【推荐1】In the US, tornadoes (龙卷风) are responsible for 80 deaths and more than 1,500 injuries each year. Although they happen quite frequently, tornadoes are difficult to predict. Why? Tornadoes develop from storms, but only some storms are likely to become tornadoes. Scientists don’t know where and when a storm will touch the ground and turn into a tornado. Today, the warning time for a tornado is usually just 13 minutes.

Time Samaras is a storm chaser. His job is to find tornadoes and follow them. When he gets close to a tornado, he puts a special tool called a turtle probe on the ground. This tool measures things like a tornado’s temperature, humidity (湿度), and wind speed. With this information, Samaras can learn what causes tornadoes to develop. If meteorologists (气象学家) understand this, they can warn people about tornadoes sooner and save lives.

How does Samaras hunt tornadoes? It’s not easy. First, he has to find one. Tornadoes are too small to see using weather satellites. So Samaras can’t rely on these tools to find a tornado. Instead, he waits for tornadoes to develop. Every May and June, Samaras drives about 40,000 kilometers across an area known as Tornado Alley, looking and hoping to spot a tornado.

Once Samaras sees a tornado, the chase begins. But a tornado is hard to follow. Some tornadoes change direction several times — for example, moving east and then west and then east again. When Samaras finally gets near a tornado, he puts the turtle probe on the ground. Being this close to a tornado is terrifying. Debris (碎片) is flying in the air. Then wind is blowing at high speed. He must get away quickly.

The work is risky, even for a skilled chaser like Samaras. But danger won’t stop his hunt for the perfect storm.

1. What do we know about tornadoes?

A．They can be predicted by satellites.	B．They usually come down in winter.
C．The warning time for them is very short.	D．They often develop into storms.

2. A turtle probe is used to ________．

A．predict tornadoes	B．collect information about tornadoes
C．chase tornadoes	D．decrease the power of tornadoes

3. The third paragraph is mainly about ________．

A．how tornadoes develop	B．how the turtle probe works
C．how powerful Tornado Alley is	D．how Samaras chases a tornado

4. According to the text, the job of a tornado chaser is ________．

A．difficult and dangerous	B．stressful and troublesome
C．mysterious and interesting	D．exciting and popular

【推荐2】High school freshmen always have a lot of questions on their minds. "What can I do when I grow up?" is one of them. It's definitely not too early to start thinking about his tough question. The following tips may help equip you for your future career.

Think beyond grades

Getting good grades in high school is important, but focusing only on straight A's could go wrong. Spending too much time on your schoolwork will leave you little time to explore opportunities outside of the classroom. Extracurricular activities are necessary because they serve as a form of career exploration. They can help you figure out your work preferences, like whether you are a "people person" or prefer to work alone. Nowadays, most well-known colleges care about candidates' experiences as much as their grades.

Seek advice from grown-ups

Talk to your parents, teachers and school counselors about how they started their careers. Even though you're interested in the careers they are in, it would be useful to learn about the process which got them where they are now. If you find your friend's mother doing a worthwhile job by chance, ask her if job shadowing is possible in her company during vacation. After all, seeing a typical day in the position you have an interest in can be an invaluable experience.

Start your search online

If you really have no idea what you can do when you grow up, take online career quizzes to get ideas about what professions naturally match your skills, interests and personality traits. For the time being, you just need to focus on finding a field or two that interests you, rather than a specific career. Chances are you'll change your mind several times before finding a career that you want to stick to. Starting to explore career options now can at least help you decide what your potential major might be.

1. Spending some time taking part in after-school activities can help high school students ________.

A．get A's in all subjects	B．explore their work preferences
C．have access to prestigious universities	D．get along with their classmates

2. Grown-ups may help high school students by _________.

A．starting a business with them	B．teaching them occupational skills
C．sharing their career paths with them	D．providing an opportunity for job shadowing

3. It is suggested that high school students find out their _______ from online career quizzes.

A．possible professions	B．main disadvantages
C．specific occupations	D．ideal majors

4. This article was probably written by a __________.

A．college professor	B．school counselor
C．advertising manager	D．computer programmer

【推荐2】National lawmakers are calling for more effective environmental protection of the Qilian Mountains, a vast natural habitat in western China.

The mountains stand across the border between Gansu and Qinghai provinces. The nature reserve became a national protected site in 1988, but hundreds of mines in the area and various construction projects took a toll on the environment.

Thanks to the recovery of the mountains’ environment and greater efforts to protect wildlife, many protected and rare wild animals have been sighted very often in recent years.

The city has also moved away all farmers, herdsmen and one-third of its people who were living in the mountains to a new zone and helped them find jobs in an effort to reduce the pressure on the environment.

Scientific research and advanced technology are key to the restoration (重建) of the mountains’ ecology (生态), said Wang Tao, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences^, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources.

Wang said a research center led by the institute was set up last year to focus on ecosystem recovery and the ecological management of the mountains under the influence of global climate change.

The center has begun research to carry out environmental observation and assessment (评估), providing support for the creation of a Qilian Mountains national park, he added.

To better protect the mountains, Wang said, it’s necessary to promote large-scale, rapid observation approach and build a great ecological assessment system in the reserve.

A data-sharing (数据共享) management system should be pushed forward to create a database (数据库) of the mountains^, environment, which would support its protection in a scientific way, he added.

1. What does the underlined phrase “took a toll” in the second paragraph mean?

A．protected

B．ignored

C．harmed

D．controlled

2. What’s the purpose of moving away people working and living in the mountains?

A．To create a national park

B．To found a research center.

C．To increase the number of wildlife.

D．To reduce the pressure on the environment.

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

A．Rare wild animals can be seen everywhere in the reserve.

B．A research center was established for ecosystem restoration.

C．Since 1988, the Qilian Mountains have been well protected.

D．Many effective laws have been made to protect the environment.

4. What do Wang Tao’s words suggest?

A．An ecological assessment system should be set up.

B．Scientific research plays the biggest part in restoring ecology.

C．Global climate change influences the research on ecological assessment.

D．A data-sharing management system has been widely applied in the reserve.

【推荐3】If you live in Shanghai, you might have to take a “lesson” in sorting garbage (垃圾分类), as the city recently introduced new garbage-sorting rules.

It’s   now   required that   people   should   sort   garbage   into   four   groups,   namely   recyclable, harmful, dry and wet waste. However, if people fail to sort their garbage properly, they can be fined up to 200 yuan.

More cities are introducing similar rules, following the practice in Shanghai. By the end of 2020, garbage-sorting systems will have been built in 46 major Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shenzhen, reported People’s Daily.

According to a study by the Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy, under the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, over 90 percent of the public believe that garbage sorting is important for the protection of the environment.

However, garbage sorting is still a big problem in China. Only 30 percent of participants(参加者) said they think they are adequately sorting their garbage, the study noted.

According to Xinhua News Agency, it’s partly because many people lack the willingness to sort their own waste. In the past, some garbage rules didn’t give clear fines for people who failed to sort garbage.

“It’s a must to have a legal guarantee (法律保障) to support garbage sorting,” Liu Jianguo, a professor from Tsinghua University, told China Daily.

Liu Xinyu, a researcher of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told China Daily that the importance of the new rules in Shanghai is to change the past voluntary action into compulsory action for everyone.

Besides China, many other foreign countries have also introduced garbage-sorting rules. In Japan, waste sorting has become a basic survival skill, reported Xinhua. There is a fixed time to deal with each kind of garbage and littering can result in high fines and being sentenced in prison.

In Germany too, people are asked to sort waste into specific groups, reported HuffPost. For example, in Berlin, people have yellow dustbins for plastic and metals and blue dustbins for paper and cardboard.

1. What do we know about garbage sorting in Shanghai?

A．People should put their garbage into two groups.

B．People will be fined 200 yuan each time they break the rules.

C．Shanghai is the first city to introduce garbage-sorting rules in the world.

D．It sets an example for many other cities in China.

2. What does the underlined phrase “result in” mean?

A．put off

B．lead to

C．turn in

D．cut down

3. The main point of the passage is

A．Why garbage sorting is important.

B．How other countries sort garbage.

C．Garbage sorting has started in China.

D．The world’s garbage problem is becoming worse.

【推荐1】Most funny stories are based on comic situations. In spite of national differences, certain funny situations have a universal attraction. No matter where you live, you would find it difficult not to laugh at, say Charlie Chaplin’s early films. However, a new type of humour, which starts largely from the US, has recently come into fashion. It is called “sick humour”.

Comedians base their jokes on tragic situations like violent deaths or serious accidents. The following “sick humour” will enable you to amuse yourself.

A man who had broken his right leg was taken to hospital a few weeks before Christmas From the moment he arrived there, he kept on bothering his doctor to tell him when he would be able to go home. He was afraid of having to spend Christmas in hospital. Though the doctor did his best, the patient’s recovery was slow. On Christmas Day, the man still had his right leg in plaster(石膏).

He spent a miserable day in bed thinking of all the fun he was missing. The following day, however, the doctor consoled him by telling him that his chances of being able to leave hospital in time for New Year celebrations were good. The man took heart and, sure enough, on New Year’s Eve he was able to hobble(蹒跚) along to a party. To make up for his unpleasant experiences in hospital, the man drank a little more than what was good for him. In the process, he enjoyed himself thoroughly and kept telling everybody how much he hated hospitals. He was still murmuring something about hospitals at the end of the party when he slipped on a piece of ice and broke his left leg.

1. What can we infer from the passage?

A．No pains,no gains.

B．Extreme joy begets sorrow.

C．Once a thief,always a thief.

D．Good medicine tastes bitter.

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

A．A new kind of humour came into being.

B．How to cure your legs is important.

C．Christmas is more necessary than anything else.

D．Holding a party is interesting for the westerners.

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

A．All the humour stories are funny in spite of different nationalities.

B．One can realise the humour of the stories in his own country.

C．Charlie Chaplin made it difficult to laugh at his action.

D．Almost all the audience can be made to laugh at some famous comedians’ action.

4. What does the underlined word “consoled” mean?

A．Comforted.	B．Overcame.
C．Confused.	D．Disturbed.

【推荐2】

We’ve all been there. You’re around new people and you just want to impress them. It can be easy to pretend you know about movies, politics, or science just to get through an awkward situation. But contrary to what feels most natural, a new series of five studies from Pepperdine University shows that those who can admit when they don’t know something tend to actually have more knowledge. If you want to make those people think you’re smart, maybe the best thing to say is “I don’t know.”

For the study, which was led by Elizabeth Krumrei-Mancuso, the team of researchers had one question: Is there a knowledge benefit to admitting intellectual fallibility? To find out, they ran not one, not two, but five separate experiments. They engaged nearly 1,200 participants in their study, and evaluated them using a number of questionnaires testing their cognitive abilities, measuring their own predictions of their cognitive abilities, and, of course, rating their levels of intellectual humility.

For that last part, they used different methods in different studies to get a more well﹣rounded set of results. One IH survey used eight questions to assess participants on two elements: the “Knowing﹣It﹣All” subscale, which judged their attitudes of intellectual superiority, and the “Intellectual Openness” subscale, which assessed how open they were to learning from others. In other studies, they used the 22-question “Comprehensive Intellectual Humility Scale,” which assesses participants on four elements: independence of intellect and ego, openness to revising one’s viewpoint, respect for others’ viewpoints, and lack of intellectual overconfidence. The five studies were used to examine past learning, thinking styles, traits, and motivations.

What the researchers may agree is that the best thing to remember is that curiosity seems to be a good thing. The world is big, and it’s impossible to know everything. At your next dinner party, ask questions and admit your own cluelessness. It might make you a little less clueless next time.

1. Why did Elizabeth Krumrei-Mancuso led the study？     

A．to find out whether admitting that you don’t know something is beneficial.

B．to find the certain benefit of admitting intellectual disability.

C．to compare the modest people with proud people.

D．to stress the importance of curiosity.

2. From the article, we can learn that     .

A．we all tend to pretend we have a good command of knowledge.

B．the study engaged over 1,200 participants in their study.

C．”I don’t know” may be a good answer to people who ask you if you are clever.

D．a number of questionnaires are used to test participants’ cognitive humility.

3. What is the best title of the article？     

A．Be yourself!	B．Admitting your fallibility!
C．Express your drawbacks!	D．Let curiosity lead you!

【推荐3】Everybody knows that Coca Cola is red and Starbucks is green. Most of us can name companies and their own brand colors. What we may not know about is the science behind these companies' choices of these colors. Color psychology is the study of how colors affect people's feelings, actions, and decision-making. Companies use color psychology when they develop their brands and advertisements in order to encourage us to buy. In fact studies have shown that around 90 percent of people spend money depending on color and appearance. Because of this, companies use colors to influence how we feel about their products. For example, it’s no accident that many tech products use white; it's simple and clean. At the same time, cosmetics companies prefer colors like purple, black, or pink that mean love, comfort, and romance.

Companies often choose active colors that make you buy right now. Red, for example, is a high-energy, exciting color that moves people to take action. Yellow is the color of summer, and it’s bright and remarkable. In fact, most big companies have something to do with certain specific colors. Studies show that customers prefer brands that they know. Then those with a proper color plan, such as LEGO or Facebook are likely to perform more strongly on the market. Research has also shown that men and women like different colors. Men prefer blue, green, and black while women prefer like purple and pink.

1. What products are usually made white?

A．Food and drinks.	B．Clothes for women.
C．Computer and earphones.	D．Starbucks

2. What is TRUE about LEGO and Facebook?

A．They pay attention to the color plan.	B．They may be popular on the market.
C．They may be bright and remarkable.	D．They decide to choose red and yellow for the plan.

3. What products may make Mary buy it\ them now?

A．A coat in pink.	B．A pair of shoes in green.
C．A handbag in black.	D．A T-shirt in yellow

4. The purpose of this passage is to tell us______.

A．Few companies use color psychology.

B．Colors influence our shopping habits.

C．We should buy something according to it's color.

D．colors don’t affect people's feelings, actions, and decision-making.