【推荐1】In a new look at the impact of long-time sitting behavior on health， a new study links time watching television to an increased risk of death.   One of the most surprising findings is that it isn't just couch potatoes who were affected.   Even for people who exercised regularly， the risk of death went up the longer they were in front of the TV.   The problem was the long periods of time spent sitting still.

Australian researchers who tracked 8，800 people for an average of six years found that those who said they watched TV for more than four hours a day were 46% more likely to die of any cause and 80% more likely to die of cardiovascular（心血管的）disease than people who reported spending less than two hours a day in front of TV.

Time spent in front of TVs and computers and video games has come under fire in studies in recent years for contributing to a spread of obesity in the US and around the world.   But typically the resulting public-health message urges children and adults to put down the Xbox controller and remote and get on a treadmill（跑步机）or a soccer field.

The Australian study offers a different view.   "It's not the sweaty type of exercise we're losingsays David Dunstan， a researcher at Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute？ Melbourne？ who led the study.   "It's the incidental moving around？ standing up and using muscles.   That doesn't happen when we are planted on a couch in front of a television.

Indeed？ participants in the study reported getting between 30 and 45 minutes of exercise a day？ on average.

The results are supported by a new field of research that shows how long periods of inactivity can affect the body's processing of fats and other substances that contribute to heart risk.   And they suggest that people can help decrease such risk simply by avoiding extended periods of sitting.

Keeping such processes working more effectively doesn't require constant intense exercise， but consciously adding more routine movement to your life might help？ doctors say.   "Just standing is better than sitting，" says Gerard Fletcher， a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic， Jacksonville， Fla.   ， who works standing up at his computer.   "When you stand up， you wander around a little bit and use muscles not required when you are sitting or lying down. "

Simple strategies for increasing activity include combining household chores such as folding laundry with TV-watching time or getting up to change a TV channel rather than using a remote control.

The report， published Tuesday in the American Heart Association journal Circulation focuses on TV watching partly because it is the main leisure-time activity in many countries？ researchers said， especially in the US.

1. One misunderstanding people might have is that___.

A．couch potatoes were affected by long-time sitting.

B．watching TV is related with increased death risk.

C．watching TV very long is a good way to kill time.

D．regular exercise can minimize the side effect of watching TV

2. What is new about the discovery of the Australian study？___

A．Remote control shouldn't be used when people watch TV.

B．People who watch TV too long should take more physical exercise.

C．Sitting too long in front of TV will lead to high risk of heart attack.

D．Long-time sitting is bad for all people including those who exercise regularly.

3. According to the study？ how can people reduce the risk of death when watching TV？___

A．By increasing simple movement.

B．By totally avoiding watching TV.

C．By taking some medicine.

D．By doing sweaty type of exercise.

【推荐2】Do Smartphones Make Us Smarter?

Should teachers allow cellphones in a classroom? Teachers worry that phones distract students during class, but phones can also be a research tool. The question is not just whether or not smartphones are useful in class. It’s also about negotiating a shift in education, where students use technology to participate in their own learning. Then again, even if phones can be used for assignments, students can be easily tempted into answering texts or checking social media instead.

A recent study on the way smartphones interfere with learning might help shed some light on the issue. In April 2017, researchers published findings showing how students were affected by their phones in the classroom. They explored the differences in student performance in four cases: open phone use allowed, phones allowed in the room but could not be used, no phones in the classroom and a non-instruction control group. After watching a 20-minute video, students took a short quiz. The result? Students in a room without any cellphones performed significantly better on the test. Scientists believe the way we attach ourselves to our phones could be the problem.

Have our phones controlled our minds?

It feels as if smartphones have been around forever. But the first iPhone only came out in 2007, just eleven years ago. In these eleven short years, phones have become a major part of our lives. They have become so entrenched (根深蒂固的) in society that many people are lost without them.

Technology developers such as Google would like us to use smartphones in all parts of daily lives. Through the ready access of information, the goal is to enlarge human intelligence. With mobile devices, we can use digital assistants like Siri to answer questions without even typing a word.

We are now in an age when many people can’t imagine life without a phone. There is even a name for the anxiety caused by not having one -nomophobia. This is the powerful feeling people get when they don’t have signal, their battery is about to die, or they are separated from their phone. This fear of missing out on important information or connections can have a controlling effect on our lives. And it can divide our attention from other important things, such as learning.

1. Why do teachers worry about smartphones’ distracting students during class according to the passage?

A．Because smartphones can be used as a research tool.

B．Because students can use smartphones to discuss.

C．Because students can’t help doing something else in class.

D．Because smartphones can do assignments for students.

2. What does the phrase "shed some light on" in Para 2 most probably mean?

A．discover accidentally	B．describe correctly
C．develop gradually	D．explain clearly

3. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Smartphones have already become a part of our life.

B．Smartphones have already controlled our minds.

C．Typewriters will disappear due to smartphones.

D．People will become smarter thanks to smartphones.

4. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．People can’t live normally without a phone nowadays.

B．Some diseases are actually connected with a phone.

C．A phone will control our life completely some day.

D．A phone is greatly distracting our attention from learning.

【推荐3】To Start a Great Day

Some people find mornings filled with optimism, while others would just stay in bed until the clock passes the noon hour. Don’t fear that because it is possible to get the day started right, no matter what comes your way.

    1     Why start your day unorganized? If you organize your to-do list, breakfast menu and your clothes the night before, you’ll wake up feeling in control and relaxed. What a little efficiency it is! You’ll save the frustration, leaving you ready to deal with more important issues.

Try 15 minutes of meditation (沉思). Some might he afraid that a meditation session early in the morning could just put you back to sleep. But genuine meditation actually stimulates (刺激) the brain in a deep and thoughtful way.     2     Center yourself with thoughtful thought and be open to the positive energy the world brings to you.

Begin with inspiration reading.     3     Reading the news is a sad way to start a day. Buy a few books that are uplifting, inspiring, or even humorous for your first brain stimulus. This will give you positive, fun thoughts to keep you energetic throughout the day.

    4     If the first thing you see when you wake up is a dirty wall or a poor winter yard, you can certainly improve those few critical minutes with a pleasing splash of color. So pick up a pleasant bouquet every few days and set it right in your view.

Schedule a hopeful appointment. I never feel more energized getting out of bed than when I have an important meeting about an exciting opportunity. The prospect of a fun and productive encounter usually wakes me with a smile and often without an alarm clock. I purposefully schedule as many meetings like this as possible.    5    

A．Plan your day the night before.

B．Open your eyes to fresh flowers.

C．Reading newspapers can make you feel good.

D．Try a soothing cup of green tea to start with.

E．It allows you to clear distractions from your mind.

F．In that way, I get as many great days as I want.

G．In the morning, we must allow some time for reading.

【推荐1】Life is for living according to the well-used expression. Sometimes what we wish to do is not completely up to us.     1     Many of us write a list of things we’d like to do before we leave this world—often called a bucket list (人生愿望清单).

Bucket lists have been called “the greatest hits of your life” and have helped some people get over anxiety to follow their dreams. Some of us may choose to write one to fill our life with new experiences, from skydiving to swimming with sharks.     2    

This is something the BBC radio programme “All in the Mind” has been looking at. It heard from a blogger called Julie, who said she made a promise to live her bucket list.     3     Such a list can be exciting and can indeed help plan your life and give you focus.

    4     But some people have argued it can be used as a strategy to try to control something that is actually uncontrollable. Clinical psychologist Linda Blair told the BBC that she was “not really in favour of bucket lists, which take you away from the natural chances.”

It’s probably true that a list can encourage people to follow someone else’s idea. But why not at least dream of what we would like to do?     5     Whether we want to plan it or just see what happens, we should have our dreams.

A．The list can sometimes be crazy.

B．Working hard helps realize bucket lists.

C．Creating bucket lists can certainly give us hope.

D．How about making a bucket list once in a while?

E．Why not reach for the stars, even if we only reach the sky?

F．She dreams of cycling around the world and pushing her limits.

G．But there is no harm in dreaming about what we want in our life.

【推荐2】When it's five o'clock, people leave their office. The length of the workday, for many workers, is defined by time. They leave when the clock tells them they're done.

These days, the time is everywhere, not just on clocks or watches, but on cell-phones and computers. That may be a bad thing,particularly at work.New research shows that clock-based.work schedules hinder (阻碍) morale and creativity.

Clock-timers organize their day by blocks of minutes and hours. For example: a meeting from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.,research from 10 a.m. to noon, etc. On the other hand, task - timers have a list of things they want to accomplish. They work down the list, each task starts when the previous task is completed. It is said that all of us employ a mix of both these types of planning.

What, then, are the effects of thinking about time in these different ways? Does one make us more productive? Better at the tasks at hand? Happier? In experiments conducted by Tamar Avnet and Anne-Laure Sellier, they had participants organize different activities-from project planning, holiday. shopping,to yoga-by time or to-do list to measure how they performed under "clock time" vs "task time". They found clock timers to be more efficient but less happy because they felt little control over their lives. Task timers are happier and more creative, but less productive. They tend to enjoy the moment when something good is happening,and seize opportunities that come up.

The researchers argue that task-based organizing tends to be undervalued and under-supported in the business culture. Smart companies, they believe, will try to bake more task-based planning into their strategies.

This might be a small change to the way we view work and the office, but the researchers argue that it challenges a widespread characteristic of the economy: work organized by clock time. While most people will still probably need, and be, to some extent, clock-timers, task-based timing should be used when performing a job that requires more creativity. It'll make those tasks easier, and the task-doers will be happier.

1. What does the author think of time displayed everywhere?

A．It makes everybody time-conscious.

B．It is a convenience for work and life.

C．It may have a negative effect on creative work.

D．It clearly indicates the fast pace of modern life.

2. How do people usually go about their work according to the author?

A．They combine clock-based and task-based planning.

B．They give priority to the most urgent task on hand.

C．They set a time limit for each specific task.

D．They accomplish their tasks one by one.

3. What did Tamar Avnet and Anne-Laure Sellier find in their experiments about clock timers?

A．They seize opportunities as they come up.

B．They always get their work done in time.

C．They have more control over their lives.

D．They tend to be more productive.

4. What do the researchers say about today's business culture?

A．It does not support the strategies adopted by smart companies.

B．It does not attach enough importance to task - based practice.

C．It places more emphasis on work efficiency than on workers' lives.

D．It aims to bring employees' potential and creativity into full play.

5. What do the researchers suggest?

A．Performing creative jobs tends to make workers happier.

B．It is important to keep a balance between work and life.

C．Task-based timing is preferred for doing creative work.

D．A scientific standard should be adopted in job evaluation.

【推荐3】Those accustomed to browsing through thousands of books in large bookstores may find Japan’s Morioka Shoten a little strange. That’s because this tiny bookstore that is located in Ginza,Tokyo sells only a single book at a time.

Opened in May 2015, Morioka Shoten is the brainchild of Yoshiyuki Morioka. He began his career as a bookstore clerk in Tokyo’s Kanda district before branching out to open his own store. It was here while organizing book reading and signing that he realized that customers usually came into the store with one title in mind. Morioka began to wonder if a store could exist by selling multiple copies of just one single book. In November 2014, he partnered with Masamichi Toyama to establish a unique bookstore with the philosophy of “A Single Room with a Single Book”.

The selections that are picked by Morioka change weekly and vary widely to attract customers with different interests. Recent choices include The True Deceiver, an award-winning Swedish novel by Tove Jansson, Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales, and a collection of Karl Blossfeldt’s photography of plants. Morioka has also selected books written by a famous Japanese author Mimei Ogawa.

To highlight his only offering, Morioka often uses clever tricks. For example, when selling a book about flowers, the storekeeper decorated his shop with the ones that had been mentioned in the book. He also encourages authors to hold talks and discussions so they can connect with customers. Morioka says his goal is for the customers to experience being inside a book, not just a bookstore.

Risky as the idea might seem, things appear to be going well. The storekeeper says he has sold over 2,100 books. Things can get better given that his bookstore is becoming increasingly popular not just among the locals but also visitors form other countries.

1. Why is Morioka Shoten unique?

A．It is popular with feigners.

B．It sells books of different topics.

C．It is decorated with colorful flowers.

D．It sells various copies of a book in a week.

2. Why does Morioka encourage authors to hold talks?

A．To introduce his bookstore.

B．To advocate his philosophy.

C．To make books better understood.

D．To help readers make more friends.

3. What’s the author’s opinion about the bookstore’s future?

A．Risky	B．Promising.
C．Unpredictable.	D．Hopeless

【推荐1】Carnival (狂欢节) is the most famous holiday in Brazil. It is not about an important time in history or about a famous person, but it is important for the people because it’s a time of friendship, freedom, and almost a whole week without work. People can have parties or have a rest, and most people choose parties, day after day, night after night. It starts forty days before Easter (复活节). It lasts four days and four nights. It starts on Saturday and finishes on Wednesday. People wear their colourful clothes and go out into the streets or to the clubs. There are also groups of people who make a parade (游行) showing their music and cars. Every year the parade tells a different story. Each city has at least one group like this.

In the south, life returns to normal by Wednesday. However, it is not accepted by the church in the northwest, where Carnival is more common. There people don’t respect its end and continue to have parties until the next Sunday.

I like Carnival, but I don’t agree that the party should keep going on for so many days. Unfortunately, some people aren’t responsible and give it a bad name, and that makes people remember the bad things about this. However, it is the only national holiday that brings together the whole country and its different people and cultures.

1. Why is Carnival important for the people in Brazil?

A．Because it’s a time of friendship and freedom.

B．Because it’s about an important time in history.

C．Because it’s a time of almost a whole month without work.

D．Because it’s a time to remember a famous person.

2. People choose ways to celebrate Carnival EXCEPT_____________.

A．having parties	B．having a rest
C．making a parade	D．going shopping

3. In the following descriptions of Carnival, which one is NOT true?

A．It starts forty days before Easter.

B．It starts on Saturday and finishes on Thursday.

C．There are groups of people who make a parade showing their music and cars.

D．Every year the parade tells a different story.

4. What does the author think of Carnival?

A．The author doesn’t care for Carnival.

B．The author never joins in Carnival.

C．The author does not like Carnival.

D．The author likes Carnival, but he doesn’t agree the party goes on so many days.

【推荐2】As soon as the Thanksgiving holiday is over, Santa Clauses start appearing everywhere. It takes more than red clothing and a white beard to be a professional Santa. In fact many successful Santas attend special classes.

The CW Howard Santa School, one of the oldest Santa Claus school in the world, is in Midland, Michigan. It celebrated its 80th anniversary last year. Over 250 Santas gathered at the school to prepare for their seasonal work. Charlie Howard was the Santa Claus in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for 17 years. He started the school in 1937.

“At that time, there was a great need for good Santas. Santas didn’t portray the character that we want. Santa Claus stands for all good things hut some of the gentlemen’s images (形象) weren’t up to the expectation,” said Charlie.

The three-day Santa workshop teaches people “Santa sign language”, facts about deer and clothing and make-up style. The future Santas also become familiar with the newest wish list toys, gain (获得) interview experience for radio and television and even get advice on how to do their business taxes.

It’s said that about 15,000 students have graduated from the Santa school. They come from all over North America, Europe，Africa and Australia to study. Last year the school welcomed Santas from all 50 states as well as many other countries.

The Santas never claim (声称) to be the one and only “real” Santa. Instead, they describe themselves as “the spirit of Christmas”. At the school’s opening-night activity, they tell visiting children they are the “cousins of Santa”.

Robert Davis says they also never promise children anything. Instead, they say they will try their best.

After all, as Charlie Howard liked to say, “He is wrong who thinks Santa enters through the chimney (烟囱). Santa enters through the heart.’’

1. What can we learn about Santa from the text?

A．Professional Santas are more popular nowadays.

B．A professional Santa must be trained in a Santa school.

C．To be a professional Santa is quite easy for most people.

D．It just lakes red clothing and a white heard to be a real Santa.

2. The underlined word “portray” in Paragraph 3 probably means “      ”.

A．form	B．change
C．draw	D．act

3. Which of the following is not among the duties of a Santa?

A．Promising the children anything they want.

B．Getting familiar with the newest wish list toys.

C．Gaining interview experience for radio and television.

D．Taking part in school activities to meet visiting children.

4. What can be inferred from the text?

A．The Santas always describe themselves to be real ones.

B．The aim of the training is to spread the spirit of Christmas.

C．The Santas are trained to enter the house through a chimney.

D．People care more about the gifts than the encouragement they get.