1 . Officials have unveiled the gold, silver and bronze medals that will be awarded at this summer’s Olympic games in Paris, and each one contains a unique souvenir: a fragment (碎片) of waste iron from the Eiffel Tower.
“It’s the opportunity for the athletes to bring back a piece of Paris with them,” Thierry Reboul, creative director of Paris 2024, told reporters last week. “The absolute symbol of Paris and France is the Eiffel Tower.”
The Eiffel Tower opened in 1889 and during the later repair work, some of the original iron was cut off and preserved over time. Now, some of those preserved metal fragments have found new homes.
Each new Olympic me dal features a piece of Eiffel Tower iron — though the signature “Eiffel Tower brown” paint has been removed. These pieces have been shaped into hexagons (六边形), which is the “shape of France”. Besides, there are words “Paris 2024”, the Olympic rings and the Games logo, which looks like a flame or the face of a woman with a bob haircut.
How did they think of such an idea? Joachim Roncin, head of design at the Paris Games organizing committee told the press, “We talked about the design many times and realized that there’s one symbol known across the world, which is the Eiffel Tower. We said to ourselves, ‘Hey, what if we approached the Eiffel Tower Operating Company to see if it’s possible to get a bit of the Eiffel Tower to integrate into the medal?’”
When the Eiffel Tower Operating Company agreed to volunteer pieces of original iron, “the dream became reality,” adds Roncin.
The medals, designed by the luxury Paris jewelry house Chaumet, make people think of the Eiffel Tower in several other ways. The pieces of iron are secured by what looks like special nails that hold the structure together, and the medals’ ribbons are decorated with patterns of the tower’s latticework structure.
The iron fragments are set in recycled silver, gold and bronze disks. Over 5,000 medals are being made.
1. What does Thierry mean by saying “bring back a piece of Paris”?| A．The athletes will buy souvenirs about Paris. |
| B．The athletes will take many photos of Paris. |
| C．Part of the athletes’ medal is from the symbol of Paris. |
| D．The Eiffel Tower will be left in the athletes’ memory. |
| A．The symbolic meaning of the hexagons. |
| B．The shape and material of the Olympic medal. |
| C．The processing technique of the Eiffel Tower iron pieces. |
| D．The design of the Eiffel Tower iron fragment on the medal. |
| A．From a strange dream. | B．By asking for the public. |
| C．Through their discussion. | D．By studying the Eiffel Tower. |
| A．They are innovative. | B．They are light. |
| C．They have six sides. | D．They are golden-colored. |
2 . Discover the Huge Health Benefits of Strength Training
One of the best ways to stay fit and healthy as you age is to do strength and power training exercises. It is known that when you are in your thirties, you will begin to lose muscle mass. This loss actually contributes to achy joints, the increased risk of injury, and the “middle-age spread” we all fear. What’s more, the older you get, the faster muscle mass loses. It means that eventually, simple tasks like getting out of a chair and climbing stairs can become more difficult.
Strength training can help you build muscles, make you strong, increase your staying power and make everyday activities easier. By combining strength and power training exercises, you’ll not only get stronger, but also improve your reaction speed. As you grow older, that’s critical because it can help prevent falls. Here is a book, Strength and Power Training for All Ages, for your reference.
Common sense about fitness in the book:·The key muscles to work for an injury-free body
·How to tell how much weight is suitable for you
·How to strengthen the bones most likely to break
·How to take pressure off your knees when walking or running
·Why you’ll want to apply heat to sore joints before you exercise
Four total body workouts in the book:·Build bones
·Fight diseases
·Improve balance
·Strengthen muscles &Increase muscle power
Get a copy, start training, and then you’ll discover a whole new self.
1. What will happen as people age according to paragraph 1?| A．They will need less exercise. |
| B．They will improve reaction speed. |
| C．They will experience muscle loss. |
| D．They will have better staying power. |
| A．Train their brains. | B．Build a sound body. |
| C．Treat bone diseases. | D．Cut down their weight. |
| A．A notice. | B．An oral folktale. |
| C．A scientific paper. | D．An advertisement. |
3 . Walking has been considered as one of the best possible exercises. For many people, daily walking offers massive and long-term physical and mental benefits.
But the scenery is almost as important as the sweat. Just by going outside, you are stepping out of your habitual surroundings and your comfort zone, which is necessary if you want to open your mind to new possibilities. You can walk through a tree-filled neighborhood.
Walking outside cultivates our ability to collect new ideas and take in new sights, sounds, smells, and flavors. Shinrin-yoku, a common form of relaxation in Japan, suggests that being in the forest and walking among the trees there can lower your stress levels.
So instead of setting a fitness goal, why not set a creativity goal that starts with walking outdoors?
Walk not just for exercise. Walk for wonder.
| A．Unfortunately, you often fail to do it. |
| B．Engage more closely with your surroundings. |
| C．The movement aspect of walking is obviously key. |
| D．Without enough energy, you cannot wonder or create. |
| E．But to receive the benefits, you do not have to live in a forest. |
| F．This habit, however, isn’t just a beneficial pursuit but an element of innovation. |
| G．Alternatively, you can wander around a park and observe people relaxing or birds singing. |
4 . When I first began running in high school on the track team, it made sense to carefully clock every mile and push myself to race for personal bests. But as I changed from running for sport to running for amusement as an adult, I found that tracking my workouts often just ended with frustration. And it wasn’t until my watch battery died several years ago that I first experienced the sense of calm that came with running for the pure joy of it. I never replaced the watch battery, and that might not be a bad thing for my fitness goals.
This is the idea of unplugged (不插电的) running, which is gaining steam in the fitness community. And recent research has shown that getting rid of your running watch, especially if it’s a smartwatch or fitness tracker, could actually improve your workout — or at least your enjoyment of running.
“People used to have an interest in their sport and get enjoyment out of the sport, but now that’s switching to the data,” said Eoin Whelan, a senior lecturer at the National University of Ireland Galway. “They will compare themselves to people who are better than them, who are running faster or running longer. And in the end we know that makes them feel bad. ”
Whelan also noted that people who are very dependent on smart watches or fitness trackers are more likely to skip their workouts if the batteries on their tracking devices are dead.
In addition, there is evidence that running watch-free is beneficial for more than just the casual jogger. Some professionals also have had success with leaving their watches at home. Welsh runner Steve Jones famously set a world record at the 1984 Chicago Marathon without wearing a watch. More recently, Olympic marathoner Trevor Hofbauer made headlines for winning the 2019 Canadian Marathon Championships without a watch.
“If you have too much information being fed to you in real time, it can kind of get in your head,” Hofbauer said. “For me, the simpler, the better.”
1. What happened to the author when his running watch didn’t work?| A．He lost the desire to keep running every day. |
| B．He experienced running as a really fun activity. |
| C．He was at a loss how to replace the watch battery. |
| D．He had great difficulty achieving his fitness goals. |
| A．They can enrich the wearers’ social life. |
| B．The data provided by them is unreliable. |
| C．The way people use them is proper. |
| D．They can lead to harmful consequences. |
| A．To show the popularity of running watch-free. |
| B．To encourage people to become professional runners. |
| C．To prove the positive effects of running watch-free. |
| D．To present professionals’ views on running watch-free. |
| A．It’s time to take off your running watch. |
| B．Unplugged running actually has two sides. |
| C．Comparing with others should be avoided. |
| D．Racing for personal bests requires simplicity. |
5 . Cheerleading is the fastest growing girls sport, yet more than half of Americans do not believe it is a sport. On one hand, they fail to distinguish between sideline cheerleaders and competitive ones. Sideline cheerleaders’ main function is to entertain the crowd and lead them with team cheers, which should not be considered a sport.
A sport is a “physical activity against or with an opponent, governed by rules and conditions under which a winner is declared, and the primary purpose of the competition is a comparison of the relative skills of the participants”.
Some people argue that cheerleaders are just “girls in skirts” with their only job to entertain the crowd, but cheerleaders today work just as hard as other athletes.
| A．People enjoy cheerleading. |
| B．They perform lifts and tosses. |
| C．Competitive cheerleaders’ goal is to be the best. |
| D．On the other hand, competitive cheerleading is a sport. |
| E．Because cheerleading follows these guidelines, it is a sport. |
| F．Hopefully, cheerleading will also become a well-known sport. |
| G．Cheerleading is not yet recognized as a sport by many schools. |
6 . The game is going on, yet you can hear a needle drop in the stands. No one makes a sound out of fear they’ll distract the players defending their bases(垒)because the players need to me their hearing to know when the opposing player is running toward them. Once the batter hits a base with their hand, the crowd erupts in applause. These people are playing beep baseball, an adapted version of baseball.
The game has been around for decades. Beep baseball uses sounds in place of sight to make the game accessible to the visually weakened. There are only three bases, home, first and third, and they stand 4 to 5 feet tall. After the batter hits the ball, the bases start to beep so runners can follow the sound to the base. The catcher and the pitcher(投手)are the only sighted players on the team. The six other players are all visually weakened, plus they wear sleep shades or dark glasses to rid any advantage for those with some level of vision.
Beep baseball is an innovative approach to America’s pastime that makes it accessible for everyone. “Usually as a visually-weakened person, you’re sitting on the sidelines and just cheering on, because you don’t have the chance to play basketball, or play football, but now that I’ve found this sport. I’m included,” said Jason Esterhuizen, a player who lost his vision in a car accident 11 years ago. Jason is a member of the Pasadena Panthers, a beep baseball team in California that made it to the National Beep Baseball World Series in 2022. The team traveled to Beaumont, Texas to participate in the event.
According to the City of Beaumont, Texas, the World Series includes 37 learns throughout the United States, Canada, and the Dominican Republic, The World Series gives all teams the opportunity to meet and compete. How have we not heard of this amazing modification of the traditional American sport until now? Beep baseball is such a simple concept, but it means so much to people who have been refused from traditional sports for so long!
1. What is special about the game according to the first paragraph?| A．Dropping needles is part of the game. | B．Hearing matters during the game. |
| C．The players must have better eyesight. | D．The batter hits the ball with both hands. |
| A．To ensure fairness in the game. | B．To help players hear more clearly. |
| C．To make key players stand out. | D．To suit personal preferences of players. |
| A．Tolerant. | B．Doubtful. |
| C．Objective. | D．Positive. |
| A．Condition. | B．Competition. |
| C．Change. | D．Cooperation. |
7 . In my latest novel, Aphrodite’s Tears, I wanted to draw on this ancient Greek tradition of sponge (海绵) diving; and explore the traditions surrounding the way of life. My fictional island of Helios, therefore, has a long association with sponge diving, and the heroine Oriel, a newcomer to the island and a diver herself, is keen to learn all about it.
Damian, the leader of the island, explains to Oriel that in his father’s generation, sponge diving was one of the main industries on the island. A sizeable group of islanders would leave each May-yet in the autumn, a smaller group would return. “In those days,” Damian explains, “one man in three was either dead or crippled (残疾的) from the caisson disease before they reached marriageable age.” Under Damian’s leadership, other means of earning a living are being developed-such as olive oil production. But some of the men continue to follow in their ancestors’ footsteps and dive for sponges, and each year there are still two or three deaths.
The emotional impact of these losses on the little island community is apparent to Oriel when she comes across a shrine (祠堂) by the port. There she sees tiny paintings that tell the story of the sponge divers, and before the paintings, so many flowers and gifts. They are laid by the women of the sponge-diving families, as offerings for protection for their men and as thanks for the miracle of their safe return.
Why, Oriel wonders, would these men take the risk? After all, with synthetic (合成的) sponges flooding the market, sponge diving is nowhere near as lucrative as it used to be. “It comes down to tradition,” Damian explains: “To the romantic young, it naturally seems a grand thing to sail away every summer to the shores of Africa and to come back, pockets full of money, hailed a hero... I have seen young boys playing at sponge fishing: swimming underwater, wearing the sponge-fisher’s mask and carrying their spear, pretending to detach sponges from the bottom of the sea. An aura (气息) of heroism surrounds the profession.”
1. What’s appealing to Oriel on Helios Island?| A．The main local industries. |
| B．Her ancestors’ way of life. |
| C．The scenery of Helios Island. |
| D．The tradition of sponge diving. |
| A．Pride. | B．Sad. | C．Frightened. | D．Grateful. |
| A．Dangerous. | B．Profitable. | C．Traditional. | D．Entertaining. |
| A．It brings them much fun. | B．It remains a major industry. |
| C．It shows their courageous spirit. | D．It’s turned into a tourist attraction. |
8 . Korten went to a public school. There were students who were friends with Korten and who weren’t, But deep down, our hero knew that he was “that kid” in school because of his Korten was often nulled Butism (自闭症). Diagnosed that he could never speak, Korten was often pulled out of class for speech treatment. He was infamous for having “breakdowns” in the middle of a class and for seeing specialists inside and outside of the school.
When all hope seemed lost, it was athletics that came to Korten’s rescue. After trying swimming, he took up running and joined the cross-country team of his school. But autism seriously affected him, In the beginning, Korten couldn’t run around the school yard without stopping at least a couple of times. Frustrated, he would often drop out of them.
However, the sportsperson’s mentality (心态) which was locked up by his autism before had begun to rise. Despite his condition, Korten decided to take part in the cross-country races during the upcoming season. He worked on his skills with his father during the summer break and to his surprise, Korten was not only competing but successfully finishing the races with some of the best records. He even almost won the 1,500-metre race that year.
When he started his college life, Korten realized that he wasn’t the only one with “issues”. There were people who, though, may not be autistic, were fighting their own battles. Having displayed his real and complete self in front of the world, Korten not only was able to give his 100% to sports, but also was awarded the “Who’s who among students on campus”, a valuable recognition given to those with high academics along with participating in many after-school activities.
1. Why was Korten referred to as “that kid” in school?| A．He dropped out of school. | B．He had no friends at school. |
| C．He was a hero of his school. | D．He was often absent for his condition. |
| A．His love for sport. | B．His special condition. |
| C．His newly-found fighting spirit. | D．His father’s encouragement. |
| A．One should accept his real self. | B．Everyone in college fought for a goal. |
| C．Few students in college knew Korten. | D．Korten was more recognized in academics. |
| A．Show Concern for Autism | B．Face Your Life Challenges |
| C．Find an Interest in a Sport | D．Recognize Your Own Issue |
9 . Exercise is important in all phases of life, but for seniors, it’s crucial to maintaining independence. Exercise ensures that seniors can get around and continue to do the things they enjoy and helps to prevent serious health conditions.
Strength exercises are among the best exercises for seniors.
Balance exercises are good for senior citizens as well because they build up muscles in the legs and strength in the lower body. They can help a senior citizen have better stability, translating into lowered risk of serious falls.
Though exercise is good for senior citizens, it is smart for seniors to speak with their doctors before starting any new exercise program.
| A．For seniors, this may not be the top concern. |
| B．Such accidents tend to make them ill and weak. |
| C．Stretches are also important exercises for seniors. |
| D．Never exercise too much as it may have harmful effects. |
| E．They help to build up muscles and make the bones stronger. |
| F．They may suggest specific exercises and exercise frequency. |
| G．When it comes to choosing the best exercises for seniors, variety is key. |
10 . There are a lot of reasons to love biking, whether it brings back childhood memories of the past, provides an eco-friendly mode of transportation, or gives you an energizing way to move your legs.
What are the benefits of biking?
Biking can also help get you stronger without overly demanding your joints.
Just because you’re sitting down when biking, it doesn’t mean you can’t get a challenging training. There are a number of levers you can pull to level up or down your ride. This can come in the form of resistance, hills, and speed. A variety of all three at intervals is a great choice.
How many calories does an average bike ride burn?
How often should you make your bike ride?
There are no hard and fast rules on how long and often you should ride a bike, as it depends on individual fitness levels, goals, and more.
| A．What can you get when biking? |
| B．How do you make your bike ride suitable? |
| C．There’s no magic number for calories burned while biking. |
| D．Indoor biking can provide more control for a beginner, making him or her feel safer. |
| E．Cycling, whether indoors or outdoors, can benefit the lungs, he muscle, and the mind. |
| F．Besides, biking can also be a great practice with benefits beyond getting your heart pumping. |
| G．If you are doing shortly high intensity on cycling, then 20-30 minutes can get you great benefits. |
