Every day we are exposed to images, videos, music and news. In this age of visual and aural hyper-stimulation, the medium of radio is making a great comeback.
“We’re at the beginning of a golden age of audio,” said US-based podcaster Alex Blumberg in an article in The Sydney Morning Herald. In the last month alone, 15 percent of US adults listened to a radio podcast (播客). These statistics, released by Edison Research, show the successful evolution of traditional radio broadcasts to the present day’s digital podcast format. The term “podcast” was invented in 2004, but the trend only started gaining mainstream popularity in recent years. With the sharp increase in consumer demand for smartphones and tablets, podcast sales have jumped.
The appeal of the podcast partly lies in its multiplatform delivery and on-demand capabilities (功能). You can listen during those extra minutes of the day when you’re walking to the shops, waiting in a queue or riding the subway. Similar to television shows, podcasts are generally free to download and most offer new content every week.
Donna Jackson, 22, Sydney University media graduate, listens to podcasts two or three times a week, via iTurns. “I listen while I’m wandering around the house doing something else. It makes completing a boring task much more enjoyable… And it’s an easy way of keeping in touch with what’s going on in the rest of the world,” she said, “I mainly listen to BBC podcasts, but recently I’ve also been listening to This American Life and Serial. They have a special skill to really draw you in.”
Unlike television and music, the audio format has the potential to create a deep impression on readers. Blumberg says this owes to the podcast’s ability “to create close relationship and emotional connection.” Sydney University undergraduate Hazel Proust, majoring in social work and arts, agrees. “When you’re listening, it feels as if the voice of the podcast’s storyteller is talking directly to you. It’s comforting, ” said Proust.
It seems the age-old tradition of verbal storytelling is very much alive and well.From the first two paragraphs, we can learn that ________.
| A．traditional broadcast has come back |
| B．Americans love listening to the radio |
| C．podcasts have become very popular today |
| D．smartphones sell well because of podcasts |
The writer mentions Donna Jackson mainly to ________.
| A．tell how young people relax themselves |
| B．explain why young people like podcasts |
| C．introduce what programs podcasts are presenting |
| D．show how popular podcasts are presenting |
Paragraph 5 is mainly about ________.
| A．the influence of radios |
| B．the advantage of podcasts |
| C．readers’ impression on radios |
| D．people’s reaction to the medium |
What is probably the best title of the passage?
| A．Return of Radio |
| B．Opinions of Podcast |
| C．Features of Radio |
| D．Technology of Podcast |
Charlie Vansant, a college student of Athens, Ohio, who reported that his car was stolen, got a surprise when he learned a woman had mistaken it for her daughter’s car and taken it— using her key.
Kate Anderson became an accidental car thief when picking up her daughter’s car near an Ohio University building last week. Anderson spotted the Toyota Camry（丰田凯美瑞）and used her daughter’s key to unlock the car, start the engine and drive home — without realizing that the car wasn't her daughter’s.
When Charlie Vansant left class a short time later, he found only an empty parking spot. He first assumed the car had been towed, but when the police couldn’t find a record of it, they took a theft report.
The morning after Anderson took the car, her daughter discovered the Camry in the driveway wasn’t hers. Anderson said she was able to find Vansant’s name on paperwork in the glove compartment and look up his phone number on the website for the university.
When Anderson told Charlie the car was in her driveway, “It sounded really suspicious（可疑的）at first, as she wanted to hold the thing for ransom (赎金) , ” said Vansant. He eventually went to the house with a police officer, where he was reunited with his car. According to the police report, the case was closed “because of mistaken car identity”, and Anderson wasn’t charged.
Vansant seemed to blame the car company more than the “thief”. “Her key fit not only my lock, but my ignition（点火装置）as well — so high-five for Toyota, I guess.” he said.What does the underlined word “towed” mean in paragraph 3?
| A．sold. | B．damaged. | C．stolen. | D．remove. |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Mrs. Anderson’s daughter discovered the car her mother drove was not hers. |
| B．Charlie had thought he had to give Anderson money to get his car back. |
| C．Mrs. Anderson stole Charlie’s car at the request of her daughter. |
| D．Mrs. Anderson used her daughter’s key to unlock Charlie’s car and drive home. |
What does Charlie mean by “high-five for Toyota”?
| A．He should thank Toyota for returning his car. |
| B．He is blaming Toyota for the poor quality of car keys. |
| C．He wants to celebrate with Toyota for getting his car back. |
| D．He thinks highly of Toyota for producing large quantities of cars. |
What is likely to happen next according to the passage?
| A．Mrs. Anderson was charged with stealing a car. |
| B．Charlie blamed Mrs. Anderson for mistakenly taking his car. |
| C．Charlie would ask the Toyota Company to give him an explanation. |
| D．The Toyota Company would give Charlie a new car as compensation（补偿）. |
The chimp didn’t feel well. She fell over, ignoring the other wild chimps. Finally, the sick chimp crawled over to a bush, picked some leaves and swallowed them. By the next afternoon, the chimp was as good as new!
Biologists watching the chimp were surprised. Somehow, the plant had cured the chimp! Did the chimp know the plant would make her feel better? Or was it just a lucky accident?
Many scientists don’t think it has anything to do with luck. They’re discovering that some animals seem to use plants to cure themselves. And these animals are leading scientists to new plants that could cure humans!
Dr. Richard Wrangham, an anthropologist at Harvard University, agrees that animals may know something we don’t know about forest plants.
Wrangham got to know chimps and their diets while studying them for three years in Tanzania. “You must know a lot about an animal’s feeding habits to know what it doesn’t consider food,” Wrangham explains. Every morning, he saw that most chimps ate fruit near their nests. Later on, they ate on leaves.
When he noticed chimps eating the leaves of a plant they usually ignored, Wrangham thought something interesting was going on---especially when he saw that they’d sometimes walk for 20 minutes to find the plant. Another strange thing that caught his eye was how they ate the bitter leaves.
“They swallowed the leaves whole,” explains Wrangham, noting that chimps usually chew their food well. “They seemed to rub（摩擦）the leaves around the roofs of their mouths. They closed their eyes, wrinkled their noses and swallowed slowly. ”
Wrangham wondered what could be so good about something tasting so bad. He had a chemist analyze the leaves. He discovered that the leaves contain a red oil that kills different viruses（病毒）. Later tests showed that the oil might even fight cancer and the AIDS virus!
Why don’t the chimps chew the leaves? “Rubbing the leaves between the tongue and the inside of the mouth might allow the chemicals to enter the bloodstream directly,” he suggests, “instead of going to the stomach, where they might get destroyed by acids. The chimps seem to know what they’re doing.”We can learn from the passage that _________.
| A．chimps cure themselves by chewing plants |
| B．chemicals in plants help cure animals |
| C．scientists live with chimps to study their diets |
| D．Dr. Wrangham knows a lot about forest plants |
How can Dr. Wrangham tell which plants are medicine for chimps?
| A．By talking with the biologists. |
| B．By studying the chimps’ feeding habits. |
| C．By analyzing the chimps’ favorite food. |
| D．By comparing other scientists’ discoveries. |
The author wrote the passage to ___________.
| A．provide a solution | B．test a theory |
| C．present a finding | D．describe an experiment |
What does the passage mainly talk about?
| A．Animal doctors. | B．Forest plants. |
| C．Chimp’s diets. | D．A cure for cancer. |
March 21 has been declared World Sleep Day, a time to recognize and celebrate the value of sleep. Many sleep experts hope it will be a wake-up call.
According to a poll (民意调查）by the National Sleep Foundation, nearly 4 in 5 Americans don’t get as much sleep as they should during the workweek. On average, adults are thought to need at least eight hours of sleep a night, although some can manage with less and some won’t do well without more. But the survey found that, on workdays, only 21% of Americans actually get a full eight hours of sleep, and another 21% get less than six.
To many of us, the thought of spending more time sleeping is, well, a big yawn. On the other hand, the thought of being smarter, thinner, healthier and more cheerful has a certain appeal. And those are just a few of the advantages that can be ours if we consistently get enough sleep, researchers say. Also on the plus side: We’re likely to have better skin, better memories, better judgment, and, oh, yes, longer lives.
“When you lose even one hour of sleep for any reason, it influences your performance the next day,” says Dr. Alon Avidan, director of the UCLA Sleep Disorders Center.
A study published last year found the same to be true even of children. When kids aged 8 to 12 slept for just one hour less for four nights, they didn’t function as well during the day.
But sleeping has an image problem. “We see napping or sleeping as lazy,” says Jennifer Vriend, a clinical psychologist in Ottawa, Canada, and the leading author of the study with children. “We put so much emphasis on diet, nutrition and exercise. Sleep is in the back seat.” In fact, she adds, no matter how much we work out, no matter how well we eat, we can’t be in top physical shape unless we also get plenty of sleep.
The underlined part in Paragraph 1 means _____.
| A．To wake up the sleepers |
| B．To draw people’s attention |
| C．To serve as a morning call |
| D．To declare the special day |
From Paragraph 3 we can infer that _______
| A．Being healthier is one of the advantages for us |
| B．Sleeping has nothing to do with one’s expectations |
| C．Spending more time on sleeping is a waste of time |
| D．Enough sleep is the guarantee of the appealing things |
What Jennifer Vriend said in the last paragraph implies that _______.
| A．Sleeping is an image problem |
| B．People care little about sleeping |
| C．Lazy people tend to sleep long |
| D．Sleeping is only part of our life |
What is the purpose of the passage?
| A．To talk about people’s sleeping problems. |
| B．To provide an investigation result of sleeping. |
| C．To arouse the awareness of enough sleeping. |
| D．To stress the function of sleeping at night. |
One day I was driving home with a woman. She rolled down the window, fifty feet away from the driveway and spit her gum （口香糖）out of the window. “Couldn’t you just wait five seconds and put your gum where it belongs?” I asked, annoyed.
She was not the only one who was gum-lazy. Consider the following. Every time I brush chewed gum under my desk, I shake with fright. At Folsom Middle School, whenever I had to walk by the gum wall next to the girls’ locker room, I felt totally disgusted. When I was young, I walked outside during my dance show in my ballet shoes, always stepping right on a big and juicy piece of bubble gum. I was extremely upset.
The worst part of all these incidents is that a trash can is located near. But some people are too lazy to walk towards it.
If you can’t be a responsible gum chewer, don’t chew at all. That’s all I’m going to say.
Take Singapore as a good example. The chewing gum ban in Singapore was placed. It bans the import and sale of chewing gum in Singapore, whether for the purpose of trade or personal chewing. However, the ban has been partly lifted with some types of gum, such as medical gum, allowable. This comes with the warning that it is sold only by a druggist, who has to take down the names of buyers. Obviously, the Singapore government gets angry at gum stuck in keyholes of mailboxes and on elevator buttons.
Not only is it annoying, but chewing gum can actually do harm to the health. Most gum contains aspartame （阿斯巴甜）, a chemical sweetener（增甜剂）that the US government is now deciding whether or not it is a deadly chemical. If it is, it may cause cancer. Other studies suggest that aspartame may cause neurological（神经系统的）disorders. Therefore, aspartame is not allowed to use in the US.
So just say no to chewing gum.What did the author think of the woman’s behavior?
| A．It was strange. | B．It was unacceptable. |
| C．It was dangerous. | D．It was violent. |
According to Paragraph 2, the author _________.
| A．stepped on a piece of gum while dancing |
| B．cleaned gum under her desk sometimes |
| C．was troubled by chewed gum |
| D．often found chewed gum in her locker |
What do we know about aspartame?
| A．It is proved to be a harmless chemical. |
| B．It is the cause of many kinds of cancer.. |
| C．It is being refused by the US government. |
| D．It is the main ingredient of chewing gum. |
What is the main purpose of the text?
| A．To advise people against chewing gum. |
| B．To criticize people who are lazy. |
| C．To persuade people to buy medical gum. |
| D．To make comments on the ban in Singapore. |
2016 International Summer School
The 2016 University of Cambridge International Summer Schools will run in Cambridge from 6 July to 22 August 2016. Our programs give you the opportunity to meet award-winning lecturers, stay and dine in one of the historic Cambridge Colleges and enjoy a range of weekend excursions（游览）and social activities. To sign up for a program simply apply online, or download an application form from our website. Places on courses and in-college accommodation are limited, so we encourage applicants to apply early to avoid disappointment.
This year we will be offering specialist programs in: Ancient Empires, Literature, History, Medieval Studies and new for 2016, Creative Writing and Hanseatic League. If you are looking to study a number of different subject areas, the Interdisciplinary Summer School is ideal. It is divided into three terms, Interdisciplinary Summer School Term I, Interdisciplinary Summer School Term II and Interdisciplinary Summer School Term III, covering a wide range of subjects including politics, philosophy, economics, literature, history and international relations. You can opt to do one or two terms. But most students choose all the three terms.
The Cambridge English for Academic Purposes program combines a two-week intensive（强化）language course with a two-week academic program. This allows students to put into practice the language skills they have learned during the first two weeks of the program. Applicants will also have the opportunity to sign up for weekend excursions and take part in various events.
If you want to join us in 2016, please click here to download a copy of brochure（手册）. If you want to find out more information about 2016 International Summer School, you can visit www.ice.cam.ac.uk/intsummer. (CLICK HERE)
What our students say
“The entire experience was even better than I expected. I absolutely loved it.” Sally, USA
“I believe that the Science International Summer School was a fulfilling experience. I think that everyone should attend this Summer School at least once in a lifetime.” Dominika, PolandWhat should people do if they want to sign up for a program in this ad?
| A．They should go to Cambridge by plane. |
| B．They should phone Cambridge. |
| C．They should call for an application form. |
| D．They should apply for the program online. |
Why are the applicants encouraged to apply early?
| A．The earlier they apply, the less they will pay. |
| B．If they apply late, they have to live out of Cambridge College. |
| C．There are not enough places for the courses or in-college accommodation. |
| D．The reason is not mentioned in the passage. |
What’s the meaning of the underlined word in Paragraph 3?
| A．To avoid doing a duty |
| B．To choose to do |
| C．To decide not to be part of a group |
| D．To decide on |
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