1 . Most young people are always on their phones, which may upset many people.
Each teen spent at least an hour of one-on-one time with their oldsters. Based on their
Some of the oldsters actually wanted to take part in e-commerce (电子商务), and needed help to
In addition to arranging group lessons for all of the seniors to
The eighth graders earned their “Silver Award,, for their job. After experiencing the
| A．Otherwise | B．Therefore | C．However | D．Besides |
| A．service | B．praise | C．invitation | D．donation |
| A．keep | B．untie | C．share | D．unlock |
| A．technological | B．medical | C．psychological | D．physical |
| A．record | B．teach | C．recall | D．investigate |
| A．get back | B．set up | C．check out | D．pay off |
| A．patience | B．luck | C．fun | D．trouble |
| A．write | B．phone | C．text | D．read |
| A．sweet | B．simple | C．rare | D．common |
| A．play | B．live | C．talk | D．review |
| A．amazed | B．experienced | C．confused | D．respected |
| A．success | B．arrangement | C．change | D．pressure |
| A．performances | B．clinics | C．clubs | D．competitions |
| A．organized | B．managed | C．visited | D．funded |
| A．needed | B．refused | C．enjoyed | D．deserved |
2 . When I was young, my understanding of life was simple. This made it easier for me to deal with the world around me. As I grew up, things seemed more
When I try to teach my daughter important
When I was seven or eight, I played at my cousin’s house with his toys. His family was better off, and he had many more toys. There was one in particular that I’d always desired, and I
I hope to help my daughter
| A．important | B．embarrassed | C．delicate | D．complex |
| A．aim | B．view | C．experience | D．expectation |
| A．basics | B．lessons | C．subjects | D．choices |
| A．put down | B．cut down | C．break down | D．turn down |
| A．passion | B．faith | C．respect | D．desire |
| A．try | B．accept | C．compete | D．forgive |
| A．cruel | B．worse | C．trapped | D．motivated |
| A．runs | B．goes | C．witnesses | D．follows |
| A．fetched | B．arranged | C．slipped | D．fitted |
| A．doubted | B．promised | C．questioned | D．sensed |
| A．lied | B．stolen | C．changed | D．cheated |
| A．suffer | B．improve | C．fade | D．spread |
| A．gave | B．left | C．pulled | D．handed |
| A．admit | B．avoid | C．commit | D．recognize |
| A．enemies | B．participants | C．coworkers | D．candidates |
3 . Lapland's reindeer (驯鹿) grow well in winters of -30℃ and even colder. So when rain falls instead of snow during the coldest months in the Arctic,it makes food hard to get for them. Now one of the best-loved symbols of Christmas is probably dying out. Numbers have fallen by over half in the last two decades as the place warms at four times the global average rate.
The animals are used to pull sleigh (雪橇) rides for tourists. The rides are part of Lapland winter wonderland experiences in thousands of British tourists each year. But this year the working herd had to be moved 60 miles further north due to the absence of snow. As a result, they can't be provided in some areas, making it hard for people to earn a living.
Lapland is often described as Europe's last great wilderness, home to lynxes, brown bears, wolverines and golden eagles. Tourism is a big part of the economy, and the town of Rovaniemi is also the "official home of Santa Claus". But changing climate (气候) is threatening its tourism industry. A report by The Finnish Climate Change Panel warns of flooding and increased rainfall, with Rovaniemi most at risk. Firms that rely on snow "will have great effects on visit levels" and these industries may be forced further north.
Erkkila of the Arctic Husky Park in Rovaniemi says: "Tourists see pictures of the Santa Claus village covered in snow and when they get here they think, 'Is this the winter wonderland?'." The Husky Park bought a wheeled cart (车) six years ago as a replacement for sleigh rides when the snow fails.
In the past it was thought the Arctic was warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. But a report published last week by scientists showed the rate is actually four times the global average.
1. What causes the drop in Lapland's reindeer population?| A．Cold winter. | B．Polluted habitats. |
| C．Heavy snow. | D．Rising temperatures. |
| A．Rides. | B．Animals. | C．Experiences. | D．Tourists. |
| A．Lapland is home to various wildlife. |
| B．Increased rainfall threatens Rovaniemi. |
| C．Rovaniemi is official home of Santa Claus. |
| D．Changing climate affects Lapland's tourism. |
| A．They feel excited. | B．They are disappointed. |
| C．They enjoy themselves. | D．They prefer wheeled carts. |
4 . Recent research discovered that a low-cost computer training program can help older persons drive less dangerously.
“We developed a training program, called Drive Aware, which could be used by anyone who has a computer,” says Jing Feng, co-author of the study and a professor of psychology at NC State. “Drive Aware is a cognitive (认知的) training program for older persons that helps them notice traffic risks more effectively. The purpose of our recent study was to see how much Drive Aware changes trainees’ driving behaviors once they get behind the wheel.”
The researchers found 27 persons aged 65 and up to test Drive Aware. In a driving simulator (模拟器), all of the study participants (参与者) experienced a basic driving exam. The “active training” group was made up of nine of the study participants. Every two weeks, the active training group had two Drive Aware trainings. A group of nine additional study participants was asked to take “passive training”. This group watched videos of others receiving the Drive Aware instruction. This happened twice, with each lasting about a week. The control group, which was made up of the remaining nine study participants, received no training. After that, all 27 study participants performed a second driving exam in the simulator.
The study participants in the active training group experienced 25% fewer “unsafe incidents (事件)” following the training, according to the researchers. There was no obvious change in the number of dangerous incidents among study participants in the passive training and control groups.
“This testing was done with a fairly limited number of study participants,” Feng says. “If we can succeed in getting the fund, we’d like to further our testing with more people to clearly prove how effective this training is at reducing accidents among older drivers.”
1. What does the underlined phrase “get behind the wheel” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Take a risk. | B．Start a program. |
| C．Drive a car. | D．Use a computer. |
| A．Experience no training. | B．Receive two Drive Aware trainings. |
| C．Take three driving tests. | D．Observe videos of Drive Aware trainings. |
| A．By quoting former figures. | B．By investigating car accidents. |
| C．By operating the driving simulator. | D．By comparing participants’ performances. |
| A．Unclear. | B．Worried. | C．Positive. | D．Doubtful. |
5 . Five years ago, French navy officer Jérôme Chardon was listening to a radio program about the journey of the bar-tailed godwit, a bird that migrates 14,000 kilometers between New Zealand and Alaska. Chardon understood how treacherous the journey would be, as heavy storms frequently hit Pacific island communities. Yet, somehow, bar-tailed godwits routinely pass through the area uninjured. Chardon wondered whether learning how birds traveled could help coastal communities avoid natural disasters.
This past January, a team from France’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) began experiments designed to test Chardon’s idea. Researchers with a project led by Frédéric Jiguet from NMNH equipped 56 birds of five species with cutting edge animal tracking technology. The team members were ferried to remote islands in French Polynesia, where they attached tags (标签) using tracking technology. These tags sent the birds’ locations to the International Space Station, which bounced the data back to scientists on Earth who could then follow the birds—waiting to see how the birds responded to natural disasters.
The project is focusing on birds’ ability to hear infrasound, the low-frequency sound humans cannot hear but that the researchers believe is the most likely signal birds would use to sense storms and tsunamis (海啸). In a 2014 study, scientists tracking a kind of golden-winged birds in the central and southeastern America found that the birds flew up to 1,500 kilometers to escape from an outbreak of tornadoes (龙卷风) that killed 35 people. The birds fled at least 24 hours before any extreme weather hit, leaving the scientists to believe that they had heard the storm system from more than 400 kilometers away.
The team plans on tagging hundreds more birds across the Pacific to prepare for a potential tsunami. “I think if there’s one wave that spreads across islands, we can get data from different species at different locations,” says Jiguet. “That will say it s worth continuing to tag and to develop local systems to better analyze this. There are chances that we will develop a bird-based tsunami early warning system.”
1. Which of the following best explains the word “treacherous” underlined in paragraph 1?| A．Strange. | B．Boring. |
| C．Frequent. | D．Dangerous. |
| A．Tracking natural disasters. | B．Distinguishing bird species. |
| C．Guiding researchers to islands. | D．Reporting the birds’ locations. |
| A．To prove an assumption. | B．To clarify a concept. |
| C．To present a new topic. | D．To make comparisons. |
| A．How Can Birds Avoid Natural Disasters? |
| B．Can Birds Warn Us of Natural Disasters? |
| C．How Does a Warning System Function? |
| D．Can Birds Play a Role in Human Research? |
6 . When you start working on something but don’t finish it, thoughts of the unfinished work continue to jump into your mind even when you’ve moved on to other things. Psychologists refer to this psychological phenomenon as the Zeigarnik effect. The effect was first observed by a Russian psychologist named Bluma Zeigarnik. While sitting in a busy restaurant in Vienna, she noted the waiters had better memories of unpaid orders. Once the bill was paid, however, the waiters had difficulty remembering the exact details of the orders.
In one of her studies, participants were asked to complete simple tasks such as putting together puzzles, or solving math problems. Half of the participants were interrupted halfway through these tasks. After an hour-long delay, Zeigarnik asked the participants to give an account of what they’d been working on. She discovered that those who had their work interrupted were twice as likely to remember what they had been doing as those who had actually completed the tasks.
We can use this effect to our advantage. For example, if you’re struggling to memorize something important, momentary interruptions might actually work to your advantage. Rather than simply remember the information over and over again, review it several times and then take a break. While you’re focusing on other things, you’ll find yourself mentally returning to the information you were studying.
We often put off tasks until the last moment, only completing them in a rush at the last possible moment. Unfortunately, this tendency can lead to heavy stress and even poor performance. One way to overcome this is to put the Zeigarnik effect to work. Start by taking the first step, no matter how small. Once you’ve begun，but not finished your work, you’ll find yourself thinking of the task until, at last, you finish it. You might not finish it all at once, but each small step you take puts you closer to your final goal.
1. What does the Zeigarnik effect refer to ?| A．Waiters tend to have good memories. |
| B．Once interrupted, one will forget things easily. |
| C．Most people can’t focus on one thing for a long time. |
| D．People remember unfinished tasks better than completed ones. |
| A．Describe their tasks. | B．Express their feelings. |
| C．Test their intelligence. | D．Design simple activities. |
| A．Repeat over and over again. | B．Divide up our study session. |
| C．Focus on several tasks at a time. | D．Have enough rest before studying. |
| A．How to get rid of heavy stress. |
| B．Why we should set a final goal. |
| C．How to break the habit of delaying work. |
| D．Why we always complete tasks in a rush. |
7 . Laughter is a kind of universal body language that is shared by people of all nationalities, skin colors, cultures and traditions. But did you know that the ability to tell real laughter apart from fake (假的) laughter also varies among cultures?
Greg Bryant, a professor of communication at the University of California, published a study in late July. In the study, 884 people from 21 countries were asked to listen to random recordings of laughter. Some of the recordings were made up of laughs from the bottom of the heart, while others were made by people who were asked to laugh on command.
The study showed that people around the world have the ability to pick out real laughter, although their abilities vary from country to country. Residents of the Samoan Islands, were particularly good at it, correctly identifying real laughter 56 percent of the time. According to Bryant, people from smaller, less industrialized nations “are more accurate in identifying a natural smile” because they rely heavily on emotional engagement in order to predict others’ behavior and create stronger social relationships.
But how do people from different cultures detect natural laughter so easily? And what characters does real laughter have? As Professor Jessica Wolf of the University of California told the Association for Psychological Science, in real laughter, we produce qualities, such as higher pitch (音调) and volume, as well as faster bursts of no clear sounds.
By contrast, fake laughter will “sound like speech”. According to Science Daily, fake laughter is controlled by the same brain system that controls the lips and tongue. Bryant further explained that this system has active ability, saying “with this speech system, you can make a lot of different noises, including crying, laughter or scream. That’s where fake laughter comes from”.
So that? s something to think about: next time one of your friends laughs at something you say, will you be able to tell if it’s real or fake?
1. What did the study find?| A．Real laughter is produced from people’s heart. |
| B．People can tell real laughter from fake laughter. |
| C．People have trouble recognizing real laughter. |
| D．Laughter is a kind of universal body language in the world. |
| A．They put much emotion to knowing others. |
| B．They often predict others’ behaviors. |
| C．They aren’t well educated. |
| D．They have a strong social relationship. |
| A．Clearer words. | B．Slower speed. |
| C．Higher sound. | D．More like a speech. |
| A．It controls ears and eyes. |
| B．It works like speech systems. |
| C．It encourages people to copy others. |
| D．It can make people produce various noises. |
8 . During my first three years of college, I put on weight quickly. Between classwork and a part-time job, I had zero time for
After leaving college, I
Me? Play tennis? No way. I was strongly against his
The first few months were quite
I learned a
| A．games | B．holidays | C．research | D．exercise |
| A．got | B．wanted | C．hated | D．protected |
| A．decided | B．agreed | C．regretted | D．continued |
| A．avoided | B．imagined | C．began | D．minded |
| A．important | B．new | C．simple | D．similar |
| A．busy | B．careless | C．bored | D．lazy |
| A．rule | B．job | C．reply | D．idea |
| A．worried about | B．happy with | C．sure of | D．responsible for |
| A．As usual | B．At first | C．Besides | D．However |
| A．silly | B．relaxed | C．proud | D．satisfied |
| A．controlling | B．throwing | C．missing | D．playing |
| A．interesting | B．painful | C．different | D．easy |
| A．in secret | B．in anger | C．in fear | D．in surprise |
| A．asked | B．learned | C．taught | D．remembered |
| A．lesson | B．skill | C．business | D．task |
