At the age of 5, most children in the USA start to go to school. Public education is free and most children go to schools near their homes. School in these early years is fun. The children learn to read and write. But they also play games and go on trips. There is no reason at such an early age for him to hit the books.
The situation changes as children become older. The subjects become more difficult. Students must learn about world history, algebra (代数), and the life sciences. Tests become more common. Pressure (压力) is growing to hit the books, study hard, and make progress. However, most serious students only really begin hitting the books for long hours when they reach high school.
High school students who hope to continue their education at a college or university must take a special national test called the S-A-T. The test has two parts. The first part tests the student’s ability with numbers and mathematical skills. The second part tests the student’s ability in the English language.
The S-A-T test is very important. A high school student who gets a high score on the two parts of the test has a good chance to enter a top American college. For this reason, many students hit the books for months to prepare for the S-A-T.
1. The underlined part “hitting the books” in paragraph 2 probably means _____.| A．throwing books around | B．studying a subject in a hurry |
| C．reading books with great effort | D．beating books hard |
| A．have to take the S-A-T |
| B．have to work hard if they want to go on to college |
| C．don’t hit the books until they pass the S-A-T |
| D．are all free and happy |
| A．to pay for the education |
| B．to work hard at their lessons |
| C．to pass the S-A-T test |
| D．to take many tests |
| A．In America the students have to pass a certain test to continue their education. |
| B．The students needn’t spend much time preparing for the S-A-T. |
| C．Those who fail in the S-A-T may go to a top college. |
| D．Young children needn’t work hard at their lessons because education is free. |
| A．why American students needn’t work hard |
| B．how American students pass the S-A-T test |
| C．what American students do to get good scores |
| D．how American students are educated at school |
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Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality (好客) easily.
Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don’t show their politeness to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time.
Sometimes, we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homes, but truly can not manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily routine. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably.
For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for purely business matters. So accept their hospitality at home!
1. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Friendships between Americans usually last for all their lives. |
| B．Americans always show their warmth even if they are very busy. |
| C．Americans will continue their friendships again even after a long break. |
| D．Friendships between Americans usually extend deeply into their families. |
| A．offered a ride to his home |
| B．treated hospitably at his home |
| C．treated to dinner in a restaurant |
| D．warmly welcomed at the airport |
| A．Americans’ and Chinese’s views of friendships. |
| B．Friendships between Americans. |
| C．Friendships between Chinese. |
| D．Americans’ hospitality . |
【推荐2】Bred (培育) to be sweeter, today’s cherries, bananas and apples taste different than they used to but not necessarily better. Among fruit farmers, the word “quality” is now routinely used as a standard for “high in sugar”, though firmness, color and size are also considerations. In a recent study about ways to increase the sweetness of fruit using “molecular (分子的) approaches”, a group of plant scientists wrote that, in general, the sugar content of many fruits are now higher than before owing to continuous selection and breeding. Modern apple varieties, the scientists stressed, were on average sweeter than older ones.
The sweetness of fruit depends not just on how it is bred but also on growing conditions, yield (产量) and harvest. The lead researcher, Sugiura, said, “If you could taste an apple harvested 30 years ago, you would feel the difference.” He believed that modern apples are picked so early that even if they are bred for sweetness, they often don’t develop their full character. The fragrance (香味) never develops in fruit that is harvested too early.
Jim Cooper, an apple farmer in England, is regretful to admit the fact that many people will never taste the “strawberry hint” in a really ripe Pearmain, a type of heritage apple. Although sweeter fruit has gained great popularity, the older generation still miss the fruit’s taste in their childhood.
But the sweetness of modern fruit is not without its problems, especially for people with diabetes (糖尿病), who have to reduce their intake of higher-sugar fruits. Fruit that is bred sweeter also tends to be lower in the chemicals that make it healthy. Considering health, maybe the real problem with modern fruit is that it has become yet another sweet thing in a world with sugar. Even grapefruits, which used to be quite bitter, are sometimes now as sweet as oranges. If you’ve never tasted a sour cherry, how can you fully appreciate a sweet one?
1. In what aspect are many fruits different from before?| A．Bright color. | B．Soft skin. |
| C．Sugar content. | D．High yield. |
| A．They are bred too early. | B．They are losing a good taste. |
| C．They taste so sweet. | D．They need a higher yield. |
| A．Critical. | B．Doubtful. |
| C．Favorable. | D．Uncaring. |
| A．Sweeter Doesn’t Mean Better |
| B．How to Breed Fruits for Sweetness |
| C．Modern Fruits No Longer Taste the Same as Before |
| D．Breeding Sweet Fruits Improves the Quality of Fruits |
【推荐3】With the summer heat becoming increasingly unbearable over the years due to climate change, the cooling load in the summertime has also been on the rise. Insulation (隔热) is currently the main solution for blocking heat from entering a building, but by applying an additional material that can delay heat penetration (渗透), it can prevent the indoor temperature from rising and in turn lower the cooling load of the building.
A research team in Korea has developed a new material for building walls that can help reduce the penetration of heat from the outside. The team directed by Dr. Sarng Woo Karng from KIST revealed that they have successfully done it through building walls by applying a phase change material (PCM).One of the most common types is paraffin oil, which is used to make candles.
A solid PCM absorbs heat as it transforms into a liquid phase, so by using a case to hold it when it is in a liquid phase without causing any leakage, it is possible to apply them to a building wall to block heat from entering inside.
The problem, however, is that the PCM turns into liquid starting from the outermost layer, and the parts that are hot move upward, while the parts that are still relatively cool move downward. Thus, while the upper part may have completely melted, the lower part will have not, and as a result, heat will penetrate into the building through the area where the PCM is in a liquid phase. In the end, the PCM becomes ineffective in controlling the indoor temperature and is rendered useless.
Dr. Karng’s team addressed the non-uniform phase change with bubble injections .Injecting bubbles into the bottom part of the PCM enabled uniform circulation (流动) of the PCM in a liquid phase. Dr.Karng said, “We expect that the insulating wall using the PCM bubble generator used in this study will contribute to reducing the amount of energy used to heat or cool a building. Insulation techniques using the PCM help reduce heat penetration, in combination with the building insulating material, and it can also be used as the outer walls of zero-energy buildings.
1. What kind of function do PCMs serve according to the text?| A．Lowering heat penetration. | B．Making the walls stronger. |
| C．Being used to make candles. | D．Perfecting the building walls. |
| A．To test its effect. | B．To avoid the risks. |
| C．To block the heat. | D．To stay in shape. |
| A．They are imperfect. | B．They are ineffective. |
| C．They are low-cost. | D．They are environmentally friendly. |
【推荐1】STEM(Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education is future-oriented (面向未来的). The demands for jobs that need routine skills have decreased, while those requiring more technical (技术的) skills have increased. We should encourage students to choose STEM fields after school.
Improve the image of science.
Many people view science as something tough and boring. Much of this can be blamed on those movies and books that describe scientists as nerdy (书呆子).
If a student sees that a teacher is knowledgeable and passionate about science, then they will try to follow in their footsteps. So, try to act as their role model.
Make it fun.
You should get students involved in science at an early stage and try to make it fun and interesting. You can use hands-on experiments to develop their interest in science.
Connect it to everyday life.
You should show students how science is used in everyday life. We have cellphones, video games, computers, etc. because of science.
Give them opportunities.
You can create competitions and ask the students to use science to come up with new ideas, designs, etc.
| A．Bring it to life. |
| B．Be a positive role model. |
| C．Teachers can play a big role in changing this view. |
| D．You should tell them how these things are making our life better. |
| E．For example, you can ask them to develop an app for everyday use. |
| F．Here are some ways to inspire students to choose science for their future. |
| G．You should encourage students to watch different programs related to science. |
【推荐2】As a kid, I hated having to memorise those long-winded speeches of Macbeth and Hamlet. Only later did I realise how brilliant Shakespeare was and how knowing his plays gives you a facility for language and deep insight into human psychology.
Now, 400 years later, in today’s world, quick rewards, and smooth-talking influencers, the dishonest characters in Shakespeare’s works are still very much alive. For instance, whenever I see a politician defend himself on TV with righteous indignation (义愤填膺), I remember a line from the play Hamlet: “The Lady doth protest too much, me-thinks.” It is spoken in response to the overacting of a character in the play created by Prince Hamlet to prove his uncle had killed his father. Today the phrase is commonly used to indicate doubt of someone’s sincerity.
A good education grounds you in permanent wisdom that helps you cope with all your victories and disasters. Learning algebra (代数) and statistics helps you make better financial decisions and basic knowledge about economics helps you get out of the stock market before the bubble bursts. I know how hard it can be for your teenage brain to focus on things that don’t make sense in your life right now. But my advice is to do it anyway because one day this knowledge will come in handy.
Take, for example, the 18th century English economist and scholar Thomas Robert Malthus wrote about how the human population was growing at too fast a rate to be sustainable. After reading his works Charles Darwin developed the theory of biological evolution.
People often say that in the age of AI, you don’t look for jobs you look for opportunities instead. To recognize these, you will need to be prepared. More specifically, you should cherish the opportunity to learn new things while never losing sight of the basic principle. The great thing about being grounded in the basics of different areas of study is that you can mix and match them to apply them to all sorts of situations.
1. What does the underlined word “ground” mean in the third paragraph?| A．Lay the foundation for. | B．Keep up with. |
| C．Take advantage of. | D．Make the most of. |
| A．To show his deep insight into sustainable development. |
| B．To prove the success of Darwin is based on his ideas. |
| C．To draw readers’ attention to the fast-growing population. |
| D．To inspire everyone to make efforts to learn skills. |
| A．By making preparations for finding jobs. |
| B．By grasping knowledge on the basic rules. |
| C．By applying theories to different situations. |
| D．By developing practical and critical theories. |
| A．How the Opportunities Hit Me on the Head |
| B．Reading Shakespeare Opens the Door to Wisdom |
| C．Good Education Pushes Individuals Hard Forward |
| D．You Never Know When What You Know Will Come in Handy |
Ireland now has one of the best education systems in the world. Class sizes are small, exam results are good and most children are happy to stay at school after the minimum(最低的) leaving age of sixteen.
| A．In many ways, education is now a woman’s world. |
| B．Parents used to pay for their children’s education. |
| C．In addition, they must choose two or three extra subjects. |
| D．Public schools in Ireland are not run by the government. |
| E．It is easy to forget that the picture used to be very different. |
| F．Here, children do not learn any subjects but some basic skills.ZXXK] |
| G．There were many different kinds of school, but most of them had a lot in common. |
