1 . Five years ago, I got an email from a well-known professor in my field in March. He invited me to
One night, my mother came up to my room, asking softly, “Have you
However, two months later, the doctor announced my mother might
When looking back today, I feel
A.search | B.account | C.interview | D.investigate |
A.focus on | B.stare at | C.apply for | D.refer to |
A.burned | B.completed | C.considered | D.canceled |
A.illustrated | B.comforted | C.shouted | D.replied |
A.creative | B.specific | C.strange | D.similar |
A.task | B.interest | C.freedom | D.achievement |
A.debate | B.explain | C.concentrate | D.survive |
A.according to | B.because of | C.except for | D.instead of |
A.curious | B.confident | C.aware | D.impressive |
A.shocked | B.worried | C.honored | D.determined |
A.Unluckily | B.Uncertainly | C.Obviously | D.Currently |
A.award | B.joy | C.offer | D.site |
A.regretful | B.grateful | C.ready | D.lonely |
A.comment | B.loss | C.passion | D.struggle |
A.suffer | B.last | C.happen | D.matter |
2 . Foreign visitors to the UK might be disappointed when they learn that not everyone there speaks like Harry Potter and his friends. Usually, there’s an assumption by many non-Brits that everyone in Britain speaks with what’s known as a Received Pronunciation (RP,标准发音) accent, also called “the Queen’s English”. However, while many people do talk this way, most Britons speak in their own regional accents (口音).
Scouse, Glaswegian and Black Country — from Liverpool, Glasgow and the West Midlands — are just three of the countless non-RP accents that British people speak with. There are even differences in accents between towns or cities just 30 kilometers apart. What is even more disappointing is that not speaking in a RP accent may mean a British person is judged and even treated differently in their everyday life.
In a 2015 study by The University of South Wales, videos of people reading a passage in three different UK accents were shown to a second group of people. The group then rated how intelligent they thought the readers sounded. The lowestrated accent was Brummie, native to people from Birmingham, a city whose accent is considered working class.
However, there is no need to be disappointed though you are not speaking in a RP accent. In fact, doing the opposite may even give you strength.
Kong Seongjae, 25, is an Internet celebrity from Seoul. After studying in the UK, he picked up several regional accents. He’s now famous for his online videos, where he shows off the various accents he’s learned. “British people usually get really excited when I use some of their local dialect words, and they become much friendlier. I think it makes a bit of bond between local people and foreigners to speak in their local accent,” he said.
So if you’re working on perfecting your British accent, try to speak like someone from Liverpool, Glasgow or Birmingham. You may not sound like Harry Potter, but you are likely to make more friends.
1. What can we infer from Paragraph 1?A.Non-Brits usually hold that all Britons speak in a RP accent. |
B.Only “the Queen’s English” is accepted in the UK. |
C.Foreign visitors are disappointed at their on spoken English. |
D.Any Received Pronunciation around the world is also called “the Queen’s English”. |
A.Favored by foreign visitors to the UK. | B.Closest to the RP accent. |
C.Smart and easy to understand. | D.Spoken by people of lower class. |
A.Speaking in a RP accent. | B.Speaking in regional accents. |
C.Speaking the Brummie accent. | D.Speaking like Harry Potter. |
A.A study about the most intelligent accent in Britain. |
B.A comparison between different British accents. |
C.How much British people value the RP accent. |
D.The influence of regional accents on people’s lives. |
3 . There are always some persons in your life who touch your soft heart with kindness.
As a little girl, my favorite thing was
At that time, the town library limited the number of books a person borrowed
Gradually, I developed an interest in writing,
Later, at the University of Iowa,
Whenever I think of the help from them, how
A.reading | B.painting | C.exploring | D.creating |
A.how | B.why | C.where | D.what |
A.of | B.to | C.from | D.between |
A.published | B.edited | C.presented | D.finished |
A.in the lead | B.in panic | C.at a loss | D.on the rocks |
A.shouting | B.smiling | C.crying | D.dancing |
A.exchanged | B.recommend | C.designed | D.adapted |
A.reflected | B.devoted | C.expected | D.benefited |
A.extremely | B.fortunately | C.especially | D.slightly |
A.inspired | B.challenged | C.contented | D.tricked |
A.admit | B.send | C.revise | D.settle |
A.although | B.because | C.when | D.since |
A.relaxed | B.satisfied | C.impressed | D.upset |
A.hesitation | B.tension | C.exception | D.argument |
A.concerned | B.relieved | C.grateful | D.regretful |
4 . The University of Miami’s newest hospital has a six-bed emergency room (急诊室), operating room, a birthing room and outpatient clinics.
The only thing missing is patients. Instead, nursing students get a realistic clinical experience using computerized patients and staff actors.
“Practicing on real people can be a frightening environment, and as our patients may be unwilling to accept treatment when a student walks in,” said Susana Barroso-Fernandez, who oversees UM’s simulation (模拟) program. “We created this environment to allow students to practice and make mistakes and never put a patient or student at risk.”
UM’s Simulation Hospital is part of a growing trend of colleges building simulation centers to provide real-life experiences to students. Community colleges and schools also use simulators for emergency medical technician (技师) and medical assistant programs.
A 2020 study by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing found that colleges could use simulation to replace up to half of all clinical experience without any bad results. The students scored as well on nursing license exams as those getting most of their experience in hospitals and health care centers. Officials say they think simulation has helped their students achieve nearly perfect passing rates on the exams.
There are major advantages of simulation. In addition to giving students a safe environment to practice in, it also gives students experience with conditions that are rare, but still important for them to know how to deal with.
The Simulation Hospital will also be used as a training place for people outside of UM, officials said. “You can bring companies in that want to test new products before they go to market,” Barroso-Fernandez said. “You can work with community partners like police and fire departments. You can take this hospital and turn it into a casualty (伤亡) event and have the community practice disaster preparedness and response. It’s not just about nursing education.”
1. What is special about the new hospital?A.There are no real patients. |
B.It is comfortable and patient-friendly. |
C.There are plenty of clinics. |
D.It has modern services and expert doctors. |
A.Simulation was used in most colleges. |
B.Simulation could help students get job chances. |
C.Simulation could avoid some unfavorable results. |
D.Simulation increased the risks of patients and students. |
A.Only unusual conditions can be provided for students. |
B.Students have chances to act as patients. |
C.Students can be trained in a safe environment. |
D.It mainly involves outdoor training. |
A.This hospital can be widely used. |
B.She was not satisfied with the nursing education. |
C.This hospital is good at dealing with casualty events. |
D.She advised companies to put more money into this hospital. |
5 . Had she been a singer, she might have been an American star. But Clora Bryant played the trumpet, and reputation came slowly. Bryant, a barrier breaker who stood firm in her determination to be a respected jazz trumpet player despite the open sexism (性别歧视) that shadowed her, died on August 25, in 2019, in Los Angeles, when she was 92. Life as a jazz trumpeter was an uphill battle, said her son Darrin. “It was a man’s world, and that made it hard for her. But that only fueled her fire, and made her more resolved.”
Bryant played the trumpet with such passion and she became a mainstay in the growing jazz scene in the 1940s. Dizzy Gillespie once told Times jazz critic Leonard Feather that Bryant was the most underrated (低估) trumpet player in L.A.
But by 1992, she was living on Social Security, staying at a son’s Long Beach, in California, apartment, and two of her trumpets were in the pawnshop (典当铺). “A lot of clubs have closed.” she told the Times. “And how many female trumpet players do you see working?”
Bryant and her brothers were raised by their father, a patient man who encouraged his children to think big. She wanted to be in the high school marching band, but Charles Bryant warned his daughter she’d likely face resistance. “But anything you want to do, I’m behind you,” she recalled. It was her father who encouraged her to do whatever she wanted to do that made her stronger and stronger.
1. What does the underlined word “resolved” in paragraph 1 probably mean?A.Adventurous. | B.Unique. | C.Emotional. | D.Determined. |
A.To show people’s acts of kindness. |
B.To prove Bryant’s struggle through life. |
C.To explain how Bryant earned his living. |
D.To stress the importance of the pawnshop. |
A.The open sexism from society. |
B.The poor family background. |
C.The terrible financial situation. |
D.The mental pressure from colleagues. |
A.Her son’s support. | B.Her brothers’ company. |
C.Her strict family education. | D.Her father’s encouragement. |
6 . Vehicles on our roads are now mostly petrol and diesel (柴油) cars, but their days cannot continue for much longer. A recent university study found that current electric cars could be used for 87 percent of daily car journeys in the US. That figure could rise to 98 percent by 2020.
One hurdle to the widespread adoption of electric cars has been “range anxiety” — drivers concerns about running out of electricity on a journey. While petrol stations are conveniently located across national road systems, the necessary network of electric charging stations is still being developed. That said, charging points are becoming increasingly common throughout the USA.
Attitudes towards electric vehicles have changed greatly over the last few years. Not that long ago, electric cars were met with distrust, and their high prices drove customers away. Thanks to improvements in battery capacity, recharging times, performance and price, the current generation of electric cars are starting to persuade picky consumers. Plug-in cars will soon give internal combustion engine (内燃机) models a run for their money.
As well as development on the road, electric vehicles are taking to the seas and skies. Electric boats are among the oldest methods of electric travel, having enjoyed several decades of popularity from the late 19th to the early 20th century before petrol-powered outboard motors took over. Now, the global drive for renewable energy sources is bringing electric boats back. Steps towards electric air travel are also being made, with Airbus and NASA among the organizations developing and testing battery-powered planes. The experiments could soon make commercial electric flight a reality.
Electric vehicles do not produce any emissions (排放). If the US could replace 87 percent of its cars with electric vehicles, it would reduce the national demand for petrol by 61 percent. However, because of the production processes and the generation of electricity required to charge these vehicles, they cannot claim (声称) to be completely emission-free. That said, as many countries continue to increase their use of renewable energy sources, electric vehicles will become even cleaner.
1. The underlined word “hurdle” in Paragraph 2 probably means________.A.aim | B.difficulty | C.result | D.step |
A.They were very poorly made. | B.They were not widely promoted. |
C.They were expensive. | D.They couldn’t travel at a high speed. |
A.To introduce the history of electric travel. |
B.To explain why the world needs more electric cars. |
C.To show why more people have interest in electric cars. |
D.To describe different ways electric vehicles can be used. |
A.Driving into a Cleaner Future | B.History of Electric Cars |
C.Problems with Petrol and Diesel Cars | D.Best Means of Transportation |
7 . In 1945, two sculptures meant to represent the average man called Norman and woman called Norma in the United States went on exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History.
That same year, a contest was launched to find a living representation of Norma. Normal is often used to mean “typical”, “expected”, or even “correct”. By that logic, most people should fit the description of normal. And yet, not one of almost 4,000 women who participated in the contest matched Norma, the supposedly “normal” woman.
This puzzle isn’t unique to Norma and Norman, either — time and time again, so-called normal descriptions of our bodies, minds, and perceptions have turned out to match almost no one. So what does normal actually mean — and should we be relying on it so much?
In statistics, a normal distribution describes a set of values that fall along a bell curve (曲线). The average, or mean, of all the values is at the very center, and most other values fall within the hump (驼峰) of the bell. Normal doesn’t describe a single data point, but a pattern of diversity. Many human traits, like height, follow a normal distribution. Some people are very tall or very short, but most people fall close to the overall average. Outside of statistics, normal often refers to an average like the single number pulled from the fattest part of the bell curve that excludes all the nuances of the normal distribution. Norma and Norman’s proportions (比例) came from such averages.
Applied to individuals, whether someone is considered normal usually depends on how closely they get to this average. At best, such definitions of normal fail to capture variation. When limited or inaccurate definitions of normal are used to make decisions that impact people’s lives, they can do real harm. There were examples in history.
To this day, people are often targeted and discriminated against on the basis of disabilities, mental health issues, and other features considered “not normal”. But the reality is that the differences in our bodies, minds, perceptions, and ideas about the world around us — in short, diversity — is the true normal.
1. What can we learn about Norman and Norma?A.No participant fitted the description of them in the contest. |
B.They were on display as soon as they were completed in 1945. |
C.They were both named by the American Museum of Natural History. |
D.People viewed them as typical and correct representations of humans. |
A.The former and the latter fall at totally different points of the bell curve. |
B.The former and the latter account for different puzzles in our daily life. |
C.The latter is a single number whereas the former shows a pattern of diversity. |
D.The latter often indicates the distribution of a set of values but the former doesn’t. |
A.Possibilities. | B.Examples. | C.Meanings. | D.Differences. |
A.What Is Real Normal? |
B.When Are Humans Normal? |
C.How Does Normal Cause Harm? |
D.Why Shouldn’t We Rely on Normal? |
8 . For six hundred years, the Tower of London’s most exotic (异域风情的) prisoners were animals.
The Menagerie (动物园) began as a result of kings exchanging rare and strange animals as gifts. In 1235, Henry III was delighted to be presented with three wildcats by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. These inspired him to start a zoo at the Tower. Henry’s ‘wildcats’, although described as leopards, were probably lions. These are the ancestors of the three lions that still appear on the England football team’s shirts today.
In 1252 the lions were joined by a white bear probably a polar bear — given by the King of Norway. In 1255, the King of France sent the first elephant ever seen in England and people flocked together to see the novel (新奇的) sight. Sadly, the elephant died two years later.
Poor treatment and cramped conditions meant many of the animals did not survive for long. But the Menagerie continued to grow. Edward I created a permanent new home for the Menagerie at the western entrance to the Tower in what became known as the Lion Tower. The terrifying sounds and smells of wild animals must have both impressed and scared visitors.
By 1622, the collection had been extended to include three eagles, two pumas, a tiger and a jackal, as well as lions and leopards, who were the main attractions.
However, the end of the Menagerie came in the 1830s. Campaigners had begun to raise concerns, and the animals were expensive, occasionally dangerous and a nuisance to the guardsmen. The Duke of Wellington sent 150 of the beasts to a new zoo in Regent’s Park, today’s London Zoo.
Despite Alfred Cops’s best efforts to carry on, several further incidents including an escaped wolf and a monkey that bit a guardsman’s leg convinced King William IV to shut down the Menagerie for good in 1835. The remaining animals were sold to zoos and travelling shows and the Lion Tower was later pulled down.
1. What do we know about the elephant presented in 1255?A.It caused big trouble. | B.It received much attention. |
C.It lived painfully in the Lion Tower. | D.It died before the polar bear came in. |
A.Eight. | B.Nine. | C.Ten. | D.Eleven. |
A.Security concerns. | B.The decline of tourism. |
C.Pressure from campaigners. | D.Financial burden to raise the animals. |
A.The Royal Menagerie | B.Gifts Presented to the King |
C.Tourist Attractions in London | D.Miserable Life in the Lion Tower |
9 . The following are newly released devices all designed to help make your life more convenient, beautiful and vivid.
Tonal
$2,995 AT TONAL.COM
Tonal makes lifting and resistance training truly easy and accessible from your own home. It is great because I hate any sort of public weight training. Tonal has a remarkably easy user interface and gives data and feedback in a helpful manner. It also makes you feel great by keeping track of clear improvements.
Hisense 75” U800GR 8K ULED Roku TV
$1,800 AT BEST BUY
8k sounded like a luxury, but now that brands like Hisense, which focus on a more affordable end of the spectrum, have gotten some time with the tech, you can finally bring the deep color output and stunning detail into your living room. Calling it “affordable” may be a stretch, but compared to most 8k TV’s which all run over $5,000, it’s the most cost-efficient version of the tech we’ve got. It gets your money worth best.
VIVE Goggle
$499 AT VIVE.COM
Vive goggles will bring an extremely accessible and refreshing approach to the VR world. They are a pair of goggles not unlike something you’d wear to snowboard. They’re extremely lightweight with a lightning fast set — that’s connected with things like watching Netflix. It’s the calmest headset I’ve ever worn and uses cameras to let you control everything with just your hands. This one’s for the not-gamers.
Dyson Purifier Humidify+Cool Formaldehyde
$920 AT WALMART
For people who easily sneeze because of dog hair or something like that outside, Dyson has created a machine that saves them for time at home. This new purifier doubles as a humidifier, plus it has a cooling function, making it the end all be all for stuffy, hot, dry apartments.
1. Which device will get your money worth best?A.Tonal. | B.Dyson Purifier Humidify+Cool Formaldehyde. |
C.VIVE Flow. | D.Hisense 75” U 800 GR 8K ULED Roku TV. |
A.They are user-friendly. |
B.They help keep track of weight. |
C.They appeal to gamers. |
D.They are intended for who are allergic to dust. |
A.A consumer review. | B.A magazine. |
C.A novel. | D.A health report. |
10 . What does it take to graduate from university? Some papers or high scores in exams? Well, these are not enough if you are a student at Tsinghua University. According to a new rule of the university, students must prove (证明) themselves in the swimming pool. They need to pass a swimming test of at least 50 meters, and those who fail the test will be required to take a swimming course throughout their school years. By the time they graduate, they will have known how to swim; otherwise they can’t graduate with their bachelor’s degrees (学士学位).
The news made waves in Chinese social media (媒体). Some people praised the university for requiring a necessary skill that can save lives, and they also believed that the rule would help improve students’ health. However, others questioned if it was fair to expect those who come from inland cities (内陆城市) to be able to swim.
In fact, this is not a new rule. Tsinghua University first made swimming a requirement in 1919 but later gave it up because the number of students became too large and there were not enough swimming pools in the school for them to learn swimming.
Anyway, it is still good news that Chinese students’ health has become more and more valued. Why not just take this chance to learn one more life-saving ability?
1. According to the passage, what does it take for a student to graduate from Tsinghua university?A.Some papers. | B.High scores in exams |
C.Passing a swimming test. | D.All of the above. |
A.caused a heated discussion | B.spread widely | C.made a requirement | D.proved the rule |
① Because many students failed the swimming test.
② Because some people disagreed with the rule
③ Because there were too many students.
④Because there were not enough swimming pools.
A.①② | B.②③ | C.③④ | D.①④ |
A.Different people hold different opinions about a new rule. |
B.Tsinghua University has made a new rule of graduation |
C.Chinese students’ health should be more and more valued. |
D.There is a new chance to learn another life-saving ability. |