Like people, plants experience stress. And also, like people, the response to that stress can determine success.
Bad environmental conditions, such as drought, flood, heat and other stresses, affect yields (产量) more than crop pests and diseases. We are trying to find a way to equip plants with the ability to tolerate environmental stress and maintain high yields, said Stephen Howell, a professor of genetics and cell biology.
Plant cells produce proteins (蛋白质) and ship them to different parts of the cell. Under normal conditions, these proteins are folded into their normal, healthy structures as they are produced. When a plant is under stress, its cells produce poorly folded or unfolded proteins. Then a built-in system senses this and “sets off an alarm in the cell,” said Howell.
In response to the alarm, another protein (IRE1) starts working and creates a different process which activates (激活) the stress response genes whose products bring about defensive measures that help the plant survive.
“As it turns out, responses that are activated under stress conditions actually inhibit the growth of plants,” said Howell. “This allows them to preserve their energy to survive the stress conditions.”
For plants in the wild, this response is a help for survival, he said. In production of agriculture crops, however, this response reduces yields.
“You don’t want crop plants to stop growing,” Howell said. “You want them to continue to grow and produce even though they are under stress.”
With the new understanding of this stress response, the next step may be to silence the alarm system, said Howell. “What may be important is to disable some of these stress responses. That may make the plant more productive under stress conditions.”
1.According to the text, what causes an alarm in the plant cells?
A. The folded proteins. B. The changed proteins.
C. The defensive measures. D. The stress response genes.
2.What does the energy preserved in the plants under stress conditions do?
A. It helps the plants to survive. B. It helps to maintain high yields.
C. It keeps the plants growing. D. It helps to produce proteins.
3.Which word is closest to the meaning of the underlined word “inhibit” in Paragraph 5?
A. Prevent. B. Start.
C. Continue. D. Promote.
4.How does Howell intend to make crop plants maintain high yields under stress conditions?
A. By making crop plants keep more energy.
B. By making crop plants stop growing.
C. By making the alarm system stop working.
D. By making the alarm system respond quickly.
He may not have an "S" across his chest but this dog is most certainly a hero.
Harley, who was rescued from a puppy mill four years ago, was named the American Humane Association's 2015 American Hero Dog. Harley, who is missing an eye and has other medical issues from his time at the mill, is now a "spokes-dog" against puppy mills. He serves as the adorable furry face of the "Harley to the Rescue" campaign, which raises funds for the National Dog Mill Rescue, according to a press release.
The pup was rescued back in 2011 and adopted by Rudi and her husband, Dan. "It was just four years ago that he was pulled from the cage in the puppy mill and left to die," Harley's owner, Rudi, said during the awards show at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles this past weekend, according to Today. com. "We never would have ever thought he would live this long and make such a difference for so many puppies."
The dog was one of eight finalists up for the American Hero Dog and was chosen as the winner through public votes. The finalists all won $ 1,500 to be donated to one of American Humane Association’s charity partners, with Harley receiving another $ 5 ,000 to go toward his charity partner, New Leash On Life.
According to the release, Harley spent 10 years at the puppy mill, and endured rough treatment there, which led to his many medical issues. He lost his eye as a result of his cage being power-washed with him inside.
The dog isn't just the face of his campaign, he also goes on rescue missions and makes public appearances at events and schools to raise awareness for puppy mills.
This incredible work is all due to the dog’s fighting spirit. That spirit is allowing him now to be the voice for dogs who cannot speak for themselves and give everybody hope that tomorrow's going to be a better day.
1.How did the "Harley to the Rescue" campaign function?
A. By saving dogs from a puppy mill.
B. By operating the American Humane Association.
C. By collecting money for the National Dog Mill Rescue.
D. By giving endangered dogs-enough medical treatment.
2.What was the author’s attitude to the puppy mill according to the text?
A. Unsatisfied. B. Sympathetic.
C. Doubtful. D. Tolerant.
3.Why was Harley blind in one eye?
A. She was born with it. B. Her owner treated her roughly.
C. It was caused by a medical issue. D. She was washed heavily in a cage.
4.What can we know about the dog from the text?
A. It would be given to New Leash On Life.
B. It was kept by Rudi's family.
C. It would be taken away by its puppy mill.
D. It returned to the National Dog Mill Rescue.
People from East Asia tend to have more difficulty than those from Europe in distinguishing facial expressions — and a new report published online in Current Biology explains why.
Rachael Jack, University of Glasgow researcher, said that rather than scanning evenly(均匀的) across a face as Westerners do, Easterners fix their attention on the eyes.
“We show that Easterners and Westerners look at different face features to read facial expressions,” Jack said. “Westerners look at the eyes and the mouth in equal measure, whereas Easterners favor the eyes and neglect (忽略) the mouth.”
According to Jack and her colleagues, the discovery shows that human communication of emotion is more complex than previously believed. As a result, facial expressions that had been considered universally recognizable cannot be used to reliably convey emotion in cross-cultural situations.
The researchers studied cultural differences in the recognition of facial expressions by recording the eye movements of 13 Western Caucasian and 13 East Asian people while they observed pictures of expressive faces and put them into categories: happy, sad, surprised, fearful, disgusted, angry, or neutral. They compared how accurately participants read those facial expressions using their particular eye movement strategies.
It turned out that Easterners focused much greater attention on the eyes and made significantly more errors than Westerners did. “The cultural difference in eye movements that they show is probably a reflection of cultural difference in facial expressions,” Jack said. “Our data suggest that whereas Westerners use the whole face to convey emotion, Easterners use the eyes more and mouth less.”
In short, the data show that facial expressions are not universal signals of human emotion. From here on, examining how cultural factors have diversified these basic social skills will help our understanding of human emotion. Otherwise, when it comes to communicating emotions across cultures, Easterners and Westerners will find themselves lost in translation.
1.The discovery shows that Westerners .
A. pay equal attention to the eyes and the mouth
B. consider facial expressions universally reliable
C. observe the eyes and the mouth in different ways
D. have more difficulty in recognizing facial expressions
2.What were the people asked to do in the study?
A. To make a face at each other.
B. To get their faces impressive.
C. To classify some face pictures.
D. To observe the researchers’ faces.
3.What does the underlined word “they” in Paragraph 6 refer to?
A. The participants in the study.
B. The researchers of the study.
C. The errors made during the study.
D. The data collected from the study.
4.In comparison with Westerners, Easterners are likely to .
A. do translation more successfully
B. study the mouth more frequently
C. examine the eyes more attentively
D. read facial expressions more correctly
假如你叫李华，将到英国参加一个英语学习俱乐部活动，你要在会上交流自己的英语学习体会。请根据提示写一篇发言稿。内容包括：学习方法、学习收获、学习困难。
注意：1．短文词数100词左右。
2．内容充实，结构完整，可适当增加细节，以使语意连贯。
3．书写须清晰、工整。
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假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏词符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(划掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1.每处错误仅限1词；
2.只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
Last summer vacation, I worked in restaurant. One day, I was about to be off duty then three foreigners came in. Since it was my first time to talk with foreigners, suddenly my mind went blankly. I failed to respond to their question. But a few minutes later, I refresh myself. So, I began to talk to them and adapted to that atmosphere gradually. I restarted to pick up my confident again. One of them, who seemed in his thirtieth, praised on me for my self-confidence. After that, I swore I must learnt English well, especially spoken English, and never make that embarrassing thing happening again.
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容(1个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式。
Carry is a fellow student of mine. He suffers from cerebral palsy（ 大脑性麻痹）， which makes it almost impossible for him to control his movements. As a result, he spends his life in a wheelchair and cannot write 1. means of a pen or pencil. And he speaks so slowly and strangely 2.it takes patience to understand what he is saying. This, together with his thin, twisted body and awkward3. (face) expressions, can often cause people to treat him as if he were a backward child.
However, behind his physical 4. (appear), Carry is a warm, fun-loving, intelligent person. His muscles 5. (affect), not his mind or personality. He enjoys the same thing any student does---6.(listen) to music, meeting friends and so on---and he not is the best student in our class, but also has7. excellent sense of humour and a genuine interest in other people. Unable to express himself 8. (easy) in conversation, he uses a special typewriter to write letters to his friends, and beautiful 9. (poem). He lives a very regular life, studying every day and never allowing 10. (he) to fall behind in his schoolwork.
