1 . What a day! I started my new school this morning and had the best time. I made lots of new friends and really liked my teachers. I was nervous the night before, but I had no reason to be. Everyone was so friendly and polite. They made me feel at ease. It was like I’d been at the school for a hundred years!
The day started very early at 7:00 am. I had my breakfast downstairs with my mom. She could tell that I was very nervous. Mom kept asking me what was wrong. She told me I had nothing to worry about and that everyone was going to love me. If they didn’t love me, mom said to have a good talk with them. I couldn’t stop laughing.
My mom dropped me off at the school gate about five minutes before the bell rang. A little blonde girl got dropped off at the same time and started waving (招手) at me. She ran over and told me her name was Abigail. She was very nice and we became close straight away. We spent all morning together and began to talk to another girl called Stacey. The three of us sat together in class all day and we even made our way home together! It went so quickly. Our teacher told us that tomorrow we would really start learning and developing new skills.
I cannot wait until tomorrow and feel as though I am really going to enjoy my time at my new school. I only hope that my new friends feel the same way, too.
1. How did the author feel the night before her new school?| A．Tired. | B．Excited. | C．Happy. | D．Worried. |
| A．Clear. | B．Funny. | C．Reasonable. | D．Excellent. |
| A．She met many nice people. | B．She had a hurried breakfast. |
| C．She learned some new skills. | D．She arrived at school very early. |
| A．She disliked Stacey. | B．She was shy and quiet. |
| C．She got on well with the author. | D．She was an old friend of the author. |
2 . It all started with a simple question: “Can I paint your portrait?”
In the summer of 2015, Brian Peterson and his wife, Vanessa, had just moved to Santa Ana, California. One day, Peterson was relaxing in his living room, reading the book Love Does, about the power of love in action, when his quiet was disturbed by the homeless man, who was often yelling on the street. Inspired by the book’s sympathetic message, Peterson made an unexpected decision: He was going to go outside and introduce himself.
“It was the strangest thing to me,” Peterson recalled later on the podcast Top Artist. “When I met the homeless man- Faris, I saw beauty on the face of a man who hadn’t shaved in probably a year, and probably hadn’t had a shower in close to a year. But his story, the life inside of him, inspired me.” And even though Peterson, a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art, hadn’t picked up a paintbrush in about eight years, he found himself asking if he could paint Faris’s portrait. Faris said yes. That led him to form Faces of Santa Ana, a nonprofit organization focused on befriending and painting portraits of members of the community who are unhoused.
The portraits signed by both subject and artist are sold for a few thousand dollars, which is then put into what he calls a “love account” for his model to help people get back on their feet.
Peterson has painted 41 of these portraits himself. But there’s more to the finished products than the money they bring to someone down-and-out. He’s discovered that the buyers tend to connect to the story of the person in the painting, finding similarities and often friendship with someone they might have otherwise overlooked or stereotyped (刻板印象).
“People often tell me, ‘I was the one that would cross the street. But I see homeless people differently now,’” Peterson says. “I didn’t know that would happen.”
1. What inspired Peterson to set up Faces of Santa Ana?| A．Peterson’s passion for painting. | B．The inspiration from the book Love Does. |
| C．Peterson’s connection with Faris. | D．The unique appearance of the homeless man. |
| A．Peterson still has more portraits to finish. |
| B．The portraits may bring more to the buyers. |
| C．The portraits should be sold at a higher price. |
| D．The buyers tend to donate more money than the portraits’ price. |
| A．Caring and devoted. | B．Cultured and ambitious. |
| C．Creative and grateful. | D．Generous and shortsighted. |
| A．The Art of Friendship | B．A Nonprofit Organization |
| C．The Power of Arts Dream | D．Peterson and His Portraits. |
3 . Walking around the world may seem impossible, but that didn’t stop Angela Maxwell from putting one foot in front of the other. In 2020, Maxwell, then in her early 30s, began her walk around the world alone. After six-and-a-half years and over 32, 000 kilometers, Maxwell’s walk ended where it began.
Before she left on her journey, Maxwell found inspiration from women explorers of the past. “I read their books in hopes of finding encouragement-and I did—by learning about their challenges and struggles as well as their triumphs (胜利). Each woman’s story was quite different and it gave me the confidence to give my walk a try,” Maxwell said.
After selling all of her belongings, Maxwell left her hometown of Bend, Oregon with 50 kilograms of camping gear, dehydrated (脱水的) food, a water filter and clothing for all four seasons.
Maxwell’s worldwide walk wasn’t easy. She suffered from sunburn and heatstroke (中暑) in the Australian desert and dengue fever (登革热) in Vietnam. She heard gunshots while camping in Turkey and was attacked in her tent in Mongolia. Still, she continued to walk. She learned beekeeping in the Republic of Georgia and camel-handling on the historical Silk Road in Mongolia. She helped a farmer renovate (翻新) his house in Sardinia and handed out food to homeless people in Italy. She gathered countless stories that she’d go on to speak about at schools, universities and conferences.
When the reporter asked her what kind of person it takes to walk around the world, Maxwell said, “It’s probably a combination of ambition, a little stubbornness and a pinch of passion—not for hiking as a sport, but for self-discovery and adventure.”
“I didn’t start walking because I was fearless—but rather because I was terrified. I was more afraid of not following my heart than I was of losing everything I owned and loved.”
Throughout her journey, Maxwell raised about $30,000 for non-governmental organizations, such as Her Future Coalition and World Pulse that focus on supporting girls and young women.
“Walking has taught me that everything and everyone has a story to share, we just have to be willing to listen,” she said.
1. What do we learn about Maxwell’s journey?| A．She stopped her journey halfway. |
| B．She made full preparations before her journey. |
| C．She went on a journey with other women explorers. |
| D．She got a lot of help from strangers during the journey. |
| A．She was shot by a gun. | B．She learned how to raise bees and ride camels. |
| C．She got ill because of the weather and disease. | D．She helped the homeless people along the way. |
| A．Strong-willed and brave. | B．Enthusiastic and careful. |
| C．Modest and hardworking. | D．Talented and thoughtful. |
| A．Giving brings you benefits. | B．It’s never too old to learn. |
| C．Nothing is impossible to a willing heart. | D．Difficult life experiences may result in success. |
4 . Balancing preservation of the land with our desire to travel is a challenge for us travelers. When seeing cities face constant resource and waste problems, I couldn’t help but think about how much travel can affect the environment.
Back in my youth, I was an environmental activist. But over the years, I leave the lights on. I fly a lot. I drink out of plastic bottles. I eat a lot of meat. And I love fish, especially tuna. However, recently, I’ve begun thinking harder about how travel affects the environment and how I affect the environment. In doing so, I’ve tried to be a lot more aware of my actions.
I don’t know if there is an easy solution for this problem. The most environmentally friendly activity is not to travel at all, but that’s unrealistic and too extreme. There’s so much money in travel that I don’t think the government and regulation can do much. Only when their profits are hurt will hotels, operators, and the industry as a whole begin to listen. Instead, it’s all about the consumers. The only good way is to get people to be more environmentally conscious and make better decisions.
Consumers have a lot of power. Why did Wal-Mart start selling only sustainable fish and whole milk? Consumers wanted it. I think if we as travelers begin to demand more environmentally friendly practices and avoid companies with poor environmental records, we can change things.
Now, I recycle more, I use fewer water bottles, I shut off the lights. Most importantly, I use operators and stay at places that are reducing their environmental impact.
Travel can destroy the environment but it doesn’t have to. We have the power to make things better. We can do small things and demand more of the places we stay and visit. We can and should demand more of places, and of ourselves.
1. Which of the following might be the best title for the text?| A．My experiences of protecting the environment |
| B．Can we balance travel and the environment? |
| C．Is there an easy way to solve environmental problems? |
| D．How can we travel in an environmentally friendly way? |
| A．To show he is wealthy. | B．To tell he is fond of travelling. |
| C．To indicate he has become less environmentally conscious. | D．To explain his hobby. |
| A．People do not travel at all. | B．The government takes effective measures. |
| C．Tourism industry follows environmental rules. | D．Consumers become more environmentally conscious. |
5 . Is language, like food, a basic human need without which a child at a critical period of life can be starved and damaged? Judging from the drastic (极端的) experiment of Fredrick in the thirteenth century, it may be. Hoping to discover what language a child would speak if he heard no mother tongue, he told the nurses to keep silent. All the infants (婴儿) died before the first year. But clearly there was more than a lack of language here. What was also missing was good mothering, in the first year of life especially, the capacity to survive is seriously influenced.
Today no such serious lack exists as that ordered by Frederick. However, some children are still backward in speaking. Most often the reason for this is that the mother is insensitive to the signals of the infant, whose brain is programmed to learn language rapidly. If these sensitive periods are neglected, the ideal time for acquiring skills passes and they might never be learned so easily again.
Experts suggest that speech stages are reached in a fixed sequence (顺序) and at a constant age, but there are cases where speech has started late in a child who eventually turns out to be of high IQ. At twelve weeks a baby smiles and utters vowel-like sounds; at twelve months he can speak simple words and understand simple conmmands; at eighteen months he has a vocabulary of three to fifty words. At three he knows about 1,000 words which he can put into sentences, and at four his language differs from his parents’in style rather than grammar.
Recent evidence suggests that an infant is born with the capacity to speak. What is special about man’s brain, compared with the brain of the monkey, is the complex system which enables a child to connect the sight and feel of, say, a teddy-bear with the sound pattern “teddy-bear”, and even more incredible is the young brain’s ability to pick out an order in language for the mixture of sound around him, to analyze, to combine and recombine the parts of a language in new ways.
But speech has to be induced and this depends on interaction between the mother and the child, where the mother recognizes the signals in the child’s babbling (含糊不清地说) and smiling, and is sensitive to them. Insensitivity of the mother to these signals dulls the interaction because the child gets discouraged and sends out only the obvious signals. Sensitivity to the child’s non-verbal signals is essential to the growth and development of language.
1. As for Frederick’s experiment, we may know that _____.| A．the infants in it lived only over a year |
| B．there was absolutely no difference between food and language for the infants |
| C．the infants in it died because there was not any sound |
| D．the death of the infants was not merely due to an absence of language |
| A．they are not able to learn language rapidly |
| B．they are exposed to too much language at once |
| C．their mothers respond inadequately to their attempts to speak |
| D．their mothers are not intelligent enough to help them |
| A．be encouraged | B．be forced | C．be banned | D．be monitored |
| A．The ability of speech is inborn in man. |
| B．A child starting to speak later than others may not necessarily be backward. |
| C．Most children learn their language in definite stages. |
| D．Children may dull their mother through interaction. |
6 . Which are the better pets, cats or dogs? Staff from New Horizon network team have carried out a study which lasted a fortnight and they published their conclusion on their home page last Friday — dogs are better pets than cats by a whisker.
Staff from New Horizon first listed the areas where cats fared better. These included having bigger brains compared to their body size, which is said to make them do better in complex functions such as memory and attention than dogs. Cats’second point was given for being more popular, with 204 million living in the top ten cat-owning nations compared to 173 million dogs in the ten countries where dogs are favored. Cats also get more attention from humans, with purrs (呼噜声) and miaows easily to be noticed. Although dogs can vary their barks, they cannot match the attention-seeking of cats. Additionally, cats can see in lower light than dogs and have a far wider hearing range and a sharper sense of smell. They are also said to be “greener” pets because their smaller appetites mean less area of land required to farm the food.
But in the other six categories examined — many of which related to getting on with humans — dogs had the edge.
Dogs have a longer shared history with humans, maybe as long as 135,000 years. Cats are relative newcomers to our homes. Similarly, dogs have a greater ability to bond with the 订masters. Even four-month-old puppies choose a human companion over another dog. Dogs scored a third point for their better powers of understanding and following human gestures. One study found that a dog called Rico had mastered the meaning of more than 200 words. The ab 山 ty to perform roles such as being a guide dog for the blind meant dogs were rated better than cats when it came to their problem-solving abilities. And they are easier to train.
With the scores tied at five-all, the deciding point fell on usefulness — with dogs coming out on top.
Dogs, studies show, help cut human stress, while taking them for walks keeps their owners fit and helps them meet new people. New Horizon says: “Dogs can hunt and guard. They can sniff out drugs and bombs; they guide blind and deaf people, find someone buried in ruins, and possibly even predict earthquakes.”
The study conducted by the staff and their conclusion went viral the moment it was released and has caused a heated discussion among pet owners. Some frowned at it, arguing that it had only involved character, intelligence and usefulness.
1. Which of the following is cats’advantage?| A．They are better at grasping their owners’ instructions. |
| B．They have larger brains than dogs. |
| C．They have a sharper sense of taste. |
| D．They affect the environment less. |
| A．considerably | B．in some aspects |
| C．a little bit | D．exactly the same |
| A．the study lasted a week |
| B．four-month-old puppies are more capable of picking a human companion |
| C．all the pet owners didn’t agree with the conclusion |
| D．people pet dogs to predict earthquakes |
| A．Cats beat dogs | B．Fight like cat and dog |
| C．Befriend with cats and dogs | D．Cats versus dogs |
7 . At the age of 9, my father passed away. I often helped mum with the housework and changing the vacuum cleaner (真空吸尘器) bag and picking up things the machine did not suck up always drove me crazy. One day 20 years later, in 1978, I was doing chores at home alongside my wife. The vacuum cleaner was screaming, and worse still, I had to empty the bag several times. But for my wife’s comfort, I would have lost it just as I did many years ago. It was at that time that I decided to make a bagless vacuum cleaner. And I even imagined myself using it for the next weekend cleaning.
Easier said than done, of course. I didn’t realize that I would spend the next five years perfecting my design, a process that resulted in 5,127 different prototypes (设计原型). By the time I made my 15th prototype, my third child was born. By 2,627, my wife and I were really counting our pennies. By 3,727, my wife was giving art lessons for some extra cash, and we were getting further and further into debt. These were tough times, but with my family, I pulled through and each failure brought me closer to solving the problem.
I just had a passion for the vacuum cleaner as a product, but I never thought of going into a business with it. In the early 1980s, I started trying to get licensing agreements (许可协议) for my technology. The reality was very different, however. The major vacuum makers had built a business model based on the profits from bags and filters (滤网). No one would license my idea, not because it was a bad one, but because it was bad for business.
That gave me the courage to keep going, but soon after, the companies that I had talked with started making machines like mine. I had to fight legal battles on both sides of the Atlantic to protect the patents on my vacuum cleaner. However, I was still in financial difficulties until 1993, when my bank manager personally persuaded Lloyds Bank to lend me $1 million. Then my bagless vacuum cleaner was produced in large numbers. Within two years, the Dyson vacuum cleaner became a best-seller in Britain.
Today, I still embrace risk and the potential for failure as part of my life. “Go out and brainstorm new ideas.” I often tell myself.
1. From the first paragraph, we know that _____.| A．Dyson resolved to make a vacuum cleaner in memory of his father. |
| B．Dyson decided to develop an innovative vacuum cleaner for his wife while in his thirties. |
| C．Dyson was not a little annoyed when the vacuum cleaner went wrong. |
| D．Dyson didn’t lose the vacuum cleaner he used because his wife comforted him. |
| A．In the early 1980s. |
| B．After his bank manager agreed to lend him $1 million. |
| C．After he was given a $1 million loan. |
| D．Before he obtained a patent on the product. |
| A．Dyson dreamed of making a fortune when he began his invention |
| B．Dyson might owe his success to his family |
| C．Dyson had no confidence in his vacuum cleaner initially |
| D．Dyson’s vacuum cleaner was not licensed in the early 1980’s for its poor quality |
| A．More haste, less speed. |
| B．Silence is gold. |
| C．Without adventure, one can not know himself. |
| D．He who never failed might never succeed. |
8 . During the teenage years, hormonal (荷尔蒙的) changes lead to physical changes like rapid muscle growth, burst in height, and weight gain in both boys and girls. Take a look at the information and height and weight charts for teens presented in this article if the question “How much should I weigh for my age and height” is bothering you.
Average Height and weight Charts for TeensFaster growth in kids usually can be noticed at age 8. Genetic factors also determine the physical growth of a child. So, it is perfectly normal for two kids of the same age to have different weights and heights. The following figures should be used as guidelines only.
Ideal Body Fat Percentage
Fit men have 14% -17% body fat. Fit women have 21% - 24% body fat.
Male athletes have 6% - 13% body fat. Female athletes have 14% - 20% body fat.
The ideal body fat percentage varies mainly according to age, sex and the physical activity of the individual. But it is a fact that some female athletes have body fat as low as 10% and some male athletes had lower than 4% body fat. So, it can be observed that other than the above mentioned factors, genetic factors also influence the body-fat ratio (比率)．
Body Mass Index (BMI)
You may use the following formula to calculate our BMI:
As per SI Units (国际单位)
BMI= mass (kg)/[height(meters)]2
Following conclusions can be derived from (得到) calculating the BMI:
1. All the factors (that determine the physical growth of a child) are mentioned in the passage EXCEPT _______.
| A．nutrition | B．gene | C．sex | D．age |
| A．girls keep on growing taller during the teenage years |
| B．girls grow faster at the end of teenager years than boys |
| C．girls grow faster at the beginning of teenager years than boys |
| D．boys’average weight is always heavier than girls’during the teenage years |
| A．normal | B．obese | C．extremely obese | D．underweight |
9 . Coral reefs (礁) are filled with a diverse range of marine lives. Some fish are more beautiful to humans than others, and their outward appearance could be influencing how we decide which species to protect. The fish humans find the ugliest are the most ecologically and evolutionarily (进化上) distinct. But perhaps more importantly, the uglier species are also more likely to be threatened, according to a new paper published in the journal PLOS Biology.
Researchers showed 481 photographs of ray-finned reef fishes to 13,000 members of the public. With that data, they then trained a computer model to generate subsequent (紧随其后的) predictions for an additional 4,400 photographs of 2,417 of the most common reef fish species. They next compared the aesthetic (审美的) rating of each species with other characteristics, including evolutionary history, distinctiveness from other fish, conservation position and importance to fisheries.
After analyzing the numbers, researchers found that the fish humans rated as the most beautiful tended to be less ecologically and evolutionarily distinct. Prettier fish were also more likely to be listed as species of “least concern” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
On the contrary, the fish that humans found to be the least attractive were the most ecologically and evolutionarily distinct, and they were more likely to be listed as “threatened” on the IUCN Red List. Unattractive species also tended to be more important to money-focused fisheries, which puts them at higher risk of overfishing.
When conservation funding and energy is limited, uglier fish are likely to be overshadowed by more beautiful fish. It’s not surprising that humans are easily attracted by beautiful wildlife, but the findings point to important mismatches between potential public support for conservation and the species most in need of this support.
“To minimize the impact of aesthetic biases (偏见), scientists, conservation groups and policymakers may need to change how they communicate about wildlife,” the researchers write in the paper. “Making people more aware of the roles uglier fish play in reef ecosystems could help them gain more support. In other words, never judge a fish by its look.”
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?| A．The focus of the study. | B．The process of the study. |
| C．The purpose of the study. | D．The background of the study |
| A．They are much easier to hunt. | B．They are financially valuable. |
| C．They are ecologically distinct. | D．They are rare and look special. |
| A．Building natural reserves worldwide for uglier fish. |
| B．Attempting to raise people’s environmental awareness. |
| C．Enriching the understanding of uglier fish’s appearance. |
| D．Educating people on uglier fish’s ecological importance. |
| A．Ugly fish need love, too | B．Ugly fish matter, actually |
| C．Reef ecosystems need care | D．Coral reefs rely on various fish |
10 . TEC Community Event Series
Date and time
Thursday, July 13, 11 am-11:45 am
Location: Online
About this event
45 minutes Mobile E-ticket
Join our monthly community event! At TEC we have found that community increases success and consistency.
Have you ever wondered why the needle does not move, even when you get your 10,000 steps in? Do you still feel overly sore (酸痛的) after a weekend full of activities? Or you can’t seem to break the pattern with ongoing injuries?
If this sounds like you, then TEC has you covered! From movement to mindset, we will help you engage your body and give you easy-to-follow movements that you can do from anywhere. This will help you accomplish your fitness goals, feel great in all your summer activities and avoid the roller coaster of injuries!
TEC monthly community event!
Stay active beyond your training for better performance, and prioritize your overall health.
Each movement will help you maximize your recovery and avoid any of the bad effects of your workouts, for example, overuse injuries, tightness, a range of motion issues, etc.
Have a body and mind ready to interact in all the activities the healthy way!
Connect with other athletes and individuals.
Ask TEC coaches and other athletes question and cooperate on best practices to optimize (使最优化) your mindset!
This event is for you if:
You desire a community to grow with.
You have strong feelings of enthusiasm for workouts.
You enjoy achieving at a high level.
You are looking for support for your mindset, sport fitness, or your nutrition.
This event is not for you if:
You are close minded and are not looking to be challenged or encouraged.
You refuse to learn from others.
You are looking for a place to se your products services
1. What can we learn about this event?| A．It takes place every month. | B．It offers 45-minute offline training. |
| C．It shows people the secret to success. | D．It aims to help people to lose weight. |
| A．They will be given priority for membership. |
| B．They will gain permanent free mobile e-ticket. |
| C．They will get one-to-one guidance from a coach. |
| D．They will learn how to avoid injuries when exercising. |
| A．Those who hope to enjoy a quiet weekend. |
| B．Those who want to attract potential customers. |
| C．Those who attach importance to active lifestyle. |
| D．Those who desire good academic performance. |
