Making velvet flowers(绒花) was an endangered folk craft, but things have changed with more young craftsmen devoting themselves
Velvet flowers
| A．Introducing a lecture. | B．Giving a presentation. | C．Hosting a program. |
| A．By giving examples. | B．By asking questions. | C．By telling stories. |
| A．Sharing food in the same plate. |
| B．Calling teachers’ names directly. |
| C．Being challenged straight in public. |
| A．To consult the Romans. |
| B．To avoid questioning teachers. |
| C．To learn about the destinations. |
New Mexico is famed for roasted green chillies with a distinctive smoky flavour, but it comes at a cost — producers in the state typically use propane (丙烷) as fuel, releasing an estimated 7,800 tonnes of CO2 a year. Ken Armijo at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF) wanted to see if he could match the flavour without the need for fossil fuels.
Armijo, whose family owns a chilli farm, works with solar concentrators at NSTTF, normally used for experiments boiling liquid to produce electricity, or simulating (模拟) the effect of re-entry on materials used in spacecraft. The facility uses rings of mirrors to focus sunlight on a 60-metre tower at the centre. He improved a traditional chilli roaster and loaded it with 10 kilograms of chillies before placing it in the tower to roast at 480°C.
A group of green chilli connoisseurs (品鉴师) blind-tasted the solar-roasted version alongside the traditional variety and rated them higher for both flavour and smell. Armijo says infrared (红外线的) imaging showed solar heating produced a more even distribution (分布) of heat with fewer hotspots. “Solar-roasted chillies appeared to have a much cleaner taste because the localised heat from propane roasting can cause localised burning,” says Armijo.
Although this test took place at a research facility, Armijo says the cost of solar concentrators is dropping and it could be possible to use technology developed at Sandia to build small solar concentrators at low cost. These could produce the high temperatures needed for roasting chillies and other foods.
Armijo is eager to try the technique with other foodstuffs, including cocoa and coffee beans, which are grown in lower-income countries and could be solar roasted.
Pete Schwartz at California Polytechnic State University, who has been exploring solar cooking for many years, said that he was not sure “whether solar concentrators will catch on in lower-income countries, where he has seen many solar projects fail due to lack of training and technical support.”
Armijo says he has been approached by at least 15 companies and is in discussions on ways to commercialise the technology. He is seeking extra funding from the US Department of Energy and other organisations to pursue small solar concentrators for food processing.
1．Why did Armijo roast green chillies using solar concentrators?| A．To increase profits. | B．To create a new recipe. |
| C．To reduce air pollution. | D．To improve chillies’ taste. |
| A．They are lower in production cost. |
| B．They work with higher efficiency. |
| C．They spread heat more equally. |
| D．They are easier to operate. |
| A．Favourable. | B．Intolerant. | C．Unclear. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．It has been adopted by some companies. |
| B．It is on its way to the market. |
| C．It has been officially recognised. |
| D．It is in need of technical support. |
Stare at a blank wall in any room, and you are unlikely to learn much more than the paint color. But a new technology can unnoticeably scan the same surface for shadows and reflections.
As people move around a room, their bodies block a portion of any available light to create subtle and indistinct “soft shadows” on walls.
| A．The technology is thought advanced. |
| B．These can’t be detected by the human eye. |
| C．Brightly colored clothing can even cast a dull, reflected light. |
| D．It also can monitor someone who avoids a camera’s line of sight. |
| E．Next, researchers recorded blank walls with people in various scenarios. |
| F．The system is considered a unique and wonderful discovery by camera specialists. |
| G．Although this system can function in any room, it performs poorly in dim lighting. |
VARK is a questionnaire that helps with your learning by suggesting the strategies you should be using. According to VARK, some people learn best by reading materials, while others are more visually-oriented (视觉导向的) and must see something to understand. Others might fall into the auditory learning subtype, meaning they tend to urderstand materials by listening to instructions. There are also kinesthetic (动觉的) learners, or those who learn best through hands-on activities.
Learning style theories had their popularity in the 1990s, when Beth Rogowsky was just starting as a middle school teacher. “At that time, when my students were given some learning material, if they disliked reading it, they could listen to it instead as long as they’d like to listen to others reading it; whatever they preferred, they would be encouraged to do it,” says Rogowsky, who is now an associate professor of teaching and learning at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania.
But when it comes to preferred learning styles, there’s a problem. The idea of using learning styles emerged in the 1980s as many researchers voiced their support, but few actually tested their concepts to confirm the validity in randomized, experimental settings. In the 2000s, when researchers started to do just that, they found little evidence that matching students to their supposed learning style helped them memorize information better.
Rogowsky herself has confirmed the belief that learning styles don’t hold up in her recent studies. In one study published in Frontiers in Psychology this year, Rogowsky and her colleagues tested fifth-graders with preferred auditory and visual learning styles. Students were given standardized reading tests, in both written and audio formats. The team didn’t uncover a relationship between their preferred learning styles and academic performance, according to Rogowsky.
The team’s study noted that a preference to learn material using a certain method could mask skill lack. “Someone who prefers to lean by listening instead of visual approaches might just have underdeveloped reading skills. Letting students learn in their preferred manner doesn’t push them to improve weaker skill sets,” Rogowsky says. “If you need to improve your skills, don’t just keep doing what’s easy to you.”
1．What’s the purpose of Paragraph 1?| A．To explain the complexity of the learning process. |
| B．To inspire people to actively engage in a questionnaire. |
| C．To show different people have different learning styles. |
| D．To suggest using VARK to choose efficient learning styles. |
| A．Encourage students to learn creatively. |
| B．Allow students to use their preferred learning style. |
| C．Help students improve their reading and listening ability. |
| D．Provide varied reading materials for students to choose from. |
| A．Correctness. | B．Faulty. | C．Arrangement. | D．Budget. |
| A．Students need to focus on their academic performance. |
| B．Students should stick to their favorite learning materials. |
| C．Students hiding skill lack can boost their confidence |
| D．Students should go beyond a certain preferred learning style. |
Whenever you read text, your brain processes the visual stimuli (刺激物) to create meaning and understand the content. Chances are, you don’t pay much attention to the way the information is presented- particularly the font (字体) choice. That’s because your main target is reading comprehension, not aesthetics.
Although typography(排印) is missed by most of us, it’s essential in making texts legible, readable and appealing for audiences. Beyond the visual aspect, research shows that fonts play a significant role in the mental processes of understanding that happen while we read. A font’s impact on the way you learn and memorize information might be hard to notice consciously, but your brain is certainly tuned in. Perhaps surprisingly, hard-to-read fonts such as Bodoni, Comic Sans, or Monotype Corsiva are better for memorizing information than fonts like Arial or Times New Roman, according to some studies.
“Difficulty can function as an alarm signal, giving the reader a sense that the task is challenging and will require mental effort,” says Daniel Oppenheimer, a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University and one of a 2010 study authors, “Additionally, slowing down the reading speed to deal with the disfluency may increase the probability of spotting errors in a text.”
Font characteristics such as style, size and color play a role in information retention memory or recall as well, says Stephen Banham, a typography lecturer at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. Experiments have proved a U-shape relationship between font size and memory: Large-font items may predict higher recall regardless of style, but very small font sizes can also introduce a desirable difficulty.
A document’s specific method of formatting information also makes an impact. Using font styles like bold or italics to indicate significance can also improve memory. That’s because people are better able to remember information they consider important, says Oppenheimer. Researchers found that bolded text has a higher recall than text in italic or regular styles, regardless of the font size. However, if an entire document is bolded, the emphasis is lost, and readers can no longer spot vital passages.
1．Why do readers often ignore the font choice?| A．They lack aesthetic knowledge. | B．They aim to understand the meaning. |
| C．Their brains are not sensitive to the font. | D．Fonts are of little significance in reading. |
| A．They can lead to desirable challenges. | B．They may distract readers from the text. |
| C．The meaning of the text may be mistaken. | D．They will affect reading performance negatively. |
| A．Using fonts of medium size. | B．Choosing bright font colors. |
| C．Putting the words in italic type | D．Making the whole passage bold. |
| A．What Fonts Make Reading Easy | B．What Fonts Make Memory Lasting |
| C．Why Fonts Impact Retention and Recall | D．How Fonts Affect Learning and Memory |
It was a cold December, and things were tough. Mum had a hard time raising us kids on her own in our small community. We relied on social assistance to keep us clothed, and although our clothes were secondhand, we thought they were beautiful.
Looking back, I realized what Mum went through sending us kids to school. Every morning she would tuck (塞) a new piece of cardboard in our shoes because our soles (鞋底) were worn out. When we got home, Mum would have French toast ready for us. Our rent was $100 a month, but Mum couldn’t pay it, and we knew we would move out right after Christmas on the first of January.
The holidays were fast approaching, and we were entitled to (有资格获得) $100 for Christmas from social services. It was four days before Christmas. Mum said that instead of buying food, she was going to use the money to pay our back rent. That way we’d have a roof over our heads for a little while longer. Then she told us that there would be no Christmas gifts.
What Mom didn’t know was that I had been selling Christmas trees, sweeping snow and doing part-time jobs to earn enough money to buy a new pair of boots—boots that weren’t patched (缝补); boots with no cardboard in it. I knew exactly which boots I wanted. They were ten-inch, Top-Genuine, Pierre Paris boots, and they cost $23.
The big day for getting my boots came on Christmas Eve afternoon. I was very excited as I hurried up the shopping center for it. On the way, I noticed a grocery store (杂货店).
Para.1 In the grocery store were different sorts of necessities and Christmas decorations displayed, and I slowed my pace.
Para.2 Once home, I piled the groceries on the porch (门廊) and knocked on the door.
A teenage boy named Joel lived in a small faraway town.Joel was an ambitious rapper who spent countless hours in his bedroom writing lyrics (歌词) and perfecting his flow. But he never performed on stage. His dream was to make it big in the music industry and share his passion for rap with the world. He hoped that one day his dream would become a reality. Little did he know, this dream was about to come true in the most unexpected way.
One sunny afternoon, Joel was walking through his neighborhood when he heard booming music coming from a nearby park. Interested, he followed the sound and discovered a crowd of people gathered around a stage. To his surprise, the famous rapper Latto was in town and performing her show for the community. Joel had always been Latto’s faithful fan. He’d like to become a rapper like her. Pushing his way through the crowd, Latto came to front of the stage.
Joel’s heart raced with excitement as he watched Latto appeal to the audience with her charming lyrics and undeniable talent. He waved his arms and cheered loudly together with all the people present.All of a sudden, a fearless idea suddenly occurred to him.Inspired by her performance, Joel decided to seize the opportunity and show his skills before his idol (偶像). Joel went up to the event organizer and explained his passion for rap, hoping to be given a chance to perform.
Impressed by Joel’s enthusiasm and determination, the event organizer agreed to let him perform a short set after Latto finished her performance. Joel was overjoyed and spent the remaining time practising,making sure he was ready to deliver an unforgettable performance. He prayed (祈祷) at the bottom of his heart that he would succeed like Latto. Latto ended her show and the crowd broke up.
My family moved from Taiwan to a smalltown in central Georgia, where my dad got a visa for his family and a job. I had just learned English, and from what little I could gather from my friends. Santa Claus would come down one’s chimney and put toys in one’s stocking on Christmas Eve! What a great country, I thought. After I looked up “stocking” in my Chinese-English dictionary, I knew what I had to do and always expected that day.
Finally, the big day came. On that wonderful night, after everyone went to bed, I sneaked out of bed, took my longest, cleanest knee sock and attached it to a nail already on the mantel (壁炉). Obviously, the previous owners of this house were no strangers to this Santa character. Gazing at the sock and imagining the delicately-packed gift in it, I couldn’t help giggling (咯咯笑). For the first time, I found it hard to fall asleep.
And for the first time, I woke up before everyone else in the early morning. Then I headed straight to the fireplace and was even ready for what to say after seeing the gift. However, what happened next was the least thing I wanted to mention. On the nail was the empty and lonely sock. I was hit with the reality of the empty sock and the biggest lie ever told. I tried my best to holdback my tears but failed. Bursting into tears, I quickly took down the sock and stuffed it in the back of a drawer.
Every December since then, the topic of Christmas memories would unavoidably come up, and I would amuse my friends with my poor-little-me story. I had to make it as funny as possible, or else I would cry once again. I didn’t know whether any of my audience ever noticed the sparkling tears hidden in my eyes.
How could I know that Santa was just late? Nine years ago, on Christmas Eve, I heard a knock on the door when I was watching TV. Unwillingly, I dragged my feet and opened the door.
Outside the door stood an old man with a white beard and a red cap, holding a well-packed box.
Through tear-blurred eyes, I recognized the handwriting on the card.
How many different emotions do you think you can communicate to people with your face? Do you have the same facial expressions as the people from different cultures? Read this passage to find out what scientists have just discovered about this topic.
New research suggests that there are only four basic facial expressions of emotion. However, how these expressions are interpreted (解释) might depend on where you are from. Research by scientists from the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of Glasgow has challenged the traditional view of how the face expresses emotions. It was widely believed that six basic emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust) were expressed and recognized across different cultures. However, the University of Glasgow’s work now suggests that the human face only has four basic expressions of emotion. This is because some pairs of emotions are impossible to distinguish(辨别). Fear and surprise, for example, both share wide open eyes. The facial expressions for anger and disgust also look the same.
So if our faces are only able to express four basic emotions, how do we communicate a much more complex kind of feeling? The study found that the way expressions are interpreted is different in different cultures. However, while looking at how people from the East and West look at different parts of the face during facial expression recognition, scientists found that although there are some common features across cultures, the six basic facial expressions of emotion are not recognized universally.
What interests people about the cross-cultural aspect of the research? This work leads to understanding which emotions we share and appreciating our differences.
1．What did the University of Glasgow find?| A．Six basic emotions greatly influence our character. |
| B．Six basic emotions can be recognized. |
| C．It is easy to tell from the basic facial expressions. |
| D．Some of the six facial expressions are similar. |
| A．Sadness, fear, anger and surprise. | B．Anger, sadness, fear and happiness. |
| C．Happiness, surprise, sadness and fear. | D．Disgust, happiness, anger and sadness. |
| A．Basic facial expressions are not universal. |
| B．Facial expressions can’t show complex feelings. |
| C．Western people have more kinds of facial expressions. |
| D．The way to express emotions changes with time. |
| A．What Does Your Face Say? | B．How Do We Communicate? |
| C．What Are the Six Basic Emotions? | D．Do We Have the Same Expressions? |
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