【推荐2】Winter-swimming has become popular in Beijing. Three years ago, few people would go swimming in the city waters. But now there is a Winter-swimming Enthusiasts’ Club(冬泳爱好者协会) and it has more than 2, 000 members. The oldest is 84 years of age and the youngest is only 7. The members are from all ways of life. They may be workers, peasants, soldiers, teachers, students....

Though it is now the coldest part of the season and the water temperature in the city’s lakes is around 0°C, many winter-swimmers still swim in the icy waters, even when it is snowing. They enjoy themselves in the lake, while the people by the side of the lake are wearing heavy clothes.

Why are so many people interested in winter-swimming? Because winter-swimming can be good for one’s health.

Bei Sha is a good example. He is 69 years old, and he once suffered from heart trouble for 26 years. After ten years of winter-swimming he is now in good health. Scientists are now studying the effects of winter-swimming on health.

1. Among the winter-swimmers the oldest man is ________ years older than the youngest one.

A．91	B．84
C．77	D．7

2. Guess what “The members are from all ways of life” means.

A．The members do different jobs at different places.

B．They come from all parts of Beijing.

C．They are persons of different ages.

D．They are men and women, old and young.

3. Winter-swimming has become popular in Beijing because ________.

A．more and more people like to swim in winter

B．it is more interesting than swimming in summer

C．winter-swimmers are brave men

D．winter-swimming does a lot of good to one’s health

4. The best title for this passage should be ________.

A．People in Beijing Like Swimming in Winter

B．Winter-swimming — A Craze(狂热) in Beijing

C．People Benefit from Winter-swimming

D．Winter-swimmers Are Brave Men

【推荐3】Many people want to know how to help kids be fitter. There are some steps only parents can take, but kids can take charge, too.     1    

1. Eat a variety of foods, especially fruits and vegetables.     2     In that case, you’re more likely to get the nutrients your body needs. Shoot for at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day—two fruits and three vegetables.

2.     3     When you’re really thirsty, cold water is the No. 1 thirst-quencher (饮料). And there’s a reason your school cafeteria offers cartons of milk. Kids need calcium to grow strong bones, and milk is a great source of this mineral. Aim for 3 cups of milk per day, or its equivalent.

3. Listen to your body. What does it feel like to be full? When eating, notice how your body feels and when your stomach feels comfortably full.     4    

4. Limit screen time. Screen time is the amount of time you spend watching TV or DVDs, playing video games, and using the computer.     5     Try to spend no more than 2 hours a day on screen time.

5. Be active. One job is to figure out which activities you like best. Not everyone loves baseball or soccer. Maybe your passion is kickball, or dancing. Ask your parents to help you do your favorite activities regularly. Find ways to be active every day.

A．The following healthy foods can be of great help to your body.

B．Eating too much can make you feel uncomfortable and, over a period of time, can lead to unhealthy weight gain.

C．You may have a favorite food, but the best choice is to eat a variety.

D．If you, a kid, want to be fit, the following may be useful.

E．Go to bed early and get up early.

F．Drink water and milk most often.

G．The longer you spend on these sitting-down activities, the less time available for active stuff, like basketball, and swimming.

【推荐2】Volunteering is a great way to help your community. It is something that people should be doing more often, because it is a great way to give back, while also helping out those less fortunate. Another reason that you should volunteer is because it has a lot of health benefits associated with it, which people don’t seem to really know about.     1    .

Decreases Depression

Volunteering is a great way to decrease depression, especially if you are someone who doesn’t have a great support system at home.    2    . When you are volunteering, you are around other people, often talking and laughing, which helps decrease depression symptoms.

    3    

A lot of volunteering involves packing boxes or moving things or people, and that is very beneficial for your heart. You might actually volunteer at a local animal shelter, which was great because you can walk the dogs and clean cages, which are all ways to stay active. If you are volunteering doing something you love, you may not even notice that you are exerting physical energy, so it’s much better than just working out because you enjoy it.

Makes You Feel Internally Satisfied

When you volunteer, you feel this satisfaction out of what you are doing, because you know you are helping other people. When you feel this satisfaction, your mental and physical health improves, and you just feel better overall.    4     And this is something that volunteering provides.

Decreases Anxiety

    5    . When you start volunteering, you find new ways to communicate with other people. It helps decrease your anxiety levels. It can help you find ways to interact with others and can help you build confidence around others.

A．A lot of people become depressed because they don’t have friends or family

B．In order to stay healthy, you have to have a balance of mind and body

C．If you always feel embarrassed in new social situations, then volunteer

D．Here are four of the health benefits you can get through volunteering

E．The reasons are as follows

F．Builds up Your Mental Strength

G．Helps You Stay Active

【推荐1】Washington State is best known for its biggest city of Seattle, but it is also home to a staggering number of scenic destinations. Below are the four must-visit places in Washington State as you plan your next trip.

Lake Chelan

Lake Chelan is a hub for scenery, outdoor recreation and wine Lasting in the Pacific Northwest. You can spend a day sipping and sightseeing at places like Vin du Lac Winery, Karma Vineyards or Mellisoni Vineyards. Ride on a seaplane that takes off and lands in the lake itself, or try water-skiing during the summer months. Hiking possibilities are abundant, and on Historic Main Street you can dine on farm-to-table cuisine from a range of independent eateries.

Columbia River Gorge

South of the Rattlesnake Hills, and right in the heart of the Columbia River Plateau, is the Columbia River Gorge. The gorge cuts through the Cascade Mountains forming the boundary between Washington and Oregon, and you can get spectacular views of the gorge from above. The Multnomah Falls cascade right into the gorge at one point, only adding to the beauty of this particular destination.

Spokane

After Seattle, Spokane is the largest city in Washington, and it is located in the eastern portion of the state close to the border with Idaho. In Spokane, you can visit the Riverfront Park and stroll along the banks of the scenic Spokane River. Some of the city's top attractions include the John A. Finch Arboretum,the Northwest Museuni of Arts and Culture and Spokane Falls. You may also want

to check out some of the city's popular golf courses or take a tasting tour through some of the world- famous breweries.
North Cascades National Park

The park is home to a large amount of wildlife, including animals like grizzly bears, gray wolves and lynx. Hike or drive to Mount Baker, a volcano located within the North Cascades, to get an unparalleled view of the nearby Mt. Shuksan, which is definitely the most photographed in all of North America.

1. Which of the following activities does Lake Chelan offer?

A．Golfing.	B．Hiking.
C．Parachuting.	D．Motorcycling.

2. Which place appeals to photographers most?

A．Rattlesnake Hills.	B．Karma Vineyards.
C．Mt. Shuksan.	D．Spokane Falls.

3. Which two places are recommended to enjoy alcoholic drinks?

A．North Cascades National Park & Spokane.

B．Lake Chelan & Columbia River Gorge.

C．Spokane & Lake Chelan.

D．Lake Chelan & North Cascades National Park.

【推荐2】Children whose minds wander (走神) might have sharper brains, a research suggests.

A study has found that people who let their minds wander easily have more “working memory”, giving them the ability to hold a lot of information in their heads and control it cleverly.

Children at school need this type of memory on a daily basis for a variety of tasks, such as following teachers’ instructions or remembering dictated sentences. During the study, volunteers were asked to perform one simple task during which researchers kept asking if their minds were wandering. In the end, volunteers measured their working memory capacity (容量) by their ability to remember a series of letters mixed with simple maths questions.

Daniel Levinson, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States, said that those with higher working memory capacity reported “more mind wandering during these simple tasks”, but their performance did not deteriorate.

The results, published online in the journal Psychological Science, appear to make sure that the former research found working memory allows humans to deal with many thoughts at the same time.

Dr Jonathan Smallwood, of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science in Leipzig, Germany, said, “What this study seems to suggest is that, when the tasks aren’t very difficult, people with additional working memory capacity use them effectively to think about other things besides what they’re doing.”

Working memory capacity is also connected with general measures of intelligence, such as reading comprehension and IQ scores. Dr Smallwood added, “Our results suggest the sorts of planning that people do quite often in daily life — when they are on the bus, when they are cycling to work, when they are in the shower — are probably supported by working memory.”

1. What did the researchers ask the volunteers to do during the study?

A．solve some difficult maths problems

B．retell some dictated sentences

C．follow the teacher’s instructions

D．carry out one simple task

2. What does the underlined word “deteriorate” in the fourth paragraph probably mean?

A．become worse	B．become better
C．improve quickly	D．improve gradually

3. According to the study, working memory ________.

A．prevents people from remembering dictated sentences

B．causes people’s minds to wander more easily

C．allows people to consider more things at the same time

D．leads to people’s worse performance during work

4. What’s the text mainly about?

A．How the working memory works in the daily life.

B．Wandering minds might have brighter brains.

C．Why people’s minds wander while working.

D．Working ability can be improved by wandering minds.

【推荐3】Birds have nostrils on their beaks (喙) that can help them smell all kinds of things. When animals breathe air, they can also breathe in different smells.

The nose can pick up on smells and send information to the brain by the olfactory system. We have an olfactory system, too. This system can help animals understand the world through a sense of smell.

Maybe you’ve used your olfactory system to smell your breakfast, lunch, and dinner or you’re your new school books.

Birds can also use their olfactory systems to sniff out food. The kiwi bird uses its long beak to dig into the dirt. Its nostrils are on the outside and very tip of its beak. It’s thought that they use that sense of smell to pick up chemicals (化学物质) emitted by their food — grubs, worms, and other things that are in the ground.

One bird of prey that has a really great sense of smell are turkey vultures. Vultures are scavengers, meaning they eat dead animals. They have a fantastic sense of smell. They use their nose to pick up chemicals from things that are decaying (腐烂). Turkey vultures have one of the strongest senses of smells among birds. They have been known to smell food that was over a mile away.

But albatrosses, which can have wingspans around ten feet, have been known to sniff out food from even greater distances — about 12 miles away. These seabirds can pick up chemicals from dead fish or groups of fish. They can even sense the smell that krill give off when they are eaten by fish. That helps them find the fish via the krill.

While a sense of smell is helpful for birds, it isn’t the only useful or even sometimes the strongest sense — they also use their senses of hearing, sight, and taste. The next time you watch your chickens, or other birds in the neighborhood, maybe you can observe how they use all these senses.

1. The first three paragraphs try to tell us ________.

A．animals can send information by smelling

B．birds use their beaks to get to know the world

C．we are fond of smelling things that interest us

D．the sense of smell is very important to animals

2. Which of the following are big birds with a stronger sense of smell?

A．Kiwi birds.

B．Turkey vultures.

C．Albatrosses.

D．Krill.

3. It can be learned that ________.

A．birds have the strongest sense of smell among animals

B．kiwi birds’ nostrils are on the lower end of the beaks

C．the sense of smell of birds is their smartest sense

D．birds understand the world through various senses

4. Who are the target readers of the passage?

A．Bird scientists.

B．School kids.

C．University students.

D．General readers.

【推荐1】Johannes Vermeer is such a quiet and introspective (内省的) artist that it took hundreds of years for anyone to notice he was a genius.

A major Vermeer exhibition opens this month at the Louvre in Paris, whose permanent collection includes his great painting of a woman absorbed in close, visually demanding work, The Lacemaker (about 1669-1670). Like other paintings by Vermeer, this image represents modern culture.

So attracted are today’s art lovers by Vermeer that it was thought shocking when a recent survey found that 82% of Americans can’t name who painted The Girl with the Pearl Earring. Well, maybe they don’t go to the movies much.

It is not true to say he was forgotten—that would suggest he was famous in his lifetime. He was not. Vermeer was one more painter among the many who worked for money in the Dutch Republic in the 17th century. He was not a star like Rembrandt. He obviously took himself and his art seriously. His self-referential painting The Art of Painting proves that. Even though he worked all his life in Delft, he painted only 35 known works and left his family poor when he died in 1675 at the age of 43.

It is fitting that Paris is celebrating Vermeer, because it was the French avant-garde (先锋派) in the 19th century who saved him from being completely forgotten. Compare his paintings Woman in Blue Reading a Letter or The Little Street with, say, Edouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergere (1882) or Camille Pissarro’s The Boulevard Montmartre at Night (1897) and it is easy to see why the art of Vermeer found its natural audience in Parisian bohemia. (放荡不羁的艺术家)

All these artists are likely to have known about and admired Vermeer due to the efforts of the critic Thore-Burger, a veteran of the 1848 revolution.

Vermeer’s rediscovery is part of the history of modern French art. Vermeer is not only a great artist. He is a great modern artist.

1. What can we know about Vermeer from Paragraph 4?

A．He was well-known when he was alive.

B．He gained a good fortune for his family.

C．He didn’t witness the popularity of his works.

D．He considered painting as a way to have fun.

2. Who made a great contribution to introducing Vermeer to other artists?

A．Rembrandt.

B．His family.

C．American art lovers.

D．Thore-Burger.

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

A．Rediscovery of Vermeer

B．Anecdotes about Vermeer

C．Great Modern French Art

D．The Tough Way to Success in Art

【推荐2】A man with a “sob story” has been earning up to $400 in cash handouts from shops on the lower North Shore. He has hit three shops in the past two weeks at North Sydney, Mosman and Crows Nest.

“The man has been telling a sob story about needing money because he has been locked out of his home and his wallet is inside, and he needs money to pay a locksmith,” a police officer said. “Sometimes he tells a story about needing money for a new car battery. He has received amounts between $50 and $400 and is then never seen again.”

The conman has also hit businesses on the lower North Shore and northern beaches. “The man seems to do his research and he'll say he is a friend of the shop owner and mentions the owner's name,” the officer said. The man usually targets shops that are busy or short­staffed.

The police officer said shop owners approached by the man should not give him money and contact the police immediately. The man is described as of European appearance, about 50 years old with a strong Italian accent. He is of medium build and about 180 cm tall, wearing jeans, a brown T­shirt and an expensive­looking gold watch. The police said the man sometimes gives the name of Tony.

1. The underlined word “conman”(in Paragraph 3) most probably means ________.

A．a beggar who begs from shop to shop

B．a jobless man who begs for a short time

C．a man who is in urgent need of money to get out of trouble

D．a man who gets money by tricking people

2. Why does the man target the shops that are busy or short­staffed?

A．He may offer the shops some help.	B．He may do his research better.
C．The shop staff may be too busy to find him out.	D．He may beg for more money from the customers.

3. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．The man likes to make friends with shop owners, so he knows their names.

B．The man has got some information about the shops before playing his trick.

C．The man can earn between $50 and $400 every day from shop to shop.

D．The man does business work on the lower North Shore and northern beaches.

4. Why do the police ask shop owners not to give the man money?

A．The man is in fact a rich man.

B．They do not permit begging in the city.

C．They want to prevent shop owners from being cheated.

D．The man has earned a lot of money.

【推荐3】When I watched the film “The Farewell” recently, I found it not only reminded me of my own family’s great lie, but it also reopened old wounds.

Its main characters tell lies that flow from their mouths smoothly. Billi, a Chinese-American artist in New York, and her grandmother in China, tell lies to each other on the phone. Billi, in cold wind, tells her grandma that she’s wearing a hat. She’s not. Her grandma says she’s visiting her sister, while she’s actually ill in hospital. They’re lying to avoid worrying each other, but in fact the grandma has lung cancer. The family know it but won’t tell her for fear that anxiety over the diagnosis (诊断) could kill her before the cancer.

When I was a teenager girl, my parents, both immigrants, got divorced. We never had a discussion about how things would change. We didn’t tell anyone. Instead, we pretended as   if nothing had happened. My father did not run away; he slept in a separate room. In the presence of relatives, we acted as a close family. I was puzzled why we insisted on creating the illusion(假象) that everything was O.K..

I asked a professor of multicultural psychology. “Asians tend to have indirect communication,” he said, “In indirect communication, what’s not said is more important than what is said. Eastern philosophy emphasizes balance and harmony, and indirect communication minimizes conflict. So some Asian cultures value the ability to understand indirect messages.”

In the film, the family members show their love for grandma by keeping secret about   her condition. Similarly, perhaps my parents intended to save face and preserve harmony. As an Asian-American, maybe all I’ll ever have is a secondhand understanding, and that’s the best I can do.

1. Why does Billi’s grandma tell lies to her according to Paragraph 2?

A．Because she’s afraid of the diagnosis.

B．Because she knows she has lung cancer.

C．Because she doesn’t want Billi to worry.

D．Because she has been used to telling lies.

2. What did the author’s parents do after they got divorced?

A．They left their home.	B．They kept secret in public.
C．They had a discussion.	D．They asked relatives for help.

3. How did the author feel about her parents’ behavior when she was a teenager?

A．Confused.	B．Skeptical.
C．Unconcerned.	D．Annoyed.

4. According to the psychology professor, what do Asian cultures attach importance to?

A．Severe conflicts.	B．Ability of showing love.
C．Balance and harmony.	D．Direct communication.