【推荐1】“Creativity is the key to a brighter future,” say education and business experts. Here is how schools and parents can encourage this important skill in children.

If Dick Drew had listened to his boss in 1925, we might not have the product that we now think greatly important: a new type of tape. Drew worked for the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company. At work he developed a kind of material strong enough to hold things together. But his boss told him not to think more about the idea. Finally, using his own time, Drew improved the tape, which now is used everywhere by many people. And his former company learned from its mistake. Now it encourages people to spend 15 percent of their working time just thinking about and developing new ideas.

Creativity is not something one is just born with, nor is it necessarily a character of high intelligence. The fact that a person is highly intelligent does not mean that he uses it creatively. Creativity is the matter of using the resources one has to produce new ideas that are good for something.

Unfortunately, schools have not tried to encourage creativity. With strong attention to test results and the development of reading, writing and mathematical skills, many educators give up creativity for correct answers. The result is that children can gain information but can’t recognize ways to use it in new situations. They may know the rules correctly but they are unable to use them to work out practical problems.

It is important to give children choices. From the earliest age, children should be allowed to make decisions and understand their results. Even if it’s choosing between two food items for lunch, decision-making helps thinking skills. As children grow older, parents should try to let them decide how to use their time or spend their money. This is because the most important character of creative people is a very strong desire to find a way out of trouble.

1. What did the company where Drew once worked learn from its mistake?

A．It should encourage people to work a longer time.

B．People should be discouraged to think freely.

C．People will do better if they pay all attention to their work.

D．It is necessary for people to spend some of their working time developing new ideas.

2. What can we know from the passage about creativity?

A．It is something that most people are born with.

B．It is something that has nothing to do with intelligence at all.

C．It is a way of using what one has learned to work out new problems.

D．It is something that is not important to the life in the future at all.

3. Why don’t schools try to encourage creativity?

A．They don’t attach importance to creativity education.

B．They don’t want their students to make mistakes.

C．They pay no attention to examination marks.

D．They think it impossible to develop creativity in class.

4. What should the parents do when their children decide how to spend their money?

A．Allow them to have a try.

B．Try to help them as much as possible.

C．Take no notice of whatever they do.

D．Order them to spend the least money.

【推荐2】In recent years, a growing body of research has shown that our appetite and food intake are influenced by a large number of factors besides our biological need for energy, including our eating environment and our perception (感知) of the food in front of us.

Studies have shown, for instance, that eating in front of the TV or a similar distraction(分心) can increase both hunger and the amount of food consumed. Even simple visual cues, like plate size and lighting, have been shown to affect portion size and consumption.

A new study suggested that our short-term memory also may play a role in appetite. Several hours after a meal, people’s hunger levels were predicted not by how much they’d eaten but rather by how much food they’d seen in front of them—in other words, how much they remembered eating.

This difference suggests the memory of our previous meal may have a bigger influence on our appetite than the actual size of the meal, says Jeffrey M. Brunstrom, a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Bristol.

“Hunger isn’t controlled solely by the physical characteristics of a recent meal. We have identified an independent role for memory for that meal,” Brunstrom says. “This shows that the relationship between hunger and food intake is more complex than we thought.”

These findings echo earlier research that suggests our perception of food can sometimes trick our body’s response to the food itself. In a 2011 study, for instance, people who drank the same 380-calorie milkshake on two separate occasions produced different levels of hunger-related hormones (荷尔蒙), depending on whether the shake’s label said it contained 620 or 140 calories. Moreover, the participants reported feeling more full when they thought they’d consumed a higher-calorie shake.

What does this mean for our eating habits? Although it hardly seems practical to trick ourselves into eating less, the new findings do highlight the benefits of focusing on our food and avoiding TV and multitasking while eating.

The so-called mindful-eating strategies can fight distractions and help us control our appetite, Brunstrom says.

1. What is said to be a factor affecting our appetite and food intake?

A．How we feel the food we eat.	B．What elements the food contains.
C．When we eat our meals.	D．How fast we eat our meals.

2. What do we learn from the 2011 study?

A．Food labels may mislead consumers in their purchases.

B．Food labels may influence our body’s response to food.

C．Hunger levels depend on one’s consumption of calories.

D．People tend to take in a lot more calories than necessary.

3. What does Brunstrom suggest we do to control our appetite?

A．Trick ourselves into eating less.	B．Choose food with fewer calories.
C．Concentrate on food while eating.	D．Pick dishes of the right size.

4. What is the main idea of the passage?

A．Eating distractions often affect our food digestion.

B．Psychological factors influence our hunger levels.

C．Our food intake is determined by our biological needs.

D．Good eating habits will contribute to our health.

【推荐3】Widespread descriptions of animals in pop culture could actually be hurting the animals’ survival chances in the wild, new research suggests.

Franck Courchamp of the University of Paris-Sud was interested in the idea of “appeal”in animals. He wanted to know: What species do people consider appealing? And what are the influences of being appealing on populations in the wild?

In a research published this month, Courchamp and other researchers list the top 20 appealing species. Most of the animals identified as appealing are large mammals living on land. Coming in first place were tigers, followed by lions, elephants, giraffes, panthers, pandas, cheetahs, polar bears, wolves, and gorillas. However, at least half of the interviewees didn’t realize that five of the top ten most appealing species are threatened. It is paradoxical that we haven’t been able to protect the species we care about the most.

The study also found that we are flooded with images of these creatures, even as they are becoming fewer in the wild. The study suggests that too much of imagination might be creating a “virtual(虚拟的) population” of the animals in peoples’ minds, making them believe there are far more individuals in the wild than is exact.

The study authors suggest that companies who benefit from the use of these images should set aside a small percentage of their profits for protection efforts and informational campaigns. “That would be not only something fair, but that would be something that could bring a win-win situation for them,” Courchamp says. It could bring them positive public relation, for example. Besides, if a company’s mascot(吉祥物) goes extinct, that could hurt them from a marketing point, Courchamp says. But not enough companies are “truly concerned about the protection of the species that they work on,” he adds.

1. It can be inferred that the widespread images of animals in pop culture ________.

A．leads people to forget the less appealing animals

B．makes a false impression of the animals’ real situation

C．raises people’s wildlife protection attention and efforts

D．brings a win-win situation for both animals and companies

2. What does the writer mean by saying the underlined sentence in Paragraph 3?

A．It is important to protect these endangered species.

B．It is natural to regard the large mammals as attractive.

C．It is terrible that the species are dying out at an alarming speed.

D．It is strange that people’s thoughts contrast with their behaviors.

3. Courchamp lists the companies’ responsibilities and their advantages by ________.

A．giving examples	B．making definition
C．making comparisons	D．using numbers

4. What’s Courchamp’s attitude to the companies benefiting from animal images?

A．Neutral.	B．Supportive.
C．Dissatisfied.	D．Positive.

【推荐2】How is it that siblings (兄弟姐妹) can turn out so differently? One answer is that in fact each sibling grows up in a different family. The firstborn is, for a while, an only child, and therefore has a completely different experience of the parents than those born later. The next child is, for a while, the youngest, until the situation is changed by a new arrival. The mother and father themselves are changing and growing up too. One sibling might live in a stable and close family in the first few years; another might be raised in a family crisis, with a disappointed mother or an angry father.
Sibling competition was identified as an important shaping force as early as in 1918. But more recently, researchers have found many ways in which brothers and sisters are a lasting force in each others’ lives. Dr. Annette Henderson says firstborn children pick up vocabulary more quickly than their siblings. The reason for this might be that the later children aren’t getting the same one-on-one time with parents. But that doesn’t mean that the younger children have problems with language development. Later-borns don’t enjoy that much talking time with parents, but instead they harvest lessons from bigger brothers and sisters, learning entire phrases and getting an understanding of social concepts such as the difference between “I” and “me”.
A Cambridge University study of 140 children found that siblings created a rich world of play that helped them grow socially. Love-hate relationships were common among the children. Even those siblings who fought the most had just as much positive communication as the other sibling pairs.
One way children seek more attention from parents is by making themselves different from their siblings, particularly if they are close in age. Researchers have found that the first two children in a family are typically more different from each other than the second and third. Girls with brothers show their differences to a maximum degree by being more feminine than girls with sisters. A 2003 research paper studied adolescents from 185 families over two years, finding that those who changed to make themselves different from their siblings were successful in increasing the amount of warmth they gained from their parents.
1. The underlined part “in a different family” (in Para. 1) means “_______”.

A．in a different family environment

B．in a different family tradition

C．in different family crises

D．in different families

2. In terms of language development, later-borns ________.

A．get their parents’ individual guidance

B．learn a lot from their elder siblings

C．experience a lot of difficulties

D．pick up words more quickly

3. What was found about fights among siblings?

A．Siblings hated fighting and loved playing.

B．Siblings in some families fought frequently.

C．Sibling fights led to bad sibling relationships.

D．Siblings learned to get on together from fights.

4. The word “feminine” (in Para. 4) means “_______”.

A．having qualities of parents

B．having qualities of women

C．having defensive qualities

D．having extraordinary qualities

【推荐1】Failure is probably the most exhausting experience a person ever has. There is nothing more tiring than not succeeding.
We experience this tiredness in two ways: as start-up fatigue(疲惫) and performance fatigue. In the former case, we keep putting off a task because it has either too boring or too difficult. And the longer we delay it, the more tired we feel.
Such start-up fatigue is very real, even if not actually physical, not something in our muscles and bones. The solution is obvious though perhaps not easy to apply: always handle the most difficult job first.
Years ago, I was asked to write 102 essays on the great ideas of some famous authors. Applying my own rule, I determined to write them in alphabetical(按字母顺序), never letting myself leave out a tough idea. And I always started the day’s work with the difficult task of essay-writing. Experience proved that the rule works.
Performance fatigue is more difficult to handle. Though willing to get started, we cannot seem to do the job right. Its difficulties appear so great that, however hard we work, we fail again and again. In such a situation, I work as hard as I can-then let the unconscious take over.
When planning Encyclopaedia Britannica (《大英百科全书》), I had to create a table of contents based on the topics of its articles. Nothing like this had ever been done before, and day after day I kept coming up with solutions, but none of them worked. My fatigue became almost unbearable.
One day, mentally exhausted, I wrote down all the reasons why this problem could not be solved. I tried to convince myself that the trouble was with the problem itself, not with me. Relived, I sat back in an easy chair and fell asleep.
An hour later, I woke up suddenly with the solution clearly in mind. In the weeks that followed, the solution which had come up in my unconscious mind proved correct at every step. Though I worked as hard as before, I felt no fatigue. Success was now as exciting as failure had been depressing.
Human beings, I believe must try to succeed. Success, then, means never feeling tired.
1. People with start-up fatigue are most likely to ________.

A．delay tasks	B．work hard
C．seek help	D．accept failure

2. What does the author recommend doing to prevent start-up fatigue?

A．Writing essays in strict order.

B．Building up physical strength.

C．Leaving out the toughest ideas.

D．Dealing with the hardest task first.

3. On what occasion does a person probably suffer from performance fatigue?

A．Before starting a difficult task.

B．When all the solutions fail.

C．If the job is rather boring.

D．After finding a way out.

4. According to the author, the unconscious mind may help us ________.

A．ignore mental problems	B．get some nice sleep
C．gain complete relief	D．find the right solution

5. What could be the best title for the passage?

A．Success Is Built upon Failure

B．How to Handle Performance Fatigue

C．Getting over Fatigue: A Way to Success

D．Fatigue: An Early Sign of Health Problems

【推荐2】A book is so much more than mere ink and paper. So insist French booksellers, who for nearly four decades successfully persuade the government to keep the forces of the free market at bay. A law passed in 1981 bans the sale of any book at anything other than the price decided by its publisher. Authorities are cracking down on those trying to sell the latest Thomas Piketty or J.K Rowling at a discount.

The fixed-price rule is meant to keep customers loyal to their local bookshop and out of the control of supermarkets and corporations. But the arrival of e-commerce and e-readers has promoted questions worthy of their own tomes(大部头著作). Can you fix the price of a book if it is part of an all-you-can-read subscription service? Are audio-books books at all? And what of authors who self-publish?

Changes have been made to preserve the principle of “one book, one price”. In 2011, the rule began to apply to digital tomes. Free delivery by online sellers was prohibited because it implied a subsidy(补贴) on the delivered books (encouraging online sellers to charge only €0.01 for postage). But a new challenge to the policy is proving more difficult to deal with.

Used books are exempted from the pricing rule. Third-party sellers on Amazon are accused of using this as a way to apply forbidden discounts: selling brand-new books as “second hand” to make them cheaper. So fans can purchase a copy of the latest Michel Houellebecq novel Serotonine for 11.71 pounds on Amazon, roughly half of its original price. Its seller claims it is in “perfectly new” condition.

Amazon claims its practices are legal. But books sellers are upset, and their political allies with them. “This is a major concern,” said Franck Riester, the culture minister, at a bookseller’s conference this week. He says new laws may be needed.

Defenders of the fixed-price principle (which has spread to other parts of Europe) say it helps keep independent bookshops alive. Others are not so sure. Books are expensive in France — an odd way to encourage people to buy more.

1. What was the function of the law passed in 1981?

A．To stop publishers from publishing poor books.

B．To prevent the random price of books in the market.

C．To help book consumers benefit from the free market.

D．To encourage French booksellers to sell cheaper books.

2. What’s implied about the arrival of e-commerce and e-readers in Paragraph 2?

A．It greatly changed people’s reading habits.

B．It challenged the principle of “one book, one price”.

C．It weakened the ties between publishers and authors.

D．It provided local booksellers with some new opportunities.

3. What does the underlined part “are exempted from” in Paragraph 4 mean?

A．are involved in.	B．are threatened by.
C．are consistent with.	D．are unrestricted by.

4. What is Franck Riester’s attitude towards those third-party sellers’ practices on Amazon?

A．He is hopeful of them.	B．He is uncertain of them.
C．He disapproves of them.	D．He is indifferent to them.

【推荐3】A simple project to help a family in need stopped Luck Mickelson in his tracks. In 2012, he and his family were inspired to build and donate a bunk bed, one bed on top of the other, after learning there were local children who slept on the floor. Shocked to discover how widespread this need was in his community, Mickelson founded Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a nonprofit that builds and delivers beds to children in need.

Born and raised in Idaho, Mickelson, now 41, had a thriving career. He coached his kids' sports teams and fished in the nearby river. But when he met children who were sleeping on the floor, his peaceful life changed course.

Using safety guidelines and his daughter’s bunk bed as a model, Mickelson started buying wood and supplies to build beds with his own money. He recruited friends and family members to help around the holidays. As the word spread, interest and involvement from his and other communities flooded-along with Mickelson's bunk bed output. "That first project, we built 11 bunk beds in my garage, "he said. "The next year, we did 15. Then it doubled every year. In 2017, we built 612 bunk beds.”

With the motto "No kid sleeps on the floor in our town”, the nonprofit and its more than 65 branches have built and delivered more than 1,500 free beds to children across America. But along with the rapid growth, Mickelson was faced with a tough choice: advancing his career or his nonprofit. He chose the latter and went from making "great money to zero money". He's never looked back. "I found that the need I have isn't financial, "he said. “The need I have is seeing the joy on kids’ faces, knowing that I can make a difference.”

1. Why did Mickelson set up Sleep in Heavenly Peace?

A．To get more donations.	B．To make a big fortune.
C．To inspire his community.	D．To donate beds to kids in need.

2. What do we know about Luke Mickelson?

A．He originally had a very good career.	B．He changed his career from time to time.
C．He used to sleep on the floor when he was a kid.	D．He had his own fish farm.

3. How did other people react to Mickelson’s project?

A．They showed little interest in it.

B．They were supportive and involved in it.

C．They were doubtful about the safety of the bunk bed.

D．They volunteered to buy beds with their own money.

4. What is Mickelson's attitude to the nonprofit?

A．Ambiguous

B．Defensive.

C．Positive

D．Cautious

【推荐1】If medical workers are at the center of the fight against COVID-19, media professionals are the ones right behind them.

“For the first time in my career, I felt it could cost my life,” said Liao Jun, a reporter of Xinhua News Agency, at a media briefing (简报) in Wuhan on March 8, according to China Daily. Liao has been reporting the disease by visiting hospitals and local communities for months. “My colleagues call me ‘the iron lady’,” she said. “For reporters, regardless of gender, it’s our responsibility and duty to go to the core infection zones and listen to people’s stories.”

That sense of mission can’t be stopped. Zhan Song, a Changjiang Daily reporter, has been reporting in Wuhan. “If I do get infected someday, I think I’ll start livestreaming (直播) interviews at whichever hospital I may land in and report about patients’ lives there,” he said.

Reporters outside Wuhan may not face the same level of risk, but they are also doing whatever they can to get to the center of the news. Li Xueqing, for example, is a China Daily reporter, based in New York. She wrote a story about a group of Wuhan University schoolmates in New York who volunteered to donate medical equipment to hospitals in Wuhan. She thought about doing the interview over the phone, but she changed her mind.

“Anyone from inside China can do a phone interview,” said Li. “That’s not why I’m here.”

So she started to tag along with the volunteers, watching them do everything – from staying up late contacting the suppliers to dealing with piles of shipping paperwork. “After the story was published online, I saw a comment below that said, ‘Thank you for letting me see all the details behind the scenes.’ I knew it was all worth it,” said Li.

As medical workers continue to fight on the front line, we must remember the ones who also risk their lives to deliver our daily news: the media.

1. What can we learn about Liao Jun as a journalist from the passage?

A．She started to work in Wuhan on March 8.

B．She attends media briefings in Wuhan every day.

C．She has been reporting first-hand on the disease.

D．She volunteers to help in hospitals and communities.

2. What did Li Xueqing write about in her story?

A．The spread of COVID-19 in New York.

B．The latest news on the outbreak in China.

C．The efforts some volunteers made to help Wuhan.

D．The challenges faced by medical workers in Wuhan.

3. The underlined part “tag along” in Paragraph 5 probably means “ ___”.

A．go along

B．have fun

C．make donations

D．search around

4. What do the three reporters mentioned have in common?

A．They went to Wuhan to report the outbreak.

B．They have fulfilled their professional responsibilities.

C．They got infected while they were reporting on the disease.

D．They risked their lives to interview the COVID-19 patients.

【推荐2】A lot of people in England have a very strong obsession (痴迷) with football. You might even say they are fanatics! When I was growing up, everyone would rush out to the playground during the break times, desperate to play a game of football.

Whenever there is a big match, all the flags for local football teams are hung outside every window, or even spread proudly on T-shirts or scarves. There is an atmosphere of excitement in the air. Groups of young men crowd into dark, packed bars, peering at tiny television screens in the corners. They shout and scream in frustration when their team loses a goal, or with joy when there is a moment of success.  

Football has never been something I have been particularly interested in. For years, I have had to feign (装作) excitement, and pick a team or risk ridicule (嘲笑). You cannot say you don’t like or do not follow football in England, as often this would lead to a long dialogue in which someone would begin telling you why you should support their team. Growing up in north London, I quickly learned everyone around me supported Arsenal, and so I blindly did the same, for fear of having the same conversation more than fifty times.

You do not have to be a fan of football to get caught up in the excitement. Often, I feel annoyed when everyone around me is full of excitement over two groups of people kicking a ball in a field. However, I understand the culture, and I enjoy the excitement. While I may not ultimately desire to play the sport or take part in supporting the teams, I will nevertheless defend people's obsession with the sport. It is their history and obsession.

1. What does the writer intend to tell us by writing paragraph 2?

A．The crazy act of British young people.

B．The ways people watch football match.

C．The bar culture in England.

D．The obsession with football of people in England.

2. Why did the writer choose Arsenal to support?

A．Because it’s his favourite.

B．Because he knows it well.

C．Because he doesn’t want to be bothered.

D．Because it’s the team of his hometown.

3. Which word can best describe the author’s attitude towards British’s obsession with football?

A．Critical.

B．Objective.

C．Doubtful.

D．Supportive.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．Football: A game for the world

B．My idea about football

C．British: crazy love for football

D．My love for Britain

【推荐3】I’d like to share a little story with you about something that happened when I was four. I remember it clearly. Our loving family dog was nearing the end of his life. My father picked him up and put him in a little bed we had made for him. Our dog, my companion, whom we had cared for, bit my father when he attempted to help him. How could he? Why? I couldn’t understand it. I didn’t like him anymore.
I hadn’t thought about that story for a long time but something that happened last week brought it back to me. I went to speak with a friend. When I knocked on the door, I met in an instant an angry look and a few harsh(尖刻的)words. When the door was slammed(砰地关上)in my face, I stood there shocked, and in a rush, I was reminded of my dog bit my father 20 years ago or so. What brought that story back was that same feeling of betrayal.
Both stories taught me something the next day. You see, when I got up in the morning and was told my dog had died, it became clear to me that he must have been in great pain. For him to have bitten a family member, he could not have been himself. Much the same for the other story when I learned that my friend’s wife had just left him.
We are all beings of our environments, our opinions and feelings. And all of those things can cause you to say and do things that can’t be understood by those who are not in the same situation with you.
If you meet someone either behaving out of character or acting in a way that doesn’t seem to fit the situation, put out your hand and be patient when you think it is least possible for him to do so. You may turn around a story that has a sad ending simply by your actions.
1. The incident that happened when the author was four______.

A．hurt the author’s feeling deeply

B．has puzzled the author ever since

C．left a deep impression on the author

D．made the author dislike dogs

2. What made the author think about the story of about 20 years ago?

A．His friend’s attitude.

B．The photo of the dog.

C．His father’s wound.

D．His friend’s suffering.

3. The author's friend said harsh words to the author because______.

A．he was bad-tempered

B．he was suffering the pain of losing his wife

C．he was bothered by an unexpected visit

D．they once quarreled and he couldn’t forgive the author

4. What conclusion did the author get from the two stories?

A．Misunderstanding should be removed in time.

B．Sometimes one will be hurt without any reason.

C．Many people think more of themselves and less of others.

D．Many factors will affect one’s behavior.

5. What’s the author’s advice to us?

A．Help those in need.

B．Look before you leap.

C．Learn to understand others.

D．Tolerance is a kind of virtue.