1 . Almost every family buys as least one copy of a newspaper every day. Some people subscribe to as many as two or three different newspapers. But why do people read newspapers?
Five hundred years ago, news of important happenings--battles lost and won, kings or rulers overthrown(推翻)or killed--took months and even years to travel from one country to another. The news passed by word of mouth and was never accurate. Today we can read in our newspapers of important events that occur in faraway countries on the same day they happen.
Apart from supplying news from all over the world, newspapers give us a lot of other useful information. There are weather reports, radio, television and film guides, book reviews, stories, and of course, advertisements. The bigger ones are put in by large companies to bring attention to their products. They pay the newspapers thousands of dollars for the advertising space, but it is worth the money for news of their products goes into almost every home in the country. For those who produce newspapers, advertisements are also very important. Money earned from advertisements makes it possible for them to sell their newspapers at a low price and still make a profit.
1. The phrase “subscribe to” in the first paragraph means“________”| A．go to the newspaper stand and buy | B．send their own news stories to |
| C．agree to buy for a specific period of time | D．become faithful readers of |
| A．bad news traveled quickly and good news slowly |
| B．few people cared about events that took place in faraway countries |
| C．kings and rulers were often overthrown or killed |
| D．news was passed from one person to another |
| A．wasted | B．not much |
| C．well spent | D．of no use to anyone |
| A．Five hundred years ago it took a long time for news to reach other countries. |
| B．Newspaper advertisements turn people’s attention away from their products. |
| C．The news that we read in newspapers is mainly about new products. |
| D．When newspapers are sold at a low price, the newspaper producers will lose money. |
2 . At the start of every working week, millions of people around the world get ready for something they do endlessly, joylessly and badly ： a meeting
It was awful before the pandemic (疫情), when research showed there were an average of 55 million meetings daily in the US alone. I fear to think what the figures look like now that Covid-19 and remote working have started the age of the continuous meeting.
It wouldn't be a problem if all meetings did what they were supposed to do and helped busy people make good decisions about important matters. But the evidence suggests otherwise. Studies over the past 15 years have shown about 70 percent of workers have rated their meetings poor or unproductive, writes US professor, Steven Rogelberg, in his 2019 book The Surprising Science of Meetings.
“The root of the rotten meeting is simple," says Madeleine de Hauke, a meeting coach and teacher. “We spend our lives in meetings, but there's very little investment (投入)into helping people run them effectively," she told me last week.
A meeting coach might say that, but I think Ms de Hauke is correct. Running a meeting well takes skills. At a minimum, people need to know in advance why they are meeting； what they are supposed to achieve ； who really needs to be there and how they should contribute. Yet meeting leaders are expected to learn all these on the job.
I thought the pandemic had made things worse. But Ms de Hauke makes a convincing argument that Zoom calls merely strengthen what was going on before. If a meeting was productive and cheerful before, it is probably better now. If it was wasteful and annoying, it is likely to be worse.
Still, a bad meeting is like a virus. By failing to produce good decisions it often requires another meeting to be held, then another and another. Luckily, there is no need for a vaccine (疫苗), just a bit more care and preparation, and an understanding that there is no shame in being taught how to lead a meeting well.
1. What does the passage focus on?| A．Why people hate meetings. |
| B．How Covid-19 affects meetings. |
| C．Recommending experienced meeting coaches. |
| D．Suggesting developing the skills of meeting running. |
| A．Meetings are poor and short. |
| B．Meetings are dull and fruitless. |
| C．Meetings make people less interested in work. |
| D．Meetings cause people to make wrong decisions. |
| A．Invite people to attend the meeting in advance. |
| B．Invest much money to run meetings successfully. |
| C．Set clear goals and make preparations for the meeting. |
| D．Make everybody present at the meeting learn some skills. |
| A．By comparison. | B．By classification. |
| C．By analying causes. | D．By listing examples. |
3 . Rocky was a 65-pound dog. Rita was his eleven-year old owner. When Rocky was given to her, Rita immediately liked him. Whenever she was not in school,the two were always together and within touching distance. The family would lovingly call the pair “R and R”.
But Rocky had one shortcoming. He feared water very much because of a terrible experience. When he was at the age of seven weeks long before he met Rita,he was nearly drowned by a naughty boy who had been blamed by his father.
One late afternoon, Rita's mother took R and R to a shopping area near a lake. Rita was running along the wooden bridge over the water,enjoying the beautiful scenery around. Suddenly a boy on a bicycle hit Rita. She let out a cry of pain and fell into the lake.
Rita's mother was at the entrance of a store not far away. She rushed to the lake shouting for help. Rocky seemed to forget his fear and jumped into the water to save his owner. Rocky immediately swam to Rita and held her by the shoulder's clothes with his mouth. Rita's face was quickly out of the water and she could cough.Luckily,the water was calm,they were not far from the bank,and Rocky finally reached a depth where his feet were on solid ground. He pulled Rita hard until her head was completely out of the water, and then he stood beside her, licking (舔) her face.
Rita and her family firmly believed that it was only the big dog's love for the little girl that caused him to take action that might be life-dangerous.
1. From the text, we know __________.| A．Rita was once blamed |
| B．Rocky was eleven years old |
| C．Rita spent her spare time with Rocky |
| D．Rocky lived in Rita's home since his birth |
| A．Brave. | B．Honest. | C．Unkind. | D．Dangerous. |
| A．At noon. | B．At night. | C．In the morning. | D．In the afternoon. |
① Rocky came into Rita's life.② Rocky was nearly drowned.
③They were playing near the lake. ④ Rocky saved Rita from the water.
| A．①②④③ | B．②①③④ | C．③①②④ | D．④③②① |
4 . A Portland, Oregon man has become the first person to travel across Antarctica by himself without receiving any assistance.
Colin O’Brady has completed the 1,500-kilometer trip. He crossed the continent in 54 days. Friends, family and other people followed his progress through messages and pictures he left on social media.
O’Brady spoke with his wife Jenna Besaw by telephone soon after he completed the journey. “It was an emotional call,” she said. “He seemed overwhelmed by love and appreciation, and he really wanted to say ‘thank you’ to all of us.”
The 33-year-old O’Brady documented the trip on the social networking services Instagram. He called his journey “The Impossible First”. He wrote that he traveled the last 129 kilometers in one big, final push to the finish line. The distance took over one day to complete. O’Brady wrote, “While the last 32 hours were some of the most challenging hours of my life, they have quite honestly been some of the best moments I have ever experienced.”
The day before, he wrote that he was “in the zone” and thought he could make it to the end without stopping. “I was listening to my body and taking care of the details to keep myself safe,” he wrote. “I called home and talked to my mom, sister and wife. I promised them I would stop when I need to.”
Other people have traveled across Antarctica, but they all had some form of assistance. They either had better, more plentiful supplies or devices that helped move them forward.
In 2016, British explorer Henry Worsley died in his attempt to travel alone across Antarctica unassisted. Worsley’s friend Louis Rudd, also from Britain, is attempting an unaided solo journey in Worsley’s honor. He was competing against O’Brady to be the first to do it. Besaw told the Associated Press that her husband plans to stay in Antarctica until Rudd finishes his trip.
1. What did O’Brady think of his journey in Antarctica?| A．It was pleasant. | B．It was discouraging. |
| C．It was impossible to complete. | D．It was hard to complete. |
| A．Making sure of his safety. | B．Trying to achieve the goal. |
| C．Keeping in touch with them. | D．Stopping the travel halfway. |
| A．To wait for another explorer. | B．To compete with others. |
| C．To help other explorers. | D．To make his victory recognized. |
| A．The Antarctic Continent | B．The Impossible First |
| C．Traveling in Antarctica | D．An Incomplete Journey |
5 . If you live in certain parts of the world, you will see something magical happen each fall. It is the changing of the color of the leaves on many different trees. Each year deciduous (落叶的) trees go through a process in which their green leaves become bright yellow, gold, orange and red before turning brown and falling onto the ground.
Photosynthesis (光合作用) is the process for trees to make their food taking energy from the sun, water from the ground, and carbon dioxide from the air, they make sugar to “eat” so they can grow into strong, healthy trees. The leaves of a tree are where photosynthesis happens because the chlorophyll (叶绿素) in the leaves is what makes photosynthesis possible. Chlorophyll also has another job—it is what makes leaves green. When the seasons change in places where deciduous trees grow and the days get shorter and the weather gets colder, it is harder for the chlorophyll in the leaves to make the food needed to stay green. So instead of making more food, the leaves start using food they have stored away for this time of year.
As the leaves use the food that has been stored away, cells form at the bottom of each leaf. These cells act like a door between the leaf and the rest of the tree—a door that closes very slowly and doesn’t shut until all the leaf’s food is gone. While this is happening, the colors in the leaves of the trees are able to show through. In fact, the red, yellow, gold and orange colors are hiding in the leaves all summer long. The colors just can’t be seen in the summer because of all the chlorophyll in the leaves.
You might be wondering how the rest of the tree keeps growing when the weather turns cold and the leaves die and fall. Doesn’t the rest of the tree need the food made by the tree’s leaves?
Not really. The tree trunk and branches get food from the roots of the tree. The roots supply water, vitamins and minerals they get from the ground. Trees need sunshine and warm weather to grow, but they also need time to rest like bears that sleep during the winter.
1. Why do leaves change colors?| A．They save some energy to stay alive. |
| B．The chlorophyll stores some food away. |
| C．They have to get used to the cold weather. |
| D．They can’t get enough energy from the sun. |
| A．When there is no sunlight any longer . |
| B．When the food stored away in the leaves is use up. |
| C．When the chlorophyll in the leaves stops working. |
| D．When cells start to form at the bottom of each leaf . |
| A．By getting food from the ground. |
| B．By storing food in their branches. |
| C．By storing food in their roots. |
| D．By making the most use of the dead leaves. |
| A．To study how trees survive in winter. |
| B．To tell about the importance of photosynthesis. |
| C．To explain why leaves change colors. |
| D．To show the changes of trees in the whole year. |
6 . A super-reflective cooling coating
A team of Columbia University researchers thinks that painting buildings with a new type of coating could help. Some cities already use white roofs to try to cool buildings by reflecting sunlight. But the new coating developed by the scientists can help buildings even cooler.
"It's like snow," says Yuan Yang, an assistant professor at Columbia. Snow, he explains, is filled with micron-sized（微米级的）crystals of ice that create tiny pockets of air that scatter light—the effect that makes snow white rather than transparent like ice, and highly reflective. The researchers created a polymer（聚合物）coating that also has nano to-micro-scale pockets of air that turn it white. "Our paint can be much more reflective than normal paint," he says.
Regular white paint might reflect 85% of the sunlight that hits it. The new coating, depending on its thickness, could reflect as much as 99%. If used with colored paint, it's less effective, but also keeps buildings cooler than they would otherwise be; the coating is also less effective in areas with high humidity（湿度）. In a hot, dry city like Phoenix, the white coating could keep a building around 10 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the outdoor air on a summer day. Most Arizonans have air conditioning, and in a city where temperatures regularly reach well over 100 degrees, the coating isn't likely to replace it. But it could help buildings use less energy to stay cool. For the small fraction of residents there who don't have air conditioning, the coating could potentially help protect their health on the hottest days. In 2018, more than 155 people in Phoenix died in heat waves.
In places where air conditioning is currently uncommon, such as Seattle, where there were a record number of hot days last July, but only one-third of residents have air conditioning, the coating might help stave off （延缓）the need to install new systems. In the developing world, the coating could potentially help those who don't yet have electricity or who can't afford an air conditioner. But the biggest impact of the technology—which the researchers hope to commercialize—is likely to be its ability to help air conditioners use a little less electricity and help cut emissions. Without changes, the emissions from air conditioners are predicted to almost double by mid-century.
1. What is the key information the author wants to give in Para 2?| A．Why snow is reflective. | B．What makes snow white. |
| C．What the polymer coating is. | D．How the new coating works. |
| A．The ice. | B．The snow. |
| C．The new coating. | D．The normal painting. |
| A．The necessity of air conditioners in cities. |
| B．The effectiveness of the new technology. |
| C．The widespread use of the white coating. |
| D．The influence the hot weather has on health. |
| A．Reducing emissions indirectly. | B．Helping keep buildings warm. |
| C．Assisting the poor potentially. | D．Stopping using air conditioners. |
7 . A man in Germany may not have been in danger when he called the police on a baby squirrel chasing him, but it all worked out for the best for the furry suspect.
Emergency services in the city of Karistruhe got a call on Thursday from a man afraid that the tiny animal wouldn't stop following him around, The Guardian reported. Police arrived at the scene, where the squirrel finally stopped running after him by lying down and going to sleep.
It turned out that the squirrel actually needed help, the police said, “It often happens that squirrels which have lost their mothers look for a replacement and then focus their efforts on one person,” the police spokesman Christian Krenz told The Guardian.
The squirrel, now named Karl-Friedrich, is in the care of an animal rescue center. Karlstruhe police posted a statement on Facebook about the animal, including several lovely photos. The department wished Karl-Friedrich the best.
The baby squirrel chase is the second police-involved squirrel incident to make international headlines this summer. Last month, a London woman called the police after she heard loud noises in her home and suspected a thief. The unwanted visitor turned out to be a “rogue squirrel”, according to the police who came for help.
Although authorities in the German case said the squirrel did need assistance, wildlife experts generally warn that before dealing with the case where you suspect a squirrel is orphaned, you should do your best to make sure the creature truly requires help. The Wildlife Center of Virginia, which gets hundreds of calls annually about supposedly orphaned squirrels, published this handy guide to help determine whether such an animal really needs help and what to do if so. When in doubt, contact a local wildlife rescuer, a rehab center on animal control.
1. Why did the man in Germany call the police?| A．A baby squirrel was asleep there. | B．A baby squirrel tried to bite him. |
| C．A baby squirrel was lying down there. | D．A baby squirrel kept running after him. |
| A．A woman from London. | B．A lovely little squirrel. |
| C．An unwanted visitor. | D．A local policewoman. |
| A．They are very active in animal protection. |
| B．They are very eager to help disabled squirrels. |
| C．They think squirrels are endangered animals. |
| D．They think squirrels are in a hungry state. |
| A．People should try to give first aid to injured or sick squirrels. |
| B．People should figure out whether squirrels actually need assistance. |
| C．People should help squirrels who are left alone as soon as possible. |
| D．People should contact a local wildlife rescuer when seeing orphaned squirrels, |
8 . If one more person talks about the benefits of mindfulness, I will throw cabbage at them. Just kidding. But I do have lots of cabbage happily rotting away in my, kitchen thanks to the wellness obsession(着迷) that failed to keep my attention. This is a symptom of a phenomenon known as “wellness tiredness”.
Wellness is seriously big business with a worth of $3.72 trillion and a healthy annual growth of 14 percent. To satisfy this consuming desire, brands of super foods and various exercise classes crowd in. “The problem with all this constantly changing information on what to eat or which exercise class to take is that people begin to form distorted(扭曲的) mindsets towards the idea of a healthy lifestyle,” explains Dr Bijal, a psychologist at Nightingale Hospital. “The least harmful result of a distorted mindset will be confusion. The most harmful would be serious physical and mental disorders like extreme dieting or over-exercising.”
It’s little wonder that many people are beginning to reject the idea of wellness and the lifestyle it advocates. “I can’t tell you the number of wellness accounts I’ve unfollowed on Instagram,” one fitness-enthusiast friend tells me. When I ask her why, she tells me that the public pursuit(追求) of wellness has reached “the eye-roll stage”. Meanwhile, sales of fitness trackers and wearable wellness things have dropped sharply.
Speaking of gym culture, which offers classes like Hula Hoop and Yoga, it’s also beginning to show signs that people are returning to more conventional forms of exercise-some that wouldn’t look out of place on a school timetable.
The whole point of wellness is that it should become such an everyday thing that you forget about seeking it. Living a healthy lifestyle becomes a given rather than something singled out as impressive and worth applauding. Now, more people are starting to cycle to and from work, swim on lunch breaks and even try to buy old school exercise bikes.
1. What is the main idea of paragraph 2?| A．The wellness business costs people a great deal of money. |
| B．People are faced with too many food and exercise choices. |
| C．Distorted mindsets to wellness cause harmful consequences. |
| D．The wellness industry has been developing at a steady speed. |
| A．To inform us wearable wellness things are not popular. |
| B．To advocate the idea of wellness and a healthy lifestyle. |
| C．To tell us that online wellness accounts are hard to follow. |
| D．To show the public’s unfavorable attitude to wellness obsession. |
| A．Sports such as cycling are more impressive. |
| B．People are treating wellness as an everyday thing. |
| C．Classes like Hula Hoop and Yoga are too expensive. |
| D．People have come to know wellness is not so necessary. |
| A．The Importance of Living a Healthy Lifestyle |
| B．Are You Suffering from Wellness Tiredness? |
| C．The Benefits of Mindfulness in Wellness Industry |
| D．What is the Real Meaning of Wellness Obsession? |
9 . Amazing Scientists
Who Happen to Be Teenagers
We’ve got a list of teen scientists from a variety of fields.
Jack Andraka
Jack Andraka created a biosensor for cancer that he says is 168 times faster, 26,667 times less expensive and 400 times more sensitive than technology nowadays.
He’s the youngest person to have spoken in front of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Taylor Wilson
Taylor Wilson was the youngest person to achieve nuclear fusion(核聚变). He was inspired by The Radioactive Boy Scout, a novel in which a kid tries and fails to build a nuclear reactor.
Taylor thought he could do better.Long story short, he wanted to build a small nuclear reactor. And he did it at the age of fourteen. He received a Thiel Fellowship, which gave him $100,000 to work on his own research.
Sara Volz
Sara Volz performed experiments in which she grew algae(藻类)based on their oil output for the purpose of growing them as biofuel. This research is especially important as the world continues to search for a way to lessen our dependence on non-renewable energy. She won the top prize of $100,000 in the lntel Science Talent Search.
Daniel Burd
Plastic usually takes thousands of years to decompose(降解)，but this high school student Daniel Burd managed to do it in three months.
In an experiment，he mixed plastic bags and a special kind of dirt together, and found that they did decompose faster.He then performed tests to find the bacteria(细菌)responsible for decomposing the plastics.
His solution only produces water and small amounts of carbon dioxide.He says it could easily be used elsewhere.
1. Who designed a medical instrument?| A．Sara Volz. | B．Daniel Burd. | C．Jack Andraka. | D．Taylor Wilson. |
| A．A novel by a kid. | B．Plastic pollution. |
| C．Energy shortage. | D．A story book. |
| A．It won him a $100,000 prize. | B．It does little harm to the environment. |
| C．It was completed in three months. | D．It is widely used in everyday waste. |
10 . I am a strong believer that if a child is raised with praise, he will learn to love himself and will be successful in his own way.
Several weeks ago, I was doing homework with my son in the third grade and he kept standing up from his chair to go over the math lines. I kept asking him to sit down, telling him that he would concentrate better. He sat but seconds later, as if he didn’t even notice he was doing it, he got up again. I was getting frustrated, but then it hit me. I started noticing his answers were much quicker and accurate (准确的) when he stood up. Could he be more intent (专心的) while standing up?
This made me start questioning myself and what I had been raised to believe. I was raised to believe that a quiet, calm child was a sure way to success. This child would have the discipline (纪律) to study hard, get good grades and become someone important in life.
Now those same people perhaps come to realize that their kids are born with their own sets of DNA and personality traits (特点) and all you can do is loving and accepting them. As parents, throughout their growing years and beyond that, we need to be our kids’ best cheerleaders, guiding them and helping them find their way.
I have stopped asking my son to sit down and concentrate. Obviously, he is concentrating just in his own way and not mine. We need to learn to accept our kids’ ways of doing things. Some way may have worked for me but doesn’t mean we need to carry it through generations. There is nothing sweeter than being individual (个人的) and unique (独一无二的). It makes us free and happy and that’s just the way I want my kids to live their own life.
1. At the beginning, the author tried to keep his son seated in order to make him _____.| A．pay more attention to his study | B．keep silent in the room |
| C．finish his homework on time | D．get right answers |
| A．the importance of parents | B．the old form of education |
| C．the relationship between kids and their parents | D．the good grades of some kids |
| A．We should help kids correct their wrong ways. |
| B．Parents should study their kids’ DNA. |
| C．Kids should be taught to behave themselves. |
| D．Parents should love and accept their kids. |
| A．Study hard and you’ll be successful |
| B．Be friendly to your children |
| C．Children’s success in their own style |
| D．Parents’ help with their children’s study |
