1 . When Sunday is over, the boring office may be the last place you think of, but the Apple Park in Cupertino, California may give you a different feeling.
Apple Park is like a huge landed UFO, which covers an area of 708,000 square metres. The round four-storey main building has hundreds of rooms. It covers an area of up to 260,000 square metres. The outer walls are made up of huge pieces of glass. Many of them can be opened like the windows in your home, and the whole building can “breathe” like a human being. With this special ventilated system, it only needs to use air conditioners for three months of the year. There are 75,000 square metres of solar arrays on the roofs of the building. They provide electricity for the whole Park. The Apple Park building is a bright, comfortable and convenient place for all the 12,000 Apple people to work inside.
Apple Park is not only a fantastic working place. There is a huge dining hall for all the — Apple people to have meals together at once. There is a four-storey cafe, a sports center and a l,000-seat theatre to offer relaxing services. There are 2,000 bicycle parking spaces, so people can ride their bikes to work. The company also provides l,000 bikes for Apple people to get around all over Apple Park. In the middle of the round building is a huge park. Over 9,000 trees, including many fruit trees, are planted to make it a mini forest. It’s an ideal place to make Apple people feel better and more energetic.
Apple Park is a gift for all the Apple people.
1. The main building of Apple Park is ________.| A．12,000 square metres | B．75,000 square metres |
| C．260,000 square metres | D．708,000 square metres |
| A．outer walls | B．solar arrays | C．rooms | D．trees |
| A．To keep Apple people busy. |
| B．To invite tourists to have fun there. |
| C．To make itself a better gift to Apple people. |
| D．To build itself a better place to enjoy nature. |
| A．There are over 9,000 fruit trees in the Park. |
| B．Apple people can do exercise in Apple Park. |
| C．Apple Park can “breathe” for three months of the year. |
| D．The outer walls of the main building are made of wood. |
2 . For centuries, people around the world have invented many sports. It’s no surprise that more and more unusual sports have appeared.
Human Towers
Every two years, there is a strange but fun competition—Human Towers in Spain. The first prize goes to the highest tower. In 2015, a group of players from China and Spain set a world record: a nine-person-high human tower. In this exciting event, any visitor can hold out his arms with the local people and cheer together.
Cheese Rolling Championships
Cheese Rolling Championships take place in May every year in Britain. It is a traditional sport with the strongest smell in the world. Hundreds of people watch it on Coopers Hill. In the game, a cheese wheel of 3.5 kg runs quickly down the hill. All the players run after it, trying to catch it without falling. However, most fail and get pains all over.
Outhouse Racing
Outhouse Racing has its own World Championship. It is on October 1st and 2nd in Virginia, America. Every team tries to push or pull their homemade outhouse along the street to be the first. You can see all kinds of unusual outhouses in the street. Each must have four sides, a toilet seat and toilet paper.
1. According to the passage, the sport with the strongest smell takes place in ________| A．China | B．Spain | C．Britain | D．America |
| A．cheese | B．a prize | C．a surprise | D．a toilet seat |
| A．Human Towers | B．Outhouse Racing |
| C．Racing World Championship | D．Cheese Rolling Championships |
You have waited 45 minutes for the valuable 10 minutes’ break. But when the bell for the next class rings, you can’t believe how quickly time has passed. If you have this experience, you’ll know how time flies when you are having fun and drags when you are bored. Now scientists have come up with a reason why this happens.
They have found that the brain changes its way to work according to how we direct our attention to a task. When we are bored, we pay more attention to how time is passing. And this makes our brains think the clock is ticking more slowly.
Recently some researchers who want to understand the conditions carried out an experiment. In the experiment, twelve volunteers watched a picture while researchers monitored their brain activity.
The volunteers were told to first notice how long a picture appeared, then the color of the picture, and thirdly, study the both. The results showed that the brain was more active when the volunteers paid attention to more subjects.
It is thought that if the brain is busy noticing many aspects of a task, it has to spread its resources, and pays less attention to the clock. Therefore, time seems to go quickly. If the brain is not so active, it spends its full energy on the passing of time. As a result, time seems to move slowly.
Next time you feel bored in class, perhaps you should concentrate on what the teacher is saying.
1. What does the underlined word “drags” probably mean?| A．passes slowly | B．runs quickly | C．moves actively | D．goes silently |
| A．Time goes by fast when we have nothing to do. |
| B．The ten minutes’ break is important to students. |
| C．The brain works in different ways in different situations. |
| D．Students pay more attention to the pictures than the passing of time. |
| A．We will be full of energy if we’re busy. |
| B．Concentrating on things is a way to make people less bored. |
| C．Time goes slowly when the brain is noticing many things at the same time. |
| D．We should pay no attention to time when we are doing something. |
| A．The best way to save time. | B．The importance of planning time. |
| C．Why time passes quickly. | D．The reason for time flying and dragging. |
4 . Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally about what to believe or what to do. According to a report on the World Economic Forum (2016), critical thinking, creativity, and their practical application are widely accepted as the top three skills that young people need to possess in their future career.
A good critical thinker usually takes the following steps before he dicides what to do. Whenever he needs to do something, he would, first of all, reason. He checks why he needs to do it and whether he really needs to do it. Then, analyze. He tries to find out what it really is and the best way to do it. After that, evaluate. He makes sure whether he is able to do it and how to do it well. Finally, he makes the decision and takes action. Take the “Double 11” (a popular online shopping day in China) as an example. A few days before it, he checks carefully what he needs and whether he really needs them, and makes a shopping list. He goes to the online shops to compare the quality and the prices of the things that he is going to buy. He compares the shops that sell these things.
Then he checks whether he can afford them and in which shops he is going to buy them. Although it takes him some time to make the decisions, he would not regret after the shopping.
Then what would happen if he didn’ t think critically before he made the decisions? After the crazy “Double 11”, there were usually a lot of complaints on the Internet. There were regrets about buying more things than they needed. There were complaints about the poor quality and the prices of the things they bought. There were also complaints because they received wrong things or simply received nothing. There were all kinds of regrets and complaints. Why so? They had not thought critically before they made the decisions.
Critical thinking helps you make wiser decisions. It helps you avoid wasting time, money and so on. Therefore, do look before you leap.
1. According to the passage, critical thinking is a thinking skill that ________.| A．helps make better choices | B．will appear in the future |
| C．helps make quick decisions | D．makes us spend more money |
| A．He checks what he needs to buy. | B．He studies the quality and the prices. |
| C．He makes a proper shopping list. | D．He checks how much money he has. |
| A．are not satisfied | B．are not confident |
| C．are not interested | D．are not responsible |
| A．Daming did a new science experiment before reading instructions. |
| B．Lingling’s parents became very angry when they knew her bad marks. |
| C．After looking at the other team’s weak points, the coach made a new plan.. |
| D．After hearing the strangers’ words, the girl followed him into a supermarket. |
Everyone knows by now that plastic pollution is a big problem for the environment. Beying, for example, has dealt with this by stopping using thin plastic bags, plastic tableware and other plastic products in supermarkets, restaurants and hotels since May 1, 2020.
But an even better method might be on the way. Researchers at a French company called Carbios have discovered a bacterial enzyme that can break down plastic. The enzyme, which was first found in compost leaves, can not only break down plastic in hours, but also use the things left to create new products.
In fact, the first compost enzyme was found in 2012. Scientists changed its genes, allowing it to break down 90 percent of one ton of waste plastic in less than 10 hours. “It had been completely forgotten, but it turned out to be the best,” said Marty.
The new enzyme was discovered in research published in April, 2020. Before that, the team, led by Professor Alain Marty, studied over 100,000 micro-organisms to find one that could break down plastic quickly.
The enzyme especially breaks down PET, a kind of plastic that is most commonly used for plastic bottles and food packaging. It is also the fifth most common kind of plastic that we use.
However, waste bottles must be ground up and heated before the new enzyme is mixed in. These will make the recycled PET more expensive. But because of a shortage of this recycled plastic, people still like paying more money for it.
Carbios said it is working together with companies like Pepsi and Nestle — main users of plastic themselves - to develop their research and start using the enzyme in the factories. “There is still a lot of work to do to use it in the factories, but this opens the door.” said a research scientist.
1. In Paragraph 1, the writer mentions Beijing to show ________.| A．plastic is useful in our daily life | B．ifs easy to break down plastic |
| C．plastic causes serious pollution | D．it’s necessary to stop using plastic |
① studied lots of micro-organisms
② discovered the new enzyme
③ found the first compost enzyme
④ changed genes of the enzyme
| A．②-①-④-③ | B．③-④-①-② | C．①-②-③-④ | D．④-③-②-① |
| A．the new mixed enzymes | B．plastic bottles and food packaging |
| C．common kinds of plastic | D．grinding up and heating waste bottles |
| A．A Natural Way to Recycle Plastic | B．The Most Common Way to Stop Plastic |
| C．The Bright Future of Using Plastic | D．A New Way to Create the New Enzyme |
Plants turning towards the sun is commonly found in nature. They direct their stems* so their flowers always face the sunlight during the day. Sunflowers are especially known for their ability to track* the position of the sun in the sky. This process is known as phototropism. Because of that, sunflowers grow much faster than those are not phototropic.
To improve the working effectiveness of solar cells, scientists in the US try to copy the process of phototropism.
They have created a small man-made sunflower less than 1 mm wide that can bend* towards a light source and collect solar energy.
Each man-made sunflower includes two parts:
⚫ A ‘flower’ made of common and standard light-absorbing* material, which is widely used in solar cells.
⚫ A ‘stem’ made from a special material, which can quickly react to light. When light reaches the stem, the material begins to heat up and shrink*, causing the stem to bend so the ‘flower’ faces the light and absorbs energy, just as a real sunflower works.
Those ‘sunflowers’ are able to immediately detect* and track a light source and do this no matter what the weather or the temperature might be, without power supply or any human intervention*.
The researchers have tested those man-made sunflowers and found that they were up to 400 percent more effective than none-phototrophic materials. The tiny flowers are proved with super power. But the practical usage is some way off. The study shows possibilities in labs, but before those man-made sunflowers can be used widely, the technology will need to be produced in a large amount.
However, the team is sure that the tiny flowers could one day be used across a wide range of industries. They can be a power source for solar-based spaceships. They can also be useful for other solar collectors, smart windows, self-contained robotics and so on.
1. The underlined word “phototropism” refers to a process that plants _.| A．track the sunlight | B．get solar energy |
| C．change their positions | D．direct their leaves |
| A．it is less than 1 mm wide | B．it can work without power |
| C．it works like a real one | D．it can absorb energy |
| A．They are 400% more effective than sunflowers. |
| B．They have been made in a large amount. |
| C．They have been used widely in industries. |
| D．They are believed to be used practically one day. |
| A．Tiny Flowers with Super power | B．Plants’ Secrets in Nature |
| C．A Discovery of Sunflower | D．A Technology in Solar Cells |
Take a look at this painting. How many of these children’s games have you ever played?
Children’s Games, by Pieter Bruegel, a famous artist who lived in Europe five hundred years ago, is still loved today because it is full of fun, showing over two hundred children playing around eighty different games.
In the painting, we can see a busy street in a town long ago.
There are no cars, just horses and buggies, so there is plenty of room for children to play. Some play in groups and others play alone. They please themselves with games. Many of the games date back to ancient times, and some are still played even today.
Here are a few popular games.
⚫Leapfrog — one child bends down and another one jumps high over his back.
⚫Knucklebones — jackstones are thrown into air and picked up in groups between bounces of a small ball.
⚫Hopscotch — a child throws a stone into an area drawn on the ground and then jumps through it and back to regain the stone.
⚫Hoop-rolling — each child drives a large iron ring to move forward and the one holding it longest wins.
Those games do not require children to spend money on materials. Instead, they use simple everyday objects like hats and sticks. A game only calls for a hoop, a rope, some chalk. Some games are played without any toys at all. Even though Pieter Bruegel lived a long time ago, children today can learn an important lesson from what he painted. The painting shows us how little we need in order to enjoy ourselves. All children really need is one another. It’s not the toys or games that are found in stores that create fun. Using our imagination can do this for us.
1. The passage is mainly about .| A．a famous artist in Europe | B．a busy street in a town long ago |
| C．a painting about children’ s games | D．children’s games five hundred years ago |
| A．It is painted by Pieter Bruegel. | B．It shows the happiness of children. |
| C．The painting is really valuable. | D．It describes the life in Europe. |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
| A．Children spend much buying materials. |
| B．Simple objects can’t create fun for children. |
| C．Toys in the store create fun for children. |
| D．It doesn’t cost much for children to have fun. |
8 . There are some little problems in daily life. They may not cause any big trouble but may be difficult to deal with. Here are a few tips to help you solve them and improve your life.
Keep Coke Cold
Coke gets warm quickly after it’s taken out of fridge. You can wrap* the cans or bottles with thick bubble coat to keep the coke cold on hot summer days. You can also do the same with hot or cold picnic food. Even ice-cream will stay in good condition longer.
Clean a Sweat Stain*
Yellow stains on the underarms spoil shirts, especially white ones. Luckily, it is pretty easy to clean them. You can rub the stain with a mixture of half lemon juice and half water, and then wash the shirt as usual. You can also add two aspirin into half a cup of warm water, and then soak* the stain for a few hours.
Open a Bottle of Wine
It is unpleasant if you can’t find a corkscrew when you have a nice bottle of wine to drink. Take your house keys and drive one of them into the cork*. Slowly twist* the key around and up until you are able to hold on the cork and pull it out. Cheers!
1. You can use the bubble coat to ________.| A．keep coke cold | B．open a bottle | C．wash a shirt | D．make picnic food |
| A．Lemon juice and cold water | B．Lemon juice and warm water. |
| C．Aspirin and cold water. | D．Aspirin and warm water. |
| A．bottle | B．tool | C．drink | D．cork |
Fever, coughing, sore throat... most of us at one time or another have had these signs. What causes them?
In fact, many diseases are caused by viruses, including some deadly ones like AIDS, SARS and COVID-19 which breaks out in China and all over the world.
What are viruses? How can viruses cause so much trouble? Viruses are very tiny particles which are about one millionth of an inch long. Unlike human cells or bacteria, viruses aren't living organisms–they can’t reproduce on their own. Instead, they enter the cells of living organisms to reproduce, spread and take over.
Virus can infect every living thing–from plants and animals down to the smallest bacteria. For this reason, they are always a hidden danger to humans.
Viruses lie around our environment all of the time, waiting for a host cell to come along. They can enter our bodies by the nose, mouth, eyes or breaks in the skin. Once inside, they try to find a host cell to infect.
But the basic question is, where did viruses first come from? Until now, no clear explanation for their origin exists. Finding out the origins of viruses is difficult, “Ed Rybicki, a scientist at the university of Cape Town in South Africa, told Scientific American, because viruses don't leave fossils and because of the tricks they use to make copies of themselves within the cells they've entered.”
However, there are three main theories to explain the origin of viruses. First, viruses started as independent organisms, then became parasites. Second, viruses evolved from pieces of DNA or RNA that “escaped” from larger organisms. Third, viruses co-evolved with their host cells, which means they existed alongside these cells.
For the time being, these are only theories. The technology and evidence we have today cannot be used to test these theories and identify the most reasonable explanation. Continuing studies may provide us with clearer answers. Or future studies may find that the answer is even more unexpected than what we have considered now.
1. What can viruses do from the passage?| A．Exist everywhere every time. |
| B．Enter our bodies through our skin. |
| C．Make copies by themselves. |
| D．Only infect humans and animals. |
| A．They evolved from the fossils of large organisms. |
| B．They evolved from parasites to independent organisms. |
| C．They evolved from the DNA of animals. |
| D．They evolved along with their host cells. |
| A．Viruses live longer in human host cells than in animals. |
| B．Viruses will become more like bacteria as they evolve. |
| C．It may take a long time to understand the origin of viruses. |
| D．The author is confident about future virus research. |
| A．the types of viruses | B．the origin of diseases |
| C．a research report about human health | D．an introduction to the viruses |
If you’ve ever passed the cockpit in a flight and tried to understand your pilots' conversation, you probably didn't gain much from them. From terms like "niner" to "Zulu," pilot-speak can sound like its own language.
The special language is called “aviation English". According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), pilots on international airlines and air traffic controllers on airlines need to speak "aviation English55 when they communicate. Aviation English is necessary all over the world because it is unrealistic for a pilot to know all the different languages of the country to which he or she must fly. In addition, most of the phrases flight crew use were born out of a need for clear communication with a few words over an occasionally fuzzy radio transmission. Pilots must make effort to minimise their transmission time.
Misunderstandings between pilots and air traffic controllers can lead to disaster, so they must ensure not to misunderstand one another. To avoid making a mistake about understanding with similar sounding consonants, the ICAO has a standard phonetic alphabet: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu. These words stand for the letters from A to Z. The pronunciation of numbers should also follow precise standards. For example, zero (0) is always “zero," not "oh. " 3 becomes "tree". 4 is called "fower" five becomes and nine becomes "niner. "
There are also more colorful phrases that pilots say were produced in the sky and shared widely among staffers. For example, 6Teet wet" warns air traffic controllers when a military aircraft is flying over water. "Pan-Pan" is reserved for communication with air traffic controllers. When pilots notice something unusual with their plane that stops short of an immediate emergency, they use “pan-pan," a signal of urgency and attention. When pilots use this signal, other aviators on the same radio frequency will “shut up and let you get your message across," allowing air traffic control to provide the suitable aid and prevent a great danger in flight.
1. Pilots and air traffic controllers use aviation English in order to ________.a. save the transmission time
b. make the orders clear and simple
c. avoid mistaking passengers’ conversations
d. make international communication possible
| A．a. b. c | B．a. b. d | C．a. c. d | D．b. c. d |
| A．P112T | B．8811TT | C．PN23 | D．88NT3 |
| A．Aviation English is really necessary on national airlines. |
| B．Aviation English is created by an organization called ICAO. |
| C．A pilot will report "Feet wet" if there is much water in his cockpit. |
| D．“Pan-Pan” means the plane meets some trouble and needs attention. |
| A．They Have Their Secret Language | B．Pilots’ Language Is Hard To Learn |
| C．Here's What They're Really Saying | D．Aviation English Is Developing Quickly |
