2 . Do you like running enough to make it a habit? Tierney Wolfgram does; she has made running a lifelong career and isn't stopping.

In February, the 16-year-old from a high school, US, competed at the 2020 US Olympic Trials. She finished the marathon(42.195 km)with a time of 2:42:47 as the youngest competitor in the race and ranked 76th out of 390 runners. However, the cross-country(越野的)season was postponed to winter because of the COVID-19. So she jumped at the opportunity to train for another race-the Parkway Marathon in California. In November, Wolfgram broke the Women's American Junior marathon record with her time of 2:31:49. The old record was 2:34:32, which had stood since 1984.

“I'm completely stunned, ”said Wolfgram's coach.   “I knew she was going to break it, but she really showed out！”

During the run, Wolfgram once hit a wall pretty hard, but she overcame it to finish. “I guess I can say I gave it my all, ”she told Runner's World. “When I finished, all I was thinking was I felt super happy,” Wolfgram said This was only her third marathon. In 2018, when Wolfgram was 15 years old, she ran her first marathon just because she wanted to see if she had the ability to do it. “I believed that I would get faster as the distances got longer. . . I'm still glad that I did it. ”

When preparing for that first marathon, she ran up to 120 miles per week. Although her parents didn't have any background in running, they helped Wolfgram train. At first, her dad would take her out in the morning and run about 13 miles. The distance would gradually increase each day. On top of her runs in the morning, she would do cross-country practice after school.

Now Wolfgram will consider attending the Olympics Games in 2024 after it's scheduled.

1. What can we learn about Wolfgram from Paragraph 2?

A．She was the champion at the 2020 US Olympic Trials.

B．She put off the cross-country season for the COVID-19.

C．She broke an Olympic marathon record in November.

D．She prepared for the Parkway Marathon in California.

2. What does the underlined word “stunned”in paragraph 3 refer to?

A．Doubtful

B．Worried.

C．Shocked.

D．Interested

3. What inspired Wolfgram to run her first marathon?

A．Her parents' encouragement.	B．Her desire to prove she could do it.
C．Her coach's support and help.	D．Her hope to break the national record

4. Which section of a newspaper does the passage probably come from?

A．Sports.

B．Lifestyle

C．Culture.

D．Opinion

3 . Our house was across the street from a hospital. We rented the upstairs rooms to outpatients at the clinic. One summer evening as I was preparing supper, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly awful looking man hardly taller than my eight-year-old daughter.

But the frightening thing was his swollen face. He told me he’d been hunting for a room since noon but no one seemed to have a room. For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me: “I could sleep on the porch（门廊）. My bus leaves early in the morning.”

I went inside and finished getting supper. When we were ready, I asked him to join us. “No thank you. I have plenty.” And he held up a brown paper bag. When I had finished the dishes, I went out to talk with him a few minutes.

He told me he fished for a living to support his daughter, who was hopelessly disabled, and her five children. He didn’t tell it by way of complaint; in fact, he was grateful that no pain accompanied his disease. He thanked life for giving him the strength to keep going.

At bedtime, we put a camp small bed in the children’s room for him. When I got up in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded and the little man was out on the porch. He refused breakfast, but just before he left, he smiled, “Your children made me feel at home. Grownups are bothered by my face, but children don’t seem to mind.” I told him he was welcome to come again.

In the years he came to stay overnight with us there was never a time that he did not bring us fish or vegetables. Other times we received packages. Knowing that he must walk three miles to mail these, and knowing how little money he had made the gifts more precious. I know our family always will be grateful to have known him; from him we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint and the good with gratitude.

1. What actually led to the old man’s failure to get a room before?

A．His fishing job.	B．His ugly appearance.
C．His disabled daughter.	D．His lack of money.

2. Why did the author finally accept the old man?

A．He was in very bad condition.

B．He might attack her unless accepted.

C．He wouldn’t bother them too much.

D．The author had a big family to support.

3. What can we learn from the text?

A．The old man often came to ask for help ever since.

B．The old man actually didn’t eat anything for supper.

C．It was not easy for the old man to send the author gifts.

D．The author’s help taught the old man to live independently.

4. Which is the best title for the text?

A．A precious gift!

B．A silent complaint!

C．A stubborn fisherman!

D．An incredible meeting!

4 . There was a time when a trip to the supermarket in the United States often ended with a seemingly simple question from the cashier, "Paper or plastic？"Well, which type of bag would you choose？

While both types of bags have some influence on the environment, it has long been supposed that paper bags are kinder. They are made from a renewable source, are broken down easily, burn without giving off thick smoke and can be recycled. However, the producing process behind paper bags uses more energy than that of plastic ones. How can this be true？

Studies show that paper bag production requires four times as much energy as plastic bag production.

And the amount of water used to make them is twenty times higher. Besides, the influence on forests is very serious. It takes about fourteen million trees to produce ten billion paper bags, which happen to be the number of bags used in the United States yearly. In terms of recycling, the idea that paper bags are more environment friendly than plastic ones can be quickly discarded. Research shows it requires about 98% less energy to recycle plastic than it does to recycle paper.

Even though paper bags might be more harmful than plastic ones, plastic still seems to be considered as the more harmful of the two by governments. In Ireland, for example, a tax has been introduced to discourage the use of plastic bags. People have to pay 22 cents for every plastic bag, and as a result, their use has dropped quickly.

There’s no doubt that it makes more sense to reuse these bags. However, we don’t seem to be doing that at present. That may be because they fall apart quickly. If so, cloth bags are a better choice, but still, their production also has a bad influence on the environment. So what to do? How should we answer the question of “Paper or plastic?” It seems that we first need to ask ourselves one more general question: “What can I do to help the environment?”

1. The question at the end of Paragraph 1 is used to ________.

A．introduce points for discussion

B．tell readers how to save money

C．express the author's doubts

D．show the kindness of the cashier

2. Compared with plastic bags, paper bags ________.

A．take more time to break down

B．require less energy to recycle

C．need more water to produce

D．have less influence on forests

3. The underlined word “discarded” in Paragraph 3 probably means "________".

A．share	B．put forward
C．discuss	D．give up

4. Which question does the author probably hope the cashier ask?

A．Paper or cloth?

B．A new bag or your own one?

C．A small bag or big one?

D．Paper or plastic？

5 . If maths is the language of the universe, bees may have just uttered their first words. New research suggests these busybodies of the insect world are capable of addition and subtraction (减法) — using colors in the place of plus and minus symbols.

In the animal kingdom, the ability to count — or at least distinguish between differing quantities — isn’t unusual: It has been seen in frogs, spiders, and even fish. But solving equations (方程式) using symbols is rare, so far only achieved by famously brainy animals such as chimpanzees and African grey parrots.

Building on previous research that says the social insects can count to four and understand the concept of zero, researchers wanted to test the limits of what their tiny brains can do.

Scientists trained 14 bees to link the colors blue and yellow to addition and subtraction, respectively. They placed the bees at the entrance of a Y-shaped maze (迷宫), where they were shown several shapes in either yellow or blue. If the shapes were blue, bees got a reward if they went to the end of the maze with one more blue shape (the other end had one less blue shape); if the shapes were yellow, they got a reward if they went to the end of the maze with one less yellow shape.

The testing worked the same way: Bees that “subtracted” one shape when they saw yellow, or “added” one shape when they saw blue were considered to have aced the test. The bees got the right answer 63% to 72% of the time, depending on the type of equation and the direction of the right answer — much better than random guesses would allow—the researchers report today in Science Advances.

Though the results came from just 14 bees, researchers say the advance is exciting. If a brain about 20,000 times smaller than ours can perform maths using symbols, it could pave the way to novel approaches in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Just don’t ask the bees to do your homework anytime soon.

1. Why do the scientists conduct the research?

A．To teach them maths.	B．To test the power of tiny brains.
C．To explain the meaning of colors.	D．To get access to machine learning.

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

A．Given up.	B．Entered for.
C．Got through.	D．Checked over.

3. What might the research make contributions to?

A．Language acquisition.	B．Arithmetic learning.
C．Protection of animals.	D．Development of AI.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．Bees “Like” Counting

B．Bees “Tell” Colors Apart

C．Bees “Perform” Maths Using Shapes

D．Bees “Get” Addition and Subtraction

6 . Here is an astonishing and signficant fact:Mental work alone can’t make us tired. It sounds absurd. But a few years ago, scientists tried to find out how long the human could labor without reaching a stage of fatigue(疲劳). To the amazement of these scientists, they discovered thett blood passing through the brain, when it is active, shows no fatigue at all! If we took a drop of blood from a day labourer, we could find it full of fatigue toxins(毒素) and fatigue products. But if we took blood from the brain of Albert Einstein, it would show no fatigue toxing at the end of the day.
So far as the brain is concerned, it can work as well and swiftly at the end of eight or even twelve hours f efforts as at the beginning. The brain is totally tireless. So what makes us tired.
Some scientists declare that most of our fatigue come from our mental and emotional(情感的) attitudes. One of England’s most outstanding scientists. J. A. Hadfield,says,“The greater part of the fatigue from which we suffer is of mental origin. In fact,fatigue of purely physical origin is rare.” Dr. Brill, a famous American scientist, goes even further. He declares,“One hundred percent of the fatigue of a sitting worker in good health is due to emotional problems.”
What kinds of emotions make sitting workers tired?Joy?Satifaction?No!A feeling of being bored,anger,anxiety,tenseness,worry,a feeling of nt being appreciated---those are emotions that tire sitting workers.Hard work by itself seldom causes fatigue.We get tired because our emotions produce nervousness in the body.
1. What surprised the scientists a few years ago?

A．Fatigue toxinscould hardly be found in a labour’s blood.

B．Albert Eistein didn’t feel worn out after a day’s work.

C．The brain could wrk for many hours without fatigue.

D．A mental worker’s blood was filled with fatigue toxins.

2. According to the authour,which of the following can make sitting worker tired？

A．Challenge mental work.

B．Unpleasant emotions.

C．Endless tasks.

D．Physical labor.

3. What’s the authour’s attitude towards the scientists’ ideas?

A．He agrees with them.

B．He doubts them

C．He argues against them.

D．He hesitates to accept them.

4. We can infer from the passage that in order to stay energic, sitting workers need to ______.

A．have some good blood

B．enjoy their work

C．exercise regularly

D．discover fatigue toxin