-hour exposure to blue-enriched light in the evening greatly affected hunger and metabolism(新陈代谢)．These results are important because they suggest that controlling environmental light exposure for humans may represent a novel approach of influencing food intake patterns and metabolism．”
The study group consisted of 10 healthy adults with regular sleep and eating schedules. They completed a four-day trial under dim(昏暗的)light conditions，which involved exposure to less than 20 lux(勒克斯，照明单位)during 16 hours awake and less than 3 lux during eight hours of sleep．On the third day they were exposed to three hours of 260 lux，blue-enriched light starting10.5 hours after waking up．and the effects were compared with dim light exposure.
Ivy Cheung said more research is needed to determine the functions involved in the relationship between light exposure，hunger and metabolism．What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?
| A．How blue light exposure affects hunger． |
| B．Why blue light exposure influences sleepiness． |
| C．What is the link between blue light exposure，hunger and sleepiness． |
| D．Who has found the effects of blue light exposure on hunger and sleepiness． |
The underlined word“novel”in the third paragraph probably means“___________”.
| A．unusual | B．unforgettable |
| C．temporary | D．controversial |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．Blue light exposure can make us lose weight at night． |
| B．Blue light exposure has no effect on sleeplessness． |
| C．The researchers drew their conclusion by comparison． |
| D．Ivy Cheung has found the relationship between light exposure and hunger． |
Where would you be most likely to find the passage?
| A．On a notice board． | B．In a health magazine． |
| C．On a business website． | D．In a college newspaper． |
Holidays
| Holiday News Vacancies (空位) now and in the school holidays at a country hotel in Devon. This comfortable, friendly home-from-home lies near the beautiful quiet countryside, but just a drive away from the sea. The food is simple but good. Children and pets are welcome.Reduced prices for low season. |
| The Snowdonia Center The Snowdonia Center for young mountain climbers has a mountain 1068.The beginners’ costs are ￡57 for a week, including food and rooms. Equipment is included except walking shoes, which can be hired at a low cost. You must be in good health and prepared to go through a period of body exercises. This could be the beginning of a lifetime of mountain climbing adventure. |
| The World Sea Trip of a Lifetime Our World Sea Trip of 2008 will be unlike any holiday you have ever been on before. Instead of one hotel after another, with all its packing and unpacking, waiting and traveling, you just go to bed in one country and wake up in another. On board the ship, you will be well taken care of. Every meal will be first-class and every cabin like your home. During the trip, you can rest on deck(甲板), enjoy yourself in the games rooms and in the evening dance to our musical team and watch our wonderful play. You will visit all the places most people only dream about – from Acapulco and Hawaii to Tokyo and Hong Kong. For a few thousand pounds, all you’ve ever hoped for can be yours. |
What can you do if you like to go on holidays with pets?
| A．Choose the holiday in Devon. |
| B．Go to the Snowdonia Centre |
| C．Join the World Sea Trip of 2008 |
| D．Visit Acapulco and Hawaii |
In what way is the Snowdonia Centre different from the other two holidays?
| A．It provides chances of family gatherings. |
| B．It provides customers with good food. |
| C．It offers a sport lesson. |
| D．It offers comfortable rooms. |
What is special about the World Sea Trip of 2008?
| A．You can have free meals on deck every day. |
| B．You can sleep on a ship and tour many places. |
| C．You will have chances to watch and act in a play. |
| D．You have to do your own packing and unpacking. |
At the Snowdonia Centre, the beginners’ costs of ￡57 do not cover .
| A．food | B．rooms | C．body exercises | D．walking shoes |
On my first day in America, I was excited, but nervous as well. It was my dear neighbor Susan who helped me get used to my new life far away from home. There was a knock at the door. When I opened it, Susan came in with a home-made apple pie. She hugged me and said：“You must be the precious Chinese doll!” With a big smile, she went on：“Alice, I am sure you have never, ever tried a home-made apple pie before! You are going to love it so much!” To be honest, I was greatly surprised by this welcome from a stranger. And the apple pie made me feel at home.
Susan was very helpful to me. When I was thinking about a costume to wear on Halloween, she suggested I dress up like a traditional Chinese girl. “I happen to have a traditional Chinese dress and guess what, I am a great make-up artist!” she said. Susan didn’t hide her excitement, when, after an hour of hard work, she pushed me to the mirror to examine our work. The clothes fit me perfectly! I am sure that I stood out from the crowd that Halloween, and I am very grateful to Susan for her help.
My first Thanksgiving was another highlight. On the festival morning, I was surprised to find a gift box in my front yard. There was a note on it：“Hello Alice, I am the Thanksgiving bunny! Enjoy your gift!” I looked around and caught Susan looking at me from the porch. Seeing that she had been caught, she awkwardly picked up a newspaper and pretended to read it. I couldn’t help laughing. When I walked up to her, she said：“It was not me. It was the Thanksgiving bunny!” Susan is such a lovely person; she is the American above all others I need to thank.
I saw that the spirit of the Chinese saying, that “Neighbors carry more weight than distant relatives,” is alive and well in America. Susan filled my heart with warmth and joy, just as angels do. What made the writer feel at home in America?
| A．Her Chinese doll. |
| B．Susan’s thanksgiving bunny for Halloween. |
| C．Gifts from her parents in China. |
| D．Susan’s visit on the first day. |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．The writer lent a Chinese dress to Susan to wear at Halloween. |
| B．Susan often looked at her neighbors to find out what they were doing. |
| C．The writer had never had an apple-pie before she went to America. |
| D．Susan helped the writer to appreciate American festivals. |
What does the phrase “stood out” mean in the passage?
| A．To be more eye-catching. | B．To rise up. |
| C．To be much better. | D．To be strange. |
This passage is most probably taken from_______.
| A．a newspaper | B．a travel guide |
| C．an advertisement | D．a science magazine. |
You have two eyes and they are set close together on the front of your face. Have you wondered why? The reasons are simple and important to the way you see the rest of your world.
Your eyes are like two small cameras. A camera catches an image of an object and records it on film. Similarly, when you look at something, each eye takes in what it sees and sends this image to the back of the eyeball. Because your eyes are set close together, they view the world from about the same height but from slightly different angles. Working as a team, the eyes send the images to your brain, which puts them together into a single, centered image.
Seeing in stereo means seeing with two eyes working together, which is called stereoscopic sight. This allows you to view the world in three dimensions, or 3-D. Seeing depth helps you to judge the distance between you and the objects you see and to adjust to the changing angle at which you see something as you move closer to or farther away from it. If images are coming from only one eye, however, only two of these dimensions----height and width----can be perceived. A world seen with one eye is thus two-dimensional, as in a photograph.
Now consider why your two eyes are on the front of your face. Think of other animals with the same arrangement. They are all animals that hunt, like lions and wolves. Their eyes face directly in front of them. This provides a field of sight about 180 degrees wide, which is called binocular(双眼的) sight. On the other hand, animals that are hunted have eyes on the sides of the head, which provides nearly360-degree field of sight. In order to stay alive, they need to see things coming from the sides and from behind. However, without stereoscopic sight, they have difficulty determining how far a danger is.
With sight both stereoscopic and binocular, humans share with animal hunters the ability to see from side to side and to accurately determine the distance. If you think it would be great to have another type of sight, perhaps with hundreds of tiny eyes like many insects do, think again! Each tiny insect eye sees only a tiny part. Besides, what if you needed glasses? Be glad for the eyesight that you have.According to the passage, the similarity of an eye and a camera is that they both.
| A．can imagine objects | B．can record images |
| C．provide centered images | D．work at the same height |
Stereoscopic sight is a result of having.
| A．two eyes close to each other that work together |
| B．hundreds of eyes, all seeing tiny parts of an image |
| C．a three-hundred-sixty-degree field of sight |
| D．one eye on either side of the head, each seeing a different image |
What is the meaning of the underlined word “perceived” in Para3 most similar to?
| A．known | B．seen | C．taken | D．understood |
We can infer from the last paragraph that.
| A．our eyes work like cameras |
| B．animal hunters are glad for the sight they have |
| C．the three dimensions are depth, height and width |
| D．human beings are fortunate to have such eyesight |
Many of us enjoy doing it: you turn on the camera on your mobile phone and hold it at a high angle, making your eyes look bigger and your cheekbones more defined. You turn to your best side and click. There it is — your selfie.
Over the past year, “selfie” has become a well-known term across the globe. This August the Oxford dictionary added the word to their online dictionary and defined it as: “A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and up-loaded to a social media website.”
Today it’s not difficult to find social networking pages full of photos people have taken of themselves and their friends. And selfie culture has become especially relevant for young people. As many as 91 percent of teenagers have posted photos of themselves online, according to a recent survey by the US Pew Research Center.
So what are the reasons for the rise of selfie culture?
“The cult (狂热) of the selfie celebrates regular people,” Pamela Rutledge, a professor at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, told Vogue magazine. “There are many more photographs available now of real people than models.”
Posting selfies also allows you to control your image online. “I like having the power to choose how I look, even if I’m making a funny face,” Samantha Barks, 19, a high school student in the US, told Vogue.
In addition to self-expression and documentation, selfies “allow of a close friendship for long-distance friends, because you can see each other’s faces every day”, wrote Casey Miller at The Huffmgton Post.
But US psychologist Jill Weber is concerned that selfies might lead to social problems, “There’s a danger that your self-esteem may start to be tied to the comments and ‘likes’ you get when you post a selfie, and they aren’t based on who you are — they’re based on what you look like,” Weber told Vogue. “When you get nothing or a negative response, your confidence can plummet.” With the first paragraph, the author intends to .
| A．tell us the fun of taking a selfie |
| B．describe what a selfie is |
| C．introduce where the selfie came from |
| D．inform readers that the selfie is popular among teenagers |
Why is selfie culture so popular according to the article?
a. It enables people to choose how they look.
b. It helps people improve their self-esteem.
c. It’s a chance for ordinary people to show off themselves.
d. It is believed to be a helpful way to develop a new friendship.
e. It is considered a good way to stay connected with friends that are far away.
| A．a, c, e | B．b, c, d | C．a, b, c | D．b, d, e |
What is Jill Weber’s attitude toward selfies?
| A．She thinks they are a good form of self-expression and documentation. |
| B．She believes the disadvantages of selfies outweigh the advantages. |
| C．She is worried that people’s self-esteem might be affected by how others react to their selfies. |
| D．She thinks that selfies can help people learn about their friends based on who they really are. |
The underlined word “plummet” in the last paragraph probably means .
| A．rapidly develop | B．greatly exaggerate |
| C．become dangerous | D．quickly fall |
OK, I admit it: emoticons(表情符号)are popular. Some people even think they are fun. Many seem unable to get through an e-mail or Instant Message chat sentence without using one. Some feel that they add feeling and character to otherwise cold digital communications.
Some people, such as a Hollywood scriptwriter John Blumenthal, however, blast the use of emoticons as “infantile(幼稚)just like the people who use them”. He believes that words themselves should be enough. “If you’re funny, happy or sad, that should be apparent from the comment that goes before the emoticons,” he argues.
In the eyes of Blumenthal, the use of emoticons is a gender issue. “Men don’t use emoticons very much. Maybe not at all,” he said, “Teenage girls and women seem to use them a lot. Maybe there’s an emoticon gene.”
It’s an interesting opinion, but it is not shared by all.
In an interview with The New York Times, Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology at the University of California, said that emoticons are popular because our brains are programmed “to seek out representations of humanity”. He believes that they are popular not because they are shortcuts for the lazy, but because they bring in something beyond language. They satisfy our needs to be with and communicate with people.
All of these arguments may be somehow right. Each one of us will choose to communicate in our own way. I tried to use one once and felt like I was stealing into a primary school class that I had no place being in. I’d rather let my words do the talking.
Friends, however, send me messages and e-mails full of emoticons. I have no problem with this. I don’t regard any of my friends as lazy or immature. It’s just a question of individuality. What does the underlined word “blast” in the second paragraph mean?
| A．clarify | B．criticize | C．support | D．approve |
Which of the following views would John Blumenthal agree with?
| A．It’s enough to use language in digital communication. |
| B．Instant Message chatters are childish. |
| C．Men never use emoticons. |
| D．There must be an emoticon gene in everybody. |
From the text, we can conclude that the author______________.
| A．feels he has no difficulty using emoticons |
| B．thinks emoticons don’t suit him |
| C．encourages his friends to use emoticons |
| D．believes that emoticons are suitable for everyone |
What is the main point of the article?
| A．Advice on language used over the Internet. |
| B．Arguments over the use of emoticons. |
| C．The history of the use of emoticons. |
| D．Reasons for the popularity of emoticons. |