1 . To tackle the problem of tiny plastics polluting waterways, chemists in the Czech Republic are thinking small. Their brainchild is a new microrobot which is no bigger than the tip of a sharpened pencil. When sunlight hits them, they produce chemical reactions that push them through water in a specific direction. When they find a piece of plastic, they stick to it and start to break it down.
Chemist Martin Pumera at the Czech University led the project. A decade ago, he chose to focus on the problem posed by microplastics. They’re everywhere—from the bottom of the ocean to air blowing onto ice atop mountains. They’ve turned up in drinking water. Some studies estimate that billions of pieces of plastic end up in the world’s waters. The plastic has many sources, from shopping bags to washing and cleaning wipes.
In lab experiments, the star-shaped swimmers stuck onto each of four different types of plastic. And after a week exposed to light, the robots had reduced the weight of the plastics. It wasn’t much—only by percent. But that was an indication that they were breaking the plastic down. They also caused the surface of the plastic to change from smooth to rough. That’s another sign that the robots were degrading (分解) it. The new study is a proof of concept type. That means it shows something can be done successfully.
In fact, Pumera says they still have a long way to go. There are many types of plastics. And even these microrobots are unlikely to succeed in degrading them all. The researchers also have not yet shown how safe this system is for the environment, although Pumera says that’s their next goal. The first real-world test will be in a wastewater-treatment plant. “Indeed,” says one researcher. “We’ll need a lot of testing to show that they’re safe in open waterways, such as at sea.”
1. The microrobots are powered by ______.| A．water | B．sunlight | C．plastics | D．pencils |
| A．The purpose of Pumera’s project. | B．The preciousness of drinking water. |
| C．The seriousness of plastic pollution. | D．The working principle of the microrobots. |
| A．The weight loss of the plastics. | B．The disappearance of the plastics. |
| C．The shape change of the microrobots. | D．The improvement in the purity of water. |
| A．Ways to Obtain Cleaner Drinking Water | B．Microrobots Invented to Treat Wastewater |
| C．New Hope for the Solution to Plastic Pollution | D．Technology Widely Applied in Environment Protection |
2 . A letter written to a 12-year-old girl in Lithuania was delivered in December, almost 51 years after it was sent by a pen pal in Poland. “I thought that someone was pranking me,” said Genovefa Klonovska after being handed the letter, which included a handmade colored rose and two paper dolls.
The letter, together with 17 others, fell out of a ventilation hole (通风口) this summer, dirty and wrinkled, as a wall was taken down in a former post office on the suburb of Vilnius. Jurgis Vilnius, owner of the building immediately called the post office. “I’m so happy they got interested,” said he.
Street names and their numbering have changed in Vilnius, and post office workers spent months looking for the right houses and talking to current renters and neighbors, tracking down where the recipients moved to. Only five were found. In several cases children of late recipients were handed a lost letter.
“We felt a moral duty to do this,” said Deimante Zebrauskaite, head of the customer experience department at Lithuania Post.
One lady compared the experience to receiving a message from a bottle thrown into sea. People were emotional. “Some felt they saw a part of daily life of their deceased parents,” Zebrauskaite said.
In the letter to Klonovska, sent from Koezary in Poland and stamped in 1970, a girl named Ewa complains buses no longer reach her village, so she has to walk in minus 23 degree Celsius cold, and asks for pictures of actors.
Now in her 60s, Klonovska has no memory of Ewa. She probably wrote Ewa after finding her address advertising for pen pals in a newspaper, and the relationship ceased after the letter got undelivered.
“So good that the letter didn't matter much. The loss was not life-changing,” said Klonovska “What if they delivered a lost letter from a suitor (求婚者) to his love, and their wedding never happened?”
1. What does the underlined word “pranking” in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Brightening. | B．Embarrassing. | C．Tricking. | D．Pleasing. |
| A．They were accidentally found. |
| B．They remained well-preserved. |
| C．They were delivered by the former post office. |
| D．They were hidden by the owner of the building. |
| A．Generous. | B．Dutiful. | C．Honest. | D．Cautious. |
| A．Klonovska refused a suitor. |
| B．Klonovska stopped the wedding. |
| C．The undelivered letter ruined the relationship. |
| D．The undelivered letter made little difference to her. |
3 . Teens who have good, supportive relationships with their teachers enjoy better health as adults, according to research published by an American research center.
“This research suggests that improving students’ relationships with teachers could have positive and long-lasting effects beyond just academic success,” said Jinho Kim, a professor at Korea University and author of the study. “It could also bring about health implications in the long run.” Previous research has suggested that teens’ social relationships might be linked to health outcomes in adulthood. However, it is not clear whether the link between teen relationships and lifetime health is causal (因果的) — it could be that other factors, such as different family backgrounds, might contribute to both relationship problems in adolescence and to poor health in adulthood. Also, most research has focused on teens’ relationships with their peers (同龄人), rather than on their relationships with teachers.
To explore those questions further, Kim analyzed data on nearly 20, 000 participants from the Add Health study, a national study in the U. S. that followed participants from seventh grade into early adulthood. The participant pool included more than 3, 400 pairs of siblings (兄弟姐妹). As teens, participants answered questions, like “How often have you had trouble getting along with other students and your teachers?” As adults, participants were asked about their physical and mental health.
Kim found that participants who had reported better relationships with both their peers and teachers in middle and high school also reported better physical and mental health in their mid-20s. However, when he controlled for family background by looking at pairs of siblings together, only the link between good teacher relationships and adult health remained significant.
The results suggest teacher relationships are more important than previously realized and that schools should invest in training teachers on how to build warm and supportive relationships with their students. “This is not something that most teachers receive much training in,” Kim said, “but it should be.”
1. What does the underlined word “implications” in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Recipes. | B．Habits. | C．Risks. | D．Benefits. |
| A．Poor health in adolescence. | B．Teens’ relationships with their peers. |
| C．Limitations of the previous research. | D．Factors affecting health in adulthood. |
| A．Positive student-teacher relationship helps students’ adult health. |
| B．Good family background promises long-term adult health. |
| C．Healthy peer relationships leads to students’ academic success. |
| D．Good adult health depends on teens’ good teachers. |
| A．A medical report. | B．A health magazine. | C．A term paper. | D．A family survey. |
4 . Learning to say “yes, and”
When I first heard about the improvisation (即兴交流) class, I was hesitating. As a quiet and shy girl, I feared improvising in front of strangers. However, I knew I wanted to work as a science communicator after finishing my Ph.D., so it seemed like a perfect chance to learn how to speak and communicate with others effectively. I signed up, knowing the experience would give me help.
During our first class, we learned an important concept of improvisation: “yes, and.” It means that, as improvisers, we’d better accept what fellow performers say. If someone says that rhinos (犀牛) are librarians, for example, then rhinos are librarians. We do not question the logic; we say “yes” and then continue with the scene as if nothing is wrong.
The first few scenes were hard, but as weeks turned into months, I became more comfortable and even started to enjoy our classes. I became better at listening, relating to my conversation partners, and communicating clearly in the moment. Once when I was giving a presentation about my science, an audience member surprised me with a question that didn’t grow out of the information I’d presented. Instead of getting confused and nervous, I took the “yes, and” approach—accepting the question and letting my mind focus on why it was asked. That helped me find an appropriate answer. I got pretty excited about it.
The benefits of improvisation go beyond communication. Before attending the class, I would get stuck when my experiments produced unexpected data, thinking that I had made a mistake. But now, instead of getting discouraged, I will stay open to the possibility that the results are real, keep exploring the data and end up identifying a new type of cell—one that isn’t behaving as expected.
I think all scientists can benefit from this lesson. If the data say rhinos are librarians, then it’s worth finding out whether rhinos are, in fact, librarians. As scientists, our job isn’t to challenge data that support, a preconceived story, but to say “yes, and.”
1. Why did the author attend the improvisation class?| A．To get a different experience. |
| B．To finish her Ph.D. at university. |
| C．To give up her job as a science communicator. |
| D．To improve her speaking and communicating ability. |
| A．She formed her own idea quickly. |
| B．She came up with lots of creative responses. |
| C．She paid more attention to the logic of answers. |
| D．She became a good listener before giving an opinion. |
| A．explain the process of using the method |
| B．prove the benefits of the improvisation class |
| C．share her own research experiences with readers |
| D．attract fellow scientists to attend the improvisation class |
| A．They should attend the improvisation class. |
| B．They should question all preconceived ideas. |
| C．They should carry on research by admitting earlier data. |
| D．They should try to improve their academic knowledge. |
5 . At the foot of the Tianmu Mountain in Zhejiang, a homestay (民宿) is attracting travelers from far and wide, which has won architectural medal at the 2021 German iF Design Awards.
The owners of the homestay are a couple in their late 30s who decided to return to their hometown three years ago. Li Xiumei used to be in charge of a division at a company in Hangzhou, and her husband was a sales director. It was an ordinary situation where Li’s husband was on business trips a lot and Li still worked on weekends. City life sometimes is not easy.
In 2018, they quit jobs and went back to Dongtianmu village, which lies in a forest of bamboo. The first time they drove into the village was one late afternoon. The cooking smoke was rising from the foot of the mountain, which gave them a very different feeling from the city.
The homestay was built beside her husband’s old countryside house. The old house is preserved (保留), while a brand-new building was built on its side and the whole site is made up of four courtyards. It has been updated to have a hall, a tea room, a kitchen, a dining room. Japanese cherry trees are planted in the east courtyard. A swimming pool is placed in the west courtyard, with a bar located on one side.
Li and her husband love gardening and music, and their new home gives them enough space to continue their interests and relax in the heart of nature. Li wants to share the quiet country life, so she makes her new home a homestay. In 2019, the homestay became an online hit after guests shared their experiences on social media. “The longer I stay here, the more I feel it was the right choice to come back, and this is more meaningful than making money,” Li says.
1. How did Li feel about city life?| A．Satisfied. | B．Noisy. | C．Attractive. | D．Tired |
| A．The forest of bamboo. | B．The smoke of cooking. |
| C．The fresh air in the village. | D．The feeling of loneliness. |
| A．It is ancient and broken. | B．It can hold many guests. |
| C．It must have been carefully designed. | D．It has been rebuilt by the couple. |
| A．Continuing their music dream. | B．Living in the countryside. |
| C．Staying at the old house. | D．Developing a city. |
6 . I'm an early user of social media. For the most part, I've enjoyed the time I've spent on the site. But like many friends I know, I was also starting to feel like my visits to Facebook were just a waste of time.
Of course, the obvious move would just be to steer clear of Facebook and other social media sites. But as a writer, I have to use social media several times a day. And once I'm in the site, it's almost impossible to take no notice of those notices reminding me of posts in my personal feed（信息推送）. I felt like I had to find the one or two meaningful posts that made my social media feed worth the time.
Then I came across a post by Melissa Hartwig, the founder of the Whole30 program. In the post she said "Don't act like social media just happens to you; make it work FOR YOU."
It hit home with me. I immediately set out to change the way I was using social media. I hid and unfollowed groups and accounts（账户）that were not adding something active to my life. I didn't stop to think. I just clicked my way through the feed.
I'm not burying my head in the sand. I continue to follow people whose opinions on different topics differ from my own, but their words are interesting and open-minded.
Then I limited my interaction（互动）on social media. Unless I had something to say, I no longer interacted. A study found that inactive use of social media has a bad effect on our mood, while active use—sharing thoughts and commenting on others' posts—improved mood.
The result? I can say without doubt that I no longer worry about getting into a time-wasting vacuum（真空）. That's because my feed is nowhere near as bottomless as it once was.
1. Which word can best replace the underlined part "steer clear of" in Paragraph 2?| A．Share. | B．Explore. |
| C．Quit. | D．Improve. |
| A．His friends' influence. | B．A sentence in a post. |
| C．The Whole30 program. | D．A talk with Melissa Hartwig. |
| A．He set a time limit. |
| B．He hid his own accounts. |
| C．He interacted less with others. |
| D．He no longer read different opinions. |
| A．It met great difficulties. | B．It was a waste of time. |
| C．It attracted more friends. | D．It got a satisfying result. |
7 . A young Dutch inventor is widening his effort to cleanup floating (浮动的) plastic from the Pacific Ocean. He has developed a floating device (设备) to trap plastic waste moving into rivers before it reaches the oceans.
Boyan Slat was just 18 years old when he invented a system for catching waste in the ocean. He also founded an environmental group called “The Ocean Cleanup”. Its purpose is to develop the system. Last year, Slat showed the next step: a floating device which is called Interceptor. It removes plastic out of rivers. The device is powered by energy from the sun. “The 1,000 rivers are responsible for about 80% of plastic going into the world’s oceans,” said Slat. Three of the machines have already been used. Each machine costs about $775, 660, but the cost might drop as production increases.
Since they were used, the machines have been doing very well, collecting the plastic bottles and all the rubbish in the rivers. According to Slat, it is necessary to close “the tap”, which means preventing more plastic from reaching the ocean in the first place. He wanted to clean them all in the next five years. “This is not going to be easy, but if we do get this done, we could truly make our oceans again, ”said Slat.
The device is designed to be safe in rivers. Its nose is shaped to change directions to keep it away from larger floating things. It works by guiding plastic waste into an opening in the front of the device. The waste is then carried inside the machine where it is dropped into containers. The devices ends a text message to local operators that can come and empty it when it is full.
1. What do we know about Interceptor?| A．It needs solar power to work. | B．It is mainly used in the oceans. |
| C．It is being under test. | D．It can help sort waste. |
| A．The waste. | B．The oceans. |
| C．The machines. | D．The rivers. |
| A．To ensure the device’s safety. | B．To send operators text messages. |
| C．To empty the waste. | D．To serve as containers. |
| A．A novel. | B．A magazine. |
| C．A diary. | D．A guidebook. |
8 . Until quarantine (隔离期) ends, we are left picturing what sport we might do: working out at the gym, playing on a competitive sports team, swimming, biking, or rock climbing. However, we don’t often think of martial arts as possible activities; instead, we rule it out because we think it’s dangerous, uncommon, and even, impossible. Martial arts aren’t considered a sport, right?
Well, here’s some good news: you’re wrong! Martial arts aren’t much more common than people think, and you can start learning at any age. Practicing martial arts is a great way to keep in shape, both physically and mentally. They’re much less boring and much less arduous sport than they’re usually described as in movies, so do not worry that they need a lot of effort.
Martial arts generally require you to focus on the position and movement of every one of your legs and arms, sometimes even your breathing too. Think about it: when you leave the gym, your mental state has improved and you are much calmer. This is because you’ve only paid attention to one activity. It is a great way to clear your head. And practicing it can help you learn to stay more focused, which is the greatest advantage of martial arts training.
Martial arts also improve your coordination (协调性), and greatly improve your posture (姿势). I have personally seen students go from slouching (没精打采) to walking tall with their shoulders back in just a couple of months.
There are many styles and countless kinds of martial arts. Whichever one you like better, know that all of them are good choices.
1. What can we know about martial arts from the first two paragraphs?| A．They often have people hurt. | B．They are difficult to practice. |
| C．People have a wrong view on it. | D．People practice them more often. |
| A．Interesting. | B．Difficult. | C．Friendly. | D．Exciting. |
| A．Adjusting the breath. | B．Enjoying one’s free time. |
| C．Correcting the movement. | D．Keeping one’s attention. |
| A．They are not sports. | B．They attracted many teenagers. |
| C．They are beneficial and helpful. | D．They were invented to protect others. |
9 . The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) included on December 17, 2020 China's Tai Chi on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The decision was announced during the online meeting of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage held from December 14 to 19 in Kingston, capital of Jamaica.
“Born in the mid-17th century in a small village named Chenjiagou located in Central China's Henan province, Tai Chi is not only a kind of traditional Wushu integrated with slow movements and deep breathing, but is also deeply rooted in many areas of Chinese culture, such as medicine and philosophy,” Zhu Xianghua says, who is the son of the famous Tai Chi master Zhu Tiancai.
Although it has spread to more than 150 countries and regions, attracting more than 100 million people to practice, the idea that Tai Chi is for the elderly has stopped many young people practicing the ancient Wushu. They think of it as a slow exercise, which is specially made and better suited for their grandparents. Instead, many young people are turning to the Indian practice of yoga to relieve stress, which was placed on the UNESCO's List in 2019.
In order to promote Tai Chi, joint efforts have been made from individuals and the Chinese government in the last decades. Xi'an Jiaotong University requires students to learn Tai Chi. Wang Yunbing, a professor in the university's sports center, stressed that Tai Chi is not only good physical exercise-researchers from the American College of Rheumatology find that it can help manage several diseases but is also conned ted to ancient Chinese civilization. Since 2014, the World Tai Chi Championships have been held every two years by the International Wushu Federation. It provides a platform for communication and learning between the Tai Chi masters and Tai Chi lovers around the globe. In January 2020, Tai Chi became an official event in the 2026 Dakar Youth Olympic Games.
1. What does Zhu Xianghua say about Tai Chi in paragraph 2?| A．It originated from fast Kung Fu action. |
| B．It was born around the 1750s in a village. |
| C．It is related to other cultural fields of China. |
| D．It integrates Chinese medicine and western philosophy. |
| A．They think it easier to practice yoga to keep fit. |
| B．The elderly stop young people practicing Tai Chi. |
| C．They consider Tai Chi is custom-built for old people. |
| D．Yoga was included in the world culture earlier than Tai Chi. |
| A．To promote contemporary Chinese civilization. |
| B．To show many efforts made to popularize Tai Chi. |
| C．To stress the importance of Chinese Tai Chi masters. |
| D．To advise people to practice Tai Chi to cure diseases. |
| A．Tai Chi Steps on the UNESCO's List. |
| B．Tai Chi is Competing against Yoga. |
| C．Tai Chi Has Regained populate Globally. |
| D．Opinions Greatly Differ on Tai Chi and Yoga. |
10 . When the explorers first set foot upon the continent of North America, the skies and lands were alive with an astonishing variety of wildlife. Native Americans had taken care of these precious natural resources wisely. Unfortunately, it took the explorers and the settlers who followed only a few decades to decimate a large part of these resources. Millions of waterfowl (水禽) were killed at the hands of market hunters and a handful of overly ambitious sportsmen. Millions of acres of wetlands were dried to feed and house the ever-increasing populations, greatly reducing waterfowl habitat.
In 1934, with the passage of the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act (Act), an increasingly concerned nation took firm action to stop the destruction of migratory (迁徙的) waterfowl and the wetlands so vital to their survival. Under this Act, all waterfowl hunters 16 years of age and over must annually purchase and carry a Federal Duck Stamp. The very first Federal Duck Stamp was designed by J.N. “Ding” Darling, a political cartoonist from Des Moines, lowa, who at that time was appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt as Director of the Bureau of Biological Survey. Hunters willingly pay the stamp price to ensure the survival of our natural resources.
About 98 cents of every duck stamp dollar goes directly into the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund to purchase wetlands and wildlife habitat for inclusion into the National Wildlife Refuge System — a fact that ensures this land will be protected and available for all generations to come. Since 1934, better than half a billion dollars has gone into that Fund to purchase more than 5 million acres of habitat. Little wonder the Federal Duck Stamp Program has been called one of the most successful conservation programs ever initiated.
1. What was a cause of the waterfowl population decline in North America?| A．Loss of wetlands. | B．Popularity of water sports. |
| C．Pollution of rivers. | D．Arrival of other wild animals. |
| A．Acquire. | B．Export. |
| C．Destroy. | D．Distribute. |
| A．The stamp price has gone down. | B．The migratory birds have flown away. |
| C．The hunters have stopped hunting. | D．The government has collected money. |
| A．The Federal Duck Stamp Story | B．The National Wildlife Refuge System |
| C．The Benefits of Saving Waterfowl | D．The History of Migratory Bird Hunting |
