2026年真题29

Listen to part of a history lecture. In the year 1453, the Byzantine Empire ended with the conquest of its capital, Constantinople. After this happened, many Greek scholars who'd lived there fled to Italy, and they brought to Italy their knowledge of ancient Greek language, philosophy, etcetera, which hadn't been preserved particularly well there. Now this knowledge came in the form of manuscripts, which naturally were in ancient Greek. They were written way back before the start of the Byzantine Empire. So the Greek scholars taught Greek to the Italian scholars. They met and worked with Italian translators who translate Greek literature into their own language. This provided new access to ancient Greek knowledge. It led Italian scholars to shift from mainly studying theology to also studying the humanities like history and art. This influence lasted throughout the Renaissance. As you know, the Renaissance is an important period in European history which began in Italy and which saw renewed interest in learning, science and the arts. The city of Venice, Italy, had a large Greek community that grew after 1453 with the influx of Greek scholars. Venice then turned into a hub of classical Greek studies and culture. For one thing, it became a leader in the printing industry and helped spread Greek works in book form. It also became the home of Greek churches and a centre for that religious tradition, which still has a presence throughout Italy.

Listen to A Talk on a History Podcast. By the year 600 CE, writers would make pens out of bird feathers, which they dipped in ink. Interestingly, the technology didn't change a whole lot for over 1,000 years. Then, in the 1930s, a Hungarian newspaper editor named Laszlo Biro was getting frustrated. He had to do a lot of handwriting for his job, but the pens he wrote with would leave smudges. The ink would splatter. Yuck! He also noticed how his newspapers were printed. Newsprint ink didn't smudge, and it dried right away. Now, Laszlo Biro was lucky enough to have a brother who had studied chemistry. They worked together to come up with a ballpoint pen design that could use ink, like what was used on newsprint. Eventually, they came up with a pen that housed a little steel ball in a socket and a small ink barrel that could hold ink paste. It might sound simple, but there was a lot of work involved in figuring out the right size and shape for the components, the composition of the ink, etc. Later, Biro tweaked the pen design not to rely on gravity, so you could hold the pen at different angles and it'd still work. Unfortunately, this was expensive. It wasn't until the 1950s that a French entrepreneur, uh, he improved the design of the ballpoint pen and made it super cheap to make. This is the kind of pen still sold today and which you have most likely seen and used.

Listen to a talk in a biology class (man) Can food plus waste products trigger algal blooms? Algal blooms are rapid increases in algae, tiny aquatic plants that can cloud the water. When those algal blooms die off, they decompose and deplete oxygen from the water, which can suffocate fish and other aquatic life. Of course, the main cause of algal blooms is chemical fertilizers in agricultural runoff, like when water from rain or irrigation flows over fields and carries the fertilizers to rivers and coastal waters. But fish farming causes algal blooms too. An intriguing alternative is or was the coastal fish ponds of ancient Hawaii called Lokoiya. People in Hawaii are reviving them today. These ponds, built along the shore using mainly lava, captured nutrient-rich runoff from nearby fields, naturally fertilizing the ponds. This was before the days of concentrated artificial fertilizers. Instead of causing algal blooms, the nutrients supported modest growth of algae which fed local plant-eating fish. The ponds used natural tidal flushing to bring in fresh seawater and remove waste, which kept oxygen levels stable. And here’s the clever part. The special sluice gates connecting the ponds to the ocean had small holes. These holes allowed juvenile fish to swim in from the ocean and fatten up on the food in the pond, but then prevented them from escaping once they matured so they could be easily harvested.

Listen to a talk in a biology class (woman) Some animals have such odd features and habits that they almost seem mythical. One is the Indian pangolin. The Indian pangolin is a mammal about one-hundred centimeters long. It has a tail, and except for its belly, it’s covered in large overlapping scales that make it look kind of like an artichoke or a pine cone. These scales are like its own coat of armor. When it’s threatened, the Indian pangolin curls into a tight ball, protecting its belly and using its scales as a shield against predators. This behavior is known as vulvation. Think of a hedgehog. When threatened, a hedgehog will also curl into a ball, vulvation, with its spikes facing outward for protection. Ingenious! The Indian pangolin is found in forests, grasslands, and even deserts. Wherever Indian pangolins are, there’s two things they like, digging and ants. Pangolins are nocturnal, meaning they come out at night and when they do they’re looking for ants. They eat about two-hundred-thousand of them, ants and termites, every day. This helps keep their ecosystem balanced. They also dig burrows, which are like holes or tunnels to sleep or mate in or to find ants. When Indian pangolins dig, they’re disturbing the soil, which improves the soil by making it easier for air, water, and nutrients to circulate in the soil. Similar to why farmers plow their fields, pangolin digging helps contribute to the growth of new, healthy vegetation. Plus, the burrows, once they’re abandoned, are good shelter and habitat for other animals.