A.Neither did Jim | B.Neither Jim did | C.So did Jim | D.So Jim did |
Many metals must be made into thin objects before they can be used in technological products like electronics or cells. “Stubborn” metals, however, are very difficult to turn into thin objects because they require extremely high temperatures.
Generally speaking, scientists make metal objects using the technique that includes making metals become gas at high temperatures and allowing an object to form on top of wafers (晶片). But this traditional method is very expensive, uses a lot of energy, and may also be unsafe due to high temperatures. Now, the researchers from University of Minnesota have developed a way to make these metals become gas at significantly lower temperatures, fewer than 200 degrees instead of several thousands. By designing and adding organic ligands (有机配体) to these metals, the researchers were able to greatly increase the material vapor (蒸汽) pressure, making them easier to become gas at lower temperatures. Not only is their new technique simpler, but it also makes higher quality materials.
“The ability to make new materials with ease and control is necessary to walk into a new age of energy economy,” said Bharat Jalan, the senior author of the study. “There is already a historical link between the progress in science and the development of new technology. Millions of dollars go into making materials for various applications. Now, we’ve come up with a simpler and cheaper technology that makes better materials.”
These “stubborn” metals are used to make lots of products. “Bringing down the cost and difficulty of producing these metals will play a large role in both industrial and research efforts,” said William Nunn, the paper’s first author. “Now that making these metals into thin objects becomes easier, we want to see renewed interest in the materials which include these stubborn metals.” The research is published recently and extremely popular among readers.
1.How do scientists usually make metal objects?A.By adding new materials. | B.By using less energy. |
C.By using high temperatures. | D.By reducing metal vapor pressure. |
A.Negative. | B.Positive. | C.Uninterested. | D.Doubtful. |
A.To increase the usage of thin objects. | B.To reduce the cost of “stubborn” metals. |
C.To make energy economy develop faster. | D.To attract more attention of “stubborn” metals. |
A.The usage of metal objects. | B.A new way to make metal objects. |
C.Characteristics of “stubborn” metals. | D.The process of making “stubborn” metals. |
A.An economy book. | B.A film magazine. |
C.A factory’s website. | D.A science journal. |
Only mother love is true love. It gives e
When you are still a baby, mother takes good care of you as much as possible. In your waking hours she always holds you in her arms. When you are ill, she stops her work right now to look after you day and n
When you are old e
Mother is always ready to give everything she has to her children, not to receive. What true love that is in the w
Do you want to become better at making small talk with new people? Do you want to become better at networking with others? Nothing will improve your networking ability and your ability to make a successful conversation with other people rather than your curiosity(好奇心) about them.
When you are curious about other people, you will want to discover some of the interesting ways that they are similar to you. When you are curious about them, you’ll also be interested to discover the ways in which they think differently and live differently from you.
When you have curiosity about others, you will be much less self-conscious and your conversations will work a lot better. Instead of worrying yourself, “What can I say next that won’t sound stupid?”, you will be focused on learning more about the other person.
Making small talk with strangers can be tricky. We’ve all heard the advice that we should pick something out of our immediate environment and use that as a main point to start our small talk with the other person.
It’s true that this can be a great starting point for a conversation. However, when you focus too much on discussing things like the weather in your city, you can bring the conversation to a painful end very quickly. The other person will sense that you are trying to make a conversation, but that you have no interest in really getting to know him or her.
How can you keep small talk from becoming boring?
One way is to watch the other person for clues.(线索).The clues they will give you about what is really interesting to them. When you get these clues, use them to start making the conversation a bit more about their life, their opinions, and their experiences.
After you have had a couple of minutes to break the ice, try looking for ways to make the conversation a little bit more personal. Ask the other person for his or her opinion about something that is a bit more personal but not extremely so. The first few minutes of talking to someone new will not be the best time to ask the other person his or her opinion on religious(宗教的) or political(政治的) matters. However, he or she might be happy to discuss his or her favorite team or musical band.
1.In Paragraph 1, the writer mainly wants to tell us that___________.A.curiosity can help us make a good talk |
B.it’s hard to make a talk with new people |
C.curiosity helps us know new people quickly |
D.it’s hard to make a successful talk with others |
A.self-centered | B.self-controlled | C.serious | D.nervous |
A.think about what won’t sound stupid |
B.show our interests to the other person |
C.try to learn more about the other person |
D.discuss things like the weather in the city |
A.The way of starting small talk. |
B.Improving our small talk with curiosity. |
C.The importance of small talk in our life. |
D.Improving our relationship through small talk. |
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On Oct. 30, Ado Campeol who
Tiramisu translates into English as “pick me up”. According to the BBC, it was an
When the dish appeared in the local newspaper in 1981, it got tons of attention and became worldwide.
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Many people want to make their
The students of Southside School were asked to give their opinions about whether the school should run an athletic program or start a vegetable garden.
An athletic program is hatch better than gardening. How are we ever going to win anything at the Inter-School Athletics without proper training? At the moment, we only do athletics for one tam and the teachers train us. We need experts(专家)to teach us things like throwing and high jump. ![]() I know lots of kids say they're tot interested in competitions, but that's because they've never won anything. If they got better training and started winning things, they'd soon change their minds. People always say kids don't get enough exercise. Just because you do gardening outdoors doesn't make it exercise, so I don't sec how it matters. Athletics is much better for fitness and lots of kids can have a go at the same tine. I don't think there would be enough jobs for everyone in a garden. In fact, I think a garden is a really bad idea. I don't know why we're even considering it. Liz, Grade 8 |
I think a vegetable garden is a great idea. We already do hours of sport, including athletics. And not everyone likes sport.![]() There are lots of kids around here who don't have gardens so they can’t grow things even they want to. If you really want to do more sport, you can join a club. And think about it: What helps you to be good at sport? You need to eat lots of fruit and vegetables. If we learn to cook all the things we grow, the garden will keep us all fit and healthy and then we’ll be better at sport. Sam, Grade 8 |
A.Kids should take exercise. | B.Kids should eat vegetables. |
C.Kids should try to win more. | D.Kids should be outside more. |
A.Some students don't like getting dirty. |
B.Some students don't enjoy being outside. |
C.Some students already know how to garden. |
D.Some students may have no chance to garden. |
A.To change the subject. | B.To introduce his next reason. |
C.To support Liz's idea. | D.To find an answer to the question. |
Why the Best Things in Life are All Backwards
There’s a part of Navy SEAL training called “drown-proofing” (抗溺水训练) where they bind your hands behind your back, tie your feet together, and dump you into a 9-foot-deep pool. Your job is to survive for five minutes.
Most people who try drown-proofing fail. Many of them panic and scream. But some make it. And they do so because they understand a counterintuitive (违反直觉的) lesson: the more you struggle to keep your head above water, the more likely you are to sink (下沉).
With your arms and legs bound, it’s impossible to keep yourself at the surface for the full five minutes. Even worse, your limited efforts to keep your body afloat will only cause you to sink faster. The trick to drown-proofing is to actually let yourself sink to the bottom of the pool. From there, you lightly push yourself off the pool floor and carry you back to the surface. Once there, you can have a quick breath of air and start the whole process over again.
Strangely, surviving drown-proofing requires no superhuman strength. It doesn’t even require that you know how to swim. However, it requires the ability to not swim. This skill—the ability to let go of control when one wants it most—is one of the most important skills anyone can develop. And not just for SEAL training. For life.
Most people suppose the relationship between effort and reward (回报、奖励) is one-to-one. We think that working twice as long will produce twice the results.
This is almost never true. Most of the world does not exist on a linear curve. Linear relationships only work for mindless or repetitive tasks—driving a car, filling out paperwork, cleaning the bathroom, etc. In all of these cases, doing something for two hours will double the output of doing it for one hour. But that’s simply because they require no thought or creativity.
Most activities in life do not operate along the linear effort/reward curve because most activities in life are not basic nor mindless. Most activities are complex (复杂的), mentally or emotionally involved. Therefore, most activities produce a diminishing returns curve.
Diminishing returns means that the more you experience something, the less rewarding it becomes. The classic example is money. The difference between earning $20,000 and $40,000 is life-changing. The difference between $120,000 and $140,000 means your car has nicer seat heaters. The difference between earning $127,020,000 and $127,040,000 is basically nothing.
Friendship has diminishing returns, as does eating, sleeping, working out at the gym, reading books, studying for an exam—the examples are endless.
But there’s another curve, the inverted curve, where effort and reward have a negative relation—the more effort you put into doing something, the more you will fail to do it.
Drown-proofing exists on an inverted curve. The more effort you put into rising to the surface, the more likely you will be to fail at it.
Few things in life work on an inverted curve. But the few things that do are important. In fact, the most important experiences and goals in life all exist on an inverted curve.
Going after happiness takes you further away from it. The longing for greater freedom is often what causes us to feel stuck and trapped. The need to be loved and accepted prevents us from loving and accepting ourselves.
The harder we try to do something, the less we shall succeed. This is “The Backwards Law”: desiring a positive experience is itself a negative experience; accepting a negative experience is a positive experience. The goal is to take your mind and teach it to stop chasing its own tail. To stop chasing meaning, freedom and happiness because those only serve to move it further away from itself. To show it how the only way to reach the surface is by letting itself sink.
You lean into the fear and uncertainty, and just when you think you’re going to drown, just as you reach the bottom, it will launch you back to your salvation (拯救).
1.The key to survive drown-proofing is to ________.A.sink down and lift up | B.have enough practice |
C.hold your breath for long | D.move smartly underwater |
A.Linear curve shows the possibility of success. |
B.Diminishing returns tells us the less the better. |
C.Inverted curve works when we have spiritual needs. |
D.There is no direct link between the action and the result. |
A.The more friends we have, the happier we will feel. |
B.Cleaning works better in the first hour than the second. |
C.Confidence increases when we try, and then stops increasing. |
D.The more we want respect from others, the less they will respect us. |
A.build mind power to live better |
B.shape values for positive outcomes |
C.give up struggle to gain what we desire |
D.accept negativity because we are not perfect |
A.write | B.listen | C.practice | D.teach |
A.disappeared | B.spread | C.forgot | D.left |
A.done | B.happened | C.gone | D.made |
A.illness | B.fearlessness | C.kindness | D.unhappiness |
A.by | B.for | C.with | D.at |
A.it | B.its | C.it's | D.it is |
A.memory | B.discovery | C.truth | D.accident |
A.reminding | B.thinking | C.reminded | D.thought |
A.action | B.turns | C.risks | D.pride |
A.note | B.dandelion | C.sunflower | D.dictionary |
More and more Americans are buying used clothes from second-hand stores. ThredUP is an online second-hand store. James Reinhart, the founder (创始人) of ThredUP, once said, “You have to go where the customer is going.”
Now some popular department stores(百货公司), like J.C. Penney and Macy’s, have started selling old clothes, too. The first big store that entered the old clothes business was Neiman Marcus. Customers can buy old clothes in the store. It has also started to leave areas in the store to recycle (回收) old clothes from customers. Many customers think it’s very convenient.
Customers want to pay less for clothes. And they’d rather see their old clothes worn again than thrown away.
A report on ThredUp shows that sales of second-hand clothes will grow from $24 billion in 2018 to $51 billion by 2023. Another study finds that one-third of the customers sold unwanted clothes to buy new ones.
However, Neil Saunders, the director of Global Data Retail, thinks selling old clothes can destroy the relationship between stores and suppliers(供货商) of new clothes. The suppliers will have to spend more money on advertisement(广告) and sell new clothes at a lower price.
Some people think selling old clothes is a way for some big stores to bring young customers back. Is that true? Do you agree?
1.What do James Reinhart’s words mean?A.He told the reason for starting ThredUP. |
B.He thought ThredUP would be better in the future. |
C.He encouraged customers to buy clothes in ThredUP. |
D.He showed the difference between ThredUP and other big stores. |
A.①② | B.②③ | C.①③ | D.②④ |
A.People need more new clothes than before |
B.People spend more time shopping online now. |
C.Big department stores will have a bright future. |
D.Second-hand clothes business is developing quickly. |
A.Hurt. | B.Begin. | C.Produce. | D.Improve. |
A.ThredUP achieved success in clothes business |
B.Popular American stores sell used clothes |
C.Young customers decide where stores are going |
D.Second-hand stores will take the place of department stores. |
A.to talk | B.will talk |
C.to talk to | D.will talk to |