专题05 阅读理解之说明文15 篇 (北京专用)
【题型知识点细目表】
题号
难度
知识点
1
适中
方法/策略,哲理感悟,说明文,文章大意,直接理解,逻辑推理
2
适中
科普知识 ,说明文
3
较难
科学技术 ,人工智能,说明文
4
适中
游戏,社会关系,说明文
5
适中
社会问题与社会现象,说明文
6
适中
说明文,动物
7
适中
环境保护,说明文
8
适中
人工智能,说明文
9
适中
社会问题与社会现象,说明文
10
适中
说明文,动物,科普知识
11
适中
社会问题与社会现象,说明文
12
适中
社会问题与社会现象,人工智能,说明文
13
适中
环境保护,说明文,人与动植物
14
适中
畅想未来,社会问题与社会现象,说明文
15
适中
环境保护,说明文,科普知识
【高考典例】
The call to “know yourself” has been there since ancient times, but our sense of self doesn’t always match
what others perceive. Considering the stories we tell about ourselves can help us to change our minds for better.
For many years, psychologists saw identity as a combination of someone’s values, beliefs, goals and social
roles. Then, in the 1980s, Bob Johnson created the life story model of identity, in which he proposes that, as we go
through life, these core features are built in with our memories to create a personal story through which we
understand our lives.
Our life story is something that starts coming together in our teenage years, when we begin to organise our
lives into chapters around key events or life changes, and begin to see ourselves as both the central character and,
to a varying extent, the story’s author. People with more consistent stories tend to have a stronger sense of identity,
and they feel their life has more meaning, direction and sense of purpose. Such people show greater overall life
satisfaction, too.
Johnson has also investigated the link between well-being and certain story themes. He discovered that
whether someone describes having had some control over events in their past is an important predictor of a
person’s mental health. Another key theme involves finding some kind of positive meaning after stressful events.
“People could talk about gaining knowledge or personal growth,” says Johnson. His research shows that this is
often missing for people with mental health conditions. The good news is that there is evidence we can learn to
change our own story.
Lisa Green, another researcher, sounds a few notes of caution (谨慎). For instance, hearing about the power
of redemptive (拯救性的) stories, many people may feel forced to find a positive angle on horrible events. She
says that Western culture already pushes people to look for the silver lining behind every cloud.
If you want to turn over a new leaf, though, one top tip is that it helps to choose a significant date that
signals the start of a new “chapter”. Contrary to popular doubt, resolutions made on 1 January are more effective
for this reason. So, whether your goal is saving money or getting fit, there is no better time to become the author
of our own destiny (命运).
1．What can be inferred about personal stories?
A．They are unrelated to health.
B．Consistent ones lead to stress.
C．They are relevant to happiness.
D．Thematic ones hold back change.
2．What can we learn from this passage?
A．Talking about gains from failure is negative. B．New Year resolutions are well received.
C．The West tends to overvalue optimism. D．Social roles fail to be highlighted.
3．What does the author mainly do in this passage?
A．Clarify a goal.
B．Analyse an event.
C．Make a comparison.
D．Illustrate an approach.
4．What is the passage mainly about?
A．How self-identity works.
B．How story-tellers are made.
C．How personal stories raise doubts.
D．How timing affects personal identity.
Franz Boas’s description of Inuit (因纽特人) life in the 19th century illustrates the probable moral code of
early humans. Here, norms (规范) were unwritten and rarely expressed clearly, but were well understood and
taken to heart. Dishonest and violent behaviours were disapproved of; leadership, marriage and interactions with
other groups were loosely governed by traditions. Conflict was often resolved in musical battles. Because arguing
angrily leads to chaos, it was strongly discouraged. With life in the unforgiving Northern Canada being so
demanding, the Inuit’s practical approach to morality made good sense.
The similarity of moral virtues across cultures is striking, even though the relative ranking of the virtues
may vary with a social group’s history and environment. Typically, cruelty and cheating are discouraged, while
cooperation, humbleness and courage are praised. These universal norms far pre-date the concept of any
moralising religion or written law. Instead, they are rooted in the similarity of basic human needs and our shared
mechanisms for learning and problem solving. Our social instincts ( 本能) include the intense desire to belong.
The approval of others is rewarding, while their disapproval is strongly disliked. These social emotions prepare
our brains to shape our behaviour according to the norms and values of our family and our community. More
generally, social instincts motivate us to learn how to behave in a socially complex world.
The mechanism involves a repurposed reward system originally used to develop habits important for self-
care. Our brains use the system to acquire behavioural patterns regarding safe routes home, efficient food
gathering and dangers to avoid. Good habits save time, energy and sometimes your life. Good social habits do
something similar in a social context. We learn to tell the truth, even when lying is self-serving; we help a
grandparent even when it is inconvenient. We acquire what we call a sense of right and wrong.
Social benefits are accompanied by social demands: we must get along, but not put up with too much.
Hence self-discipline is advantageous. In humans, a greatly enlarged brain boosts self-control, just as it boosts
problem-solving skills in the social as well as the physical world. These abilities are strengthened by our capacity
for language, which allows social practices to develop in extremely unobvious ways.
1．What can be inferred about the forming of the Inuit’s moral code?
A．Living conditions were the drive.
B．Unwritten rules were the target.
C．Social tradition was the basis.
D．Honesty was the key.
2．What can we learn from this passage?
A．Inconveniences are the cause of telling lies.
B．Basic human needs lead to universal norms.
C．Language capacity is limited by self-control. D．Written laws have great influence on virtues.
3．Which would be the best title for this passage?
A．Virtues: Bridges Across Cultures
B．The Values of Self-discipline
C．Brains: Walls Against Chaos
D．The Roots of Morality
What is life? Like most great questions, this one is easy to ask but difficult to answer. The reason is simple:
we know of just one type of life and it’s challenging to do science with a sample size of one. The field of artificial
life-called ALife for short — is the systematic attempt to spell out life’s fundamental principles. Many of these
practitioners, so-called ALifers, think that somehow making life is the surest way to really understand what life is.
So far no one has convincingly made artificial life. This track record makes ALife a ripe target for criticism,
such as declarations of the field’s doubtful scientific value. Alan Smith, a complexity scientist, is tired of such
complaints. Asking about “the point” of ALife might be, well, missing the point entirely, he says. “The existence
of a living system is not about the use of anything.” Alan says. “Some people ask me, ‘So what’s the worth of
artificial life?’ Do you ever think, ‘What is the worth of your grandmother?’”
As much as many ALifers hate emphasizing their research’s applications, the attempts to create artificial
life could have practical payoffs. Artificial intelligence may be considered ALife’s cousin in that researchers in
both fields are enamored by a concept called open-ended evolution (演化). This is the capacity for a system to
create essentially endless complexity, to be a sort of “novelty generator”. The only system known to exhibit this is
Earth’s biosphere. If the field of ALife manages to reproduce life’s endless “creativity” in some virtual model,
those same principles could give rise to truly inventive machines.
Compared with the developments of Al, advances in ALife are harder to recognize. One reason is that
ALife is a field in which the central concept — life itself — is undefined. The lack of agreement among ALifers
doesn’t help either. The result is a diverse line of projects that each advance along their unique paths. For better or
worse, ALife mirrors the very subject it studies. Its muddled (混乱的) progression is a striking parallel (平行线)
to the evolutionary struggles that have shaped Earth biosphere.
Undefined and uncontrolled, ALife drives its followers to repurpose old ideas and generated novelty. It may
be, of course, that these characteristics aren’t in any way surprising or singular. They may apply universally to all
acts of evolution. Ultimately ALife may be nothing special. But even this dismissal suggests something：perhaps,
just like life itself throughout the universe, the rise of ALife will prove unavoidable.
1．Regarding Alan Smith’s defence of ALife, the author is .
A．supportive
B．puzzled
C．unconcerned
D．doubtful
2．What does the word “enamored” underlined in Paragraph 3 most probably mean?
A．Shocked.
B．Protected.
C．Attracted.
D．Challenged.
3．What can we learn from this passage?
A．ALife holds the key to human future.
B．ALife and AI share a common feature.
C．AI mirrors the developments of ALife.
D．AI speeds up the process of human evolution.
4．Which would be the best title for the passage?
A．Life Is Undefined. Can AI Be a Way Out?
B．Life Evolves. Can AI Help ALife Evolve, Too?
C．Life Is Undefined. Can ALife Be Defined One Day?
D．Life Evolves. Can Attempts to Create ALife Evolve, Too?
【热点话题练习】
Games have captivated humans for millennia, with a history dating back to ancient Hindu hymns that
compared dice games to an addictive drug. The world’s first casino in Renaissance Venice even led to the
bankruptcy of the ruling class. Today, the gaming market is as large as all other forms of entertainment combined.
While play is often seen as trivial, it is evolutionarily ancient — many mammals, birds, and even insects engage in
it. For neuroscientists, studying play is challenging because it’s difficult to suppress, revealing its deep roots in
human and animal behavior.
But why is play so deeply ingrained (根深蒂固的)? The brain builds models of the world to anticipate
events, and games are centered on uncertainty. Unpredictability signals something is missing in the brain’s model,
prompting curiosity and further learning. Children, for example, stop playing tic-tac-toe once they realize it
always ends in a draw. Through play, we learn to handle the unknown.
Animals, particularly social ones, play to explore their environment and understand each other. Research on
young rats shows that play is essential for brain development. Play-deprived rats are more aggressive and struggle
with social cues. Similarly, kittens learn to control their claws and bite gently through play. Long before modern
neuroscientists, philosophers like Plato believed games were crucial for teaching children to follow rules.
Medieval aristocrats learned chess to understand their character, and the ancient game of Go was praised for
sharpening insight. Ultimately, competitive games teach us to cooperate, obey rules, and pursue goals fairly.
Games also serve as a medium for moral lessons. Games like Snakes and Ladders and the Mansion of
Happiness taught players about karma ( 因果报应) and virtues versus vices. Through play, we consider other
people’s desires and strategies, laying the foundation for empathy.
In the Renaissance, gamblers who studied dice to gain an advantage helped develop probability theory. This
formalization of randomness revolutionized mathematics and science, as chance could now be studied and
systematized. Probability theory later became a key component of the scientific revolution, though its application
in real-world events has led to issues like the replication crises in science.
Today, probability theory is foundational in business and economics, with stock markets and financial
derivatives using similar principles. Games also shape modern social and economic systems. Game designers, like
Reiner Knizia, emphasize the importance of scoring systems to influence behavior. In games like Monopoly,
players must act like capitalists to win, regardless of personal values. Corporations design games that influence
our choices, from ads to apps. Understanding how these games shape our behavior is crucial to ensuring we retain
control over our values rather than letting the games play us.
1．Play is deeply rooted in human in that it .
A．enhances brain development
B．establishes new brain models
C．functions as an addictive drug
D．helps tackle uncertainty and learn
2．What can be inferred from the passage?
A．Animals use play to teach appropriate social behaviors.
B．Showing empathy results in better performance in play.
C．People should recognize how games influence decisions.
D．Games bring about revolutions in math and scientific fields.
3．The passage intends to .
A．explain the evolution of games throughout history
B．analyze the impact of play on the entertainment industry
C．introduce the role of games in current economic systems
D．stress the importance of play in human and animal development
Consider these facts: The tennis champion Williams sisters are a generation apart, according to the Pew
Research Center. Venus, born in 1980, is labelled “Gen X”; Serena, born in 1981, is a “millennial”. Meanwhile,
Donald Trump and Michelle Obama both belong to the same generation. The former was born in 1946 while the
latter was born in 1964, making them both “baby boomers”.
Before you push these diverse personalities into generational stereotypes (刻板印象), let me stop you there:
Just don’t. Generation labels, although widely adopted by the public, have no basis in social reality. In fact, in one
recent survey, most people did not identify the correct generation for themselves, even when they were shown a
list of options.
This is not surprising since the labels are forced by survey researchers, journalists or marketing firms
before the identities they are supposed to describe even exist. Instead of asking people which group they identify
with and why, they just declare the labels and start making pronouncements about them. That’s not how social
identity works.
The practice of naming “generations” based on birth year goes back at least to the supposed “lost-
generation” of the late 19th century. But as the tradition slid into a never-ending competition to be the first to
propose the next name that sticks, it has produced gradually declining returns to social science and the public
understanding.
The supposed boundaries between generations are no more meaningful than the names they’ve been given.
There is no research identifying the appropriate boundaries between generations, and there is no statistical basis
for requiring the sweeping character traits (特征) that are believed to define them. In one article you might read
that millennials are “liberal lions”, “downwardly mobile”, and “distrustful”; even though they also “get along well
with their parents, respect their elders and work well with colleagues”.
Ridiculous, clearly. But what’s the harm? Aren’t these labels just a bit of fun for writers? A method to
attract readers and a way of communicating generational change, which no one would deny is a real phenomenon?
We, in academic social science, study and teach social change, but we don’t study and teach these labels because
they simply aren’t real. And in social science, reality still matters.
Worse than irrelevant, such baseless labels drive people toward stereotyping and thoughtless character
judgment. Measuring and describing social change is essential, and it can be useful to analyze the historical period
in which people were born and raised, but drawing random lines between birth years and assigning names to them
doesn’t help.
Today there are lots of good alternatives to label generations. We can simply describe people by the decade
in which they were born and define generational groups specifically related to a particular issue-such as 2020
school kids. With the arrival of “Generation Z”, there has never been a better time to get off this train.
1．According to the passage, the author may agree that ________.
A．the generation label is a harmless device writers use to reflect reality
B．generation boundaries are more meaningful than generation labels
C．assigning character traits to a certain generation is misguided
D．journalists should find alternative ways to judge character
2．The underlined word “sticks” in Paragraph 4 probably means ________.
A．is understood
B．is analyzed
C．is described
D．is accepted
3．Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A．Generation labels: It’s high time to retire them
B．Generation labels: The ongoing debate will never end
C．Generation labels: What do they say about who we are?
D．Generation labels: Expand or bridge generational differences?
When we think about what makes humans unique, a good sense of humor is often high on the list. Laughter
and playful teasing seem like traits only we possess. However, recent research suggests that animals —
particularly great apes — may also engage in behavior that resembles humor.
A study led by primatologist ( 灵长类动物学家) Isabelle Laumer at the Max Planck Institute reveals
fascinating insights. “We documented young apes deliberately sneaking up to hit adults, then waiting expectantly
for a reaction,” Laumer explains. “This isn’t random play — it meets all the criteria of intentional teasing.” Over
75 hours of video recordings showed this behavior mirrors how human children joke: repetitive, surprising, and
aimed at seeking responses. The researchers noted that the apes even paused to watch for the adult’s reaction,
much like a child waiting to see if their joke landed.
But humor in animals may not be limited to apes. Dog owners often notice their pets making breathy,
snorting sounds during play, which some scientists interpret as laughter. In a 2025 study, researchers found that
playing these sounds to shelter dogs reduced their stress levels. Similarly, dolphins emit joyful sounds during
play-fighting, elephants trumpet excitedly when playing, and some parrots tease other animals — like confusing
dogs with whistles — just for fun.
Why might animals exhibit humor? In humans, laughter strengthens social connections and eases tension.
Scientists argue that playful teasing in apes or “laughter” in dogs could serve a similar purpose — breaking the ice
and reinforcing relationships. Some researchers believe these behaviors may have evolved (进化) to help animals
manage complex social ranks or reduce conflict. However, Laumer cautions that more research is needed to
confirm this theory, as observing humor in animals remains challenging.
While we may never know if animals understand punchlines, their behaviors hint at humor’s deep
evolutionary roots. As Laumer reflects: “The line between human and animal laughter isn’t as sharp as we
thought.”
1．What did Laumer’s study find about young apes?
A．They enjoy teasing others.
B．They often fight in groups.
C．They seek adult protection.
D．They learn from human kids.
2．What does the underlined word “trumpet” in paragraph 3 mean?
A．Wag.
B．Smile.
C．Nod.
D．Shout.
3．Why might animals show humor?
A．To improve social status.
B．To strengthen social bonds.
C．To win in complex conflicts.
D．To get much more pleasure.
4．What can be a suitable title for the text?
A．Animal Social Behaviors
B．Do Animals Copy Our Laughs?
C．Animals Play Tricks Too
D．Why Animals Understand Humor?
Of all the weird and wonderful creatures living under the sea, perhaps the strangest are jellyfish — those
rubbery, cone-shaped creatures found floating in the water, their long tentacles trailing behind.
Some jellyfish species have a bad reputation for scaring away tourists, clogging up fishing nets, and even
blocking power station pipes. But with more and more plastic rubbish ending up in the sea, these days you’re as
likely to swim into a plastic bag as a jellyfish. Now scientific research is discovering that these rubbery sea
creatures might provide an answer — a sticky solution to the problem of plastic pollution.
In recent years, tiny pieces of plastic called microplastic have been a significant problem for the world’s
seas and oceans. These plastics are not visible to the eye and aren’t caught by seawater treatment plants due to
their small size, so they enter our system and harm our health. They’ve been found in many places — in Arctic
ice, at the bottom of the sea and even inside animals. Slovenian scientist, Dr Ana Rotter, heads GoJelly, a
European research team of jellyfish ecologists looking into the problem.
Microplastics, plastics in general, are becoming an increasing problem. Dr Ana Rotter says when she was a
child, people were more environmentally friendly — not harmful to the environment or having the least possible
impact on it. At that time, there were very few single-use plastics — plastic items, like spoons and forks, designed
to be used just once, then thrown away. The situation since then has changed dramatically. In fact, there’s been
such an increase in microplastics that today the UN lists plastic pollution as one of the world’s top environmental
threats.
But how do jellyfish fit into the story? Well, it’s the ‘jelly’ part of jellyfish, and specifically their sticky,
jelly-like mucus that is key. Jellyfish produce a thick, sticky liquid called mucus. Dr Ana Rotter has discovered
that this mucus has strong absorptive capabilities—it can absorb, take in liquids and other substances. One of the
substances jellyfish mucus absorbs are the particles that make up microplastics.
Dr Rotter’s research is still in the early stages but it’s hoped that jellyfish mucus could hold the key to a
future free of microplastic polluted oceans. Scientists are hoping that the mucus’s absorptive properties — its
abilities to absorb liquids and other substances and hold them, will allow it to trap particles of plastic floating in
the sea. By trapping these, the mucus acts like a magnet — an object that attracts certain materials, like metal, but
in this case, microplastic waste.
1．Paragraph 3 mainly talks about ________.
A．where microplastics can be found
B．why microplastics can harm our health
C．what problems the seas and oceans are facing
D．how the research was carried out by the scientist
2．What can we learn from this passage?
A．Jellyfish species cause a great threat to the sea.
B．Jellyfish species like to swim and live in plastic bags.
C．Jellyfish mucus can attract metals and break them down.
D．Jellyfish mucus can absorb liquids and some other substances.
3．What is the author’s purpose in writing this passage?
A．To show the harm that sea and ocean pollution brings to human beings.
B．To introduce the living habits of the weird and wonderful creatures in the sea.
C．To provide a new method for collecting data on environmental threats in the sea.
D．To inform a promising scientific finding for dealing with plastic pollution in the sea.
Too Much Information
Computer hackers, in order to get more secret information, constantly improve at breaking into
cyberdefenses (网络防御系统) to steal valuable documents. So some researchers propose using an artificial-
intelligence algorithm (算法) to hopelessly confuse them, once they break in, by hiding the real deal in a mountain
of misleading documents and information.
The algorithm, called Word Embedding-based Fake Online Repository Generation Engine (WE-FORGE),
creates decoys of patents under development. If hackers were after, say, the recipe for a new drug, they would
have to find the relevant needle in a sea of false documents. This could mean checking each recipe in detail-and
perhaps investing in a few dead-end ones. “The name of the game here is, ‘Make it harder, ” explains V. S
Subrahmanian, its developer, Dartmouth College Cyber Security researcher. “Pain those stealing from you. ”
Subrahmanian says he tackled this project after reading that companies are unaware of new kinds of
cyberattacks for an average of 312 days after they begin. “Hackers have almost a year to decamp with all our
documents, patents and intellectual property, ”he says. “They have stolen almost everything. It’s not just the
crown jewels-it’s the crown jewels, and the jewels of the cleaning lady, and the watch of the secretary!”
The documents produced by WE-FORGE could also act as hidden traps to confuse hackers, says Rachel
Tobac, CEO of SocialProof Security. These documents might alert security when accessed. Companies have
typically used human-created false copies for this strategy. But now the algorithm is able to do that for us.
The system produces convincing traps by searching through a document for key words. For each one it
finds, it calculates a list of related concepts and replaces the original term with one chosen at random. The process
can produce dozens of documents that contain no patent information but still look credible. Subrahmanian and his
team asked computer science and chemistry graduates to evaluate real and false patents from their respective
fields. And the humans found the WE-FORGE-created documents highly believable.
WE-FORGE might eventually expand its boundary. Both Subrahmanian and Tobac think this research will
attract commercial interest. “I could definitely see an organization investing in this type of product ” Tobac says.
“If this creates believable decoys without releasing sensitive details within those traps, then I think you’ve got a
huge with there. ”
1．What does the underlined word “decoys” in Paragraph 2 refer to?
A．Misleading documents.
B．Original terms.
C．Computer operating systems.
D．Cyber securities.
2．In Paragraph 3, what Subrahmanian says indicates ______.
A．the unreliability of the network
B．the wealth of the companies
C．the greediness of hackers
D．the variety of intellectual property
3．What can we learn about WE-FORGE?
A．It will sound alarm upon being operated.
B．It is profitable for the users by avoiding their loss.
C．It has attracted investors for its application in many fields.
D．It can compose irrelevant concepts in the false documents.
4．What do we know about the documents created by WE-FORGE?
A．They are more reliable than human-created false copies.
B．They can be identified as fake by experts in specific fields.
C．They are designed to release sensitive information while confusing hackers.
D．They are created by replacing key words with randomly selected related concepts.
Clothes were once used until they fell apart-repaired and sewed to be re-used, ending their lives as
dishcloths. Not today. Clothing, footwear and upholstered furniture are increasingly frequently bought, thrown
away and replaced with new fashions, which are themselves soon abandoned and replaced.
‘Fast fashion’ is so called partly because the fashion industry now releases new lines every week, when
historically this happened four times a year. Today, fashion brands (品牌) produce almost twice the amount of
clothing that they did in 2000. But incredibly, more than 50 billion clothes are deserted within a year of being
made.
The trend is having an astonishing environmental impact. Take water. The fashion industry, one of the
world’s largest users of water, consumes anywhere from 20 trillion to 200 trillion litres every year. Besides, plastic
fibres are released when we wash polyester (聚酯纤维) and other polymer-based textiles (纺织物), and make up
between 20% and 35% of the microplastics choking the oceans. Added to this are specific chemicals used to make
fabrics dirt resistant and the pesticides required to protect crops such as cotton.
Change is badly needed, but will require the fashion industry to work harder to embrace more of what is
known as the circular economy. That will involve at least two things: refocusing on making things that last, and so
encouraging reuse; and more rapidly expanding the technologies for sustainable manufacturing (制造) processes,
especially recycling. There is work to be done for researchers on improving and expanding textiles recycling.
Most used textiles go to landfill ( 废物填埋场), in part because there are relatively few systems that collect,
recycle and reuse materials. Such recycling requires the manual separation of fibres, as well as buttons and zips.
Different fibres are not easy to identify by eye, and overall such manual processes are time-consuming. Machinery
is being developed that can help. Technologies also exist to recycle used fibres chemically and to create high-
quality fibres that can be reused in clothing. But these are nowhere near the scale ( 规模) needed. Another
challenge for researchers is to work out how to get consumers and manufacturers to change their behaviour.
Small steps are good, but big changes are needed. The shameful environmental cost of a new cupboard
needs to be tackled immediately, at scale, with style.
1．What are the first two paragraphs mainly about?
A．Clothes should be used until they fall apart.
B．Fashion brands are replaced with new ones frequently.
C．Fast fashion leads to a significant increase in fashion waste.
D．Fashion brands produce twice more clothing than necessary.
2．According to the author, what does the circular economy focus on?
A．Improving the production of natural textiles.
B．Studying how fast fashion affects the environment.
C．Releasing new lines four times a year instead of every week.
D．Making durable things and expanding the technologies for recycling.
3．What can you infer from the passage?
A．Consumers are fond of chemically recycled fibres.
B．Systems that collect, recycle and reuse are insufficient.
C．Manual separation of fibres is preferred by manufacturers.
D．Environment damage is mainly caused by using chemicals.
Hibernation
For people who aren’t fans of winter, animals that hibernate seem to have the right idea: It’s the equivalent
of burying your head under the covers until spring comes, isn’t it? Not quite.
“Most of the physiological functions are extremely slowed down,” says Marina Blanco, a postdoctoral
associate at the Duke Lemur (狐猴) Center in Durham, North Carolina. For example, when lemurs hibernate, they
reduce their heart rates from over 300 beats per minute to fewer than six, says Blanco. And instead of breathing
about every second, they can go up to 10 minutes without taking a breath. Their brain activity “becomes
undetectable.” This is very different from sleep, which is gentle resting state where unconscious functions are still
performed.
Put simply: “Hibernation is a means of energy conservation,” says Kelly Drew, a neuropharmacologist at
the University of Alaska Fairbanks who studies the brain chemistry of hibernating Arctic ground squirrels. While
hibernation is often seen as a seasonal behavior, it’s not limited to cold-weather animals. There are tropical
hibernators that may do so to beat the heat. And “some species hibernate in response to food shortages,” notes
Drew. For example, echidnas (针鼹) in Australia will hibernate after fires, waiting until food resources rebound to
resume normal activities.
To slow their metabolism ( 新陈代谢), animals cool their bodies by 5 to 10℃ on average. The Arctic
ground squirrels Drew works on can take this much further, supercooling to subfreezing temperatures. Drew’s
research has shown that cooling is likely regulated by levels of adenosine ( 腺苷) in the brain. Not only does
adenosine increase in winter in ground squirrels, the receptors for the molecule become more sensitive to it.
But species don’t stay in their cold, sleeping state for the duration of their dormant period. About 80 percent
of their energy is spent intermittently (间歇地) waking and warming up. Why they do this is “one of the greatest
mysteries” of the field, says Thomas Ruf, a professor of animal physiology at the University of Veterinary
Medicine in Vienna. Some think they need to turn back on their immune systems to fight disease, while others
think they may simply awake so they can sleep.
One bird and a variety of amphibians (两栖动物), reptiles and insects also exhibit hibernation-like states.
There is even at least one fish — the Antarctic cod — that slows down its metabolism in winter, becoming 20
times less active. And, of course, there are lots of mammals. While bears might be the first that come to mind,
most mammalian hibernators are on the smaller side. “The average hibernator weighs only 70 grams,” says Ruf.
That’s because little bodies have high surface area to volume ratios, making it more taxing for them to stay warm
in cold weather — so they need the seasonal energy savings more than larger animals.
1．How does the author distinguish between hibernation and sleep?
A．By highlighting reasons.
B．By presenting definitions.
C．By introducing arguments.
D．By comparing the data.
2．What does the introduction of “echidnas” in Paragraph 3 aim to show?
A．animals cool their bodies by 5 to 10℃ on average
B．tropical hibernators may hibernate to beat the heat
C．some species hibernate in response to food shortage
D．hibernation is most often seen as a seasonal behavior
3．What does the last paragraph mainly discuss?
A．when certain animals hibernate
B．why some animals hibernate
C．what kinds of animals hibernate
D．how animals hibernate
Parenting tips obtained from hunter-gatherers in Africa may be the key to bringing up more contented
children, researchers have suggested. The idea is based on studies of communities such as the Kung of Botswana,
where each child is cared for by many adults. Kung children as young as four will help to look after younger ones
and “baby-wearing”, in which infants are carried in slings(吊着), is considered the norm.
According to Dr Nikhil Chaudhary, an evolutionary anthropologist at Cambridge University, these
practices,known as alloparenting, could lead to less anxiety for children and parents.
Dr Annie Swanepoel, a child psychiatrist, believes that there are ways to incorporate them into western life.
In Germany, one scheme has paired an old people’s home with a nursery. The residents help to look after the
children,an arrangement akin to alloparenting. Another measure could be encouraging friendships between
children in different school years to mirror the unsupervised mixed-age playgroups in hunter-gatherer
communities.
In a paper published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, researchers said that the western
nuclear family was a recent invention which broke with evolutionary history. This abrupt shift to an “intensive
mothering narrative”, which suggests that mothers should manage childcare alone, was likely to have been
harmful. “Such narratives can lead to maternal exhaustion and have dangerous consequences,” they wrote.
By contrast, in hunter-gatherer societies adults other than the parents can provide almost half of a child’s
care.One previous study looked at the Efé people of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It found that infants had
an average of 14 alloparents a day by the time they were 18 weeks old and were passed between caregivers eight
times an hour.
Chaudhary said that parents now had less childcare support from family and social networks than during
most of humans’ evolutionary history, but introducing additional caregivers could reduce stress and maternal
depression,which could have a “knock-on” benefit to a child’s wellbeing. An infant born to a hunter-gatherer
society could have more than ten caregivers — this contrasts starkly to nursery settings in the UK where
regulations call for a ratio of one carer to four children aged two to three.
While hunter-gatherer children learnt from observation and imitation in mixed-age playgroups, researchers
said that western “instructive teaching”, where pupils are asked to sit still, may contribute to conditions such as
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Chaudhary said that Britain should explore the possibility that older
siblings helping their parents “might also enhance their own social development”.
1．According to the first two paragraphs, alloparenting refers to the practice of _________.
A．sharing childcare among community members
B．assigning babies to specific adult caregivers
C．teaching parenting skills to older children
D．carrying infants around by their parents
2．The scheme in Germany is mentioned to illustrate _________.
A．an attempt to facilitate intergenerational communication
B．an approach to integrating alloparenting into western society
C．the conventional parenting style in western culture
D．the differences between western and African ways of living
3．What can be inferred about the nurseries in the UK?
A．They tend to fall short of official requirements.
B．They have difficulty finding enough caregivers.
C．They ought to improve their carer-to-child ratio.
D．They should try to prevent parental depression.
4．Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
A．Instructive teaching: a dilemma for anxious parents
B．For a happier family, learn from the hunter-gatherers
C．Mixed-age playgroup, a better choice for lonely children
D．Tracing the history of parenting: from Africa to Europe
AI for Everyone: The Rise of Affordable Smart Technology
Artificial intelligence (AI) was once a luxury limited to big tech companies. Building advanced AI models
used to require millions of dollars in computing power and teams of top engineers. But today, a new wave of
affordable AI is changing the game, making this technology accessible to small businesses, schools, and even
individual users.
Chinese tech start-up DeepSeek made headlines in 2025 with its open-source AI model. Unlike expensive
competitors, this model delivers similar performance in tasks like coding, math problem-solving, and language
translation — yet it costs only a fraction of the price to develop. The company revealed that training the AI
required less than $6 million in computing resources, which is 10 times cheaper than what major tech giants spend
on their latest systems. This breakthrough has challenged the old idea that only big companies can afford cutting-
edge AI. What’s more, DeepSeek has made the model’s core framework open to the public, allowing developers
and researchers to modify and upgrade it for free, thus speeding up the innovation of AI applications in various
fields.
Affordable AI is already making a difference in daily life. In rural schools, AI tutors help students with
personalized learning plans, filling gaps in subjects where teachers are in short supply. Small shops use AI tools to
analyze customer preferences and manage inventory more efficiently, reducing waste and increasing profits. Even
healthcare clinics in remote areas benefit — AI-powered apps can now assist doctors in diagnosing common
diseases by analyzing medical data, enabling timely treatment for patients who live far from big hospitals.
However, this progress comes with questions. Experts warn about potential risks like data privacy and
unfair competition. As more people use AI, protecting personal information becomes increasingly important.
There are also concerns that some jobs might be replaced by automation, especially those involving repetitive
manual work. But most experts agree that the key lies in finding a balance: using AI to improve lives while setting
clear rules to guide its development. Governments around the world are also exploring policies to regulate AI use,
ensuring that the technology serves the public good rather than just a small group of interests.
From expensive laboratory projects to everyday tools, AI has come a long way. As affordable AI continues
to grow, it promises to bring more innovation and convenience to the world — proving that advanced technology
doesn’t have to come with a high price tag.
1．How much did it cost to train DeepSeek’s AI model?
A．Less than $6 million.
B．Exactly $6 million. C．10 million dollars.
D．More than
$60 million.
2．What does the underlined word “inventory” in Paragraph 3 mean?
A．The total amount of money a shop earns. B．The stock of goods a shop has for sale.
C．The list of customers a shop serves.
D．The rules a shop follows for management.
3．Which of the following is a practical use of affordable AI according to the passage?
A．Replacing all teachers in rural schools. B．Helping big tech companies earn more money.
C．Stopping all data privacy problems.
D．Assisting doctors in diagnosing common diseases.
4．What can we infer from the passage about affordable AI?
A．It has solved all the problems of traditional AI.
B．It is only used by small businesses and schools.
C．It brings both benefits and challenges to society.
D．It will completely replace human workers in the future.
In recent years, community gardens have sprouted up across the globe — from empty lots in New York
City to rooftop spaces in Tokyo. Even in densely populated cities like Berlin, local residents have transformed old
factory rooftops into “sky gardens”, where they grow strawberries and various green vegetables. These small,
shared green areas are more than just places for growing produce; they play an important role in improving urban
life both from an environmental and a social perspective.
Environmentally, community gardens act as “urban lungs” that help fight against air pollution. A study
conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that a 100-square-meter community garden can
absorb approximately 500 kilograms of carbon dioxide every year — this is equivalent to taking 100 cars off the
road for an entire day. They also help reduce the “heat island effect”, a phenomenon where cities remain much
warmer than nearby rural areas because of large areas of concrete that trap heat. Plants in these gardens release
moisture through a process called transpiration, which cools the surrounding air by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius.
Additionally, the soil in community gardens can absorb rainwater, decreasing the risk of urban flooding by up to
30%, according to research from the University of California. This benefit is particularly critical as extreme
weather events become more frequent.
Socially, these gardens help strengthen community bonds. A survey of 500 city residents in London showed
that 78% of those who participated in community gardens felt closer to their neighbors, and many even formed
long-term friendships through shared gardening activities. Community gardens often organize workshops on
topics such as composting and cooking with home-grown vegetables, which bring together people from different
age groups and cultural backgrounds. For elderly people who live alone and often feel lonely, taking care of a
small garden plot provides a sense of purpose and reduces feelings of isolation. A 2023 study published in the
Journal of Urban Health linked regular participation in community gardens to a 25% reduction in depression
symptoms among older adults. Moreover, schools in Toronto often cooperate with nearby community gardens to
teach students about plant growth and environmental protection, helping young people develop a sense of
responsibility toward nature.
While community gardens face certain challenges — such as limited available space in city centers,
difficulties in securing long-term access to land, and varying levels of commitment from participants — their
benefits clearly outweigh these problems. They prove that even small changes to urban environments can create
healthier and more connected cities. As urban populations continue to grow, community gardens may soon
become essential for building livable communities around the world, showing that green spaces are not luxury
items but necessary parts of urban life.
1．What can we infer about the “heat island effect” from the passage?
A．It can be alleviated by the moisture from garden plants. B．It increases the amount of carbon dioxide in
cities.
C．It is caused by the overgrowth of community gardens.
D．It makes cities cooler than rural areas in
summer.
2．Which of the following can be inferred from the studies mentioned in the passage?
A．A 100-square-meter garden can completely solve urban flooding problems.
B．Elderly people who join community gardens are less likely to feel depressed.
C．Community gardens have a greater impact on the environment than on society.
D．All London residents have become more connected to neighbors through gardens.
3．According to the passage, what do schools in Toronto do to help students develop environmental
responsibility?
A．They organize students to clean up community gardens regularly.
B．They ask students to grow vegetables in community gardens for their families.
C．They invite experts from the University of California to give lectures on the environment.
D．They cooperate with nearby community gardens to teach plant growth and environmental protection.
4．What can we infer about the author’s attitude toward the future of urban green spaces?
A．The author doubts whether community gardens can solve urban population problems.
B．The author worries that the challenges of community gardens will stop their development.
C．The author believes green spaces will become a basic need rather than a luxury in cities.
D．The author suggests urban governments should focus more on reducing population growth.
The 20th century was a famously fruitful time for visions of the future, but the 21st century has failed to
inspire them in the same way. Science fiction writer William Gibson has called this “future fatigue”, pointing out
that we barely ever make reference to the 22nd century.
One reason is that most of the ideas of the future that captured people’s imaginations in the 20th century
have mutated since then. Plastic, for example, once billed as the material of the future, has become an
environmental and health crisis — its durability and abundance turned downsides.
The dominant images of the future that we are presented with at the moment all have long histories to them.
They include space colonization, dystopian artificial intelligence and a longing to bring back the past — but a past
that never was. This makes sense given the climate anxiety and dread about the future felt by many people. The
future has started to feel like it is closing off rather than opening out.
Jean- Louis Missika, a former deputy mayor of Paris, has written that “when the future is dark, people turn
to an idealised past, a lost golden age. Nostalgia (怀旧) becomes a refuge against dangers, a cocoon against the
announced declines.”
It’s not that absolutely no new future visions have emerged this century. But it is notable that no major,
forward-looking future visions have taken root in our collective imagination since smartphones came to dominate
our way of communicating.
I think about the future for a living and it is my experience that unified visions of desirable futures can
inspire people to bring about change. They act as motivators and imagination engines. We can use them to
visualise the society we want and then commit to work towards that future. Unifying visions of the future are also
effectively used in architectural pictures, ads and TV shows; Star Trek has inspired technologists for decades.
We’re in a crucial transition — from fossil fuels to renewables. This can feel terrifying, but also motivating.
There are plenty of hotspots of innovation today: look at the rise of rooftop solar energy in Pakistan, where
households and small businesses are energetically embarking on the shift to renewables.
But we lack integration: future thinking that assembles these innovations together into unified visions, puts
them in a social context and then constructs from the present into the future.
In my new book, I look at four future visions being developed today: more-than-human futures reimagines
our relationship with nature; degrowth redesigns the role of the economy; solarpunk recharges cultural innovation;
and the metaverse immerses us in vivid digital worlds.
But the future doesn’t stop with these — there should be many more visions emerging. We need to seed
them, grow them and see what shape they take when we tell stories of the future once again.
1．Why does future fail to attract people in the 21st century?
A．Because nostalgia replaces hope for tomorrow.
B．Because it repeats old dreams in the 20th century.
C．Because 20th-century visions have turned problematic.
D．Because climate fear has destroyed people’s confidence.
2．What can be learned from the passage?
A．The energy shift plays a key role in future thinking.
B．Looking backward helps build stronger communities.
C．The absence of shared visions holds back future progress.
D．Rapid technological growth has restored people’s optimism.
3．Regarding the “future fatigue”, the author is ________.
A．concerned
B．critical
C．doubtful
D．approving
4．What is the author’s main purpose in writing this article?
A．To explain why “future fatigue” exists.
B．To promote her new book about future visions.
C．To warn against widespread fatigue towards future.
D．To inspire collective imagination of future narratives.
Climate change deniers love to point out that plants flourish when carbon dioxide levels rise, soaking up
more carbon. As is often the case, there is an element of truth here. Yet the discovery in the 1960s that land is a
carbon sink, came as a huge surprise to ecologists.
You can think of it as a swimming pool. The water in the pool represents the carbon stored in all of the
plants, animals and microbes above and below ground. Carbon trickles (缓慢移动) into the pool as plants grow
and take up carbon dioxide. Carbon also leaks out as organisms decompose or burn. So long as more trickles into
the pool than trickles out, this acts as a sink that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The underlying causes of the sink remains an area of debate, but there are four major factors that are
broadly agreed on. The first is rising levels of carbon dioxide that enhance photosynthesis in plants. This effect is
then boosted by nutrient pollution, such as run- off rich in fertilisers from farms. Another factor is forests growing
back after they were cut or burned for agriculture in previous decades. Finally, rapidly rising temperatures in the
Arctic have extended the growing season and led to parts of the region turning green faster than expected.
This unexpected gift has historically removed between a quarter and a third of the carbon dioxide emissions
each year — somewhat putting the brakes on climate change until we get our act together. But the missing link in
climate denialist reasoning is that this carbon sink can’t continue forever. Ecological shocks due to climate change
combined with Earth’s physical limits will cause it to reach the turning point some time this century. Without this
land sink, a 2023 study estimated the planet would be 0.3°C hotter.
Worryingly, there are signs that we are already reaching that point. In 2023 and 2024, the land carbon sink
seems to have almost disappeared. Researchers are now investigating how diverse environments contribute to this
delicately shifting balance.
The good news is that there are a series of effective ways to save the sink, or slow down its end—even in
the face of accelerating climate change. Constantin Zohner, a climate ecologist in Switzerland, says the most
important steps are to protect, restore and manage ecosystems, in that order. If existing forests were left to grow
undisturbed, modelling suggests a maximum potential uptake of 228 billion tonnes of carbon as they reach full
maturity over decades. Another 87 billion tonnes could be captured by restoring forests in places where they once
grew.
Beyond this, better management of ecosystems could enhance the land carbon sink by several billion tonnes
each year. This involves avoiding monster wildfires, rolling out climate- friendly farming practices like rotational
grazing, and more sustainable harvesting of trees.
If we want to hold onto the unexpected gift of a land carbon sink then we must stop “removing the allies
that we have”, says Zohner — and try to keep growth ahead of death just a little bit longer.
1．What does the word “sink” underlined in Paragraph 1 most probably mean?
A．A storage system.
B．A swimming pool.
C．A cycling device.
D．A leaking container.
2．The author mentions the “unexpected gift” in Paragraph 4 mainly to _______.
A．highlight a surprise
B．explain a concept
C．emphasize a risk
D．acknowledge a role
3．What can we learn from the passage?
A．Forests grow back because of increasing carbon and fertilisers.
B．The land carbon sink stops climate change by removing carbon.
C．The land sink can disappear if we ignore the conservation of the environment.
D．Forests should be preserved since over 200 billion tonnes of carbon is consumed.
4．What does the author intend to tell us in the last paragraph?
A．Growth must exceed loss.
B．Climate change is unavoidable.
C．We should collaborate internationally.
D．Better management of ecosystems is needed.
