【推荐1】It's said that you don't know a man until you walk a mile in his shoes. And you also don't know what it's like for old people to travel until you accompany（陪伴）one on a trip.

After flying with my elderly father from Washington, D.C.to L.A.in July, I began to realize that a companion has important tasks that can make a journey easier for old people. I booked nonstop tickets on JetBlue to avoid tiring, confusing connections, and we flew directly into Long Beach Airport. Even though my father could walk, I arranged with the airline for wheelchair assistance, which meant we got on board first.

When I took him back to the airport for his return flight to Washington, I got permission from JetBlue to wait with him at the gate instead of saying goodbye at the security checkpoint. I wished he'd had a first-class seat and access to a comfortable airline club. Better yet, I wished I had flown with him on both ways. As I watched the attendant wheel him to the lift that would take him from the tarmac（停机坪）to the plane, I felt like an anxious mom sending her child to school for the first time.

Things can go awry on a plane trip. And then there is a horrifying story about Joe and Margie. When they landed at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, a wheelchair attendant met them to help with a connection. But somehow Margie, who had Alzheimer's disease, disappeared.

I didn't need to worry about my father's wandering away；at 82, his mind was sharper than mine. But his hearing was poor, so I worried about what would happen if he missed an important announcement.

Fortunately, everything went just fine. A good arrangement（安排）made the trip successful.

Next time I travel with a senior, I'll know better. I hope there will be a next time.

1. Why did the author buy nonstop tickets？

A．His father was tired of flights.

B．He had important tasks to do.

C．He cared about his father.

D．His schedule was tight.

2. How did the author feel when seeing his father off？

A．Disappointed.	B．Worried.
C．Delighted.	D．Sad.

3. Which of the following can replace the underlined part "go awry" in Paragraph 4？

A．Be amused.

B．Carry on as usual.

C．Live up to one's expectation.

D．Be away from the correct course.

4. What can we learn from Paragraph 5？

A．Taking a trip does great good to seniors.

B．It is a pleasant experience to travel with seniors.

C．To have a long journey with seniors is unpractical.

D．Careful planning ensures seniors to take a nice trip.

【推荐2】When my brother and I were young, my mom would take us on Transportation Days.
It goes like this: You can’t take any means of transportation more than once. We would start from home, walking two blocks to the rail station. We’d take the train into the city center, then a bus, switching to the tram, then maybe a taxi. We always considered taking a horse carriage in the historic district, but we didn’t like the way the horses were treated, so we never did. At the end of the day, we took the subway to our closest station, where Mom’s friend was waiting to give us a ride home—our first car ride of the day.
The good thing about Transportation Days is not only that Mom taught us how to get around. She was born to be multimodal (多方式的). She understood that depending on cars only was a failure of imagination and, above all, a failure of confidence—the product of a childhood not spent exploring subway tunnels.
Once you learn the route map and step with certainty over the gap between the train and the platform, nothing is frightening anymore. New cities are just light-rail lines to be explored. And your personal car, if you have one, becomes just one more tool in the toolbox—and often an inadequate one, limiting both your mobility and your wallet.
On Transportation Days, we might stop for lunch on Chestnut Street or buy a new book or toy, but the transportation was the point. First, it was exciting enough to watch the world speed by from the train window. As I got older, my mom helped me unlock the mysteries that would otherwise have paralyzed my first attempts to do it myself: How do I know where to get off? How do I know how much it costs? How do I know when I need tickets, and where to get them? What track, what line, which direction, where’s the stop, and will I get wet when we go under the river?
I’m writing this right now on an airplane, a means we didn’t try on our Transportation Days and, we now know, the dirtiest and most polluting of them all. My flight routed me through Philadelphia. My multimodal mom met me for dinner in the airport. She took a train to meet me.
1. Which was forbidden by Mom on Transportation Days?

A．Having a car ride.

B．Taking the train twice.

C．Buying more than one toy.

D．Touring the historic district.

2. According to the writer, what was the greatest benefit of her Transportation Days?

A．Building confidence in herself.

B．Reducing her use of private cars.

C．Developing her sense of direction.

D．Giving her knowledge about vehicles.

3. The underlined word “paralyzed” (in Para. 5) is closest in meaning to “_______”.

A．displayed

B．justified

C．ignored

D．ruined

4. Which means of transportation does the writer probably disapprove of?

A．Airplane.

B．Subway.

C．Tram.

D．Car.

【推荐1】THE E-COMMERCE company that retailers talk about most these days is neither Amazon, the American juggernaut, nor Alibaba, China’s biggest. It is Pinduoduo (PDD), a Chinese firm that started in 2015 as an online food supplier, but whose success has driven its market value above $200bn. Last year it was China’s fastest-growing Internet stock, rising by 330%.

       PDD attracts attention for two reasons. One is its business model. David Liu, vice-president of strategy, explains that it has drawn on the popularity of smart phone in China to create an e-commerce experience in which people club together to buy products from robot vacuum-cleaners (吸尘器) to bananas. During the pandemic this has expanded into a fast-growing business across thousands of towns and villages, in which PDD’s users gather to buy local farm produce at low prices. Some call this “community group-buy”. Mr. Liu calls it “interactive (互动的) commerce”. It is one of the hottest parts of the Chinese Internet.

The second is the way PDD has broken the record of giants of online shopping. Until a few years ago, China’s e-commerce market seemed a two-way competition between Alibaba and JD.com, a competitor platform. No longer. Elinor Leung of CLSA, a brokerage (经纪公司), expects PDD’s share of online retail in China to go beyond that of JD in 2021. She expects the number of users over Alibaba. And although PDD put a huge amount of money to lower the prices of goods, ensuring the customers from poorer parts of China easy access to its app, she thinks it may turn profitable this year.

Remarkably, the key to its success focused on parts of the market they have been unable to reach instead of defeating its bigger competitors. Although online sales of groceries have rocketed during the pandemic, less than a tenth of the 8.1tm yuan ($1.25trn) farm-produce market is bought and sold digitally, “We are continuing to grow the pie,” says Mr. Liu. That lesson applies elsewhere too. However, no matter how a future market looks, there is opportunity for new online businesses because ecommerce is at an early stage of development.

1. What does the underlined “club together” mean in Paragraph 2?

A．Share the expenses.

B．Have a club together.

C．Buy something in groups.

D．Interact with each other.

2. What mainly makes PDD go off with a bang?

A．Ensuring easy access to the app.

B．Exploring new markets.

C．Lowering the price of goods.

D．Competing with giants of online shopping.

3. What’s the main idea of the passage?

A．There’s opportunity for new online businesses.

B．E-commerce profits may become harder to make.

C．The Amazons and Alibabas are not as strong as they might seem.

D．PDD, China’s fastest-growing online business is to beat giants of e-commerce.

【推荐2】Sydney—A shark savaged a schoolboy’s leg while he was surfing with his father at a beach in Sydney on February 23. It was the third shark attack along the coast of Australia’s largest city in a month.

The 15-year-old boy and his father were in the water off Avalon, on Sydney’s northern beaches, around dawn when he was attacked. The city’s beaches are packed with locals and tourists during the summer months.

“The father heard a scream and turned to see his son thrashing (激烈扭动) about in the water,” police said.“Fortunately, the shark swam away and the boy was helped to the shore by his father.”

Lifesaving Club spokesman Nick Miller said, “It got him around the top of his left leg and the father came and dragged him out of water.” He said the boy was bleeding heavily when he was brought to the shore.“There was a lot of pain, as you can imagine.” The teenager was airlifted to hospital for treatment for leg injuries.

Police said the bites “cut through to the bone”, but the boy did not appear to have sustained any fractures (骨折). He was in a stable condition now.

Several beaches were closed after the attack. Water police and lifeguards were searching for the shark, while police hoped to identify its species by the shape of the bite marks. But they said it was too early to say what type of shark attacked the boy. “I don’t even know if he saw it,” Miller said.

Many shark species live in the waters off Sydney’s beaches, but attacks on humans are still relatively rare. However, there were two attacks on successive days earlier this month, one on a navy diver in Sydney harbor, not far from the famous Opera House, and the other on a surfer at the city’s world-famous Bondi beach.

Fishermen say shark numbers are on the rise. There is a ban on commercial fishing in the harbor, which has increased fish stocks. Marine experts also claim environmental protection has created a cleaner environment, attracting sharks closer to the shore as they chase fish. Many shark species are protected in Australian waters.

1. The report mainly tells us_____________.

A．shark attacks on humans are on the rise

B．sharks attacked humans three times in one month

C．a boy was attacked by a shark at a Sydney beach

D．shark numbers are increasing in the waters off Sydney’s beaches

2. What do we know about the city of Sydney from the passage?

A．It is one of the largest cities in Australia.

B．Sydney harbor is not far from the famous Opera House.

C．There are many locals and tourists on its coast all the year round.

D．There are few shark species in the waters off Sydney’s beaches.

3. About the injury of the boy we know that_____________.

A．he was losing much blood when he was dragged out

B．he was very nervous when he was sent to hospital

C．he may be in danger of losing his leg

D．he was injured in the right leg

4. All the following are the causes of Australia’s sharks’ increasing except that_____________.

A．environmental protection has created a cleaner environment

B．a ban on commercial fishing has increased fish numbers

C．many shark species are protected in Australian waters

D．the film Jaws has made the Great White famous