With global warming and melting ice, it isn‘t easy being a polar bear anymore. Some studies have predicted that polar bears could die out by the end of the century. The good news is not all researchers think the bears are absolutely disappearing. Scientists at the American Museum of Natural History(AMNH) have published a new paper indicating that things might not be as bad for polar bears as some scientists expect. To understand the reason for the researchers‘ cautious optimism, we must first understand the factors that are threatening the polar bear‘s existence. Polar bears consume a diet of mainly young seals. In order to hunt these seals, polar bears need to rest at the top of sea ice---the same ice that is increasingly melting for most of the year thanks to climate change. In another 50 years, experts expect that the Arctic will be too warm for sea ice to form for half of the year, leaving polar bears without a reliable food source and in serious danger of starvation. As it turns out, alternative food sources for the polar bears aren‘t completely out of the question. For as long as biologists have tailed after the animals, they‘ve seen polar bears eating animals found on land like caribou(驯鹿) and snow geese---as well as the snow geese‘s eggs. Can polar bears actually survive off these alternative food sources for long periods of time? To figure this out, researchers calculated the nutrients that a caribou and snow geese diet would provide. They found that even adult male polar bears would be able to obtain more calories than [they would burn in hunting these meals. Moreover, the food would ]网科*学:源来provide the food Znecessary to avoid starvation during the summer months. ]KX. Unfortunately, not all polar bears have tended to seek food on land. That said, the researchers expect that necessity would push more polar bears to hunt on land to avoid starvation. They also expect that the bears could learn from their fellow bears how to hunt on land until the practice becomes second nature. 【答案】 考点：应用文写作 （B）说明文 Could fast food make it harder to stop and smell the roses? A new study from the University of Toronto suggests that fast food might make it harder to stop and smell the roses. Researchers pointed out that Americans have gained more and more leisure time, yet they aren't any happier. The 13 / 17
problem could be that modern conveniences make us more impatient, and therefore less able to appreciate small moments of joy. To test the theory, the University of Toronto out a few carried out three different tests focused on happiness and quintessentially American ―symbols of the culture of impatience‖ and happiness. In one of the tests, researchers told 257 people to rate pictures based on whether they were suitable for ads. Participants saw a series of pictures: One group saw fast food in regular packaging while the other group saw the same food set out on ceramic Tableware. Afterward, some of the participants were shown photographs of ―scenic natural beauty‖ and then were asked to rate their happiness. Others rated their happiness without seeing the pictures. They found that people who saw the fast food before viewing the nature photos tended to rate their happiness lower. Yet those who simply rated their happiness without seeing the nature shots beforehand were actually slightly happier if they‘d seen fast food ahead of time. Researchers said that suggests fast food doesn‘t directly cause unhappiness but hampers the ability to enjoy things. Researchers cautioned, however, that much more research was needed to determine exactly how fast food and happiness are correlated and how strong the relationship really is. 【答案】 四．强化训练 （A） Office Gossip Do you take part in office gossip? I don't like to think of myself as a gossip, but I have to admit I often do it In my turbulent industry，I justify my behavior -perhaps wrongly -by reasoning that gossip helps me get information and figure out what is going on. Amid a rise in office gossip，researchers are disagreeing over whether it is fundamentally good or bad. Some defend it as a way of building bonds among people and sharing essential information. But others hold that office gossip can be savage and destructive, as the New York Times reports. At one company, PrintingForLess.com, which has a strict 14 / 17
no-gossip policy, gossiping about colleagues can become a firing offense. In one case analyzed in a scholarly journal, middle school teachers' gossip about their principal became so poisonous that the principal retaliated, many teachers fled the schoo1 and students' test scores declined. In this case, gossip amounted to \ On the other hand, less malignant gossip that stops short of repeating lies or breaching confidences can serve as a source of understanding, Gossip helps us analyze the motivations of other people, and enables those low on the food chain, in particular, to understand how power is used in their organizations, says this New York Times article. It is relaxing, it brings people together, and as a pastime it beats gambling, drinking or doing drugs，this reasoning holds. For me, I have seen gossip help co-workers in some places where I have worked, giving rise to compassion (同情) or offers of support when someone is going through hard times. On the other hand, I have also seen gossip over an office romance, for example, distract people from the work and even force unwanted transfers. Whatever side you take, gossip is here to stay. ―It is universal human practice and it is too complex to say it is either good or bad, ―a University of Colorado researcher says. The Key: （B） New Solution to Computer Theft ―Get your hands off me, I have been stolen,‖ the laptop, a portable computer, shouted. That is a new solution to laptop computer theft: a program that lets owners give their property a voice when it has been taken. The program allows users to display alerts on the missing computer‘s screen and even to set a spoken message. Tracking software for stolen laptops has been on the market for some time, but this is thought to be the first that allows owners to give the thief a piece of their mind. Owners must report their laptop missing by visiting a website, which sends a message to the model: a red and yellow 15 / 17
―lost or stolen‖ sign appears on its screen when it is started. Under the latest version（版本）of the software, users can also send a spoken message. The message can be set to reappear every 30 seconds, no matter how many times the thief closes it.‖ One customer sent a message saying,‘ You are being tracked. I am right at your door‘,‖ said Carrie Hafeman, chief executive of the company which produces the program, Retriever. In the latest version, people can add a spoken message. For example, the laptop‘s speakers will say: ―Help, this laptop is reported lost or stolen. If you are not my owner, report me now.‖ The Retriever software package, which costs $29.95 but has a free trial period, has the functions of many security software programs .Owners can remotely switch to an alternative password if they fear that the thief has also got hold of the access details. If a thief accesses the internet with the stolen laptop, Retriever will collect information on the internet service provider in use, so that the police can be alerted to its location. The Key: （C） The Crucial Role of Early Childhood Environment The environment we are in affects our moods, ability to form relationships, effectiveness in work or play—even our health. In addition, the early childhood group environment has a very crucial role in children‘s learning and development for two important reasons. First, young children are in the process of rapid brain development. In the early years, the brain develops more synapses or connections than it can possibly use. Those that are used by the child form strong connections, while the synapses that are not used are pruned away. Children‘s experiences help to make this determination. The National Scientific Council of the Developing Child compares the development of the brain to constructing a house stating, ―Just as a lack of the right materials can result in blueprints that change, the lack of appropriate experiences can lead to alterations in genetic plans.‖ They further state, ―Building more advanced cognitive, social, and emotional skills on a weak initial foundation of brain architecture is far more difficult and less effective than getting things right from the beginning‖. Because children‘s experiences are limited by their surroundings, the environment we provide for them has a crucial impact on the way the child‘s brain develops 16 / 17
The second reason that the early childhood group environment has such a strong role in children‘s development is because of the amount of time children spend in these environments. Many children spend a large portion of their wakeful hours in early childhood group settings. For example, a baby beginning child care will spend up to 12,000 hours in the program. This is more time than he will spend in both elementary and secondary school. Children will typically spend another 4,000 hours in kindergarten through third grade classrooms. Anita Rui Olds, a well-known environmental designer, believes that we should design our early childhood environments for miracles, not minimums. She states:Children are miracles. Believing that every child is a miracle can transform the way we design for children‘s care. When we invite a miracle into our lives, we prepare ourselves and the environment around us. We may set out flowers or special offerings. We may cleanse ourselves, the space, or our thoughts of everything but the love inside us. We make it our job to create, with reverence and gratitude, a space that is worthy of a miracle! Action follows through. We can choose to change. We can choose to design spaces for miracles, not minimums. The Key:
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