Science not always so serious
Did you know that if you attach a weighted stick to the back of a chicken, it walks like a dinosaur?
No, you did not know (or care to know) such things, but now you do! Thanks to this year’s winners of the Ig Nobel Prizes! Now in its 25th year, the Ig Nobel is the goofy younger cousin of the honored Nobel Prize. It applauds achievements in the fields of medicine, biology, physics, economics, literature, etc. Every September at Harvard University, awards are presented in 10 categories that change year to year, depending on — according to the organization — what makes the judges “laugh, then think”.
The ceremony officially begins when audience members launch paper airplanes at an assigned human target on the stage, then speakers only have 60 seconds to present their research. In previous years, the one-minute rule was imposed by a young girl — nicknamed Miss Sweetie Poo — who would go up to the platform and repeat the words: “Please stop, I’m bored,” in a sharp tone until the speaker left the stage.
Fortunately for candidates though, the Ig Informal Lectures are held afterwards on Saturday to give presenters more time to explain the crazy things they’re working on.
The research can seem more like the brainchildren of teenage boys than of respectable adults. Justin
Schmidt won the physiology Ig for creating the “Sting Pain Index,” which rates the pain people feel after getting stung (蛰) by insects. Smith pressed bees against 25 different parts of his body until they stung him. Five stings a day for 38 days, Smith concluded that the most painful sting locations were the nostril (鼻孔) and the upper lip. Ouch.
As silly as they sound, not all of the Ig awards lack scientific applicability. A group of scientists from 12 different countries won in the medicine category for accurately diagnosing patients with appendicitis (阑尾炎) based on an unusual measurement: speed bumps (减速带). They found that patients are more likely to have appendicitis if they report pain during bumpy car rides.
All these weird experiments have just one thing in common. They’re improbable. It can be tempting to assume that “improbable” implies more than that — implies bad or good, worthless or valuable, trivial or important. Something improbable can be any of those, or none of them, or all of them, in different ways. And what you don’t expect can be a powerful force for not only entertaining science, but also for the boundary-pushing science we call innovation.
56. The underlined word “goofy” in Paragraph 2 probably means __________.
A. timid B. funny C. glorious D. warm-hearted
57. According to the passage, what can we know about the awarding ceremony of Ig Nobel?
A. It is held at a fixed place.
B. Candidates should know how to fold paper planes.
C. Miss Sweetie Poo is one of the hostesses.
D. Ig Informal Lecture gives presenters 60 seconds to finish their speeches.
58. The example in Paragraph 6 is used to illustrate that Ig Nobel __________.
A. celebrates the diligent work of researchers
B. offers another opportunity to those who miss the Nobel Prizes
C. serves as a platform for the creative and practical achievements
D. amuses the audience
59. Among the four candidates below, who is most likely to win an Ig Nobel?
A. A chemist who invents a chemical method to partially un-boil an egg.
B. A novelist who criticizes social injustice severely.
C. A physicist who studies the origin of the universe.
D. An economist who achieves a breakthrough in the study of international trade
BACA
健康环保累阅读概念:
健康环保类文章常是介绍科学知识、生活常识和环境保护方面的短文。体裁有记叙文、 说明文、议论文和各种应用文。
健康环保类文章阅读技巧:
健康环保类文章常是介绍科学知识、生活常识和环境保护方面的短文。阅读此类短文要以现象或事物为中心进行思考,理解现象产生的原因、条件和客观规律等。同时要抓住事物的特征、用途和相互关系等。科普环保类文章一般为说明文,从结构上看大致可分为三个部分:
第一部分一般是文章的首段,主要用来提出文章的主题,即文章想要阐述、说明的主要内容;
第二部分是文章的主体,可由若干个段落组成,对文章的主题进行展开说明;
第三部分是结尾段,对文章的主题进行归纳总结。这类文章多用一般现在时,而且一般多使用客观性词语表述。有时为了强调客观性,也常使用被动语态。
从近几年的考试题来看,科普环保类的文章越来越与人们的实际生活相接近。由于此类文章缺乏故事情节,很多同学对此类文章感到费解。但一般的科普类文章都是就事论事,需要逻辑推理和想象的时候较少,因此此类阅读题也没有同学们想象中的那么难,只要多加训练,就能较好地答题。
【阅读策略】
1、概要(Summarizing):
阅完材料后,将所阅材料浓缩,摘要,做出所阅材料的书面或口头梗概。
2、组织(Organization):
阅读后根据阅读内容,识别观点、人物、事件之间的关系以及文章的结构关系。如:时间关系、比较或对比关系、相关关系及因果关系等。
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A. The effects of flu and its symptoms B. Types of virus to cause flu C. People’s attitudes toward flu D. The cause of flu E. The way that flu spreads F. The methods to fight flu |
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Flu (which is short for influenza) is a highly infectious disease, the cause of which is a very tiny organism known as a virus. Several types of flu are recognized, depending on the type of virus that causes the disease.
81. |
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Flu can often cause problems in breathing, and general infection of the lung. With elderly and weak people, these added complications often produce serious results. The virus, if not properly treated, can weaken the body so that patient may develop more serious illnesses, such as pneumonia and bronchitis. When people catch flu, they often complain of a headache or a sore throat. They usually have a fever and their temperature rises from the normal 37℃ (98.6) to about 39.5℃ (103). Sometimes a person has a dry hacking cough and aching joints.
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Today many doctors use drugs that fight the disease. And scientists have also developed vaccines that help to prevent it. If the patient has proper treatment, and complete rest in bed, the virus is normally beaten within a week to ten days.
83. |
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How does flu spread so quickly? When the infected person breathes out, sneezes or coughs, he gives out droplets of moisture in the breath from his mouth or nose. These remain in the air for some time. Flu viruses are present in these droplets. If a person sneezes in a crowd or poorly ventilated place, such as a lift, viruses can easily be carried from an infected person to a healthy person. This is known as droplet infection. The healthy person will breathe in the viruses given out by the infected person.
84. |
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There are three main types of virus that cause flu, which are called type A, B and C. type A is the most powerful of the three, and undergoes minor changes in its genetic material every few years. The new form of the virus is called a strain. The new strain is not affected by the current vaccines. It is said to be “resistant” to them. So doctors must be continually producing new vaccines to combat the new strains of virus.