1 . Getting paid to stay in bed all day sounds pretty good, but what if someone pays you $ 23, 000 to stay in bed for two months? That’s the deal that a medical research team in France is offering to 24 volunteers.
The researchers are looking for volunteers to help them study the effects of weightlessness (失重状态) on the human body and find ways to stop problems. Lying in bed isn’t exactly the same as being weightless, but the effects are alike.
When astronauts spend a long time in an environment with no gravity, their bodies change in many ways. After several months, their hearts don’t beat as hard. Their muscles become smaller and weaker. Their bones may be broken more easily. There may also be changes in the astronauts’ immune systems (免疫系统) and sleep habits.
The study will take 88 days. During the first two weeks, the volunteers will be tested to make sure of their levels of fitness. Then they will spend 60 days lying in bed with their heads lower than their bodies. They will have to do everything while lying down, including eating, brushing their teeth, and going to the bathroom. The rule is that they must have at least one shoulder touching the bed at all times. The last two weeks of the study will be spent trying to build up the volunteers’ fitness again.
Volunteers must be men between the ages of 20 and 45 who are in perfect health. The researchers completed one study in April. A second study will take place from September to December.
1. What’s the third paragraph mainly about?| A．How astronauts work in an environment without gravity. |
| B．Astronauts’ sleep habits in an environment without gravity. |
| C．Why astronauts’ bodies change in an environment without gravity. |
| D．The effects of an environment without gravity on astronauts’ bodies. |
| A．be women | B．come from France |
| C．be in excellent condition | D．be under twenty years old |
| A．How to build up astronauts’ fitness. |
| B．Researchers pay volunteers to stay in bed. |
| C．Effects of weightlessness on the human body. |
| D．Disadvantages of lying in bed for two months. |
| A．A medical magazine. | B．A short novel. |
| C．A grammar book. | D．A travel guidebook. |
2 . Paris
Paris, the heaven of fashion, culture and entertainment, is the most visited city in the world. It is also held as a numerous tourist destination due to the presence of the Eiffel Tower and several other historic buildings, museums and churches.
Rome
A talk about Europe is incomplete without a mention of Rome. Held as a place where one of the oldest civilizations of the world prospered(繁荣), Rome is where you'd get to see numerous castles, palaces, ancient buildings, fountains, squares and beautiful parks. Several tourists come here especially to have a look at the Renaissance architecture that the buildings of this city boast.
Barcelona
Barcelona, a major city in Spain, is regarded among the 10 best beach cities in the world. The city's coastline has clear waters and a mild climate which makes it favorite destination among sunbathers. Besides that, Barcelona has a glorious past to show off. You must wander through its busy streets and take a look at the historic buildings, castles, churches, parks and museums.
Vienna
If you are a music lover and a steady devotee of Beethoven or Mozart, then a visit to Vienna is like going on a pilgrimage(朝圣). This is because Vienna is the birthplace of these artists. You'd find their houses there and also find their memorial graves. Besides that, Vienna is known for castles, palaces, museums and historic monuments. If you are a devoted art lover, Vienna is the place for you. It has nearly a hundred museums devoted to art!
1. Which place has the most tourists in the world according to the text?| A．Vienna. | B．Barcelona. | C．Rome. | D．Paris. |
| A．The birthplace of artists. | B．Fountains. |
| C．Castles. | D．The Eiffel Tower. |
| A．Art. | B．Sports. | C．Customs. | D．Tours. |
3 . There are over 60 zoos in England. We have collected hundreds of reviews, checked the zoo websites, researched several zoo•related resources and visited many of them by ourselves to giv e you this selection: 10 best zoos in England.
Chester Zoo Among top 15 zoos in the world, it is one of the most•visited and largest zoos in England. |
Whipsnade Zoo With more than 2,500 animals, it is one of the few UK zoos with elephants. |
Marwell Wildlife Full of African and Australian animals, there is surely a lot to see within very large grounds. |
Howletts Wild Animal Park It was set up as a private zoo at first and opened to the public later. The place looks very natural and you can get very close to the animals there. |
Port Lympne Wild Animal Park With Britain's largest number of African elephants, it offers truly African experiences. |
Colchester Zoo With 270+ species, it is very child•friendly and offers lots of h ands•on activities. |
Twycross Zoo It holds what is supposed to be the world's largest collection of apes (猿). There are also rare leopard species. |
Bristol Zoo Gardens This is a 175•year•old zoo with rare animals like fruit bats (果蝠). |
Paignton Zoo As home to a collection of around 2,000 animals and 1,600 plant species, it is one of the first places in England combining zoological and botanical (植物的) gardens. |
London Zoo As one of the oldest zoos in the world, it is well worth a visit. |
| A．visit the largest zoo in English. |
| B．watch the African and Australian animals. |
| C．experience hands-on activities. |
| D．have a close observation of the animals. |
| A．Howletts Wild Animal Park. | B．Colchester Zoo. |
| C．Twycross Zoo. | D．Paignton Zoo. |
| A．a science magazine. | B．an adventure fiction. |
| C．a travel guide. | D．a book review. |
4 . If you're British or live in a Commonwealth nation, Christmas doesn't end on December 25.The day after Christmas is known as Boxing Day, and the relaxing holiday is a chance to allow the celebration for one more restful day.
But its name has nothing to do with the sport of boxing, and unlike the popular idea, did not appear from a need to return unwanted gifts or clean up trash produced by Christmas gifting.
There are several theories as to how that charitable tradition became known as "boxing".Some historians link the use of the term to boxes of donations that were laid in churches during the pre-Christmas season of Advent in the early days of Christianity during the second and third centuries A.D.The day after Christmas, the boxes were opened and the money was given away to the poor.
Another possible story for Boxing Day has to do with a tradition that formed in 19th century Victorian England, where servants sacrificed（牺牲）time with their own families to cater to their employers on Christmas.On the day after Christmas, employers would give the servants a rare day off and send them home with leftovers from the family's Christmas feast for their service.
Though the reasons are lost to history, Boxing Day charity eventually fell out of tradition---and was replaced with physical and material pleasures.Today, the holiday is linked with sports, with major football rugby, and cricket matches and horse races taking place on December 26.
December 26 is also a big shopping day throughout the UK and the Commonwealth.The holiday kicks off what is known as " Boxing Week" , during which retailers（零售商）try to move old stock and shoppers compete for one last bargain of the year.In recent years, though, the American tradition of Black Friday---massive sales that take place the day after Thanksgiving each November---has become popular in the United Kingdom and has largely overshadowed Boxing Week.
1. What kind of festival was Boxing Day probably in the beginning?| A．A charitable festival. | B．A religious festival. |
| C．A sports festival. | D．A business festival. |
| A．Take care of. | B．Depend on. |
| C．Put up with. | D．Pick up. |
| A．It has become an online shopping day. |
| B．It has been replaced by Black Friday. |
| C．It only covers popular sports events. |
| D．It has become less important than before. |
| A．When Did Boxing Day Come into Being? | B．Why Did People Celebrate Boxing Day? |
| C．How Is Black Friday Celebrated in the UK? | D．Why Is Black Friday Popular in the UK? |
5 . Motion sickness is an uncomfortable feeling. The sickness it causes can strike people on an airplane, playing video games, or, commonly, when riding in a car. In a future where people may find themselves running around streets in self-driving vehicles, the problems could get worse.
We typically sense our physical position and movement in the world by relying on our eyes, the feeling we get in our body, and our inner ear. Motion sickness may develop when there's disagreement between what your eyes see and what your inner ear senses. If you're looking at your phone in a moving vehicle, your eyes see a stationary screen but your inner ear feels that you're moving. The result of that dissonance can cause sickness. The common-sense solution is to just stop looking at your phone, but some of the appeal of self-driving cars is that you could use the time to be productive or entertained by what's on a screen.
Researchers of a car-making company and a video game company have been studying ways to address these issues. And their solution uses an interesting medium: sound. The research had two goals: to explore if sound could help relieve motion sickness, and to help people trust self-driving cars more. They experimented with two different categories of sound: tips that tell passengers what's about to happen, and noises that alert passengers when the device has noticed something, like a pedestrian.
The most convincing experiment took place on a closed airport runway in Sweden, near Gothenburg, in August of last year. On that track, brave participants had to ride in the backseat of a car driven by a human and read from a tablet while the car navigated the course. With just 20 people, the study was small, but according to researchers, the presence of sound tips made people report that they felt less ill. Participants said the sounds helped prepare them physically, or adjust their bodies for what was about to happen.
1. When does motion sickness usually happen?| A．Sleeping during travels. | B．Closing eyes on vehicles. |
| C．Driving vehicles speedily. | D．Riding in moving vehicles. |
| A．Confusion. | B．Potentiality. | C．Randomness. | D．Disagreement. |
| A．Uncertain. | B．Optimistic. | C．Concerned. | D．Dissatisfaction. |
| A．A study of motion sickness. | B．Self-driving vehicles. |
| C．A convincing experiment. | D．The cause and handling of motion sickness. |
6 . Looking at the star ratings（星级评分）on Amazon products can help consumers make wise decisions about what they add to their shopping carts. But shopping smart isn't always as easy as selecting goods with a four- or five-star rating: Factors like the length, quality, and number of reviews also make a difference. And with so many cheating third-party sellers working through the website, it's not always clear which reviews are trustworthy. For people who feel lost every time they look through Amazon, Lifehacker recently shared its tips for spotting untrue reviews.
If every review gives the same boring praise for the product without mentioning anything negative, think twice before heading to the checkout page. Some sellers pay people to leave dishonest five-star reviews on their products in order to increase their ratings. No longer than a few words are another sign of such reviews.
Looking for checked purchases can help you find the fakes （假货），but you can't make sure that a review is true because fake customers sometimes receive the products they've been paid to make comments. The best way to decide if the review you're reading is real is to look for personal details and imperfections in the story. Sometimes a three- or four-star review is a better sign of what you're getting than a too — good — to — be — true five-star review.
If all this seems too troublesome, you can also use AI to help analyze Amazon reviews. The website Fakespot can make an analysis of all the reviews on a particular Amazon listing in just a few seconds. It then tells you how many of the available reviews are likely to be true.
And if you're really committed to doing the best shopping, you can always take your research off Amazon. A product that has a similar rating on a less popular website like Groupon to what it has on Amazon might be reviewed honestly.
1. What is the problem with shopping on Amazon?| A．The website's service is bad. |
| B．The products on it are of poor quality. |
| C．Fake reviews may confuse shoppers. |
| D．Consumers often leave bad comments. |
| A．Amazon | B．Groupon | C．Lifehacker | D．Fakespot |
| A．There is nothing negative about the product. |
| B．It has the same five-star ratings in all reviews. |
| C．Positive and negative comments are included. |
| D．No information can be found on less popular websites. |
| A．To advertise products for more sales. |
| B．To share some tips on smart shopping. |
| C．To introduce more websites to readers. |
| D．To give advice on leaving positive comments. |
7 . When you're struggling to finish a term paper, preparing a big presentation or studying for final exams, sleep might be the first thing you sacrifice so you have time to get all the work done. To make up for it , you might start drinking coffee to help you study late into the night. But there's bad news if you're trying to keep that kind of schedule for more than a couple of days.
"We were particularly surprised that the performance advantage invested by two daily 200-milligram doses (剂量)of caffeine was lost after lack of sleep for three nights, " lead author Tracy Jill Doty said in a statement. "These results are important, because caffeine is widely used to deal with performance decline following periods of lack of sleep. The data from this study suggests that the same effective daily dose of caffeine is unable to prevent performance decline over many days of lack of sleep. "
The sample size was very small (48 people), so we can't think everyone will respond the same way. Those 48 people slept five hours per night for five nights straight. They got a caffeine dose equal to a large cup of coffee around 8 am and another around 12 pm each day. For the first two days, the people who got caffeine were performing better on attention and reaction tests. But by the third day, the caffeine was no longer helping them perform any better than the people who didn't get any caffeine.
Increasing the caffeine dose may have changed that. "But the more caffeine you consume, the more negative side affects you feel," Doty said. "This work goes along with lots of other work showing that the negative effects of lacking sleep are difficult to overcome. This is true even with a heavy daily dose of caffeine.
1. Who will be the intended reader of the text?| A．Educators. | B．Students. |
| C．Adults. | D．Officials. |
| A．By listing examples. |
| B．By reasoning. |
| C．By analyzing results |
| D．By arguing |
| A．Caffeine fails to perform better over an extended time. |
| B．Increasing caffeine can promote one's performance. |
| C．Drinking too much coffee might lead to sleep loss. |
| D．Caffeine doesn't prevent performance decline at all. |
| A．Coffee: Sleep Loss. |
| B．Coffee: Performance Increase. |
| C．Enough Sleep Makes Coffee Work. |
| D．The More Coffee, the Worse Effects. |
The Terra-cotta Warriors | The Terracotta Army or the "Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses", is a collection of terracotta sculptures showing the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. The purpose was to protect the emperor in his afterlife, and to make sure that he had people to rule over. Other terracotta non-military figures were also found in other pits and they include officials, acrobats, strongmen and musicians. Sadly, no photography or filming is allowed inside. |
Eiffel Tower | If you are planning a romantic getaway to Paris, don't think about posting a selfie in front of the Eiffel Tower. Taking photos is illegal, but the problem isn't with the building itself. The light show on it, designed by Pierre Bideau in 1985, is actually an artistic display and protected by copyright, Snopes.com explains. And since the lights go every five minutes, snapping a photo that doesn't break the law is impossible. |
Westminster Abbey | Westminster Abbey is a wonderful Gothic church. Yet no matter how historic or breathtaking it may be. you're not allowed to take photos. Luckily, there is a pretty good reason for it, according to the church's website: "We want you to take in its unique beauty and history without any distractions. We want to keep the sacred atmosphere of a church." |
The Sistine Chapel | As it's one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world, it's an upsetting thing that tourists aren't allowed to take photos around or inside. The chapel went under repair work funded by the Nippon Television Network Corporation of Japan. The costs ended up being $4.2 million. In return, Nippon got special rights to film and photograph the artwork. That copyright actually ended three years after each part was complete, but the Vatican decided to keep the ban in place to protect the precious artwork from harmful camera flashes. |
| A．Different figures buried underground. |
| B．Masses of amazing palaces around. |
| C．A wonderful film of a great emperor. |
| D．The future life of the non-military people. |
| A．The Terra-cotta Warriors | B．Eiflfel Tower |
| C．Westminster Abbey | D．The Sistine Chapel |
| A．One. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．Four. |
9 . Last year, 138,000 San Francisco residents used Airbnb, a popular app designed to connect home renters and travelers. It’s a striking number for a city with a population of about 850,000, and it was enough for Airbnb to win a major victory in local elections, as San Francisco voters struck down a debatable rule that would have placed time restrictions and other regulations on short-term rental services.
The company fiercely opposed the measure, Proposition F, with a nearly $10 million advertising campaign. It also contacted its San Franciscan users with messages urging them to vote against Proposition F.
Most people think of Airbnb as a kind of couch-surfing app. The service works for one-night stays on road trips and longer stays in cities, and it often has more competitive pricing than hotels. It’s a textbook example of the “sharing economy”, but not everyone is a fan.
The app has had unintended consequences in San Francisco. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported last year, a significant amount of renting on Airbnb is not in line with the company’s image: middle-class families putting up a spare room to help make ends meet. Some users have taken advantage of the service, using it to turn their multiple properties into vacation rentals or even full-time rentals. Backers of Proposition F argued that this trend takes spaces off the conventional, better-regulated housing market and contributes to rising costs.
“The fact is, widespread abuse of short-term rentals is taking much needed housing off the market and harming our neighborhoods,” said ShareBetter SF, a group that supported Proposition F. Hotel unions have protested the company’s practices in San Francisco and other cities, saying that it creates an illegal hotel system.
San Francisco is in the middle of a long-term, deeply rooted housing crisis that has seen the cost of living explode. Actually, explode is a generous term. The average monthly rent for an apartment is around $4, 000. Located on a narrow outcropping of land overlooking the bay, San Francisco simply doesn’t have enough space to accommodate the massive inflow of young, high-salaried tech employees flocking to Silicon Valley.
As the Los Angeles Times reported, some San Francisco residents supported the measure simply because it seemed like a way to check a big corporation. Opponents of Proposition F countered that the housing crisis runs much deeper, and that passing the rule would have discouraged a popular service while doing little to solve the city’s existing problems.
1. The intention of Proposition F is to ________.| A．place time limits in local election. | B．set limits on short-term rental. |
| C．strike down a controversial rule. | D．urge users to vote against Airbnb. |
| A．It shrinks the living space of middle-class families. |
| B．Users are taken advantage of by the service financially. |
| C．It makes the house market more competitive. |
| D．It indirectly leads to high house rental price. |
| A．explosion of the living cost | B．its geographic characteristics |
| C．generosity of local enterprises | D．inflow of migrant population |
| A．objective | B．supportive |
| C．negative | D．indifferent |
10 . L. Bean Quad backpack
If you need a backpack that can carry large and small objects and is comfortable to wear, this is the backpack for you. The reasonable price and customers’ 100% satisfaction makes this a great buy any way you look at it. While it’s not the most beautiful backpack on the planet, it does look nice at first sight.
Kanken 15” backpack
This Kanken bag is a great choice for school kids of grade one to six or adults with narrow shoulders. Weighing under 450g, it’s easy and comfortable to carry this bag around. The simple design with a lot of eve-catching colors may have you fall in love with it at once.
Timbuk2 Command backpack
If you want to safely carry your laptop and look stylish, the Timbuk2 Command backpack is the one for you. The soft back is made for a comfortable wearing experience. The clean coloring and lines of the bag may make you more “grown-up”.
Amazon Basics backpack
With a lowest price among all these backpacks, the Amazon Basics backpack is a great choice for college students on a tight budget. There are tons of storage choices in this backpack, so it’s easy to forget exactly where you placed a certain object. It is a basic black backpack with a few designs and is never going to appear on a fashion T stage.
1. What makes L. Bean Quad backpack attractive?| A．The color and the design. | B．The style and the quality. |
| C．The cost and the public praise. | D．The lightweight and the simplicity. |
| A．L. Bean Quad backpack. | B．Amazon Basics backpack |
| C．Timbuk2 Command backpack. | D．Kanken 15” backpack |
| A．NEWSWEEK | B．SMARTSHOPPER. |
| C．NATURE. | D．GOOD HOUSEKEEPING. |
