1 . When colds and flu hit, many people automatically turn to over-the-counter (OTC) medicines to push through and treat their symptoms. Although these medicines are easily accessible and widely used, it might come as a surprise to many people to learn that they are not risk-free. A study estimated that every year, 26,735 people went to the emergency room for adverse (不利的) events related to OTC cold and cough medicines.

When two or more drugs are used together, their interactions can sometimes produce unexpected harmful effects. Physicians are typically knowledgeable about potential drug interactions, so it is very important for patients to ask their healthcare providers which OTC medicines are safe for them to use.

It is important to read the package ingredients of OTC medicines closely to avoid duplication of doses (剂量重复). Cold medicines are typically made up of multiple ingredients. A person who takes a single-ingredient medicine paired with one of these multi-ingredient medicines can receive an unsafe dose of that ingredient.

While everyone could potentially experience adverse effects from cold and flu medicines, some groups — including older adults, children and pregnant women — may be at greater risk. Older people who are using prescribed drugs to treat multiple health conditions may have a higher risk of drug interactions because of the higher number of medicines being used at the same time to treat different conditions. The aging body is not as expert at absorbing, distributing and clearing medicines as younger bodies are. This can put older adults at higher risk for an overdose and drug-to-drug interactions with some medicines.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention do not recommend giving cold medicines to children under age 4. Because of a variety of factors, young children have a higher risk of an accidental overdose and adverse events that could lead to death.

1. What does the author advise patients to do in Paragraph 2?

A．To ask for suggestions from doctors.	B．To buy medicines from hospitals.
C．To read the package ingredients of drugs.	D．To take drugs as early as possible.

2. What’s the purpose of mentioning cold medicines in Paragraph 3?

A．To provide a medical choice for people who catch a cold.

B．To show cold medicines are more likely to cause bad effects.

C．To explain OTC medicines often have more than one ingredient.

D．To stress the importance of learning about medicines’ ingredients.

3. What can we infer about older people in Paragraph 4?

A．They can’t cope with aging positively.	B．Their body can’t handle medicines easily.
C．They are more easily affected by diseases.	D．Their desire for health makes them unwise.

4. What’s the best title for the passage?

A．Say No to OTC Drugs	B．Tips on Taking OTC Drugs
C．OTC Medicines May Not Be Safe	D．How to Deal with an OTC Drug Overdose

2 . On today’s blog post, I’ll talk about my favorite magazines. I love reading books and magazines, and I’m learning so many useful tips about health y living, daily life, etc.

Women’s Health

Women’s Health has a unique content. You can find various interesting information about healthy living or exercises you can do at home. I also love their writers because they explain every topic so simply that you can even understand biological articles.

Healthy Food Guide

I totally recommend it to everyone because it has lots of useful information about being healthy during your daily life. In this magazine, you can find articles about foods you often eat but don’t have much idea what they contain or if they’re healthy. If you are searching for new diets, this magazine gives you all the information.

Time Out

Time Out is a well-known magazine and it’s free in my city. Every time I see a Time Out magazine, I get it because it has lots of useful tips. I got Time Out London when I was in London, and I discovered new restaurants, galleries, museums and events. This magazine has various information about the city life. For example, it gives you the events that are happening near you. It gives you tips for the railway stations and other transportation choices.

La Cucina Italiana

If you love cooking Italian food, this magazine is for you! It has lots of recipes and also restaurant reviews. You can also find popular restaurants near you in this magazine. I’ve also read articles by famous chefs from my city.

1. What do Women’s Health and Healthy Food Guide have in common?

A．They have a unique content.	B．They have information about health.
C．They explain every topic simply.	D．They teach people how to cook.

2. Which should we choose to find comments on restaurants?

A．La Cucina Italiana.	B．Time Out.
C．Women’s Health.	D．Healthy Food Guide.

3. What can we learn about the author?

A．He lives in London.	B．He often goes travelling.
C．He loves and enjoys life.	D．He likes collecting recipes.

3 . The village super league, or “Cun Chao” in Chinese, is a soccer game among different villages in Rongjiang County, Southwest China’s Guizhou Province, and it is so down-to-earth but popular that it has attracted not only the attention of football legend Michael Owen, but also millions of Chinese netizens (网民), who are paying attention to this non-professional football league.

The players come from a variety of backgrounds. They are vendors, drivers, students, carpenters, tilers, former butchers and brick factory workers. Their ages range from 15 to over 40 years old. At the game site, representatives wearing various traditional national costumes play national musical. instruments and enter the arena (竞技场) with the players, and perform songs and dances.

“This kind of football game is natural and with ‘pureness’ and it is driven by the enthusiasm of the ordinary people not the economic benefits. The game is providing not only values of sports, but also a way of socialising with low costs,” an expert noted. “This kind of atmosphere is very rarely seen and is treasured, especially for people in urban areas who are getting increasingly busy and under great work pressure, and when they look at the fun, relaxing and down-to-earth way of life in the countryside, they will naturally be interested,” experts said. There is at least one good impact brought by “Cun Chao” to Chinese soccer—to make more people see the pureness of joy brought by the sport and encourage them to play soccer.

Today, more and more grassroots sports events are held in the mountains and are using sports as a medium to showcase the unique charm of the local area, reflecting a vibrant lifestyle filled with agricultural activities and rural fun.

1. Why does the author mention Michael Owen in Paragraph 1?

A．To show he is famous in China.

B．To tell about his love for China.

C．To suggest he has taken part in “Cun Chao”.

D．To prove the great popularity of “Cun Chao”.

2. What do we know about the players of “Cun Chao”?

A．They are from all walks of life.

B．Seniors are welcome to join the team.

C．Most of them are capable of playing national musical instruments.

D．They wear traditional costumes on the soccer field when competing.

3. What does “Cun Chao” influence Chinese soccer according to Paragraph 3?

A．To build more arena s in the countryside.

B．To help people know more about soccer.

C．To encourage more people to play soccer.

D．To make Chinese soccer known around the world.

4. What is the author’s attitude to sports events held in mountains?

A．Doubtful.

B．Favourable.

C．Ashamed.

D．Negative.

6 . Feeling overwhelmed by your to-do list can certainly make you unhappy, but new research suggests that more free time might not be the magic medicine many of us dream it could be.

In a new study, researchers found that people with more free time generally had higher levels of subjective well-being, but only up to a point.

People who had up to two hours of free time a day generally reported they felt better than those who’d had less time. But people who had five or more hours of free time a day generally said they felt worse. So ultimately the free-time “sweet spot” might be two to three hours per day, the findings suggest.

Part of finding the “sweet spot” has to do with how people spend the extra time they have. The researchers conducted several smaller online experiments. In one they asked participants to imagine having 3½ to seven free hours per day. They were asked to imagine spending that time doing “productive” things (like exercising) or to imagine doing “unproductive” activities (like watching TV). Study participants believed their well-being would suffer if they had a lot of free time during the day, but only if they used it unproductively. In other words, how people use their free time matters.

Of course, what feels “productive” is up to you. If watching two hours of Real Housewives in your free time increases your happiness, you should do that. And even more traditionally productive or purposeful activities can be easy and fun. Engaging in a bit of low-key cardio, like walking, can help burn stress. Free-time activities like reading, cooking or gaming are also known to put people in a state of flow.

In cases when people do find themselves with huge amounts of free time, such as retirement or having left a job,” Sharif said, “our results suggest these individuals would benefit from spending their newfound time with purpose.”

1. According to the study, how many hours of free time brings the best feelings?

A．3 to 7 hours.

B．5 hours or more.

C．Up to 2 hours.

D．2 or 3 hours.

2. Which of the following may the author agree with?

A．The busier, the happier.

B．The more free time, the better.

C．Purposeful activities increase happiness.

D．Retirement makes people depressed and unhappy.

3. Which of the following can put people in a state of flow?

A．Getting stuck in silence.	B．Having a poor-quality sleep.
C．Struggling with a dull book.	D．Enjoying classic music.

4. What’s Sharif’s advice for retirees?

A．To make a new schedule.	B．To do more housework.
C．To watch more TV.	D．To find a new job.

5. Which section of a newspaper can we find this passage?

A．Stories.

B．Life.

C．Science.

D．Sports.

8 . There’s been lots of concern recently about the potential dangers of microwave popcorn (爆米花), but is this concern founded, or just overmuch fear-spreading? The answer is that many of the chemicals that caused worry in earlier decades have been removed from microwave popcorn, but some critics still are not satisfied.

“You may consider popcorn to be a low-calorie, high-fiber snack, but microwave popcorn isn’t a healthy choice,” explains nutrition expert Dan DeFigio. That’s because microwave popcorn bags were coated with perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) to prevent oil substance from leaking out. One particular type of PFC, known as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), has been linked to certain cancers, but the American Cancer Society says the evidence is unsure and more research is being done about this.

Nevertheless, in response to concerns about PFCs, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) worked with popcorn makers back in 2011 to remove PFOA from their packaging. Three more PFCs were banned in the next five years. So today’s microwave popcorn doesn’t have these chemicals, but critics say that the alternatives could cause problems as the old ones, but less is known about them.

That’s not the only problem, however. The chemical that for decades lent buttery deliciousness to popcorn has also been connected in rare cases with major lung damage. Known as diacetyl (二乙酰), it’s long been a documented problem with workers in popcorn making facilities, but also can be risky for people who just eat the snack a lot. A 2007 study published in the journal Critical Reviews found that more than 80 percent of chemical release happened when the bag was opened post-popping. Although diacetyl has been removed from most products, some critics claim that the alternative to diacetyl is also harmful.

Most of the exposure to diacetyl came from inbreathing rather than eating popcorn. Therefore, experts recommend at least waiting for the bag to cool before you open it to reduce potentially harmful chemical exposure. Better yet, make your own fresh at home with an air popper. If you like to flavor it, add organic butter or some cheese.

1. What can we know about PFOA from the text?

A．PFOA doesn’t exist in Popcorn bags in America currently.

B．PFOA can stop the leak of nutrition.

C．PFOA in popcorn bags leads to cancer.

D．PFOA has been removed from PFCs.

2. According to the text, who are most probably exposed to diacetyl?

A．Critics claiming diacetyl is harmful.

B．Workers making popcorn in factories.

C．People making popcorn with an air popper.

D．Consumers eating microwave popcorn occasionally.

3. What does the last paragraph intend to tell us?

A．How to flavor popcorn.

B．How to make popcorn at home.

C．How to make popcorn safer.

D．How to find alternatives to diacetyl.

4. What is the topic of the text?

A．Is Popcorn a Healthy Choice?

B．Should We Ban Microwave Popcorn?

C．Should PFCs Be Removed from Microwave Popcorn?

D．Is Microwave Popcorn Really Dangerous?

10 . A common claim states that a sheet of paper cannot be folded in half more than seven times. But is this true?

In 2002, Britney Gallivan, then a junior in high school in Pomona, California, folded a single piece of paper in half 12 times. She currently holds the Guinness World Record for the most times to fold a sheet of paper in half.

The prompt that led Gallivan to accomplish these feats was an extra-credit challenge in math class to fold anything in half 12 times. Her teacher asked the students to fold something thicker: a piece of paper.

Gallivan said “it was very frustrating, as I had many unsuccessful attempts at trying to fold different papers in half. I began to question if folding paper in half more than eight times could be impossible.” However, Gallivan recalled. “I knew I needed to understand what was limiting the folding progression.”

The equations that Gallivan came up with calculated how many times a sheet of paper could be folded. She found that in order to fold many times, a long thin sheet is needed — the more a sheet is folded, the thicker the resulting stack becomes, and once the stack becomes thicker than it is long, there is nothing left to fold. She ultimately set her record with a sheet of tissue paper she found online that was 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) — more than three-quarters of a mile, or over a kilometer — long, Guinness World Records noted.

“Working on the problem took a tremendous amount of time and effort,” Gallivan said. “As frustrating as it was at times, I learned an immense amount from the experience, which has been valuable to me throughout my life in more capacities than one would expect.”     

Since Gallivan set her record, others have made claims of folding a sheet of paper more than 12 times. Still, “I anticipate that my current record will be surpassed,” Gallivan said.

1. Which was commonly considered the most times that paper can be folded in half?

A．7.

B．8.

C．9.

D．12.

2. It is impossible to fold a paper in half more times when _____.

A．the stack is as thick as its length	B．the paper is neither long nor thin
C．the stack is thicker than its length	D．the paper is longer than its thickness

3. What can we learn about Gallivan’s attempts?

A．It’s risky.

B．It’s fruitless.

C．It’s meaningless.

D．It’s energy-consuming.

4. What does Gallivan think of her experience?

A．Worthwhile.

B．Unsuccessful.

C．Miserable.

D．Regretful.

5. What can we infer from the passage?

A．Gallivan’s record is impossible to break.

B．Folding paper in half is merely a math problem.

C．Folding things in half may not be limited to 12.

D．Folding paper 12 times is a required credit in maths class.