2026年真题24

Listen to a talk in an art history class (man) Today, we’re exploring the luminous world of stained glass. When you think of stained glass, you probably think of windows in churches, but it is found outside of churches as well. If fact, it used to brighten many homes across the United States. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, stained glass windows became a beloved feature in domestic architecture thanks to the Arts and Crafts movement. The Arts and Crafts movement celebrated craftsmanship and natural beauty, and stained glass fit the bill perfectly. Artists used several techniques to bring their visions to life. The lead method, a traditional approach, involved joining pieces of glass with strips of lead, ideal for bold geometric designs. Then came the copper foil technique, popularized by the American artist and designer Louis Comfort Tiffany. This method wrapped each glass piece in thin copper foil, which allowed for more intricate designs like floras and landscapes. But these beautiful windows weren’t without drawbacks. They often lack proper insulation, leading to heat loss in colder climates. Home owners had to weigh aesthetics against practicality, sometimes adding storm windows or heavy drapes to compensate. Stained glass windows eventually faded from popularity in domestic architecture, but they’re enjoying a quiet renaissance in contemporary art. Modern artists blend old techniques with new technologies like laser cutting, digital design and fused-glass methods to create contemporary pieces for homes, galleries and the public spaces.

Listen to a talk in an archaeology class (man) Imagine an ancient garden or field and imagine organic material in its soil, things like plant roots or wooden irrigation pipes. When this organic material decays over the centuries, it often leaves behind voids in the soil. Researchers can fill these voids by injecting plaster into the empty spaces. When the plaster hardens, it creates casts, essentially three-dimensional negatives that replicate what existed centuries ago. For example, at the ancient Maya village of Hoya de Siren in El Salvador, Central America, casts taken from root cavities have revealed a diverse mix of crops, including manioc, maize and beans. These species were identified in part by the shape and size of the root voids, by comparing them with modern plant root systems. This layout of plants in the garden wasn’t random at all. It showed the garden to be an early example of the Milpa system, a traditional intercropping method still practiced in Central America and Mexico today, with a tall maize plants provides stalks for bean plants to climb. The beans enrich the soil with nitrogen and squash plants growing along the ground provide shade that suppresses weeds and retains moisture. Soil casts have also been used at the sites of ancient Roman villa gardens, revealing irrigation channels and beds planted with species such as grape vines and roses. The findings show a deliberate integration of ornamental plants with edible plants, suggesting a Roman design ethos that sought to balance aesthetics with utility.

Listen to a talk on a science podcast (woman) Let’s move on in our renewable energy series to discuss solar power, which is arguably the most abundant resource available. Solar power takes energy from the sun’s rays and coverts it to electricity or heat. The primary technology for this is solar panels made up of photovoltaic cells, which generate an electric current when sunlight hits them. The advantages of solar power are well known, and the most important may be the fact that it produces zero pollutants. Any industrial endeavor will produce carbon dioxide in one way or another, and manufacturing solar panels itself requires energy sourced from fossil fuels. But on the whole, the industry has a much lower carbon footprint than coal or natural gas, and this makes it key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Another advantage, and we don’t talk about enough, is that solar power can provide energy access in remote and underserved areas far from the grid. So what are the disadvantages? Solar panel efficiency is affected by cloud cover and other weather, which, of course, reduces the amount of sunlight reaching the panels. That said, innovations in battery storage systems do allow for the storage of solar energy for use during non-sunny periods. Panel lifespan is quite good at twenty-five to thirty years, but improvements in efficiency are paradoxically driving panels to be replaced much earlier than that, so waste is increasing faster than expected. This is a problem because recycling them is expensive and most panels end up in landfills.

Listen to a talk on an ecology podcast (man) The Galapagos Islands, a popular tourist attraction located approximate one-thousand kilometers off mainland Ecuador, have long been home to many interesting species of animals, including giant tortoises. Historically, these reptiles could be found on many different Galapagos Islands, but in some of these locations they’ve gone extinct due in part to human activities. To deal with this situation, conservationists employed a strategy called animal translocation, to move tortoises from one island to another. So, why did conservationists do this? The main reason was to promote ecosystem recovery on affected islands. One place tortoises went extinct was on Santa Fe Island. When these reptiles died out, the island was without its main ecosystem engineer. This affected the island in many ways, including causing plant diversity to decline. To help the ecosystem recover, conservationists have released more than four-hundred tortoises from Espanola Island to Fanta Fe Island. This was done to help restore natural processes like seed dispersal and vegetation control. The goal is to reach about four-thousand individuals to match historical densities. And there are signs that this project is having success. For example, a type of cactus that many animals on the island rely on for food has shown improved reproduction and growth since the tortoises returned. This is not doubt because tortoises eat this cactus’s fruit and spread seeds in their nutrient-rich droppings. This finding is encouraging, but we can’t declare the project of victory yet. More time needs to pass before conservationists can deem it a success.