【推荐1】Making a budget can be quite a satisfying process. After drawing one up？ You'll probably feel proud that you've controlled your finances. However，drawing up your budget isn't the most important task when if comes to managing your money successfully.    1    .

If you're one of the many people in Britain with more than one bank account，using several alongside one another could help you stay in control of your spending.     2    . That can help you avoid overspending in a single area.

    3    ， keep an eye on your accounts each month. Whether you receive your regular bank statements and bills through the post or online， make sure you check them. They can tell you where you might be overdoing it， and should inspire you to cut back immediately if necessary. Besides，you're likely to pick up any problems as they arise.

Making a note of all your spending for a few weeks is another way to check that your money really is going where you'd like it to.    4    ，but if you tend to spend using cash rather than a credit card，you wont be able to track where your money is going simply from looking at your bank statements and bills.

As your personal circumstances change，your budget will need to be changed， too.     5    . While it may seem like a chance to loosen up your purse strings slightly， failing to take account of an income rise in your budget could mean you don't truly make the most of it.

A．If you want your budget to stay balanced

B．It'll take a few months to get used to budgeting

C．It may seem tiresome to write everything down

D．Divide up your income each month into separate accounts

E．Once you've linked all your accounts，you can create a budget

F．Getting a promotion or pay rise should mean you remake your budget

G．The key to effective budgeting is sticking to the spending plan you've made

【推荐3】If you are like most international students, you are probably comfortable reading and writing in English.     1     Below are some tips to help you to improve your conversational skills.

Make friends with American students. Many international students end up making friends with a lot of—or only—other international students.     2     Hanging out with natives not only naturally pushes you to improve your spoken English, but also helps you pick up cultural and social information.

Learn from American friends. Tell your American friends that you are trying to improve your listening and speaking skills, and would like them to help you. If you pronounce a word incorrectly, or misuse an idiom, you ask them to guide you.     3    

Increase your knowledge.     4     If you are familiar with the topics that are likely to be discussed in conversation, you have a much better chance of understanding people when they talk, and of being able to express yourself well.

    5     If you have to explain something to someone, you have a strong motivation to pronounce everything as well as you can, and find other ways to explain yourself. Finally, this becomes a good habit. Many people have asked me how I learned to speak English fluently, and I owe most of it to my years of being a math teacher in college for years.

A．It is bad for them to do that.

B．You will make progress this way.

C．Become a teacher at your school, if possible.

D．It's a win－win opportunity for international students.

E．Keep up with news and watch popular shows and movies.

F．Explaining everything in a different way matters.

G．However, you may have trouble in listening and speaking in the language.

【推荐1】A “smart drug” taken by students to improve their performance really does work, scientists have found. The drug modafinil is currently used to treat sleep disorder, but it is widely used off-label by students to help them revise for exams or focus on long essays.

Until now, there has been a lack of clear evidence over whether it can actually help concentration and alertness. But a new analysis of the research showed it does improve planning and decision making, flexibility, learning and memory, and even creativity. The findings raise serious ethical(道德的) questions about whether modafinil should be “classified, tolerated or condemned”, scientists said. Professor Guy Goodwin, President of the European College said: “It’s the first real example of a ‘smart drug’, which can really help, for example, with exam preparation.” Previous ethical discussions around smart drugs assumed(假定) major effects of the drugs before it was clear that there were any, he added. He continued “If correct, the latest news means the ethical debate(争论) is real: how should we classify, tolerate or condemn a drug that improves human performance?”

A fifth of university students across the country claim to have taken smart drugs, according to surveys by student newspaper The Tab . And the use of modafinil is most widespread at Oxford University, where a quarter of students have reported to have used it. Over the years, universities have discussed how best to respond to the use of smart drugs, and some have suggested Olympic-style doping tests for students sitting exams.

Professor Goodwin said there should be a society-wide debate on how modafinil should be permitted officially and regulated(管理), as well as what universities should do about its use. He said: “Regulation has been and remains uncertain. We cannot know either if demand for modafinil in the same societies will actually be significant, whether society will be more accepting and how regulation will then be made.”

1. Who are likely to turn to the “smart drug” modafinil ?

A．Children who lack strength.

B．Patients who have a heart disease.

C．Old people who have poor sight.

D．Students who have poor memory.

2. Why does the writer refer to the students of Oxford University?

A．To show smart drugs enjoy popularity among college students.

B．To prove Oxford University students suffer from a heavy load.

C．To tell us smarts drugs use have spread to England.

D．To explain why Oxford University students are clever.

3. What does Professor Goodwin think of “smart drug” modafinil?

A．Our society should accept the use of modafinil.

B．Regulation on modafinil remains to be discussed.

C．Modafinil used as a “smart drug” should be stopped.

D．Regulation on modafinil being used as a “smart drug” is necessary.

4. What is the topic of passage?

A．“Smart drugs” have side effects.

B．A “Smart drug” raises ethical questions.

C．Students can’t go without “smart drugs”.

D．A more effective “smart drags” should be developed.

【推荐2】After COVID-19, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that while the number of nurses has increased in the past three years, there is still a shortage of registered nurses, and that there will be over one million unfilled nursing jobs. So what’s the solution? Robots.

Japan is ahead of the curve when it comes to this trend. Toyohashi University of Technology has developed Terapio, a robotic medical cart that can make hospital rounds, and deliver medicines and other items . This type of robot will likely be one of the first to be used in hospital.

Robots capable of social engagement help with loneliness as well as cognitive (认知) functioning. Telepresence robots such as MantaroBot, Vgo, and Giraff can be controlled through a computer, smartphone, or tablet, allowing family members or doctors to remotely monitor patients or Skype (网络电话) them. If you can’t get to the nursing home to visit grandma, you can use a telepresence robot to hang out with her.

A robot’s appearance affects its ability to successfully interact with humans, which is why the Human-Interactive Robot Research decided to develop a robotic nurse that looks like a huge teddy bear. RIBA, also known as “Robear, ” can help patients into and out of wheelchairs and beds with its strong arms.

On the less cute and more scary side there is Actroid F, which has such soft skin and natural hair color that some patients may not know the difference. This conversational robot companion has cameras in its eyes, which allow it to track patients and use appropriate facial expressions and body language in its interactions.

It’s important to note that robotic nurses don’t decide courses of treatment or make diagnoses. Instead, they perform routine and laborious tasks, freeing nurses up to attend to patients with immediate needs. This is one industry where it seems the integration of robots will lead to cooperation, not replacement.

1. What does the underlined part in paragraph 2 mean?

A．Set a record.	B．Take the lead.
C．Miss a turn.	D．Reach the standard.

2. Telepresence robots may serve their right purposes in hospital when ________.

A．they assist doctors with long-distance diagnoses	B．they collect medical records for patients
C．they move the mobility-disabled patients	D．they deliver food to clinical doctors

3. What is the distinctive attraction of Actroid F?

A．Its scary arm strength.	B．Its human-like voice.
C．Its proper interactive response.	D．Its adorable appearance.

4. What is the suitable title for the passage?

A．Robots— the future replacement of nurses	B．Robots— a good supplement to nurses
C．Robots— a new way to treat patients	D．Robots— the earth-shaking reform in hospitals

【推荐3】Robots are often cast in popular science fiction as the bad characters that take over the world and enslave mankind. But with the beginning of some serious diseases, robots are increasingly being employed as helpers, taking on often dull, difficult and dangerous tasks and thus reducing humans' exposure to some terrifying virus.

In the United States, two of the main ways in which robotic technology is being used in the hospitals are to disinfect(消毒）hospital rooms and act as a telemedicine portal, allowing doctors and health care workers to communicate via video conference directly with patients without unnecessarily exposing themselves to those highly infectious virus.

In Boston, doctors, researchers and robotics engineers have teamed up to bring a friendly, dog-like, four-legged robot named Spot into Brigham and Women' s Hospital, allowing doctors to communicate with patients via telemedicine.

In March, at the start of the pandemic, a league from hospital, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Spot's manufacturer-Boston Dynamnics, began testing the robot's design to enable Spot to communicate with patients, thus reducing the exposure of frontline health care workers to the virus. In the place of a head, Spot has an iPad affixed to a stand, allowing doctors to conduct telemedicine services with their patients.

“Most people actually really like it,” says Dr. Peter Chai, an emergency medicine physician who serves as the hospital's chief researcher on the robot project.

Researchers are working to increase the robot's diagnostic abilities, enabling it to measure the patients temperature and his or her respiratory rate (呼吸率）.

Chai predicts that hospitals will continue to find more ways to use robots, and tie wonders whether robots can deliver supplies to rooms or see patients with other infectious diseases

1. What words can best describe the jobs robots are employed to do?

A．Normal and easy.	B．Exciting and dangerous.
C．Dirty and complex.	D．Frightening and difficult.

2. Why are robots being used in American hospitals?

A．To save money.	B．To replace doctors.
C．To protect doctors from infecting virus.	D．To deliver supplies to patients and doctors.

3. What do we know about Spot?

A．It is a friendly dog.

B．It can deliver supplies to hospital rooms.

C．It can help adjust the patient's temperature.

D．It allows doctors to conduct telemedicine services.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．Spot the Robot Dog

B．Train Robot Doctors

C．Robots Being Used in Hospital

D．Robots in Popular Science Fiction

【推荐1】The ruins of a Maya city have been discovered in Guatemala with the help of the remote sensing technique LiDAR. This lost city envelops sites like Tikal, Holmul, and Witzna, but shows that these famous areas are a small part of this lost urban network.

Hidden under the jungles of the Maya Biosphere Reserve site, more than 60,000 human-made features — homes, canals, highways, and more — have been identified in aerial (从飞机上的)images collected by some international researchers headed by the PAGUNAM Foundation, a Maya cultural and natural heritage organization. Those have experts rethinking the outlines and complexity of the Maya Empire.

These ancient peoples obviously created these imaginative cultures based on their known relics (遗迹), but the new research has suggested that the size of this lost society is far beyond what experts imagined. The findings will be explored in a one-hour documentary called “Lost Treasures of the Maya Snake Kings”, to be broadcast on the National Geographic Channel.

This breakthrough was possible thanks to LiDAR sensors, which can survey lands in 3D by bouncing pulses off the ground from unmanned air vehicles and others. LiDAR is exceptionally useful for detecting archeological(考古的)sites, as it gets through jungles and other features that hold up exploration on the ground. The technique has made many discoveries become a reality in recent years. For instance, major finds at Angkor, Cambodia and Caracol, Belize can explain what it did. The final goal is to survey Guatemala’s lowlands with it.

“There are entire cities we didn't know about now showing up in the survey data,” Francisco Estrada-Belli, one of the lead archeologists on the project, said in Nat Geo's coming documentary. “There are 20,000 square kilometres more to be explored and there are going to be hundreds of cities about the mysterious people who built this urban network there that we don’t know about, and we will push back the frontiers with the technology,” he added.

1. What does the underlined word "Those" in paragraph 2 refer to?

A．Jungles.	B．Human-made features.
C．Researchers.	D．Aerial images.

2. What does the author want to convey in paragraph 4?

A．The working principle of LiDAR sensors.

B．The process of researching Maya civilization.

C．Great importance of Guatemalans lowlands.

D．LiDAR’s contribution to discovering the relics.

3. Which words can best describe the lost Maya city?

A．Small and hidden.	B．Famous and high-tech.
C．Vast and complex.	D．Fully-explored and imaginative.

4. What will the archeologists do next?

A．Continue to explore the unknown.	B．Upgrade the LiDAR technology.
C．Study the documentary carefully.	D．Build a massive urban network,

【推荐2】American real estate (房地产) tycoon Donald Trump, whose election as US president surprised many around the world, has been unsurprisingly named Time magazine’s “Peron of the Year” for 2016.

Trump said while responding to the news, “It means a lot, especially me growing up reading Time magazine. And it’s a very important magazine, and I’ve been lucky enough to be on the cover many times this year-and last year. But I consider this a very, very great honor.”

Trump has long been obsessed with having his face on the cover of magazines, something that happened more and more often as he won early polls, then Republican primaries, then the nomination (提名), then the presidency. Trump keeps piles of these magazines in his office and with this mindset, Time’s “Person of the Year” became Trumps long-cherished wish.

Although the magazine featured Trump several times on its cover, it passed on naming him “Person of the Year” for 2015. Instead, it selected German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom the magazine credited with opening her nation’s border to hundreds of thousands of refugees (难民) and managing Europe’s debt crisis. Trump did not take that news well. “I told you @ TIME Magazine would never pick me as ‘Person of the Year’ in spite of being the big favorite. They picked the person who is ruining Germany,” he said on Twitter soon after the news was announced.

Time managing editor Nancy Gibbs said that the decision in 2016 was easy. This title goes to a newsmaker who has influenced events for better or for worse. “When have we ever seen a single individual who has so defied (违背) expectations...beaten not one but two political parties on the way to winning an election... I don’t think that we have ever seen one person, operating in such an unconventional way, have an impact on the events of the year quite like this,” Gibbs said.

1. What do Trump’s words suggest in Paragraph?

A．Luck is on his side.	B．He deserves the award.
C．He feels proud of the award	D．Time has a good effect on him.

2. Which is truth according to the article?

A．Trump is afraid to be famous.

B．Trump is angry about Time magazine.

C．Trump is addicted to having his face on the cover of magazines.

D．Trump is addicted to having his face on the cover of magazines.

3. What can we infer from Paragraph 4?

A．Merkel ruined Germany.

B．Merkel was “Person of the Year” for 2015.

C．Trump thought well of Merkel.

D．Trump won “Person of the Year” twice.

4. Why was Trump elected as Time’s “Person of the Year” for 2016?

A．He’s been on its cover many times.

B．He is the newly elected president.

C．He is the favorite of the magazine.

D．He was highly influential in the year.

【推荐3】A message slick was form of ancient and nonverbal（非语言的）communication that came from Australia, particularly among aboriginal people. It was a wooden stick with designs and symbols on it. These objects were relayed by couriers（信使）among various tribes and thus functioned as a means of cross-cultural communication.

" Aboriginal" is a term that refers to those who are believed to be the first known people living in a particular place, and in this case, it is used to describe several subgroups of native Australians. Each group might have its own unique customs and language. They were often divided into tribes , so these groups needed a means to communicate. Message sticks were first invented for this purpose.

The stick itself was often made of the wood of native Australian trees. Messages were placed on the sticks using a variety of methods, including carving, painting or burning symbols onto the wood. The markings usually consisted of wordless symbols that had to be translated by the courier. The courier was thus usually a physically fit young man who had mental sharpness to properly convey message details.

Message sticks functioned as a neutral（中立的）area between tribes. Couriers were allowed to have safe passage, even if they came from an enemy land. Sometimes, the method of delivery consisted of a single courier carrying a message stick from tribe to tribe. Other methods had one tribe begin a passing process among tribes, with each tribe using its own courier to convey the message to the next tribe.

This object also has survived as part of Australian cultural celebrations. Some schools, for example, design and transport message sticks as a means of learning about the past, In addition, the term" message stick" is often used in Australian language as a reference to other communication forms such as newspapers or radio broadcasts.

1. For what purpose did aboriginal people use a message stick?

A．To learn from each other.

B．To show one tribe's power.

C．To show their designs and symbols.

D．To make communication across different tribes.

2. What is the main idea of the second paragraph?

A．What " aboriginal" means.

B．Why message sticks were created.

C．What the customs of native Australians were.

D．How native Australians were divided into groups.

3. How would an aboriginal tribe treat the courier from an enemy tribe?

A．He would be let go.

B．He would be killed.

C．He would be greatly respected.

D．he would be driven out immediately.

4. Why do some Australian schools design and transport message sticks?

A．'To learn aboriginal language.

B．'To learn about aboriginal history.

C．To refer to newspapers and the radio.

D．To communicate among themselves.

【推荐1】In a recent announcement, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology（MIT）said that they have joined forces to offer free online courses in an effort to attract millions of online learners worldwide.

Beginning this fall, a number of courses developed by teachers at both universities will be offered online through a new $60 million program, known as edX. “Anyone with an Internet connection anywhere in the world can use our online courses,” Harvard President Drew Faust said during a meeting to announce the plan.

MIT has offered a program called OpenCourseWare for ten years that makes materials from more than 2,000 classes free online. It has been used by more than 100 million people. In December, the school announced it also would begin offering a special certificate, known as MITx, for people who complete certain online courses. Harvard has long offered courses to a wider population through a similar program.

The MITx will serve as the foundation for the new learning platform.

MIT President Susan Hockfield said more than 120,000 people signed up for the first MITx course. She said Harvard and MIT hope other universities will join them in offering courses on the open-source edX platform.

“Fasten your seatbelts,” Hockfield said.

Other universities, including Stanford, Yale and Carnegie-Mellon, have been experimenting with teaching to a global population online.

The Harvard-MIT program will be monitored by a not-for-profit（非盈利的）organization based in Cambridge, to be owned equally by the two universities. Both MIT and Harvard have provided $30 million to start the program. They also plan to use the edX platform to research how students learn and which teaching methods and tools are most successful.

1. According to this text, edX is _______.

A．a part of the free MIT OpenCourseWare

B．a free computer program by MIT and Harvard

C．a Harvard-MIT platform of free online courses

D．a free program online for universities worldwide

2. What is said about online education in the text?

A．Universities have been trying online courses.

B．About 2,000 online courses have been offered.

C．Over 100 million people have finished courses online.

D．Stanford and Yale together have courses similar to edX.

3. The underlined part in the text probably means “         ”.

A．Get ready for the difficulties

B．Get ready for this educational change

C．Get prepared to complete the online courses

D．Get prepared to make materials for the edX courses

4. What can be said about MITx according to the text?

A．It is first offered as part of the edX learning program.

B．It is another free MIT-Harvard online learning program.

C．It is a standard to recognize online learners’ achievement.

D．It is a new kind of free online course of Harvard and MIT.

【推荐2】If you want to spark a heated debate at a dinner party, bring up the topic of genetically modified foods. For many people, the concept of genetically altered, high-tech crop production raises all kinds of environmental, healthy, safety and ethical questions. Particularly in countries with long a grain traditions—and vocal green lobbies—the idea seems against nature.

In fact, genetically modified foods are already very much apart of out lives. A third of corn and more than half the soybeans and cotton grown in the U. S. last year were the product of biotechnology, according to the Department of Agriculture. More than 65 million a-cres of genetically modified crops will be planted in the U. S. this year. The genetic genie(鬼怪) is out of the bottle.

Yet there are clearly some very real issues that need to be resolved. Like any new prod-uct entering the food chain, genetically modified foods must be subjected to rigorous testing. In wealthy countries, the debate about biotech is tempered by the fact that we have a rich array of foods to choose from and a supply that far exceeds our needs. In developing countries desperate to feed fast-growing and underfed populations, the issue is simpler and much more urgent: Do the benefits of biotech outweigh the risks？

The statistics on population growth and hunger are disturbing. Last year the world's population reached 6 billion. The U. N. estimates that nearly 800 million people around the world are undernourished. The effects are devastating. About 400 million women of child-bearing age are iron deficient, which means their babies are exposed to various birth defects. As many as 100 million children suffer from vitamin A deficiency, a leading cause of blindness.

How can biotech help？ Biotechnologists have developed genetically modified rice that is fortified with beta-carotene—which the body converts into vitamin A—and additional iron, and they are working on other kinds of nutritionally improved crops. Biotech can also improve farming productivity in places where food shortages are caused by crop damage attributable to pests, drought, poor soil and crop viruses, bacteria or fungi.

1. What's the passage mainly about？

A．The world's food problems.

B．The new advancement in biotech.

C．The characteristics of genetically modified foods.

D．How biotech can help solve the world's food problems.

2. The sentence “The genetic genie is out of the bottle.” in Para. 2 probably means__________.

A．the genetic genie has broken the bottle which controlled it

B．the genetic technology has broken out of laboratories into the marketplace

C．the genetically modified foods are available everywhere

D．the genetic technology has begun to cause a devastating effect on human beings

3. Why are people in developed countries less concerned about genetically modified foods?

A．They don’t have an urgent need for such foods.

B．They have a good temper to talk about things calmly.

C．They are far away from such foods and crops.

D．They are not concerned about other people in the world.

4. According to the passage, genetically modified foods__________.

A．are superior to naturally grown foods

B．may help solve the problem of undernourishments

C．are going to replace naturally grown ones

D．can solve the food problems in developing countries

5. The author’s attitude towards genetically modified foods is ________.

A．negative	B．cautious
C．disapproving	D．positive