1 . Andy Kong has worked very hard to get to where he is today. He credits becoming a millionaire by 20 to his strict Asian parents who tutored him at a young age by working for the family.
Kong, of Danville, Virginia, started working when he was only nine. English wasn’t a strong suit for Andy’s parents, and that’s where he was able to assist his family the most. After school and on weekends he would help out at their family-owned restaurant and nail salons. Not only did he do the labor work, but he was also involved in creating online ads. This was his introduction to the world of online business.
Andy started his Amazon business in the eighth grade. When he learned about Amazon Dropshipping (代发货模式) from a kid he saw on Instagram, he got inspired and decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, the store eventually got shut down because he was impatient with the growth. Instead of considering it a failure, he viewed this experience as a life lesson and learned from his mistakes. Meanwhile, his parents never stopped trying to talk him into focusing on school and their retail business.
“The biggest challenge when starting a business is getting someone to believe in you,” Andy says. He pushed through and did things for himself even when his loved ones discouraged it.
In 2019, Andy met his now business partners, and together, they created an Amazon management company called Project WiFi. This Project has proven to be extremely successful. They currently help over 55 clients run their online businesses, and plan to help many more in the future.
When asked about the secret to his success, Andy says, “Learning to sacrifice whether that’s family, friends, or soccer game for a single goal is the only way to succeed, rather than attempting multiple things. If it’s worth doing then it’s worth doing well with no shortcuts.”
1. Why did Andy work in his parents’ shops at a young age?| A．Because he could earn some pocket money. |
| B．Because his parents weren’t fluent in English. |
| C．Because his parents could help with his study. |
| D．Because he could get access to the Internet. |
| A．A new online business model. | B．Results of working impatiently. |
| C．Difficulties in Andy’s career. | D．Andy’s tense family relationship. |
| A．His early working experiences. | B．Lessons learned from his failures. |
| C．Gaining other people’s trust. | D．Focusing on the thing you choose. |
| A．Committed and generous. | B．Open-minded and motivated. |
| C．Creative and faithful. | D．Hard-working and sociable. |
2 . Most 13-year-olds might have spent those three years preoccupied with schoolwork or hanging out with mates. One teenager, however, spent his nights sleeping in a
“I love camping, it’s one of my
Speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain, he said: “My friend Rick was absolutely amazing. He
| A．hotel | B．house | C．bedroom | D．tent |
| A．raised | B．donated | C．saved | D．earned |
| A．efficient | B．ridiculous | C．dangerous | D．favourite |
| A．but | B．because | C．so | D．unless |
| A．easier | B．stronger | C．tougher | D．nicer |
| A．helpful | B．meaningful | C．terrible | D．simple |
| A．brilliant | B．committed | C．reliable | D．tricky |
| A．forced | B．troubled | C．commanded | D．banned |
| A．Apparently | B．Certainly | C．Honestly | D．Equally |
| A．sound | B．regular | C．voluntary | D．occasional |
| A．adventures | B．journeys | C．applications | D．generations |
| A．take over | B．pass over | C．get over | D．engage in |
| A．respected | B．recalled | C．annoyed | D．loved |
| A．biggest | B．hardest | C．earliest | D．easiest |
| A．proposal | B．contribution | C．difference | D．donation |
3 . Does it ever seem like something is going on with our attention spans? Gloria Mark, an attention researcher at the university of California, says there is scientific evidence that attention spans have shrunk considerably. “We started studying attention span length over 20 years ago,” Mark said. “In 2003, we found that attention spans averaged about two-and-a-half minutes on any screen before people switched, In the past five, six years, they are averaging 47 seconds on the screen.”
Mark maintains that a shorter attention span has three downsides: The first is that people make more errors when they do attention shifting; second downside is that it takes longer to do something, because we have to adjust to every new task every time we shift; the third downside — maybe this is the worst of all — is that stress increases. When people are working on multiple tasks and they have to shift their attention, their blood pressure rises.
You don’t have to be a professor to guess at the cause of our great distract ability: It’s technology, of course-phones, social media, texting. It might be hard to think of the last time you even had a tech-free hour. So she offered a couple of tips for staying focused: First, when you feel the itch to change tasks, analyze why. If it’s just boredom or procrastination (拖延症), make a deal with yourself to work another 20 minutes, and then treat yourself to a reward.
Second, picture yourself at the end of the day. What do you want to have accomplished? What do you want to feel? “A concrete visualization of yourself sitting on the couch, you know, watching your favourite show is really good motivation,” she said.
The internet has this incredible resource available to us, so rather than be upset by it because it distracts us, how can we turn that around and instead find value from it? And how can we utilize our time best when we use the resources from the Internet without getting exhausted from it? These questions are what Gloria Mark will focus on in her subsequent research.
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?| A．Negative effects of short attention spans. | B．Benefits of long attention spans. |
| C．Causes of short attention spans. | D．Ways to deal with short attention spans. |
| A．Necessity. | B．Courage. | C．Desire | D．Choice |
| A．Imagining what you will accomplish at the end of the day is a waste of time. |
| B．Multitasking is a good way to extend our attention span. |
| C．It is necessary to think twice before shifting your tasks. |
| D．We’d better say no to the internet sometimes as it distracts us. |
| A．Are Our Attention Spans Getting Shorter? | B．How Do We Live with the Internet? |
| C．Is Multitasking Possible? | D．What Can We Do to Make Our Attention Spans Longer? |
4 . The Amazon rainforest spreads across nine South American countries but most of it (60%) is in Brazil. Brazilian scientists think they might have found a way to reverse the damage caused by deforestation and turn farmland back into forest. The secret lies in ancient local knowledge of soil.
Amazonian dark earth (ADE) is a thick, black soil found deep in the Amazon rainforest, and it could help restore forests around the world. ADE is a kind of compost — a soil made from dead plants and animals. Various kinds of compost are sold in gardening centers around the world, but ADE is unique. It was created by indigenous people (the descendants of people who lived somewhere before another culture arrived and took over) from the Amazon between 2,000 and 2,500 years ago. The Amazonian people, today known as Amerindians, created ADE using charcoal from fires, animal bones, food waste and poo. It contains microbes, including bacteria that help to turn chemicals in the soil into useful nutrients that feed plants and trees.
Vast areas of the Amazon have been cut down, mostly to make way for grassland for raising cattle. Scientists are looking for a way to turn grassland back into rainforest and revive forest ecosystems. These support thousands of animal and plant species, many of them unique to the area. Forests also absorb lots of carbon dioxide, a gas that cause climate change.
To see if the Amazon’s special soil could help, the scientists grew grasses and trees in ADE, regular earth and a mixture of both. Trees grown in ADE were up to six times taller than those in regular soil. ADE takes hundreds of years to create, so the scientists can’t simply make more. Team member, Dr. Siu Mui Tsai, said that instead they want to try and “copy its characteristics”, especially its helpful microbes, and see if it could help to restore natural habitats.
1. What are Brazilian scientists trying to do?| A．To bring forests back. | B．To measure damage. |
| C．To reduce farmland. | D．To dig out ancient soil. |
| A．Dead plants. | B．Animal bones. | C．Food waste. | D．Bacteria inside. |
| A．The reasons for cutting down forests. | B．The benefits of raising cattle. |
| C．The significance of forest ecosystems. | D．The influence of climate change. |
| A．Amazonian dark earth is helpful to microbes. |
| B．Amazonian dark earth is produced in large quantities. |
| C．Microbes are beneficial to the revival of forests. |
| D．Microbes are the characteristics of the natural habitats. |
5 . In 1996, someone found some very old clothes in an old mine in Nevada, USA; they included a pair of dirty old jeans. Today, those jeans are very valuable, and they are now in the Levi Strauss Archival Collection, in San Francisco. The jeans, which are over 140 years old, are the oldest pair of Levi’s 501 jeans in the world.
They are almost the same as a modern pair of 501’s; there are just some small differences in the detail For instance, today’s 501’s have two back pockets, the old pair just has one.
In 1853, a young tailor from Germany, called Levi Strauss, began working in San Francisco; Levi sold thick canvas to miners; the miners used the canvas to make tents.
One day, a miner told Levi that he could not find trousers that were strong enough for work in the gold mines. Levi decided to make some trousers out of canvas.
Very soon, he had sold all the canvas trousers he’d made! They were just what miners wanted.
However, the canvas was rather heavy and stiff Levi therefore began to look for a different textile; soon he found a heavy textile from France; it was called serge de Nimes. Americans just called this de Nimes, and this name soon got reduced to denim.
Denim was a bit lighter than canvas but it was very strong: it was ideal for miners.
However, original denim was almost white, and miners did not like the color! Their denim trousers got dirty as soon as they began working!
Levi Strauss therefore decided to use colored denim, and he chose dark blue. In 1873, he began to make denim trousers with metal rivets to make them stronger. This was a radical new idea: “Blue jeans” had arrived!
Levi’s jeans were so popular, that his company got bigger and bigger, soon, other firms were making blue jeans too. Miners liked them, but so did cowboys and other working men. Blue jeans became classic American working trousers. After the Second World War, jeans became popular all over the world. Today, blue jeans are now the international uniform worn by young people.
1. Why did Levi start to make jeans at first?| A．To start a business. | B．To make use of canvas. |
| C．To make a difference. | D．To meet the miners’ needs. |
| A．It was originally dark blue. |
| B．It was introduced from France. |
| C．It was thought little of by cowboys. |
| D．It was heavy and stiff compared to canvas. |
| A．Diligent and honest. | B．Innovative and devoted. |
| C．Noble and persistent. | D．Generous and warm-hearted. |
| A．A creative tailor. | B．A long-existing trend. |
| C．The origin of jeans. | D．The famous brand of jeans. |
6 . With a huge variety of animals, plants, and geological features, it’s no surprise the Rocky Mountains host many national parks in both the US and Canada. Here are a few of the national parks in the region dedicated to preserving the unique environments of the Rocky Mountains.
Rocky Mountain National Park
The first of the great national parks in the Rocky Mountains, this park includes 415 square miles of land across the Continental Divide. Because of its size, visitors can experience high mountain peaks, grassy valleys, hidden alpine lakes, and beautiful waterfalls. Rock climbers can scale a thousand feet up the sheer rock cliffs of Longs Peak, and there are many hiking trails.
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone is probably one of the most well-known national parks. President Ulyssess S. Grant designated Yellowstone as the very first national park in the United States on March 1, 1872. It is famous for its hot springs, boiling mud, fumaroles and geysers such as Old Faithful, which shoots boiling water more than 100 feet into the air. Yellowstone also has its own canyon and magnificent waterfall. Visitors can see bison, elk, wolves and grizzly bears.
Grand Teton National Park
Travelers can leave Yellowstone on a parkway that brings them right to Grand Teton National Park, just north of Jackson, Wyoming. Humans have lived in the area for more than 11,000 years, and traces of this history can be found throughout the park. Grand Teton has many opportunities for hiking, camping, boating, rock climbing, and viewing wildlife, as well as amazing views of the Grand Teton Mountain Range.
Banff National Park
Banff National Park is located near Calgary, in Alberta, Canada. Banff was Canada’s first national park, and is known for its mountain peaks, its hundreds of glaciers, and glacier-fed lakes such as Lake Louise. Banff has many hiking trails and campsites, and winter visitors snowshoe, ski, and skate.
1. Which of the following best suits winter sports lovers?| A．Rocky Mountain National Park. | B．Yellowstone National Park. |
| C．Grand Teton National Park. | D．Banff National Park. |
| A．Rocky Mountain National Park has its own canyon. |
| B．Yellowstone National Park are famous for campsites. |
| C．Grand Teton National Park enjoys the longest history. |
| D．Banff National Park is the first national park in Canada. |
| A．A science magazine. | B．A travel brochure. |
| C．A geography textbook. | D．A wildlife guidebook. |
7 . It’s not hard to be poetic about the broad and deep benefits of spending time in natural spaces,from amazing national parks to the simple loveliness of a walk around a city park or tree-lined neighborhood street, and some time working in the dirt of your own garden.
A new study from researchers at Clemson University has found another benefit to simply putting your body in a natural space: it can lower the amount of money you spend on health care.
“The mechanisms linking nature and health are very diverse,” said Matthew H. E. M. Browning, the principal investigator on the study, "but the benefit is believed to be in part because being in green space can decrease stress, promote healthy behaviors and enable you to breathe fresh air.”
Browning and his team used satellite data to investigate how much green space was within 250,500 and 1,000 meters(820,1,640,and 3,280 feet) of five million northern California residents who were insured by Kaiser Permanente. They then determined the costs the insurance company paid out to those same members over a two-year period. They took into account age,gender,race and a number of neighborhood characteristics including population density and education levels.
Even with all these factors included into their analysis, the researchers found that those who lived near the most green space had an average of $374 less per year in health care expenses compared to those who lived farther from natural spaces.
The researchers hope their findings will support public policies that prioritize(优先考虑) natural elements in residential areas. For you, maybe this learning will inspire you to plant a tree or a potted flower today-or create a beautiful garden to enjoy, with a view of some health-giving, green goodness.
1. What does the author intend to do in paragraph 1?| A．Lead in the topic of the text. | B．Summarize a recent study result. |
| C．Provide some advice for readers. | D．Raise readers’ interest in exercise. |
| A．Why spending time in nature benefits health. |
| B．Nature and health can affect each other deeply. |
| C．How residential green space improves air quality. |
| D．The benefit of walking in a natural space is obvious. |
| A．They can encourage further relevant research. |
| B．They can delight current insurance companies. |
| C．They can boost the establishment of green space. |
| D．They can remind us to purchase more insurance. |
| A．Getting Close to Nature Keeps Us Happy |
| B．It’s Unnecessary to Invest Much in Health |
| C．It’s Not Hard to Keep Fit for City Residents |
| D．Being in Nature Reduces Health Care Cost |
8 . For many of us, asking for help is a difficult concept. We may feel as if we are admitting a weakness that world would not have known about, had we not asked for help.
However, people who are able to deliver well-positioned requests for help are often seen as very strong individuals. When they demonstrate the humility (谦卑) to ask for help, they earn the respect of others. People who receive a heartfelt request for help are usually honored by the request. In turn, we are strengthened by the very help that is provided.
One of my clients named Kira recently made a shift in how she was interacting with her boss. When asked to prepare presentations, she assumed that she was expected to develop the content, deliver it at the required meeting and then wait for feedback from her boss. However, Kira recognized that she had not yet made use of her boss’s support. She could learn far more about creating attractive presentations by walking through a draft with her boss and obtaining feedback earlier in the process rather than at the back end. So she made the request for his support.
The outcome? Her boss was delighted to coach Kira and was enthusiastic about teaching presentation skills to her. By taking the time to work together on presentation for a number of Kira’s key presentations, she benefited from her boss’s thought process and thus improved her own presentations. Kira’s presentations now have punch!
Some of us are uncomfortable asking for help because we believe that our request places burdens on the other person. However, we may miss an opportunity to show others how we value and respect them. People who know you and think well of you are often highly motivated to help. Furthermore, the more specific you can be about what you need from them, the easier it is for them to assist you.
1. Which of the following may the author agree with?| A．Weak people often need more help. |
| B．Helping others is helping oneself. |
| C．Well-positioned requests for help are welcomed. |
| D．Asking for help means admitting weaknesses. |
| A．It turned out rewarding. | B．It led to her promotion. |
| C．It was turned down. | D．It benefited her boss in return. |
| A．Her presentations are forceful. | B．Her presentations are controversial. |
| C．Her presentations are positive. | D．Her presentations are motivating. |
| A．To illustrate how to ask for help. | B．To call for attention to others’ requests. |
| C．To show the importance of mutual help. | D．To encourage people to ask for help. |
9 . In a restaurant, I met a young man. He was always complaining (抱怨) ever since he sat down, complaining his company for little pay, his unjust manager and the
It
In his words, there is a
We always think that the God is unfair. But it is worth complaining if our dissatisfaction goes away, sadness
Life is like a
| A．positive | B．responsible | C．unkind | D．anxious |
| A．cautiously | B．eagerly | C．angrily | D．frequently |
| A．against | B．over | C．with | D．beyond |
| A．seek | B．explode | C．contact | D．quit |
| A．terrible | B．efficient | C．significant | D．awkward |
| A．reflects | B．reminds | C．replaces | D．reduces |
| A．contribution | B．concern | C．impression | D．eagerness |
| A．promote | B．appreciate | C．accomplish | D．complain |
| A．count on | B．draw on | C．run away from | D．live up to |
| A．attempt | B．face | C．hide | D．maintain |
| A．sickness | B．loneliness | C．calmness | D．weakness |
| A．difficulties | B．approaches | C．solutions | D．extremes |
| A．increases | B．disappears | C．remains | D．escapes |
| A．flexible | B．unique | C．precious | D．misleading |
| A．game | B．source | C．permanence | D．journey |
10 . Antarctica is one of the last untouched frontiers on the planet. Despite its tough conditions, an Antarctic trip is far less dangerous nowadays than in the past. Here are the most popular routes to Antarctica, with different start points, pathways, and modes of transportation.
1. Ship tour from Argentina
Departing from Ushuaia is the most popular route when going to Antarctica from South American ports. Ushuaia is situated closer to Antarctic Peninsula (半岛) than other departure points, hence you can have more time spent on the scenic peninsula admiring icebergs, glaciers and abundant wildlife. There are a variety of ships from Ushuaia to choose.
Duration: 6 to 24 days
Cost: Between USD 6,000 and USD 25,000
Good to know: If you still want to visit some other incredible South American destinations, some suggestions are the Galapagos Islands, Rio de Janeiro and Machu Picchu.
2. Fly-ship tour from Chile
If you want to avoid spending two days crossing the Drake Passage and encounter rough seas in the bad weather, you can choose a fly-ship package. This involves flying to King George Island, which is right off the west coast of Antarctica Peninsula, to join a ship trip. You can also go ashore to experience the same sightseeing and wildlife opportunities.
Duration: 8 days
Cost: Between USD 10,000 and USD 15,000
Good to know: If you have limited time and do not wish to spend more time on a ship than is necessary, then the fly-ship option is ideal.
3. Ship tour from Australia or New Zealand
Although you are unlikely to encounter any other ship all the way, you will see huge icebergs, Mount Erebus (an active volcano), emperor penguins, scientific bases and the sites of historic 20th century Antarctic adventures. If you are looking for a feeling of vast isolation and remoteness, this is the trip to take!
Duration: 26 to 30 days
Cost: USD 16,000 and USD 30,000
Good to know: Ships departing from New Zealand and Australia are smaller and carry no more than 50 passengers. These trips are rare and should be booked well in advance.
1. Which of the following is the closest to the Antarctica Peninsula?| A．The Galapagos Island. | B．Ushuaia. |
| C．King George Island. | D．Mount Erebus. |
| A．Argentina. | B．Chile. | C．Australia. | D．New Zealand. |
| A．Ship tour from Argentina. | B．Fly tour from Rio de Janeiro. |
| C．Fly-ship tour from Chile. | D．Ship tour from Australia or New Zealand. |
