1 . A great many studies have been conducted to distinguish between babies learning their first language and children or adults learning a second language.
A baby’s brain comes into the world prepared to learn any human language they hear spoken around them. The brain gets the same stimulation(刺激)from exposure to any language, although it adapts to certain features of the language such as specific sounds. Learning a language is natural for all babies, like learning to walk.
In fact, babies can even acquire two or more languages together, if they hear them regularly. The languages can be similar, like Portuguese and Spanish, or very different, like English and Chinese. Their bilingual(双语的)brains already understand something about the ways that languages can be different.
But scientists found that changes exist if people already speak a language and are learning a second one. A language that is very different to the one they already know is going to seem harder than the one that’s quite similar to their first language.
For example, if your first language is English, Spanish words like león for “lion” or sal for “salt” are going to be easier to learn than, say, Chinese shīzi and yán, or Turkish aslan and tuz. To make English words plural(复数), you usually add-s or-es, and the same is true in Spanish, so “lions” is leones. But in Turkish “lions” is aslanlar, and in Chinese there’s no difference between “lion” and “lions” at all. It’s mainly the difference from your first language that can make another language “easier” or “harder”, not the language itself.
Scientists used to think that there was a cutoff point, at around the age of 12 or 13, after which it was impossible to learn a new language completely. We now know that young people can learn another language throughout their teen years. After that, it does become harder — but not impossible — to reach high levels of fluency in a new language.
1. Why can babies acquire different languages according to the text?| A．They receive more stimulation. | B．They can make specific sounds. |
| C．They have well-developed brains. | D．They are natural language learners. |
| A．To arouse interest. | B．To make predictions. |
| C．To show the diversity. | D．To explain the finding. |
| A．Adults can learn a new language easily. |
| B．Teenagers can not reach high levels of fluency. |
| C．Languages should be learned at a younger age. |
| D．The cutoff point makes no difference in language study. |
| A．Benefits of acquiring languages. | B．Learning difficulties in language. |
| C．Age influence on language learning. | D．Differences between children and adults. |
2 . Alena Analeigh Wicker lad an incredibly impressive list of accomplishments. She studied biological sciences at two separate universities. She is a former NASA intern and went to a medical school. At the young age of 13, she was well on her way to achieving her dreams and ambitions. She also supplied support to other young girls like her, who were interested in science and technology, and hoped that her story would serve as a source of inspiration.
Alena’s mother, McQuarter, claimed that her daughter had always been exceptional and superior. She offered to be educated at home, So McQuarter homeschooled Alena during elementary school. Even after Alena returned to school in the fifth grade, she continued studying high school subjects based on a course carefully designed by her mother.
“I was bored,” Alena explains. “The high school work was so easy for me that I ended up graduating from high school when I was 12. I love school; I love learning; I love reading. I have a desire to learn, and that has just always been me.”
After graduation, Alena went to two separate universities, earning degrees in biological sciences from both Arizona State University and Oakwood University. And while studying for the accelerated degrees, Alena started the Brown STEM Girl Foundation, in honor of Katherine Johnson, who had been a pioneering African-American mathematician at NASA. The Foundation’s target is to engage and educate girls in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).
Alena has promoted her foundation online. “It feels amazing to be able to create a path for girls that look like me.” Alena shares her tips. She says, “It doesn’t matter how old you are. You can do it. Don’t let anybody tell you no. I would say to any little girl out there that’s reading this: Never give up on yourself and never let anyone tell you that you can’t do something.”
1. What do we know about McQuarter?| A．She took great pride in Alena. |
| B．She advised Alena to study at home. |
| C．She ensured Alena studied at school until 12. |
| D．She forced Alena to learn high school subjects. |
| A．To educate girls to go to college. |
| B．To expose girls to the scientific field. |
| C．To promote the development of science. |
| D．To inspire girls to become members of NASA. |
| A．To offer an apology. | B．To make a request. |
| C．To make a suggestion. | D．To offer an invitation. |
| A．Honest and daring. | B．Modest and generous. |
| C．Talented and good-looking. | D．Promising and caring. |
3 . Think about that. If you are anything like me, you struggle to ask for help when you need it. It’s something a lot of humans battle with. You don’t want to be a burden on others. You are afraid to speak up, or want to prove that you can do it yourself.
You don’t ask for help when you don’t know how to do something or can’t manage it on your own, because you might be afraid of looking stupid or incompetent. You might pretend like you know what you’re doing when you’re really drowning. Perhaps you think asking for help is a sign of weakness; that if you ask for help you’re admitting you’re inadequate in some way; that you lack knowledge, skill or experience to do something yourself. You don’t want anyone to see that you’re struggling and you want people to think that you’re in control and can handle things.
There are tons of reason you won’t ask for help, but not to do so can be a mistake. You get in your own way if you make asking for help mean something negative about you when it doesn’t. Asking for help doesn’t mean you’re stupid or inadequate. It simply means you need help with something specific for a time.
Confident people often ask others for help. They do so not only because they’re secure enough to let it be known they need help, but they know that trying to do everything themselves is not always the best use of their time, skills or energy. They recognize it can leave them feeling overwhelmed and stressed and then they can’t do things properly. Confident people find someone who’s good at what they need to learn or get done and then ask for their help and guidance. They know that asking, “Can you help me?” shows respect for the other person’s knowledge and abilities. Otherwise, they wouldn’t ask.
1. What is the author’s personality like?| A．He shows great love to others. | B．He hesitates to ask others for help. |
| C．He looks down upon other people. | D．He dislikes those who pretend to know. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Unqualified. | C．Determined. | D．Devoted. |
| A．offer help to other people | B．respect others’ abilities |
| C．promote their abilities | D．turn to others for help |
| A．advise us to learn more knowledge | B．encourage us to bravely ask for help |
| C．show our respect to the people around us | D．encourage us to be more confident in our life |
4 . You wake up in the morning and realize you forgot to put the leftover meat in the fridge before you went to bed last night. The meat isn’t raw and it looks fine, smells fine and tastes fine, so eating it should be fine, right? Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work that way.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) notes that there are two types of bacteria in meat and meat products: pathogenic bacteria and spoilage bacteria. Spoilage bacteria cause the food to start smelling and tasting strange, but consuming it won’t harm you. Pathogenic bacteria, on the other hand, are harmful bacteria that don’t affect the taste or smell of the food in any way but can cause you to fall sick.
The USDA explains that pathogenic bacteria thrive between 4℃ and 40℃. Room temperature usually falls in this temperature range, known as the danger zone. In this temperature range, pathogenic bacteria can sometimes double in number within a span of 20 minutes. If bacteria can double in just 20 minutes, imagine the numbers if the meat has been left out. The USDA states that any food that has been left out at room temperature for over two hours should be discarded.
Since pathogenic bacteria don’t affect the taste, smell or sight of in any way, you have no way of knowing whether they’re there. You may feel bad about throwing away meat that perfectly fine, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
1. What purpose does the first paragraph serve?| A．To bring up the topic of the text. | B．To describe a common scene. |
| C．To introduce a scientific question. | D．To ask for some professional advice. |
| A．Pork just cooked with a temperature of 300℃. |
| B．Steak kept in an average temperature of around 2℃. |
| C．Chicken taken from the fridge with a temperature around -8℃. |
| D．Beef left on the table overnight with a temperature above 10℃. |
| A．Change. | B．Reduce. | C．Increase. | D．Form. |
| A．To feel sorry for throwing it away. | B．To get rid of it without hesitation. |
| C．To eat it after cooking it again. | D．To smell it and decide what to do next. |
