1 . I work at a grocery store in Montreal's Plateau neighbourhood, which gets a lot of regulars. On March 12, the Quebec government announced to close all public places to stop the spread of the pandemic(流行病)of coronavirus.
The next day the store was the busiest I've ever seen.The six cash registers had to be kept open from 10 a.m. until close. It was nuts. I didn't have time to eat lunch, and whenever one of us on cash had to use the bathroom, we'd have to bring in a coworker of the floor to cover for us.
Since then, the atmosphere in the store has been different. Customers are mostly considerate, but whenever someone coughs or sneezes, everyone turns around to make sure that person sneezed into their elbow. I've even seen customers come in wearing some strange get-ups. One guy even came in with a plastic Walmart bag wrapped around his entire head, with a slit cut out for his eyes.
A lot of my coworkers have left to avoid a public-facing job during the pandemic.grocery store workers across Canada are putting their health at risk every time they come in to work, but a lot of us are still making close to minimum wage. I realize that I feel more exhausted than normal even though I'm working the same hours.
There still have been some moments of kindness in the midst of the chaos.I've overheard people talking on the phone who sounded as though they were organizing grocery deliveries for those stuck at home. And this past weekend a very nice lady thanked us for continuing to work. I know everyone is worried, but it's useless having the same scary conversations day after day. Instead tell us a funny anecdote, or about something nice. We’ll appreciate the distraction, and you’ll make our day just a bit brighter.
1. What does the author intend to show by "It was nuts." in Paragraph 2?| A．The goods were in short supply. | B．The store was having a big sale. |
| C．The cashiers complained about their work. | D．The locals rushed to do shopping like crazy. |
| A．They prefer to shop here in costume. | B．They are panicky about the disease. |
| C．They are more friendly to each other. | D．They all protect themselves properly. |
| A．Aggressive. | B．Considerate. | C．Optimistic. | D．Conservative. |
| A．To present the kind moments in a time of chaos. |
| B．To describe what it 's like working in the pandemic. |
| C．To explain why it is hard to work at the grocery store. |
| D．To provide advice on how to protect oneself in the pandemic. |
2 . Like people，plants experience stress.And also，like people，the response to that stress can determine success.
Bad environmental conditions，such as drought，flood，heat and other stresses，affect yields(产量) more than crop pests and diseases.”We are trying to find a way to equip plants with the ability to tolerate environmental stress and maintain high yields”，said Stephen Howell，a professor of genetics and cell biology.
Plant cells produce proteins(蛋白质) and ship them to different parts of the cell.Under normal conditions，these proteins are folded into their normal，healthy structures as they are produced.When a plant is under stress，its cells produce poorly folded or unfolded proteins.Then a built-in system senses this and sets off an alarm in the cell said Howell.
In response to the alarm，another protein (IRE1) starts working and creates a different process which activates(激活)the stress response genes whose products bring about defensive measures that help the plant survive.
“As it turns out，responses that are activated under stressful conditions actually inhibit the growth of plants，”said Howell.”This allows them to preserve their energy to survive the stressful conditions.”
“For plants in the wild，this response is a help for survival”，he said.In production of agricultural crops，however，this response reduces yields.
“You don’t want crop plants to stop growing，Howell said.”You want them to continue to grow and produce more even though they are under stress.”
“With the new understanding of this stress response，the next step may be to silence the alarm system”，said Howell.”What may be important is to disable some of these stress responses.That may make the plant more productive under stressful conditions.
1. According to the text，an alarm in the plant cell is caused by _____.| A．the folded proteins | B．the changed proteins |
| C．the defensive measures | D．the stress response genes |
| A．helps the plants to survive |
| B．helps to maintain high yields |
| C．keeps the plants growing |
| D．helps to produce proteins |
| A．prevent | B．start | C．continue | D．promote |
| A．By making crop plants keep more energy. |
| B．By making crop plants stop growing. |
| C．By making the alarm system stop working. |
| D．By making the alarm system respond quickly. |
3 . It’s 13:30 and 28-year-old Marten Pella 's smart phone starts pinging, a signal that it’s time for us to stop working around his living room table and instead start our workout routine together. A cartoon character wearing bright red shorts on video begins instructing us to do star-jumps and sit-ups around his apartment.
Pella, a research assistant at Stockholm University, is part of the Hoffice movement, which invites workers-freelancers（自由职业者）or full-time employees who can do their jobs remotely—to work at each other’s homes to increase productivity and enjoy an active social life.
Those attending Hoffice events advertised on Facebook are typically asked to work silently in 45-minute blocks, before taking short breaks together to exercise, or simply chatting over a coffee. In addition, each participant shares daily objectives with the rest of the group upon arrival, and is invited to report back on whether or not they have achieved them at the end of the day.
“Often when I am alone, I can work focused for a couple of hours but then I’m easily distracted（分心）.The help of others makes me so much more disciplined.” says Pella, who attends Hoffice events as both a guest and a host. Lunches mean networking and connecting with new contacts. “People are coming from really different areas and have different professions so there can be really interesting discussions,” he says.
The Hoffice movement has grown quickly since it was founded in 2014 by Swedish psychologist Christofer Franzen, now 37. He had been giving lectures on the benefits of collective（集体的）intelligence, but realised he was spending most of his own time working alone at his kitchen table. “I wanted to test more structured home co-working with friends in similar situations,” he says.
Franzen says that holding events in houses and apartments creates a unique atmosphere, because there’s a sense of community and desire to contribute. He’s looking for ways to expand the social value of Hoffice, by matching up members with relevant skills to share and even encouraging jobseekers to join its gatherings.
1. Where is Pella when his smart phone starts pinging?| A．In his own home. | B．In his office. |
| C．In another person’s home. | D．At Stockholm University. |
| A．Watch an exercise video. | B．Work silently for 45 minutes. |
| C．Tell each other their daily plans. | D．Report what they have achieved. |
| A．They usually work alone. |
| B．They often give lectures. |
| C．They study collective intelligence. |
| D．They have to work at a kitchen table. |
| A．Sharing Comfortable Workplaces | B．A New Way to Make New Friends |
| C．Benefits of Collective Intelligence | D．Working from Others’ Homes |
4 . As autumn sets in, cities around the globe turn their attention to art, architecture, and design with a wealth of exciting events worth traveling for.
New York City
October is a major month for architecture in New York, with Archtober New York ( October 1 〜31 ) and Open House New York ( October 12 ~ 14 ) taking place. Highlights of Archtober include National Design Week, and the Architecture and Design Film Festival. And Open House New York will open hundreds of sites for unique access, tours, and parties.
Bangkok
The Bangkok Art Bienniale will kick off on October 19 with events spread out along the famous sites along the Chao Praya River, including Wat Arun, Wat Pho, and Suan Lumpini Park. As part of the Biennial, the Marina Abramovic Institute will put on a new performance lasting for three weeks in mid-October.
Eindhoven, Netherlands
You've probably been to Amsterdam, but what about Eindhoven? The midsize Dutch city—home to the famous Design Academy Eindhoven —becomes a major destination every October for designers, when Dutch Design Week takes over. Across hundreds of locations around the city, Dutch Design Week will present works by more than 2 ,500 designers over the course of the week of October 20 〜28. It's also home to a booming design scene crowded with graduates of the Academy who have remained and set up studios.
Mexico City
Mexico's dynamic capital draws aesthetes(美学)and architecture fans all year long, but this October is an especially exciting time to go, as Mexico City is celebrating its status as the World Design Capital. Taking place October 10 ~ 14, Design Week Mexico will motivate the city's architects and designers around a series of events at cultural institutions like the Tamayo Museum, the National Museum, and Lincoln Park.
1. Which of the following events lasts for a month?| A．Archtober New York. | B．Open House New York. |
| C．Bangkok Art Bienniale. | D．Dutch Design Week. |
| A．It is a middle-sized European city. |
| B．It has some first-class universities. |
| C．It holds a noticeable design event every October. |
| D．It has produced many famous modem designers. |
| A．It is observing its special status in the design field. |
| B．It houses many first-class museums. |
| C．It is celebrating its status as capital city. |
| D．It has produced many world-famous artists. |
5 . I recently came in contact with celebrity magazines. My family isn’t one to give money for pictures of skinny, drunk celebrities with paragraphs about their relationships and shopping cart times. Thus, I was excited to finally get a chance to read about other people’s attractive yet troubled lives.
Right away I noticed how each magazine seemed to be a copy of the other. They had headlines and pictures that were almost the same. Still, the pictures of perfectly constructed faces with cute designers outfits going on with their daily lives made me read on.
Wait, celebrities taking their dogs for walk? Spending an afternoon at a park? All of these things seemed so ordinary—things my own family and I do together often. I suddenly realized how unextraordinary the people in these magazines were. They are simply normal people who happen to have a cool job and much money. For some reason, pictures of them doing things like buying milk at the store appeal to millions of readers. Then, when these regular people mess up, their mistakes is painted onto hundreds of newspapers and internet sites.
What if every time we made a mistake, it was made public? Have you ever failed a test? Imagine seeing pictures of you on the front of a newspaper with headlines like, “Regular Schooling Isn’t Enough”. You’d be embarrassed. Now, I’m not necessarily taking the celebrity’s side. I’m more realizing the fact that these people we were crazy about are just ordinary human beings with many photographs following them around. Role models? I’d think not. Personally, I’d rather look up to people in any community who have accomplished a lot instead of an ordinary person walking his dog in Berverly Hills.
1. What do we know about the author’s family?| A．They admire celebrities very much. |
| B．They often buy celebrity magazines. |
| C．They are not interested in celebrities. |
| D．They are curious about the life of celebrities. |
| A．They live happy life. |
| B．They seldom do usual things. |
| C．They deserve people’s admiration. |
| D．They are just ordinary people like us. |
| A．Celebrities who live ordinary live. |
| B．Common people who do great things. |
| C．Extraordinary people who accomplish a lot. |
| D．People who make great contributions to communities. |
| A．To describe the actual life of celebrities. |
| B．To ask us to be realistic about other’s mistakes. |
| C．To show people’s different attitudes towards celebrities. |
| D．To advise us to have a right attitude towards celebrities. |
| NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY | NEMS | ||
| NEWRI: Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute | |||
| Be a leader in environmental science and engineering through the NEMS programme | |||
| NEWRI Environmental Master of Science (NEMS) is a primary graduate education and research programme conducted by Nanyang Technological University’s (NTU’s) NEWRI, with summer attachment at Stanford University. It aims to train engineers and scientists to meet the increasing environmental challenges for Asia and the wider region. | NEWRI-Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute NEWRI is enabling Singapore to be a global center of environmental science and technology in providing technological solutions to the world. It is committed to environmental and water technologies through its ecosystem of education, research and developmental activities. NEWRI is trying its best to pull together NTU’s water and environment-related centers and institutes, gathering one another’s strengths for the benefit of industry and society. | ||
| Master of Science Applications ● Applications open now and close on 30 May 2013 for Singapore applicants. ● Graduates having relevant engineering or science background, including final-year students, are invited to apply. ● Applicants are required to have a certificate of GRE. | |||
| Further information and application materials are available at the Website: http:// www. Cee.ntu.edu.sg/Graduate/NEMS | Highlights of Programme: ★ Students spend a full summer term at Stanford taking regular courses and continue with the rest of their academic programme at NTU. ★ It is a 12-month full-time course in environmental science & engineering. ★Students under NEMS will have opportunities to do research projects under NEWRI as well as to continue for the Doctor’s degree. ★ Graduating students receive the NTU degree and a certificate from Stanford for their summer attachment. | ||
| Scholarship for tuition grants and living expenses at both Stanford and NTU are available | |||
| Enquiry contact: Ms Christian Soh Tel：(65) 6861 0507 Fax:(65) 68614606 Email: nems@ntu.edu.sg Information on other graduate programmes available at：www.ntu.edu.sg/cee/program/postgrad.asp | |||
| A．make contact with Ms Soh | B．major in engineering or science |
| C．possess a university diploma | D．have passed the GRE test |
| A．are required to obtain a Doctor’s degree |
| B．can receive degrees of both NTU and Stanford |
| C．needn’t be released from their regular jobs |
| D．will first have regular courses at Stanford |
| A．To train experts on environmental science and engineering. |
| B．To strengthen the cooperation between NTU and Stanford. |
| C．To introduce Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute. |
| D．To offer scholarship for tuition grants and living expenses. |
| A．30 May 2012 is the deadline for NEMS application. |
| B．Other centers and institutes for environmental and water technologies also exist in NTU |
| C．Applicants for NEMS should have relevant work experience. |
| D．Singapore is the global center of environmental science and technology. |
7 . Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926. Since Lee’s mother was mentally ill, she was raised by her father. She became very close to her father.
The naughty Lee loved reading, and would make up stories with Truman, her neighbour who was two years older than her. Seeing her daughter’s imagination, Lee’s father gave her a typewriter.
Before her final year in the university of Alabama, Lee dropped out to become a writer. She moved to New York City where her childhood friend Truman was already established as a famous writer. While there, she worked on her first book—To Kill a Mockingbird. It won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was made into an Academy Award winning movie the following year. To Kill a Mockingbird tells the story of six-year-old Scout and her brother who lived in the town of Maycomb Alabama with their single father Attics. Attics is a lawyer who defends the blacks. At a young age, Scout is exposed to the terrors of segregation(宗族隔离). Then, in 2014, the first draft of a new book—Go Set a Watchman was discovered among Lee’s papers. It is the story of 26-year-old Scout who returns to Maycomb to visit her father. She is shocked to find her father a changed man. Attics has turned into a segregationists! The story shows the mixed feelings Scout has for the changes that have taken place in her hometown and father.
A loner for most of her life, Lee stayed unmarried, preferring to lead a small town life. On February 19,2015, Lee passed away at the age of 89.
1. What can we learn about Lee?| A．She became a professional writer at college. |
| B．She developed a gift for writing in childhood. |
| C．She was persuaded to become a writer by Truman |
| D．She got interested in writing after getting a typewriter. |
| A．Her love for writing stories. |
| B．The effect of having an ill mother |
| C．Her experience of living in a small town |
| D．Her childhood relationship with her father |
| A．He had complex feelings towards the black. |
| B．He struggled for the equal right of the black |
| C．He supported segregating the blacks and the whites. |
| D．He failed to get used to the changes of his hometown |
| A．She has no taste for social life. |
| B．She write only a book in her life. |
| C．She feels lonely for most of her life. |
| D．She enjoys the fame for her successful book. |
8 . A new study has discovered that meditation (冥想) and oxygen sport together reduce depression. The Rutgers University study found that this mind and body combination, done twice a week for only two months, reduced the symptoms for a group of students by 40 percent.
“We are excited by the findings because we saw such a meaningful improvement in both clinically depressed and non-depressed students,” said lead author Dr. Brandon Alderman. “It is the first time that both of these two behavioral ways have been looked at together for dealing with depression.”
Researchers believe the two activities have an interactive effect on combating depression. Alderman and Dr. Tracey Shors discovered that a combination of mental and physical training (MAP) enabled students with major depressive disorder not to let problems or negative thoughts defeat them.
Rutgers researchers say those who participated in the study began with 30 minutes of focused attention meditation followed by 30 minutes of oxygen sport. They were told that if their thoughts drifted to the past or the future they should refocus on their breathing, enabling those with depression to accept moment-to-moment changes in attention.
Shors, who studies the production of new brain cells in the hippocampus—part of the brain involved in memory and learning—says scientists have shown in animal models that oxygen sport exercise keeps a large number of certain cells alive.
The idea for the human intervention (干预) came from her laboratory studies, she says, with the main goal of helping individuals acquire new skills so that they can learn to recover from stressful life events.
By learning to focus their attention and exercise, people who are fighting depression can acquire new learning skills that can help them process information and reduce the overwhelming recollection of memories from the past, Shors says.
“We know these treatments can be practiced over a lifetime and that they will be effective in improving mental health.” said Alderman. “The good news is that this intervention can be practiced by anyone at any time and at no cost.”
1. What made the research so different?| A．Adopting a way of meaningful talk. |
| B．Combining the two behavioral ways to treat depression. |
| C．Treating depression with special medicine. |
| D．Comparing the depressed with the non-depressed. |
| A．fighting | B．identifying |
| C．distinguishing | D．examining |
| A．They did oxygen sport half an hour before thinking. |
| B．They thought quietly and then took exercise. |
| C．They took exercise longer than they thought. |
| D．They took exercise while thinking quietly. |
| A．To find out certain brain cells of humans. |
| B．To study the production of new brain cells. |
| C．To offer people a new method to treat stress. |
| D．To decide the links between stress and exercise. |
9 . We just went Christmas shopping this weekend, just to pick up a little here and there for the kids.
First thing that you want to do is to make a list of what you are looking for exactly.
When leaving your favorite stores, you want to look for exactly what is on your list. Compare prices and availability.
After pricing shopping, go back to the stores that have the best price for the thing you want and buy it.
| A．We have to go shopping in our daily life. |
| B．We were shocked by the crowds and the costs. |
| C．Don’t forget to go online to your favorite stores. |
| D．Know what it is that you are in need of before you go shopping. |
| E．Don’t be persuaded to buy you don’t need at all at home. |
| F．Something you need badly may not be sold online or in the store. |
| G．Care about not only the cost of the thing, but also the shipping cost. |
