1 . Running is often tiring and a lot of hard work, but nothing beats the feeling you get after finishing a long workout around the track.
But while it’s long been believed that endorphins (内啡肽) —chemicals in the body that cause happiness—are behind the so-called “runner’s high”, a study suggested that there may be more to this phenomenon than we previously knew.
According to a recent study published by a group of scientists from several German universities, a group of chemicals called endocannabinoids (内源性大麻素) may actually be responsible for this familiar great feeling.
To test this theory, the scientists turned to mice. Both mice and humans release high levels of endorphins and endocannabinoids after exercise. After exercising on running wheels, the mice seemed happy and relaxed and displayed no signs of anxiety. But after being given a drug to block their endorphins, the mice’s behavior didn’t seem to change. However, when their endocannabinoids were blocked with a different drug, their runners’ high symptoms seemed to fade.
“The long-held notion of endorphins being responsible for the runner’s high is false. Endorphins are effective pain relievers, but only when it comes to the pain in your body and muscles you feel after working out,” Patrick Lucas Austin wrote on science blog Lifchacker.
Similar studies are yet to be carried out on humans, but it’s already known that exercise is a highly effective way to get rid of stress or anxiety. The UK’s National Health Service even prescribes (开药 方) exercise to patients who are suffering from depression. “Being depressed can leave you feeling low in energy, which might put you off being more active. Regular exercise can improve your mood if you have depression, and its especially useful for people with mild to moderate (中等的) depression,” it wrote on its website.
It seems like nothing can beat that feeling we get after a good workout, even if we don’t fully understand where it comes from. At least if we’re feeling down, we know that all we have to do is to put on our running shoes.
1. What did scientists from German universities recently discover?| A．Working out is a highly effective way to treat depression. |
| B．The runner’s high could be caused by endocannabinoids. |
| C．Endorphins may contribute to one’s high spirits after running. |
| D．The level of endorphins and endocannabinoids could affect one’s mood. |
| A．To find what reduces the runner’s high symptoms. |
| B．To see the specific symptoms of the runner’s high. |
| C．To identify what is responsible for the runner’s high. |
| D．To test what influences the level of endocannabinoids released. |
| A．Effect. | B．Goal. | C．Opinion. | D．Question |
| A．They can help ease depression symptoms. |
| B．They are the best way to treat depression. |
| C．They only work for those with serious depression. |
| D．They can help people completely recover from depression. |
2 . A 15-year-old student has been praised a hero after it was found out that he had saved the life of a man who had suffered a heart attack. Sheng Xiaohan hadn’t told students and teachers the story until the man
Sheng recalled he was
When he saw the man was unresponsive, he
He first tried the Heimlich maneuver, but then thought the old man might have
“I didn’t dare stop or ask others to replace me in case of any
Sheng said he didn’t feel tired during the process, but afterwards his arms were
| A．turned up | B．cleaned up | C．made up | D．gave up |
| A．leaving | B．staying | C．returning | D．attending |
| A．abnormal | B．hopeless | C．aimless | D．unconscious |
| A．touched | B．checked | C．measured | D．assessed |
| A．cold | B．mild | C．soft | D．warm |
| A．rarest | B．latest | C．slightest | D．grandest |
| A．suffered | B．survived | C．recognized | D．attracted |
| A．courage | B．energy | C．space | D．destination |
| A．grasped | B．removed | C．settled | D．pressed |
| A．treatments | B．services | C．approaches | D．management |
| A．dragged | B．hiked | C．rushed | D．transformed |
| A．inconvenience | B．trouble | C．risks | D．comments |
| A．strength | B．ability | C．challenges | D．awareness |
| A．broken | B．sore | C．swollen | D．flexible |
| A．ordinary | B．satisfactory | C．admirable | D．available |
3 . Bad news sells. If it bleeds, it leads. No news is good news, and good news is no news. Those are the classic rules for the evening broadcasts and the morning papers. But now that information is being spread and monitored in different ways, researchers are discovering new rules. By tracking people’s e-mails and online posts, scientists have found that good news can spread faster and farther than disasters and sob stories.
“The ‘if it bleeds’ rule works for mass media,” says Jonah Berger, a scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. “They want your eyeballs and don’t care how you're feeling. But when you share a story with your friends, you care a lot more how they react. You don’t want them to think of you as a Debbie Downer.”
Researchers analyzing word-of-mouth communication — e-mails, Web posts and reviews, face-to-face conversations — found that it tended to be more positive than negative, but that didn't necessarily mean people preferred positive news. Was positive news shared more often simply because people experienced more good things than bad things? To test for that possibility, Dr. Berger looked at how people spread a particular set of news stories: thousands of articles on The New York Times’ website. He and a Penn colleague analyzed the “most e-mailed” list for six months. One of his first findings was that articles in the science section were much more likely to make the list than non-science articles. He found that science amazed Times’ readers and made them want to share this positive feeling with others.
Readers also tended to share articles that were exciting or funny, or that inspired negative feelings like anger or anxiety, but not articles that left them merely sad. They needed to be aroused one way or the other, and they preferred good to bad. The more positive an article, the more likely it was to be shared, as Dr. Berger explains in his new book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On.
1. How does the author bring out the new rules of media?| A．By giving a definition. | B．By making a comparison. |
| C．By presenting an argument. | D．By introducing the background. |
| A．attentive to their own story making | B．eager for frequent eye contact |
| C．particular about their physical contact | D．careful about others’ response |
| A．A technological breakthrough. | B．A solution to poverty. |
| C．An individual’s life of unemployment. | D．A historical short story. |
| A．Sad Stories Actually Travel Far and Wide | B．Online News Attracts More People |
| C．Good News Beats Bad on Social Networks | D．Reading Habits Change with the Times |
4 . As with every World Cup, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar the players will be using a new ball. The last thing competitors want is for the most important piece of equipment to behave in unexpected ways in the most important tournament of the world’s most popular sport, so a lot of work goes into making sure that every new World Cup ball feels familiar to players.
Between shots on goal, free kicks and long passes, many important moments of a soccer game happen when the ball is in the air. So one of the most important characteristics of a soccer ball is how it travels through air.
As a ball moves through air, a thin layer of mostly still air called the boundary layer (边界层)surrounds some part of the ball. At low speeds this boundary layer will only cover the front half of the ball before flowing air peels (划过) away from the surface. In this case, the wake of air behind the ball is somewhat regular and is called laminar flow. When a ball is moving quickly, though, the boundary layer wraps much farther around the ball. When the flow air does eventually separate from the ball’s surface, it does so in a series of chaotic swirls (不规则气旋). This process is called turbulent flow.
When calculating how much force moving air imparts on a moving object — called drag — physicists use a term called the drag coefficient (系数). For a given speed, the higher the drag coefficient is, the more drag an object feels.
It turns out that a soccer ball’s drag coefficient is approximately 2.5 times larger for laminar flow than for turbulent flow. Though it may seem counterintuitive, roughening a ball’s surface delays the separation of the boundary layer and keeps a ball in turbulent flow longer. This fact of physics that — rougher balls feel less drag — is the reason why dimpled (坑坑洼洼的) golf balls fly much farther than they would if the balls were smooth.
1. What can be inferred from the passage about footballs in the World Cup?| A．Unexpected ways of playing them will come into view. |
| B．They make sure of long passes to be performed by players. |
| C．They’ll be judged by their quality when kicked off in the air. |
| D．Their importance explains why the World Cup is famous globally. |
| A．Changes of the football surface. | B．A wide variety of airflows. |
| C．Formation of the boundary layers. | D．A broad range of football's speed. |
| A．the result seems unlikely at first sight | B．the prediction lacks explanation |
| C．the research requires further investigation | D．the method of study isn’t proper enough |
| A．To compare the speed of different golf balls. |
| B．To encourage more footballs to be made as such. |
| C．To apply the research result to explain another phenomenon. |
| D．To explain clearer the function of separating boundary layers. |
5 . Animals being extinct from the Earth is a serious issue. When this happens in order to use their fur or skin for fashion, it is even worse, since it’s not even for a matter of human survival. That’s why a London zoo decided to make a powerful statement at the Siamese crocodile enclosure (鳄鱼围栏).
When visitors come in expecting to see a crocodile, they’re greeted with the handbag instead, making a very effective and powerful point about illegal wildlife trade and the harm it takes on the species involved.
A sign by the enclosure reads, “This bag used to be found swimming in slow-moving rivers and streams across Southeast Asia and Indonesia. Over the last 75 years, more than 80% of Siamese crocodiles have disappeared. Many, like this one, were hunted for their skins as part of the illegal wildlife trade.”.
Native to parts of Southeast Asia, Siamese crocodiles are critically endangered and have become virtually extinct in the wild. Due to hunting as well as habitat loss, they are now absent from nearly 99% of their original range. A huge part of the decline of population is due to humans using their wetland habitat for rice farming, and things only took a turn for the worse when large-scale hunting for their skin for commercial purposes began in the 1950s.
The particular handbag that is on display at the zoo was confiscated at a UK airport, according to Benjamin Tapley, leader of reptiles and amphibians at ZSL London Zoo.
Tapley told The Huffington Post, “We made this exhibit, within ZSL London Zoo’s Reptile House, to draw visitors’ attention to the destructive impact the Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) is having on species around the world. At ZSL, we are working globally with governments and local communities to protect wildlife, support law enforcement (执法) that targets illegal trade networks, empower local communities affected by IWT and reduce demand for threatened wildlife.”
1. Why does the sign say this handbag used to swim?| A．It is made of a crocodile’s skin. |
| B．It is made into a crocodile shape. |
| C．It is light enough to float on water. |
| D．It was kept in flowing river at first. |
| A．Wildly hunting of Siamese crocodiles. |
| B．Destruction of Siamese crocodiles’ habitats. |
| C．Commercial value of Siamese crocodiles. |
| D．Causes to make Siamese crocodiles endangered. |
| A．Seized. | B．Sold. | C．Found. | D．Stolen. |
| A．The importance of wildlife protection. |
| B．The crisis endangered animals are facing. |
| C．The purpose to show the handbag. |
| D．The harm IWT caused. |
6 . What is the place of art in a culture of inattention? Recent visitors to the Louvre report that tourists can now spend only a minute in front of the Mona Lisa before being asked to move on. Much of that time, for some of them, is spent taking photographs not even of the painting but of themselves with the painting in the background.
One view is that we have made tourism and gallery-going so easy that we have made it effectively impossible to appreciate what we’ve travelled to see. In this society, experience becomes goods like any other. There are queues to climb Everest as well as to see famous paintings. Thus, leisure is considered as hard labour rather than relaxation.
In the rapidly developing society, what gets lost is the quality of looking. Consider an extreme example, the late philosopher Richard Wollheim. When he visited the Louvre he could spend as much as four hours sitting before a painting. The first hour, he claimed, was necessary for incorrect impression to be removed. It was only then that the picture would begin to disclose itself. This seems unthinkable today, but it is still possible to organise. Even in the busiest museums there are many rooms and many pictures worth hours of contemplation (沉思) which the crowds largely ignore.
Marcel Proust, another lover of the Louvre, wrote: “It is only through art that we can escape from ourselves and know how another person sees a universe which is not the same as our own and whose landscapes would otherwise have remained as unknown as any there may be on the moon.” If any art remains worth seeing, it must lead us to such escapes. But a minute in front of a painting in a hurried, harried (烦扰) crowd won’t do that.
1. Why does the author mention the example in Louvre in Paragraph 1?| A．To express his concern about Louvre. | B．To report the popularity of Mona Lisa. |
| C．To introduce a good place to take photos. | D．To show a disappointing current situation. |
| A．People need to clear up their misunderstanding of paintings. |
| B．People have to stay at least 4 hours when appreciating paintings. |
| C．It is impossible for modern people to admire paintings attentively. |
| D．The longer one admires the paintings, the more unlikely he loves them. |
| A．Art is of help for us to accept ourselves better. |
| B．Art makes our life more colourful and meaningful. |
| C．Art allows us to know the world in the view of others. |
| D．Art pushes us away from ourselves and explores the moon. |
| A．Into art attentively. | B．Escape from ourselves. |
| C．Beyond art completely. | D．Go to the museums often. |
7 . India’s robotic spacecraft landed on the moon undamagedly on August 23, 2023, a historic achievement for the country’s growing space program.
The Chandrayaan-3 mission is the first ever to touch down at the lunar south pole. Many nations and private companies have set their sights on the region because of its ice, thought to be buried in the polar craters. The natural resources are coveted because they could supply drinking water, air, and rocket fuel for future missions, ushering a new era in spaceflight.
The success also means India has been one of countries who have landed a spacecraft on the moon. The victory comes four years after India’s previous mission, Chandrayaan-2, crashed.
An Indian official, who watched the live stream from Johannesburg, South Africa, said, “On this joyous occasion, I would like to address all the people of the world: India’s successful moon mission is not just India’s alone. This success belongs to all humanity.”
About 60 years have passed since the first unpiloted (无人驾驶的) moon landings, but touching down is still demanding. The moon’s atmosphere is very thin, providing virtually no drag to slow a spacecraft down as it approaches the ground. Furthermore, there are no GPS systems on the moon to help guide a craft to its landing spot. Engineers have to make up for these shortcomings from about 239,000 miles away.
Over the past four years, private companies and other nations have tried and failed. But perhaps now there’s more hope.
The Indian official said, “I’m confident that all countries in the world including those from the global south are capable of achieving such a success. We can all aspire (渴望) to the moon and beyond.”
1. What does the underlined word “coveted” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Desired. | B．Legal. | C．Tough. | D．Balanced. |
| A．It was connected by Chandrayaan-3. |
| B．It landed on the south surface of the moon. |
| C．It was the first to touch down at the south pole. |
| D．It fell and broke when carrying out space mission. |
| A．The unfamiliar preens for scientists. |
| B．The materials used to make the spaceship. |
| C．The shortage of previous successful cases. |
| D．The limitation of the moon’s atmosphere and technology. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Positive. | C．Objective. | D．Doubtful. |
8 . My wife Lynn was beginning her third day on an oxygen mask (氧气面罩). “She must
Suddenly, a(n)
The next morning, Lynn awoke. I couldn’t help
| A．sleep | B．suffer | C．focus | D．wake |
| A．sad | B．impolite | C．angry | D．moving |
| A．look back | B．slow down | C．give up | D．show up |
| A．dream | B．idea | C．pain | D．chance |
| A．Otherwise | B．Besides | C．Therefore | D．However |
| A．injury | B．failure | C．trouble | D．improvement |
| A．cleaner | B．doctor | C．nurse | D．patient |
| A．calmly | B．gently | C．coldly | D．rudely |
| A．share | B．leave | C．speak | D．hide |
| A．picture | B．map | C．sign | D．medal |
| A．worry | B．mind | C．care | D．escape |
| A．shouting | B．sweating | C．crying | D．complaining |
| A．reply | B．explain | C．pretend | D．learn |
| A．concerned | B．grateful | C．proud | D．upset |
| A．lose | B．offer | C．bring | D．send |
9 . Dance Classes
Ballet
Ballet teaches grace, posture (姿势) and flexibility. Students focus on the use of proper ballet items (物品), expanding their knowledge of classical ballet techniques and improving motor skills for classical ballet practice. The class is a formal ballet class.
Age: 8 — 10
Date: September 7, 2019 — May 16, 2020
Time: 10:30 am — 12:00 am on Saturdays
Creative Movers
Students can explore creative movement, balance, focus, the development of skills, motor planning and balance. The class helps build strength, flexibility and self-confidence, and allows children to realize expression in a positive and encouraging environment. Children use their imagination to celebrate movement and have lots of fun.
Age: 3 — 5
Date: September 7, 2019 — January 18, 2020
Time: 9:00 am — 9:45 am on Saturdays
Jazz
Jazz includes movements from both classical ballet and dance techniques. This class will focus on traditional Jazz dance. Students will be introduced to jazz-style rhythms and movements. In order to ensure proper placement for your child, we invite all students to participate in a sample (示例) class. Students and parents work with program staff to meet students’ personal dance goals.
Age: 5 — 6
Date: September 7, 2019 — May 16, 2020
Time: 2:00 pm — 3:00 pm on Saturdays
Hip Hop
Students will be introduced to several different aspects of hip hop dance including Popping, Locking, Breaking and Tutting in a high-energy environment. Our hip hop instructors are highly knowledgeable and will provide students with a wonderful view of hip hop dance.
Age: 7 — 10
Date: September 7, 2019 — May 16, 2020
Time: 1:00 pm — 2:00 pm on Sundays
1. Which class is suitable for 4-year-old children?| A．Ballet. | B．Creative Movers. | C．Hip Hop. | D．Jazz. |
| A．Make use of all the ballet items. | B．Learn the long history of jazz. |
| C．Dance with famous modern jazz dancers. | D．Get to know jazz-style movements. |
| A．It is open in the afternoon. | B．It is available on Sunday. |
| C．It teaches traditional dances. | D．It has the most skilled teachers. |
10 . My neighbors across the street take pride in one of the most striking trees in the neighborhood — a towering oak that is over 75 years old. This year, after a wet, warm summer, leaves were a bit different in my Massachusetts town. And through some combination of events, that glorious oak seemed to have dropped all of its uncountable leaves on a single windy day. I arrived at home that afternoon to find our front walkway, driveway and sidewalk completely blanketed.
My son and I had a great time making a leaf pile for jumping and enjoying pillowy fun. The whole time, I was fascinated by the speed of this year’s leaf drop. Even though I was aware that it was an accident of wind patterns that left all the leaves in our yard, I kept looking up and feeling a rush of awe at the suddenly bare branches that watched quietly over our neighborhood, starting its restful season before setting spring leaf buds.
And I felt thankful for those fallen leaves as I was reminded of my favorite quote from the author and naturalist Hal Borland. He wrote it referencing October, but this year’s later drop had me change the month: “November is the fallen leaf, but it is also a wider horizon more clearly seen. It is the distant hills once more in sight, and the enduring constellations (星座) above them once again.”
When I lay in that pile of dry, crisp leaves and looked up into the oak tree across the street, I felt a clarity and peace that comes along with the inconveniently early sunsets and chilly temperatures of the transition from fall into winter. I could still admire the tree as I had in spring and summer, but I could also see through it, beyond it, to the big sky that blankets us all.
1. What’s unusual this year?| A．Outdoor activities are limited due to heavy winds. |
| B．A series of special events happened in the neighborhood. |
| C．The weather is especially cold in winter in Massachusetts. |
| D．The neighbors’ big tree almost dropped all its leaves within a day. |
| A．Anxious. | B．Sorrowful. | C．Astonished. | D．Comfortable. |
| A．To express the author’s admiration for the naturalist. |
| B．To emphasize the importance of getting close to nature. |
| C．To stress the beauty of the author’s childhood memories. |
| D．To convey the author’s feelings about the leaf-falling season. |
| A．The Fall of Massachusetts | B．The Beauty of a Newly-bare Tree |
| C．The Sky Far Beyond | D．The Memories of Peace and Beauty |
