1 . 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. |
2 . It was June 15, and in two days I would be turning thirty. I was insecure about entering a new decade of my life and feared that my best years were now behind me.
My daily routine included going to the gym for a workout before going to work. Every morning I would see my friend Nicholas at the gym. He was seventy-nine years old and in terrific shape. As I greeted Nicholas on this particular day, he noticed I wasn’t full of my usual vitality and asked if there was anything wrong. I told him I was feeling anxious about turning thirty. I wondered how I would look back on my life once I reached Nicholas’ sage, so I asked him, “What was the best time of your life?”
Without hesitation, Nicholas replied, “Well, Joe, this is my philosophical answer to your philosophical question.”
“When I was a child in Austria and everything was taken care of for me and I was nurtured by my parents, that was the best time of my life.”
“When I was going to school and learning the things I know today, that was the best time of my life.”
“When I got my first job and had responsibilities and got paid for my efforts, that was the best time of my life.”
“When I met my wife and fell in love, that was the best time of my life.”
“The Second World War came, and my wife and I had to flee Austria to save our lives. When we were together and safe on a ship bound for North America, that was the best time of my life.”
“When we came to Canada and started a family, that was the best time of my life.”
“When I was a young father, watching my children grow up, that was the best time of my life.”
“And now, Joe, I am seventy-nine years old. I have my health, I feel good and I am in love with my wife just as I was when we first met. This is the best time of my life.”
1. Why did the author feel anxious according to the article?| A．He would be 30 in two days. |
| B．He was worried about getting old. |
| C．He didn’t go to the gym to exercise. |
| D．Nicholas asked questions he didn’t want to answer. |
| A．He spent his childhood with his grandparents in Austria. |
| B．He dropped out of school, found a job and got paid. |
| C．He took part in the Second World War and met his wife. |
| D．He started a family and became a young father in Canada. |
| A．Casual. | B．Anxious. | C．Positive. | D．Negative. |
| A．Live a day at a time. | B．You get what you pay for. |
| C．Every man has his price. | D．Strike while the iron is hot. |
3 . The climate crisis may lead the human race to decrease in size, as mammals (哺乳动物) with smaller bodies appear better able to deal with rising global temperatures, a leading fossil expert said.
Prof Steve Brusatte, a palaeontologist (古生物学家) at the University of Edinburgh, suggested that the way in which other mammals have previously responded to periods of climate change could offer an insight into humans’ future.
He compared the potential situation of people as similar to that of early horses, which became smaller in body size as temperatures rose around 55m years ago, a period called the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum.
Writing in The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, Brusatte notes that animals in warmer parts of the world today are often smaller than those in colder areas, an ecological principle known as Bergmann’s rule. “The reasons are not entirely understood, but it is probably, in part, because smaller animals have a higher surface area compared to their size than bigger animals and can thus better get rid of extra heat” he writes.
Brusatte said that becoming smaller was “a common way that mammals deal with climate change”. He added, “That’s not to say every species of mammal would get smaller, but it seems to be a common survival trick of mammals when temperatures spike pretty quickly, which does raise the question: if temperatures do spike really quickly, might humans dwarf, might humans get smaller? And I think that’s certainly convincing.”
In a recent study, researchers studying human remains over the past million years have also suggested that temperature is a major predictor of body size variation, while scientists studying red deer have said that warmer winters in northern Europe and Scandinavia may lead to the body size of these animals becoming smaller.
However, not all experts agree that rising temperature causes mammals to decease. Prof Adrian Lister, of the Natural History Museum in London, said the relationship shown by the recent human remains study is weak, while the strong relationship between temperature and mammal body size may often result from the availability of food and resources.
Lister doubts whether humans will shrink as the climate heats. “We are not really controlled by natural selection,” he said. “If that was going to happen, you’d need to find large people dying before they could reproduce because of climate warming. That is not happening in today’s world. We wear clothes, we have got heating, we have got air conditioning if it is too hot.”
1. According to the passage, the early horses got smaller in body size .| A．to keep cool | B．to save food |
| C．to keep warm | D．to avoid being killed |
| A．Rise | B．Drop | C．Balance | D．Change |
| A．Every species of mammal would get smaller as the temperature goes up. |
| B．Animals in warmer areas are definitely smaller than those in colder areas. |
| C．Smaller animals have a higher surface area and so they can cool down quickly. |
| D．The change of Mammals’ body size is closely related to their food and other resources. |
| A．Climate Change Causes Natural Disasters. | B．Climate Change Leads to Heated Discussions. |
| C．Climate Change Causes Changes in Body Size. | D．Climate Change Leads to Changed Lifestyle. |
4 . China’s generation-Z is not “lying flat”, an expression forgiving upon hard work, as is often claimed, and making an effort is still the mainstream of a group who believes success should be achieved by solid effort, Chinese officials said at a press conference on Thursday, in response to a question on how younger generations should achieve balance between a lifestyle of “lying flat” in face of great pressure and “involution,” which refers to severe internal competition that does not lead to productivity gains.
“Most Chinese youth hold an optimistic view on the future, and the saying’ lying flat’ is more of a joke to release pressure and express their feelings,” He Junke, a government official said at a press conference on Thursday.
At the press conference, China released the first nationwide whitepaper on youth development titled “Youth of China in the New Era,” which showcased achievements linked to the country’s youth development in the newer a and reflected the spirit of younger generation. The whitepaper was also released ahead of the 100th anniversary of the founding of CYLC (共青团).
He said China has attached great importance to deeper issues reflected by talk of “lying flat”, which emerged as young generation is subject to increasing pressure across work, study and life amid China’s unique demographic (人口统计学的，人口学的) structure and highly competitive labor market.
“Some in the younger generation feel cofused or lost. In response, authorities have scaled up the amount of support available to help solve their issues in education, employment, marriage and child raising,” He noted, while urging the whole society to support the mental development and psychology of generation-Z.
He pointed out that it is also important for certain young people to realize that it is unrealistic to build a career without taking responsibility and making endeavor. “All happiness is achieved through devoted effort, and making endeavor itself is also a kind of happiness,” He stressed.
1. What is He Junke’s attitude towards “lying flat”?| A．Objective. | B．Subjective. | C．Opposed. | D．Favorable. |
| A．More and more young people choose to lie flat in China, |
| B．Young people face great pressure in their study, work and life. |
| C．China’s population structure affects the supply of labor market. |
| D．The government needs to celebrate the 100th anniversary of CYLC. |
| A．Young people should take responsibility and make efforts to achieve success. |
| B．The whole society should care about young people’s physical and mental health. |
| C．Authorities should help young people and give them support in many aspects of life. |
| D．All of the above. |
| A．To call on a low carbon lifestyle. |
| B．To inform the latest research on the social development. |
| C．To set a goal for the young people who are under pressure on study. |
| D．To address a social problem among young generations in the newer era. |
5 . A lot of manufactured glass today made from sand and sodium carbonate (碳酸钠) can be reused or melted down and recycled into new items, but it doesn’t break down in the environment and will sit in landfills for thousands of years. A team of Chinese scientists aimed to deal with this environmental concern by developing an eco-conscious alternative.
In a study published recently in the journal Science Advances, a team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Process Engineering describe how they engineered biodegradable glass made from amino acids (氨基酸). That glass would have a smaller impact on the environment and can break down in a few weeks or in several months.
In a test, glass beads (珠) made out of amino acids were placed under the skin of mice, and the breakdown of the beads and the skin healing process were observed for 30 days. A diagram from the study shows how the mice’s bodies broke down the beads. In that month, the glass implant degraded beneath the skin, the wound site healed, and fur grew back. “Throughout the experimental period, no mice exhibited any pain-related behavior that may have been caused by the glass implantation, and none of them experienced obvious weight loss,” the researchers wrote in their paper.
Although amino acids do degrade over time in the environment, this biodegradable glass is not as durable as traditional glass, because amino acids can break down quickly in heat. In order to overcome this hurdle, the researchers chemically modified the amino acids using the heating-cooling procedure applied in glass manufacturing. This is when materials for the glass are heated to become soft and then rapidly cooled so as to make the glass tougher.
“It’s important to point out that this biodegradable glass is currently in the lab stage, and far from large-scale commercialization,” emphasized Yan Xuehai, a professor involved in the study, in a press release.
1. What is an advantage of the new glass?| A．It can be recycled at a low cost. | B．It is produced without pollution. |
| C．It takes less time to. break down. | D．It has a wide range of applications. |
| A．To assess whether the glass is biologically harmless. |
| B．To investigate why amino acids are medically useful. |
| C．To explore how long it takes for the glass to degrade. |
| D．To observe if the glass can be melt down in mice’s stomach. |
| A．The instability of amino acids. |
| B．The difficulty of selecting materials for the glass. |
| C．Environmental problems caused by traditional glass. |
| D．The challenge of improving the heating-cooling procedure. |
| A．Optimistic. | B．Critical. | C．Indifferent. | D．Uncertain. |
6 . When Param Jaggi was five years old, he had a passion to take things apart to see what was inside. He started with toys and even broke a computer, which made his parents not too pleased. As he got older, he shifted from breaking things to building things, which greatly comforted his parents. In middle school. he started working on projects in his kitchen laboratory, and his first project was making biofuels.
Although Jaggi’s parents initially thought his experiments were just. a boyhood fancy, he remained determined to make a difference to the environment. Eventually, his parents came around and started supporting his dreams. Jaggi’s interest continued as he grew up, but he focused more on solving real problems, especially those related to the environment.
At 17, Jaggi went beyond his school projects and. co-founded Ecoviate, a company that uses technology to solve everyday energy and environmental problems. He planned to transform people’s idea that going green is expensive, by making available a series of affordable products that are easy to use. Through Ecoviate, he designed products that could contribute to a greener future. One of his notable inventions was the “CO2ube”, a device that could be attached to vehicle tailpipes to reduce carbon emissions, and it’s available to many people at low prices. He also created a smartwatch that changed body heat into energy, which can be used to power up the watch as well as mobile phones.
Young Jaggi, now a third-grade college student studying engineering and economics, has become a famous eco-innovator and his company is developing promisingly. However, Jaggi’s vision to save the environment goes beyond creating products. He plans to launch an online platform through Ecoviate, which will encourage young students interested in science and technology to get actively involved in innovation and invention. Students can submit a science project online, and talk about the help that they need to make the project a reality.
1. What can we learn about Jaggi?| A．He was curious by nature. | B．He dreamed to be an engineer. |
| C．He always annoyed his parents. | D．He was addicted to playing toys. |
| A．Won out. | B．Changed their minds. |
| C．Walked around. | D．Paid a visit. |
| A．His love for greener devices. | B．His pursuit of academic career. |
| C．His desire to make a difference. | D．His hope to boost green industry. |
| A．To promote smart products. | B．To empower young inventors. |
| C．To provide eco-themed courses. | D．To offer environmentalists funds. |
7 . Adrienne Tully, an amateur photographer, went to the coast of a beach in Belmar, New Jersey. She planned to take photos of the
For a minute, Adrienne was
| A．wildlife | B．city | C．fight | D．sunrise |
| A．launch | B．anticipate | C．shoot | D．report |
| A．cooperating | B．forming | C．arguing | D．encountering |
| A．hope | B．charge | C．absence | D．face |
| A．confused | B．desperate | C．anxious | D．depressed |
| A．fortunately | B．however | C．otherwise | D．therefore |
| A．defeated | B．deserted | C．stuck | D．seated |
| A．routines | B．attempts | C．excuses | D．routes |
| A．ruined | B．interrupted | C．canceled | D．postponed |
| A．purposely | B．randomly | C．elegantly | D．heroically |
| A．onlooker | B．tourist | C．surfer | D．guide |
| A．going | B．washing | C．thundering | D．struggling |
| A．ashamed | B．mad | C．amazed | D．expert |
| A．went off | B．turned up | C．settled down | D．set out |
| A．appreciated | B．understood | C．awarded | D．supported |
8 . The term “Hudson River school” was applied to the foremost representatives of nineteenth-century North American landscape painting. Apparently unknown during the golden days of the American landscape movement, which began around 1850s and lasted until the late 1860s, the Hudson River school seems to have emerged in the 1870s as a direct result of the struggle between the old and the new generations of artists each to assert its own style as the representative American art. The older painters, most of whom were born before 1835, practiced in a mode often self-taught and monopolized by landscape subject matter and were securely established in and fostered by the reigning American art organization, the National Academy of Design.
The younger painters returning home from training in Europe worked more with figural subject matter and in a bold and impressionistic technique; their prospects for patronage in their own country were uncertain, and they sought to attract it by attaining academic recognition in New York. One of the results of the conflict between the two factions was that what in previous years had been referred to as the American, native, or, occasionally New York school — the most representative school of American art in any genre — had by 1890s become firmly established in the minds of critics and public alike as the Hudson River school.
The sobriquet was first applied around 1879. While it was not intended as flattering, it was hardly inappropriate. The Academicians at whom it was aimed had worked and socialized in New York, the Hudson’s port city, and had painted the river and its shores with varying frequency. Most important, perhaps, was that they had all maintained with a certain fidelity a manner of technique and composition consistent with those of America’s first popular landscape artist, Thomas Cole, who built a career painting the Catskill Mountain scenery bordering the Hudson River.
A possible implication in the term applied to the group of landscapists was that many of them had, like Cole, lived on or near the banks of the Hudson. Further, the river had long served as the principal route to other sketching grounds favored by the Academicians, particularly the Adirondacks and the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire different ways.
1. According to the passage what was the function of the National Academy of Design for the painters born before 1835?| A．It mediated conflicts between artists. | B．It supervised the incorporation of new artistic techniques. |
| C．It supported their growth and development. | D．It determined which subjects were appropriate. |
| A．In New Hampshire. | B．In the Adirondacks. |
| C．In Vermon. | D．In Europe. |
| A．people | B．sides | C．cities | D．images |
| A．Hudson River School | B．The Nature’s Nation |
| C．Early Painters and Their Drawings | D．North American Landscape Painting |
9 . The Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration（ETA）supports a wide variety of programs to ensure that all youth have the skills and training they need to successfully make the switch to adulthood and careers. These programs include:
ApprenticeshipApprenticeship is a combination of on-the-job training and related classroom instruction in which workers learn the practical and theoretical aspects of a highly skilled occupation. Applicants for apprenticeship programs must be at least 16 years old and meet the program sponsor's qualifications.
YouthBuildYouthBuild programs give at-risk youth ages 16-24 the opportunity to transform their lives by earning their high school certificate of graduation or an equally state-recognized degree, learning to be community leaders, and preparing for college and other post-secondary training opportunities.
Job CorpsJob Corps is the nation's largest and most comprehensive residential, education, and job training program for at-risk youth, ages 16 through 24. Private companies, state agencies, federal agencies, and unions recruit young people to participate in Job Corps, where they can train for and be placed in jobs.
Youth ConnectionsThe Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act（WIOA）of 2014 is carrying out a comprehensive youth employment program for serving qualified youth, ages 14-24, who face barriers to education, training, and employment.
For more information about youth programs, visit ETA's Division of Youth Services page.
1. What can participants do in the YouthBuild?| A．Obtain a graduation certificate. | B．Lead the state communities. |
| C．Prepare for secondary training. | D．Study theories of skilled work. |
| A．YouthBuild. | B．Youth Connections. |
| C．Job Corps. | D．Apprenticeship. |
| A．To improve youth training. | B．To advertise for youth services. |
| C．To transform youth development. | D．To introduce ETA youth programs. |
10 . Our neighbors had a loud party last night. We weren’t
What
And it really worked in their favor. My husband and I were so friendly that even when the event went past the
It takes such little effort to make people feel that they
| A．located | B．explored | C．challenged | D．invited |
| A．trapped | B．impressed | C．annoyed | D．embarrassed |
| A．later | B．closer | C．earlier | D．further |
| A．shocking | B．frightening | C．puzzling | D．amazing |
| A．call number | B．room number | C．account number | D．car number |
| A．anxiously | B．politely | C．regularly | D．obviously |
| A．imagination | B．consideration | C．recognition | D．organization |
| A．promised | B．supplied | C．designed | D．compared |
| A．stress | B．anxiety | C．worry | D．anger |
| A．respond | B．adapt | C．contribute | D．stick |
| A．figure | B．succeed | C．matter | D．access |
| A．sleep | B．maintain | C．travel | D．relax |
| A．noticed | B．delivered | C．explored | D．proved |
| A．surrounding | B．respect | C．curiosity | D．distance |
| A．strategy | B．apology | C．communication | D．inspiration |
