1 . Eleven-year-old Australian girl Tilly Williams has broken a world distance running record, beating other girls who were eight years older than her to run 5,000m in just 17 minutes and 22.7 seconds. The primary schoolgirl beat the previous record by 19 seconds, making her the fastest distance runner under the age of 19 across 60 countries.
Tilly started running just two years ago and has already shot straight to the top. When some of her friends told her about the international record, she decided to give it a go. “Some of my running friends told me about it and I said, wow, it would be crazy if I got that and here I am,” Tilly said.
Tilly has always loved keeping active, alongside her twin brother Henry and little sister Rosie. “I am the kind of person who really enjoys the challenge,” Tilly said. “I really love surfing and I love bike riding and hiking — all different kinds of adventures and sports.” She started running in 2021 when she joined her school’s cross-country team. Since then, she has run two to three times a week with her dad, Mark Williams, or at the Adelaide Harriers Athletics Club. “Everyone is really supportive and it really encourages me,” Tilly said.
Tilly said she has been inspired by runners Caitlin Adams, Tara Palm, and her favourite book character, Roald Dahl’s Matilda. “I could really relate to the main character Matilda because she set herself goals and really had to work hard to achieve them,” she said. Tilly has a dream of competing in the 2032 Brisbane Olympics. By the way, Tilly doesn’t follow a strict diet, so her favourite food is still on the menu-her dad’s home-cooked pizza.
1. What is the new world record set by Tilly Williams?| A．17 minutes and 22.7 seconds. | B．17 minutes and 41. 7 seconds. |
| C．17 minutes and 3.7 seconds. | D．18 minutes and 1.7 seconds. |
| A．For two years. | B．For five years. | C．For ten years. | D．For one year. |
| A．Tilly’s family is poor. | B．Tilly’s father is generous. |
| C．Tilly’s brother and sister love running. | D．Tilly started running in her school team. |
| A．Tilly Williams’s family supports her. | B．Tilly Williams is outgoing. |
| C．Tilly Williams is going on diet. | D．Tilly Williams loves writing. |
2 . New scientific research has found that attending live sporting events improves levels of well-being and reduces feelings of loneliness. The study used data from 7,209 adults, aged 16—85, living in England who joined in the Taking Part Survey, carried out by the British Government.
The study found that attending sporting events results in higher scores of two major aspects of subjective well-being—life satisfaction and a sense of “life being worthwhile” —as well as lower levels of loneliness.
Nowadays many initiatives (倡议) promote the benefits of physical participation in sport, but the researchers believe that watching live sporting events can also offer an accessible and effective public health tool for improving well-being and reducing loneliness.
Lead author Dr. Helen Keyes said, “Previous research has focused on specific sports or small population samples, such as college students in the United States. Ours is the first study to look at the benefits of attending any sporting event across an adult population, and therefore our findings could be useful for shaping future public health strategies, such as offering reduced ticket prices for certain groups.”
“The live events covered by the survey ranged from free amateur events to Premier League football matches. Therefore, further research needs to be done to see whether these benefits are more noticeable for high level sport.”
“However, we do know that watching live sport of all kinds provides many opportunities for social interaction and this helps to establish group identity and belonging, which in turn reduces loneliness and makes a difference to levels of well-being.”
1. The new research focused on whether attending live sporting events ______.| A．benefits people of different ages | B．results in higher scores of study |
| C．improves levels of happiness | D．reduces the harm of working alone |
| A．promote the benefits of physical participation in sport |
| B．believe watching live sporting events helps reduce pressure |
| C．offer reduced ticket prices for a certain group of people |
| D．study how attending sporting events benefits adults |
| A．Easy to see. | B．Hard to change. | C．Possible to lose. | D．True to believe. |
| A．Useless. | B．Helpful. | C．Funny. | D．Tiring. |
3 . Robert Mendez Jr. is a football coach. Despite being born without limbs (四肢), he has spent his life on what he can
This year, Robert
As Robert accepted the
He said, “If there’s any
When talking of
Robert may have been born without arms or legs, but he was
| A．imagine | B．do | C．tolerate | D．benefit |
| A．sponsored | B．valued | C．created | D．received |
| A．deserving | B．demanding | C．formal | D．fortunate |
| A．player | B．individual | C．match | D．witness |
| A．donation | B．challenge | C．proposal | D．award |
| A．shared | B．obtained | C．repeated | D．proved |
| A．chance | B．joy | C．message | D．warning |
| A．intelligent | B．far | C．respectful | D．fit |
| A．write down | B．talk about | C．advocate for | D．focus on |
| A．competing | B．coaching | C．giving | D．learning |
| A．potential | B．shortcoming | C．question | D．secret |
| A．comfortable | B．enthusiastic | C．pleased | D．sure |
| A．last | B．happen | C．change | D．spread |
| A．eventually | B．similarly | C．obviously | D．merely |
| A．persuade | B．understand | C．defeat | D．motivate |
4 . Chinese researchers have revealed the anti-cancer characteristic of neutrophils (中性粒细胞) — a type of white blood cells—and the related molecular regulation mechanism, providing new insights into cancer diagnosis and treatment. The discovery, made by researchers at the Shanghai Institute of Immunity and Infection under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Fudan University, was published in Cell on Tuesday.
Neutrophils are the most abundant white blood cells in the human body. As the first line of defence against infections, they play a key role in anti-infection immunity. The researchers collected neutrophils from 143 patients with 17 different types of cancer and analyzed them. They revealed that neutrophils can adopt at least 10 highly specialized and distinct functional states related to inflammation (炎症) , blood vessel formation and—most excitingly—presenting antigens (抗体) to activate powerful cancer-killing T cells.
“We were surprised to find such complexity and different roles within neutrophils, which have been ignored for so long,” said Zhang Xiaoming, a researcher at the Institute. “What is especially remarkable is their newly discovered capacity to act as antigen-presenting cells, gathering T cells against cancer. In addition, the abundance of antigen-presenting neutrophils is associated with improved condition across many cancer types revealed in this study,” he said.
“This completely changes how we perceive neutrophils in the context of cancer,” said Gao Qiang, a professor at Fudan University. “Now we know we could employ the diverse hidden identities of neutrophils to strengthen the effectiveness of immunotherapy (免疫疗法). We’re thrilled to further explore the potential benefits of these newly uncovered mechanisms in clines.”
The study emphasizes the value of single-cell sequencing approaches to reveal new functional dimension even within seemingly well-understood immune cells. Tapping into the hidden potential of neutrophils may provide new insights into cancer diagnosis and treatment.
1. How was the anti-cancer function of neutrophils discovered?| A．By referring to previous research. |
| B．By collecting and analyzing data. |
| C．By seeking guidance from experts. |
| D．By observing patients with inflammation. |
| A．Getting together T cells when needed. |
| B．Preventing the formation of antigens. |
| C．Speeding up the blood flow. |
| D．Distinguishing different types of cancer. |
| A．Positive. | B．Doubtful. | C．Worried. | D．Unclear. |
| A．Blood Cells Successfully Fight Against Severe Cancer |
| B．China Makes Great Progress in Fighting Against Diseases |
| C．Further Research Is Needed to Fight Against Cancer |
| D．Researchers Discover New Cancer-fighting Mechanism |
5 . During the last week of Fu Bao’s public viewing earlier this month, visitors endured waiting for 5—6 hours just to give a glance at the panda for only five minutes, as Everland Panda World restricted viewing time to manage the flood of visitors.
Born to parents Ai Bao and Le Bao in July 2020, Fu Bao is South Korea’s first naturally-born panda. In the days following her birth, Everland’s social media channels offered fans a steady diet of Fu Bao videos, pulling in more than 1.2 million subscribers and, as of February, over 500 million accumulated views. The most recent videos are now filled with warm and sincere messages from viewers.
Thanks to Fu Bao’s widespread popularity, her zookeeper has also found himself in the spotlight, becoming a bit of a social media star himself. Often referred to as her grandpa, Kang Chul-won offered hi own farewell message to Fu Bao, noting that the South Koreans’ special love for her all began with social media videos shared during the pandemic when the zoo was closed. She brought help and happiness to a society in many ways that was having a difficult time due to the virus. He said people visited the social media sites every day so it felt like he was raising her together with them. They cared so much for her and shared the same emotions of raising a baby panda together during such difficult times.
Fu Bao will be transferred to China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Sichuan Province. Everland says that she will be kept alone at Everland Panda World for a month to prepare her to adjust to her new environment before her overseas transfer, which will be carried out in accordance with international rules.
1. What can we learn about Fu Bao from the first two paragraphs?| A．She has a balanced diet. | B．She is five years old. |
| C．She is very popular in South Korea. | D．She came from Sichuan, China. |
| A．She is a live symbol of luck and fortune. |
| B．She is an animal who can resist any virus. |
| C．She is an inspiration to overcome difficulties. |
| D．She is their common possession and business. |
| A．She will go on show in Everland. | B．She will be separated for adjustment. |
| C．She will leave Everland Panda World. | D．She will be moved to a research center. |
| A．On behalf of. | B．In terms of. |
| C．In company with. | D．In agreement with. |
6 . Imagine a horizontal line. The very left is marked one thousand and the very right is marked one billion. On this line, where would you add a marker to represent one million? If you said somewhere in the middle, you answered the same as the roughly 50 percent of people who have done this exercise in a number line study. But the answer is actually much closer to one thousand since there are one thousand millions in one billion.
This error makes sense because “our human brains are pretty bad at comprehending large numbers,” says Elizabeth Toomarian, an educational neuroscientist at Stanford University. Our brain is built to understand how much of something is in its environment. But comprehending the national debt or imagining the size of our universe? “We certainly can use our brains in that way, but we’re recycling these sorts of evolutionarily (进化地) old brain architectures to do something really new,” she says. In other words, it’s not our fault that we have trouble wrapping our heads around big numbers.
So what can we do about the struggle to understand big numbers? It is suggested to use metaphors, analogies (类比) and visualizations. These techniques bring big numbers down to a more comprehensible scale (比例) and ideally make it relevant to something in our daily lives. For example, it may be difficult for most people to accurately place the extinction of the dinosaurs on a timeline between the Big Bang and humans because the first two both seem to be placed to the distant path. But when conceptualizing (概念化) these events using a “calendar”, it becomes easier. The Big Bang occurred at 12 a.m. on January 1st on the calendar. Dinosaurs were only present for roughly the last week of the year. And humans only emerged in the last eight sends December 31st, at 12:59:52 p.m. It’s clear now that dinosaurs are much closer to humans than the Big Bang on a timeline.
These metaphors and analogies are important if people are to really weigh the costs and benefits of events in their lives. The concept not only applies to long-term decisions, but public policies.
1. Why does the author mention the example in the first paragraph?| A．To introduce the topic. | B．To explain the main idea. |
| C．To make a summary of the text. | D．To make comparisons with other topics. |
| A．The lack of conceptual techniques. |
| B．The unwillingness to learn something new. |
| C．Our low ability to evaluate and compare. |
| D．Our inborn nature due to evolutionary factors. |
| A．Making them related to each other. |
| B．Wrapping our heads around them. |
| C．Using techniques to put them to a smaller scale. |
| D．Applying a calendar to present them. |
| A．How to make long-term decisions. |
| B．How metaphors and analogies help solve public problems. |
| C．How to weigh the costs and benefits in our life. |
| D．How important public policies are in our life |
7 . Johnson arrived at the Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Argentine Andes. He began his climb to achieve his dream after years of preparation. But he went up alone. He started climbing and it was becoming later and later. He did not prepare for camping, so he had to keep on climbing.
Soon night fell and Johnson could not see anything. Everything was black. There was no moon, and the stars were covered by clouds. As he was climbing only about 10 feet away from the top, he slipped and fell. He could only see darkness passing at a great speed. He kept falling… He thought certainly he would die.
But then Johnson felt the long rope tied to his waist (腰部) pull very hard. His body was hanging in the air. He had no other choice but to shout, “Help! Help me!”
Suddenly he heard a deep voice, “What do you want me to do?”
“Save me!”
“Do you really think that I can save you?”
“Of course.”
“Then cut the rope.” However, Johnson just held tighter (更紧地) to the rope.
The next day Johnson was found hanging strongly to a rope…TWO FEET OFF THE GROUND!!!
How much do you believe in some “rope”? Sometimes you have to dare to cut the rope and let go. The results might be out of your expectation.
1. From Paragraph 1, we can get the ________ of the story.| A．background | B．development |
| C． climax (the most exciting part) | D．ending |
| A．went to the Aconcagua for camping |
| B．was very frightened when he fell |
| C．fell down to the ground heavily |
| D．reached the top successfully |
| A．Unbelievable. | B．Interesting. |
| C．Embarrassing. | D．Boring. |
| A．Pride Comes Before Fall | B．It Serves You Right |
| C．Never Stop! Never Give Up! | D．Dare You Let “Rope” Go? |
8 . The summer vacation is coming. It’s time to relax. Come to join us!
World Youth Alliance (青年联盟) Asia Pacific SUMMER CAMPJUNE 30~JULY 4,2024 Subic Park Hotel, Zambales, the Philippines (菲律宾) | |
| WHAT TO EXPECT ·Develop your leadership and social skills through our all kinds of team-building activities. ·Have the chance to communicate with other young people and make new friends from different Asia-Pacific countries. ·Get the chances to take part in other WYA interational acivities. ·Understand that you have your own importance and value through our WAY training program, | HOW MUCH TO PAY ·Local teenagers: $125 each person ·Teenagers from other Asia-Pacific countries: $170 each person HOW TO APPLY (申请) ·Download the application form on our website wya, net/apsummercamp and email your form to wyaap. summercamp @ gmail, com. ·Please apply before April 30, 2024. CONTACT US FOR MORE INFORMATION wуаар.summercamp@gmail.com +639210890 |
1. How long will the summer camp last?
| A．For four days. | B．For five days. |
| C．For a week. | D．For a month. |
| A．125. | B．170. |
| C．1,020. | D．750. |
| A．People of all ages can take part in the summer camp. |
| B．People from any country can apply for the summer camp. |
| C．People can only call to learn more about the summer camp. |
| D．People should apply two months before the summer camp starts. |
| A．A geography magazine. | B．A research paper. |
| C．A travel guide. | D．A sports magazine. |
The boat was on the inside of the huge whirlpool and we were going round in circles at great speed. I saw clearly that there were other objects in the whirlpool — trees and barrels. After a while, I became curious about the whirlpool itself. I then made three important observations. The first, the larger the bodies were, the more rapidly they fell; the second, between two objects of equal extent, spheres — round objects — fell down less rapidly; and the third, between two objects of the same size, cylinders — objects shaped like a tube-fell down more slowly. Although I didn’t know why it was so, I tied myself to a barrel to help me float. I tried to make my brother understand, but he was too frightened and stayed in the heavy boat. Without waiting, I jumped into the sea to try and escape.
Since my escape, I have had several conversations with an old physics teacher; and it was from him that I learned the use of the words “cylinder” and “sphere”. He explained to me the reasons for what I observed, although I have forgotten the explanation. He even showed me how it happened that a cylinder, swimming in a vortex (漩涡), was drawn in with greater difficulty than an equally big body, of any form whatever.
1. Why has the storyteller forgotten the teacher’s explanation?| A．He was too afraid to listen carefully. |
| B．He didn’t know much about physics. |
| C．The teacher didn’t explain the ideas clearly. |
| D．The teacher didn’t understand his observations. |
| A．He kept calm. | B．He observed carefully. |
| C．He jumped into the sea. | D．He tied himself to a barrel. |
10 . On September 17, 2022, a father and son set out to begin the first of three legs of the Ironman competition in Oxford. David, 59, and his son, John, 28, weren’t the typical competitors. Despite difficulty in walking, John has his dream of being an athlete. His father would act as his arms and legs, carrying the weight of his son throughout the race.
To qualify as having finished, competitors must complete a hard 140 miles of swimming, bicycling and running in under 17 hours. David and John had participated together in five Ironman competitions, but they had yet to finish in the required time.
The race began with a 2.4-mile swim in the Choptank River. With one end of a rope tied to a belt around his back and the other end to a boat with his son inside, the father eased himself into the water. Swimming while carrying another person is tough enough — David also had to fight with jellyfish (水母).
The pair completed the swim in 90 minutes, and went through with the 112-mile bicycle ride in about nine hours, then set their sights on the final leg of the 26.2-mile marathon with David pushing John in the racing chair.
With minutes left and 200 feet to the finish line, his mom, on the sidelines, handed him the rolling walker. Not that long ago, John could hardly walk 23 steps. But after years of painful training, he increased his step count and was determined to finish the race on his own. He knew time was almost running out and worried they wouldn’t make the cutoff. “Not because I wouldn’t get my moment,” he says, “but because dad had worked so hard.”
After 16 hours, 55 minutes and 35 seconds — with just four minutes and 25 seconds to spare — father and son crossed the finish line together.
As the crowd flooded and cheered on John, the weary father kept a low profile. “He didn’t want his finish line moment,” says John. “He wanted it to be mine.”
1. How did David help his son in the swimming part?| A．By pulling a rope tied to a boat. | B．By swimming beside his son. |
| C．By pushing his son’s lifebelt. | D．By carrying his son on his back. |
| A．He wouldn’t get his moment. |
| B．His mom would be disappointed. |
| C．His father had put in lots of effort. |
| D．The audience had high expectations. |
| A．Responsible and selfless. | B．Brave and honest. |
| C．Committed and friendly. | D．Gentle and determined. |
