【推荐1】The world can be a scary place when you' re young. It can be even scarier when you' re a young little blue penguin(企鹅) , the tiniest of the penguin species. Luckily, there are some humans willing to help. They stepped in to protect Billy, a blue penguin that appeared on a beach in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Spotted on November 29 at the slipway at Moncks Bay, near Sumner，in Christchurch，the little penguin immediately attracted a small crowd. Jeff Mein Smith saw the crowd while he was bicycling that afternoon, and he biked home to get his camera. When he returned to the scene，he found that the penguin had received a little sign, one that read “Hi, I'm waiting for my mum to come back. DOC(Department of Conservation) knows I'm here. Please leave me alone. Keep your dog away. Thanks, Billy the baby blue penguin.”

Billy didn't move away from the sign. The DOC arrived later that afternoon to pick up Billy, though they were surprised to see it on the beach. “It's unusual for a blue penguin to be out in the open on the beach during the day, ”Anita Spencer, a DOC senior ranger, told Stuff.

Billy was taken to the Christchurch Penguin Rehabilitation Center after being retrieved from the beach. Volunteers believe the bird may actually be a female penguin, and is around 2 months old. The chick weighs a mere 550 grams, less than a standard basketball. A blue penguin should weigh around 900 grams at this age. Most little penguins grow up to weigh 1 kilogram.

The center will help the little penguin gain some weight by feeding it fish juice, before it's set free into the ocean.

1. Why can the world be frightening to a young penguin?

A．It is a rare species.

B．It faces potential danger.

C．It is surrounded by the crowd.

D．It is threatened by dogs.

2. It can be inferred from the text that Billy         ．

A．is a male penguin

B．has expressed its thanks

C．weighs less for its age

D．prefers living on the beach

3. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “retrieved” in Paragraph 4?

A．Ignored.	B．Cured.
C．Given away.	D．Brought back.

4. What will happen to Billy in the center?

A．It will be reported to Stuff.

B．It will be visited by the locals.

C．It will be taken good care of.

D．It will be fed with fruit juice.

【推荐3】Durian(榴莲) is probably the smelliest fruit in the world, letting out an unusual unpleasant smell which would make anyone bring up. However, nobody was aware of what gave this fruit its unique smell, so a team of researchers from Singapore decided to take a look at its genome (基因组) and find out,

Durian is well-known throughout Southeast Asia as the king of fruits, mostly because of its awful appearance and smell. However, the origin of this unpleasant smell was unknown, so researchers decided to map the genome of the fruit, and find the gene that controlled it. A group of genes, volatile sulfur compounds (含硫化合物), became very active in the fruit, and they were found responsible for resulting in the unpleasant smell.

The fruit confuses everyone with a sulfuric smell, like rotten onions and ingredients. The smell lasts long, mostly because the fruit contains more volatile sulfur compounds. Other species usually benefit from two gene copies at most, but durian has four, leading to the striking smell.

However, this smell might be an advantage for durian in the wild. Although we find it unpleasant, many animals might be attracted by it. If they eat the fruit, then they can easily spread its seeds everywhere, thus contributing to the distribution of the species.

The mapping of the durian genome also showed some other information on the species. First of all, the fruit has an impressive number of genes, namely 46,000. Also, with the help of these genes, they saw how it evolved, and discovered it was related to the cacao tree. All the other discoveries have been published in the journal Nature Genetics.

Despite the striking smell, many people actually enjoy eating the fruit. However, not all durian species are edible, and some of them may even cause damage to our health, Even so, the fruit is often imported, significantly contributing to the economy.

1. What give durian its unique smell?

A．Onions nearby.

B．Two gene copies.

C．Rotten ingredients in it.

D．Volatile sulfur compounds.

2. What does the underlined word “evolved” in Paragraph 5 probably mean?

A．Developed.

B．Escaped.

C．Predicted.

D．Tolerated.

3. What can we infer from the text?

A．No birds enjoy eating durian.

B．Durian can be planted all over the world.

C．Some of durian species can not be eaten.

D．Durian has no relationship with the cacao tree.

4. What’s the best title for the text?

A．What’s Durian?

B．The Influence of the Smell

C．The Distribution of Durian

D．The Mystery of the Unpleasant Smell of Durian

【推荐1】Of all the components of a good night’s sleep, dreams seem to be least within our control. In dreams, a window opens into a world where logic is suspended and dead people speak. A century ago, Freud stated his revolutionary theory that dreams were the disguised (伪装的)shadows of our unconscious desires and fears: by the late 1970se neurologists had switched to thinking of them as just "mental noise"—the random byproducts of the neural-repair work that goes on during sleep. Now researchers suspect that dreams are part of the minds emotional thermostat, regulating moods while the brain is "off-line". And one leading authority says that these intensely powerful mental events can be not only influenced but actually brought under conscious control, to help us sleep and feel better. "It's your dream," says Rosalind Cartwright, chair of psychology at Chicago's Medical Center. "If you don't like it change it."

The link between dreams and emotions shows up among the patients in Cartwright's clinic. Most people seem to have more bad dreams early in the night, progressing toward happier ones before awakening, suggesting that they are working through negative feelings generated(产生)during the day. Because our conscious mind is occupied with daily life. we don't always think about the emotional significance of the day' s events—until, it appears, we begin to dreams.

And this process need not be left to the unconscious. Cartwright believes one can exercise conscious control over repeated bad dreams. As soon as you awaken, identify what is upsetting about the dream. Visualize how you would like it to end instead; the next time it occurs, try to wake up just enough to control its course. With much practice people can learn to, literally, do it in their sleep.

At the end of the day, there's probably little reason to pay attention to our dreams at all unless they keep us from sleeping or "we wake up in a panic," Cartwright says. Terrorism, economic uncertainties and general feelings of insecurity have increased people's anxiety. Those suffering from persistent nightmares should seek help from a therapist. For the rest of us, the brain has its ways of working through bad feeling Sleep—or rather dream—on it and you'll feel better in the morning.

1. By saying that "dreams are part of the mind's emotional thermostat" in paragraph 1, the researchers mean that______.

A．dreams can help us keep our mood comparatively stable

B．dreams can be brought under conscious control

C．dreams represent our unconscious desires and fears

D．we can think logically in the dreams too

2. The negative feelings generated during the day tend to___.

A．become worse in our unconscious mind

B．develop into happy dreams

C．persist till the time we fall asleep

D．show up in dreams early at night

3. Cartwright believed with much practice, we can learn to______.

A．control what dreams to dream

B．sleep well without any dreams

C．wake up in time to stop the bad dreams

D．identify what is upsetting about the dreams

4. Cartwright might advise those who sometimes have bad dreams to_____.

A．lead their life as usual

B．seek professional help

C．exercise conscious control

D．avoid anxiety in the daytime

【推荐2】So you think you know your dog. But how well does your dog know you? She probably recognizes you when she sees you. But can a dog tell by simply looking at you whether you have a happy or an angry expression on your face? Researchers in Austria have taught pet dogs to know the difference.

Dogs are very mindful of sound. When dog owners shout or speak in a strong, harsh voice, dogs often act guilty and quietly move away from the area. Researchers have found that dogs can look at our faces, and tell the difference between a smile and a frown. The animals were able to recognize a look of approval from one of disapproval.

Researchers performed a series of experiments. They taught dogs to recognize facial expressions. They showed the dogs two pictures of either the upper of lower half of a person’s face. On one picture, the person looked happy. The other appeared angry. The dogs were then shown images of the eyes or mouths of people they had never seen before. They were also shown the left half of the faces used in training. Once the dogs learned to recognise which image was happy or angry, they could easily identify the same expressions in pictures of any face.

Corsin Muller, who led the study, says future studies will try to show whether dogs can learn the meaning of facial expressions—for example, whether a frown shows that someone is angry. “What we can say with our study is that they can tell these ones are different. But what we cannot be sure of at this point is what exact meaning they are associating with these different expressions.” “Of course it seems likely that they would associate (联系) some positive meanings with the smiley face and they would associate some rather negative meanings with the angry face. But what exactly they are associating with these expressions we cannot know at this point.” Corsin says.

1. The passage tells us mainly about       .

A．whether dogs can recognise our facial expressions

B．What are the best ways to train our dogs

C．Why it’s necessary to know our pet dogs well

D．how dogs communicate with each other

2. We know from the second paragraph that a dog       .

A．pays little attention to its owner’s looks

B．has to be trained to recognise our voices

C．will feel guilty if their owner frowns

D．is very sensitive to its owner’s voices

3. According to Corsin Muller, it’s been proven that dogs know       .

A．the exact meaning of a frown

B．a frown is an angry expression

C．a smiley face may have negative meanings

D．human looks carry different meanings

4. In which part of a website does the text probably appear?

A．Education.	B．Technology.
C．Language.	D．Economics.

【推荐2】The latest data from the Office for National Statistics shows that one in every 12 kids is living in homes where no one has worked for at least a year. That may be due to unemployment or issues such as sickness or disability that mean they can’t work, and aren’t required to. This is known as being in a “long term workless” family.

The issues faced by children in workless families have very bad influence on their development and education, limiting their future employment prospects, and reducing their opportunities to succeed throughout their lives.

Not only does worklessness reduce family income, it can also damage families’ health and stability, and thus destroy children’s development. This is because many workless families are held back by disadvantages such as debt, drug and alcohol dependency, and by homelessness. Suffering from the family problems, many children face a greater and greater possibility of repeating the poor outcomes of their parents. Government research has shown that children in workless families are almost twice as likely not to reach the expected level at all stages of their education. For example, three-quarters of children from families where no one works failed to reach the expected level at General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), compared to around half of children in lower-income working families.

So attention should be paid to children in out-of-work homes. Having working parents means a child is more likely to do better at school, to have better health, education and development, and also means they are less likely to fall into crime.

But for some families, worklessness, or not employment, is the norm. They just choose not to work. These families often face huge barriers to getting on with their lives but they take the opportunities offered by the society. Parents’ ability to work is frustrated by issues like low skills or poor mental or physical health, or drug and alcohol dependency, leaving children without the stability they need.

We all want to help workless families with complex problems so that their children can take advantage of the opportunities in Britain. We all want parents to have the chance to go out to earn a living and to enjoy the pleasure of work, so that their children can benefit from the good examples of working parents. In doing so, we should know the need to understand the complex issues that some families face and to develop a new approach to deal with poverty. Because the root causes are not financial. It is about helping families overcome the problems they face so that they can go as far as their talents and hard work will take them. We shouldn’t retreat from acting to deal with disadvantages, because we know the costs of inaction to individuals, communities and society.

1. According to the author, children in workless families may _______.

A．have better performance at school

B．take chances to go out to earn a living

C．be more able to deal with their problems

D．live the same lifestyles that their parents had

2. The underlined word “norm” in the fifth paragraph probably means _______.

A．a huge barrier	B．a turning point
C．a typical standard	D．an unusual event

3. In the last paragraph the author mainly talked about _______.

A．raising of social welfare

B．solutions to the problems

C．development of the society

D．reforming of the government

4. The main purpose of the passage is to _______.

A．introduce a study on children in workless families

B．appeal to the readers to help children in workless families

C．present a new approach to deal with poverty of workless families

D．compare children’s performances in workless families and low-income ones

【推荐1】A new study says that regular fish consumption has been shown to improve cognition (认知) and help people fall asleep. Fish is loaded with omega-3 fatty acids--a kind of fat that caries numerous health benefits. “Neurons(神经元)need omega-3 fatty acids for proper cell membrane(膜)structure and function,” explains Don Vaughn, MD, a neuroscientist at UCLA, of the importance of a fish-inclusive diet. “It then comes as no surprise that the dietary insufficiency of omega-3 fatty acids leads to poor cognition.”

While previous studies showed a relationship between omega-3 consumption and improved intelligence, none established a link among improved sleep, intelligence, and fish consumption. The new study covered 541 children in China, almost evenly split between boys and girls. The researchers tracked, fish consumption along with the kids’ performance on both verbal(口头的)and non-verbal skill tests such as vocabulary and coding. Parents helped record how well the kids slept. After all the data was collected and analyzed, the researchers found that children who were reported eating fish at least weekly slept sounder and scored 4.8 points higher on their IQ exams than those who were reported eating fish “seldom” or “never”.

Previous studies showed a relationship between omega-3s, the fatty acids in many types of fish, and improved intelligence, as well as omega-3s and better sleep. But the new findings revealed sleep as a possible medium pathway, the potential missing link between fish and intelligence.

“Sleep is essential to brain health and function. The brain strengthens important memories, forgets useless information, and continues practicing skills learned during the day,” says Dr.Vaughn. “Good sleep underlies high performance in memory and problem solving.”

The researchers on the team also noted that poor sleep is often accompanied by antisocial behavior, poor cognition, and a variety of other problems, all of which could be lessened by increasing the amount of fish or omega-3 fatty acids in their diet.

1. What do we know about omega-3 fatty acids from Paragraph l?

A．Their main source is fish.	B．They lead to poor cognition.
C．They work positively on neurons.	D．Their health benefits remain a mystery.

2. Compared with the previous ones, the new study first_________.

A．built a link between omega-3s and sleep

B．showed a relationship between omega-3s and health

C．connected omega-3 consumption and improved intelligence

D．combined fish consumption, improved sleep and intelligence together

3. The author writes Paragraph 4 to show_________.

A．how the brain chooses useful information

B．why sleep is important to our mental health

C．why sleep has a positive effect on intelligence

D．how the brain strengthens important memories

4. What is the main idea of the passage?

A．Omega-3s can help improve sleep quality.

B．Omega-3s are found to be beneficial to health.

C．Consuming fish can benefit sleep and increase IQ.

D．Consuming fish can give us a positive attitude to life.

【推荐2】The human body is an amazing and complex machine. We usually recover from illness or injury on our own. But what happens when we need medical treatment? In the past, some people went to see a medical doctor, while other people trusted ancient traditions and chose treatments such as herbal treatment(草药疗法)or acupuncture(针灸). These two types of medicine—one modern and western and the other ancient and Eastern—used to have nothing to do with each other.

In recent years, however, people around the world have begun to recognize and accept both modern and traditional therapies(治疗). This new kind of medicine can be called integrative medicine(综合医疗), because it combines different types of medicine. Some of the principles of this type of medicine include preventing illness by helping people stay healthy, integrating different types of therapies according to the needs of each patient, and considering the health of the whole person rather than concentrating on a particular illness or injury.

One health maintenance organization(HMO) in Madison, Wisconsin, has opened its integrative medicine center. At the center, HMO members are offered a variety of services. Patients who use these integrative medicine services appreciate having an alternative to surgery (手术) or to drugs and their side effects. They also enjoy activities and therapies that make them feel better even if they’re not sick. And from the financial point of view of the HMO, preventing illness whenever possible is much less expensive than a hospital stay.

According to Dr. Andrew Weil, founder of the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, integrative medicine combines the best parts of Western medicine with complementary(补充的) therapies such as nutrition. And because both doctor and patients are working to prevent illness, they become partners with the same goal instead of strangers who see each other only when the patient is sick.

1. What does the article mainly talk about?

A．Western medicine.	B．Integrative medicine.
C．Traditional therapy.	D．Advances in medical technology.

2. What would be an example of integrative medicine?

A．Taking aspirin(阿司匹林) for a headache.

B．Surgery to remove a patient’s cancerous tumor(肿瘤).

C．Using herbal treatments after surgery.

D．Using acupuncture.

3. Which of the following is an advantage of integrative medicine?

A．It makes doctors enjoy more interesting activities.

B．It let the parents have more confidence in it.

C．It helps patients feel healthier even when they’re not sick.

D．It costs more than medical care in hospital.

4. What will the relationship be between the doctor and the patient based on the last paragraph?

A．They have the same goal of treating the patient’s illness.

B．They see each other only if there is problem.

C．They work together so that the patient does not become ill.

D．They are like strangers in order to prevent illness.

【推荐3】As the coronavirus pandemic has unfolded, conspiracy (阴谋) theories about the virus have become an increasingly visible element of the timeline. Some conspiracy theorists combine their ideas with elements of pseudoscience (伪科学) which can result in unfounded beliefs—for example, that 5G technology, vaccines and genetically modified foods are part of a secret plan to spread the virus for purposes of controlling the public. Others point the finger at wealthy charitarians—Bill Gates, for example –accusing such individuals of having released the virus or of using the pandemic to test vaccines on poorer populations.

These theories have significant consequences for individuals and societies, especially when they are supported by political and business leaders, or other trusted members of the community. They can decrease people’s willingness to follow social distancing directives and negatively impact people’s views on scientific findings. A pandemic is an especially dangerous time for conspiracy theories.

So why, exactly, do these strange ideas spread, especially among our relatives, friends and neighbors who otherwise seem like reasonable citizens who take notice of scientific evidence and make sensible decisions about the health and safety of their families?

Belief in conspiracy theories has roots in a number of factors. For example, those who have suffered misfortune are more likely to support conspiracy theories as a means of explaining their undesirable lot in life. But when it comes to a global pandemic—and the deaths and collapsing economy that it has brought about—three factors are key: uncertainty, anxiety and powerlessness.

The less people feel in control of their world, the more likely they are to seek out ways to restore control—to fight their sense of powerlessness. When events are out of our control, the psychological burden can be relieved by turning to alternative explanations for these events. In this case, we might choose to believe that the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, was created in a lab and intentionally spread to cause harm. Such conspiracy theories explain what has happened and why, and offer us psychological relief.

The story is similar for anxiety and uncertainty. The pandemic has increased people’s worries about their physical, mental and economic health both in the short term and in the distant future. Conspiracy theories cannot remedy these circumstances. However, they can provide peace of mind that these unpleasant consequences are no fault of one’s own. Choosing to believe that COVID-19 is a hoax can reduce anxiety by playing down the severity of the circumstances. It’s a purely psychological effect, to be sure—but, then again, we primarily live in our own heads.

To some extent, the object of the conspiracy theories –the virus –is itself the source of the undesirable psychological states that promote belief in such theories. But this is not to say that our minds, and the conspiracy theories they adhere to, are completely at the mercy of an unmanageable virus. Political and social leaders can ease pandemic-caused anxiety and uncertainty by visibly taking the threat seriously, including steps to promote public health and to reduce the negative economic impact on people. And avoiding engaging in conspiracy theories themselves could limit the likelihood of the public turning further toward conspiracy theories for relief.

1. It can be inferred from the first paragraph that __________.

A．conspiracy theories about coronavirus are not rare with the spread of COVID-19.

B．people are likely to be misguided by conspiracy theories based on pseudoscience.

C．charitarian as Bill Gates is, he purposely released the virus in order to test new vaccines.

D．the general public aren’t convinced that genetically modified foods help spread the coronavirus.

2. What may the spread of conspiracy theories directly cause?

A．Serious economic consequences.

B．Decreased faith in influential figures.

C．Increased support for public health orders.

D．Public suspicion over scientific findings.

3. According to the author, conspiracy theories spread because they have __________.

A．reduced the severity of the COVID-19 crisis

B．scientifically explained the origins of the coronavirus

C．offered psychological relief in the current circumstances

D．predicted the long-term economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis

4. In order to stop the spread of conspiracy theories, trusted members of the community can __________.
(1) avoid talking about conspiracy theories
(2) deal with the COVID-19 crisis seriously
(3) explain how ridiculous these theories are
(4) stress that everything will return to normal

A．(1)(2)

B．(3)(4)

C．(1)(3)

D．(2)(4)