【推荐1】After his baby son lost his eye to retinoblastoma (视网膜母细胞瘤), this father found a way to save others from the same fate.

Like almost every set of new parents. Bryan and Elizabeth Shaw started taking pictures of their son, Noah, practically from the moment he was born. When he was about three months old, Elizabeth noticed something odd when she took his picture. The flash on their digital camera created the typical red dot in the center of Noah’s left eye, but the right eye had a white spot at the center, almost as if the flash was being reflected back at the camera by something.

When Elizabeth mentioned the strange phenomenon to their doctor, she shined a light into Noah’s eye, and saw the same white reflection, a tell-tale sign of retinal (视网膜的) cancer. After that, Noah received months of chemotherapy and radiation, but doctors finally could not save his eye.

Noah’s tumour (肿瘤) is treatable if caught early. Bryan Shaw couldn’t help but wonder whether there were signs he’d missed. He went back over every baby picture of Noah he could find and discovered the first white spot in a photo taken when Noah was 12 days old. “By the time he was four months old, it was showing up in 25 per cent of the pictures taken of him per month,” Bryan told People.

It was too late for Noah’s eye, but Bryan was determined to put his hard-won insights to good use, so he created a database that charted the cancer’s appearance in every photo. He also collected photos and data from eight other children with retinoblastoma. Armed with that data, he began to work with colleagues to develop a smartphone app that can scan the photos in the user’s camera roll to search for white eye and can be used as a kind of ophthalmoscope (检眼镜). Called White Eye Detector, it is now available for free on Google Play and in Apple’s App Store.

1. Which can be inferred from the passage?

A．Noah’s discase was treatable when discovered.

B．Noah got the discase when he was three months old.

C．Noah’s parents failed to notice his symptoms at the beginning.

D．Neither of Noah’s eyes could be saved for a delay in treatment.

2. Why did Bryan create the database?

A．To create a photo scanner on the phone.

B．To collect the data of children with the disease.

C．To assess his hard-won insights into the disease.

D．To use his knowledge to save others from the disease.

3. What’s the writing purpose of this passage?

A．To speak highly of father’s love.

B．To introduce a type of eye cancer.

C．To raise people’s awareness of eye protection.

D．To report a father’s creation of an eye-saving app.

【推荐2】I went to a New York Mets fantasy camp in 1995, an incredible experience. I was fortunate to be on a team whose pitching coach was Mel Stottlemyre, the former Yankees star pitcher(投手) and Mets and Yankees coach. I was upset when Mel died of cancer on Jan. 13, 2018, at the age of 77.

He was warm, friendly and treated us as if we were major leagues. He asked me whether I would like to pitch and showed me how to throw a “two-seamer”, a fastball that tends to sink, as well as a straight four-seam fastball. I knew that pitching was not for me. At age 45, my experience in organizing baseball was limited to a couple of years in Little League in the Bronx, and softball games as an adult. Mel eventually left the Mets and became the pitching coach for the Yankees. I followed his career and knew about his diagnosis of multiple myeloma(骨髓瘤), a blood cancer, in April 2000, and a stem cell transplant.

In the summer of 2002, I was diagnosed as multiple myeloma and was told that I needed a stem-cell transplant by the same group of doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center that had treated Mel.

This shocked me, and frankly, I became quite depressed. I vowed that somehow I would try to speak to Mel. One day, my phone rang. Mel was calling from the Yankee' locker room. I asked him to tell me everything about his treatment. He spent 30 minutes generously explaining all the details. I hung on every word. He told me how well he was feeling and ended the conversation by giving me his home phone number! "I feel great, and I'm not retiring," he told me.

This incredible experience lifted my spirits. Every time I saw Mel during games on TV as I awaited my transplant, I repeated to myself, "Look at Mel. If he can do it, so can I."

1. Why did the author say he was lucky in Paragraph 1?

A．He joined a famous team.

B．He met an unusual coach.

C．He was successfully cured.

D．He was chosen as a pitcher.

2. What do we know about the author?

A．He was not skilled in pitching.

B．He was a good baseball player.

C．He called Mel for his treatment.

D．He forgot what Mel had told him.

3. How old was Mel when he was diagnosed as multiple myeloma?

A．23.	B．45.
C．59.	D．6l.

4. What would be a suitable title for the text?

A．The Skills Taught by My Former Coach

B．The Transplant Given by the Same Doctors

C．My Baseball Team Helping Me Out

D．My Coach's Spirits Shining on Me

【推荐1】What do you usually do when a flying insect lands on your arm? Most likely you blow it away. But what if that bug is a ladybug(瓢虫)? Then chances are that you would let it stay. What is it about ladybugs that we like?

Farmers once thought ladybugs were a good luck sign. A ladybug in the field meant that the crops(庄稼) would be successful and the weather would be good. The farmers may have been exaggerating(夸大) about what a very small bug can do, but in fact ladybugs do help out with the crops. They eat harmful insects.

Actually, it is not the adult ladybug that eats the other insects. It’s the ladybug larvae(幼虫). Ladybugs lay their eggs on leaves that are covered with aphids or other insects. When the larvae come out of the eggs, they are very hungry and will eat mites, aphids, mealybugs, green flies, and other crop-destroyers.

A single ladybug larva can eat over 1,000 aphids in one day. In the 1800s, ladybugs were brought all the way from Australia to California and set free among orange trees that were dying from being eaten by insects. The little red and black “eating machines” completely saved all the trees.

Ladybugs go about their daily business without worrying much about anything. Very few birds or insects will eat a ladybug because it gives off something that is dangerous to eat. Ladybugs also protect themselves by playing dead. They fall off leaves and remain very still until their enemy goes away.

So next time you see a ladybug, think about what it may be up to. Maybe it is off to save an orange tree. Maybe its next move will be to fall off a leaf and play dead or stand up to a bird about 100 times its size. Maybe it’s letting you know that the weather will be good tomorrow. Who knows? Ladybugs are special.

1. What do we know about mites and aphids?

A．They do harm to the crops.	B．They eat more than they should.
C．They are food for adult ladybugs.	D．They are the enemy of ladybug larvae.

2. What does the underlined part “stand up to” in the last paragraph probably mean?

A．Play with.

B．Worry about.

C．Get along with.

D．Fight back against.

3. What does the author think of the ladybug?

A．It is a crop-destroyer.	B．It is a good luck sign.
C．It is a little flying helper.	D．It is a big eating machine.

【推荐2】Widespread descriptions of animals in pop culture could actually be hurting the animals’ survival chances in the wild, new research suggests.

Franck Courchamp of the University of Paris-Sud was interested in the idea of “appeal” in animals. He wanted to know: What species do people consider appealing? And what are the influences of being appealing on populations in the wild?

In a research published this month, Courchamp and other researchers list the top twenty appealing species. Most of the animals identified as appealing are large mammals living on land. Coming in first place were tigers, followed by lions, elephants, giraffes, panthers, pandas, cheetahs, polar bears, wolves, and gorillas. However, at least half of the interviewees didn’t realize that five of the top ten most appealing species are threatened. It is contradictory that we haven’t been able to protect the species we care about the most.

The study also found that we are flooded with images of these creatures, even as they are becoming fewer in the wild. The study suggests that too much of imagination might be creating a “virtual population” of the animals in people’s minds, making them believe there are far more individuals in the wild than is exact.

The study suggests that companies benefiting from the use of these images should set aside a small percentage of their profits for protection efforts and information al campaigns. “That would be not only something fair, but that would be something that could bring a win-win situation for them,” Courchamp says. “It could bring them positive public relation, for instance. Besides, if a company’s mascot (吉祥物) goes extinct, that could hurt them from a marketing point. But not enough companies are “truly concerned about the protection of the species that they work on,” he adds.

1. What is the influence of the widespread images of animals in pop culture?

A．It raises people’s wildlife protection awareness.

B．It does good to the survival of appealing animals.

C．It makes a false impression of the animals’ real situation.

D．It brings a win-win situation for both animals and companies.

2. What can we learn from paragraph 3?

A．It is natural to regard the large mammals as attractive.

B．More than half of the top ten appealing species are protected.

C．It is strange that people’s thoughts contrast with their behavior.

D．It is terrible that the species are dying out at an alarming speed.

3. How does Courchamp list the companies’ responsibilities and advantages in the last paragraph?

A．By giving examples.	B．By using numbers.
C．By making definitions.	D．By making comparisons.

4. What’s Courchamp’s attitude to the companies benefiting from animal images?

A．Unconcerned.

B．Positive.

C．Supportive.

D．Dissatisfied.

【推荐3】Marianne Hardwick was timid and unadventurous, her energy consumed by physical activity and longing, her intelligence by indecisiveness, but this had less to do with the inborn characteristics of her weaker sex ( as her father, Creighton Montgomery, called it)   than with the enfeebling(使人衰弱的)   circumstances of her upbringing. Creighton Montgomery had enough money to mould (塑造) his daughters according to his misconceptions that girls were not meant to fend for themselves so he protected them from life. What is to say is that Marianne Montgomery grew up without making any vital choices for herself. Prevented from acquiring the habits of freedom and strength of character which grow from decision-making, very rich girls, whose parents have the means to protect them in such a crippling fashion, are the last representatives of Victorian womanhood. Though they may have the boldest manners and most up-to-date ideas, they share their great grandmothers’ humble dependence.
Most parents these days have to rely on their force of personality and whatever love and respect they can inspire to exert any influence over their children at all, but there is still an awful lot of parental authority that big money can buy.   Multi- millionaires have more of everything than ordinary people, including more parent power, and their sons and daughters have about as much opportunity to develop according to their own inclinations(意向) as they would have had in the age of absolute monarchy (君主专制) .
The rich still have families. The great divide between the generations is the state of the lower and middle classes, whose children begin to drift away as soon as they are old enough to go to school. The parents cannot control the school, and have even less say as to what company and ideas the child will be exposed to; nor can they isolate him from the public mood, the spirit of the age. It is an often heard complaint of the middle-class mother, for instance, that she must let her children watch television for hours on end every day if she is to steal any time for herself. The rich have no such problems; they can keep their offspring busy from morning to night without being near them for a minute more than they choose to be, and can exercise almost total control over their environment.
As for schooling, they can handpick tutors with sound views to come to the children, who may never leave the grounds their parents own, in town, in the country, by the sea, unless for an exceptionally secure boarding school or a well- chaperoned (伴护着的)   trip abroad.   It would have been easier for little Marianne Montgomery to go to Cairo than to the nearest newsstand.
1. The author implies that Marianne Hardwick’s timidity were closely associated with ______.

A．the inborn characteristics of the weaker sex

B．the conditions where she was brought up

C．the consumption of her energy

D．her physical activity and longing

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

A．Rich girls always share their ideas with their grandmothers.

B．Wealthy children learn at home instead of going to school.

C．Middle-class mothers usually steal time for their children.

D．Rich parents may have more control over their children than the middle-class parents do

3. What can we know about Creighton Montgomery's daughters from the passage?

A．They did not have up-to-date ideas.

B．They were unintelligent.

C．They did not have much freedom.

D．They had no physical activity.

4. It can be learned from the passage that multimillionaires’ children have ______.

A．little opportunity to develop according to their own inclinations

B．absolute opportunity to develop according to their own inclinations

C．more opportunity to develop according to their own inclinations than ordinary children

D．as much opportunity to develop according to their own inclinations as ordinary children

5. What is the main idea of this passage?

A．The rich control their children's lives without being near them.

B．The generation gap only occurs in the lower and middle classes.

C．Rich parents have more authority over their children than poor parents.

D．Rich girls who are being overprotected by their parents are rather dependent.

【推荐1】       Think about the different ways that people use the wind. You can use it to fly a kite or to sail a boat. Wind is one of our cleanest and richest power sources, as well as one of the oldest. Evidence shows that windmills began to be used in the ancient Iran back in the seventh century BC. They were first introduced to Europe during the 1100s, when armies returned from the Middle East with knowledge of using wind power.

For many centuries, people used windmills to grind (磨碎) wheat into flour or pump water from deep underground. When electricity was discovered in the late 1800s, people living in remote areas began to use them to produce electricity. This allowed them to have electric lights and radios. However, by the 1940s when electricity was available to people in almost all areas of the United States, windmills were rarely used.

During the 1970s, people started becoming concerned about the pollution that is created when coal and gas are burned to produce electricity. People realized that the supply of coal and gas would not last forever. Then, wind was rediscovered, though it means higher costs. Today, there is a global movement to supply more and more of our electricity through the use of wind.

1. From the text we know that windmills _______.

A．were invented by European armies

B．have a history of more than 2,800 years

C．have rarely been used since electricity was discovered

D．used to supply power to radio in remote area

2. The underlined word in Paragraph 2 probably means________.

A．making something cleaner

B．making something flow freely

C．making something flow in a particular direction

D．making something into small parts

3. One of the reasons wind was discovered in the 1970s is that_______.

A．it is one of the oldest power sources

B．wind power is cleaner

C．it was cheaper to create energy from wind

D．coal and gas failed to meet the needs

4. What would the author probably discuss in the paragraph that follows?

A．The global trend towards producing power from wind.

B．The design of wind power plants.

C．The worldwide movement to save energy.

D．The advantages of wind power.

【推荐2】Where Are We Going, Dad? presents a new generation of men, in a break from Chinese tradition, now take an active role in their children’s lives.
Five star fathers and their children travel around China, riding camels through the western deserts, fishing off the east coast, and selling vegetables for their bus fare home in southwestern Yunnan province. One dad doesn’t know how to do his daughter’s hair, but give him a couple of days — he’ll figure it out. Another one must survive with his son for three days in the desert, where, because neither can cook, the two only eat instant noodles.
These story lines are part of Where Are We Going, Dad? which, since its first show in October, has become one of China’s most popular television shows, covering more than 600 million viewers each week. And searches for Where Are We Going, Dad? turn up over 40 million hits on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter.
“In traditional Chinese culture, the common conception of parenthood is that the father is strict and the mother is kind. But on the show, we see fathers who are much gentler on their kids and more concerned with their upbringing,” said Li Minyi, an associate professor of early childhood education at the leading Beijing Normal University. “An important question arises in this show for modern Chinese society — what is the role of fathers in today’s China?”
“As they raise their children, parents are growing up at the same time,” said Wang Renping, a popular education expert. “They cannot use parenting styles from 20 years ago to guide the development of children born 20 years later.”
The attraction of Where Are We Going, Dad? lies in the chance to have a close look at the lives of popular Chinese stars and their children. Audiences like watching the failed attempts of star dads making dinner, braiding hair(编头发), and disciplining children — tasks often left to mothers in a society still influenced by the opinion that “men rule outside and women rule inside.”
1. From the passage, we can draw a conclusion that Where Are We Going, Dad? is _____.

A．a match	B．a novel
C．a TV show	D．a news report

2. In Where Are We Going, Dad? we can probably learn about _____.

A．how the fathers do housework at home

B．how the children study in their spare time

C．how the fathers look after and guide their children

D．how the children and their father travel around China

3. We can know from the passage that_____.

A．In modern society, men should not care too much about their kids

B．Where Are We Going, Dad? has the most number of viewers in China

C．In Chinese tradition, fathers always play an active part in their children’s lives

D．While they bring up their children, parents are improving their parenting styles

4. The reason why Where Are We Going, Dad? is so popular in China may include the following   EXCEPT that _____.

A．audiences enjoy laughing at others’ failure in life

B．it can make people laugh and think at the same time

C．people love watching the stars and their children’s lives closely

D．it presents a new generation of men’s role in their children’s lives