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 . Where to eat and drink at museums
Museums, like department stores and airports, are now counting food among their attractions. The following museum restaurants would be worth a meal even if not surrounded by masterpieces. Most of them can be visited independently of the museums.
Met Breuer
Flora Bar
The food from a brief menu is anything but: refined, excellent and pleasantly served. It begins with breakfast when it pays to arrive before the famous cinnamon buns run out.
Open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 3: 30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays;
Dinner from 5: 30. p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 5: 30 p. m. to 9 p. m. Sundays (reservations, no museum admission required).
646-558-5383
Asia Society
Garden Court Café
Here Steamed Chinese Dumplings served in bamboo baskets share the menu with Indian samosas, Koran Japchae Glass Noodles and a Japanese bento box assortment. Wine and beer are served.
Open daily from l: 30 a.m. to 3 p.m., except Mondays (reservations, no museum admission required).
212-570-5202
EI Museo del Barrio
Side Park Café
Mexican street food, done with some refinement, is the order of the day.
Open from 8 a. m. Mondays through Fridays, and 11 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays, until 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 6 p.m. Sundays through Tuesdays (no reservations, no museum admission required).
212-831-7272
Museum of Arts and Design
Robert
Crowd-pleasing food includes crab cakes, Wagyu beef sliders and duck breast.
Lunch: 11:30 a. m. to 2: 30 p. m. Mondays through Fridays;
Dinner: 5 p. m. to 11 p. m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays through Tuesdays (reservations, no museum admission required).
212-299-7730
1. How long does the lunch last at Flora Bar?| A．For 2 hours. | B．For 3 hours. |
| C．For 4 hours. | D．For 5 hours. |
| A．212-570-5202. | B．212-831-7272. |
| C．212-299-7730. | D．646-558-5383 |
| A．It is known for its delicious duck breast. |
| B．It requires advance reservations. |
| C．It offers museum-goers discounts. |
| D．It opens seven days a week. |
| A．Flora Bar. | B．Garden Court Cafe. |
| C．Side Park Cafe. | D．Robert. |
| A．At 10 a.m. Mondays. | B．At 11 a. m. Tuesdays. |
| C．At 9:30 p.m. Wednesdays. | D．At 10:30 p.m. Sundays |
3 . I was with my mom one day as we took a walk while window shopping. We both knew we wouldn't be buying much. I remember I was looking up at the people we passed as we walked. Ladies wore 5-inch heels and bright clothes. Men wore expensive perfumes and creams that wiped away the wrinkles on their faces. An uneasy feeling started to settle in my chest. I could deny it no longer and I was ashamed of my mom.
We were in a high-class neighborhood. We lived in a small, expensive apartment building at the edge of our county. Mom chose to move there because she knew the schools were good. I realized for the first time that we didn't belong there.
I could see the heavy lines around my mom's eyes and mouth. She wore cheap clothes and worm-out shoes. Her eyes were tired from working long hours to make ends meet, and her hair was too gray for her age. She was nothing extraordinary, yet at that moment, she stood out because she was just so plain. I didn't want to be seen with her although there was no one important around to see me anyway. I felt embarrassed about being at her side. We were standing in the middle of a high-end store, and she was holding a sweater.
Mom said, “Anna, this will look good on you. Do you want it?” It Was much too expensive, but I almost thoughtlessly answered “Yes”. Then I took a closer look at the small, tired woman with a big smile and a sweater in her hands, happy to be giving me something so nice. My words died in my throat. Her clothes were worn and old because she spent her money buying me new ones. She looked so tired because she was busy working to provide for me. She didn't wear jewelry or perfumes because she was content with spending what little money she had on me. Suddenly, my mom was beautiful and extraordinarily wonderful in my eyes. I was no longer ashamed of her, but of myself.
“Do you want it?” Mom repeated.
“No, thanks,” I replied.
1. Why did the author describe the passers-by while window-shopping?| A．To stress her mother was plain. |
| B．To show she envied rich people. |
| C．To suggest she was curious about others. |
| D．To indicate she was in an expensive neighborhood. |
| A．Studying at a top school. | B．Going window-shopping. |
| C．Being seen with her mom. | D．Living in a small apartment. |
| A．She was afraid of being blamed by her mom. |
| B．She was too excited to say anything about the sweater. |
| C．She felt her mom was so ordinary that she stopped speaking. |
| D．She failed to speak after realizing her mom's great sacrifices. |
| A．Misunderstanding Mom | B．Refusing Mom's Kindness |
| C．Feeling Ashamed of Mom | D．Going Shopping with Mom |
4 . Happiness is not a warm phone, according to a new study exploring the link between young life satisfaction and screen time. The study was led by professor of psychology Jean M. Twenge at San Diego State University (SDSU).
To research this link, Twenge, along with colleagues Gabrielle Martin at SDSU and W. Keith Campbell at the University of Georgia, dealt with data from the Monitoring the Future (MtF) study, a nationally representative survey of more than a million U. S. 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders. The survey asked students questions about how often they spent time on their Phones, tablets and computers, as well as questions about their face-to-face social interactions and their overall happiness.
On average found that teens who spent more time in front of screen devices — playing computer games, using social media, texting and video chatting — were less happy than those who invested more time in non-screen activities like sports, reading newspapers and magazines, and face-to-face social interactions.
"The key to digital media use and happiness is limited use," Twenge said. "Aim to spend no more than two hours a day on digital media, and try to increase the amount of time you spend seeing friends face-to-face and exercising — two activities reliably linked to greater happiness."
Looking at historical trends from the same age groups since the 1990s, it's easy to find that the increase of screen devices over time happened at the same time as a general drop-off in reported happiness in U. S. teens. Specifically, young peopled life satisfaction and happiness declined sharply after 2012. That's the year when the percentage of Americans who owned a smartphone rose above 50 percent. By far the largest change in teens' lives between 2012 and 2016 was the increase in the amount of time they spent on digital media, and the following decline in in-person social activities and sleep.
1. Which method did Twenge's team use for the study?| A．Calculating students' happiness. |
| B．Asking students certain questions. |
| C．Analyzing data from a survey. |
| D．Doing experiments on screen time. |
| A．By making a comparison. |
| B．By giving an example. |
| C．By making an argument. |
| D．By introducing a concept. |
| A．To draw a conclusion from the study. |
| B．To offer some advice to the readers. |
| C．To prove social activities' importance. |
| D．To support the researchers' finding. |
| A．Quitting Phones Equals Happiness |
| B．Screen Time Should Be Banned |
| C．Teens' Lives Have Changed Sharply |
| D．Screen-addicted Teens Are Unhappier |
5 . 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. |
6 . In the age of online shopping and e-readers, devoted staff and customers keep the doors of Auntie's Bookstore open for 40 years. “When you're in Portland, you go to Powell's Books. When you're in Seattle, you go to Elliott Bay. When you're in Spokane, you go to Auntie's,” said John Waite, the owner of the bookstore. “I can't imagine Spokane without Auntie's,” he said. “A lot of people can't imagine Spokane without Auntie's, either,” Waite said.
Turning visitors into regular customers is important to the store's success. Auntie's markets itself as a destination. A half-dozen book clubs meet there. Most weeks, the store hosts two to four author readings or literary events. “We want people to come down, hang out and experience the feel of having a book in their hands,” Waite said.
Eager readers not only want to read books, but want to discuss them, said Kerry Halls, the store manager. Auntie's offers them that chance, she said.
“You can't go to Amazon and talk to someone about your favorite novel, or discuss what you think of the latest Stephen King's book compared with Pet Sematary,” she said.
To compete with the convenience of shopping online, Auntie's tries to predict what books will become a trend. They store these books in advance. But Waite doesn't sugarcoat the realities of selling books in the era of Amazon and other online retailers (零售店). “Even the big guys can’t make it,” he said, noting physical retailers are striving nationally. As the United States' oldest national bookstore chain, Barnes&Noble has to constantly reorganize to stop the declining sales.
At Auntie's, regular customers are very important to its survival and development. Sales of children's and young adults' books are increasing in recent years. Waite said. “For a long time, older customers have kept bookstores alive, "he said. "Now, it's starting to attract younger people.” Another reason of Auntie's longevity (长寿) is Northwest culture, which Waite said encourages new ways of thinking and the diversity of ideas. "I think it's a great book town, “Waite said. "People are enthusiastic about reading.”
1. What can we learn about Auntie's from Paragraph 1?| A．It is very popular in the local area. |
| B．It is a highly profitable physical bookstore. |
| C．It takes full advantage of the e-business platform. |
| D．It has a longer history than Powell's Books and Elliott Bay. |
| A．To set up a literary environment. |
| B．To have more regular customers. |
| C．To awaken people's interest in reading. |
| D．To encourage readers to learn about more authors. |
| A．Celebrating. | B．Progressing. | C．Struggling. | D．Compromising. |
| A．The future of Auntie's. |
| B．The major customers of Auntie's. |
| C．The influence of Auntie's. |
| D．The reasons for Auntie's longevity. |
7 . Christmas is on the way: 4 gift ideas from Stanford's bookshop.
Shipping Areas Tea Towel, £9. 99 (enjoying a 10% discount)
We are a nation of sailors who rely on weather forecasts to keep safe. This book will help you understand the shipping forecast, with the 30 shipping areas mentioned in the National Weather Service. So, the next time you turn on the radio and hear about high winds in Cromarty, Forth and Tyne, you'll know that they mean strong winds in these areas. You'll be wiser to make some preparations.
The Writer's Map, £30 (enjoying a 5% discount)
The Writer's Map combines maps and literature. Many writers use maps to plan out their stories. This book collects maps that appear in fiction and non-fiction. JRR Tolkien, a fantasy novel writer, said, “The fact that many books choose to contain one map is evidence to the importance of maps. I wisely started with a map, and made the story fit.”
Brutalist London Map, £8 (enjoying a 5% discount)
You either love it or you hate it. Said to have been coined (创造) in the late 1950s from the French raw concrete, brutalism (野兽派艺术) was a big influence on the 1960s London’s finest examples of brutalism. Brutalism maps of other cities, including Paris, Washington and Sydney, are also available.
The Ordnance Survey Puzzle Book, £14. 99 (enjoying a 10% & discount)
The national mapping agency, Ordnance Survey, has been mapping the Great Britain for many years. The Ordnance Survey Puzzle Book includes word puzzles and various mathematical challenges. It includes maps containing rare geographical characteristics or places of special cultural interest. It will make you look more closely at every map and test your map-reading knowledge.
1. Shipping Areas Tea Towel can help sailors ________.| A．know world-famous shipping areas |
| B．prepare for bad weather in advance |
| C．have the ability to predict weather |
| D．judge the quality of various ships |
| A．They are both brought out by the same publisher. |
| B．They both aim to test readers' map-reading skill. |
| C．They can both reflect the history of Britain. |
| D．They both include challenging puzzles. |
| A．To advertise four books. |
| B．To compare four books. |
| C．To appeal to people to read. |
| D．To show different maps. |
8 . Disease-carrying mosquitoes can spread diseases without affecting themselves. Nearly 700 million people get a mosquito-borne illness each year, which results in over one million deaths. Humans experience continuous pressures from disease-carrying mosquitoes in many parts of the world, so we have to find ways to fight against those insects because they keep getting scarier.
Even though DEET remains the most commonly used, and most powerful, mosquito repellent (防护剂) ever developed, scientists are actively pursuing effective products based entirely on plant oils. While DEET is an effective contact repellent, many people dislike the oily feel and smell on their skin, and sometimes some people are sensitive to it. Consumers are always interested in alternatives to DEET and other synthetic (合成的) repellents, so there are numerous natural repellents on the market.
In my lab at Iowa State University, my team and I have been conducting research on natural products as possible insect repellents for the past 20 years. In the past few years, three of my Ph. D. students have contributed greatly to our research by designing, synthesizing, purifying, characterizing and testing more than 300 closely related chemicals coming from the best of natural repellents like citronellol, menthol and thymol.
These students have successfully tested these repellents against three species of dangerous mosquitoes. The first group of the new repellents act through the air. These chemicals have a vapor action that provides protection. These are potentially most useful in backyards, parks, houses, barracks and horse barns. The other group of the new repellents are the classic ones that stop insects from standing on a treated surface, such as human skin, clothing or tents; some researchers have conducted testing on some humans to confirm the effectiveness and identify the very best ones.
The new repellents were designed and made from the natural materials in plant essential oils. They maintain many of the advantages of the natural repellents: They are fully biodegradable (可生物降解的), with no ecological concerns or environmental wastes, and generally considered safe like the thousands of types of plant essential oils used in the flavor and perfume industries. However, thorough testing will be conducted to determine if they are truly non-poisonous because there is still no enough evidence.
1. What does the author mainly want to show in Paragraph 1?| A．The way mosquitoes spread disease. |
| B．The high death rate of mosquito-borne illness. |
| C．The difficulty of fighting disease-carrying mosquitoes. |
| D．The urgency of finding tools to fight against mosquitoes |
| A．It causes discomfort to the users. |
| B．It greatly harms people's health. |
| C．It can't be applied universally. |
| D．It won't be effective for long. |
| A．They can kill mosquitoes indirectly. |
| B．They are mainly used in the open air. |
| C．They are more effective on human skin. |
| D．They can prevent mosquitoes from contacting users. |
| A．Disapproving | B．Negative | C．Objective | D．Subjective |
9 . Are your kids interested in science and technology? Help them sign up for any of the following programs, and your kids will thank you more than enough.
Science is Beautiful Arts Contest
Location: Canada
Project Type: Arts
Grade Level: 11-12
The “Science is Beautiful” arts contest is open to Canadian students in grades 11-12. Both individual and group entries are accepted. But there is a limit of one submission per individual or group. There is no restriction on the type of submission — your artwork can consist of photographs, sculptures, poems, songs or any other medium that allows you to share the beauty of science!
Tomatosphere Action Project
Location: Across Canada
Project Type: Data Collection
Grade Level: 10-12
Tomatosphere is a program that uses the excitement of space exploration to teach the skills and processes of scientific experimentation and inquiry. Participating classrooms compare the germination rate (发芽率) of tomato seeds which have been exposed to a space-like environment with that of a control set of seeds.
DNA Barcoding (条形编码) at the Toronto Zoo
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Project Type: Student Science Club
Grade Level: 7-12
DNA technology is in use right now to preserve and catalogue life’s biodiversity through a Canadian invention: the DNA barcode of life. This colourful barcode is already being used to fight the greatest crime of our lifetime — the loss of biodiversity. By adding information to a few exhibits at the zoo, high school students can witness the power of biotechnology in solving global issues.
Dandelion (蒲公英) Project
Location: Ontario
Project Type: Data Collection
Grade Level: 11
This dynamic and hands-on program focuses on studying evolution of a species available all around us: the dandelion. Students will actively make observations, generate predictions, design experiments, collect and analyze the data and communicate their findings.
1. The "Science is Beautiful" arts contest mainly sets a limit on _____.| A．the type of the artwork submitted |
| B．the number of the artwork submission |
| C．the ability to express the beauty of science |
| D．the number of the participating group members |
| A．Science is Beautiful Arts Contest. |
| B．Tomatosphere Action Project. |
| C．DNA Barcoding at the Toronto Zoo. |
| D．Dandelion Project. |
| A．By doing some practical activities in person. |
| B．By learning about the history of dandelions. |
| C．By asking experts about dandelions’ details. |
| D．By referring to previous studies on dandelions. |
10 . A 15-year-old scientist and inventor has been named as Time's first ever Kid of the Year.
Rao is a high school student from Colorado. She was chosen from 5,000 U.S.-based nominees ( 提 名 ). Time said in a statement that Rao stood out for her ability to apply scientific ideas to real-world problems and her efforts to motivate other kids to take up their own causes. Rao told the Associated Press that the prize is “nothing that I could have ever imagined. And I'm so grateful and just so excited that we're really taking a look at the upcoming generation and our generation, since the future is in our hands.” She insists that starting out small doesn't matter, as long as you're enthusiastic about it.
It's just the latest recognition for the teenager, who was named last year to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Rao won praise in 2017 after she developed a portable device（设备） to detect lead (铅) in water. She went on to cooperate with scientists in the water industry to try to get the device on the market.
The young scientist has also developed an app called Kindly that uses artificial intelligence to help prevent cyberbullying (网络欺凌). It allows teens to type in a word or phrase to find out if the words they're using are hurtful and amount to（等于）bullying, and thus should be avoided.
In an interview with Time, Rao said that her pursuits（追求） in science started early as a way to improve conditions in society. In a world where science is increasingly questioned or challenged, Rao insists that its pursuit is an important act of kindness. It is the best way that a younger generation can better the world. Science and technology are being employed as never before to handle various issues, such as global warming, the outbreak of disease and so on, she noted.
“We have science in everything we're involved in, and I think that's the biggest thing to put out there, that science is cool, invention is cool, and anybody can be an inventor," Rao said.“ Anybody can do science.
1. What is one of the reasons for Rao being honored by Time?| A．The up-to-date ideas she had come up with. |
| B．The large amounts of time she had devoted. |
| C．The influence she has on young generations. |
| D．The optimistic attitude she holds to the future. |
| A．functional | B．environment-friendly |
| C．efficient | D．money-saving |
| A．Her tolerance for problems. | B．Her amazing brain power. |
| C．Her exposure to challenges. | D．Her concern about society. |
| A．High School Student Struggling for Big Dream |
| B．Young Scientist Named TIME's Kid of the Year |
| C．Scientific Achievements Applied to Our Real Life |
| D．Advanced Inventions Used in Bettering the World |
