1 . When looking for some vacation ideas to spread out and get some time and space to yourself, check out these great resorts (度假胜地) options.
Hyatt Ziva Cap CanaLocated in Punta Cana, this family-friendly vacation at an all-inclusive resort offers something for everyone in your party. Parents can enjoy relaxing by one of the resort’s swim-up bars in an infinity pool or head out for some deep-sea fishing. Kids, meanwhile, can head over to the kids’ club for a number of activities. Plus, all of the drinks and food across the 14 restaurants and bars is included.
Beaches Turks & CaicosThis resort has become the Caribbean’s popular go-to when it comes to all-inclusive family vacations that provide great value since there’s so much to do for guests of all ages. There’s a 45,000-square-foot water park, 24 restaurants, unlimited PADI-certified scuba diving and water sports, a 12-mile beach, a spa, 10 pools—whew!
The Alisal Guest RanchIf you live in the city and want to get back to nature, this luxury farm over nearly 11,000 acres in California’s Santa Ynez Valley is a perfect fit for a family. All that wide-open space means activities like horseback riding, scenic cycling, hiking, fishing, kayaking and, for the body-and-spirit-minded traveler in your group, yoga.
Montage Palmetto BluffThe 20,000-acre community includes a nature preserve with walking trails, but the real stars of the show here are the over 300 species of birds. The resort’s resident naturalist takes families on walks to Bird Island, sharing a history of the area. Plus, kids will love the kayak tours that get up close to the dolphins that live there year-round.
1. Which attracts those interested in horseback-riding?| A．Hyatt Ziva Cap Cana. | B．Beaches Turks & Caicos. |
| C．Montage Palmetto Bluff. | D．The Alisal Guest Ranch. |
| A．They promise good food services. | B．They include various kids’ clubs. |
| C．They provide parent-child activities. | D．They have large historic buildings. |
| A．To organize some family parties. | B．To highlight some tourist resorts. |
| C．To introduce some nature reserves. | D．To stimulate some domestic needs. |
2 . I began to grow up that winter night when my parents and I were returning from my aunt’s house, and my mother said that we might soon be leaving for America. We were on the bus then. I was crying, and some people on the bus were turning around to look at me. I remember that I could not bear the thought of never hearing again the radio program for school children to which I listened every morning.
I do not remember myself crying for this reason again. In fact, I think I cried very little when I was saying goodbye to my friends and relatives. When we were leaving I thought about all the places I was going to see — the strange and magical places I had known only from books and pictures. The country I was leaving never to come back was hardly in my head then.
The four years that followed taught me the importance of optimism, but the idea did not come to me at once. For the first two years in New York I was really lost — having to study in three schools as a result of family moves. I did not quite know what I was or what I should be. Mother remarried, and things became even more complex for me. Some time passed before my stepfather and I got used to each other. I was often sad, and saw no end to “the hard times.”
My responsibilities in the family increased a lot since I knew English better than everyone else at home. I wrote letters, filled out forms, translated at interviews with Immigration officers, took my grandparents to the doctor and translated there, and even discussed telephone bills with company representatives.
From my experiences I have learned one important rule: almost all common troubles eventually go away! Something good is certain to happen in the end when you do not give up, and just wait a little! I believe that my life will turn out all right, even though it will not be that easy.
1. How did the author get to know America?| A．From her relatives. | B．From her mother. |
| C．From books and pictures. | D．From radio. |
| A．confused | B．excited | C．worried | D．amazed |
| A．She worked as a translator | B．She attended a lot of job interviews |
| C．She paid telephone bills for her family | D．She helped her family with her English |
| A．her future will be free from troubles | B．it is difficult to learn to become patient |
| C．there are more good things than bad things | D．good things will happen if one keeps trying. |
3 . In a recent email to an old friend, I mentioned that our family planned on taking our four-week road trip in our motor home. My friend emailed back and said he thought I was very “brave” to set out on such an adventure with two young children (aged two and five). I laughed when I read his email and wondered if he knew how much he was missing out on by giving up the idea of such a fun RV (旅行房车) trip with one5s family.
My husband and I have been “RVing” for over ten years. When we first started traveling, we certainly had some troubles that were not so funny at the time but seem to be funny now. We forgot our pillows and failed to cook dinner on an outdoor grill for lack of a flashlight. Then we decided to make our dinner in the motor home but could not get the oven lit! So we went to bed a little hungrier than we had planned!
However, that’s nothing compared with the amazing natural wonders we experienced during our RV trips. In addition, we have discovered a new world of family fun and family bonding. We saw the Grand Canyon when our son was only six months old. We play games inside and : out, walk together, talk together, read, solve puzzles, and enjoy music and movies. We have got used to doing things with one another. Our kids love to pick out good, old-fashioned postcards to send off via snail mail to different family members on every trip.
As our world gets more and more overloaded with cell phones, texting, emails and video games, our family sticks more and more tightly to the wonderfully simple idea of unplugging electronic devices for a while and jumping into the seat to take a trip in our motor home. Then we come home with fun pictures of our wandering, and we’re able to build special memories for our kids. Now we want to spread the word and tell families of all kinds what enjoyment can be had from packing up for a trip in the RV.
1. What did the author’s old friend think of her travel plan?| A．A family trip should not last for too long. |
| B．A family RV trip might bring unexpected troubles. |
| C．It was wise of her to let children experience RV trips. |
| D．It was a good opportunity to teach children to be brave. |
| A．It was a pleasant experience. | B．It was ruined by bad weather. |
| C．They didn’t prepare well for it. | D．They lost many things during it. |
| A．They learnt how to solve problems. | B．They built a closer family relationship. |
| C．They developed a great love for nature. | D．They fell in love with adventure travels. |
| A．To show how to make RV trips interesting. |
| B．To encourage kids to take part in RV trips. |
| C．To advise families to take RV trips together. |
| D．To share an unforgettable traveling experience. |
4 . This question has fascinated behavioural scientists for decades: why do we give money to charity?
The explanations for charitable giving fall into three broad categories, from the purely altruisic (利他的)— I donate because I value the social good done by the charity. The “impurely” altruistic— I donate because I extract value from knowing I contribute to the social good for the charity. And the not-at-all altruistic— I donate because I want to show off to potential mates how rich I am.
But are these motives strong enough to enable people to donate as much as they would want to? Most people support charities in one way or another, but often we struggle to make donations as often as we think we should. Although many people would like to leave a gift to charity in their will, they forget about it when the time comes.
Many people are also aware that they should donate to the causes that have the highest impact, but facts and figures are less attractive than narratives. In a series of experiments, it was found that people are much more responsive to charitable pleas that feature a single, identifiable beneficiary(受益者), than they are to statistical information about the scale of the problem being faced. When it comes to charitable giving, we are often ruled by our hearts and not our heads.
The good news is that charitable giving is contagious—seeing others give makes an individual more likely to give and gentle encouragement from an important person in your life can also make a big difference to your donation decisions— more than quadrupling them in our recent study. Habit also plays a part— in three recent experiments those who volunteered before were more likely to do donate their time than those who had not volunteered before.
In summary, behavioural science identifies a range of factors that influence our donations, and can help us to keep giving in the longer term. This is great news not just for charities, but also for donors.
1. What can we learn about people who do charitable giving?| A．Most people support charity as often as they think they should. |
| B．Some people don’t want to leave a gift to charity until the time comes. |
| C．Those who donate because they can gain an advantage are purely altruistic. |
| D．Some people send money to charity simply to tell others they are wealthy. |
| A．Not revealing the names of the donors. |
| B．Showing figures about the seriousness of the problem. |
| C．Telling stories that feature a single, recognizable beneficiary. |
| D．Reminding people to write down what to donate in the will in advance. |
| A．People will learn from others and follow the suit. |
| B．Many people are familiar with charitable giving. |
| C．Charitable giving helps the beneficiary in all aspects. |
| D．Charitable giving can bring a lot of benefits to donors. |
| A．To persuade more people to donate. |
| B．To explain the science behind why people donate. |
| C．To criticize some false charitable giving behaviours. |
| D．To explore approaches to making people donate more. |
5 . A One-woman Cinderella Show Is Coming to Fairfield
A one-woman show that reimagines the classic fairytale Cinderella is coming to the Fairfield Community Arts Center. The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati will present Cinderella Wore Cowboy Boots for one night only on Jan.26. The traveling show is for children ages 4 and up and promises “knee-slapping” comedic moments and heartwarming life lessons.
“I love children's theatre,” says Rosvic Siason, who plays Cinderella. “Kids are our future and we introduce them to these stories. We all have situations at one point in our life that look like this conversation. It just kind of helps you develop your brain and learn how to think as a developing person. It’s really important to expose kids to theatre and well-rounded actors they can talk to for guidance.”
These one-man, one-woman shows have so much beauty because it is very raw. People actually follow along much easier than you think. It’s easy to share a feeling. They will be expected to interact, deliver lines and repeat after Cinderella throughout the production. Cinderella Wore Cowboy Boots will deliver a funny, meaningful twist on the classic fairytale that encourages audiences to expand their imagination.
“Using imagination helps kids to think of things in more ways than one,” Siason says. “It opens them up and makes them think, ‘Hey, this is one way this could work.’ Or, ‘I could try this way,’ and then see what happens.”
Visit fairfield-city. org for tickets and more information.
1. What is Cinderella Wore Cowboy Boots?| A．A book. | B．A theatre. | C．A performance. | D．A lesson. |
| A．offer temporary amusement | B．help deal with life’s challenges |
| C．allow individuals to avoid reality | D．provide opportunities to make friends |
| A．Stick to the rules. | B．Dare to dream big. |
| C．Always follow the crowd. | D．Think outside the box. |
6 . In an ideal world, we would be able to devote as much time to sports as we feel we need. But in reality, with growing demands in both work and family, we can only jump at the chance for our physical exercise when we can. Making the most of that time to practice Yin Yang yoga, which mixes the dynamic and slow-paced elements of yoga, helps keep you active and relaxed.
Yin and Yang are the Taoist concepts representing a balance of opposite forces which are also interconnected. Yin is inactive, cooling, and negative, associated with the female force. Yang is active, warming, and positive, associated with action and movement. They are complementary to one another, as one cannot exist without the other.
Yin Yang yoga is a combination of high-energy movement which builds energy, increases strength and promotes stamina (耐力), followed by the more restful practice of Yin to give us a deeper stretch (拉伸) and calm the nervous system.
If you have a busy and active life you may feel more in Yang, so taking some cooler, slower Yin yoga practice into your routine may help you feel calmer and more balanced.
If you are practicing for an hour, divide the time in half, Warm up with sun salutations (拜日式瑜伽), continue into a dynamic flow and then move on to some standing postures. After half an hour your heart will be pumping, muscles tighten up and you are hopefully feeling energetic, but ready for a rest. Then pick five Yin postures to hold for 3-5 minutes, or even longer if you are enjoying them!
As ever with yoga, if you are a beginner or have health issues, always attend a class with a trained instructor first to guide you safely through the yoga practice and avoid injury.
1. What can be inferred from paragraph 1?| A．Most of our sports time should be spent on Yin Yang yoga. |
| B．We’d better devote as much time to physical exercise as we can. |
| C．Busy schedule makes it impossible for us to do any form of sports. |
| D．Yin Yang yoga can be a choice of physical exercise when time is tight. |
| A．Independent from one another. |
| B．Competitive against one another. |
| C．Similar to each other but unable to work together as a whole. |
| D．Different from each other but together making a good combination. |
| A．Relaxing muscles. | B．Building stamina. |
| C．Strengthening the body. | D．Quickening the heartbeat. |
| A．Hold each Yin posture for longer than 5 minutes. |
| B．Do not practice yoga when you are not in good health. |
| C．Start your yoga practice under the guidance of a trainer. |
| D．Spare half an hour for five Yin postures in every yoga practice. |
7 . In today’s digital era, social media users are increasingly coming across fake news online. This leads to the pressing issue: What causes people to fall for misinformation on the Internet?
According to researchers at the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology, users can easily fall into an echo chamber (回声室)—a sort of virtual space where users consume only one-sided news, eventually distrusting any opposing views. “We all tend to agree with the group opinion. Hence, people naturally get together with others who hold the same opinion,” said Dongwon Lee, one of the researchers. “But if you’re not cautious, there is a high risk of falling into an echo chamber.”
To prevent this phenomenon, the researchers have crafted a novel tool, a game named ChamberBreaker, to help players resist echo chambers and reduce the rate of fake news spread. The fundamental approach employed by ChamberBreaker centers around a decision-making procedure that mirrors the creation of echo chambers. In ChamberBreaker, a player is tasked with trying to have community members fall into an echo chamber. To begin, the player is randomly assigned a situation that focuses on a health, political or environmental issue, and is presented with six pieces of news on that topic. Then, the player selects news that could cause the other members to fall into an echo chamber while at the same time maintaining their trust. If successful, the community members will fall into an echo chamber and the player will witness the resulting negative effects on the community.
After developing ChamberBreaker, researchers tested it with over 800 subjects to see if it raised awareness of echo chambers and changed news consumption behaviors. The researchers found that those who played ChamberBreaker were significantly more likely to state their intention to observe online information from more diverse perspectives and showed an increased awareness of the echo chamber phenomenon.
Ultimately, the researchers hope that their methodology can excite a greater interest in the scientific and scholarly study related to information consumption. The application of tools like ChamberBreaker, which focuses on fostering analytical reasoning, may lead us towards a more informed online community.
1. What can be learned about an online echo chamber?| A．It encourages well-judged views. |
| B．It gathers like-minded individuals. |
| C．It functions as a virtual reality platform. |
| D．It serves as a tool for identifying fake information. |
| A．Assignment of situations. | B．Trust-building exercises. |
| C．News selection strategy. | D．Community impact assessment. |
| A．The results of scientific testing. |
| B．The theoretical framework of the game. |
| C．The description of the game procedures. |
| D．The common challenges faced during gameplay. |
| A．Reducing news inquiry. | B．Encouraging passive reading. |
| C．Strengthening prejudiced views. | D．Enhancing critical thinking. |
8 . Last year, my friend, Kydee Williams, and I started a non-profit project because we wanted to do charity work differently. Thus, The Pop-Up Care Shop was
TPUCS is a traveling shop of
From our experience, we learned smaller shelters, especially those in less-commercialized areas were often
While material things like food, clothes, money, and shelter can help people survive, what
| A．found | B．donated | C．born | D．purchased |
| A．cheap | B．free | C．value | D．messy |
| A．quit | B．chose | C．forbade | D．held |
| A．homeless | B．fearless | C．guiltless | D．restless |
| A．Ceasing | B．Highlighting | C．Starting | D．Monitoring |
| A．hard | B．fun | C．odd | D．core |
| A．crucial | B．unnecessary | C．impossible | D．logical |
| A．breaking down | B．giving back | C．keeping up | D．pulling through |
| A．ignored | B．emphasized | C．mentioned | D．estimated |
| A．harmful | B．relevant | C．opposed | D．open |
| A．shoppers | B．pioneers | C．officers | D．volunteers |
| A．reliable | B．selfless | C．creative | D．courageous |
| A．understand | B．satisfy | C．anticipate | D．illustrate |
| A．originally | B．slightly | C．truly | D．barely |
| A．identify | B．detect | C．reveal | D．make |
9 . Plastic is everywhere, from the Arctic ice to vital organs in the human body. In fact, previous estimates suggest that the average person swallows a credit card-worth of microscopic plastic particles(颗粒) every week. But new research shows that this could actually be an understatement.
Microplastics are plastics smaller than 5 millimeters, found in industrial waste, beauty products, and formed during the degradation of larger plastic pieces. Over time, they break down into even smaller nanoplastics. These tiny particles can pass through our intestines and lungs into our bloodstreams, reaching vital organs like the heart and brain.
While the idea of eating plastic is unsettling in itself, the major concern here is that these plastic particles contain chemicals that can interrupt our body’s natural release of hormones, potentially increasing our risk of reproductive disorders and certain cancers. They can also carry toxins(毒素) on their surface like heavy metals.
In the past, researchers have shown bottled water can contain tens of thousands of identifiable plastic fragments in a single container. However, until recently, only the larger microplastics were detectable with available measuring tools, leaving the area of nanoplastics largely a mystery.
Using Raman microscopy (显微镜学), capable of detecting particles down to the size of a flu virus, the team measured an average of 240, 000 particles of plastic per liter of bottled water, 90 percent of which were nanoplastics, a revelation 10 to 100 times larger than previous estimates.
These plastics likely originate from the bottle material, filters used to “purify” the water, and the source water itself. “It is not totally unexpected to find so much of this stuff, ” the study’s lead author, Columbia graduate student Naixin Qian, said in a statement. His team hopes to expand their research into tap water and other water sources to better inform our exposure to these potentially dangerous particles. “The idea is that the smaller things get, the more of them I reveal, ” he added.
1. What is the primary focus of the new research?| A．The presence of plastic particles. | B．The use of plastic in everyday products. |
| C．The detection methods for microplastics. | D．The potential risks of nanoplastics to human. |
| A．Finding the source of plastic particles. | B．Helping to cure the deadly flu virus. |
| C．Detecting the smaller plastic particles. | D．Improving the quality of bottled water. |
| A．To focus on areas with higher plastic pollution. |
| B．To be aware of the dangerous particles in daily life. |
| C．To further measure the types of particles in tap water. |
| D．To detect the smaller plastic particles in industrial areas. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Objective. | C．Conservative. | D．Positive. |
10 . Could you manage without the internet for four and a half years? That’s exactly what the actress Selena Gomez has done in a bid to improve her mental health.
She has spoken extensively about the relationship between her social media usage and mental well-being, recalling feeling like “an addict” as to becoming Instagram’s most followed user in 2016. “Indeed, I regret quitting from social media that late”, says she. “The unnecessary hate and comparisons went away once I put my phone down.”
However, the increasing digitization (数字化) means that everything from paying a bill to even making a phone call is at the mercy of the internet. Actively opting (选择) out of the internet becomes a matter of privilege. Ms Gomez’s multi-millionaire status has allowed her to take the “social” out of social media. The fact that she’s still the second most-followed woman on Instagram suggests it’s entirely possible to maintain a significant web profile to promote various projects by way of a dedicated team — without being exposed to the cruel comments.
It goes without saying that this is fundamentally different from how the rest of us without beauty deals and films to publicize use the likes of Instagram and Twitter, but even the concept of a digital detox (戒瘾) requires having a device and connectivity to choose to disconnect from.
The UK’s digital divide has worsened over the past two years, leaving poorer families without broadband connections in their homes. Digital exclusion (数字隔绝) is a major threat to wider societal equality in the UK.
Consequently, it’s worth bearing in mind that while deleting all social media accounts will undoubtedly make some feel infinitely better, many other people benefit from the strong sense of community that sharing platforms can develop. Greater resources and initiatives are needed to provide the underprivileged with the connectivity they desperately need to learn, work and live. It’s crucial that people feeling social media is harmful to their mental health are allowed to switch off and for those living in digital exclusion to be able to switch on primarily.
1. What do we learn about the actress Selena Gomez in the past four and a half years?| A．She has withdrawn from social media. |
| B．She has won Instagram’s most followers. |
| C．She has had worsening mental problems. |
| D．She has succeeded in a bid on the internet. |
| A．Most people think that digital exclusion promotes societal equality in the UK. |
| B．Most people can hardly abandon the web while avoiding hate and comparisons. |
| C．Most people can hardly get by without the internet due to growing digitization. |
| D．Most people have been seriously addicted to the web without being aware of it. |
| A．They are beneficial to people’s mental health. |
| B．They create a virtual community on the internet. |
| C．They help many people feel connected with others. |
| D．They provide a necessary device for a digital detox. |
| A．Subjective. | B．Objective. |
| C．Disapproving. | D．Favorable. |
