【推荐1】As Connie took the plates away, I noticed a stack of newspapers that had obviously been read before I got there.

"You bother keeping up with the news?" I asked. "Yes," Morrie said. "Do you think that's strange? Do you think because I'm dying, I shouldn't care what happens in this world?"

Maybe.

He sighed. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I shouldn't care. After all, I won't be around to see how it all turns out.”

"But it's hard to explain, Mitch. Now that I'm suffering, I feel closer to people who suffer than I ever did before. The other night, on TV, I saw people in Bosnia running across the street, getting fired upon, killed, innocent victims . . . and I just started to cry. I feel their anguish as if it were my own. I don't know any of these people. But how can I put this? I'm almost . . . drawn to them."

His eyes got moist, and I tried to change the subject, but he dabbed his face and waved me off.

"I cry all the time now," he said. "Never mind."

Amazing, I thought. I worked in the news business. I covered stories where people died. I interviewed grieving family members. I even attended the funerals. I never cried. Morrie, for the suffering of people half a world away, was weeping. Is this what comes at the end, I wondered? Maybe death is the great equalizer, the one big thing that can finally make strangers shed a tear for one another.

Morrie honked loudly into the tissue. "This is okay with you, isn't it? Men crying?"

"Sure, " I said, too quickly.

He grinned. "Ah, Mitch, I'm gonna loosen you up. One day, I'm gonna show you it's okay to cry."

"Yeah, yeah, " I said. "Yeah, yeah," he said.

We laughed because he used to say the same thing nearly twenty years earlier. Mostly on Tuesdays. In fact, Tuesday had always been our day together. Most of my courses with Morrie were on Tuesdays, he had office hours on Tuesdays, and when I wrote my senior thesis which was pretty much Morrie's suggestion, right from the start-it was on Tuesdays that we sat together, by his desk, or in the cafeteria, or on the steps of Pearlman Hall, going over the work.

So it seemed only fitting that we were back together on a Tuesday, here in the house with the Japanese maple out front. As I readied to go, I mentioned this to Morrie.

"We're Tuesday people," he said. "Tuesday people, " I repeated.

Morrie smiled.

"Mitch, you asked about caring for people I don't even know. But can I tell you the thing I'm learning most with this disease?"

"What's that? "

"The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in."

His voice dropped to a whisper. "Let it come in. We think we don't deserve love, we think if we let it in we'll become too soft. But a wise man named Levine said it right. He said, `Love is the only rational act.' "

He repeated it carefully, pausing for effect. " ‘Love is the only rational act.’"

I nodded, and he exhaled weakly. I leaned over to give him a hug. And then, although it is not really like me, I kissed him on the cheek. I felt his weakened hands on my arms, the thin stubble of his whiskers brushing my face.

"So you'll come back next Tuesday?" he whispered.

1. What kind of person do you think Morrie is?

A．Kind and sensitive	B．Sensitive and energetic
C．Committed and stubborn	D．Depressed and stubborn

2. What relationship do you suppose Morrie and Mitch share?

A．Neighbors	B．Colleagues
C．Father and son.	D．Teacher and student

3. Which of the following details shows that Mitch has been influenced by Morrie?

A．I learned over to give him a hug	B．I felt his weakened hands
C．I kissed him on the cheek	D．Sure, I said, too quickly

4. What does the underlined phrase “loosen you up” mean?

A．let you go	B．make you relaxed
C．lose control of you	D．allow you to be free

【推荐2】A few weeks ago, a 71-year-old man pulled his car to the roadside in Northwest Portland and   stopped. He rolled down the window, turned off the engine and stared at a house.

The place, distinguished by three gables, is partially hidden by hedges and trees. Most people who pass by would never notice it. And if they   did give   it a glance, they’d probably think it’s a nice house   in   a nice neighborhood. Nothing more.

The house, in the 2500 block of Northwest Westover Road, is known as   the   Bessie   &   Louis Tarpley House. Built in 1907, it’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The current owner is Barbee Lyon, 79.

He and his first wife took possession in 1975. When they divorced, he bought out her share.

A retired lawyer, Lyon learned Louis Tarpley, the home’s first owner, had also been a Portland lawyer. Setbacks in Tarpley’s life led to the house auction(拍卖) in the late 1920s.

“I’m only the fifth owner of the home,” Lyon said. A previous owner was Frank Masco.

He and his wife, Esther, and their nine children had lived across town in a tiny house needing   constant repairs. In the mid-1950s, the elder Masco wanted to move to a bigger house and one closer to work. A docker ( 码 头 工 人 ), he was on-call 24 hours a day and had to quickly get to the Willamette River docks.

He found a home on Westover Road. At the time, many people   wanted to live   in new   construction in the suburbs. The Westover house was offered at a deep discount.

And later the family moved on several times, finally living in Vancouver.

One Sunday in July 2019, Charley Masco drove to Portland for an appointment at a computer store.

When it ended, he traveled the familiar route to Westover Road, pulled over and looked at that home.

He decided to do something bold. He got out of his car and walked up the steps and   rang   the doorbell. He waited. No response. Nervous, he thought it was a mistake to   do   this   and   considered turning around and walking back to his car.

Barbee Lyon opened the door and saw a stranger.

“I’m not selling anything,” Masco said quickly. “I just want you to know I once lived here.” Lyon opened the door wide.

“Come in.”

And for the first time since 1966, Masco stepped into his childhood home.

Every room looked as Masco had remembered it: The built-in china hutch in the dining room, the hanging lights above the table and, in the kitchen,   a massive   wood-burning   stove   where   his   mother used to cook family meals. It was as if he had walked into his own museum.

Lyon told Masco he’d never done major structural remodeling, which meant Masco knew his way around the home.

It was as if he had never left.

There, on the top floor, was the window he and   his   siblings   quietly opened   to sneak out   at night and return before their parents knew they were gone. The loft where   friends   daydreamed   about   the future. The living room – no TV ever allowed – where the family gathered to share music, play cards or just talk with each other.

Then they all walked to the basement.

In the far corner, Masco saw his father’s old wooden workbench. And above it, baby food jars.

Masco had forgotten about them.

He explained that his father had nailed lids from the jars to a rafter, filling the glass   with different size screws, nuts and bolts, and then screwing the jars back into the lids to give him easy access while working.

Masco thought about his father, his mother and three of his siblings who have died.   He thought   about his father, tinkering in the basement, while his mother was in the kitchen preparing dinner.

He thought about the 71-year-old man he was and the boy he had once been.

Kruse, Lyon’s wife, reached up and unscrewed a jar. She handed   it   to   Masco,   believing   it   belonged to this stranger.

Masco thanked her.

He clutched the   small bottle to his chest. “My dad,” he said quietly. “This is my dad.”

1. Why did Charley Masco come to visit the Westover house?

A．He wanted to review his past and hold memories.

B．He attempted to buy back his childhood house.

C．His friend invited him to be a guest at his newly-bought house.

D．He came to the house where his father lived to seek roots.

2. What made   Frank Masco decide to buy the   house?

A．The house’s owner   had been   a Portland lawyer.

B．The house was auctioned at a very low price.

C．He desired to improve his family’s living conditions.

D．The house was equipped with a basement.

3. What do we know about Barbee Lyon?

A．He bought the house from Louis Tarpley.

B．He took possession of the house at about 35.

C．He lived in the house with his first wife Kruse.

D．He disliked being disturbed by strangers.

4. Why did Charley Masco feel nervous when he rang the doorbell?

A．He knew the house owner was a bad-tempered man.

B．He thought it was improper to pay an unexpected visit.

C．He might not hold back his feelings when he went in.

D．He feared the house owner would take him for a salesman.

5. After Masco entered   the   house, he found that   _.

A．every room was not as he had remembered it

B．the house had experienced great structural changes

C．the childhood home was where his heart was

D．he couldn’t recall anything about baby food jars

6. What can be a suitable title for the passage?

A．Collision of Two Hearts	B．Experiences of Two Families
C．An Unexpected Meeting	D．The Harbour of the Heart

【推荐3】
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."
You probably heard those lines in grammar school, but do you really agree that harsh (严厉的) or negative words do not harm us? Words have power. Surely we all have had our feelings hurt by something someone said.
We may not say words to hurt others, but the way we interpret (解释) them and how we say them may cause great harm. Here’s an example:
An ancient king dreamed all his teeth had fallen out. He sent for a wise man to explain his dream to him: the dream means that all your relatives will die and you will be left alone!
The king was very angry and threw the interpreter into prison. He then sent for another interpreter who said, "Congratulations! King! You will live many more years. In fact, you will survive all your relatives. Long Live the King!"
Both interpreters gave the same interpretation, but there was a huge difference in the way they said it.
Our speech must be understood by those who hear our words, but the way we say things and the intention behind them have as much power as the words themselves. Words can cause anger or appreciation. Which would you rather receive?
People who say harsh and negative things may not mean to harm, but have you ever known anyone who is a naysayer? They often look at the dark sides of things. They always see the glass as half empty rather than half full. How do you feel when you are around this type of person? Remember words have power. Use them wisely.
1. The author mentions the story of the ancient king to show that _____.

A．one dream sometimes has different explanations

B．good words can bring good luck to people

C．people should be careful when talking to a king

D．different ways of saying things have different effects

2. The underlined word "naysayer" in the last paragraph refers to a person who always _____.

A．has a negative attitude	B．likes to be praised
C．talks big	D．likes to repeat what others say

3. According to the text, how can people understand each other better?

A．By sharing different life experiences

B．By accepting different habits.

C．By properly using words

D．By recognizing different values.

4. The author wrote the last paragraph to ______.

A．show how the dark sides of things affect people

B．advise people to see and say things positively

C．show how harsh and negative words hurt people

D．advise people to stay away from negative people

5. The passage mainly talks about ______.

A．the power of words	B．the cruelty of the king
C．how to understand others	D．how to build good relationships

【推荐1】An artificial intelligence that navigates (导航) its environment much like mammals could help solve a mystery about our own internal GPS.

Equipped with virtual versions of specialized brain nerve cells called grid(网格) cells, the AI could easily solve and plan new routes through virtual mazes (迷宫). That performance, described online May 9 in Nature, suggests the grid cells in animal brains play a critical role in path planning.

“This is a big step forward in understanding our own navigational neural circuitry(电路),”says Ingmar Kanitscheider, a computational neuroscientist at the University of Texas at Austin not involved in the work. The discovery that rats track their location with the help of grid cells earned a Norwegian research team the 2014 Nobel Prize in physiology to medicine. Neuroscientists suspected these cells, which have also been found in humans, might help not only give mammals an internal, coordinate(协同) system, but also plan direct paths between points.

To test that idea, neuroscientist Caswell Barry at University College London, along with colleagues at Google DeepMind, created an AI that contained virtual nerve cells, or neurons, whose activity resembled that of real grid cells. The researchers trained this AI to navigate virtual mazes by giving the system reward signals when it reached its destination.

The AI bested a human expert player at solving the virtual mazes, and proved savvier than other artificial neural networks in planning ways through mazes larger than those traversed (横穿的) during its training. When a door opened to provide a shortcut through the maze, the new AI took the more direct route. By contrast, AI systems without artificial grid cells ignored the open door and took long the way around.

These findings support the idea that grid cells do more than help mammals orient themselves in time and space; they also help animals plan the most straightforward direction to destinations. AI also appears to be “a very powerful tool” for testing other neuroscience theories, Barry says. He and his colleagues suggest that virtual experiments on artificial neural networks that imitate different regions of the brain may eventually replace some animal testing.

But there are limitations to using AI to study the brain. Because the system is meant to learn on its own, researchers can't tell why the system made a specific decision, says neuroscientist Francesco Savelli at Johns Hopkings University, whose commentary also appears online May 9 in Nature.

1. What's the function of the virtual grid cells?

A．Assisting the AI in finding a way-out.

B．Controlling the growth of nerve cells.

C．Helping animals adapt to the environment.

D．Promoting the cooperation between AI robots.

2. The underlined word “savvier” in Paragraph 5 most probably means _____.

A．slower

B．wiser

C．earlier

D．quicker

3. What can we infer from Paragraph 6?

A．Animals are as intelligent as humans.

B．Grid cells are more important than other nerve cells.

C．Humans will be equipped with the virtual grid cells.

D．Animal testing on the brain will be reduced in future.

4. What is Francesco Savelli unclear about?

A．How the AI system works.

B．Ways of AI learning on its own.

C．How effective reward signals will work on a robot.

D．The relationship between different regions of the brain.

【推荐2】Happiness pays off, studies show.
Psychologists seeking the real secrets of happiness report that very happy people tend to be more extroverted and agreeable than less happy people.
“Our findings suggest that very happy people have rich and satisfying social relationships and spend little time alone compared to average people,” write psychologists Ed Diener and Martin E. P. Seligman in the journal Psychological Science.
Solid social relationships do not promise happiness, but they are an important contributing factor. The very happy people whom the authors studied all said they had good quality social relationships. However, the authors write, there is no single key to high happiness. “High happiness seems to be like beautiful symphonic music--including many instruments, without any one being enough for the beautiful quality.”
Diener regards happiness as “subjective (主观的) well­being”--in other words, the person evaluates his or her own quality of life. The question to ask is, “Is my life going well, according to the standards I choose to use?” If the answer is “yes”, then that person is judged to be happy.
Because people evaluate their lives based on happiness, subjective well­being is very important. Though necessary, it is not enough for having a good life. “Subjective well­being seems quite necessary for the ‘good society’, although it is not enough for that society because there are other things we also value and would want in such a place.” says Diener.
Can subjective well­being be measured scientificall? Diener points out three parts contributing to happiness: pleasant emotions and moods, lack of negative emotions and moods, and satisfaction judgment, to which other factors including cheerfulness and feelings of fulfillment may be added.
There is no magic formula for happiness. Diener suggests steps you can take to ensure you are as happy as you can be. Surrounding yourself with good friends and family--people who care about you and whom you care about--is a start. Joining in activities you enjoy and value is also important; whether it’s work or play, keeping busy in an environment enjoyable to you will contribute much to your subjective well­being. In addition, a healthy outlook is necessary.
1. The underlined word “extroverted” probably means________.

A．pleasant and social	B．hard­working and active
C．careful and shy	D．warm­hearted and helpful

2. Happiness and symphonic music are common in that________.

A．they are both something beautiful

B．they both make people feel pleased

C．they both depend on more than one factor

D．they are both hard to achieve

3. According to Diener, a person can be judged to be happy when he________.

A．has rich and satisfying social relationships

B．spends more time with other people

C．joins in a lot of activities he enjoys and keeps himself optimistic

D．thinks his life is going well according to his own standards

4. Which of the following does NOT belong to factors contributing to happiness?

A．Pleasant moods.

B．Negative emotions.

C．Satisfaction judgment.

D．Feelings of fulfillment.

【推荐3】After spending the first five years of his life in San Diego, Adam Driver's family packet up and moved to a small town in Indiana, where Adam enjoyed a relatively routine adolescence. Then the horrific events of September 11th made Adam's life become anything but routine.

Just a few months following the events, Driver decided to join the United States Marine Corps. He considered 9/11 as being one of the reasons for joining the army, with his desire to leave Indiana providing the rest. He once said,"I'm grateful for having grown up in Indiana, but I needed to go out and the Marine Corps was a nice, stable option." After serving for two and a half years, and just two months before he was sent to Iraq, Driver injured his sternum in a biking accident. After he was healed, he injured it again during military training, which resulted in an honorable medical discharge.

After leaving the military, Driver decided to try his hand at acting. At first he studied close to home at the University of Indianapolis, but after just a year, he transferred to Julliard in New York City. He lived in a tiny apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey apartment while studying drama at a prestigious performing arts conservatory（音乐学院）. Following his graduation in 2009, Driver immediately began appearing in plays, including 2010's Mrs. Warren's Profession.

Adam's first major television experience was a guest spot on Law & Order, and was soon followed by a small role in the award-winning film You Don't Know Jack, which was Driver's first experience working with Home Box Office. Then after landing his star-making role on Girls, Driver was cast in a handful of feature films, including 2011's J. Edgar and 2012's Gayby, Not Waving but Drowning and Frances Ha.

He'll appear next year in the Coen brother's Inside Llewyn Davis and Steven Spielberg's Lincoln.

1. According to the passage one important reason why Adam Driver joined the army was that        .

A．his father was an army officer

B．he wanted to become rich

C．he thought Indiana was a good place to live in

D．he didn't want to live in Indiana

2. Adam Driver had to leave the army because        .

A．he found the life there boring

B．his officer disliked him

C．his performance in the army was terrible

D．his chest was injured

3. When did Adam Driver begin to study drama?

A．After leaving the army.	B．After moving to Indiana.
C．When he was in the army.	D．After his graduation.

4. What does the underlined word "discharge" probably mean in the passage?

A．Discomfort	B．Dismissal
C．Retirement	D．Discouragement

【推荐1】The organic foods have gained a lot of popularity as they are being considered as healthier and tastier. A fair number of people advocate a large-scale shift to organic farming from conventional agriculture. But this might not seem well-founded.

Since the mid-19th century, conventional industrial agriculture has become incredibly efficient on a simple land to food basis. Conventional farming gets more and more crop per square foot of land, which can mean less wilderness needs to be transformed to farmland.

To make farming more efficient, conventional agriculture uses a significant amount of synthetic fertilizer each year, and all that nitrogen(氮) enables much faster plant growth.   However, the cost is paid in vast polluted dead zones at the months of many of the world’s rivers, because much of the nitrogen ends up running off the soil and into the oceans. This also makes conventional farming one of the major threats to the environment.

To weaken the environmental impact of agriculture, improve soil quality as well as produce healthier foods, some farmers have turned to organic farming. Environmentalists have also   welcomed organic food as better for the planet than the food produced by agricultural corporations. Organic practices—refusing artificial fertilizers and chemical pesticides—are considered far more sustainable. Sales of organic food rose 7.7% in 2010, up to $26.7 billion—and people are making those purchases for their moral senses as much as their tongues.

Yet a new meta-analysis in Nature does the math and comes to a hard conclusion: organic farming produces 25% fewer crops on average than conventional agriculture. This is definitely a downside of organic farming, especially when global population is still growing rapidly.

In the Nature analysis, scientists performed an analysis of 66 studies comparing conventional and organic methods across 34 different crop species, from fruits to grains. They found that organic farming delivered a lower output for every crop type, though the difference varied widely. For crops like fruit trees, organic trailed(落后于) conventional agriculture by just 5%. Yet for major grain crops and vegetables—all of which provide the world’s main calories—conventional agriculture outperformed organics by more than 25%.

What that means is that while organic farming may be more sustainable than conventional agriculture, there are trade-offs(此消彼长)with each. So an ideal global agriculture system may borrow the best from both systems rather than upholding merely organic or conventional practices.

1. What do we know about conventional farming?

A．It produces more crops with fewer fertilisers.

B．It achieves efficiency at a huge cost to the environment.

C．If offers a long-term solution to global demand for food.

D．It performs far better for each crop type than organic farming.

2. What does the author most probably agree with?

A．Employing organic farming to plant rice.

B．Adopting organic practices to grow potato.

C．Using conventional methods to plant cabbage.

D．Applying conventional farming to grow apple.

3. Which of the following shows the development of ideas in this passage?
CP: Central Point   P: Point       Sp: Sub-point(次要点)   C: Conclusion

A．	B．
C．	D．

4. What’s the author’s purpose of writing the passage?

A．To compare two types of farming.

B．To criticize conventional agriculture.

C．To discuss the development of farming.

D．To argue for a realistic agriculture system.