1 . It was May 17, 2015, and Brian Koonoon, then 36, had been out of contact since the 13th. He had gone missing in the Arctic.
Brian climbed the hill next to his camp and checked his radio, hoping to catch a signal. He looked back to see that the snow had already covered his tracks. Any search planes would have a hard time finding him — a tiny bit of color in a sea of white snow.
For the first time since losing contact, Brian felt a sense of despair. He thought about his family — his wife and five daughters. Then he made his decision: if he wanted to see his family again, he would just have to start walking.
He was still 40 miles away from Repulse Bay, the closest village. It would be a tough walk, but by this point he had no other choice.
He gathered his stove and tent into his bag, but soon realized that dragging it would be impossible. He made the decision to fill his bag with necessities: his remaining bread, candles, a knife, his radio and GPS. Then he started walking.
Brian made his way about 15 miles until he couldn’t walk anymore. He found a snowdrift against a rock. With his knife, he built a snow cave. He cut enough room for his body. He crawled in, ate and fell asleep. When he woke up a few hours later, Brian felt energetic and ready to walk.
Brian arrived in Repulse Bay at 5:30 am on May 20. He met a woman on the street and explained what he had been through. The woman stared at him. “You’re the guy we were looking for,” she said. Her husband had been part of the rescue operation.
Today, safe at home. Brian still misses the welcome he received. “Everyone was very happy everywhere I went,” he says. He recalls the way the village’s elders came to meet him — the man who had survived in the wild, and the man who had refused to give up.
1. Why did Brian Koonoon climb a hill?| A．To search for a way to the nearest village. |
| B．To find his tracks in the snow. |
| C．To let the airplane see him. |
| D．To receive a radio signal. |
| A．It was the closest way home. |
| B．There was a rescue team there. |
| C．He could turn to others for help there. |
| D．He could keep in contact with his family there. |
| A．A rescue team found him in the end. |
| B．It took him about four days to arrive at Repulse Bay. |
| C．He dragged the bag with the stove and a tent to head for the village. |
| D．He only had 15 miles left to reach the village after a good sleep. |
| A．Brian’s not giving up was respected by the villagers. |
| B．Brian was proud of his courage to survive. |
| C．Brian considered his experience a horrible one. |
| D．Brian was unwilling to take an adventure again. |
2 . Here are some pet-friendly universities in the UK and US.
University of Illinois
Students are allowed up to two pets in each apartment, as well as a fish tank of no more than 50 gallons.
To keep a pet, you will need to get approval from the Family & Graduate housing department at the University of Illinois. You will have to provide proof that your pet is up to date with its vaccinations(疫苗), and pay a monthly US$30 pet fee, which is non-refundable(不可退款的).
Your pet can’t be left for extended periods of time, and if there’s evidence that you’ve left it alone due to vacation or illness, the university may remove it.
Harvard University
With as many as 12 pet-friendly apartments, Harvard is a very pet-friendly university. It allows students to have fish in a tank of no more than 50 gallons, except for Harvard’s Cronkhite Graduate Center.
In Harvard’s pet-friendly apartments, you’re allowed: one cat or one dog, which can’t be over 40 pounds when fully grown. At most, two pet birds.
University of British Columbia Students can take advantage of the university’s B. A. R. K program, which uses the calming power of therapy dogs to help them.
B. A. R. K started at the University of British Columbia, after an assistant professor called Dr. John-Tyler Binfet noticed that he couldn’t walk across campus without students running over to play with his dog, Frances. The students told him they were homesick and missed their pets, which encouraged Binfet to establish B. A. R. K as a way of fighting their loneliness.
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is famous for its resident pets, who happily wander around college grounds. Many Oxford colleges have their own tortoise and take part in the annual Corpus Christi tortoise race.
Although you are not allowed to keep your own pet as a student, several Oxford colleges hold dog petting and walking therapy sessions.
1. What is one of the rules for keeping pets at the University of Illinois?| A．Pet keepers should pay a monthly US$ 30 pet fee which will be returned. |
| B．Pets can’t be left alone in the apartments due to vacation or illness. |
| C．Students have to keep fish in a fish tank of no more than 20 gallons. |
| D．The cat or dog can’t be over 40 pounds when fully grown. |
| A．To help students to fight against homesickness. |
| B．To do research on dogs and train them to be pets. |
| C．To help more professors to do exercise on campus. |
| D．To give assistance to the pet dogs by offering them foods. |
| A．Harvard University. |
| B．University of Oxford. |
| C．University of Illinois. |
| D．University of British Columbia. |
3 . My PhD adviser informed me I had failed my qualifying exam at my third attempt, which meant the dismissal (开除)from the program. How was it possible that one exam — one hour of my life — could define me as unfit to be a scientist?
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started my PhD program. I struggled with my classes during my first year, spending countless hours studying in the library. I ended that year with increased confidence. But soon my confidence went away when I made my first attempt at the qualifying exam. I had switched research projects 5 months earlier, after my first adviser left the university, so I wasn’t so confident of going into the exam. Besides, I had never taken an oral exam before, so the experience was terrifying.
Once it was over, my committee told me I’d conditionally passed, which meant I had to take more time to study and prepare to talk about the topic further. I was shaken but still hopeful. But when I retook the exam, I failed again. That’s when I was told I’d have one more chance.
For the next 5 months, I asked my committee chairs for guidance and practiced answering oral questions. I even stopped doing lab work to focus on my exam preparations. I was all in.
When the exam was over, I left the room feeling a mix of fear and relief. But those feelings changed to disappointment the next day after I learned I’d failed. I speak Spanish at home, but I have difficulty translating even the simplest scientific concepts into Spanish. This held back my ability to comfortably speak the expected “language of science”.
My adviser requested to reinstate(使重返岗位)me to the PhD program, and I’m now back to working on my doctorate. I still have a little voice in the back of my head that I’m not good enough. But I try to stop it by surrounding myself with professors who support me and by staying focused on developing into the great scientist I know I can be. I am much more than that one-hour exam.
1. How did the author feel by the end of the first year?| A．Confident. | B．Terrified. | C．Worn out | D．At a loss. |
| A．She found it too hard for her. |
| B．Her adviser dismissed her from it. |
| C．She failed the qualifying exam. |
| D．Her adviser no longer worked there. |
| A．Not enough preparation. | B．Decreased confidence. |
| C．Lack of language competence. | D．Too much time on lab work. |
| A．Intelligent. | B．Sensitive. |
| C．Energetic. | D．Determined. |
4 . It was several years ago when my wife asked me to meet her at the local department store on Black Friday morning. They had advertised a child’s bike that she wanted to purchase for our son. We stood with a very large crowd, waiting for the manager to blow the whistle. After a while the whistle blew. It was like throwing a basket of chum into a tank of sharks. I told my wife that if we obtained a bike, fine, but if we did not, I was OK with that too.
As the boxes of bikes began to gradually decrease, I saw my opportunity to wrap my hands around the corner of one of them, I lifted it off and suddenly felt some mild resistance(抵抗). I looked up to see one of the largest men I had ever seen in my life. Frightening was not enough to describe his presence. He was decorated with numerous leather belts with metal buttons around both arms and even his neck.
I started to loosen the box but he gently pushed it back in my direction and back into my hands. He then directed it into my shopping cart. He looked at me, smiled, and said, “Merry Christmas.”
My wife and I went to the checkout, paid for the bike and went home. All the way home I was thinking that this moment was by far the best Christmas gift I had ever received. The kindness of a human heart in a simple act of a stranger broke all preconceived notions(先入为主的观念) I may have had. I will never forget it.
1. What does the underlined word“chum”mean in paragraph 1?| A．Gifts. | B．Souvenirs. | C．Goods | D．Food. |
| A．The author was frightened by the man. | B．The man needed it more. |
| C．The author didn’t want to buy it. | D．The man got the box first. |
| A．A Shopping Experience | B．The Best Christmas Gift |
| C．An Unforgettable Bike | D．The Largest Man I Have Ever See |
| A．Industry is the parent of success. | B．No rose without a thorn.(刺) |
| C．No way is impossible to courage. | D．Don’t judge a book by its cover. |
5 . A new study, just published in Scientific Reports, has provided surprising results about how quickly gifted dogs can learn new words. Two gifted dogs—one named Whisky from Norway and a Yorkshire terrier named Vicky Nina from Brazil, participated in this experiment.
“We wanted to know under which conditions the gifted dogs may learn new words. To test this, we exposed Whisky and Vicky Nina to the new words in two different conditions: in a social playful context with their owners and during an exclusion (排除) based task. Importantly, in both tests, the dogs heard the name of the new toy only four times,” explains Claudia Fugazza, first author of the study.
In social condition, the dogs simply played with their owners, who gave them the new toy. The owner would say things like “This is a lunchbox.” or “Get the lunchbox.” This process was repeated with a second toy. After hearing each new toy’s name only four times, the two dogs were able to choose the correct toy when asked.
The other condition was even more complex. The dogs were sent into another room to get the new toy, which was mixed with seven other toys that they already knew. To solve this puzzle, they had to understand that the new word had to be the only toy that they didn’t already know the name of. Though the dogs were able to handle the challenge, it didn’t turn out to be a good way to teach the dogs the name of the toy.
“Such rapid learning seems to be similar to the way human children acquire their vocabulary around two to three years of age,” says the researcher.
To test whether most dogs would learn words this way, another 20 dogs were tested in the same condition, but none of them showed any evidence of learning the toy names.
1. What did the owners do to the dogs in the experiment?| A．They repeated the toy name four times to them. |
| B．They taught them new words for a few days. |
| C．They pointed out the toy for them by gestures. |
| D．They provided familiar smell with the toy for them. |
| A．8 toys were placed in each room in both tests. |
| B．One test is harder than the other. |
| C．The dogs could play with their owners in two tests. |
| D．The exclusion-based task is a good way to learn new words. |
| A．Ordinary adults’. | B．Linguistic experts’. |
| C．Lower grade students’. | D．2-to 3-year old children’s. |
| A．Gifted Dogs Can Learn Words Quickly |
| B．A New Study About Dogs’ Memory Is Carried Out |
| C．Dogs Are Found to Have the Ability to Identify Toys |
| D．Smart Dogs’ Learning Ways Are Different From Normal Dogs’ |
6 . Make unforgettable summer holiday memories, with amazing holiday experiences! Fit For Sport Summer Holiday Camp at Ivybridge Leisure Centre.
Fit For Sport summer holiday camps are the perfect solution to ensure your child enjoys a school holiday like no other as we invite your child to join us on our action-packed holiday programmes full of fun and adventure. With a brilliant mix of skills for sports, energizing activities to get children moving, creative sessions that encourage children to express themselves and much more—ensure your child doesn’t miss a moment by securing a place today!
At Fit For Sport, they put children at the centre of everything they do—ensuring each day is filled with opportunities for your child to:
1. Keep active with a wide range of options
2. Build confidence through learning new skills
3. Enjoy positive social interaction experiences with friends in a safe environment
4. Discover new activities delivered by expert play leaders
5. Improve well-being through promoting happiness, mindfulness and kindness
Summer Programme
Date: August 1～September 2
Claim 10% off summer camps: If you book the camps by July 15, you will receive a 10% early bird discount.
Booking Information
Call their friendly bookings team on 020 8742 4990 or drop them an email at enquiries @ fitforsport.co.uk.For any further information please visit www.fitforsport.co.uk.
1. What can we know about Fit For Sport?| A．It improves children’s communication skills. |
| B．It provides a lifelong learning experience. |
| C．It gives students chances to be leaders. |
| D．It offers an early bird discount anytime before camps open. |
| A．By visiting the website. |
| B．By writing a letter. |
| C．By sending an email. |
| D．By calling your friend. |
| A．Calling for students to exercise. |
| B．Spreading sports knowledge. |
| C．Introducing a fitness center. |
| D．Advertising summer holiday camps. |
7 . It can be a bit of a puzzle for bird lovers. If you feed birds, will that make them unwilling to search for food elsewhere? Each year, millions of people feed birds, driving a $4 billion industry based on bird food, feeders, etc. Bird feeding is especially popular in northern countries during winter, when cold, stormy weather and minimal daylight reduce the time that birds have for locating natural foods.
Bird feeding has positive effects, such as enhanced body conditions and increased reproductive output of birds. On the negative side, it can facilitate disease transmission and change bird migration. A recent mysterious illness, for example, has been blinding and killing birds in several states.
According to Rivers, a scholar of wildlife ecology, not much is known about whether birds become reliant on the feeders. “The only experiment to test that, using the black-capped chickadee (黑冠山雀), was 30 years ago,” he said. “It found no reduction in apparent survival after the removal of bird feeders that had provided extra food for 25 years, leading to the conclusion that bird feeding did not promote feeder dependency.”
Rivers studied the bird feeder using habits of 67 black-capped chickadees subjected to one of three flight-feather-clipping (翼羽修剪) treatments: heavy clipping, light clipping, or no clipping. The birds were tagged with RFID chips (射频识别芯片), and 21 bird feeders along a 3.2-km riverside zone were filled with sunflower seeds and equipped with chip readers to measure feeder visits by the tagged birds.
It turned out that the feather-clipped chickadees did not increase their rates of visits to the feeders. Instead, the feather-clipped birds actually decreased their feeder use for a couple of weeks, possibly to reduce exposure to being hunted. But after that they used the feeders to the extent similar to the unclipped birds’. The findings suggested that foods in the environment were sufficiently available to allow birds to cut back on feeder use.
“Many people are concerned that if we don’t fill our feeders up before big storms, birds can be in trouble. I don’t think so,” Rivers says. “We’re not going to be harming birds and birds aren’t going to starve just because we don’t fill up our feeders. Besides, this can prevent diseases spreading among them.”
1. What’s the main driving force behind bird feeding in northern countries?| A．The expansion of the related industry. |
| B．The tough weather conditions for birds. |
| C．The officials’ appeal for wildlife protection. |
| D．The reduction in birds’ reproductive output. |
| A．It’s a double-edged sword. | B．It makes an unnecessary move. |
| C．It does more good than harm. | D．It’s challenging but worthwhile. |
| A．Both observed the birds for many years. |
| B．Both proved no feeder dependency of birds. |
| C．Both cut flight feathers of birds to test them. |
| D．Both used hi-tech chips to measure birds’ visits to the feeders. |
| A．Concerned. | B．Negative. | C．Favorable. | D．Indifferent. |
8 . From the hottest trends to classic styles, we’ve found 4 cool backpacks that’ll send your kids back to the classroom with confidence. Keep reading to see your favorites.
The Charlie Backpack from Perry Mackin
It comes in eight colors, including pink, blue and gold, and has two water bottle pockets, a front pocket and two internal pockets. It’s made of recyclable cloth and is easy to clean. It holds a 13" laptop just right.
Available at perrymackin.com, $45.
Super Styles Backpack from STATE Bags
Take your pick of printed canvas (帆布), metallic materials in seven colors and patterns in kid-perfect sizes. The popular Kane bag fits a 13" laptop and standard school folders and books. The large front pocket is great for small items, while the side pocket can hold a 500ml water bottle and smaller ones. In addition, every bag purchased from STATE helps to fund special projects with partner charities and schools.
Available at statebags.com, $65 (20% discount).
Casey Camo Backpack from Mark and Graham
It is made of strong and water-resistant canvas that will stand up to the busy school year. The bag comes with reflective tape for safety, adjustable straps (带子), and two side pockets for water bottles. Choose from blue, pink and green colors.
Available at markandgraham.com, $50 (10% discount).
Galaxy Backpack from Fenrici
The backpack from Fenrici is made of water-resistant cloth, and the extra high side pockets ensure taller water bottles stay still. It is worth mentioning that 5% net profit of this backpack is donated to Global Genes to fund the research on rare childhood diseases.
Available at amazon.com, $35.
1. Which of the following has more choices in color?| A．The Charlie Backpack. | B．Super Styles Backpack. |
| C．Casey Camo Backpack. | D．Galaxy Backpack. |
| A．$85. | B．$90. | C．$95. | D．$100. |
| A．They are water-resistant. |
| B．They are made of printed canvas. |
| C．They are related to charity programs. |
| D．They are specially designed for kids’ safety. |
9 . Our selection of a favorite color is something that tends to appear in childhood. Babies have variable preferences for colors. But the more time children spend in the world, the more they start to develop stronger fondness for certain colors. They are more likely to link bright colors like orange, yellow, purple or pink to positive rather than negative emotions.
It is commonly believed that as children enter their teenage years, their color choices take on a darker style. Adolescent girls in the UK, for example, have been found to be attracted to purples and reds, while boys favor greens and browns.
These color palettes (调色板) seem to gather as people grow into adulthood. Interestingly, while the majority of adults say they prefer blue colors, they’ll likely also dislike the same color too: a dark yellowish brown is identified as least popular.
But why do we have favorite colors? Put simply, we have favorite colors because we have favorite things. At least, that’s the cause of ecological valence theory (生态价值论), an idea put forward by Karen Schloss. Her experiments showed that humans put meanings onto colors, mostly drawn from our subjective histories, and so create high personal reasons for likes and dislikes.
Scholss’s work on color preferences may also explain blue’s position as such a widespread favorite by accident. And most of our experience with the color are likely to be positive, like clear oceans or skies.
The environment we live in inspires our color preference in other ways too. Another study Schloss conducted looked at students at University of California-Berkeley and Stanford, showing that the varsity (代表队) colors of a college influenced the colors they picked as favorites. The more a student said they embraced the spirit of the school, the higher that preference rose.
1. What colors will children prefer in their teens?| A．Bright colors. | B．Light colors. | C．Darker colors. | D．Variable colors. |
| A．To introduce the topic. |
| B．To make comparisons. |
| C．To attract readers’ attention. |
| D．To inform the recent findings. |
| A．To adapt to the adulthood. |
| B．To live in variable environment. |
| C．To select them when we were born. |
| D．To put subjective meanings onto them. |
| A．Have a preference of same colors. |
| B．Choose their varsity colors as favorites. |
| C．Like the color of blue best. |
| D．Create high personal reasons for colors. |
10 . September is upon us, which means one thing for parents and children alike: new term time. With our teachers, students, support staff and many other members of the education ecosystem returning to their own schools, many will be excited to engage in person, after months of remote learning. Unfortunately, this won’t apply to everyone.
Throughout the summer, No Isolation worked with independent researcher, Henry Peck, to better understand the effect of lockdown on educational and emotional development in school-aged children. We collected responses from 1,005 parents and carers of 1,477 children from primary and secondary school and were sad to find that more than 75% of these children were lonely some or all of the time during the lockdown.
We were alarmed to find that, according to our research, about 540,000 people will continue to stay at home, due to mental or physical health concerns in the USA, directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic. For those children that aren’t able to attend classes in person, keeping some form of connection with their peers is greatly significant. Video calls have been one of the options to protect their educational development and to prevent them from becoming isolated.
They are normal during the pandemic, but are not necessarily the answer for those studying from home. When everyone is online in a video call, it can be an acceptable experience. However, if everyone is gathered and a single student is watching through a video call, it can have the opposite effect. Therefore, having an engaging experience over a video conference can be very difficult for some children, making it easy to switch off.
If you’re worried about how your child might be reacting, or concerned that a more digital life could be leaving them isolated, the first thing to do is talk with them: meaningful solutions should be developed in partnership with the people they’re aimed at. Now, we should be listening to children and helping to make sure they are heard in these stormy times.
1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?| A．Learning alone is significant. |
| B．All students will return to school life. |
| C．No student needs remote learning. |
| D．Some students will remain at home. |
| A．By investigating. | B．By telephoning. |
| C．By e-mailing. | D．By interviewing. |
| A．Everyone is online in a video call. |
| B．Everyone is gathered except one still online . |
| C．Students are busy with a video conference. |
| D．Students have the video switched off. |
| A．Make school children’s voice heard. |
| B．Help school children with Covid loneliness. |
| C．Support school children’s video conference. |
| D．Connect school children through video calls. |
