【推荐1】Two hundred years ago, American students went to American schools. Like you, they studied math, spelling and geography. Unlike you, they also studied Greek (希腊语) and Latin (拉丁语). In fact, students spent more than half their time studying Greek and Latin.

The same was true for most students in Europe. Until the seventh century, all educated Europeans knew Latin. It did not matter if they lived in England, Italy, France or Spain. If they were educated, they knew Latin.

During the seventh century, educated Europeans began to study Greek as well as Latin. Greek and Latin had been the leading languages of the ancient Greeks and Romans. All educated Europeans were expected to know these languages.

To educated Europeans, the languages of the Greeks and the Romans were important. The ideas of the Greeks and Romans were also important. People knew that many of their own ideas had come from the Greeks and the Romans. To understand their own culture, they must understand its origin (起源). They knew that those beginnings lay in the classical (古典文学的) world.

Today we have so many things to study that few people have time to learn Greek and Latin. Few of you will study either language in school. Yet the ideas of the Greeks and the Romans are still important to us. These ideas still help to shape western culture today. To understand our own culture, we must understand the culture of the classical world.

1. Two hundred years ago, in American schools _____.

A．there were many educated Greeks	B．Greek and Latin were very popular
C．students paid little attention to math	D．students knew little about geography

2. According to the text, Europeans thought _____.

A．the origin of their culture was unknown

B．the ideas of the Greeks were unacceptable

C．Greek was much more important than Latin

D．the Romans had a great influence on their culture

3. Where does the author of the text probably come from?

A．Japan.

B．Greece.

C．America.

D．China.

4. In the last paragraph, the author suggests that _____.

A．it’s of great value to learn Greek and Latin

B．it’s quite difficult to learn Greek and Latin

C．the culture of the classical world is useless nowadays

D．Western culture is quite different from Greek and Roman cultures

【推荐2】Some Phrases That Defined 2020

For the first time since 2004, when Oxford Languages, the publisher of the O.E.D., started choosing a Word of the Year 2020, it declined to pick just one. We couldn't pick one, either. But here are some words and phrases that we think capture what it felt like to be alive in 2020,

Blursday

The passage of time itself became seemingly unreliable this year, as some days felt like a week while some months flew by in an instant. Our friends even launched a newsletter called "What Day Is It?"

Remote learning

Farah Miller, an editor, shares her family's experience with remote learning this year. "Schools shuttered without a plan for how to teach homebound kids. My preschooler was given five worksheets and a list of activities she couldn't possibly do on her own. Or are they really remotely learning? That was the question I, along with parents across the US, found myself asking in the spring.”

Social distancing

As experts learned more about the spread of the virus, "6 feet" became the golden number; the distance we should stay away from others to prevent the spread of COVID-19, yes, but also a shorthand for how to navigate socialization in the new world.

Zoom

Up until around March of this year, Zoom was unknown to the public. Then the home became the office for millions of Americans, and our social lives moved entirely online. Almost overnight Zoom emerged as the go-to platform for private citizens, religious services and universities. "We Live in Zoom Now," The Times even declared.

1. In what situation can the word "blursday" be used according to the passage?

A．One is anxious about humans' future.

B．One misses the good old days.

C．One fails to choose a word to define 2020

D．One is not sure what day it is.

2. What's the attitude of Farah Miller to remote learning?

A．Indifferent.	B．Doubtful.
C．Curious.	D．Satisfied

3. What does Zoom most probably function as?

A．An online platform keeping people's social activities.

B．An app reminding people of "6 feet" social distance.

C．A newsletter to update the information of COVID-19.

D．A hi-tech instrument to keep track of people's health.

【推荐3】Words and the way we use them offer a rare window on social and cultural trends. Kory Stamper and Peter Sokolowski know that better than most.

The Merriam-Webster(韦氏词典) lexicographers(词典编纂者) are part of a team that edits the dictionary. In a recent interview, Sokolowski and Stamper talked about their job and what the way we use words says about us collectively.

So to know more about them, observers of the language, maybe we should start with some background.

What is a lexicographer?

Sokolowski: A lexicographer is a person who writes or edits a dictionary. The job of a dictionary editor is to prepare and present research about language. One of our former editors-in- chief said, “Tell the truth about words,” and that sums it up for me.

What do you guys do all day?

Stamper: The two main duties of a lexicographer are reading and defining. We read everything: books, journals, blogs, phone books, take-out menus, and so on. What we’re looking for are words that catch our eye. We record the context of these words and information about the sources. Those records are added to a database, and they are the raw material we use in writing definitions.

When we are writing or revising a dictionary, most of our time is spent defining. We define a word according to how it is used in the recorded context, deciding whether the usage has been covered by our dictionary. Once this is done, you look at the new words and new senses and draft a definition.

Drafting definitions requires some training, some experience and a lot of concentration. It’s very, very quiet on the editorial floor.

How closely do the most looked-up words on your online dictionary seem to be related to the news or trends?

Stamper: When our dictionary went online back in 1996, we could see for the first time which were the most looked-up words in English: Affect, effect and ubiquitous were the top words. It was fascinating to us—dictionary editors spend so much time writing definitions but never could have known if anyone ever read them. We could follow what people were thinking about according to what words they were looking up. Thanks to our online dictionary, we had data.

1. What do lexicographers do?

A．They collect as many words as they can and edit them into a dictionary.

B．They interview as many people as they can to collect new words.

C．They do research about language and edit the truth about words.

D．They make deep studies of social and cultural trends.

2. What’s the function of lexicographers’ records during their reading?

A．The records show how large the dictionary is.

B．The records contain what kind of things they read.

C．The records are the main things to add to the database.

D．The records offer the raw material to the editors.

3. Which of the following is the correct order of a lexicographer defining a word?
a. Write a draft of the definition.
b. Conclude the usage of the word.
c. Pay attention to the new words and new senses.
d. Decide whether the usage has been covered.

A．adbc

B．dbac

C．bdca

D．cbda

4. What does this passage mainly talk about?

A．Observers of the language.	B．Process of making a dictionary.
C．Development of language.	D．Experience of editing new words.

【推荐1】阅读表达

Smiling is a great way to make yourself stand out while helping your body to function better. Smile can improve your health, your stress level, and your attractiveness.

1. Smiling Makes Us Attractive

We are drawn to people who smile. There is an attraction factor. We want to know a smiling person and figure out what is so good because anxieties can push people away—but a smile draws them in.

2. Smiling Changes Our Mood

Next time you are feeling down, try putting on a smile. There’s a good chance your mood will change for the better. Smiling can trick the body into helping you change your mind.

3. Smiling Is Appealing

When someone is smiling they lighten up the room, change the moods of others, and make things happier. A smiling person brings happiness with them. Smile lots and you will draw people to you.

4. Smiling Relieves Stress

Stress can really show up in your faces. Smiling helps to prevent us from looking tired, worn down, and overwhelmed. When you are stressed, take time to put on a smile. The stress should be reduced and you’ll be better able to take action.

5. _______

When you smile, there is a measurable reduction in your blood pressure. Give it a try if you have a blood pressure monitor at home. Sit for a few minutes, take a reading. Then smile for a minute and take another reading while still smiling. Do you notice a difference?

6. Smiling Lifts the Face and Makes You Look Younger

The muscle we use to smile lift the face, making a person appear younger. Don’t go for a face lift, just try smiling your way through the day—you’ll look younger and feel better.

7. Smiling Helps You Stay Positive

Try this test: Smile. Now try to think of something negative without losing the smile. It’s hard. When we smile our body is sending the rest of us a message that “Life Is Good!”

1. List three aspects that smile can overcome according to the passage? (Please answer within 6 words)
2. Fill in the blank in the passage with in proper words. (Please answer within 6 words)
3. Complete the following statements with proper words according to the passage. (no more than 3 words)
Face operation is not necessary. As long as you ____, smile can make you younger better.
4. What would you do if you are feeling down? Give us at least 3 ways. (Please answer within 10 words)
5. What does the underlined word “them” in Paragraph 2 probably refer to? (no more than 2 words)

【推荐2】Facial expressions are the primary way people exhibit emotion and read the feelings of others. Happiness, sadness, disgust, fear and surprise can be communicated through facial expressions alone. But when part of the face is masked, it becomes more difficult to recognize these cues.

If you cannot read someone else' s emotional state, your ability to empathize with them may be compromised. Likewise, if your own mask is hiding your emotional state, others may not be able to empathize with you. Wearing a mask can also make you feel more distracted and self-conscious, further weakening your connection to others.

Fortunately, you can regain some control over communication by working with what you have left-the eyes. If you want to increase understanding with a masked individual, you should look them in the eyes, which may be easier said than done. Eye contact generates self- consciousness, consumes extra brain power and becomes uncomfortable after only three seconds. But bear in mind, eye contact can also make you appear more intelligent and trustworthy.

You might be surprised how much information is conveyed by the body itself. For instance, when someone is happy, they stand up straighter, when they are sad, they drop their head; and when they are angry, their whole body tenses up. Learning how people use their bodies to convey emotion may help reduce the uncertainty you feel when communicating with someone in a mask.

Become aware of your own body language, too. When engaged in a conversation, you can appear more attentive by turning your body toward the individual, leaning in or nodding. To let another person know you want to start speaking , straighten your posture, or nod more frequently. Finally, he «ware that imitating the posture of another person can increase how much they like you and even agree with you.

By all means, continue the proper measures to keep yourself safe, but don't neglect your relationships as a consequence. Social distance doesn't have to mean socially distant.

1. What will happen if you wear a mask?

A．Your fear won't be known by others.	B．Others will have difficulty understanding you.
C．You will lose the ability to empathize with others.	D．Others won't focus on your face.

2. Why is eye contact difficult?

A．It may lead to misunderstanding.	B．It requires more brain power.
C．It may cause people to believe you less.	D．It will result in social distance.

3. What does paragraph 4 and 5 mainly talk about?

A．Body language is a double-edged sword.	B．Body language can convey shocking information.
C．We should make good use of body language.	D．Be careful with your body language when talking.

4. What is the best title of this passage?

A．How do people use their bodies to convey emotion?

B．Facial expressions, the primary way of human connection.

C．Facial expressions, eye contact, body language, which is the best?

D．How do we keep socially distant to keep ourselves safe?

【推荐3】Body language is a broad term for several forms of communication using body movements or gestures, instead of, or as a complement to, sounds, verbal language, or other forms of communication. In turn, it is one category of paralanguage, which describes all forms of human communication that are not language.

Paralanguage including body language has been extensively studied in social psychology. In everyday speech and popular psychology, the term is most often applied to body language that is thought to be involuntary, but in fact the distinction between voluntary and involuntary body language is often blurred: a smile or a wave may be given either voluntarily or involuntarily, for example.

Voluntary Body Language is less commonly discussed because it seems unproblematic. It refers to movement, gestures and poses intentionally made by the person: smiling, hands, imitating actions, and generally making movements with full or partial intention of making them and a realization of what they communicate.

The relation of body language to animal communication has often been discussed. Human paralanguage may represent a continuation of forms of communication that our non-linguistic ancestors already used, or it may be that it has been changed by co-existing language. Some species of animals are especially skilled at detecting human body language, both voluntary and involuntary: this was the reason for trying to teach the chimpanzee Washoe American Sign Language rather than speech and perhaps the reason why the Washoe project was more successful than some previous efforts to teach apes how to dance.

Body language is a product of both genetic and environmental influences. Blind children will smile and   laugh even though they have never seen a smile. The ethnologist (文化人类学者) Iraneus Eibl-Eibesfeldt claimed that a number of basic elements of body language were universal across cultures and must therefore be fixed action patterns under instinctive (本能的) control. Some forms of human body language show continuities with communicative gestures of other apes, though often with changes in meaning. More refined gestures, which vary between cultures (for example the gestures to indicate “yes” and “no”), must obviously be learned or modified through learning, usually by unconscious observation of the environment.

1. Which of the following diagrams shows the right relationship __________?
① = language       ② = paralanguage       ③ = body language       ④ = verbal language

A．	B．
C．	D．

2. According to the passage, the reason why the Washoe project was a success may be that _____.

A．the chimpanzee Washoe can be taught speech

B．apes can be taught how to dance

C．Washoe can understand body language well

D．numbers of basic elements of body language are same in different cultures

3. Why does the author take the gestures to indicate “yes” and “no” for an example?

A．to give us the meaning of the two gestures

B．to tell us continuities of some fixed action patterns

C．to show environmental influences of the sign language

D．to indicate genetic effects of the body language

4. The last two paragraphs mainly talk about __________.

A．origins of the body language

B．cultural influences

C．what the body language is

D．relationships between body languages and animal communications

【推荐1】Children born in Asia are less likely to develop an allergy （过敏）to nuts than those born in Australia, according to Australian scientists.

A questionnaire from University of Melbourne distributed to 57,000 five-year-old children in the state of Victoria found that, of those voted, none of the children born in Asia then migrated （迁移） to Australia had an allergy to nuts.

However, children with Asian parents born in Australia were found to be up to three times more likely to develop an allergy to nuts than children with Australian parents.

The findings have led researchers to believe that the Asian environment somehow protects children against developing many food allergies.

Professor Katie Allen, who led the University of Melbourne research, said that this discovery could help us understand why allergy rates were rising in Australia and possibly lead to the development of a treatment.

We know that food allergies are a new kid on the block; we know this has happened in the last 20 to 30 years so we know it's something to do with modern lifestyle," Allen told Xinhua in an interview on Wednesday.

So if we can work out if it's one factor, or several factors working together, then we can turn back the tide."

Allen theorized that there were three contributing factors to the Asian environment preventing allergies from developing; Vitamin D, allergen exposure and exposure to a greater variety of organisms.

People living in Asia have often had to deal with coming into contacts with different levels of public health so their immune system is healthy and able to fight off allergies," she said.

"People are enetically at risk of developing allergies if they're Asian but if they're born in Asia those protective factors come into play."

1. What can you infer according to Paragraph 1?

A．The children born in Asia will never have an allergy to nuts.

B．Children are protected against developing all kinds of allergies.

C．Australian parents are more likely to develop an allergy than Asian parents.

D．Children born in Australia are more likely to develop an allergy than those born in Asia.

2. Why were allergy rates rising in Australia in Professor Katie Allen's opinion?

A．Because of the Australian environment.

B．Because of the Australian unhealthy food.

C． Because of the Australian water.

D．Because of too fast development of Australia.

3. Which of the following is not the factor to prevent allergies from developing?

A．Vitamin D.	B．Immune system.
C．Allergen exposure.	D．Exposure to all sorts of organisms.

4. What's the main idea of the passage?

A．A questionnaire from University of Melbourne.

B．People are genetically at risk of developing allergies.

C．Asian immune system is healthy and able to fight off allergies.

D．Who are more likely to develop an allergy, kids born in Australia or Asia?