【推荐1】When Carson Palmer, a professional American football player, hurt his arm a few years ago, he took a week off from throwing the football. But in his head, Palme practiced every day. The following weekend, Palmer had the best game of his life.

For more than a century, scientists have been trying to understand how this mental training works. In the 1930s, researchers proved by experiment that when you’re imagining an action, your brain sends signals to your muscles which are too weak to tighten the muscles but might help train the body to perform. In other words, mental practice might create a pattern in your head, like an inner how-to guide for a particular skill.

Sports psychologists have conducted hundreds of studies comparing imagined and physical practice for actions. On the whole, the research shows that mental training works. A 2012 study, for example, compared 32 amateur golfers who practiced hitting the balls to another 32 who merely held a golf club in their hands and visualized (想象) their swings.

Under the same training rules, both groups improved their skills by getting the ball about 4 inches closer to the hole.

Visualization has advantages over the real thing: You can do it anywhere, even when injured. It is safe — a major plus for high-risk performers such as gymnasts and surgeons. And you can practice for longer periods of time because you’re not restricted by physical tiredness. That’s not to say it’s easy. “We’ve had Olympic-level athletes sitting in our lab, visualizing the movements for two hours,” says Tadhg Macintyre, a sports psychologist at the University of Limerick in Ireland. “When we’re done, they’re absolutely tired.”

It doesn’t work for everyone, though. “If you’re a novice, the effect can be harmful,” warns Macintyre. “If you’re trying to visualize a free throw, and you don’t even know the proper movement, then you’re probably going to mentally practice the wrong skill.”

1. The author introduces the topic of the text by_        .

A．giving an example	B．presenting an argument
C．explaining a phenomenon	D．making an assumption

2. What happens when one is visualizing an action?

A．A special skill is quickly acquired.

B．A certain model is formed in the head

C．The muscles grow increasingly tense.

D．The brain sends strong messages to the body.

3. What is the main idea of the text?

A．Athletes are likely to win games through imagined practice.

B．Practicing a skill properly in mind can produce intended effect.

C．Practice whether mental or physical has its own characteristics.

D．Scientists have found a sale way for athletes to practice their skills.

【推荐3】The State of California is depending on its forests to help cut down planet-warming CO₂. But that climate-change strategy may be risky, as new research from the University of California, Irvine(UCI)reports that trees in California’s mountains and open spaces are dying from wildfires and other pressures — and fewer new trees are filling the blank.

“The forests are not keeping up with these large fires,” said study co-author James Randerson, the Ralph J. and Carol M. Cicerone Professor of Earth system science at UCI. Across the whole state, tree cover area has dropped 6.7% since 1985. “These are big changes in less than forty years,” he said. It’s the first time that researchers have been able to measure tree population fall in California, and find out the reasons (wildfires and woodcutting).

For the study, the UCI-led team used satellite data from the USGS and NASA’s Landsat mission to study plant changes between 1985 and 2021. They found that one of the most obvious falls in tree cover was in southern California, where 14% of the tree population in local mountain had disappeared, maybe everlastingly.

“The ability of forests to recover(恢复)from fire appears to be dwindling in the south,” said Jonathan Wang, a researcher in Randerson’s research group, who led the study coming out in AGU Advances. “At the same time, the state’s coverage of bushes and grasses is rising, which could mean more everlasting ecosystem shifts(生态系统转化).”

“The speed and scale of fall in tree cover is different across the state. Tree cover in the Sierra Nevada, for example, stayed relatively unchanged until around 2010, then began dropping suddenly. Fortunately, in the north, there’s plenty of recovery after fire,” said Wang, perhaps because of the area’s higher rainfall and cooler temperatures. “This threat(威胁) to California’s climate solutions isn’t going away anytime soon,” Wang said. “We might be entering a new age of bigger fire and vulnerable(易受损的) forests.”

1. What mainly helped California cut down CO₂?

A．Energy saving.	B．Rich forests.
C．Less vehicles.	D．Fine weather.

2. What has caused the drop of tree cover in the past few years?

A．Poor soil.

B．Continual floods.

C．High demand for farmland and food.

D．Large wildfires and people’s cutting trees.

3. Which is the most suitable title for the text?

A．California’s trees will die out in the future.

B．California’s environment will face a big challenge.

C．Wildfires seriously threaten California’s tree cover.

D．The reason for California wildfires has been found out.

【推荐1】What makes one a great person? The legendary volleyball coach Lang Ping gave the answer in the recent documentary The Iron Hammer, titled after her nickname for her powerful strikes.

The documentary features Lang' s inspiring journey from her gold medal victory as a volleyball player in the 1984 Olympics to her unparalleled(无可比拟的）career as a successful coach for both Team USA from 2005 to 2008 and China since 2013.She led the US to a silver medal finish and China to a gold medal triumph in the 2008 and 2016 Olympic Games, making her the first person to win Olympic volleyball gold as a player and coach.

Lang Ping revealed the secret to such remarkable achievements in the documentary. “I believe volleyball was my destiny," she said.

But glory and challenges go hand in hand. Troubled by severe injuries to her cervical vertebra(颈椎），back, waist and knees, caused by intense exercise and hard work, the 60-year-old has undergone more than 10 surgeries. “No parts of my body function well," she joked.

But illness is certainly not the only difficulty Lang has faced throughout her career. In 2005, she struggled with balancing raising her daughter Lydia Bai Lang, who lived in the US, and her coaching career, according to China Sports Daily. She eventually decided to work for USA Volleyball that year and this decision aroused a lot of negative comments back in China.

“I'm proud of being Chinese.” Lang responded in an interview.Later,she returned to head the Chinese women 's volleyball team in 2013, leading the team successfully defending its World Cup crown with a perfect record of 11 straight wins last year.

There is no doubt that Lang is one of the greatest players and coaches in history. As an athlete commented in the documentary, “Lang Ping is like Michael Jordan in our minds.”

1. What does this passage mainly talk about?

A．Ways to become a great person.

B．Reasons for Lang Ping's success.

C．Lang Ping and her successful career.

D．Great athletes and their achievements.

2. Why did Lang Ping go to work for USA Volleyball in 2005?

A．To make a big fortune.

B．To take care of her family.

C．To avoid negative comments.

D．To establish her reputation abroad.

3. What does the underlined sentence in paragraph 4 probably mean ?

A．Success comes at a price.

B．Challenges are as important as glory.

C．Athletes are likely to get their hands injured.

D．Lang Ping has trouble in achieving her goals.

4. Why is Michael Jordan mentioned at the end of the passage?

A．To honor the legendary pop star.

B．To draw the attention of readers to another field.

C．To illustrate there are lots of great people in the world.

D．To acknowledge Lang Ping's status and achievements.

【推荐2】Victor Hugo, 1802 -1885, was a celebrated French literary giant. After the British and French invaders(入侵者) bad burnt the Winter Palace(圆明园) in October, 1860, he wrote a reply to an officer named Bartlette one year later.

Sir, you ask me what I think of the expedition(远征) to China. You must feel that it was laudable. In your opinion, the expedition, performed under the joint banner(联合旗帜) of Queen Victoria and Emperor Napoleon, was nothing short of a British-French glory. Therefore, you would like to know to what extent I appreciate this glory. Since you ask, I will answer as follows:

In a corner of the world there existed a man-made miracle - the Winter Palace. Art has two sources: one, an ideal, from which has come European art; two, fancy, from which has come Easter art. The Winter Palace belongs in the art of fancy. The Winter Palace, indeed, was the fruit of all of the art that an almost superman race could have fancied.

For whom was the Winter Palace built, after all? Eventually, for the people. Because as time passes by, all that the people has made remains in the possession of mankind. Great artists, poets, philosophers - they all knew about the Winter Palace. Voltaire once talked about it. Many people at different times compared the Winter Palace to the Parthenon, the Pyramids, the Arena, the Notre Dame. If they could not see the Winter Palace with their own eyes, they could dream about it- as if in the distance they saw a breath-taking masterpiece of art as they had never known before – as if there above the horizon of European civilization was towering the outline of Asian civilization.

Now, the miracle is no more! One day, two pirates broke into it One of them robbed; the other set every building and everything in it on fire! Judging by what they did, we know that the victors could degenerate into robbers. The two of them fell to dividing between themselves the treasure. What great victories they had won! What a heaven-sent fortune! One stuffed his pockets full to overflowing; the other filled in his bags with treasure. Then, hand in hand they made of, laughing happily.

Incidentally, I must thank you for giving me the opportunity to accuse. The rulers commit crimes but the ruled do not. The government becomes a robber, but the people will never.

France has gained a large portion of the treasure. Now, she thinks herself the rightful owner of the property财物), and she is displaying the riches of the Winter Palace! I can only hope that there will come one day when France will disburden herself of the heavy load on her conscience and clean herself off the crime by returning to China all the treasure taken from the Winter Palace.

Sit, such is my praise of the expedition to China.

1. Mr. Hugo wrote this letter mainly to_________.

A．show his praise of the expedition to China in reply to Bartlette’s request

B．persuade French officers to return the treasure taken from the Winter Palace

C．prove people hold different attitudes towards the burning of the Winter Palace

D．express his anger and condemnation over the burning of the Summar Palace

2. What does the underlined word “laudable” most probably mean?

A．praiseworthy

B．violent

C．unreasonable

D．abundant

3. In the 4^th paragraph Victor Hugo mentioned the Parthenon, the Pyramids, the Arena and the Notre Dame in order to_________,

A．compare different architectural styles

B．praise European and African civilization

C．introduce some more famous buildings to Bartlette

D．emphasize the civilizational value of the Winter Palace

4. “Two pirates” in Paragraph 5 refers to__________.

A．Bartlette and his fellow	B．Bartlette and Great Britain
C．France and Great Britain	D．the rulers and the ruled

5. We can infer that when Batlette got the letter from Victor Hugo, he might have felt _________.

A．satisfied

B．proud

C．disappointed

D．frightened

【推荐3】A mental professor walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they'd be asked the "half empty or half full" question. Instead, with a smile on her face, she inquired(询问): "How heavy is this glass of water?"
Different answers called out from the audience.
She replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb(无知觉的) and paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn't change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."
She continued, "The stress and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed--incapable of doing anything."
It's important to remember to let go of your stress. As early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don't carry them through the evening and into the night. Remember to put the glass down!
Comments
Aye Chan Aung---October 27, 2015 at 11:37 am
Short but valuable! It has clearly taught me how to deal with stress.
Nelson Malicdem--October 28, 2015 at 8:23 pm
Wow! Thanks to the author and to the one who submitted this article. I am experiencing a challenge, as I read this it gives me peace. What exactly is in the article is what I am doing. My burden actually paralyzes me without my knowing it. I should put down the glass of water that I'm holding. Thank you so much!
1. The professor tells a lesson by ________.

A．asking a surprising question

B．giving proper examples

C．imagining a situation

D．making a comparison（比较）

2. From what the professor says, we can know a small problem _________.

A．can result in a complete failure

B．is seldom taken seriously

C．can cause much stress

D．seldom causes real problems

3. From the two comments, we can know that ________.

A．Nelson Malicdem expresses thanks to the professor

B．Nelson Malicdem thinks the story is meaningful

C．Aye Chan Aung is suffering from heavy stress

D．Aye Chan Aung complains the story is too short

4. Where can we most probably read the passage?

A．On a health website.

B．On a high school website.

C．In a magazine for teenagers.

D．In a textbook about mental health.

【推荐1】On Saturday, August 24, 1918, it was raining cats and dogs and thundering over a city called Sunderland on the northeast coast of England. The storm lasted for only about ten minutes. People were surprised to see that it was not just rainwater falling from the sky. There were fish falling down, too! People came out to find out what was happening. They could not believe their own eyes. There were thousands of fish—sand eels (沙鳗)—lying on the ground. They were about seven centimeters long, and all were frozen dead.

Sand eels swim together in large groups, often in sandy water, and are often found in large numbers in the North Sea, which reaches out to the east of Sunderland. How was it possible for these sand eels to fall from the sky and land on Sunderland?

Scientists believed the heavy thunderstorm that afternoon may have caused a waterspout (水龙卷). Waterspout s can be formed when strong winds move quickly in a circle over water. They are so powerful that anything less than one meter in length can be taken into them and forced into the clouds. The clouds carry whatever has been taken into them for long distances —sometimes over 150 kilometers. It’s very cold up there and everything soon freezes.

For hundreds of years there have been reports of small animals being taken into the sky through waterspouts. In 2009, dead tadpoles rained down on the city of Nanao in Japan. In 2012, fifty kilos of prawns fell from the sky over Sri Lanka. In 2017, fish fell on the coastal city of Tampico in Mexico.

It must be a very strange experience to see fish raining down on you. It would probably hurt if one fell on your head! With climate change and many reports of terrible storms, will the time ever come when it may really begin to rain cats and dogs?

1. What do we know about the sand eels that landed on Sunderland?

A．They were few in number.	B．They came in different sizes.
C．They were still alive when landing.	D．They probably came from the North Sea.

2. What does the underlined word “them” in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A．Clouds.

B．Waterspouts.

C．Sand eels.

D．Thunderstorms.

3. Why does the author mention the fall of tadpoles in Japan?

A．To stress the environment is not pleasant in Japan.

B．To introduce waterspouts can reach as far as Japan.

C．To show that raining sea animals is not new in history.

D．To explain different animals can fall in different countries.

4. What is the author really worried about in the last paragraph?

A．Health.

B．Environment.

C．Wild animals.

D．Travel safety.

【推荐2】There is hot, and then there is hot! Extreme heat is a period of high heat and humidity (湿度) with temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit for at least two to three days. Extreme heat is responsible for the highest number of annual deaths among all weather-related hazards (危害).

It’s not your imagination. Summers have been getting hotter and hotter with extreme heatwaves occurring earlier and more frequently. But why is this happening and can we better predict heatwaves in advance to give people time to prepare?

“Climate change is here and it’s already been changing human behavior and causing significant influence in the society. As global temperatures rise, historically excessive (过高的) temperatures are more likely to occur.” says Craig Ramseyer, an assistant professor who studies climate modeling in the department of geography at Virginia Tech.

Ramseyer says heatwaves are the most concerning because of the lack of attention they normally receive. “Hurricanes, tornadoes, and flash floods drive more media attention because of the natural attraction with the visual impact of those types of hazards. However, heat does not tend to be as attractive and it becomes very difficult to communicate the danger to the public,” said Ramseyer. “Around the world, more deaths occur due to extreme heat than from hurricanes, flooding, and drought combined. It impacts the most helpless of our citizens who do not have enough access to air conditioning, water, and other important resources.”

Since the Earth is running warmer than it used to, Ramseyer says that when these heatwave-related weather patterns take place, it results in higher extreme temperatures than we used to experience 30 years ago.

“As a global community, we need to decrease carbon emissions as soon as possible. We have rapidly developing technologies that are going to help advance the process, but the faster the better, there is no time to waste.”

1. What can we learn from the article?

A．Extreme heat is a No.1 death cause.	B．People are suffering more extreme heat.
C．A 100-degree heat is an extreme heat.	D．Extreme heat is getting better over the years.

2. What will Ramseyer possibly agree with?

A．Climate change will soon affect human behaviors.

B．High temperatures happened frequently in history.

C．Air conditioning and water can reduce the impacts of extreme heat on people.

D．Garbage sorting can less advance the climate change.

3. Why is extreme heat lack of attention?

A．Extreme heat can be stopped by technology.

B．People have enough time to solve the climate problems.

C．It is not easy for the public to learn the danger of extreme heat.

D．Heatwave-related weather patterns will decrease in the future.

4. What’s the article mainly about?

A．Complaints about extreme heat.	B．Prevention of extreme heat.
C．Characters of extreme heat.	D．Technologies behind extreme heat.