上海市2022-2023学年高三下学期英语开学摸底考试卷

Female Entertainers Fight Ageism in the Reality Show

A band of entertainment industry " has-beens" has stepped back into the spotlight in Older Sisters Riding Winds and Breaking Waves. It is a girl group knockout reality show  (feature) performers older than 30. 

Produced by Mango TV, the reality show has made huge waves across China's social platforms. The show consists of 30 seasoned, established female singers, actors and hosts, were born before 1990.

" some possibilities in life fade after you hit 30, you can still transcend time and reinvent yourself, " reads part of the show's preamble(开场白), conveying a clear message the ageism facing women.

Some contestants spoke out about their attitude towards aging and age discrimination. 

Wu Xin, 37, a hostess on the popular variety show Happy Camp, (voice) her opinion, believing she's at the best age of her life. " I used to limit myself due to a narrow vision, and thus missed a lot of opportunities. I get older, I've come to realize that I can do many things, so I decided (seize) this chance to stretch myself, " she said.

While some people see the successfully staged show as a progression in challenging society's youth-obsessed pop culture, remain doubtful and critical.

Some viewers reveal that their anxiety towards aging has gotten  (bad) after watching the show. 

" My heart quivered as I heard 50-year-old Christy Chung say she still feels as young as 20 physically and would always be 18 at heart. The show actually points out the possibility a woman's actual age is neither acceptable for the public nor for herself, " reads a Weibo post by Tang Shuang, a senior fashion editor of Vogue China.

Too many people believe that the pandemic is over, England's deputy chief medical officer, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, warned this week: far from it. Europe is at its centre again, WHO has said, urging governments to continue with public health measures. But though Sajid Javid, England's health secretary, predicted last month that here could hit 100, 000 a day, he remains unwilling to take action — even as the latest Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission (React) findings, for late October, show that about one in 58 people is tested positive — more than double September's levels. The indifference of Mr Javid and his boss, Boris Johnson, is , given the government's record. (Last month's news report on its response stressed that it had " lacked speed in making timely decisions" : if put less , it was far too late, far too often). But their attitude is doubtlessly by a drop in recorded cases over the past week. Some experts think the drop may have to do with the growing immunity caused by high infection rates.

While vaccines (疫苗) (and now treatments) are decreasing  rates, current infection levels and breakthrough cases remind us that vaccines do not stop people from catching or spreading Covid, and reduce but do not eliminate the possibility of serious health problems such as long Covid. 

The government is counting on boosters (疫苗加强剂), though it says its " plan B" — forced masking, vaccine passports and encouragement to work from home — will be introduced if the pressure on the National Health Service (NHS) is  . The British Medical Association believe that point arrived weeks ago. Queues of ambulances are the most visible indication of the pressures. The NHS went into the pandemic  and, more obviously at the current stage, short-staffed. The overall impact has been exhausting. Any further increase in Covid patients, already  more than 9, 500, would greatly weaken the ability to deal with the huge backlog (积压的工作). 

Why take that risk? Forced masking on public transport and in places such as supermarkets must be  . The government should introduce Covid passports for crowded venues. Third doses (针剂) must be made more accessible. Adopting these minimal measures now would save lives and protect the NHS,   preventing the need for more drastic action later. 

Southern long-finned pilot whales are marine mammals with a lot to say—and they may use vocalizations (发声) to outsmart a deadly enemy. 

Cetaceans (鲸类动物) such as whales and dolphins communicate through sound to find food and mates, to navigate and to interact socially. Their vocalizations 1 between species and within communities. The animals can mimic (模仿) artificial noise such as sonar, but nobody had previously recorded them 2 other cetaceans' sounds. A new study, however, found overlap in the cetacean sound book.

Researchers listened to 2, 028 vocalizations of long-finned pilot whales off the coast of Australia, the first time sounds from the species in this region have been 3 described. They were surprised to hear 19 instances of vocalizations that resembled those of orcas—the whales' oceanic 4 . " We found some calls that are, to the human ear, 5 to the killer whale calls in the same area, " says Christine Erbe, an expert in Marine Science and Technology.

Pilot whales and orcas, the two largest species of cetaceans, are often seen in the same 6  and are similar sizes, and both live in social groups. Orcas compete for food with long-finned pilot whales and are 7  their predators (猎食者) . 

 8  from orca stomachs shows they do occasionally eat pilot whales. But pilot whales can mob and chase orcas away, the only cetaceans seen 9  themselves from their predator in this way. 

Mimicry could serve as an 10 defense: " One theory is that if they use similar sounds, they may not be recognized as prey, " Erbe says. Pilot whales hunting or eating orcas' food remainders might go 11 if they use orca-like calls. " This is all underwater, where light travels really poorly, " she adds. " So these animals 12 sound for detecting their prey and predators and for navigating. " Long-finned pilot whales have shown an ability to 13 between orca calls with different meanings.

Additional work would 14 whether mimicry is actually occurring. Researchers could pair their listening data with direct observations of the animals' interactions in the wild or perhaps even play orca sounds and watch the whales' 15 .

If you remember anything before the age of 3, your brain only puts together bits of reality that you've learned as you've grown up, according to a new research. In the largest study of its kind, researchers asked people about their earliest memory and at what age they believe it took place. They found that a surprising number of people claimed to remember things from their first years of life. But scientists agree that our brain isn't developed enough to keep memories until we're three years old, so researchers wanted to know why so many people insist they remember something before then.

Of 6, 641 participants, 37. 4 percent said they had their first memory before the age of 2. Of those, 893 said their first memories were from the period before they turned 1. Participants' answers were analyzed in terms of their age, language, the content of the memory and the nature of the memory.

" When we looked through the answers from participants, we found that a lot of these first ‘memories' were frequently related to infancy and a typical example would be a memory based around a baby carriage, " said Professor Martin Conway at City University of London.

This means that many of these " fictional" memories are only our minds mixing up what we know about babies and what we actually experienced as a baby. They also found that older people were more likely to report remembering a " fictional" early memory. Researchers couldn't determine why our brains do this but suggested it comes from a personal need to have a complete description of our lives. They added that a positive self-narrative can lead to a better life.

Every year millions of breeding monarch butterflies in the U. S. and southern Canada search for milkweed plants on which to lay their eggs. Concern over shrinking habitat （居住地）has urged conservationists to create monarch-friendly spaces along roadsides, which are more than enough within the butterflies range and usually publicly owned. But traffic noise stresses monarch caterpillars out, a new study finds. They eventually do become desensitized to it—but that might cause trouble to them later on, too. 

Noise pollution is known to affect the lives of birds, whales and other creatures. But until recently, scientists had never tested whether it leads to a stress response in insects. When Andy Davis, a conservation physiologist at the University of Georgia, noticed online videos of roadside monarch caterpillars apparently trembling as cars came by, he wondered how the constant noise might affect them. Davis built a custom caterpillar heart monitor, fitting a small sensor into a microscope to precisely measure monarch caterpillars' heart rates as they listened to recordings of traffic sounds in the laboratory.

The hearts of caterpillars exposed to highway noise for two hours beat 17 percent faster than those of caterpillars in a silent room. But the heart rates of the noise-exposed group returned to baseline levels after hearing the traffic sounds nonstop for their entire 12-day development period, Davis and his colleagues reported in May in Biology Letters. 

This desensitization could be problematic when the caterpillars become adults, Davis says. A rapid stress response is vital for monarch butterflies on their two-month journey to spend winters in Mexico, as they narrowly escape predators（捕食者）and fight wind currents. 

Whether a noisy developmental period reduces monarchs' survival rates remains unknown, notes Ryan Norris, an ecologist at the University of Guelph in Ontario, who was not involved in the study. But in any case, he believes roadside habitat almost certainly drive up the butterflies' death rates as a result of crashes with cars. " There is so much potential road habitat for monarchs and other insects一it would be such a nice thing to capitalize on, " Norris says. ‌" But you just can't get around the traffic. " Davis adds: " I think roads and monarchs just don't mix. "

Many people drink protein shakes (高蛋白饮品) regularly to lose weight, build muscle or both. Others, however, question the belief that protein shakes are better than normal, high-protein foods. So what is the truth?

What is in a protein shake?

Protein shakes are dietary supplements (膳食补充品) designed to help people consume more protein than they otherwise would. Or people can mix their own shakes using protein powder and other ingredients. Protein powder can be made from plants or animals. Plant-based protein shakes can include soy, pea or rice protein. Animal-based protein powders are usually made from cow's milk. Those who want to stay away from milk can also get protein powder made from egg whites.

Advantages of protein shakes

Studies indicate that consuming protein shakes is helpful if you want to build your muscle. They can also help to improve your performance while exercising and help you to recover from exercise.  

Consuming protein shakes can also help you lose weight. Eating a high-protein diet helps you feel full, so it's easier to resist eating too much. High-protein diets can also increase how quickly your body burns energy. When you use more energy than you take in through food, you lose weight.

Disadvantages of protein shakes

However, you don't have to drink protein shakes to have a high-protein diet. Many wholefoods are rich in protein. As a matter of fact, the people in many high-protein diet studies didn't drink protein shakes The studies proved the benefits of eating protein-rich foods. In contrast, many protein shakes contain sugar or artificial sweeteners, which are not healthy.

To sum up

So yes, protein shakes are convenient, and they work. However, they are not your only choice for eating a high-protein diet. 

A．And if you're losing weight, protein shakes can help make sure that you don't lose muscle.

B．Protein shakes can also help people to manage their figures, especially their weight. 

C．Moreover, these foods contain other nutrients in addition to protein. 

D．Therefore, it is unnecessary to take protein shakes unless it is a must. 

E．Protein shakes can be ready-made drinks. 

F．And high-protein diets have also been linked to the loss of fat. 

Much research has been conducted about why humans laugh and what they laugh at—not only by psychologists, but also by philosophers, for the study of laughter crosses many disciplines. So, why do we laugh? 

The general belief is that humans laugh as a social bonding mechanism. Studies have shown that humans are over 30 times more likely to laugh with others than alone. Even " laughing gas" works more effectively on a group of people than on a single person. We all know that laughter can be very infectious. 

Some researchers believe that laughter in humans was born out of the relief our ancestors felt after danger had passed. If smiling in humans is considered an extension of the " fear" face in primates (灵长类动物), then laughter is a signal that the fear has gone. When we laugh, our " fight or flight" reaction to danger is temporarily switched off, further indicating that we now feel relaxed. So laughter is a way of discharging stress and anxiety. 

Although laughter is universal, people don't always laugh at the same things, and what people find funny often changes as they get older. Children find a lot to laugh about, as they are encountering so many things for the first time, which offers constant surprises. Teenagers often like jokes that adults find annoying, while adults often laugh at jokes about funny things in their own everyday lives. Furthermore, because a lot of our humor comes from a shared cultural background, countless jokes don't cross language and cultural barriers, with the result that what's funny in Australia may well not be in Austria.

Regardless of what different people find funny, people ought to laugh as much as they can. While we're laughing, we increase the killer cells that destroy viruses. So, the next time someone tells you they nearly died laughing, tell them it's far from the truth!

请简单描述该图表，并结合自身或他人情况，谈谈你的看法。

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