【推荐1】How to Pass an Important Test

Whether it’s a first grade science test or college entrance exam, all tests have one thing in common: you have to pass.    1    Stuck in a situation where you don’t know how to? This article can help.

Tips
★1. Once you get the study guide, make plans right away to study as soon as possible. No excuses! Killing time with friends isn’t worth it，since you can always hang out with them any other day.
★2. Get plenty of rest.    2    If you walk into the classroom sleepily, you’ll most likely not finish the test because of how tired you are.
★3. Eat a good meal for breakfast.    3    A few healthy good breakfast suggestions are oatmeal (燕麦片) , whole grain and high fiber food, grapefruit with fresh fruit salad.
★4. Bring all necessary materials.    4    Bring pencils, pens, pencil sharpeners. snacks (if allowed) ，erasers, calculator (if allowed) and anything else you’ll need for the test.
★5.    5    Showing up late cuts back the time you’ll have to take the test if it’s already testing hours. You’ll probably miss any important information needed in completing the test. In some tests，late comers are not allowed to take thetest，and get a instead of a satisfactory score.

A．The exam tests vocabulary, reading and math skills.

B．That one piece of cheese probably won’t last until test time.

C．Don’t forget to set your alarm clock and show up on test day on time.

D．Studies show that if you get enough sleep, your brain will be much more efficient.

E．Showing up without something as simple as a pencil can make a big effect on your test.

F．Failing the test won’t help you in the long run, so it’s important to know how to prepare to pass that big test.

G．This test is a challenging one and every year many students are unable to qualify it just because of lack of guidance.

【推荐3】根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

How to Remember WellWe can remember some things easily yet cannot seem to remember other things.    1    But here are some tips that can help.    2    Making sense of the information will allow you to relate the information you must remember to what you already know. Try to form a connection between the information you must remember and a person, place, object, or situation.Frequently recite the information you must remember or write it several times. If you must remember a large body of information, try to break the information into smaller, more manageable parts.    3    It is easier to remember information that is organized than to remember information that seems to be all over the place.    4    Relating the information to something about you will make it easier to remember.Try to apply what you must remember. For example, if you are trying to remember the meanings of some new vocabulary words, use the words in your speaking and writing.Test yourself. A good way to do this is to write a question about the information you must remember on the front side of a card and the answer to the question on the back.    5    Look at the questions, try to answer them, and then check to see how you did.

A．Use as many cards as you need.

B．There is no “magic pill” for remembering.

C．Try to make remembering a fun activity.

D．Try to understand the information you must remember.

E．Then work on remembering the information in each part separately.

F．Try to bring a personal touch to the information you must remember.

G．Form a picture in your mind of the information that you must remember.

【推荐2】There’s a song by the great Jamaican singer Bob Marley called So Much Trouble In the World. Marley understood that part of the reason why there are so many problems in the world is the lack of tolerance between people. The UN understands this too— that’s why it made Nov16th “International Day for Tolerance”.

But first of all, what is tolerance? According to French philosopher Voltaire, tolerance is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty (脆弱)and error; let us pardon each other’s fool— that is the first law of nature.”

Very often, people don’t realize that they’re intolerant. This is because intolerance has a lot to do with ignorance. For example, the UN’s campaign is in part about the treatment of females by males. But often, the behavior of men toward women is intolerant because men don’t put themselves in the shoes of women.

It’s worth thinking a little about the words “tolerance” and “intolerance”. Are they the best words to describe the evils of which we’re speaking here? To agree to be “tolerant” of someone isn’t necessarily a very respectful thing. When someone is tolerated, it implies that there’s something wrong with them.

Still, what Voltaire said stands: We humans are not perfect and this weakness is something that we all share. That’s the reason we should be tolerant. It’s a little like generosity. We can give things to another person, and we can also give our forgiveness.

1. What’s the purpose of the UN “International Day For Tolerance”?

A．To arouse people’s awareness of tolerance among people.

B．To celebrate the founding of the UN.

C．To solve the problem of global warming.

D．To change people’s opinion towards globalization.

2. Why do men behave intolerantly towards women?

A．Because men don’t realize the purpose of the UN.

B．Because men are physically stronger than women.

C．Because men don’t appreciate the shoes of women.

D．Because men willing to understand women.

3. Why is it meaningless to use the words “tolerance” and “intolerance”?

A．Because they are hard to pronounce in English.

B．Because they don’t express the exact meaning people refer to.

C．Because they can’t be translated into other languages.

D．Because they can’t be used in a respectful way.

4. In what sense is “tolerance” similar to “generosity”?

A．Humans are advised to treat others better.

B．Humans leant to find faults in others.

C．Humans need to give something to others.

D．Humans will change their attitudes to others.

【推荐3】As computers become more popular in China, Chinese people are increasingly relying on computer keyboards to input Chinese characters. But if they use the computer too much, they may end up forgetting the exact strokes of each Chinese character when writing on paper. Experts suggest people, especially students, write by hand more.

Do you write by hand more or type more? In Beijing, students start using a computer as early as primary school. And computer dependence is more wide-spread among university students. Almost all their assignments and essays are typed on a computer.

All the students interviewed say they usually use a computer. It's faster and easier to correct if using a computer. And that's why computers are being applied more and more often to modern education.

"When I'm writing with a pen, I find I often can't remember how to write a character, though I feel I'm familiar with it."

"I'm not in the mood to write when faced with a pen and paper. " Many students don't feel this is something to worry about. Now that it's more convenient and efficient to write on a computer, why bother to handwrite?

Many educators think differently. Shi Liwei, the headmaster of a famous primary school in the capital, said, “Chinese characters enjoy both practical and aesthetic value. But those characters typed with computer keyboards only maintain their practical value. All the artistic beauty of the characters is lost. And handwriting contains the writer's emotion. Through one's handwriting, people can get to know one's thinking and personality. Beautiful writing will give people a better first impression of them.”

To encourage students to handwrite more, many primary schools in Beijing have made writing classes compulsory and in universities, some professors are asking students to turn in their homework and essays written by hand.

1. Which of the following can best serve as be title of the passage?

A．To Type or to Handwrite.

B．The Importance of Handwriting and Typing

C．Writing by Computer Will Replace Writing by Hand.

D．Practical and Aesthetic Value of Chinese Characters.

2. The students interviewed prefer to write using a computer mainly because________.

A．they are usually asked to e-mail their homework and essays

B．they find it not easy to remember how to write a character

C．they can correct the mistakes they make quickly and conveniently

D．computers have become a trend and fashion in China

3. Which of the following statements is NOT true about advantages of handwriting?

A．Handwriting contains the writer's emotion.

B．Handwriting can impress people well and build their self-confidence.

C．The writer's thinking sand personality are shown in his or her handwriting.

D．Handwriting helps to maintain the aesthetic value of Chinese characters.

4. From the passage we can infer that________.

A．more and more students will give up writing on a computer

B．writing by hand will give way to typing by computer one day

C．the typing article better expresses one's feelings and quality

D．more and more students will pay attention to handwriting

【推荐1】Put five, eight, twelve or more people together in a room, and it’s a game of luck as to how well they’ll function as a team. The larger the group, the more difficult it becomes. It’s a lot like dining out with a bunch of friends. Where to go? Italian? Vegetarian? Steakhouse? Each person has their own appetite, which can make creating a “shared-interest” extremely challenging.

Shared-interest is the lifeblood of teams, and only the most successful companies know how to foster it. But how?

“Project Aristotle”, an experiment led by Abeer Dubey, a manager in Google’s People Analytics division was conducted in 2012 to discover how to build the “perfect team.” After years of analyzing data and interviews from more than 180 teams across the company, Google found that the individual personalities in a team are not so relevant.

“We had lots of data, but there was nothing showing that a mix of specific personality types or skills or backgrounds made any difference. The ‘who’ part of the equation didn’t seem to matter,” Dubey said in an interview with The New York Times. Instead, the researchers found that there were five key characteristics of enhanced teams:

Psychological safety: Everyone feels safe in taking risks, and that they won’t be embarrassed or punished for doing so.

Dependability: Everyone completes quality work on time.

Structure and clarity: Everyone knows what their specific expectations are. These expectations must be challenging yet attainable.

Meaning: Everyone has a sense of purpose in their work, for example, supporting family.

Impact: Everyone sees that the result of their work actually contributes to the organization’s overall goals.

While Google’s findings may be true to some extent, a large number of scientific studies have caused researchers outside of Google’s lab to shockingly disagree. Thomas Chamorro-Premuzic, a professor of business psychology at Columbia University and author of the book “Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?” and psychologist Dave Winsborough are among them. They both claim that personality, in particular, heavily affects the role of an individual within a team and is indeed a significant factor in what makes a team successful.

Researchers found that the poorest-performing teams were 100 percent “pragmatic” (讲求实效的 ) and had 0 percent ‘relationship-building’ traits. “Too often, organizations focus merely on the functional role and hope that good team performance somehow follows,” Chamorro-Premuzic and Winsborough co-wrote in a Harvard Business Review article. “This is why even the most expensive professional sports teams often fail to perform according to the individual talents of each player: There is no psychological synergy (协作). A more effective approach focuses as much on people’s personalities as on their skills.”

1. Why does the author mention the example of “dining out”?

A．To emphasize the challenges of creating a common interest.

B．To cater for the different tastes of people from all walks of life.

C．To stress the importance of different individuals in teams.

D．To get more different people involved in building a team.

2. What might be the least deciding factor of a perfect team according to Google’s lab?

A．Dependability.	B．A sense of purpose.
C．Psychological safety.	D．Individual personalities.

3. According to the last paragraph, why do the most expensive professional sports teams fail to perform?

A．Because they care more about the result.	B．Because they are not talented enough.
C．Because they lack relationship building.	D．Because they are vague about their roles.

4. How is the passage mainly developed?

A．By making basic assumptions.	B．By giving a lot of detailed examples.
C．By analyzing causes and effects.	D．By presenting contradictory findings.

【推荐2】In Mexico, girls mark their fifteenth birthday with a celebration called Quinceanera. In the morning, the birthday girl goes to the church with her family and her best friends. She wears a beautiful dress. Later in the day, there is a huge party, with a big cake that matches the girl’s dress, and a night filled with music and dancing.
Becoming an adult is a very important life change, and Japan has a special holiday to celebrate this. The second Sunday in January is Coming-of-Age Day. On that day, everyone who had their twentieth birthday in the last year goes to their Town Hall for a special activity. Everyone dresses up, and many women wear beautiful dresses. The mayor makes a speech and gives presents to all the new adults.
Some kids are afraid to start school, but six-year-olds in Germany can’t wait. For them, Schulanfang is a big holiday. To celebrate a child’s first day of school, parents or friends give the child a Zuckertuete, a big color box filled with candy and little presents. People take pictures of the kids holding their Zuckertuete, and there is a school party later for the parents with cake and coffee.
1. What happens at Quinceanera?

A．The birthday girl buys many gifts.

B．The birthday girl goes to the church.

C．Parents give a Zuckertuete to the child.

D．Parents make speeches in the church.

2. When is Coming-of-Age Day celebrated?

A．On one’s first day of school.

B．On one’s twentieth birthday.

C．On a girl’s fifteenth birthday.

D．On the second Sunday in January.

3. Schulanfang is celebrated when German children ______.

A．start school	B．reach the age of 15
C．grow into adults	D．are born

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A．Celebrating birthdays.

B．Celebrating school holidays.

C．Celebrating life changes.

D．Celebrating national holidays.

【推荐3】Miss Maynell and I grew to know each other through the mail. When Word   ll ended. I returned from Europe. We planned our first meeting at the Grand Central station in New York.

At seven, I was in the station and waited for the girl whose heart I loved but whose face I’d never seen.

Suddenly a girl in a green suit was coming toward me. I stood up from the bench and started toward her, completely forgetting to notice that she was not wearing a rose.

“Going my way, sailor?” the girl murmured, waking away quickly. I made one step closer to her and then I saw Miss Maynell，who was well past 40，standing, almost directly behind her with a red rose. I felt something even better than love, I didn’t hesitate and walked to her. “I’m John Blanchard, and you must be Miss Maynell,” I said, feeling shocked by the bitterness of disappointment. “I'm glad you could meet me. May I take you to dinner?”

"The woman smiled. “I don’t know what this is about, son,” she answered. But the young lady in the green suit begged me to wear this rose. And she said if you were invited me to dinner，I should tell you that she is waiting for you in a big restaurant across the street .She said it was some kind of test!”

1. What did John Blanchard go to the station for?

A．To see the middle-aged woman.

B．To wait for a girl from Europe.

C．To invite the woman with a rose to dinner.

D．To meet his lover as planned.

2. How could John Blanchard recognize the girl？

A．By her green suit.	B．By her red rose
C．By her beautiful face	D．By her pictures

【推荐1】Microplastics, as the name implies, are tiny plastics that result from both commercial product development and the breakdown of larger plastics. Officially, they are defined as plastics less than five millimeters in diameter(直径). .

The problem with microplastics is that — like plastic items of any size — they do not readily break down into harmless molecules (分子). Plastics can take hundreds or thousands of years to decompose, and in the meantime, cause damage to the environment. On beaches, microplastics are visible as tiny colored plastic bits in sand. In the oceans, microplastics pollution is often consumed by sea animals.

Some of this environmental pollution is from littering, but much is the result of storms and winds that carry plastics into our oceans. Single-use plastics, plastic items meant to be used just once and then thrown away, are the primary source of microplastics in the environment.

Microplastics have been detected in sea animals, in commercial seafood, and even in drinking water. Alarmingly, standard water treatment facilities cannot remove all the traces( 痕迹) of microplastics. To further complicate matters, microplastics in the ocean can combine with other harmful chemicals before being swallowed by animals.

Scientists are still unsure whether consumed microplastics do damage to human or animal health - and if so, what specific dangers they may cause. Even so, many countries are taking action to reduce microplastics. A United Nations resolution has discussed the need for rules to reduce microplastics to oceans, wildlife, and human health.

1. What does the underlined word “decompose” mean in Paragraph 2?

A．Break down.	B．Fade away. .
C．Dry up.	D．Give out.

2. What can we know about microplastics from Paragraph 4?

A．Water treatment facilities fail to remove their traces.

B．People might consume them through drinking water.

C．They can combine with other chemicals inside animals.

D．They have been a blow to commercial seafood industry.

3. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．Many governments turn a blind eye to microplastics.

B．It has been confirmed that consumed microplastics are harmful.

C．Measures will be taken to reduce microplastics in the environment.

D．Scientists have known what specific dangers microplastics may cause.

4. The author writes this passage to____________

A．inform the public of an environmental issue

B．arouse the awareness of protecting seawater

C．persuade scientists to look into microplastics

D．introduce the microplastics treatment methods

【推荐3】Against the supposition that forest fires in Alaska, Canada and Siberia warm the climate, scientists have discovered that cooling may occur in areas where burnt trees allow more snow to mirror sunlight into space.

This finding suggests that taking steps to prevent northern forest fires to limit the release of greenhouse gases may warm the climate in northern regions. Usually large fires destroyed forests in these areas over the past decade. Scientists predict that with climate warming, fires may occur more frequently over the next several centuries as a result of a longer fire season. Sunlight taken in by the Earth tends to cause warming, while heat mirrored back into space tends to cause cooling.

This is the first study to analyze all aspects of how northern fires influence climate. Earlier studies by other scientists had suggested that fires in northern regions sped up climate warming because greenhouse gases from burning trees and plants were released into the atmosphere and thus trapped heat.

Scientists found that right after the fire, large amounts of greenhouse gases entered the atmosphere and caused warming. Ozone (臭氧) levels increased, and ashes from the fire fell on far­off sea ice, darkening the surface and causing more radiation from the sun to be taken in. The following spring, however, the landscape within the area of the fire was brighter than before the fire, because fewer trees covered the ground. Snow on the ground mirrored more sunlight back into space, leading to cooling.

“We need to find out all possible ways to reduce the growth of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,” scientists said. They tracked the change in the amount of radiation entering and leaving the climate system as a result of the fire, and found a measurement closely related to the global air temperature. Typically, fire in northern regions occurs in the same area every 80 to 150 years. Scientists, however, found that when fire occurs more frequently, more radiation is lost from the Earth and cooling results. Specifically, they determined when fire returns 20 years earlier than predicted, 0.5 watts per square meter of area burned are soaked up by the Earth from greenhouse gases, but 0.9 watts per square meter will be sent back into space. The net effect is cooling. Watts are used to measure the rate at which energy is gained or lost from the Earth.

1. According to the new findings, efforts to prevent northern forest fires may _______.

A．lead to a longer fire season	B．be followed by more forest fires
C．help safeguard the forests there	D．give rise to a warming climate

2. The following are the immediate effects after a forest fire EXCEPT that ________.

A．large amounts of greenhouse gases enter the atmosphere

B．the levels of ozone increase

C．snow on the ground mirrors more sunlight back into space

D．ashes from the fire fall on the ice and darken the surface

3. Earlier studies about northern forest fires _______.

A．had appealed to the public for more action to protect the environment

B．had suggested that the fires would speed up climate warming

C．had explained all aspects of how northern fires would influence the climate

D．had indicated that forest fires would cause pollution in the atmosphere

4. It can be concluded that forest fires in Alaska, Canada and Siberia may ________.

A．warm the climate as the assumption(假设) goes

B．make more space for the growth of young trees

C．help to gain more energy rather than release more energy

D．cool the climate by reflecting(反射) more sunlight back into atmosphere