2 . It could be said that the northernmost part of our planet holds the secrets of our past as well as our future.

Through our exploration of the Arctic, scientists have discovered more about the biodiversity (生物多样性) of the area as well as how to preserve Earth’s ecosystems. Yet as one of the most severe but most primitive (原始的) places on Earth, the Arctic has been affected by human activities---research and exploration, booming tourism and above all, global warming---in recent decades.

Jonathan Smith, producer of the BBC documentary Blue Planet II, shared his filming experience in the Arctic. “We were all set and ready to film but we needed two major things---walrus (海象) and ice. I had expected that walrus may be hard to find, but I didn't expect it to be hard to find ice,” he told the BBC. “The crew was all commenting on how surprisingly warm it was.”

They were not mistaken. Scientists have been recording changes in the Arctic. Its sea ice minimum in summer, for example, has reduced by 40 percent in the past 30 years, NASA data showed. These changes have had bad influences on the Arctic and the human, animal and plant life that calls it home.

But the effects of these changes are not limited to the inhabitants of this area alone. In fact, it could be said that the weight of the world relies on this icy region. The Earth’s steady climate depends on the Arctic’s sea ice, which acts as a huge white reflector (反光体) at the top of the planet, bouncing some of the sun’s rays back into space. The more Arctic sea ice melts, the less light is reflected, and the more the dark oceans will absorb the sun’s radiation. The Arctic also helps circulate ocean movement, moving cold and warm water around the globe.

With visible changes in the global climate, the Arctic has given us a wake-up call---what happens “up in the North” doesn’t just stay there. It comes with a high cost to the world at large. It's time for us to pay attention to this chilly region and learn more about what’s happening there, as well as its past and possible future.

1. According to the passage, which of the following is the most threatening challenge the Arctic faces?

A．Coldness.

B．Darkness.

C．Global warming.

D．Wilderness.

2. Why does the author quote Jonathan Smith’s words in Paragraph 3?

A．To give an example.	B．To support an idea.
C．To clarify a question.	D．To provide more information.

3. Why are the effects of the changes in the Arctic so important to the whole world?

A．The sea ice absorbs the sun’s radiation to keep the Earth’s climate steady.

B．The Arctic helps circulate air around the world.

C．The Arctic is home to the human, animal and plant life.

D．The sea ice helps reduce global warming by reflecting the sunlight.

4. Which word best describes the author’s attitude to the present situation of the Arctic?

A．Concerned.

B．Approving.

C．Optimistic.

D．Contradictory.

4 . I have always been creative since I was a little girl. My childhood was filled with arts, crafts and music, and every day was an exciting adventure of creation.

Somewhere along the way, however, I lost touch with my creative self. At 21, I landed a job at a big insurance firm out of my business degree. I would go to the office, sit at my desk and repeat the same work five days a week, 9 to 5. The days were long and tedious. Working this way for one year was painful enough, let alone a lifetime. Before long I decided to make a change.

One thing I had developed an interest in was sewing, so I took a sewing course at a community college. It was only a five-week course but it awakened my interest and got my confidence up.

As I dreamed bigger, I began looking into college courses for Fashion Design and three months later I signed up for a part-time design course. I attended classes two nights a week. Although exhausting, it gave me energy, enthusiasm and happiness.

As it became more evident that fashion was what I wanted to do full time, the reality of my day-to-day work at the insurance firm became harder. I felt bored. No energy, no motivation and zero fulfillment.

I knew I needed to make a big change. After struggling for quite a while, I made a tough decision— leaving my job and studying my design course full time. Two years later I got my diploma.

The last few years have been exciting because I have been following my heart to do what I love. Today I'm living a creative life as the designer of my own fashion brand.

1. What does the underlined word in Paragraph 2 mean?

A．Flexible.

B．Boring.

C．Pleasant.

D．Endless.

2. What did the author do to get back to her creative life?

A．She quit her job and took the fashion design course full time.

B．She got a job and attended a part-time sewing course.

C．She successfully built up her own fashion brand.

D．She took sewing and fashion design courses full time.

3. What’s the author’s main purpose in writing the passage?

A．To share her great achievement with us.

B．To appeal to us to live a creative life and make changes.

C．To inspire us to follow our heart and do what we really like.

D．To convince us of the vital importance of creativity and enthusiasm.

5 . We’ve known that sitting for long periods of time every day has countless health consequences, like a higher risk of heart disease. But now a new study has found that sitting is also bad for your brain.

A study published last week, conducted by Dr. Prabha Siddarth at the University of California, showed that sedentary(久坐的) behavior is associated with reduced thickness of the medial temporal lobe(中颞叶), a brain area that is critical to learning and memory.

The researchers asked a group of 35 healthy people, ages 45 to 70, about their activity levels and the average number of hours each day spent sitting and then scanned their brains. They found that the subjects who reported sitting for longer periods had the thinnest medial temporal lobes. It means that the more time you spend in a chair the worse it is for your brain health, resulting in possible damage to learning and memory.

What is also interesting is that this study did not find a significant association between the level of physical activity and thickness of this brain area, suggesting that exercise, even severe exercise, may not be enough to protect you from the harmful effects of sitting.

It then surprisingly turned out that you don’t even have to move much to enhance cognition(认知); just standing will do the trick. For example, two groups of subjects were asked to complete a test while either sitting or standing. Participants are presented with conflicting stimuli(刺激) , like the word “green” in blue ink, and asked to name the color. Subjects thinking on their feet beat those who sat by a 32-milicond(毫秒) margin.

The cognitive effects of severe physical exercise are well known. But the possibility that standing more and sitting less improves brain health could lower the bar for everyone.

I know, this all runs counter to received ideas about deep thought, from our grade school teachers, who told us to sit down and focus, to Rodin’s famous “Thinker,” seated with chin on hand.

They were wrong. You can now all stand up.

1. What can we infer from Paragraphs 3 and 4?

A．Severe exercise can lessen the damage of sitting.

B．Severe exercise can greatly improve our brain health.

C．Sedentary behavior will possibly damage our brain.

D．Brain health has nothing to do with sedentary behavior.

2. What does the underlined word “margin” in Paragraph 5 mean?

A．Blank.	B．Edge.
C．Decrease.	D．Difference.

3. What is the received idea about deep thought?

A．Sitting more is good for our mental health.	B．Sitting is better when we think.
C．Exercise more can improve our cognition.	D．We should stand while thinking.

6 . I go to a gym in west London, always unwillingly. Exercise is too exhausting and boring. Always was. At school I made believe that I had headaches and parental notes too, to get out of PE classes and compulsory games. Now, twice a week, I dutifully get on cycling machines and other equipment and make myself work out for an hour. To get through the difficult hour, I people-watched: young and old, fit and unfit and Clayton Rose, one of the instructors.

Clayton is a personal trainer not only to body perfectionists, but to people who are mentally and physically disabled, the obese and hopeless. He treats them all the same. I have witnessed him listening keenly to a middle-aged working-class woman who goes on and on about her life, holidays, everything. Slim and attractive now, she was once so heavy that she was in a wheelchair. I have seen him calm down a young man with Tourette's syndrome(抽动症)and get him on a treadmill. I have also watched him pushing and coaching strong, cool men.

Clayton was shocked when I said I wanted to write about him. “Why? You know I'm not educated? I'm not clued up about politics and all that. Just an ordinary guy.”

He grew up in Twickenham, where his dad worked in a timber yard, his mum in an office. After college, the young man got into personal training and found his work. One of his best friends got seriously ill and was given months to live. Clayton put him on a program that kept him alive for almost five years: “I don't earn much, but I love my work; training and talking really helps people who don't have confidence, who are lonely, afraid, sick. Lots of people can't step into a gym. They need someone they can trust, someone who will be on their side.

The gym recently updated its equipment. The flashy new stuff confuses and upsets disabled customers. Me too. The private firm running these centers made decisions without considering these needs. Clayton is managing the chaos with grace and strength. Last week, when a young woman in a wheelchair started sobbing loudly, he calmed her down, restored her dignity, superhumanly contained his anger.

One of his colleagues thinks Clayton's “a legend”. He is, and doesn't know it—a rare thing in this age of extreme narcissism(自恋)and monetized(货币化) everything.

1. Why was I unwilling to go to a gym?

A．Because I suffered from headaches.

B．Because I had bad memories of PE classes.

C．Because I had to watch a large crowd exercising

D．Because I felt it tiring and no fun

2. How does Clayton Rose help people in the gym?

A．He brings out the best in them.	B．He helps them with illness advice
C．He treats them differently.	D．He focuses on body perfection.

3. What is the main idea of the text?

A．Reasons to go to a gym.	B．An instructor inspiring confidence.
C．Exercise with push and inspiration.	D．Rays of hope in the age of narcissism.

7 . Dear Mr. Jones,

I expect you may be slightly surprised to receive a letter from someone living as near as your next-door neighbor, but I have to raise a subject that it will be easier for me to discuss in writing.

You may have noticed that I have a line of apple trees running alongside the fence that separates our two gardens. You may also have taken pleasure in the frequent sight of your two children sitting on your lawn directly by the fence. And you may also have noticed that my apple trees, so to speak, bend over the fence and seem to look down at your children with interest.

It is only natural that your children should sometimes seem to return that interest. And it is not only natural, but, I acknowledge, quite legal, for them occasionally to show that interest by picking all the apples that hang over on your side of the fence.

But to be plain with you, Mr. Jones, I am tired of seeing your children, day after day, tear the branches off the side of every one of my apple trees, and leave my trees looking as though a battle had been fought on one side of them. I am, if anything, even more tired of waking up these fine autumn mornings, to find even the apples on my side of the fence much less in number. I know this is the work of your children, since last night I was woken up midnight by the noise they were making climbing one of my trees, and (as they may have told you) chased them home.

While I am on the subject, I am at least grateful to you for keeping your bonfire on the far side of your garden this year. Last year neither I nor your children had any apples, because the smoke from your bonfire destroyed all the flowers before the apples had time to form. I very much hope that next year—for the first time since I came to this village—I shall have my apples, and your children will have theirs and that the sight of the line of apple trees will be a pride to us both.

Otherwise, I shall not express my displeasure simply in writing to you, but shall have to refer the matter to those capable of taking stronger action.

Yours sincerely,

J. Smith

1. Why does J. Smith write the letter to Mr Jones?

A．To make an apology.	B．To express his displeasure.
C．To develop a friendship.	D．To convey his appreciation.

2. What is the general idea J. Smith means to communicate to Mr. Jones in Paragraph 4?

A．He never expected to be woken up by the children at night.

B．He is heartbroken at the sight of the apples being stolen.

C．He is tired of what the children has done to the apple trees.

D．He is concerned about the children’s disappointing behavior.

3. What do you know about J. Smith from the way he tries to solve the problem?

A．He is obviously fault-finding.	B．He is probably aggressive.
C．He is rather bad-tempered.	D．He is actually quite reasonable.

8 . My family and I never talked about school as the ticket to a future. I was in the classrooms, but I wasn’t there to learn to write, read or even speak. When it was my turn to read, I wanted to hide. I was 13 years old, but I already hated being who I was.

I had an English teacher, Mr. Creech, who knew I couldn’t read. In one of my first lessons the teacher said that anyone who had a reading age below six had to stand up. I felt so embarrassed. But at the same time, it made me realize that I needed to change the situation. I was determined it wouldn’t happen again. Later that day, Mr. Creech encouraged me and promised he would try his best to help me learn to read. From then on, I never gave up practicing reading.

Then when I was 41 years old, one day, I planned to fly back to Texas to visit my friends and family. On my way from the airport, I saw Mr. Creech buying himself a drink. I rushed over and reached into my pocket to pay for him. “Do I know you?” he asked. “Yes, sir, you do know me,” I answered excitedly. “My name is Anthony Hamilton. You taught me English.” The look on his face told me that he remembered the boy he’d once encouraged.

“I’m so glad I had a chance to see you,” I said. “And Mr. Creech, I have great news to share.” I told him I had learned to read. But that wasn’t all. I had become a published author and an active speaker. “The next time you get another Anthony Hamilton in your classroom, please encourage him to read as well,” I added.

The experts say what once worried me has a name: dyslexia (诵读困难症). But I can tell you it was a lack of desire for education.

1. Why did the author want to hide?

A．Because he couldn’t read.	B．Because he didn’t want to show himself.
C．Because he felt sorry for himself.	D．Because he didn’t have a ticket.

2. Why couldn’t the author read before meeting Mr. Creech?

A．Because his reading age was not long enough.

B．Because his parents didn’t teach him how to read.

C．Because he didn’t have inner driving force to learn to read.

D．Because he was afraid of reading before the class.

3. What can we infer from the passage?

A．Mr. Creech looked down upon the author.

B．The author was grateful to Mr. Creech.

C．Dyslexia was the real reason that made the author unable to read.

D．Mr. Creech taught two students called Anthony Hamilton.

9 . Everyone has a phone in their pocket nowadays, but how often do we really use them for their original purpose—to make a call? Telephone culture is disappearing. What brought us to this moment, and what are its effects?

“No one picks up the phone anymore,” wrote Alex C. Madrigal on The Atlantic. “Telephone culture is gone.”

The change is of course due to more communication choices: Texting with photos, videos, emojis, reaction gifs, links and even voice messages can be a more attractive choice.

Texting is light and fun, not nearly as demanding of your attention as a phone call. It can also be done with some people at the same time. Social media, email and video calls have also eaten away at traditional phone calls.

In recent years, another reason has caused people to ignore phone calls completely: robocalls. Robocalls are automate messages from organizations verifying your phone number or telemarketers trying to sell something. Americans received 22.8 billion robocalls halfway through 2020, equaling an annual rate of 45.6 billion, slightly below 2018 numbers, according to YouMail, a robocall protection service and blocking app.

As telephone culture disappears, what is the loss of a traditional family phone doing to the family unit? Early landline phones join family members together, whereas mobile phones separate them.

“The shared family phone served as an anchor (支柱) for home,” said Luke Fernandez, a Weber State University computer-science professor and co-author of Bored, Lonely, Angry, Stupid: Feelings About Technology, From the Telegraph to Twitter. “With smartphones we have gained mobility and privacy. But the value of the home has been diminished, which has its ability to guide and monitor family behavior and perhaps connect families more closely,” Fernandez said.

Of course, as technology progresses, lives always change for better or for worse. With the loss of telephone culture, families will need to find other ways to unite.

1. What is the main idea of the passage?

A．To point out the disadvantages of the traditional phone call.

B．To call for the traditional phone to advance with the times.

C．To encourage people to make more phone calls and be closer to family.

D．To introduce the causes and effects of the disappearing telephone culture.

2. What does the underlined word “diminished” in Paragraph 7 probably mean?

A．changed

B．continued

C．strengthened

D．decreased

3. What can we learn from the passage?

A．The telephone culture disappeared just because of too many robocalls.

B．Some communication choices are more attractive than the traditional phone calls.

C．Early landline phones are inconvenient and they separate family members.

D．Texting with some people at the same time takes up our attention too much.

4. What’s the author’s attitude to the effects of the disappearing telephone culture?

A．Indifferent.

B．Objective.

C．Pessimistic.

D．Skeptical.

10 . Although being famous might sound like a dream come true, today's stars, feeling like zoo animals, face pressures that few of us can imagine. They are at the center of much of the world's attention. Paparazzi (狗仔队) camp outside their homes, cameras ready. Tabloids (小报) publish thrilling stories about their personal lives. Just imagine not being able to do anything without being photographed or interrupted for a signature.

According to psychologist Christina Villareal, celebrities—famous people—worry constantly about their public appearance. Eventually, they start to lose track of who they really are, seeing themselves the way their fans imagine them, not as the people they were before everyone knew their names. “Over time,” Villareal says, “they feel separated and alone.”

The phenomenon of tracking celebrities has been around for ages. In the 4th century B.C., painters followed Alexander the Great into battle, hoping to picture his victories for his admirers. When Charles Dickens visited America in the 19th century, his sold-out readings attracted thousands of fans, leading him to complain (抱怨) about his lack of privacy. Tabloids of the 1920s and 1930s ran articles about film-stars in much the same way that modern tabloids and websites do.

Being a public figure today, however, is a lot more difficult than it used to be. Superstars cannot move about without worrying about photographers with modern cameras. When they say something silly or do something ridiculous, there is always the Internet to spread the news in minutes and keep their "story" alive forever.

If fame is so troublesome, why aren't all celebrities running away from it? The answer is there are still ways to deal with it. Some stars stay calm by surrounding themselves with trusted friends and family or by escaping to remote places away from big cities. They focus not on how famous they are but on what they love to do or whatever made them famous in the first place.

Sometimes a few celebrities can get a little justice. Still, even stars who enjoy full justice often complain about how hard their lives are. They are tired of being famous already.

1. It can be learned from the passage that stars today________.

A．are often misunderstood by the public

B．can no longer have their privacy protected

C．spend too much on their public appearance

D．care little about how they have come into fame

2. What is the main idea of Paragraph 3?

A．Well-known actors are usually targets of tabloids.

B．Works of popular writers often have a lot of readers.

C．Great heroes of the past were generally admired.

D．The problem faced by celebrities has a long history.

3. What makes it much harder to be a celebrity today?

A．Huge population of fans.	B．Availability of modern media.
C．Lack of favorable chances.	D．Inadequate social recognition.

4. What is the author's attitude toward modern celebrity?

A．Sympathetic.

B．Skeptical.

C．Disapproving.

D．Indifferent.