1 . School uniforms are becoming more and more popular across the U.S.A. That's no surprise, because they offer many benefits. They immediately remove the powerful social labels from clothing. If all students are dressed in the same way, they will not pay too much attention to their clothing, and some of them will not be laughed at for wearing the "wrong" clothes.
Some people are against the strict rule of school uniforms, but they do not realize that students already accept a kind of rule — wanting to look just like their friends.
As in other places, uniforms remind the wearers of their purposes and duties. For example, when a man or woman puts on a police uniform, he or she becomes the symbol of law and order. The uniform means his or her special duties to the wearer and sends the same message to everyone the wearer meets. People with different jobs wear different uniforms. For students, the school uniform reminds them that their task for the six or seven hours in school is to get education.
Some parents are unhappy about uniforms, saying that school uniforms will affect their children's "creativity." First, as noted above, the clothes students choose to wear do not necessarily express their individuality (个性). They just copy their classmates. Second,while students are in school, their job is to master reading, writing and maths. Mastery of those skills will be good for the students to build up their creativity in every way.
1. In Paragraph 1, the word "benefits" probably means______________.| A．tasks | B．messages | C．differences | D．advantages |
| A．prevent the wearers from being laughed at |
| B．help the wearers keep their duties in mind |
| C．are seen as a symbol of power |
| D．help to develop students’ creativity |
| A．they fail to realize that students have accepted the uniforms |
| B．they believe that uniforms will make students less creative |
| C．they don't agree that uniforms can remove social labels |
| D．they think that school uniforms are too popular |
| A．it makes no difference whether to wear school uniforms or not |
| B．students’ individuality may not come from school education |
| C．students’ creativity is related to the clothes they choose |
| D．school uniforms help to create equality among students |
2 . Humans really do have a sixth sense that lets us detect magnetic fields (磁场), but we’re not aware we have it. It has long been known as ESP, Spider Sense, or the ability to see things before they happen. But now scientists have proved that humans really do have a sixth sense-that lets them detect magnetic fields. Tests have shown that mankind may have the same inborn sense of Earth’s magnetic field that has long been proved to exist in animals.
By putting a protein from the human retina (视网膜) into fruit flies, researchers noticed that the insect adjusted its flight path just as if its eye had not been changed. This suggests that the “sixth sense” does exist in humans but we might not be aware of it. Animals use such sight to navigate long distances during migration or, in the case of birds, to “see” where they are going. The complex tests involved examining the process by which light goes through a bird’s eye, which has interested the scientific community for more than 30 years. In the late 1970s, the physicist Klaus Schulten concluded that birds fly by relying on geomagnetically (地磁) sensitive biochemical reactions in their eyes.
Tests have shown that the special cells in the eye carry out this function using the protein cryptochrome (蛋白隐色素). Professor Reppert’s team used wild fruit flies, replacing their version of cryptochrome with the human equivalent (等价物), and then put them in a maze (迷宫) with each wing wrapped in a metal coil (金属圈). They then sent electricity through it so that the coil was magnetised in a way which is just like Earth’s electromagnetic field (电磁场). The flies responded in exactly the same way as if they had their own cryptochrome, by either avoiding the magnetic fields or moving towards them if the researchers had placed sugar nearby.
The new study was published in the journal Nature Communications.
1. What do we know about humans’ sixth sense?| A．Humans have been aware of it since ancient times. |
| B．It is quite different from the animals’. |
| C．It is the ability to predict what will happen. |
| D．It is also a sense developed after birth. |
| A．To change fruit flies’ flight path. |
| B．To test if humans have a sixth sense. |
| C．To examine the process of birds’ flying. |
| D．To allow researchers detect magnetic fields. |
| A．the maze | B．each wing |
| C．cryptochrome | D．the metal coil |
| A．They responded normally as if there had been nothing changed. |
| B．They couldn’t avoid the magnetic fields like before. |
| C．They lost the sense of direction completely. |
| D．They couldn’t find the sugar the researchers had placed nearby. |
3 . We’ve learned bees can understand zero and do basic math. Now a new study shows their tiny insect brains may be able to connect symbols to numbers.
Adrian Dyer, a professor in the RMIT University, said the research showed brains far smaller than humans’ could know numbers. “Humans learn numbers as children, but being able to recognize what numbers really represent needs a certain level of cognitive (认知的) ability,” Dyer says, “Studies have shown primates (灵长类动物) and birds have this ability, but this is the first time we’ve seen this in insects.”
It’s important for humans to do the research. There are 86 billion neurons (神经元) in humans’ brains. Bees only have less than a million. If bees have the ability to learn something difficult to understand like human-made symbolic language, this will open up exciting new paths for future communication between humans and animals.
Studies have shown that a number of animals have been able to learn symbols of numbers, including parrots and monkeys. Monkeys were taught Arabic numbers and could order them correctly. An African grey parrot called Alex was able to learn numbers and could do simple calculation.
Understanding how tiny brains of bees manage information opens paths to technology, which is good for the future design of computing (计算) systems.
1. What does Adrian Dyer say about the research?| A．The finding of the research is first seen in insects. |
| B．Humans’ brains are the biggest on the earth. |
| C．Birds can be as clever as primates. |
| D．Bees are cleverer than birds. |
| A．Humans may find a new path to communicate with animals. |
| B．Bees have more neurons than monkeys. |
| C．Insects have the ability to communicate with humans. |
| D．Bees can solve basic math problems. |
| A．A child. | B．A monkey. |
| C．An expert. | D．A parrot. |
| A．Bees can communicate with other animals. |
| B．Bees can attach symbols to numbers. |
| C．Some animals can do math problems. |
| D．Bees can make communication with humans. |
4 . People in Japan tend to live longer and stay healthier in their later years, with an increasing number of old people living alone. Japan is on a fast track to “ultra-age” with people aged 65 or above accounting for 28 percent of its total population in 2019；it was 26.7 percent in 2017. On the other hand, the number of births in 2019 fell to its lowest (about 941,000) since records began in 1899.
Demand for care services for elderly people has increased. A shrinking (缩小) working population means fewer able-bodied adults are available to look after the elderly. State-provided facilities for the elderly are not enough, which causes elderly people to turn to private ones but they are expensive.
The country will be short of 380,000 of health nurses by 2025. The government has to turn to advanced robots to meet the shortage. A study found that using robots encouraged one third of the people to become more active and independent. Yet there is no robot that can provide the emotional support to the elderly.
Japan provides a case study for China, which is also faced with a fast aging population. 17.23 million babies were born in China in 2019, about 630,000 fewer than in 2018. People aged 60 accounted for 17.3 of China’s population in 2019. With a shortage of elderly care facilities and unbalanced supply, China may find it hard to deal with the rapidly increasing number of senior citizens.
To meet the challenge, the Chinese government should make policy changes, which Japan is unwilling or unable to do or even consider. China should pay attention to the signals its aging population is sending and take proper and timely action.
1. What do we learn about the old Japanese?| A．More and more old Japanese prefer to live on their own. |
| B．A lot of old Japanese have to continue working at old age. |
| C．Some old Japanese remain active with the help of robots. |
| D．Japanese aged 65 or above make up one third of its population. |
| A．They are expensive. | B．They are inconvenient. |
| C．They are affordable. | D．They are fashionable. |
| A．They hire foreign health nurses. |
| B．They employ advanced robots. |
| C．They set up more nursing schools. |
| D．They train the elderly to tend themselves. |
| A．Japan has to take action to deal with the aging population. |
| B．Robots can’t provide emotional support to the elderly. |
| C．China is now faced with a fast aging population. |
| D．Japan’s aging population issue is a timely lesson for China. |
5 . Phrases like “good sharing!” and “great job on the slide!” echo across American playgrounds. Coaches pass out ribbons to every participant. Scholar publishes a series called “I’m Special!” assuring readers that the ability to play with friends and sing songs makes them special indeed.
We’ve been told that high self-esteem is the key to children’s happiness and success, and we’ve been praising and protecting them ever since. But has the self-esteem movement gone too far? Many experts argue that instead of raising healthy high achievers, maybe we’re raising a generation of narcissists(自我陶醉者). “Our old concepts of self-esteem(自尊) are old-fashioned, and parents need to send the concept to the trash heap of all things outdated and useless,” says Aaron Cooper, co-author of I Just Want My Kids to be Happy.
While experts used to blame low self-esteem for everything from bad grades to criminal behavior, research has shown that inflated (膨胀的)self-esteem is more often the criminal. An article called “Rethinking Self-Esteem” by Roy made a stir when he supposed that criminals and drug abusers actually had higher self-esteem than the general population. Martin and Ervin found that the modern habit of constant praise was turning kids skeptical and unmotivated. And esteemed child development expert T. Barry recently wrote in The New York Times that the phrase “self-esteem” had lost its meaning. Parents just want their children to have a positive self-image. And while it’s easy to make fun of the extremes of the self-esteem movement, it’s difficult to walk the fine line between acquiring self-respect and self-centeredness.
Anyway, make it clear that while you have expectations for their behavior, you love and accept them unconditionally. True self-esteem isn’t about a steady stream of applause; it develops when children know their limits and responsibilities, are given enough opportunities to challenge themselves, and feel secure that they’re loved even when they fail.
1. What’s the purpose of using phrases like “good sharing!” and “great job on the slide!”?| A．To attract readers’ attention. | B．To introduce the topic. |
| C．To give the author’s opinion. | D．To tell readers the key to happiness and success. |
| A．Children with high esteem are likely to be high achievers. |
| B．In children’s development high self-esteem plays a positive role. |
| C．High self-esteem makes kids motivated nowadays. |
| D．High self-esteem does harm to kids in a way. |
| A．give them constant praise unconditionally. |
| B．let them shoulder all their responsibilities. |
| C．offer them support even though they fail. |
| D．have high expectations for their behavior. |
| A．Subjective. | B．Positive. |
| C．Objective. | D．Negative |
6 . The Mystery of Dark Matter
If you look at the night sky, you'll often see stars moving very quickly. In fact, they move much more quickly than they should according to their size and the laws of physics. Scientists do not completely understand why the speed of these stars is so high. But many believe the reason is that much of the universe is made up of something called "dark matter". Groups of stars called galaxies, such as the Milky Way, might even consist of ninety per cent dark matter.
How much something weighs depends on where it is. The same object weighs only half as much on Mars as it does on Earth and almost three times as much on Jupiter. So scientists prefer to talk about the mass of something rather than how much it weighs, because mass does not change. They can work out the mass of galaxies by measuring the distance between them and the speed they move. Recently, Dr. Jorge Penarrubia and a team from Edinburgh University discovered something interesting. The mass of the Milky Way is only half as much as the mass of another nearby galaxy, Andromeda. This seems strange, but dark matter may explain why.
Finding out more about dark matter could help us understand how the universe began, but this is not easy. Lots of scientists with different types of expert knowledge are working on the problem. The Edinburgh team is working with many other universities like the University of British Columbia.
We can't see dark matter, it's very difficult to measure and we can't find out its mass. Unlike stars, dark matter doesn't produce or reflect light. But we can make a good guess that it is there because of the way things move and the way light bends. Experts now think dark matter may be very different from the matter which we find on Earth. There may also be five times as much dark matter in the universe as ordinary matter.
The Swiss scientist Fritz Zwicky first gave dark matter its name in the nineteen-thirties. Researchers have been looking for it ever since. Today, technology such as the Large Hadron Collider is collecting more and more information but this technology cannot tell us everything. New ways of finding dark matter will be needed. Investigating dark matter may even mean we will need to start asking questions about the way we look at the universe, including the ideas of Albert Einstein.
1. In what way do scientists find out the mass of galaxies？| A．Depending on where they are. |
| B．Depending on how much they weigh. |
| C．According to the way they move and the laws of physics. |
| D．By calculating how far between them and how fast they move. |
| A．It can't be seen. |
| B．It doesn't reflect light. |
| C．It is not unlike ordinary matter. |
| D．It affects the movement of things. |
| A．To change the way light bends. |
| B．To prove the ideas of Albert Einstein. |
| C．To collect more and more information. |
| D．To help understand the origin of the universe. |
(P: Paragraph)
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．It's there but we can't see it. |
| B．Sharing ideas leads to success. |
| C．We may need to change the way we think. |
| D．What your eyes can see can't be fully explained, |
7 . Living in a foreign culture can be exciting, but it can also be confusing(令人迷惑的). A group of Americans who taught English in other countries recently discussed their experiences. They found that miscommunication was always possible, even over something as simple as “yes” and “no”.
On her first day in Micronesia, an island in the Pacific, Lisa thought people weren’t paying any attention to her. The day was hot. She went into a store and asked, “Do you have cold drinks？” The woman there didn’t say anything. Lisa repeated the question. Still the woman said nothing. She later learned that the woman had answered her: She had raised her eyebrows(眉毛), which in Micronesia means “yes”.
Jan remembered an experience she had in Bulgaria, a country in Europe. She went to a restaurant that was famous for its cabbage. She asked the waiter, “Do you have cabbage today？” He nodded his head. Jan waited, but the cabbage never came. In that country, a nod means “no”.
Tom had a similar problem when he arrived in India. After explaining something in class, he asked his students if they understood. They answered with many different nods and shakes of the head. He thought some people had not understood, so he explained again. When he asked again, they did the same thing. He soon found out that his students did understand. In India, people nod and shake their heads in different ways depending on where they come from. You have to know where a person is from to understand whether they mean “yes” or “no”．
1. The Americans teaching English in other countries found that they ________.| A．had problems with communication | B．needed to learn foreign languages |
| C．should often discuss their experiences | D．should go abroad for vacations |
| A．nodding heads | B．raising eyebrows |
| C．shaking heads | D．saying “no” |
| A．he didn’t know where the students came from |
| B．he didn’t explain everything clearly enough |
| C．some students didn’t understand his questions |
| D．he did not know much about Indian culture |
| A．In Bulgaria, nodding heads means “no” |
| B．Jan taught English on a Pacific island. |
| C．Lisa was trying to buy some cabbage. |
| D．In India，only shaking heads means “yes”. |
8 . Green is an important color in nature. It is the color of grass and the leaves on trees. It is also the color of most growing plants.
Sometimes, the word “green” means young, fresh and growing. For example, a greenhorn is someone who has no experience. In the 15th century, a greenhorn was a young cow or an ox whose horns(角) had not yet developed. A century later, a greenhorn was a soldier who had no experience in war. By the 18th century, a greenhorn had the meaning it has today—a person who is new in a job.
Someone who is good at growing plants is said to have a green thumb(大拇指). The expression comes from the early 20th century. A person with a green thumb can make plants grow quickly and well.
Green is also the color used to describe the powerful feeling, jealousy(嫉妒). The green-eyed monster(怪物) is not a dangerous animal from outer space. It is an expression used about 400 years ago by the British writer William Shakespeare in his play “Othello”. It describes the unpleasant feeling when someone has something he wants. For example, a young man may suffer from the green-eyed monster if you get a pay rise and he does not.
In most places in the world, a green light means to move ahead. In everyday speech, a green light means agree to continue with a project.
1. A greenhorn now refers to ________.| A．a person who is new in a job |
| B．a new soldier |
| C．a young horse |
| D．a cow without horns |
| A．who is good at growing plants |
| B．whose thumbs are of green color |
| C．whose garden is greener than others’ |
| D．who is younger than his neighbors |
| A．he sees a dangerous animal |
| B．he reads a sad play |
| C．his friend gets a prize that he wants |
| D．he can’t get something |
| A．a greenhorn |
| B．a green thumb |
| C．the Green Revolution |
| D．the word “green” and its story |
9 . I work with Volunteers for Wildlife, a rescue and education organization at Bailey Arboretum in Locust Valley. Trying to help injured, displaced or sick creatures can be heartbreaking; survival is never certain. However, when it works, it is simply beautiful.
I got a rescue call from a woman in Muttontown. She had found a young owl(猫头鹰) on the ground. When I arrived, I saw a 2-to 3-week-old owl. It had already been placed in a carrier for safety.
I examined the chick(雏鸟) and it seemed fine. If I could locate the nest, I might have been able to put it back, but no luck. My next work was to construct a nest and anchor it in a tree.
The homeowner was very helpful. A wire basket was found. I put some pine branches into the basket to make this nest safe and comfortable. I placed the chick in the nest, and it quickly calmed down.
Now all that was needed were the parents, but they were absent. I gave the homeowner a recording of the hunger screams of owl chicks. These advertise the presence of chicks to adults; they might also encourage our chick to start calling as well. I gave the owner as much information as possible and headed home to see what news the night might bring.
A nervous night to be sure, but sometimes the spirits of nature smile on us all! The homeowner called to say that the parents had responded to the recordings. I drove over and saw the chick in the nest looking healthy and active. And it was accompanied in the nest by the greatest sight of all — LUNCH! The parents had done their duty and would probably continue to do so.
1. What is unavoidable in the author’s rescue work according to paragraph 1?| A．Efforts made in vain. |
| B．Getting injured in his work. |
| C．Feeling uncertain about his future. |
| D．Creatures forced out of their homes. |
| A．To rescue a woman. |
| B．To take care of a woman. |
| C．To look at a baby owl. |
| D．To cure a young owl. |
| A．A new nest. |
| B．Some food. |
| C．A recording. |
| D．Its parents. |
| A．It’s unexpected. |
| B．It’s beautiful. |
| C．It’s humorous. |
| D．It’s discouraging. |
10 . If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
Dreaming about whether you would want to read minds, see through walls, or have superhuman strength may sound silly, but it actually gets to the heart of what really matters in your life.
Every day in our work, we are inspired by the people we meet doing extraordinary things to improve the world.
They have a different kind of superpower that all of us possess: the power to make a difference in the lives of others.
We’re not saying that everyone needs to contribute their lives to the poor. Your lives are busy enough doing homework, playing sports, making friends, seeking after your dreams. But we do think that you can live a more powerful life when you devote some of your time and energy to something much larger than yourself. Find an issue you are interested in and learn more. Volunteer or, if you can, contribute a little money to a cause. Whatever you do, don’t be a bystander. Get involved. You may have the opportunity to make your biggest difference when you’re older. But why not start now?
Our own experience working together on health, development, and energy the last twenty years has been one of the most rewarding parts of our lives. It has changed who we are and continues to fuel our optimism about how much the lives of the poorest people will improve in the years ahead.
1. What does the underlined part in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Your life style. | B．Your life value. |
| C．Your trouble in life. | D．Your life experience. |
| A．They possess different kinds of superpowers. |
| B．They have got the power to change the world. |
| C．Some people around them are making the world better. |
| D．There are many powerful people in their life and work. |
| A．Learning more and contributing more to a cause. |
| B．Rising above self and acting to help others. |
| C．Working hard to get a bigger opportunity. |
| D．Trying your best to help the poor. |
| A．The author believes the lives of the poorest will get better. |
| B．Much more progress will be made in the near future. |
| C．The work on health is the most valuable experience. |
| D．People’s efforts have been materially rewarded. |
