1 . What is talent? Are you born with it? Or does it seem to develop over time? Before I start, I’d like to say that one thing everyone agrees on is that the most skilled musicians have worked hard to get there.
While it’s true that a few of us had enough “talent” to avoid extra practice to do just as well as those who did, those who worked hard easily beat us. It is, in fact, very likely that if some of us “talented ones” had actually been practicing and improving our skill, we would have achieved a whole different level.
Another aspect of talent seems to be heart and passion (酷爱). The people I see who are the most talented musicians are crazy about music. They eat, breathe, and live music and they make an extraordinary effort to make it part of their lives. As Remus Badea said, desire for the musician-to-be is significant for them to be successful. This desire is easily found in those considered to be talented. When you want and love something so bad, it drives you and your entire character can be shaped around it. Such determined passion seems to produce incredible skill and talent.
The third aspect (方面) of talent is having talent around you. When surrounded by talented musicians, it only seems natural that you start to catch up to their level Take a look at almost any group of musicians in history. The more talented people in the group the more talented the group is as a whole. A great example of this is the relationship between audio producer and artist. The artist turns up to the studio with their song, and as they work through recording it, the audio producer will often suggest various changes to the song to make it better.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 2?| A．Pride goes before a fall. |
| B．It’s never too old to learn. |
| C．Practice contributes to talent. |
| D．Talent determines achievements. |
| A．Passion. | B．Character . | C．Skill. | D．Talent. |
| A．To introduce what real talents are. |
| B．To explain how a song is composed. |
| C．To prove talents need team spirit. |
| D．To show the benefits of being with talents. |
| A．Music has no limits. |
| B．Musicians are born with talent. |
| C．Music favors the talented. |
| D．Musicians are created, not born. |
2 . It is a question people have been asking for ages. Is there a way to turn back the aging process?
For centuries, people have been looking for a “fountain of youth”. The idea is that if you find a magical fountain, and drink from its waters, you will not age.
Researchers in New York did not find an actual fountain of youth, but they may have found a way to turn back the aging process. It appears the answer may be hidden right between your eyes, in an area called the hypothalamus (下丘脑). The hypothalamus is part of your brain. It controls important activities within the body.
Researchers at New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine found that hypothalamus neural (神经的) stem cells also influence how fast aging takes place in the body.
What are stem cells(干细胞)? They are simple cells that can develop into specialized cells, like blood or skin cells. Stem cells can also repair damaged tissues and organs.
Dongsheng Cai is a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He was the lead researcher in a study on aging in mice. He and his team reported their findings in the journal Nature, Cai explained when hypothalamus function is in decline, particularly the loss of hypothalamus stem cells, and this protection against the aging development is lost. it eventually leads to aging.
Using this information, the researchers began trying to activate, or energize, the hypothalamus laboratory mice. They did this by injecting the animals with stem cells, Later, the researchers examined tissues and tested for changes in behavior. They looked for changes in the strength and coordination (协调) of the animals muscles. They also studied the social behavior and cognitive ability of the mice. The researchers say the results show that the treatment slowed aging in the animals, Cai says injecting middle-aged mice with stem cells from younger mice helped the older animals live longer.
But these results were just from studying mice in a laboratory. If the mice can live longer, does that mean people could have longer lives? The next step is to see if the anti-aging effects also work in.
1. In Paragraph 2 a “fountain of youth” is mentioned to ________.| A．introduce the main topic |
| B．show a hidden secret. |
| C．describe scientists research |
| D．recommend a way to stay young |
| A．stem cells develop into specialized cells |
| B．there are important activities within the body |
| C．hypothalamus neural stem cells fail to protect against aging |
| D．the hypothalamus fails to repair damaged tissues and organs |
| A．They did experiments to see how stem cells work. |
| B．They studied mice to find their connection with humans. |
| C．They have found a possible way to slow the aging progress. |
| D．They have found no changes in mice s behavior during the experiment |
| A．They will help some animals live longer. |
| B．They will announce the fountain of youth doesn’t exist |
| C．They will develop products to help people live a longer life immediately |
| D．They will do research to see if what they have found in mice will apply to humans. |
3 . On paper, hydrogen（H2）looks like a dream fuel. Coal, oil, and natural gas produce carbon dioxide, which warms the earth when burned, Hydrogen produces pure water. Hydrogen packs more energy into less space than a battery（but certainly less than petrol）. Also, empty tanks（燃料箱）can be refilled with hydrogen much faster than refilling empty batteries with electricity.
While in practice, things are trickier. Storing a meaningful amount of hydrogen gas requires pressing it several hundred-fold. Changing it into the liquid form is another option, but it should be cooled to-253C. Both processes require a heavy and strong tank. While a 700 bar tank is acceptable for a city bus or a truck, adapting it for use in small vehicles is very difficult because the pressure during refilling would be too great.
The solution? Powerpaste.
A German team of researchers, led by Marcus Vogt, have come up with an interesting "powerpaste", which can store hydrogen energy at atmospheric pressure, ready for release when needed. It is so named because it comes in tubes and looks like toothpaste（牙膏）, not in its traditional form of gas.
The main ingredient（原料）of the paste is magnesium hydride, a substance that reacts with water to form hydrogen. The escaped hydrogen can then be directed into a fuel cell, where it reacts with oxygen from the air to produce electric power.
Refueling is very simple, as instead of going to a filling station, drivers and riders can simply replace an empty tube with a new one and refill the water tank.
Given that powerpaste only begins to break down at temperatures of around 250℃ it remains safe even when a vehicle stands in the baking sun for hours.
However, we will have to be patient. Just because researchers have succeeded in developing a new fueling way does not mean that we can expect to see such vehicles on the road anytime soon. It will indeed be several years before this concept is turned into reality.
1. As a fuel, what is the advantage of hydrogen over oil?| A．Refilling empty tanks will be more convenient. |
| B．It is less likely to worsen global warming |
| C．More energy can be packed in the same space. |
| D．It will produce pure water for people to drink. |
| A．The practical difficulties to use hydrogen as fuel in small vehicles. |
| B．The detailed processes of adapting a strong tank in small vehicles. |
| C．The differences in fueling between large vehicles and small ones. |
| D．The tricks of building strong tanks in small vehicles. |
| A．inexpensive | B．powerful | C．convenient | D．environment-friendly |
| A．Powerpaste-driven vehicles sometimes move very slowly on the road. |
| B．Practical use of powerpaste-driven vehicles will not come very soon. |
| C．Powerpaste-driven vehicles can only work after being in the sun for hours |
| D．It will be years before the researchers work out the concept of powerpaste. |
4 . TikTok has pushed a new safety update in November to its app that allows parents to take more control of their teenager's accounts, as social media companies come under increasing pressure to make their platforms safer for children.
The company said Tuesday that its “Family Pairing” feature now enables parents to turn off comments on their children's videos entirely or to limit them to friends only. Parents whose accounts are linked to their kids will also be able to set their accounts to private, turn off the search function for content, users or sounds, and limit who can see which videos their children have liked.
Launched (发布) in March, the Family Pairing tool lets parents see how long their children are spending on TikTok each day and limit the content they can see.
TikTok allows children to register and create an account if they're over the age of 13. All they need to do is provide their date of birth. However, because TikTok doesn't require registers to prove their identities, some children under 13 have registered by lying about their age，according to U. K. regulator Ofcom (英国通讯管理局).
Alexandra Evans, head of child safety public policy for TikTok in Europe, told CNBC that Family Pairing has “put itself in parents’ shoes” since it was launched.
“If we're thinking about it as a toolbox, we wanted to offer more tools,” she said on a video call ahead of the announcement.
1. What pushed TikTok to launch the new update?| A．The pressure from social media. | B．The concern about kids' online safety. |
| C．The force from government. | D．The increasing need of users. |
| A．The safety tips from TikTok. | B．New apps explored by TikTok. |
| C．New functions of Family Pairing. | D．The limits on Family Pairing. |
| A．The difficulty in opening an account. | B．The low age limit for users. |
| C．TikTok's failure to check identities. | D．The demand for users' birth dates. |
| A．Uninterested. | B．Objective. |
| C．Disappointed. | D．Supportive. |
5 . As humanity has got richer, animal’s roles have changed. People need their services less than before. Fewer wolves and thieves meant less demand for dogs for protection; the internal combustion engine（内燃机）made horses unneeded; modern sanitation（卫生设备）kept rats in check and made cats less useful. No longer necessities, domestic animals became luxuries. Pet-keeping seems to kick in when household incomes rise above roughly $5,000. It is booming.
The trend is not a new one. Archaeologists（考古学家）have found 10,000-year-old graves in which dogs and people are buried together. Some cultures -- such as in Scandinavia, where dogs have long been both working dogs and companions -- have kept pets for thousands of years. But these days the pet-keeping urge has spread even to parts of the world which have no tradition of sinking into a comfortable chair with a furry creature.
The pet business is growing even faster than pet numbers, because people are spending more and more money on them. No longer are they food - waste - recyclers, fed with the remains that fall from their masters’ tables. Pet - food shelves are full of delicacies crafted to satisfy a range of appetites, including ice cream for dogs and foods for pets that are old, diabetic or suffer from sensitive digestion; a number of internet services offer food, tailored to the pet’s individual tastes.
In the business this is called “pet humanisation” -- the tendency of pet owners to treat their pets as part of the family. This is evident in the names given to dogs, which have evolved from Fido, Rex and Spot to -- in America -- Bella, Lucy and Max. It is evident in the growing market for pet clothing, pet grooming and pet hotels.
People still assume that pets must be working for humanity in some way, perhaps making people healthier or less anxious. But the evidence for that is weak. Rather, new research suggests that dogs have evolved those irresistible “puppy - dog eyes” precisely to affect human emotions. It has worked. The species that once enslaved others now works very hard to pay for the care of its pets. Sentimenta（l 多愁善感的）Americans often refer to themselves not as cat-owners but as the cat’s “mommy” or “daddy”. South Koreans go one further, describing themselves as cat “butlers”. Watch an unlucky dog-walker trailing “his” hound（猎犬）, plastic bag in hand to pick up its mess, and you have to wonder: who’s in charge now?
1. We can learn from the passage that ________.| A．People no longer need animal services. |
| B．Both the pet number and the pet business are growing. |
| C．Pets are increasingly making their owners less anxious. |
| D．Pet foods are not so various and customized as before. |
| A．Pet’s roles as both working staff and companions. nowadays. |
| B．Pet’s inbuilt ability to affect emotions of their owners. |
| C．The names given to pets in American families |
| D．Human beings ever rising urge for pet-keeping. |
| A．Some pet owners spend too much money on their pets. |
| B．Pets should be treated as equals of their human masters. |
| C．Pet-keeping is still restricted within certain parts of the world. |
| D．Human beings are getting much benefit from their pets. |
| A．Who Owns Whom |
| B．The Urge for Pet-keeping |
| C．The Changing Roles of Animals |
| D．Love Me, Love My Dog |
6 . Ostara, upon which Easter is based, is the Pagan celebration of the vernal equinox (春分).
The holiday is named after Eostre, a spring goddess of the Germanic tradition. There isn’t much written record of Eostre, and it is thought she was worshiped by tribes who used oral tradition rather than written words to record history. Eostre was a symbol of fertility—she may have been the original source of the association of eggs with springtime celebrations. She may also be responsible for the Easter rabbit—the spring equinox was a time when hares would come out and mate. A female hare can even conceive (受孕) while pregnant with another one—this remarkable fertility became a symbol of the season. Therefore, we get “Eostre rabbits” in the spring.
Growth and awakening are important parts of Ostara celebrations. Because the day marks the coming of the planting season, modern Pagans store seeds to later transfer outdoors after frost has disappeared. Caring for the seedling is like worshiping the goddess. Besides, drawings replace the pretty colors of new flowers.
For Pagans, Ostara is a time for spiritual awakening and rebirth. Walking meditation is a common practice and special attention is paid to the signs of nature coming back to life. New beginnings are coming, and there is much soul-searching and clearing away negative energy. This spiritual cleaning is also reflected in the practice of spring cleaning.
Whether you’re Pagan or not, you might have noticed many of your own springtime celebrations in Ostara celebrations, and there’s a reason why Pagan customs have been practiced pretty much in the same way because so much of it is simply human nature. Who could resist a springtime walk in a forest? Is there anyone who isn’t inspired by nature’s annual new beginning? So whatever your own tradition, honor the season with a spiritual cleaning and rebirth—to make room for beautiful things to come.
1. What can be inferred from the passage?| A．Ostara has a longer history than Easter. |
| B．Only Pagan celebrate Ostara nowadays. |
| C．Ostara is a celebration intended for females. |
| D．Most Ostara celebrations are not held outdoors. |
| A．Growth. | B．Drawings. |
| C．Flowers. | D．Spiritual awakening. |
| A．They can help to clean people’s spirit. |
| B．They are in need of some special attention. |
| C．It is common to hold the activities worldwide. |
| D．Written record of them is not talked about a lot. |
| A．They have the same origin and history. |
| B．It is human nature to pursue beautiful things. |
| C．Pagan customs have been spread to the world. |
| D．Pagans are good at learning from other cultures. |
7 . With paper flowers and music hanging around in the air, Lyu Jun was hosting a small farewell ceremony at an industrial zone in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. It was a funeral for a pet dog. Lyu came up with the idea of becoming a pet mortician (殡葬师) four years ago when he was preparing to start a business.
“At that time, there was only one brick-and-mortar(实体的) business that provided funeral services for pets in Shenzhen, but hundreds of pets die every day in this city,” he said. According to Lyu, many pet owners used to bury the remains of their beloved animals near their homes , which had a harmful impact on the environment and created the risk of spreading disease.
He saw a gap in the market for someone able to properly handle the death of pets. “A pet funeral service provides treatment of the bodies that is harm-free, and it is the greatest comfort to pet owners,” Lyu said.
He takes good care of the remains of the pets and tidies up their appearance before the funeral. In addition, he prepares funeral addresses and selects suitable tombs for the pets. He also films funerals for owners who cannot attend the ceremonies, and provides paper and pens for those who want to write down their blessings and hang the notes on the wishing tree.
Over the past four years, Lyu has bid farewell to more than 2,000 dogs, cats and other kinds of animals. He also does volunteer work in his spare time to promote responsible dog raising. “The pet funeral service industry is still in its babyhood, and I hope there will be a set of strict standards for people who take on this job and a belter environment for the industry,” Lyu said.
1. Why did Lyu start the business on pet funeral service?| A．Because he could earn a lot of money from it. |
| B．Because he thought it met the market requirement. |
| C．Because he thought it would be a unique and challenging business. |
| D．Because he could help owners bury their dead pets near their homes. |
| A．He delivers speeches to mourn the pets. |
| B．He gives best wishes to the pets' owners. |
| C．He makes films of the pets for their birth. |
| D．He nurses and cares for the pets carefully. |
| A．Lyu volunteers to raise pets on his own. |
| B．The pet funeral service has got a big success. |
| C．More strict standards should be set for pets' owners. |
| D．There remains a potential in the pet funeral industry. |
| A．A research report. | B．An advertisement. |
| C．A novel. | D．A magazine. |
8 . Lunch is a part of Chinese culture. When I'm back home in England, I often miss Chinese lunch.
At home, at work, at school, English lunchtime is far from a formal meal of the day. It seems that we can't wait to finish lunch as quickly as possible. People working in the office take out packed sandwiches that are not delicious. Work canteens(餐厅) are crowded with people too busy to eat, rushing to the checkout(收银台) with something in hand so that they can quickly eat up on the way to another meeting. A lot of work in England leaves little time to have our meals and enjoy them. Perhaps this is why so many of us hold such unhealthy relationships with food.
The way we plan our days in England shows we don't care about mealtimes. Meetings, lectures, interviews and so on are all planned from 12 a.m. to 2 p.m. In Beijing lunch often starts from 11:30 p.m. to 1 p.m. And owners of many shops gather in small groups to share a meal, which is hardly seen in England. I have never experienced such a culture where finding time to eat is so important.
In China, food is shared and the time is enjoyed as a moment of get-together in busy days. This is a value and practice we should hold in our lives in England. In China food is not only a necessity(必需品), but also a time for get-together with friends and family, and I love it.
1. Why can't most English people enjoy their lunch?| A．They think British food is terrible. |
| B．They are anxious to go shopping. |
| C．They are too busy with work. |
| D．They have much housework. |
| A．Its atmosphere | B．Its taste |
| C．Its price | D．Its kinds |
| A．English people don't take mealtimes seriously. |
| B．English lunchtime lasts one and a half hours. |
| C．English people never experience Chinese culture. |
| D．English people like to get together in groups. |
| A．The best way to experience Chinese lunch. |
| B．Lunch differences between China and England. |
| C．Suggestions of enjoying English culture. |
| D．The stressful lifestyles of English people. |
9 . Toys for the Techie In Your Life
BY NICOLE NGUYEN, JOANNA STERN AND WILSON ROTHMAN
Each fall, we look back at the year's best tech products, and list the ones we think are actually worth your money (and ours). So have at it!
Lexon Oblio Phone Sanitizer/Charger
This stylish nightstand vase is a Qi-compatible (兼容) wireless charger that powers up your phone while bathing it in ultraviolet light, which is known to reduce the spread of harmful bacteria and may also be effective in inactivating the new coronavirus, according to the FDA. $80; lexon-design.com
MaskFone
The MaskFone is really just a mask with a pouch (袋子) that holds a pair of Motorola wireless earbuds, but it does solve some highly annoying mask-headphone issues. The earbuds, attached to the belts, stay firmly in your ear when walking or running. No more flying AirPod when you remove the mask. Then, with the microphone shoved (推) inside, you don't sound like you're underwater every time you take a call. Just beware: since there's no phone in sight, people you pass will think you're talking to them under your mask. S50; maskfone.com
LuDela Real-Flame Smart Candles ,
Sure, our gift guide tends to include some curiosities, but this remote-controlled selflighting candle actually makes sense. It's not a wax burning candle, but a wax-cylinder lamp with refillable fuel canisters that each last about 100 hours, so it's always full size. Each one does cost... $99; ludela.com
iRobot Roomba i3+
Forget the past puppy. Get a latest robovac (robotic vacuum cleaner). The not-so-adorable, not-so-little autonomous vacuum is quick to navigate to the mess and impressively avoids obstacles. It even empties itself into its Clean Base station. Plus, with the improved app you can set its cleaning schedule, keep track of how much area it covered and remotely control it from anywhere in the house. $600; irobot.com
1. Where can we buy a wireless charger that can reduce the spread of harmful bacteria?| A．lexon-design.com. | B．maskfbne.com. | C．ludela.com. | D．irobot.com. |
| A．iRobot Roomba i3+ is a puppy. |
| B．iRobot Roomba i3+ has refillable fuel canisters that can last 100 hours. |
| C．iRobot Roomba i3+ is a self emptying robovac. |
| D．iRobot Roomba i3+ solves some highly annoying issues. |
| A．To encourage new technology. | B．To advertise several tech products. |
| C．To introduce toys for children. | D．To tell about new technology. |
10 . These days, it's not unusual to see middle-aged men collecting Star Wars action figures, office workers wearing Hello Kitty accessories, or celebrities like David Beckham playing with Lego bricks. It's becoming more and more common to see adults taking an interest in toys, comic books and the activities that are traditionally associated with children. This phenomenon has given rise to a new word: kidult.
What lies behind the phenomenon? One is about adults' nostalgia （怀旧之情）for the carefree days of childhood, and this is especially true with today's fast-paced, stressful lifestyles. Another is about a societal change in recent decades where people are starting families later. As a result, they have more time and money to spend on themselves. Some adults could only window-shop for their dream toys when they were kids, but now they can afford that radio controlled car or high-priced doll they have always wanted.
Businesses have been quick to exploit the kidult trend, and the number of toy stores that target adults has risen. Companies are repackaging products from past decades and also bringing out new ones for adults. Lego, for example, has brought out an architectural series featuring landmarks from around the world.
Society traditionally disapproves of adults who refuse to put aside childhood interests, viewing the refusal as a sign of social immaturity and irresponsibility. Those who agree with this view sometimes claim that kidults are suffering from the pop-psychology concept known as Peter Pan Syndrome, an anomaly （异常）that people remain emotionally at the level of teenagers. On a grander scale, these kidult opponents （对手）argue that such delayed adulthood causes couples to marry later and have fewer children. This in turn can lead to shrinking national economies, for there needs to be a generational replenishment （补充）
of the workforce.
From the standpoint of kidults, though, this phenomenon is seen as nothing but harmless fun. Kidults insist that having youthful interests keeps them young, happy and creative, and their refusal to conform to society's acceptable tastes shows independent thinking. Besides, they argue that being part of the social trend of delayed adulthood is not purely a personal choice. The real causes include expensive housing, increased educational requirements for employment and poor work opportunities.
Whether the kidult phenomenon will continue to grow or prove to be a passing trend is anyone's guess. As the debate about it continues, remember that there is nothing wrong with being young at heart.
1. What does the kidult phenomenon refer to?| A．Adults act like children. |
| B．Adults have child-like tastes. |
| C．Adults go in for collecting toys. |
| D．Adults like playing with children. |
| A．Different living conditions. |
| B．More choices about toys. |
| C．High pressure of modern life. |
| D．Good memories of childhood. |
| A．Get used to. |
| B．Look forward to. |
| C．Take advantage of. |
| D．Make way for. |
| A．By strongly opposing kidult opponents. |
| B．By convincing readers to accept kidults. |
| C．By refusing to take a stand on the issue. |
| D．By presenting both sides of the argument. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Positive. |
| C．Disapproving. | D．Uncaring. |
