1 . Have you ever been annoyed at younger siblings (兄弟姐妹) for stealing your toys?
Siblings help you have a healthier lifestyle. A survey of more than 15,000 people found that 43 percent of people credited their family members for having the biggest positive impact on their physical condition.
They can help you live longer, In a study from the American Sociological Association, older adults, who described themselves as being “extremely close” to the family members, had a six percent chance of dying over the next five years, compared to a 14 percent risk for the people who didn’t.
Having good friends can bring many of the same benefits. We don’t all have brothers and sisters, or you might not have much contact with them. Don’t panic.
| A．Brothers and sisters protect you from depression. |
| B．Have you ever cooperated with your brothers or sisters? |
| C．Or did you fight like cat and dog when you were younger? |
| D．Siblings can make you twice as likely to do good deeds. |
| E．Develop stable and close relationships with people around you. |
| F．Siblings are easily available fitness and healthy-eating partners. |
| G．They made you better at dealing with the tricky situations in daily life. |
2 . Twelve grams of moon arrived at Ferl’s laboratory in an undecorated delivery box. Ferl, a gardening expert at the University of Florida, had waited more than a decade for that moment. The small box of dirt held some of the last remaining unopened samples of moon dust, called regolith, collected by astronauts on the lunar missions. Despite months of practice, he lifted the sample with trembling hands. “It’s freaky, scary stuff,” he says, “mean, what happens if you drop that?” Ferland his team were about to become the first researchers to grow plants in actual lunar soil.
The experiment was part of a lunar research which aims to send humans back to the moon later this decade in a more sustainable way. Longer duration stays require astronauts to have a source of food. “All of human exploration has been driven by the ability to keep crews fed,” says Gil, a researcher not involved in the study. And Ferl’s experiment offers a significant first step in this journey.
To test the moon soil, Ferl’s team divided the samples into 12 pots of 900 milligrams a piece and planted seeds in them. The seeds developed successfully, but the plants had trouble growing healthy roots. The moon soil lacks important microbes, which play a significant role in regulating plant growth hormones (激素), reducing environmental stress, and absorbing essential nutrients. Without natural microbes, the plants struggled to absorb nutrients and manage stress. Additionally, the lack of water can cause the soil to become difficult to work with.
The seedlings failed to grow strongly in regolith alone, but Ferl hopes to continue studying how life might take hold in otherwise low-yield soil, with an eye toward both boosting humanity’s prospects off the planet and improving agriculture in low-yield soils here at home. “Most of us are not going to go to space,” he says, “But if we can engineer a way to produce these kinds of crops in such an unforgiving environment — like the lunar surface — we can apply that to meet our food challenges in areas that just can’t grow food anymore.”
1. How did Ferl feel when receiving the box?| A．moved and surprised. | B．scared but curious. |
| C．worried but relieved. | D．cautious and nervous. |
| A．To feed the crew of his research team. |
| B．To ensure food supply for space exploration. |
| C．To provide sustainable energy for lunar missions. |
| D．To send the astronauts back to the moon in a shorter time. |
| A．Adding microbes and watering it properly. |
| B．Dividing regolith equally and managing stress. |
| C．Growing healthy roots and making regolith dry. |
| D．Choosing suitable seeds and regulating hormones. |
| A．The original goal of the study. | B．The limitation of space farming |
| C．The application of the experiment result. | D．The factors causing the experiment failure. |
赞成的理由 | 反对的理由 | 你的看法 |
| 1. 广交朋友； 2. 可自由表达思想； 3. 利用外语学习。 | 1. 浪费时间； 2. 影响学习； 3. 可能上当受骗。 | …… |
1. 标题不计入总词数
2. 适当增加相关细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 词数120左右。
参考词汇： 网络朋友friends on line 上当受骗 to be cheated
Whether middle school students should make friends on line
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1. Which function of mass media will become more important in the future?
| A．Communication. | B．Education. | C．Entertainment. |
| A．3. | B．4. | C．5. |
5 . A driverless train took its first trip around Hamburg, Germany in 2021 and may greatly improve transportation in the city. Acknowledged as the world’s first, the train created by Siemens Mobility and Deutsche Bahn (DB) officially went into service in December.
This is part of a large modernization project for the city’s S-Bahn urban rail. There were no changes to the tracks, as the autonomous (自动的) trains run on the same network as the current trains that have drivers operating them.
“The railroad has arrived in the digital future and Digital Rail Germany may become a reality. With automated rail operations, we can offer our passengers a significantly expanded and improved service,” said Dr. Richard Lutz, CEO of DB. “The new trains can transport up to 30 percent more passengers and operate on time, and they will be more energy-efficient. They are also encouraged for environmental protection reasons.”
The trains receive signals via radios. There will be drivers present when there are passengers on board but they will only supervise (监督) the run and the passengers. There are now plans to digitize Hamburg’s S-Bahn system entirely by the end of the decade and the government has already decided to put money into new trains and infrastructure improvements.
Autonomous transportation technology is being used in taxis by Waymo, which started as the Google self-driving project in 2009. Other companies that are working on driverless cars include Tesla,GM, Nissan, and Zoox. These cars have to find their ways on roads with the help of GPS technology but driving on a track is much simpler and safer. “The new technology has already been officially approved and, since it features open interfaces (接口), it can immediately be used by operators worldwide for all types of trains,” said Dr. Roland Busch, CEO of Siemens. Maybe it’s time for the new autonomous revolution.
1. What’s special about the new trains created by Siemens Mobility and DB?| A．They share tracks with traditional ones. |
| B．They use new driverless track systems. |
| C．They make long-distance trips much safer. |
| D．They still require human drivers’ operation. |
| A．The new trains greatly change the German lifestyle. |
| B．The digital railroad is spoken highly of by passengers. |
| C．The new trains benefit both people and the environment. |
| D．The digital railroad has promoted the development of tourism. |
| A．Worried. | B．Favorable. | C．Doubtful. | D．Disapproving. |
| A．Operators have responsibility for ensuring fully autonomous driving. |
| B．Germany’s design of trains needs to be further improved. |
| C．American companies see an increasing demand for self-driving taxis. |
| D．The digital technology has a big potential market. |
6 . We’ve got a list of teen scientists from a variety of fields.
Jack Andraka
Jack Andraka created a biosensor for cancer that he says is 168 times faster, 26,667 times less expensive and 400 times more sensitive than technology nowadays.
He’s the youngest person to have spoken in front of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Taylor Wilson
Taylor Wilson was the youngest person to achieve nuclear fusion (核聚变). He was inspired by The Radioactive Boy Scout, a novel in which a kid tries and fails to build a nuclear reactor.
Taylor thought he could do better. Long story short, he wanted to build a small nuclear reactor. And he did it at the age of fourteen. He received a Thiel Fellowship, which gave him $100,000 to work on his own research.
Sara Volz
Sara Volz performed experiments in which she grew algae based on their oil output for the purpose of growing them as biofuel (生物燃料). This research is especially important as the world continues to search for a way to lessen our dependence on non-renewable energy. She won the top prize of $100,000 in the Intel Science Talent Search.
Daniel Burd
Plastic usually takes thousands of years to decompose (降解), but this high school student Daniel Burd managed to do it in three months.
In an experiment, he mixed plastic bags and a special kind of dirt together, and found that they did decompose faster. He then performed tests to find the bacteria responsible for decomposing the plastics.
His solution only produces water and small amounts of carbon dioxide. He says it could easily be used elsewhere.
1. Who designed a medical instrument?| A．Sara Volz. | B．Daniel Burd. |
| C．Jack Andraka. | D．Taylor Wilson. |
| A．A novel by a kid. | B．Plastic pollution. |
| C．Energy shortage. | D．A scientific novel. |
| A．It won him a $100,000 prize. | B．It is environmentally friendly. |
| C．It was completed in four months. | D．It is widely used for everyday waste. |
7 . In the old days, when you had to drive to a movie theater or to a video store to get some entertainment, it was easy to see how your actions could have an impact on the environment. You were hopping into your car, driving across town, and using gas all the way.
But now that we’re used to staying at home and streaming movies, we might feel better about ourselves. After all, we’re just picking up our phones or maybe turning on the TV. You’re welcome, Mother Nature.
“Not so fast,” says a recent report from the French-based Shift Project. Watching a half-hour show would lead to 3.5 pounds of CO₂ emissions. That’s like driving 3.9 miles. According to “Climate Crisis: The Unsustainable Use of Online Video,” digital technologies are responsible for 4% of greenhouse gas emissions, and that energy use is increasing by 9% a year. Stored in data centers, videos are transferred to our terminals such as computers, smart phones, etc. via networks: all these processes require electricity whose production consumes resources and usually involves CO₂ emissions.
In the European Union, the Eureca project lead scientist, Rabih Bashroush, calculated that 5 billion downloads and streams of the song “Despacito” consumed as much electricity as the countries of Chad, Guinea-Bissau, Somalia, Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic used in a single year.
Streaming is only expected to increase as we become more attached to our devices. Online video use is expected to account for 80% of all internet traffic in five years according to CISCO. By then, about 60% of the world’s population will be online.
You’re probubly not going to give up your streaming services, but there are things you can do to help lessen the impact of your online use.
Here are some tips:
Disable autoplay for video on social media.
Stream over Wi-Fi, not mobile networks.
Watch on the smallest screen you can.
Don’t use high-definition (高清) video on devices.
1. It can be inferred from Paragraph 2 that people think ______.| A．they should welcome Mother Nature |
| B．streaming at home avoids possible emissions |
| C．it is inconvenient to drive to a movie theater |
| D．watching movies at home is more fun |
| A．60% of the world’s population watch videos online |
| B．digital technologies account for 4% of electricity use |
| C．online video use makes up 80% of all internet traffic |
| D．30 minutes of streaming video may produce 3.5 pounds of CO₂ |
| A．To praise their energy-efficient practice. |
| B．To prove the poverty of the five countries |
| C．To stress the popularity of the song “Despacito” |
| D．To show the high energy use of downloads and streams |
| A．Use high-definition videos. | B．Turn off video autoplay |
| C．Stream over mobile networks. | D．Watch movies on bigger screens. |
8 . Adults with a poor education are also likely to have poor health, a growing body of evidence suggests. Study after study has confirmed the link, and now experts are zeroing in on the reasons for it and what can be done. “People with higher education tend to have better jobs, better income, and better benefits,” said David R. Williams, a professor of public health in America.
Those benefits, he said, go beyond health benefits to include such other factors as the flexibility to take a day off or part of a day to see a doctor. “People with higher levels of education tend to have more resources to cope with stress and life,” Williams said. “They have stress, of course, but also more resources to cope with it—such as access to a health club to exercise away the stress—than people with less education,” he said.
“Being better educated also means that a person is more likely to understand the world of modern medicine,” said Erik Angner, an assistant professor of philosophy and economics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who has researched the link between education and happiness. “Modern medicine is incredibly complex. And if you lack the basic reading skills required to function adequately in the health-care environment, you might find it hard to effectively understand your medical care.”
A report issued by Williams’ commission found that, compared with college graduates, adults who did not graduate from high school were 2.5 times as likely to be in less than very good health. The report suggested that factors outside the medical system play an important role in determining people’s health. Access to medical care is crucial, but it isn’t enough to improve health. What’s needed, they suggested, is increased focus on schools and education—encouraging people to obtain more education.
1. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?| A．Poor Education May Lead to Poor Health |
| B．Higher Education Can Bring More Income |
| C．Happiness Comes from Good Education |
| D．Medical Care Safeguards Good Health |
| A．get rid of | B．remove from | C．cope with | D．pay attention to |
| A．Better education means understanding the world better. |
| B．The modern medicine world is too difficult to understand. |
| C．People with a good education may be happier. |
| D．Reading skills help in understanding medical care. |
| A．Adults are less likely to have good health. |
| B．The medical system determines people’s health. |
| C．More education is needed to improve people’s health. |
| D．More access to medical care is important. |
Who invented the ATM? There have been
Back in the mid-1960s, James Goodfellow was working
So far, the cash machine
10 . An American company has developed a new technique (技术) to make bread stay fresh for 60 days.
Scientists found that a kind of mould (霉菌) caused bread to go bad. The new technique kills the mould and keeps the food for longer time. This means there will be less waste of food in the world in future.
Food waste is a big problem in most developed countries. In the US, an average (普通的) family throws away 40% of the food they buy, which adds up to $165bn every year, about 330 million tons in weight. Bread takes a larger part. In the UK, 32% of the bread they buy is thrown away as waste when they can still be eaten.
The bread usually goes mouldy (发的) in around 10 days, but the American company says the new technique will keep the bread free from mould for two months.
”We treated a piece of bread in a special machine. At 60 days it had the same amount of mould as it was first made,“ says Mr. Stull, the leader of the company.
Although there are a lot of bread makers interested in the new technique, few customers like the idea. They say they don’t think a piece of bread which lasts for 60 days tastes good.
”We’ll have to make our customers accept the idea. But it will take some time,“ says Mr. Stull.
1. What is the key point of the new technique?| A．It can prevent the world from wasting food. |
| B．It kills the mould and keeps bread fresh for longer time. |
| C．It keeps the same amount of mould. |
| D．It makes bread taste good. |
| A．Nearly half. | B．A quarter. | C．More than half. | D．About one-third. |
| A．Food waste can be reduced immediately (立刻) with the new technique. |
| B．We will buy bread that can last longer. |
| C．Few customers are sure about the technique. |
| D．Poor countries are in great need of food. |
| A．A new technique has been invented to keep bread fresh longer. |
| B．There is great waste of food in developed countries. |
| C．There is a kind of mould that causes food to go bad. |
| D．Customers don’t like food that lasts for two months. |
