Yours'
Li Hua
When glaciers melt, they leave behind infertile (贫瘠的) landscapes. But a new study found that within just three years, such exposed land was restored by llamas (美洲驼), whose activity enriched the soil and promoted plant growth. By the foot of Peru’s melting Uruashraju glacier, researchers partnered with local farmers to farm llamas on four specific plots. For three days a month from 2019 to 2022, the llamas grazed (吃青草) the plots, fertilizing them with waste and spreading seeds from droppings.
As is the case worldwide, glaciers are disappearing in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca mountains at an alarming rate. And as the ice melts, nearby ecosystems wither: They lose access to summertime supplies of freshwater and sometimes encounter harmful acidic minerals in rocks once covered by the glaciers.
Llamas may help count er some of these effects. Their transformation of the land, as seen in the new study, could reduce rock weathering and help the soil hold onto more dampness, thus limiting the acidic runoff that can poison farmers’ crops. Such pollution is one reason why local farmers partnered with the researchers. The animals’ behavior could one day even generate new grasslands as soil quality improves.
The idea that animal grazing may positively impact a landscape is not new. Nor is rewilding, the push to bring key species back to their native ecosystems, unique to the Cordillera Blanca mountains. In Finland, for example, the Indigenous Sami are working to reintroduce reindeer in deforested land, potentially restoring it. But the size and speed of the changes the llamas helped bring about surprised the researchers. From 2021 to 2022, the average amount of plant cover in the llama plots grew from about 9 percent to nearly 14 percent—faster than it did in four control plots. The research underscores the valuable roles animals play in shaping landscapes, says ecologist Kelsey Reider of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., “The animals themselves are doing a lot.”
1．What did the new study find?| A．Llamas could help improve ecology. | B．Llamas needed to be exposed to soil. |
| C．Llamas might survive poor situation. | D．Llamas were able to stop ice melting. |
| A．Expand. | B．Arise. | C．Integrate. | D．Worsen. |
| A．Because they longed to be more learned. |
| B．Because they profited from the research. |
| C．Because they wanted to keep llamas away. |
| D．Because they failed to know llamas’ behavior. |
| A．Llamas restore the forest in Finland. | B．Wildlife helps a lot in restoring nature. |
| C．The idea of rewilding isn’t common. | D．The research should collect more data. |
Actor Anthony Anderson has realized a dream 30 years in the making. The 51-year-old
Anderson finished his junior year at Howard 30 years ago.
“This spring I was
| A．received | B．took | C．deserved | D．held |
| A．cause | B．give | C．describe | D．hide |
| A．purpose | B．identity | C．completion | D．belonging |
| A．In terms of | B．With regard to | C．By comparison with | D．On account of |
| A．reward | B．favor | C．job | D．break |
| A．fortune | B．living | C．promotion | D．reputation |
| A．took off | B．started over | C．slowed down | D．pulled up |
| A．hit | B．leader | C．singer | D．director |
| A．confused | B．upset | C．anxious | D．regretful |
| A．assistance | B．admission | C．invitation | D．permission |
| A．willing | B．cautious | C．determined | D．satisfied |
| A．eventually | B．gradually | C．obviously | D．temporarily |
| A．bonus | B．milestone | C．dreamland | D．wonder |
| A．warned | B．taught | C．commanded | D．reminded |
| A．record | B．acquire | C．further | D．finish |
The annual Halloween arrived, during which kids dressed in traditional clothes went to neighbors’ houses to ask for candy.
Allison lived in a small town. That day after dinner, Allison put on her dress her father had just bought for her. The dress was cheap and second-hand because her family was poor. But Allison still thanked her dad and said, “Everyone will love my dress!” Then, she left for neighbors’ houses to ask for candy.
On the way, she came across Anna and her friends and wanted to join them. “No! Look at your dress! It’s ugly!” Anna said. Her friends also laughed. “Look at our dresses, especially mine! It’s new and beautiful,” Anna added. Her friends nodded, and in some way they were right. Anna’s dress was shiny and looked expensive. She always had the best clothes because her parents were rich.
Allison was shocked and sad. The kids not only disliked her dress but made fun of it. “You can’t come with us!” Anna stressed. “We would never hang out with you!” The other kids agreed and laughed. They all left to start collecting candy for the night while Allison was left alone, embarrassed in the middle of the street.
Anyway, she knew all the neighbors. She often helped around carrying their groceries and helping them with their gardens. People around there knew her. She didn’t need to hangout with Anna or her friends. “I’ll go just alone,” the little girl said to herself and started walking.
She as well as Anna and her friends walked in the same direction: towards their first neighbor Mrs Vaughan’s house. But Allison walked behind and kept her distance from them. And she stopped when Anna and her friends were near Mrs Vaughan’s house.
Just then, Mrs Vaughan looked out of her window. She noticed that Allison was being excluded by Anna and her friends. She knew it was probably because of Allison’s poor dress. She immediately felt pity for Allison, who often helped her and other neighbors. She decided to give Allison much more candy as a reward and teach Anna and her friends a lesson.
When Anna and her friends knocked on her door, Mrs Vaughan opened it.
Anna looked up and said, “Our clothes are more beautiful! But you gave Allison more candy! Why?”
Four Places Named After Scientists in Antarctica
There are many scientific breakthroughs made by women in Antarctic. Here are four landmarks in Antarctica and the female pioneers they’re named for.
Jones Terrace (梯田)
The ice-free terrace in eastern Antarctica’s Victoria Land bears Jones’ name. In 1969, geochemist Lois M. Jones led the first all-female research team from the U.S. to work in Antarctica. Jones and her team studied chemical weathering in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, an ice-free area of Antarctica. Through chemical analyses of rocks they had collected, Jones and her team discovered many geochemical characteristics of the valley’s ice-covered lakes.
Mount Fiennes
8,202-foot-high Mount Fiennes, located on Antarctica’s largest island — Alexander Island — is named for Ginny Fiennes. She established and maintained 80-foot-tall radio towers in the Antarctic. In 1985, Fiennes became the first female who was invited to join the Antarctic Club, a British supper club open to individuals who have spent extended time in the Antarctic region.
Francis Peak
The 3,727-foot-tall peak on Antarctica’s Adelaide Island is named after Dame Jane Francis, who is the first female director of the British Antarctic Survey, the national polar research institute of the UK. Her collection of fossils on Seymour Island helped conclude in a 2021 paper that Antarctica’s abundant plant fossils indicate the continent once had a much warmer climate than it currently does.
Peden Cliffs
Peden Cliffs near Antarctica’s Marie Byrd Land are proof of the labor of Irene Peden. She was the first American female scientist to both live and work in the Antarctic, where she used radio waves to study ice sheets. Peden and her team determined how very low frequency radio waves spread over long polar distances by measuring pathways in the ice. They also used varying radio wave frequencies to measure the thickness of Antarctica’s ice sheets.
1．Which place is named after a builder of radio towers in the Antarctic?| A．Jones Terrace. | B．Mount Fiennes. |
| C．Francis Peak. | D．Peden Cliffs. |
| A．Lois M. Jones. | B．Ginny Fiennes. |
| C．Dame Jane Francis. | D．Irene Peden. |
| A．She could judge the thickness of Antarctica’s ice sheets. |
| B．She discovered a lot of ice-covered lakes in the Antarctic. |
| C．She was the first female American to explore the Antarctic. |
| D．She correctly measured the spreading speed of radio waves. |
People get distracted by irrelevant websites and unproductive tasks occasionally. According to McKinsey, high-skilled workers in the U.S. spend a surprising 28% of their working hours reading and replying to e-mail messages. But if we learned to manage our distraction by communication technology in a more efficient manner, we could give the economy a $900 million to $1.3 trillion boost per year.
How did we end up in this situation? The 21st century is characterized by connectivity. Over the past couple of decades, it has become increasingly difficult to disconnect from sources of information. And this addiction becomes especially apparent when we lose our phones or our Internet connection drops out. For example, have you ever mislaid your phone for a few hours and become crazy at the thought of missing out on social media updates?
Originally, smartphones and other portable devices were designed to maximize convenience. Unfortunately, now they have turned into a distraction that often interrupts our daily lives. Every time your attention is diverted away from your task, you lose time. It takes effort to get back on track, and repeated interruptions can demotivate you. The more complicated your project is, the longer it takes to regain your focus, because your brain has to put in considerable effort when switching between complex objectives.
So what can you do? First, when focusing on an important project, you can put your phone and other devices away. If you don’t receive any messages, you won’t be distracted. There’s also a useful technique that will quickly get you back on track: The 20-Second Rule. It’s believed by some psychologists that if something—such as checking your social media—takes you 20 seconds longer to do, you’re less likely to do it. So you need to make it slightly more difficult to give in to temptation. For example, uninstall(卸载) a messaging app so that it takes you 20 seconds longer to install it again and log in. This approach means you do not have to rely on willpower. Instead, you will have set up a reliable system that facilitates good habits.
1．For what purpose does the writer use numbers in the first paragraph?| A．To point out few workers reply to e-mail messages in the U.S. |
| B．To picture the bad results caused by distraction in work. |
| C．To prove reading and replying to e-mails are good for economy. |
| D．To tell how much more money can be made by replying to e-mails. |
| A．We’ll be interrupted repeatedly. | B．It’ll make us never get back on track. |
| C．We’ll completely lose time. | D．It’ll be harder to regain our attention. |
| A．It helps us to deal with distraction more effectively. |
| B．It makes us check social media longer than 20 seconds. |
| C．It suggests uninstalling all the messaging apps in your phone. |
| D．It has proved to be effective with the help of will power. |
| A．No Phones, No Distraction | B．Why We Get Distracted Easily? |
| C．The Shocking Price of Distraction | D．Distraction Brings Us Harms or Benefits? |
Some dogs are exceptional. Take Chaser for example, an American border collie (边境牧羊犬) regarded as the “smartest dog in the world”, who could recognize and remember 1, 022 nouns — one for each of her toys. In Germany, another border collie, a male named Rico, practiced “fast-mapping”, or figuring out the names of new things with the speed and cleverness of a three-year-old child.
Yet such examples of dog genius are often “about only one dog”, says Claudia Fugazza, an ethologist who studies dog cognition (认知) at Budapest’s Eotvos Lorand University. She and her colleagues asked owners of 34 pet dogs of various breeds (品种) to teach their dogs names for two separate toys. Out of those 34 animals, only one dog passed the test — a border collie named Oliva. “These results mean talent must be something special,” says Fugazza, lead author of a new study on the experiment.
The scientists looked for dog owners worldwide via social media, then asked them to play fetch with their dogs daily in their homes while repeating the name of the toy, a process that lasted three months. Once a month, with a scientist present, the owners tested the dogs—the study participants included both adults and little dogs — by asking the dogs to fetch one of two toys by name. Dogs that succeeded were then given a new toy and new name to learn. Despite the intensive training, only Oliva learned to match a single word to a toy — in fact, she learned 21 names in two months.
“None of the breeds learned a thing. It was such a surprise,” Fugazza says. To check if the study design worked, the scientists also tested six border collies that could already fetch some toys by name; as predicted, all six of those control dogs, including a dog named Nina, learned additional names.
It’s interesting that 18 of the 33 dogs that failed the test were also border collies, Fugazza points out, showing that the breed isn’t always high performing.
Because of such individual difference, the scientists next plan to track the genetics(基因) and history of a variety of dog breeds to try to identify the factors that produce such smart creatures.
1．Which of the following is recognized as the smartest dog in the world?| A．Chaser. | B．Rico. | C．Oliva. | D．Nina. |
| A．15 dogs successfully passed the test. |
| B．The participants included only adult dogs. |
| C．The participants were dogs of different breeds. |
| D．There were altogether 18 border collies in 33 dogs. |
| A．Train different dogs to become smart. |
| B．Research what can influence dogs gift. |
| C．Find which breed of dog is the smartest. |
| D．How to teach dogs to learn new words. |
| A．A diary. | B．A guide book. |
| C．A novel. | D．A science magazine. |
As the effects of global warming, rising sea levels and natural disasters become more serious
The community has studied how much sea levels will rise and has suggested
While some Florida government officials doubt
At present, coming
I feel happy when I come home at the end of the day and see those big, graphic prints on my wall. They make my tiny New York apartment feel more home and more purposeful; more like me. Why?
You’re probably not trying to spend crazy dollars on art for your home—who is? Maybe you just graduated and know you need to upgrade from that poster of Einstein with his tongue out taped to your dorm wall that was supposed to make you look“smart yet playful”Perhaps you just bought a home! That’s expensive !
Don’t panic if you don’t know where to start
Art. com
When you want affordable but classy art prints, go to Art. com website.
Society6
eBay
Nothing angers me more than“stealing”a piece from one of my favorite shops, only to have it sell out before I can get my hands on it. eBay is my go-to next step.
| A．It is all inexpensive source for prints. |
| B．You can search by size, color and style. |
| C．I've obtained quite a few pieces that originally got away. |
| D．Coming home to beautiful art improves my quality of life. |
| E．It is another site if you’re unsure what you’re looking for. |
| F．A can’t-miss home decoration tip is to put“cheap”art in a nice frame. |
| G．Being on a tight budget does not stop you from surrounding yourself with great art. |
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