【推荐1】It’s known to all that coffee can make you feel more awake, and now it seems that coffee may also improve your maths skills. And the best news is that you don’t even need to drink it to see the improvements — you just need to smell it. Coffee is actually very healthy. It is loaded with antioxidants (抗氧化物) and beneficial nutrients that can improve your health. The studies show that coffee drinkers have a much lower risk of developing several serious diseases.

A new study by researchers from Stevens Institute of Technology has revealed that the aroma of coffee may help your maths skills. Professor Adriana Madzharov, who led the study, said: “It’s not just that the coffee-like scent helped people perform better on analytical tasks, which was already interesting. But they also thought they would do better, and we proved that this expectation was at least partly responsible for their improved performance.”

In the study, 100 business students took a 10-question algebra (代数) test. Half the group took the test in the presence of a coffee-like scent, while the other half took the test in an unscented room. The results revealed that the group in the coffee-smelling room scored significantly higher on the test than those in the unscented room.

In a follow-up study, the researchers quizzed 200 new participants on their belief about various scents and their effects on human performance. Their answers showed that they believed they would feel alert (警觉的) in the presence of a coffee scent. This suggests that their expectations about performance may have influenced their improved skills.

The researchers believe that the findings could have major effects on the real world. Professor Madzharov added: “Olfaction is one of our most powerful senses. Employers, architects, building developers, retail space managers and others can use subtle scents to help shape employees’ or occupants’ experience with their environment. It’s an area of great interest and potential.”

1. Which of the following best explains “aroma” underlined in Paragraph 2?

A．Smell.

B．Nutrient.

C．Taste.

D．Calorie.

2. What does the author intend to do in Paragraph 3?

A．Summarize the previous paragraphs.	B．Provide some evidence for the findings.
C．Add some background information.	D．Introduce a new topic for discussion.

3. What can we learn from the passage?

A．200 new participants took a 10-question maths test.

B．100 business students felt more alert with a coffee scent.

C．The new participants performed better after drinking coffee.

D．50 business students scored higher in the maths test with coffee than those without.

4. What does the passage mainly convey?

A．Coffee is of great benefit to health.

B．The new function of coffee is being tested.

C．The new findings of coffee will affect the world.

D．The scent of coffee may help one’s maths skills.

【推荐2】When you were at school, were you ever told to stop daydreaming and concentrate? It was easy for your mind to wander if you weren’t interested in what you were learning or if you had better things to think about. Staying focused can still be a challenge in adult life, but understanding how to do it, and knowing what is distracting you, can help.

Scientists have looked at what makes us delay and found a number of ways to help us stay in the zone. One of the most obvious things is eliminating noise. Research by Science Focus magazine found silence is the best for concentration, or a gentle background hum and coffee shop noise is great! It also found turning off notifications on your phone, or switching it off altogether, removes a major distraction and helps us focus on the task at hand.

Another possible cure for a short attention span is brain training. Psychologists and neuroscientists are increasingly interested in our ability to settle down and have looked at what we can change inside our head to make us concentrate. An article for BBC Future by Caroline Williams says that “Attention Researcher Nilli Lavie of University College London has found that making a task more visually demanding takes up more processing power and leaves the brain nothing left to process distractions.” So, keeping your mind busy might be the answer.

There are more practical tips to keeping your mind focused. These include making a list or timetable of the tasks you have to do, finding a workspace where you’re not tempted to do other things, or chewing some gum! It’s possible the movement in your mouth occupies parts of the brain that might otherwise get distracted.

But according to Science Focus magazine, distraction isn’t all bad. “If we were always so focused that we never go distracted, we’d miss potential changes, such as threats, in our environment. Distraction is vital for survival.”

1. Which of the following is similar to the underlined phrase in paragrapb 2?

A．Concerned.

B．Enthusiastic.

C．Calm.

D．Absorbed.

2. Why does the author suggest keeping our mind busy?

A．To introduce a mental recovery.

B．To explain the cause of distraction.

C．To recommend a kind of intelligence training.

D．To suggest a way to train the brain to concentrate.

3. What is Science Focus magazine’s attitude to distraction?

A．Contradictory.

B．All-sided.

C．Doubtful.

D．Puzzling.

4. Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?

A．How to Stay Focused	B．The Harm of Distraction
C．The Research about Distraction	D．The Benefits of Keeping Focused

【推荐3】More than half of the 1,000 consumers surveyed by Credit Karma said they have impulsively (冲动地) shopped to deal with feelings of stress, anxiety or depression. Twenty-three percent of respondents said they’ve maxed out (刷爆) a credit card in the past year.

As for age, 68 percent youngsters, responded by saying they have experienced it in the past, compared to 53 percent of the middle-aged and only 26 percent of the old.

In regards to genders, 48 percent of men and 31 percent of women who have stress spent said they had purchased alcohol when stressed. Eighty-two percent of women stress spent on clothing compared to 52 percent of men. Women also lead stress spending for jewellery, 42 percent, compared to 22 percent for men with men stress spending more for electronics 44 percent while 30 percent for women.

In fact, shopping to reduce stress can actually help you live a healthier life by making sure that your blood pressure is lowered. Shopping to relieve stress is also called shopping therapy (疗法) as a form of reducing stress.

The survey found that 82 percent had only positive feelings about their purchases and that the positive mood boost that followed those purchases was long-lasting.

However, the side effect of shopping therapy, for many, can start out as a relatively harmless mood booster but could possibly grow into a financial loss, cause conflict, and therefore add a large amount of stress to a person’s life.

1. How is the passage mainly developed?

A．By giving numbers.	B．By stating arguments.
C．By giving examples.	D．By giving explanations.

2. The figures in Paragraph 3 show that _______.

A．Women were less likely to buy jewellery when stressed.

B．Over half of men had purchased alcohol when stressed.

C．More women preferred to buy clothes than men when stressed.

D．The favourite goods for men to reduce pressure was electronics.

3. What can we know about the shopping therapy?

A．Shopping therapy may increase pressure.

B．Shopping therapy can totally relieve pressure.

C．Shopping therapy’s positive effect can not last long.

D．Shopping therapy is not suitable for someone whose blood pressure is low.

4. What is the author’s attitude toward shopping therapy?

A．Concerned.

B．Subjective.

C．Indifferent.

D．Objective.

【推荐1】One form of social prejudice against older people is the belief that they cannot understand or use modern technology. Activities like playing computer games, going on the Net and downloading MP3s are only for the youngsters. Isn’t it unfair that older people enjoying a computer game should be frowned (皱眉) upon by their children and grandchildren?

Nowadays older people have more control over their lives and they play a full part in society. Moreover, better health care has left more people in their sixties and seventies feeling fit and active after retirement. Mental activity, as well as physical exercise, can contribute to better health. Playing computer games is a very effective way of exercising the brain.

When personal computers were first introduced, most older people didn’t believe they would ever familiarize themselves with it. Now computers have been around for a few generations and retired people have gradually become more relaxed about using them for fun. Gamers over 65 prefer playing puzzle games and card games. Kate Stevens, aged 72, says: “I find it very relaxing. It’s not very demanding, but you still need to concentrate.”

Another development that has favored “grey games” is a change in the type of videogames available on the market. There’s a greater variety of games to choose from, including more intellectual and complex strategy (策略) and simulation (模拟) games. Internet Chess and Train Simulator are among the most popular of these. Train Simulator is based on real-world rail activities. Players can choose from a variety of challenges, such as keeping to a strict-timetable and using helper engines during a winter storm.

Some people argue that “grey gamers” simply don’t have the skills required for computer games, and that teenagers are better. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Most computer games require the kind of analytical thinking that improves with practice, which means that the “grey gamers” may be far better than gamers half a century younger than them.

1. The second paragraph is intended to _________.

A．show the best way to exercise the brain	B．stress the importance of good health
C．explain why grey gamers exist	D．teach how to play videogames

2. The method the author uses to develop Paragraph 4 is _________.

A．offering analyses	B．giving examples
C．making comparisons	D．providing details

3. By saying “This couldn’t be further from the truth.” in Paragraph 5, the author means _________.

A．mind challenging games are not suitable for older people

B．children should improve their skills with practice

C．playing computer games requires analystical thinking

D．older people can perform well in some computer games

【推荐2】Student newspapers across the US are facing a dark reality. As they are free to read, they are making less money than ever, meaning that such newspapers are finding it hard to survive.

Most college papers have reduced their print editions (版本). Last year, the Daily Tar Heel printed a paper four days a week. This year, it prints a paper every three days. And while it used to produce around 22,000 newspapers each time, it only makes around: 10,000 now, said Erica Perel, general manager.

Increasingly, student journalists have turned their focus to digital versions of their newspapers, and the new ways that social media allows them to tell stories. They’ve adapted their skills to mirror what’s going on in the professional journalism world.

“I think we’re adapting very well…in moving away from that print edition. But it’s challenging.” said Jonathan Carter, a student at North Carolina State University. So what should student newspapers do? LoMonte said the best solution would be for universities to financially (财经的) support student journalism. University leaders like to talk about producing responsible students, he said, and journalism is a part of that.

In the meantime, campus newspapers are figuring out their financial models as they go along. Bruce dePyssler, adviser to North Carolina Central University’s Campus Echo Newspaper, said his students post one story a day online. The best stories are put together for a once-a-semester print edition.

And even if student journalists don’t go into media jobs, Perel said, “They’ve still had a great education.” “The number one thing that we teach is critical thinking (批判思考) and how to be a lifelong learner, ” she said, “The ones who are living through this transition (过渡) are the ones that are going to be a lot stronger for it in the end.”

1. What do most college newspapers do to face the dark reality?

A．Improve printing quality.	B．Reduce print editions.
C．Lower advertising fees.	D．Increase paper price.

2. What does LoMonte suggest student newspapers do to survive?

A．Ask colleges for money.	B．Continue with paper versions.
C．Publish more digital editions.	D．Create their own financial models.

3. Who thinks campus newspapers are trying a new financial model?

A．Jonathan Carter.	B．LoMonte.
C．Bruce dePyssler.	D．Perel.

4. What’s the article mainly about?

A．The proud history of the Daily Tar Heel.	B．Student newspapers are adapting well.
C．School newspapers are under pressure.	D．How to refresh traditional newspapers.

【推荐3】In June 2014, Huffington Post and Mail Online reported that three-year-old Victoria Wilcher, who had suffered facial scarring, had been kicked out of a KFC because she was frightening customers. Later, KFC announced that no evidence had been found to support the story. This phenomenon is largely a product of the increasing pressure in newsrooms that care more about traffic figures.

Brooke Binkowski, an editor, says that, during her career, she has seen a shift towards less editorial oversight in newsrooms. “Clickbait is king, so newsrooms will uncritically print something unreal. Not all newsrooms are like this, but a lot of them are.”

Asked what the driving factor was, a journalist said, “You’ve an editor breathing down your neck and you have to meet your targets. And there are some young journalists on the market who are inexperienced and who will not do those checks. So much news that is reported online happens online. There is no need to get out and knock on someone’s door. You just sit at your desk and do it.”

Another journalist says, “There is undoubtedly pressure to churn out(粗制滥造) stories in order to get clicks, because they equal money. At my former employer in particular, the pressure was on due to the limited resources. That made the environment quite horrible to work in.”

In a February 2015 report for Digital Journalism, Craig Silverman wrote, “Today the bar for what is worth giving attention to seems to be much lower. Within minutes or hours, a badly sourced report can be changed into a story that is repeated by dozens of news websites, resulting in tens of thousands of shares. Once a certain critical mass is reached, repetition has a powerful effect on belief. Thus, the rumor simply becomes true for readers.”

And, in spite of the direction that some newsrooms seem to be heading in, a critical eye is becoming more, not less important, according to the New York Times’ public editor, Margaret Sullivan. “Reporters and editors have to be more careful than ever before. It’s extremely important to question and to use every verification(验证) method available before publication.” Yet those working in newsrooms talk of doubtful stories being tolerated because, in the words of some senior editors, “a click is a click, regardless of the advantage of a story”. And, “if the story does turn out to be false, it’s simply a chance for another bite at the cherry.”

Verification and fact-checking are regularly falling victim to the pressure to bring in the numbers, and if the only result of being caught out is another chance to bring in the clicks, that looks unlikely to change.

1. According to Brooke Binkowski, newsrooms produce false news because ______.

A．clicks matter a lot	B．resources are limited
C．money is needed for news	D．journalists lack experience

2. What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 5 probably mean?

A．Lies can’t sell without an atom of truth.

B．Rumors are like a flame blown by the wind.

C．You can hear rumors, but you can’t know them.

D．A lie, repeated frequently enough, will end up as truth.

3. What’s Margaret Sullivan’s attitude towards false news online?

A．Negative.

B．Supportive.

C．Skeptical.

D．Neutral.

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A．Consequences of false stories.	B．Causes of online false news.
C．Inability of journalists.	D．A craze to get clicks.

【推荐1】We all love bank holidays. In the UK, we only get eight bank holidays in one year, and atleast five of those occur around Christmas time and Easter time! A bank holiday is a British English term. This is an official day that is decided by the government, when banks, shops and offices close for the day even though it’s a weekday — usually a M onday, and a lot of people have a day off work.

Bank holidays are different in Colombia — firstly, they are called “festivos”. There are twenty festivos for the whole country in one year ! In Britain, people get more holiday allowance (津贴) than Colombians but fewer bank holidays. There can be even more festivos in Colombia, depending on which region of Colombia you live in. This is because different regions have their own holidays. For example, some regions have a patron saint                    (守护神) in their region, so they have an extra festivo to celebrate that saint.

However, there are some days that are national holidays for historical reasons. There is an Independence Day celebration on July 20 every year. This is just like Bastille Day in France on July 14, or Independence Day in the United States on July 4. Other important festivos in Colombia are： Labor Day, on May 1, and Columbus Day on October 12. Columbus Day is a historical bank holiday that almost every country on the continent of A merica celebrates. This includes Colombia, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Mexico and the United States. It is a memorialization of the day that the Italian sailor, Christopher Columbus, first reached land on the continent in the year 1492. Many people criticize this day and say it is not something to celebrate because of the way Columbus and his teams treated the people that were already living there.

1. What is a “bank holiday” according to the text?

A．A holiday only for the bank staff.

B．A British traditional religion festival.

C．A celebration for Christmas and Easter.

D．An official nationwide rest day.

2. What can we learn from paragraph 2?

A．Colombia and Britain have the same number of festivos.

B．All Colombians have the same number of festivos.

C．Colombians have more bank holidays than the British.

D．Different regions in Colombia have different patron saits to celebrate.

3. Why do many Americans refuse to celebrate Columbus Day?

A．Because Columbus wasn’t an American at all.

B．Because Columbus once treated the locals badly.

C．Because it wasn’t Columbus that found America first.

D．Because Columbus didn’t live in the continent of America.

4. What is the suitable title for the text?

A．Bank Holidays in Western World

B．How to Celebrate Bank Holidays

C．Celebrations of National Holidays

D．Why People Celebrate National Holidays

【推荐2】Against the supposition that forest fires in Alaska, Canada and Siberia warm the climate, scientists have discovered that cooling may occur in areas where burnt trees allow more snow to mirror sunlight into space.

This finding suggests that taking steps to prevent northern forest fires to limit the release of greenhouse gases may warm the climate in northern regions. Usually large fires destroyed forests in these areas over the past decade. Scientists predict that with climate warming, fires may occur more frequently over the next several centuries as a result of a longer fire season. Sunlight taken in by the Earth tends to cause warming, while heat mirrored back into space tends to cause cooling.

This is the first study to analyze all aspects of how northern fires influence climate. Earlier studies by other scientists had suggested that fires in northern regions sped up climate warming because greenhouse gases from burning trees and plants were released into the atmosphere and thus trapped heat.

Scientists found that right after the fire, large amounts of greenhouse gases entered the atmosphere and caused warming. Ozone (臭氧) levels increased, and ashes from the fire fell on far­off sea ice, darkening the surface and causing more radiation from the sun to be taken in. The following spring, however, the landscape within the area of the fire was brighter than before the fire, because fewer trees covered the ground. Snow on the ground mirrored more sunlight back into space, leading to cooling.

“We need to find out all possible ways to reduce the growth of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,” scientists said. They tracked the change in the amount of radiation entering and leaving the climate system as a result of the fire, and found a measurement closely related to the global air temperature. Typically, fire in northern regions occurs in the same area every 80 to 150 years. Scientists, however, found that when fire occurs more frequently, more radiation is lost from the Earth and cooling results. Specifically, they determined when fire returns 20 years earlier than predicted, 0.5 watts per square meter of area burned are soaked up by the Earth from greenhouse gases, but 0.9 watts per square meter will be sent back into space. The net effect is cooling. Watts are used to measure the rate at which energy is gained or lost from the Earth.

1. According to the new findings, efforts to prevent northern forest fires may _______.

A．lead to a longer fire season	B．be followed by more forest fires
C．help safeguard the forests there	D．give rise to a warming climate

2. The following are the immediate effects after a forest fire EXCEPT that ________.

A．large amounts of greenhouse gases enter the atmosphere

B．the levels of ozone increase

C．snow on the ground mirrors more sunlight back into space

D．ashes from the fire fall on the ice and darken the surface

3. Earlier studies about northern forest fires _______.

A．had appealed to the public for more action to protect the environment

B．had suggested that the fires would speed up climate warming

C．had explained all aspects of how northern fires would influence the climate

D．had indicated that forest fires would cause pollution in the atmosphere

4. It can be concluded that forest fires in Alaska, Canada and Siberia may ________.

A．warm the climate as the assumption(假设) goes

B．make more space for the growth of young trees

C．help to gain more energy rather than release more energy

D．cool the climate by reflecting(反射) more sunlight back into atmosphere

【推荐3】Many high school students consider a college education useless. Therefore, they choose not to go to college. If you're one of them, think again. Here are some reasons why you should go tocollege and receive a good education there.

Schools and universities are the first sources of knowledge. We take that knowledge later on to build our careers after graduation. More knowledge will be gained after you start working, butwithout an education, that job will not be within easy reach. Knowledge leads to knowledge.

Although we are limited within the walls of the education, we openly explore other cultures of the world. We come to know that ours is not the only culture. Other cultures have great value to share, enriching our own at last. Education also makes us want to travel and interactwith various cultures, broadening our horizons.

When there's a downturn（衰退）in the economy, those who attended college will be morelikely to find a new job than those who only finished high school and have a limited skill. The more education you have, the more chances you will get to improve the quality of your life as you have a better job and earn a higher salary.

When you're skillful and knowledgeable, you get to "rub knees" with people of similar backgrounds and tastes. It means a good education leads to excellent networking. Goodnetworking can benefit you a lot in your later life.

A good education makes you a more amusing and confident person. You can talk aboutideas and events instead of just other people or what’s on sale in stores. An educated person doesn't gossip(说长道短), having a preference to discuss ideas and listen to what other people have to say.

1. Which of the following benefits of going to college is not mentioned by the writer?

A．Becoming a humorous person.	B．Enlarging social networks.
C．Gaining more knowledge.	D．Experiencing diverse cultures.

2. What's the preference of a good education?

A．make you a rich person.

B．make the world a better one.

C．let you know the differences between countries.

D．makes you a more interesting and confident person.

3. How does the writer develop the passage?

A．By giving examples.	B．By listing reasons.
C．By following directions.	D．By offering suggestions.

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A．Sources of knowledge.

B．Benefits of attending college.

C．The disadvantages of not being educated.

D．The reasons why some people think collegeuseless.