1 . As we close out the final days of this year, treat yourself to a deliciously distracting new book —a book that you can dip into and out of throughout the holidays. Read up, rest up, and enjoy yourself.
Yoga for Pregnancy, Birth and beyond
A must-have guide for yoga-loving mamas, Yoga for Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond offers helpful relaxation techniques and breathing exercises that are tailored to each pregnant woman. The book also lays out valuable techniques for labor and staying in touch with your body as it continuously changes.
Mindfulness Activities for Kids
We could all use a little more peace in our lives. Uniquely suited for children and parents to do together, the 40 mindfulness exercises recommended here —from pausing to fully enjoy a tasty sandwich to taking chalk walk together—will not only teach children calm and gratitude, but also bring grown-ups and their littles closer together.
Before She Disappeared
Frankie Elkin is a recovering alcoholic who devotes her time to solving cold cases, especially those involving people of color. A new investigation brings her to Boston, searching for a Haitian teenager who disappeared months ago. But as Frankie starts asking questions, someone else will stop at nothing to keep the answers hidden.
Oak Flat
Lauren Redniss’ Oak Flat tells the story of the land near the San Carlos Apache Reservation through an Apache family fighting to protect the land which the U. S. government and two world-power mining enterprises are attempting to seize and destroy for its copper resources. Visually striking and deeply reported, Oak Flat tells a larger story of endless westward expansion and native resistance.
1. Which book can help to improve family relations?A.Oak Flat. |
B.Before She Disappeared. |
C.Mindfulness Activities for Kids. |
D.Yoga for Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond. |
A.It’s a brief account of mining enterprises. |
B.It centers on an Apache family’s struggle. |
C.It sings high praise of the US government. |
D.It supports westward expansion and native resistance. |
A.Teenagers. | B.Men. | C.Kids. | D.Grown-ups. |
2 . Although I love watching Olympic diving, I’ve never understood why athletes hurry off to the showers and then proceed to relax in a hot tub (热水浴池) after each dive. They’re already wet. They’re only in the pool for a handful of seconds, so it’s not like they need to get cleaned up. And doesn’t taking a shower serve the same purpose as sitting in a hot tub?
Actually, that’s what Olympic divers usually do between dives as they know very well about the importance of warm-ups and cool-downs. So, what’s the actual reason?
As it turns out, showers and hot tubs are used pretty interchangeably by the swimming pool. However, there is a need for both. First, let’s start with why divers need to take a shower between dives. It has to do with body temperature and keeping their muscles relaxed. As you can imagine, practicing dives in the pool, then having to keep your body warm in a shower, and then jumping off a 10-meter platform and into cold water couldn’t be comfortable for anyone. Going back and forth between these warm and cool temperatures can cause a diver’s muscles to tense or cramp up (痉挛), which can lead to injuries to the muscles. Showers allow an Olympic diver to recover and prevent that.
In that way, showers and hot tubs serve the same purpose. A hot tub is generally used if you have a bit more time between dives and have already stretched. The shower walls on the pool deck can typically provide enough space for more divers at the same time, and they’re especially helpful for athletes who need to stretch or who only have a few minutes between dives. Just like Olympic swimmers depend on thick clothes to keep their muscles warm, Olympic divers rely on these methods to stay loose. If you ask me, it’s not a bad way to pass the time!
1. What does the underlined word “proceed” in Paragraph 1 mean?A.Prefer. | B.Continue. | C.Tend. | D.Stop. |
A.To fully clean their body. | B.To rest and wait for the results. |
C.To avoid possible muscle injuries. | D.To stop themselves from catching a cold. |
A.Hot tubs are as important as showers for divers. |
B.Olympic swimmers need to stay warm using hot tubs. |
C.Hot tubs are often used by divers having little time between divers. |
D.The shower walls are designed for divers who have already stretched. |
A.To provide some diving advice for us. |
B.To compare cold showers with the hot bath. |
C.To explain the difference between warm-ups and cool-downs. |
D.To tell us why divers take a shower and sit in a hot tub after diving. |
3 . Every festival has its own meaning. Labor Day, for example, celebrates the value of hard work. Thanksgiving is about showing thanks to people around you. And Valentines’ Day is a time when you express love to your loved ones. But somehow it now seems that all festivals we just care about one thing — shopping. And that can be a big problem.
“In a way, over-consumption (过度消费) is the mother of all our environmental problems,” Kalle Lasn once told CNN. Lasn is the organizer of Buy Nothing Day, a day set up in Canada in 1992 to fight against unhealthy spending habits, and has now become an international event. It’s held on the day, which is known as Black Friday — a famous shopping day in the US and Canada.
You can see the irony (讽刺) here.
Even though the idea of Buy Nothing Day was brought up 26 years ago, we seem to need it now more than ever. It’s just as Lasn said, all the different kinds of pollution in our lives today — bad air quality, the reduction of forest area, endangered animal species, and plastic bags found in the ocean — seem to be the same cause: over-consumption.
The latest example is the Singles’ Day shopping craze of Nov 11, which saw a new sales record. But as Nie Li, a campaigner at Greenpeace, told Reuters, “Record-setting over-consumption means record-setting waste.” And it was reported that last year the Singles’ Day packages left more than 160,000 tons of waste, including plastic and cardboard. The Collins Dictionary has also just named “single-use” its Word of the Year, pointing out the problem that there’re too many things we tow out after only using them once.
So, Buy Nothing Day might only be here for one day a year, but it’s not just to remind us to the a break from shopping on that day, but to change our lifestyle completely, focusing on fun “with people we care about” rather than wasting money on useless things.
1. What’s the authors purpose of writing the first paragraph?A.To express the people’s love for all festivals. |
B.To talk about the meaning of the festivals. |
C.To appreciate the value of the festivals. |
D.To bring out the topic of the passage. |
A.To help people save money. | B.To cut the cost for daily life. |
C.To prevent over-consumption. | D.To set up a new sales record. |
A.Opposed (反对的). | B.Supportive. |
C.Unknown. | D.Neutral (中立的). |
A.Creating a New Lifestyle | B.Buy Nothing Day |
C.Festivals Around the World | D.A Change in People’s Life |
4 . Walking and running are great ways to improve your health. Special walking and running events are held every year in the United States, providing the perfect opportunity to volunteer some time, set exercise goals and make new friends.
Breath Deep 5K Walk for LUNGevity
April 23, 2022 in Columbia, Maryland
In memory of Dr. Clement B. Knight, the walking event is organized to raise money for the LUNGevity Foundation to fund lung cancer research. Dr. Knight, who died on August 9, 2012, at the age of 62, has been recognized in the Guide to Top Physicians for many years. Lung cancer is the top cancer killer in the United States, killing about 160,000 people every year.
Bright Beginnings 5K Race
April 30, 2022 in Washington
Bright Begimnings 5K Race raises funds that help provide education, heath, and family services free of charge for homeless babies, preschoolers and their families in Washington. Participants will receive T-shirts, running bags, food and water.
Red Shoe 5K Run&Walk
May 1, 2022 in Herndon,Virginia
Ronald McDonald House Charities aims to raise money to improve the physical and behavioral health of children. The family-friendly Red Shoe 5K Run &Walk organized by Ronald McDonald House Charities is for racers, leisure walkers and runners. Kids can get community service hours.
Race for Hope
May 3, 2022 in Washington
This is a 5K walk/run with the goal of raising $1.5 million to fund brain tumor (脑瘤) research and families affected by the disease. Money raised by the event will benefit two non-profit organizations — the Brain Tumor Society and Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure. The race includes Kids’ Fun Run and the Wall of Hope, in honor of brain tumor survivors.
1. What is the purpose of Breath Deep 5K Walk for LUNGevity?A.To help Clement B. Knight with his study. |
B.To offer help to those suffering from a brain tumor. |
C.To improve people’s health in Maryland. |
D.To raise money for lung cancer research. |
A.Anyone wanting to stay in shape. | B.All runners and walkers. |
C.Members from Race for Hope. | D.Children with health problems. |
A.They all take place in Washington. | B.They are all intended for children. |
C.They are all for charity. | D.They all contribute to cancer research. |
5 . You’ve most likely heard the news by now: A car-commuting, desk-bound, TV-watching lifestyle can be harmful to our health. All the time that we spend rooted in the chair is linked to increased risks of so many deadly diseases that experts have named this modern-day health epidemic the “sitting disease”.
Sitting for too long slows down the body’s metabolism (新陈代谢) and the way enzymes (酶) break down our fat reserves, raising both blood sugar levels and blood pressure. Small amounts of regular activity, even just standing and moving around, throughout the day is enough to bring the increased levels back down. And those small amounts of activity add up—30 minutes of light activity in two or three-minute bursts can be just as effective as a half-hour block of exercise. But without that activity, blood sugar levels and blood pressure keep creeping up, steadily damaging the inside of the arteries (动脉) and increasing the risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and other serious diseases. In essence, fundamental changes in biology occur if you sit for too long.
But wait, you’re a runner. You needn’t worry about the harm of a sedentary lifestyle because you exercise regularly, right? Well, not so fast. Recent studies show that people spend an average of 64 hours a week sitting, whether or not they exercise 150 minutes a week as recommended by World Health Organization (WHO). Regular exercisers, furthermore, are found to be about 30 percent less active on days when they exercise. Overall, most people simply aren’t exercising or moving around enough to counteract all the harm that can result from sitting nine hours or more a day.
Scared straight out of your chair? Good. The remedy is as simple as standing up and taking activity breaks.
1. What is the best way to bring down high blood sugar level and blood pressure?A.Interrupting sitting time with light activity as often as possible. |
B.Exercising for 150 minutes or more every week. |
C.Getting rid of the habit of car commuting and TV watching. |
D.Standing or moving around for at least two or three minutes every day. |
A.Modern. | B.Risky. | C.Epidemic. | D.Inactive. |
A.They usually do not meet the standard of exercise recommended by WHO. |
B.They generally spend less time sitting than those who are inactive. |
C.They tend to stand or move around less on their work-out days. |
D.They often live longer than those who don’t exercise. |
A.The threat to our health from long hours of sitting. |
B.The challenges of the modern lifestyle. |
C.The reasons for the spread of a modern epidemic. |
D.The effect of regular exercise on our body. |
6 . If you suddenly find yourself working from home or another remote location, you’re going to miss those interactions with other people. Video conferencing can help by allowing you to talk face-to-face, even if it is via a screen. Jitsi is one of those free video conferencing apps you can use to connect.
Jitsi is a set of open-source projects that allows you to easily build and deploy secure videoconferencing solutions. At the heart of Jitsi are Jitsi Videobridge and Jitsi Meet, which let you have conferences on the internet, while other projects in the community enable other features such as audio, dial-in, recording, and simulcasting.
Jitsi started life as a way to talk to people over the internet using audio and video. Over the course of a decade, though, it’s become so much more. Today, Jisi is:
A vibrant developer community.
First and foremost, Jitsi is a community of developers that are pushing the envelope of video conferencing quality on the web.
The foundation of some really amazing products.
The community members have developed countless projects and products that started with Jitsi code.
A crazy good, completely free video conferencing solution that anyone can use.
Jitsi is a favorite videoconferencing solution for anyone with privacy concerns, journalists, for example. There’s a reason so many people use Jitsi Meet as a Skype alternative for video conferencing.
Unlike other videoconferencing technologies, Jitsi Videobridge, the heart of Jitsi, passes everyone’s video and audio to all participants, rather than mixing them first. Currently, Jitsi supports a maximum of up to 75 participants per call, although performance may suffer with more than 35. The project is working on “going beyond 100” participants at once. The service supports phone in audio participants in both the hosted and self-hosted versions. The service supports screen sharing and has mobile apps for iPhone and Android.
Now Jitsi has surpassed 10 million monthly average users. There are no extra payments to Jitsi, and the project remains free thanks to 8x8 (a company), which uses the technology in its own products.
1. The central services of Jitsi lie in ________.A.a set of open-source projects | B.Jitsi Videobridge and Jitsi Meet |
C.free features like audio and dial-in | D.world’s best video conferences |
A.Jitsi supports screen sharing in the hosted version |
B.Jitsi works on 100 participants at most right now |
C.Jitsi helps with the privacy problem in videoconferencing |
D.Jitsi mixes everyone’s video and audio to all participants |
A.users have limited access to Jitsi |
B.only paid apps can ensure users’ privacy |
C.it has surpassed 10 million monthly average users |
D.8x8 uses the technology in its own products |
7 . Online jobs have opened the door for many people to earn a living (谋生) or make some extra money from the comfort of their homes. This includes teens as well. If you’re looking for such a job, here are some choices you can consider.
Customer Service
If you are 16 years old and over, you have a chance to work with Uhaul as a customer service person. You just need to have a good pair of head-phones and high-speed Internet in order to do this job. Basic pay starts at $7.50an hour.
Sell Items Online
Selling items online is one of the easiest ways to make quick cash. Teens can turn it into a good business by selling things on Bonanza. You need to start sorting through (分类) items at your home that are no longer being used and list them for sale.
Take Surveys
Another easy task teens can do to earn money is to take surveys online. You don’t need any work experience to do this and can be as young as 13 years old to get started. Survey sites like VIP Voices, Swagbucks, Harris Poll, E-Poll, and Paid Viewpoint allow teens to start taking surveys for cash and gift cards. And your opinions should be expressed clearly in English.
Etsy
Do you love to make new things? You can open up an Etsy shop to share your works. Etsy is great for DIYers who can create new products. If you are under 18, you just need a parent who is willing to help manage your shop.
1. What does Bonanza allow teens to do?A.Learn about computer science. | B.Make money out of their old items. |
C.Test new products for customers. | D.Receive training in customer service. |
A.Having a good knowledge of English. | B.Having a good pair of headphones. |
C.Having some related work experience. | D.Having a wide range of interests. |
A.They enjoy buying things online. | B.They are interested in history. |
C.They have a creative mind. | D.They are good at collecting used things. |
8 . The plan for the annual Christmas Dinner for Those Alone and Homeless started between two church members who happened to share a plane ride back to Springfield.
Springfield physician H’Doubler Jr. told Gary Ellison he was
If they wanted the big dinner held in the church, admission of the preacher (牧师) was very necessary. Therefore, H’Doubler asked Ellison if he could
With the physician
After a few years, the church picked up the expenses. “The first
In order that the church can
H’Doubler always smiled when he read or heard reports of the event’s
H’Doubler preferred to keep secret his role in
A.confused | B.concerned | C.curious | D.doubtful |
A.alone | B.abroad | C.abnormal | D.asleep |
A.neighbors | B.friends | C.family | D.children |
A.painful | B.obvious | C.interesting | D.exciting |
A.unless | B.until | C.if | D.though |
A.cost | B.time | C.game | D.charge |
A.force | B.convince | C.warn | D.order |
A.donation | B.building | C.table | D.service |
A.showing up | B.lending to | C.deposit | D.paying for |
A.tour | B.contest | C.dinner | D.show |
A.possess | B.plan | C.remind | D.refuse |
A.buy | B.watch | C.help | D.attend |
A.welcome | B.confident | C.ignored | D.proud |
A.problem | B.challenge | C.chance | D.success |
A.busy | B.pleased | C.patient | D.familiar |
A.just | B.only | C.even | D.still |
A.story | B.scene | C.food | D.report |
A.celebrating | B.recording | C.starting | D.ending |
A.left | B.appeared | C.returned | D.died |
A.turn | B.idea | C.excuse | D.visit |
9 . During the 1930s, the Great War broke out. A 25-year-old American soldier, probably never thought that his life would change forever when he volunteered to go to France.
One night while the American unit was returning to the base after a bloody fight, Suleyman stumbled into the ground and noticed a bit of movement from the bush. Being stuck between two choices either its enemy or an animal, Suleyman found a five-year-old girl from the bushes shivering with cold and utmost fear. Due to the atrocity of the war, the girl was abandoned by her family and the whole village was killed.
During the war, it was impossible to find the child’s family so Suleyman took this little French girl under his wings and gave her an American name Flora which means like the flower. Soon, Flora became the apple of the eye of everyone living in the army camp.
For one and a half years, Flora and Suleyman became inseparable; however, every fairy tale comes to an end. When the war ended, Suleyman was sent back to USA, while Flora was put in an orphanage, the Normandy School, which was founded by the American government for orphaned French children to have an education.
For years, Suleyman always thought about Flora. When the French National Olympic Team was playing in the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984, Suleyman gazed through the audience on TV, hoping to catch a glimpse of Flora, but he never could.
At the age of 85, Suleyman attended the 60th anniversary reception of the Great War where Suleyman shared his story with American and French officials. After hearing his story, a French journalist started to investigate the story, and all government files were read in detail. The moment the journalist helped dial the number, in tears, Flora said Suleyman was her hero, and everything came flooding back to her.
1. What does the underlined word “atrocity” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?A.Challenge. | B.Cruelty. | C.Range. | D.Stress. |
A.Because Flora might be in the French team. |
B.Because Flora might be watching the event. |
C.Because Suleyman was greatly interested in sports. |
D.Because Suleyman wanted to travel to Los Angeles. |
A.Suleyman found some animals in the bush. |
B.Suleyman would never see Flora again. |
C.Flora and Suleyman became attached to each other. |
D.Flora was sent to an orphanage when she was found. |
A.The Lost and Found Love | B.The Influence of the War |
C.A Tough Flower in the War | D.The Apple of the Father’s Eye |
10 . My father often works very hard. And he
One afternoon, when he finished his work, and
So he came back home and
But to our
When my father was sitting in his seat, a
Why? What’s the matter with all this? While they were wondering, suddenly the woman said, “The
A.always | B.seldom | C.often | D.sometimes |
A.funny | B.sad | C.bad | D.strange |
A.was to | B.was about to | C.had to | D.ought to |
A.happened | B.liked | C.pretended | D.wanted |
A.it | B.this | C.that | D.which |
A.early | B.quietly | C.quickly | D.suddenly |
A.surprise | B.joy | C.sorrow | D.delight |
A.matter | B.date | C.time | D.price |
A.hall | B.theatre | C.office | D.cinema |
A.man | B.woman | C.boy | D.stranger |
A.interested | B.surprised | C.frightened | D.disappointed |
A.and | B.but | C.or | D.so |
A.Seat 1 | B.Seat 2 | C.Seat 3 | D.Seat 4 |
A.different | B.unusual | C.the same | D.strange |
A.bring | B.get | C.see | D.show |
A.said | B.named | C.told | D.shown |
A.designs | B.colors | C.prices | D.owners |
A.But | B.However | C.So | D.Yet |
A.sad | B.sorry | C.wrong | D.worried |
A.exhibition | B.play | C.concert | D.film |