1 . Last year, my friend, Kydee Williams, and I started a non-profit project because we wanted to do charity work differently. Thus, The Pop-Up Care Shop was
TPUCS is a traveling shop of
From our experience, we learned smaller shelters, especially those in less-commercialized areas were often
While material things like food, clothes, money, and shelter can help people survive, what
A.found | B.donated | C.born | D.purchased |
A.cheap | B.free | C.value | D.messy |
A.quit | B.chose | C.forbade | D.held |
A.homeless | B.fearless | C.guiltless | D.restless |
A.Ceasing | B.Highlighting | C.Starting | D.Monitoring |
A.hard | B.fun | C.odd | D.core |
A.crucial | B.unnecessary | C.impossible | D.logical |
A.breaking down | B.giving back | C.keeping up | D.pulling through |
A.ignored | B.emphasized | C.mentioned | D.estimated |
A.harmful | B.relevant | C.opposed | D.open |
A.shoppers | B.pioneers | C.officers | D.volunteers |
A.reliable | B.selfless | C.creative | D.courageous |
A.understand | B.satisfy | C.anticipate | D.illustrate |
A.originally | B.slightly | C.truly | D.barely |
A.identify | B.detect | C.reveal | D.make |
2 . Researchers have long known that the brain links kinds of new facts, related or not, when they are learned about the same time. For the first time, scientists have recorded routes in the brain of that kind of contextual memory, the frequent change of thoughts and emotions that surrounds every piece of newly learned information.
The recordings, taken from the brains of people awaiting surgery for epilepsy (癫痫), suggest that new memories of even abstract facts are encoded (编码) in a brain-cell order that also contains information about what else was happening during and just before the memory was formed.
In the new study, doctors from the University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt University took recordings from a small piece of metal implanted in the brains of 69 people with severe epilepsy. The implants allow doctors to pinpoint the location of the flash floods of brain activity that cause epileptic happening. The patients performed a simple memory task. They watched a series of nouns appear on a computer screen, and after a brief disturbance recalled as many of the words as they could, in any order. Repeated trials, with different lists of words, showed a predictable effect: The participants tended to remember the words in groups, beginning with one and recalling those that were just before or after.
This pattern, which scientists call the contiguity effect, is similar to what often happens in the card game concentration, in which players try to identify pairs in a row of cards lying face-down. Pairs overturned close are often remembered together. The way the process works, the researchers say, is something like reconstructing a night’s activities after a hangover: remembering a fact (a broken table) recalls a scene (dancing), which in turn brings to mind more facts, like the other people who were there.
Sure enough, the people in the study whose neural (神经) updating signals were strongest showed the most striking pattern of remembering words in groups. “When you activate one memory, you are reactivating a little bit of what was happening around the time the memory was formed, and this process is what gives you that feeling of time travel,” said Dr Michael J. Kahana.
1. What does “contextual memory” refer to according to the text?A.Memories about the past facts. |
B.Unrelated facts linked together. |
C.Ideas and feelings around new facts. |
D.New facts encoded into brain alone. |
A.To track the brain activity of contextual memory. |
B.To find the brain activity causing epilepsy. |
C.To show the formation of memory. |
D.To test the new cure for epilepsy. |
A.Implication. | B.Similarity. | C.Contrast. | D.Neighborhood. |
A.The feature of the research method. | B.The category of the research subjects. |
C.A brief summary of the research process. | D.A further explanation of the research results. |
3 . In 1975, a San Diego homemaker named Marjorie Rice came across a column in Scientific American about tiling (瓷砖). There is a problem which has interested mathematicians since ancient Greek times. After Rice’s chance encounter with tiling, family members often saw her in the kitchen constantly drawing shapes. “I thought she was just drawing casually (随意),” her daughter Kathy said. But Rice who took only one year of math in high school, was actually discovering never-before-seen patterns.
Born in Florida, she loved learning and particularly her brief exposure to math, but tight budget and social culture prevented her family from even considering that she might attend college. “For Rice, math was a pleasure,” her son David once said.
Rice gave one of her sons a subscription to Scientific American partly because she could read it carefully while the children were at school. When she read Gardner’s column about tiling as she later recalled in an interview: “I thought it must be wonderful that someone could discover these beautiful patterns which no one had seen before.” She also wrote in an essay, “My interest was engaged by the subject and I wanted to understand every detail of it. Lacking a mathematical background, I developed my own symbol system and in a few months discovered a new type.”
Astonished and delighted, she sent her work to Gardner, who sent it to Doris, a tiling expert at Moravian College. Doris confirmed that Rice’s finding was correct.
Later, Rice declined to lecture on her discoveries, citing shyness, but at Doris’s invitation, she attended a university mathematics meeting, where she was introduced to the audience. Rice still said nothing of her achievements to her children, but they eventually found out as the awards mounted.
1. Why did Rice often draw shapes in the kitchen?A.To become a mathematician. | B.To explore the secret of tiling. |
C.To fill her leisure time. | D.To show her passion for drawing. |
A.She longed to start a column. | B.She was rejected from a college. |
C.She was good at designing patterns. | D.She succeeded in developing a system. |
A.The magic of math. | B.The efforts of Rice. |
C.The humility of Rice. | D.The patterns of tiling. |
A.Nothing is impossible to a willing mind. | B.Actions speak louder than words. |
C.Every cloud has a silver lining. | D.Practice makes perfect. |
4 . Nowadays, the world is slowly becoming a high-tech society and we are now surrounded by technology. Facebook and Twitter are innovative tools; text messaging is still a somewhat existing phenomenon and even e-mail is only a flashing spot on the screen when compared with our long history of snail mail. Now we adopt these tools to the point of essentialness, and only rarely consider how we are more fundamentally affected by them.
Social media, texting and e-mail all make it much easier to communicate, gather and pass information, but they also present some dangers. By removing any real human engagement, they enable us to develop our abnormal self-love without the risk of disapproval or criticism. To use a theatrical metaphor (隐喻), these new forms of communication provide a stage on which we can each create our own characters, hidden behind a fourth wall of tweets, status updates and texts. This unreal state of unconcern can become addictive as we separate ourselves a safe distance from the cruelty of our fleshly lives, where we are imperfect, powerless and insignificant. In essence, we have been provided not only the means to be more free, but also to become new, to create and project a more perfect self to the world. As we become more reliant on these tools, they become more a part of our daily routine, and so we become more restricted in this fantasy.
So it is that we live in a cold era, where names and faces represent two different levels of closeness, where working relationships occur only through the magic of email and where love can start or end by text message. An environment such as this reduces interpersonal relationships to mere digital exchanges.
Would a celebrity have been so daring to do something dishonorable if he had had to do it in person? Doubtful. It seems he might have been lost in a fantasy world that ultimately convinced himself into believing the digital self could obey different rules and regulations, as if he could continually push the limits of what’s acceptable without facing the consequences of “real life.”
1. What can we know about new communication tools?A.Destroying our life totally. | B.Posing more dangers than good. |
C.Helping us to hide our faults. | D.Replacing traditional letters. |
A.Sheltering us from virtual life. | B.Removing face-to-face interaction. |
C.Leading to false mental perception. | D.Making us rely more on hi-tech media. |
A.Technologies have changed our relationships. |
B.The digital world is a recipe for pushing limits. |
C.Love can be better conveyed by text message. |
D.The digital self need not take responsibility. |
A.Addiction to the Virtual World | B.Cost of Falling into Digital Life |
C.Interpersonal Skills on the Net | D.The Future of Social Media |
5 . Bruce Museum
Consistently voted the “Best Museum” by area media, the Bruce Museum in Greenwich is an educational institution which, through its varied exhibitions and collections in the arts and sciences, provides programs for diverse audiences.
Bruce BeginningsTuesdays, 11:00 to 11:45 am
Bruce Beginnings programs are designed for children from 2.5-5 years of age and their adult caregivers, who will explore the museum’s collections and exhibitions through picture books and hands-on activities. Space for these programs is limited; participants must see the Visitor Service desk upon arrival to the museum.
Science Solvers or Art AdventureSelect Sundays, 1:00 to 3:00 pm
Drop-in monthly programs are designed for children over the age of 4 and their families to explore simple science and art concepts while taking part in kid-friendly experiments, projects, or crafts inspired by the museum’s exhibitions and collections.
Family Studio WorkshopsSelect Sundays, 1:00 to 2:30 pm
A program for children over the age of 4 with their families. Participants will create a work of art inspired by the museum’s collections and exhibitions! This program is $7 per person for members and $15 for non-members, plus the cost of Museum admission.
Afternoons at the BruceSelect school vacation days, 2:00 to 4:30 pm
Spend the afternoon off from school discovering, learning and creating! Workshops are designed for gradesK-5 and explore the museum’s collections and exhibitions. Members $15, and $25 for non-members. Snacks included! Advanced registration is required at brucemuseum.org/site/events.
1. What is special about the programs lasting less than an hour?A.Providing hands-on activities. | B.Taking place at weekends. |
C.Limiting the number of participants. | D.Targeting kids of different age groups. |
A.They cost nothing. | B.They include art appreciation. |
C.They are designed for kids only. | D.They are hosted on school holidays. |
A.Bruce Beginnings. | B.Afternoons at the Bruce. |
C.Family Studio Workshops. | D.Science Solvers or Art Adventure. |
6 . Magazines make great reading materials for kids. Libraries often have a large selection of periodicals (期刊) for every age group and reading level, and for many areas of interest. And some magazines may even have issues going back years and even decades! Below is a list of some of them!
Military Kids LifeIt is about finding the bright side of life as a military kid! Inside each quarterly issue, your child will encounter inspiring stories, articles, and photographs! (8 to 16 years)
FacesWith articles, folk tales, and hands-on projects, Faces magazine takes young readers around the world for an honest and objective view of how children in other regions live. (9 to 14 years)
MakeMake magazine publishes tested projects, skill-building tutorials, in-depth reviews and inspirational stories, accessible by all ages and skill ranges. (9 to 18 years)
BrioBrio magazine for teen girls has a fresh new look that includes more pages filled with inspiring profiles, cultural insights, health & beauty tips, faith-filled features and added fun! (13 to 18 years)
Please note: Though all the magazines on this list are written for children, some issues may contain content that you may feel inappropriate for your child. As always, please review all reading materials before giving them to your child to read.
1. Which magazine can help develop kids’ international awareness?A.Faces. | B.Make. |
C.Brio. | D.Military Kids Life. |
A.All the magazines are proper for children. |
B.Magazines are usually published for children. |
C.Some magazines have back issues in libraries. |
D.Only magazines for kids are accessible in libraries. |
A.To argue. | B.To inform. |
C.To entertain. | D.To persuade. |
Last week, I had a wisdom tooth (智齿) pulled, which left me swollen and unable to speak. It was very strange spending a few days in this
I thought my husband would be the first to feel upset. I tried to imagine how
When I felt
Later I visited my mom, who chatted away (闲聊) as normal. She didn’t even
People say
A.room | B.state | C.situation | D.period |
A.embarrassing | B.lively | C.pleasant | D.frightening |
A.Finally | B.Luckily | C.However | D.Therefore |
A.enjoying | B.filling | C.keeping | D.welcoming |
A.amazed | B.annoyed | C.disappointed | D.touched |
A.hungry | B.weaker | C.stronger | D.thirsty |
A.called up | B.looked at | C.turned to | D.ran into |
A.study | B.opinion | C.report | D.information |
A.accept | B.expect | C.hear | D.notice |
A.daughter | B.patient | C.speaker | D.friend |
A.health | B.family | C.silence | D.love |
A.lesson | B.secret | C.treatment | D.wisdom |
A.arms | B.eyes | C.mouths | D.faces |
A.watch | B.smell | C.review | D.suggest |
A.cutting | B.pulling | C.brushing | D.losing |
8 . If you think about World Heritage Sites, you probably think of places associated with ancient art and culture and historical buildings. And of course, many of these are on the World Heritage List (WHL). These include remains of ancient cultures like Cuzco in Peru or the rock city of Petra in Jordan as well as old city centers such as Rome in Italy. Also common are places of artistic or cultural significance, like the Stonehenge stone circle in England. But the WHL contains a lot of sites that are not so obvious. Let’s look at a few of the more unusual sites on the WHL and why it is important to preserve them.
Citadel of Haiti
These monuments were built at the end of the 19th century when Haiti became independent and the many thousands of black slaves in Haiti were free for the first time. These ex-slaves built the monuments, which the WHL describes as “a universal symbol of liberty”.
Borders of France and Spain
This is an area of great natural beauty and the mountains have many interesting geological formations.
But it is also an area of small farms. The WHL has listed the site because it shows us about past European society through its landscape of villages, farms, fields, up land pastures and mountain roads.
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway
This railway in India was opened in 1881 and is still operating today. It crosses a difficult area of mountain landscape and it is a great example of railway engineering. The WHL says that it is “the first, and still the most outstanding, example of a hill passenger railway.”
The city of Brasilia
Brasilia is a capital city that was created from nothing in 1956. The WHL calls it “a land mark in the history of town planning”. The different areas of the city and the buildings themselves were all designed at the same time so that they would harmonize with each other.
1. What’s the function of the examples of World Heritage Sites in paragraph 1?A.To highlight the importance of WHL. |
B.To exemplify sites of artistic and cultural value. |
C.To compare the differences between various sites. |
D.To draw readers’ attention to more unique sites on the WHL. |
A.Former slaves. | B.Citizens in Haiti. |
C.Active revolutionaries. | D.Haiti government. |
A.Citadel of Haiti. | B.Borders of France and Spain. |
C.The city of Brasilia. | D.The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. |
9 . There are many great independent bookstores in North Carolina. If you’re looking for some good books to read, you can visit the bookstores listed below.
Purple Crow BooksIt’s a literary meeting place right in historic downtown Hillsborough. It was opened in 2009. You can find new books, used ones or the latest works by local authors. Because it specializes in local writers, Purple Crow Books is a favorite tourist destination. It’s a great place to grab a signed copy of a book by your favorite local author.
109 West King Street, Hillsborough, NC 27278
Quail Ridge BooksThis is an independent bookstore with friendly staff dedicated to (致力于) providing the best customer service. Founded in 1984 by Nancy Olson, the store provides a wide variety of carefully selected books, events, discussion groups and town hall meetings. The owner Lisa Poole bought the store in 2013 and is dedicated to serving the locals.
4209-100 Lassiter Mill Road, Raleigh, NC 27609
Pomegranate BooksThis bookstore is located in the historic Borkenhagen House in the Winter Park neighborhood of Wilmington, North Carolina. It has been finding good homes for great books since 2005. It stocks a carefully selected collection of literary and life-enhancing titles for all ages and also features locally-made cards and gift items.
4418 Park Ave, Wilmington, NC 28403
Scuppernong BooksThis bookstore was opened on December 21, 2013 and has been an important part of the rebirth of downtown Greensboro ever since. It features fiction and poetry along with a remarkable children’s section and a broad range of general interest titles. Within the store is a busy cafe serving coffee, wine, and beer sourced primarily from local small businesses.
304 South Elm Street, Greensboro, NC 27401
1. What is special about Purple Crow Books?A.It holds various reading activities. | B.It mainly sells books by local writers. |
C.It focuses on selling second-hand books. | D.It is supported by local small businesses. |
A.Quail Ridge Books. | B.Purple Crow Books. |
C.Pomegranate Books. | D.Scuppernong Books. |
A.People loving non-fiction books. | B.People liking handmade cards and gifts. |
C.People enjoying a very quiet environment. | D.People fond of buying collections of poetry. |
10 . When temperatures climb, many people reach for ice-cold beverages (饮料) to cool down. But others put the kettle on: Hot tea is a go-to beverage year-round in countries such as Bangladesh, China, Japan and Saudi Arabia. Many people find hot tea refreshing on hot days. Can hot drinks really cool you down on a hot day?
According to Peter McNaughton, a professor at King’s College London who studies thermoregulation (温度调节), hot drinks really can cool you down. “It seems totally counterintuitive (反直觉的,违反直觉的),” McNaughton said. “Drinking a hot drink really does make you drop your temperature if it’s not too humid out.”
“If a drink is warmer than your body at first, obviously, that drink makes you hotter,” McNaughton said. But humans, like all warmblooded animals, are constantly adjusting to maintain a consistent internal temperature. McNaughton found that hot drinks activate a receptor (接受器) in our nerves called TRPV1, which tells the body it needs to cool down. In response, humans sweat.
“Sweat pooling on skin is uncomfortable, but add a breeze or a fan, and the air blowing past helps sweat evaporate (蒸发), taking heat with it,” McNaughton said. “In general, your life depends on sweating. Sweating can help humans survive in some of the highest temperatures documented on Earth, at least in dry heat. Sweat is less effective in high humidity because the air is already full of water vapor and can’t absorb as much from the skin, that’s why in high humidity, the survivable temperature is much lower.”
A 2012 study in the journal Acta Physiologica found that when sweat fully evaporates, hot drinks can help cool people off overall, at least temporarily. That study looked at cyclists biking quickly enough to create their own breeze in a climate with no humidity: ideal conditions for sweat evaporation.
In the reverse effect, cold drinks lower body temperatures and then make the brain reduce sweating in order to bring body temperature back to its baseline. A 2018 paper suggests that with less wind, more humidity, or other barriers to effective sweating—like the heavy clothing worn by firefighters—it may make more sense to cool off by drinking crushed ice.
1. What do we know about people in Bangladesh, China, Japan and Saudi Arabia?A.They like ice-cold beverages on hot days. |
B.They favor hot tea over cold drinks year-round. |
C.They doubt whether hot tea can help cool them down. |
D.They believe ice-cold beverages are harmful to their health. |
A.TRPV1 helps adjust blood temperature. | B.Blood helps add heat to the human body. |
C.Sweating helps increase our body temperature. | D.TRPV1 sends signals related to body temperature. |
A.To show the danger of high humidity. | B.To reveal why some people sweat more. |
C.To tell us about the function of sweating. | D.To display how people survive extreme heat. |
A.Drinking enough water benefits our bodies. |
B.We should avoid cold water in high humidity. |
C.Hot water cools us down better than cold water. |
D.Hot drinks help cool the body under certain conditions. |