Ants have the almost unique ability among animals to switch between individual and collective(集体的) action, according to new research which uncovers the mystery behind their impressive teamwork.
The insects are able to transport objects such as food that are much larger than themselves by naturally understanding when to be part of the collective muscle and when to play an individual "scouting(侦察)" role for the group, researchers found.
Experiments using the breakfast cereal showed how groups of a dozen or more ants working together could transport much bigger items by pushing in the same direction. But more importantly, when the group moves off course or heads for trouble, the ant who first realizes the problem transforms into a highly individualistic leader.
This ant signals the need for a direction change by pulling at a different angle — and her colleagues instantly accept the decision and follow suit.
"The individual ant has the idea of how to pass a thing that blocks their way but lacks the muscle power to move the load. The group is there to promote the leader's strength so that she can actually carry out her idea," said Ofer Feinermann, the study's lead author.
But the lead ant will only carry the baton for a short period, typically shouting to others for 10 to 20 seconds, by which point another ant has become best placed to make leadership decisions.
"As far as we can tell the scout is no different to the other ants, such as in creativity. No one designates(指派) her as the leader, and she designates herself because she has current knowledge about the correct direction," he added.
Ants are among the very few creatures, besides humans, that can collectively carry loads far heavier than an individual member of their creatures.
The study by the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel was published in the journal Nature Communications.
The moon had gone behind a cloud and there weren't many stars in the sky. As I took a glance(一瞥) at my neighbor's house, I saw a flame (火焰) in his 1. I thought he was having a midnight fast food so I went back to my 2.
Soon, there was a 3 smell in the air and I guessed something was wrong. 4, I jumped out of bed and went downstairs to 5. I saw fire coming out of my neighbour's kitchen. Right away, I 6 “Fire! Fire!” But there was no one nearby to 7 my shouts for help.
I 8 into my house, called the Fire Department and went back to my neighbour's house. I rang the doorbell, hit on the door and 9 my neighbour's name but there was no 10. I managed to 11the house and rescued a cat and a rabbit.
I tried to throw water through the kitchen window 12 it was no use; the fire was too strong. 13, a fire engine arrived and soon the firemen put out the fire. They arrived just 14 as the fire was going to 15 to the other rooms in the house.
When my neighbour came back, he was 16 because his kitchen was burnt down, but he thanked me for calling the Fire Department and for saving his 17. He wanted to give me some money in return but I did not 18 it.
Weeks later, my neighbour repaired and restored his kitchen. He 19 me to see his new kitchen and there he gave me a medal(奖章) that he had 20 ordered from a factory. It made me feel very happy.
Fitness tracking devices (健康追踪装置) often suggest we take 10,000 steps a day. But the goal of taking 10,000 steps, which many of us believe is scientific, in fact comes by accidents and history rather than research.
The 10,000-steps target became popular in Japan in the 1960s. A clock maker, mass-produced a pedometer(计步器) with a name that, when written in Japanese characters, looked like a walking man. It also translated as “10,000-steps meter,” creating a walking aim that, through the decades, somehow has been accepted widely.
But today's best science suggests we do not need to take 10,000 steps a day for our health or longevity. A 2019 study by Dr. Lee and her colleagues found that women in their 70s who take as few as 4,400 steps a day reduced their risk of early death by about 40 percent, compared to women completing 2,700 or fewer steps a day. The risks for early death continued to drop among the women walking more than 5,000 steps a day, but benefits plateaued(处于停滞状态)at about 7,500 daily steps. In other words, older women who completed fewer than half of the mythic(神话的)10,000 daily steps tended to live longer than those who covered even less ground.
Another study last year of almost 5,000 middle-aged men and women found that 10,000 steps a day are not a requirement for longevity. In that study, people who walked for about 8,000 steps a day were half as likely to die early from heart disease or any other cause as those who walked 4,000 steps a day.
According to recent estimates, most adults in Western nations average fewer than 5,000 steps a day. The good news is that increasing our current steps by even a few thousand additional ones most days could be an achievable goal, Dr. Lee said. If, like many people, we currently take about 5,000 steps a day during the course of everyday activities like shopping and housework, adding the extra 2,000 to 3,000 steps would take us to a total of between 7,000 and 8,000 steps most days, which, Dr. Lee said, seems to be the step-count sweet spot.
In 2000, when I was around seven years old, all my family were coming back from a Tball game, which was our usual weekend adventure, but unlike every other weekend, a surprise was waiting for us in our driveway – two adult geese and a small goose. Obviously startled by our return, the adults flew away in panic, with their baby, too young to fly, left in place, tiny and delicate.
Hours passed one after another, and night eventually fell. However, with it also came a deep chill and a fear of watchful animals. It was apparent that the gosling needed protection, warmth, and food to make it to the morning, so we had to help it, and we brought him onto our back yard.
We all pretty much slept with one eye open till morning came. And then another morning. And still another. Each morning, we would try to drive the goose away to his parents, who kept coming back to our yard. He wouldn't go to them, though, and neither would they come close enough to claim him. We kept this up for five days, but no luck. Realizing the young goose had clearly decided we were his family by then, we had to give him a name, calling the little guy Peeper, because he would often follow us around the yard making a peeping (唧唧叫) noise, nonstop. Besides, we decided that Peeper was a boy. I don't know why; it just felt right.
A year passed and we settled into a routine. Peeper slept on our back yard each night and, in typical goose fashion, used it as a latrine (公共厕所). My dad would spray off all the goose droppings daily. Part of this ceremony included Dad throwing Peeper up into the air so he could flap its wings and flew a loop (圈) around the house, and then came back again once the porch was clean.
Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months.
注意：1）续写词数应为150左右；
2）请按如下格式作答。
Before we knew it, the little thing had grown into a big bird with two powerful wings.
……
It came as a total surprise to me when, in 2019, an adult goose made his way back to my family home.
WELCOME
Welcome to Windsor Castle, the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world .Windsor is one the official residences (住所)of the Queen, who sometimes stays here.
Audio tours
Free audio tours are available on leaving the Admission Centre at the start of your visit .There is a descriptive audio tour for blind and poor-sighted visitors.
Guided tours
Visitors can explore the history of the Castle through a tour of the Precincts with an expert guide. Tours depart at regular intervals throughout the day from the Courtyard and finish at the entrance to the State Apartments.
Visitors with children
For those visiting with children, a special family tour and various activities are offered during school holidays and at weekends .Please note that, for safety reasons, pushchairs are not permitted in the State Apartments. However, baby carriers are available to borrow.
St George's Chapel
Visitors arriving at the Castle after 15:00 from March to October are advised to visit St George's Chapel first before it closes.
Shopping
Shops offer a wide range of souvenirs designed for the Royal Collection, including books, postcards, china, jewellery, and children's toys. Please ask at the Middle Ward shop about our home delivery service.
Refreshments
Bottled water can be purchased from the Courtyard and Middle Ward shops. From April to September ice cream is also available. Visitors wishing to leave the Castle for refreshments in the town may obtain re-entry permits from the castle shops. Eating and drinking are not permitted in the State Apartments or St George's Chapel.
Photography and mobile phones
Non-commercial photography and filming are welcomed in the Castle. Photography, video recording and filming are not permitted inside the State Apartments or St George's Chapel. Mobile phone must be switched off inside the State Apartments and St George's Chapel in consideration of other visitors.
Security
As Winter Castle is a working royal palace, visitors and their belongings should get through airport style security checks. For safety and security reasons a one-way system operates along the visitor route.
根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。
The mother the doctor about her sick son.
Like many new graduates, I left university full of hope for the future but with no real idea of what I wanted to do. My degree, with honors, in English literature had not really prepared me for anything practical. I knew I wanted to make a difference in the world somehow, but I had no idea how to do that. That’s when I learned about the Lighthouse Project.
I started my journey as a Lighthouse Project volunteer by reading as much as I could about the experiences of previous volunteers. I knew it would be a lot of hard work, and that I would be away from my family and friends for a very long time. In short, I did not take my decision to apply for the Lighthouse Project lightly. Neither did my family.
Eventually, however, I won the support of my family, and I sent in all the paperwork needed for the application. After countless interviews and presentations, I managed to stand out among the candidates and survive the test alone. Several months later, I finally received a call asking me to report for the duty. I would be going to a small village near Abuja, Nigeria. Where? What? Nigeria? I had no idea. But I was about to find out.
After completing my training, I was sent to the village that was small and desperately in need of proper accommodation. Though the local villagers were poor, they offered their homes, hearts, and food as if I were their own family. I was asked to lead a small team of local people in building a new schoolhouse. For the next year or so, I taught in that same schoolhouse. But I sometimes think I learned more from my students than they did from me.
Sometime during that period, I realized that all those things that had seemed so strange or unusual to me no longer did, though I did not get anywhere with the local language, and I returned to the United States a different man. The Lighthouse Project had changed my life forever.
33. According to the Paragraph 2, it is most likely that the author
A. discussed his decision with his family.
B. asked previous volunteers about voluntary work
C. attended special training to perform difficult tasks
D. felt sad about having to leave his family and friends
34. In his application for the volunteer job, the author
A. participated in many discussions
B. went through challenging survival tests
C. wrote quite a few papers on voluntary work
D. faced strong competition from other candidates
35. On arrival at the village, the author was
A. asked to lead a farming team
B. sent to teach in a schoolhouse
C. received warmly by local villagers
D. arranged to live in a separate house.
When you think of what to eat when you're trying to build muscles,fruits may not be the first that comes to mind.But fruits are just as important as any other food.Their potassium（钾）helps make and build muscles,the carbs（碳水化合物）spare your body from burning your muscles for fuel and the antioxidants（抗氧化物）protect the muscles from damage.
Potassium builds muscles.You need enough potassium in your diet to help build muscles.Adults need 4,700 milligrams of potassium a day.Any fruit can help you meet your daily potassium needs,but be sure to include those that are especially good sources,such as cantaloupe,bananas,oranges,kiwifruit,prunes and dried apricots.
Carbs provide your body with energy,and if you don't get enough,your body might burn your muscles for energy instead.The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics says that Carbs are the major nutrient in fruit and make a healthy choice on your muscle-growing diet.Healthy,high-carb fruits include grapes,pears,cherries,pineapples and dates.
Antioxidants protect muscles.Large amounts of exercise causes chemical reactions that may damage cells,and this may lead you to consider adding antioxidants to your daily routine.But when it comes to antioxidants and health, it's always better to get them from food.Fruits are rich in a number of antioxidants,including vitamin C.Load up on antioxidants to protect your muscles by filling your diet with mangoes,grapefruit,apples and berries.
There are a number of ways you can-add fruit to your muscle-building diet to get all the nutritional benefits. Start by making fruit the sweet ending to your meals.Blend（掺）it up with Greek yogurt to get the nutrients your body needs for refreshment.Fruit also makes.an easy and convenient snack choice.
28.If you want to build muscles,you should eat .
A.bananas,oranges,kiwifruit and apricots B.mangoes,grapefruit,apples and berries
C.grapes,pears,cherries,pineapple and dates D.bananas,grapefruit,cherries and cantaloupe
29.What offers you great help to keep energetic?
A.Potassium. B.Carbs. C.Antioxidants. D.Yogurt.
30.What can we infer from the fourth paragraph?
A.Exercises usually damage cells and bring harm to your body.
B.Getting from food is the only way to take in antioxidants.
C.Fruits provide more than one nutrient for you.
D.Any fruit can help get enough Antioxidants.
31.What can be the best title for the passage?
A.Are fruits as important as food? B.What makes a healthier diet?
C.Which fruit is the first for building muscles? D.Which fruits help increase muscle growth?
Chinese social media apps have struggled to win over users beyond their home. TikTok is changing that. In the space of just two years, the app has attracted more than half a billion users — around 40% of them outside China --who share short videos of themselves singing, cooking, dancing or just being silly.
Created by the Beijing-based Internet technology company Byte Dance, TikTok has gained an international edge over China's influential social media platforms, such as Tencent's WeChat, Sina Weibo (WB) and Youku of Alibaba (BABA).
What makes Byte Dance better is its right direction and achievement in the social media category, which is largely controlled by Facebook ( FB) , Twitter and Snap 一 all Western companies, said Randy Nelson , head of Mobile Insights at analytics firm Sensor Tower. Social video apps reached new levels of popularity this year. Three of them are in the top 10 most downloaded apps worldwide, according to Sensor Tower. Byte Dance owns two of the three: Vigo Video and TikTok. The other is Instagram, which belongs to Facebook.
Byte Dance calls itself an artificial intelligence company. It uses machine learning and algorithms to figure out what people like and give them more of what they want to see. the company is best known in China for the popular news app Toutiao, which was put into use in 2012. People got hooked on the app' s customized news feeds quickly. Toutiao now has more than 240 million monthly active users that spend on average 74 minutes per day on the platform.
Byte Dance' s success is attracting big investors. It's reportedly in talks with technology kingmaker SoftBank ( SFTBY) about an investment that would value it at around $75 billion, a huge jump from the $ 20 billion valuation it secured last year. That would make Byte Dance one of the world’s most valuable companies alongside Uber.
8．What can be learnt about TikTok?
A．It has appealed to many foreign users.
B．It's the most popular Chinese app abroad.
C．It's the most successful app of Byte Dance.
D．It allows users to share whatever they like on it.
9．What sets Byte Dance apart from other Internet technology companies overseas?
A．Support from its investors. B．Success in social video apps.
C．Greater diversity in contents. D．AI technology applied to apps.
10．Which of the following can replace the underlined words "got hooked on” in Paragraph 4?
A．were tired of B．were trapped in.
C．were familiar with D．were attracted by
11．What is the main idea of the text?
A．Tik Tok has beaten other social media apps.
B．China's social media apps are successful globally.
C．Social video apps win popularity around the world.
D．Byte Dance is taking the social media world by storm.
9月22日你所在的城市和另外107个城市开展了“无车日”活动，倡议人们选用公共汽车，自行车或步行等绿色交通方式来代替开私家车。该活动得到了全国人民的支持，提高了人们节约能源与保护环境的意识，活动很成功。下面请你用英语写一篇短文介绍该活动，并谈谈开展该活动的必要性，号召更多的城市和居民参与到该活动中来。
注意：
1. 对所给提示，不要简单翻译，可适当增加细节，使行文连贯。
2. 词数120左右。
3. 参考词汇：
无车日：Car-free Day 开展：launch
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There are many different taboos (禁忌) around the world. A taboo is a social action that is not ___41___ (allow). Almost every culture in the world has ___42___ (it) own taboos. When you meet people from different cultures, it is important ___43___ (understand) what you can and cannot do. If we are not aware ___44___ these differences, some unusual ___45___ (thing) might happen. For instance, in China, it ___46___ (be) rude to put the chopsticks into a bowl of rice straightly as it is often done for the dead. If you visit Nepal, you will find Nepalese often greet each other with the hands pressed together instead of shaking hands, ___47___ in North America and the UK, people greet one another by ___48___ (shake) hands. If you will do business with a South American, it seems ___49___ (impolitely) to be dressed in the light colors. What about Japanese? They dislike the lotus and ___50___ not give it as a gift to Japanese because they regard it as the mourning flower (丧花). While these different customs might seem strange to you， remember that what you consider normal probably seems just as unusual to others.
When you want to hunt for a piece of environmentally friendly furniture, you should try to know the types of materials in building the furniture.
A. used B. being used C. using D. to use
Singing had always been an important part of Gloria Estefan’s life. “Since I was three years old, I sang. I sang everything,” Gloria said. “Cubans,” she added, “are a musical people”.
Gloria was born in Cuba in 1957. Her family left the country just before Fidel Castro came to power. In Miami, where the family settled, many people did not accept Cuban immigrants(移民). In first grade, she spoke little English, but she worked hard to learn the language. Six months after she entered school, she won an award for reading in English!
When Gloria was ten, her father returned from the Vietnam War. Soon, the family realized he wasn’t well. They soon found out that he was badly ill. Her mother went back to teaching at school to support the family. Gloria cared for her father and her younger sister.
She still made the honor roll, and she still had her music, but Gloria was lonely. However, when the band leader Emilio Estefan came to speak at her high school, Gloria sang for him. He asked her to join his band. It was the beginning of the Miami Sound Machine.
Within a few months, the Miami Sound Machine was the top band in Miami. In 1978 Gloria and Emilio married.
At first, the Miami Sound Machine was known only in Miami. Then the band signed with CBS Records. Estefan and his band became stars.
Since then, the Miami Sound Machine has sold millions of records. Gloria has done more than just singing when Hurricane Andrew hit central Florida in 1992. She used only two weeks to organize an all-star concert that raised $2 million for the people who suffered in the hurricane. “We needed a party after that disaster,” she said.
Gloria said, “You have to stay true to the music you really love to do. There will always be people who will tell you, ‘that won’t work’. You’ve got to be firm in spite of difficulties. Stick to it—that’s the main thing.”
56. Gloria’s father was ill .
A. when they settled down in Miami. B. before they left their home country
C. after he returned from Vietnam War D. as soon as she finished high school
57. According to the passage, probably Gloria did the following except .
A. organizing an all-star concert for Hurricane victims
B. winning an award for reading in English
C. teaching at school to support the family
D. taking care of her father and sister
58. The underlined word “disaster” in this passage refers to .
A. the concert B. the celebration C. the victims D. the hurricane
59. This passage mainly tells about Gloria Estefan’s .
A. life story B. happy marriage C. music style D. Cuban background
