MOST of you may have heard about the Nobel Prize. But do you know the Ig Nobel Prize (搞笑诺贝尔奖)?The awards are given each year to 10 unusual achievements in science. It is to “honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think.
This September the 2014 winners of the Ig Nobel awards came out! Research into why bananas are slippery(滑的) won the Ig Nobel for physics.
A team of scientists from Japan, tested 12 different banana skins. They then used sensors to measure the friction(摩擦力) between the slippery side of banana skin and the ground. They found that when someone steps on a banana skin, a special chemical, polysaccharide follicular gel(囊泡多糖凝胶), is set off. This chemical reduces friction by one-fifth. Later, scientists also compared banana skin with apple skin and orange skin and showed why apple and orange skins are not quite so dangerous. Friction was about 60 per cent higher on an apple peel.
Polysaccharide follicular gel is also found in the membranes (薄膜) where our bones meet. “This idea will help to design a joint prosthesis (人工关节),” Kiyoshi Mabuchi, the lead scientist, told the BBC news.
The Ig Nobel Prize in Medicine went to doctors from the Detroit Medical Center, US. They used salt pork to stop a young child’s nose bleed. Other interesting research includes whether owning a cat was bad for your mental health and looking at ugly art can be painful.
While Ig Nobel Prizes are mostly funny, great scientific breakthroughs(突破) can be made. In 2006, a team found that a type of mosquito(蚊子) is equally attracted to the smell of feet and cheese. As a result, mosquito traps were made using cheese to fight against malaria in Africa.
Ig Nobel Prize awards are mainly given for achievements in _____.
| A．chemistry | B．Science |
| C．medical research | D．Arts |
Which of the following is True about the banana skin research?
| A．The test led to the invention of a joint prosthesis. |
| B．Stepping on apple and orange skins are not dangerous. |
| C．The test showed that apple skin is more slippery than banana skin. |
| D．The chemical inside the skin mainly causes the banana’s slipperiness. |
Which research has won 2014 Ig Nobel for Medicine?
| A．Looking at ugly art can be painful. |
| B．Salt pork can be used to treat nosebleeds. |
| C．Mosquitoes like the smell of feet and cheese. |
| D．The influence cats have on their owner’s mental health. |
What’s the best title for this passage?
| A．Fun science that makes people think |
| B．Science is dry and humorless but meaningful |
| C．Ig Nobel Prizes： Think First, Then Laugh |
| D．Ig Nobel Prize given out to silly scientists |
I needed to buy a camera, one that was simply good at taking good snaps (快照). So I went on the net, spent 15 minutes reading product reviews on good websites, wrote down the names of three top recommendations (推荐) and headed for my nearest big camera store. There in the cupboard was one of the cameras on my list. And it was on special offer. Oh joy. I pointed at it and asked a salesgirl, “Can I have one of those?” “Do you want to try it first?" she said. It didn’t quite sound like a question. “Do I need to?” I replied. “There’s nothing wrong with it?” “No, no. But you should try it,” she said encouragingly. “Compare it with the others.”
I looked across at the others: shelves of similar cameras placed along the wall, offering different prices. With so many models to choose from, it seemed that I would have to spend hours weighing X against Y, always trying to consider Z and possibly H at the same time. But when I had finished, I would still have only the same two certainties that I had entered the store with: first, soon after I carried my new camera out of the shop, it would be worth half what I paid for it; and second, my wonderful camera would very quickly be replaced by a new model.
But something in the human soul whispers that you can beat these traps (陷阱) by making the right choice. In the end, I agreed to try the model I had chosen. The salesgirl seemed a kind girl. So I let her take out my chosen camera from the cupboard, show how it took excellent pictures of my fellow shoppers... and when she started to introduce the special features, I cut in to ask whether I needed to buy a carry-case and a memory card as well.
Why do we think that new choices still offer us anything new? Perhaps it is because they offer a chance to avoid facing the fact that our real choices in this culture are far more limited than we would like to imagine.The salesgirl insisted that the writer should ______.
| A．try the camera to see if there was anything wrong with it |
| B．compare the camera he had chosen with the others |
| C．get more information about different companies |
| D．trust her and stop asking questions |
What does the writer mean by “it would be worth half what I paid for it”?
| A．The camera was not good. |
| B．He should get a lower price. |
| C．The camera would soon fall in value. |
| D．The price of the camera was too high. |
The writer decided to try the model he had chosen because he ______.
| A．knew very little about it |
| B．didn’t trust the salesgirl any more |
| C．wanted to make sure he chose the best one |
| D．wanted to take pictures of his fellow shoppers |
It can be inferred from the passage that in the writer’s opinion, ______.
| A．salespersons are not always very kind |
| B．people waste too much money on cameras |
| C．cameras have become an important part of our daily life |
| D．we don’t actually need so many choices when buying a product |
When something goes wrong, it can be very satisfying to say, “Well, it’s so-and-so’s mistake.” or “I know I’m late, but it’s not my fault; the car broke down.” It is probably not your mistake, but once you form the habit of blaming (指责) somebody or something else for a bad situation, you are a loser. You have no power and could do nothing that helps change the situation. However, you can have great power over what happens to you if you stop focusing on whom to blame and start focusing on how to remedy the situation. This is the winner’s key to success.
Winners are great at solving problems. For example, if you were late because your car broke down, maybe you need to have your car examined more regularly. Or, you might start to carry along with you the useful phone numbers, so you could call for help when in need. For another example, if your colleague (同事) causes you problems on the job for being short of responsibility or ability, find ways of dealing with his irresponsibility or inability rather than simply blame the person. Ask to work with a different person, or don’t depend on the person. You should accept that the person is not reliable and find creative ways to work successfully regardless of how your colleague fails to do his job well.
This is what being a winner is all about – creatively using your skills and talents so that you are successful no matter what happens. Winners don’t have fewer problems in their lives; they have just as many difficult situations to face as anybody else. They are just better at seeing those problems as challenges and chances to develop their own talents. So, stop focusing on “whose mistake it is.” Once you are confident about your power over bad situations, problems are just stepping stones for success. What does the underlined word “remedy” probably mean?
| A．Avoid. | B．Accept. |
| C．Improve. | D．Consider. |
When your colleague brings about a problem, you should ______.
| A．blame him for his being short of responsibility |
| B．find a better way to deal with the problem |
| C．tell him to find the cause of the problem |
| D．ask a more able colleague for help |
What can be the best title for the passage?
| A．A Winner’s Secret. | B．A Winner’s Chance. |
| C．A Winner’s Problem. | D．A Winner’s Progress. |
Hip hop or rap (说唱) music started on the street and in the clubs of the New York City in the 1970s. People rap to express how they feel about their lives and problems.
Rapping in class.
Would you like to rap in class? Well, actually hip pop music is played in more than 10,000 schools in the USA. Why? There is a new school program called “Flocabulary” in which teachers use texts and hip hop CDs to help teach different school subjects. The words of the songs are just what students are studying. This makes learning easy and fun. Students and teachers are excited about the good results it has had on exam marks. Mr. Lee, a teacher in a high school, said, “I’ve used hip hop songs in class, and I have never seen my students so crazy about history! You can’t imagine how well they remember what I teach! We even try to write our own songs.”
Whose idea was Flocabulary?
Blake Harrison, a high school student, was the first person to come up with the idea of Flocabulary. The word “Flocabulary” comes from the word “flow” and “vocabulary”. “Flow” is a rap word for “style”, or the way a rapper says the words of a song. “Vocabulary” means the words you have to learn in a language. How did he get the idea? Well, he realized he could remember the words of a hip hop song very easily. So, why not make lessons into songs? Today together with Alex Rappaport, a song writer, Blake produces hip hop songs for math, science and literature (文学). They are now used in schools with great success. Rap music started ______ in the New York City in the 1970s.
| A．in a high school | B．in a music class |
| C．on the street | D．in a CD shop |
From the passage, we can learn “Flocabulary” is a program to ______.
| A．write rap music | B．remember the words of a song |
| C．write our own songs | D．help teach school subjects |
Blake has produced hip hop sings for school subjects EXCEPT ______.
| A．math | B．history |
| C．science | D．Literature |
| Come to Austria! Soll is a village in the mountains in western Austria. And the Post Hotel is clean and inexpensive. It is opened by a local family. From the hotel you can see the whole village, the forests and the mountains. Temperatures in summer are usually 20℃ to 25℃ in the daytime, but much cooler by evening. |
| Enjoy Thailand! When you visit Bangkok in Thailand, don’t miss the early morning river boat trip to the Floating Market just outside the city. There you will find many kinds of fruits and vegetables. And you can pay for them when you sit in your boat. Don’t forget your hat: the sun can be strong and it may be as hot as 40℃ at noon. |
| Visit Hawaii! Maybe the most beautiful place in Hawaii is Kauai. You can visit its long, sandy beaches in the south and west of the island, and mountains and forests in the north, but don’t be surprised if it rains in the centre of the island. Daytime temperatures there are usually around 24℃ to 26℃ by the sea, and only a little cooler by late evening. |
The advertisements above are about ______.
| A．shopping | B．food |
| C．travel | D．hotels |
If you go to Austria, you can ______.
| A．visit a village called Soll |
| B．walk along its long beaches |
| C．take a morning river boat trip |
| D．buy many kinds of fruits on an island |
Which place may be the hottest in the daytime?
Soll. B. Bangkok.
C. Kauai. D. Hawaii.
配对阅读。左栏是五种浪费资源的现象，右栏是七条环保建议，请为每种现象选择最合适的建议，并将答案写在题前的括号内。
E．Take a shower instead of a bath, for a bath uses twice as much water. Don’t flush the toilet unnecessarily. |
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