1 . This was the first real task I received in my new school. It seemed simple: go on the Internet and find information about a man named George Washington. As I searched the name, I found that there were two famous people having the same name who looked completely different! One invented hundreds of uses for peanuts(花生), while the other led some sort of army across America. I stared at the screen, wondering which one my teacher meant. I called my grandfather for a golden piece of advice; let the coin decide. I flipped(掷) a coin and Ah! Tails (背面)! My report would be about the great man who invented peanut butter, George Washington Carver.
Weeks later, I stood in front of the classroom and proudly read my homework. But things started to get strange. I looked around the room, only to find my classmates with big smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes and my stone-faced teacher. I was completely lost. “What could be causing everyone to act this way?”
Oh well, I dropped the paper and sat down at my desk, burning to find out what I had done wrong. As a classmate began his report, it all became clear, “My report is on George Washington, the man who started the American War of Independence.” The whole world became quiet! How could I know that my teacher meant that George Washington?
Of course, my subject result was awful. Sad but fearless, I decided to turn this around. I talked to the headmaster Miss Lancelot, but she said firmly: No re-dos; no new score. I felt that it was not fair, and I believed I deserved a second chance. So I threw myself heartily into my work for the rest of the school year. Ten months later, I sat in the headmaster’s office again, but this time a completely different conversation. I smiled and flashed back to the terrible moment at the beginning of the year as the headmaster told me I was good enough to skip(跳过) the 6th grade and started the 7th grade next term.
1. The task I received was to find information about ________.| A．uses for peanuts |
| B．American War of Independence |
| C．George Washington |
| D．my headmaster Miss Lancelot |
| A．I was too proud of my homework |
| B．I mistook what the homework was about |
| C．the whole world suddenly became quiet |
| D．the teacher’s face turned to a stone |
| A．the headmaster didn’t like the writer at all |
| B．the writer’s classmates felt sad at his mistake |
| C．the writer knew little about American history |
| D．the writer’s grandpa was a very wise man |
| A．Seeing is believing. |
| B．Where there is a will, there is a way. |
| C．One is never too old to learn. |
| D．A friend in need is a friend indeed. |
2 . Many college students turn to ADHD（注意缺陷障碍）medicine during the exam week, which is regarded as “smart drugs” that will help their academic（学术的）performance. The thinking is that if the drugs help students with ADHD improve their focus, they should provide the same benefit for people who don’t have the disorder.
But a new study shows that drugs can actually damage brain function of healthy students who take the drug hoping to boost their intelligence. “It’s not a smart drug which will suddenly improve their ability to understand information they read,” said Lisa Weyandt, a professor at the University of Rhode Island.
To test whether this effect is real or not, researchers organized 13 students to take part in two five-hour study sessions（一段时间）in the lab. The students took the standard 30mg ADHD drugs before one session, and a sugar pill before the other. Students on ADHD drugs did experience an increase in their blood pressure and heart rates. “The medicine was having an effect on their brain,” Weyandt said. The students also showed an improvement in their ability to focus, the researchers found.
However, students on ADHD drugs experienced no improvement in reading comprehension, reading fluency or knowledge reviews, compared to when they’d taken a sugar pill. “We read aloud stories to them and asked them to recall information from the stories, ”she said. “That didn’t improve.”
Worse, the ADHD drug actually harms students’ memory. It’s often misused because people pull all-nighters and they’re tired, and they think it’s going to keep them awake. Maybe it does, but it’s certainly not going to help their academic work. The brain is still developing until the mid to late 20s. It’s important to keep it healthy. There’s also a chance that ADHD drugs could endanger a student’s heart health.
1. Why do some college students take ADHD drugs?| A．To improve their sleeping. | B．To get higher marks. |
| C．To make them feel relaxed. | D．To treat brain disorder. |
| A．Analyze. | B．Affect. |
| C．Improve. | D．Understand. |
| A．They became more focused. |
| B．Their blood pressure was reduced. |
| C．Their reading fluency was greatly raised. |
| D．They could remember better and more quickly. |
| A．In a drug instruction. | B．In a biology textbook. |
| C．In a travel magazine. | D．In a news report. |
3 . Whenever I was cautious about trying something new, my mom would always tell me one thing: you don't know unless you try. I've been holding this belief in my entire life. It lets me explore various opportunities that I would have missed.
Over the summer, I helped out at a preschool with the kids who needed some extra learning. At first I thought it would be super crazy with kids running around all over the place. I thought it would be a month of pure annoyance, but it ended up being pretty cool. They actually opened up to us, talked to us, and told us things they needed to get off their mind. They were so joyful to be around. I found myself happy that I was helping these kids, no longer afraid of the experience.
Again in middle school, I experienced this same belief. There were various school dances and school holiday events. I was not very fond of going to these events, thinking that I would either be made fun of or just simply be bored. I went to my first school dance in the 7th grade. It was a school welcoming dance. At first I really did not want to go but my mom forced me to go anyway. I was not happy with the choice my mom made, but soon regretted my doubt. The dance was really fun, with music, food, and friends. My mom was right. I never thought the dance would be enjoyable.
After these two events I gained more courage to try new things. I guess my mom was right. I'd never know if I never tried.
1. By “you don't know unless you try”, the author's mom intended to ________.| A．warn the author | B．encourage the author |
| C．delight the author | D．blame the author |
| A．be quite cool |
| B．give her much pleasure |
| C．give her a chance to learn |
| D．be an unpleasant experience |
| A．she liked dancing |
| B．she was afraid of missing it |
| C．she thought it would be enjoyable |
| D．she was forced to go by her mother |
| A．Have a go. |
| B．Better late than never. |
| C．Every cloud has a silver lining. |
| D．Where there is a will, there is a way. |
4 . As my husband and I drove down a country road, we passed a fire station with a sign that read, "Are you ready for the next storm?” Our area had just been in the path of Hurricane Irma, causing downed trees and outages. We were stuck in the dark and cut off from the outside world.
We have had our share of storms in the past--a snowstorm and other heavy snows that knocked down trees, sometimes up to a week at a time. Those days in a cold house weren't fun, but we learned so much from those early storms, things that made later storms easier to bear.
Now we have stored up flashlights, lanterns and candles. We bought a battery-operated radio to keep up with the news. We stocked up on batteries so that we'd have plenty for extended power failures. We make sure our grill（烤架） is ready and its tank is full, and we purchase food that can be easily prepared and then cooked or heated on the grill. And we don't forget to buy emergency chocolate! We have book lights to read in the dark. We keep our car gas tanks full and have emergency cash on hand.
We're ready for the next storm, but we wouldn't have learned to do all those things if we hadn't encountered a storm in the past. The same is true spiritually. Those little storms in our lives are never fun, but they prepare us for the big storms--the big trials--that will come our way, They can teach us some valuable lessons.
Are you ready for the next storm? Now is the time to get ready. . . not when the storm arrives.
1. Which can replace the underlined word "outages” in paragraph 1?| A．weather change |
| B．virus' spreading |
| C．power failure |
| D．emotional reaction |
| A．The lessons that storms can teach us. |
| B．The importance of being ready for storms. |
| C．The necessities the author bought for her daily life. |
| D．The preparations the author made for the next storm. |
| A．It was rewarding. |
| B．It was annoying. |
| C．It was thrilling. |
| D．It was frightening. |
| A．Things will work out. |
| B．Keep something for a rainy day. |
| C．Don't stop regardless of the weather. |
| D．Sunshine always comes after the storm. |
“Many focus on the benefits of digital devices（设备）in education but ignore the costs”, said Patricia Greenfield from the University of California, “losing the ability to understand the emotions of other people is one of the costs.” Greenfield and her research team did an experiment. They worked with 105 children who spend about 4.5 hours in front of screens on a school day. The students were asked to describe the emotions towards the pictures of people who were happy, sad, angry or scared. Then, half of them attended a five-day nature and science camp. There they had no smart phones, TV, or computers. The other half stayed in school and spent the five days as usual. Five days later, all the children took the test again.
Students who had been to the camp got about 5 percent more answers correct than they had done before the camp. But the other group of students didn't show much improvement. The study is not perfect in some ways, said the researchers. But scientists say that the study is still a warning for us.
“Emotional skills develop in practice and the brain develops through real interaction.” said Professor Taylor, a professor at the University of San Francisco.
Researchers talked to 2,000 parents of children aged 2-16 in the UK about what activities their children could do confidently. The results were surprising: Their children could use a tablet(平板电脑)(59%)and work a mobile phone(57%)more confidently than they could tie their shoe laces(鞋带)(53%)! So, spend more time away from mobile phones and computers if you want to be an understanding friend, and not a member of what the Daily Mail called “Generation Helpless”.
1. According to Professor Greenfield，using digital media in education leads to ______.| A．being in bad terms with family members |
| B．making more mistakes when taking exams |
| C．falling far behind others in all schoolwork |
| D．failing to relate to other people's emotions |
| A．are alarming for people | B．are far from perfect |
| C．are quite surprising | D．need to be improved |
| A．Too much play with digital devices raised some worries． |
| B．Students learned how to describe emotions in the experiment． |
| C．Students living without screens did much better in studies． |
| D．Most of the UK children couldn't tie their shoe laces． |
| A．Stay away from the Internet | B．Here comes a digital world! |
| C．Screens do harm to emotions | D．How people become addicted？ |
6 . Growing up, we are constantly reminded that young people are heavily affected by technology. We are the “antisocial club”, those who prefer to text our friends in the same room rather than make eye contact with them. And even though never-ending studies reveal to us the extent of our social media addiction, we should at least consider that it’s not only our young people’s problem any more.
There’s the rise of the Instagram mums, who like to post an abundance of cute baby pictures, share their mom feelings along the way and show their wonderful lifestyles. They are the so-called “Facebook mum generation”, a growing group of parents that like to overshare.
While all of this might be fine, and even a little humorous, new research suggests that parents’ technology addiction is negatively affecting their children’s behavior. According to the study, 40% of mothers and 32% of fathers have admitted having some sort of phone addiction. This has led to a significant fall in verbal interactions within families and even a decline in mothers’ encouraging their children.
There is no denying that I get annoyed when receiving the words “I’ll be with you soon” from a parent, when all I want to do is ask one question. But, at the same time, every day leaving the room to wait until my father is finished with his “serious business” (Farmville), has now become the norm. Whether you want to escape your disturbing children for a bit, or want to stay up late flicking through Twitter, know that wanting to do all of these is normal. We, your children, know how addictive it can be and how difficult it is to switch off. But before telling us to put our phones away at the table or even worse, listing statistics of how damaging social media can be for us, maybe lead by example, considering how much time you spend on the phone and how this is impacting your children and your relationship with us. Maybe in this way we can work on our addiction together.
1. From Paragraph 1, we can know that teenagers nowadays ________.| A．enjoy socializing with their friends | B．send messages to their friends every day |
| C．hate to make eye contact with their friends | D．are heavily addicted to their mobile phones |
| A．Boring. | B．Selfish. | C．Funny. | D．Meaningful. |
| A．security | B．standard | C．routine | D．custom |
| A．To share the author’s own experience with the readers. |
| B．To call on parents to get rid of their own media addiction. |
| C．To reveal that parents are always addicted to mobile phones. |
| D．To show the author’s dissatisfaction with parents’ phone use. |
7 . Inventor, physicist, surveyor, astronomer, biologist, artist... Robert Hooke was all these and more. Some say he was the greatest experimental scientist of the 17th century. In the course of his work, he cooperated with famous men of science like Isaac Newton, and the great architect, Christopher Wren.
Hooke’s early education began at home, under the guidance of his father. He entered Westminster School at the age of 13, and from there went to Oxford, where he came in contact with some of the best scientists in England. Hooke impressed them with his skills at designing experiments and inventing instruments. In 1662, at the age of 28, he was named Curator of Experiments at the newly formed Royal Society of London — meaning that he was responsible for demonstrating new experiments at the society’s weekly meeting. Hooke accepted the job, even though he knew that the society had no money to pay him!
Watching living things through a microscope was one of his favourite pastimes. He invented a compound microscope for this purpose. One day while observing a cork under a microscope, he saw honeycomblike structures. There were cells — the smallest units of life. In fact, it was Hooke who invented the term “cell” as the boxlike cells of the cork reminded him of the cells of a monastery．
Another achievement of Hooke’s was his book Micrographia, which introduced the enormous potential of the microscope. It contains fascinating drawings of the thing he saw under the microscope. The book also includes, among other things, ideas on gravity, light and burning that may have helped scientists like Newton when they were developing their own theories on these phenomena.
Hooke made a valuable contribution to astronomy too. A crater on the moon is named after him in honour of his services to this branch of science.
1. We can infer from Paragraph 2 that Hooke is ________.| A．friendly | B．sociable | C．creative | D．helpful |
| A．He liked designing experiments. | B．His family needed his support. |
| C．He wanted to please the famous scientists in England. | D．His parents couldn’t afford his education. |
| A．Hooke went to Oxford in 1645. | B．Hooke was well paid in the Royal Society of London. |
| C．Hooke made a contribution to medicine. | D．Hooke’s book Micrographia may have helped Newton. |
| A．Hooke was the greatest experimental scientist of the 17th century |
| B．Hooke was good at making discoveries |
| C．Hooke’s contributions were not limited to one field |
| D．Hooke was one of the greatest astronomers |
8 . Slowly but surely, we’re moving closer and closer to 5G world. From smart-home security to self-driving cars, all the internet-connected devices in our life will be able to talk to each other at lightning-fast speeds with reduced delay. Objectively speaking, the fastest 4G download speeds in the US top out at an average of 19.42Mbps. But by comparison 5G promises gigabit (千兆) speeds.
“5G is one of those heralds (使者),along with artificial intelligence, of this coming data age.” said Steve Koenig, senior director of market research for the Consumer Technology Association. The self-driving vehicle is a great emblem of this data age, and that is to say, it is a sign of time, because with one single task, driving, you have massive amounts of data coming from the vehicle itself, and a variety of sensors are collecting a lot of information to model its environment as it moves. It’s pulling in data from other vehicles about road conditions down the lane. It could be weather information, and also connected infrastructure (基础设施) construction. There’s lots of data behind that task, which is why we need the high speed.
And virtual reality glasses and headsets haven’t yet broken the mainstream, but tech companies are joyfully betting that these devices will eventually replace our smartphones. With 5G, that could actually happen. This is notable because companies such as Apple are reportedly developing AR glasses to assist — or even replace — smartphones.
Ericsson stated at February's Mobile World Congress how smart glasses could become faster and lighter with a 5G connection, because instead of being weighed down with components, the glasses could rely on hardware for processing power.
But don’t get too excited. There’s still a lot of work to be done in the meantime, including various trials to make sure the radios play nicely with hardware and infrastructure construction so 5G isn’t concentrated only in big cities.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．The security of 5G. | B．The present world of 5G. |
| C．The future of 5G. | D．The super speed of 5G. |
| A．exhibition | B．symbol | C．sponsor | D．explanation |
| A．They will be heavier than present ones. | B．They will process power on their own. |
| C．They will bring a big fortune to tech companies. | D．They will take the place of smartphones. |
| A．How to fully expand 5G coverage. | B．How to effectively reduce 5G trials. |
| C．How to nicely operate 5G hardware. | D．How to widely construct 5G big cities. |
9 . Unluckily, there are some rules that teenagers should be allowed to learn in school, but not. They are important to teenagers, although not all of them have to do with their subjects.
Rule 1: Life is not fair. Try to learn to get used to it. Many people won’t understand the real meaning of this rule until they’ve failed to find fairness again and again.
Rule 2: The real world won’t care about you as much as your school does. It will expect you to learn to understand the real world after you leave school. Then you’ll be sure of what to do with real world.
Rule 3: If you think your teacher is terrible, wait until you get a boss. Your boss won’t ask how you feel about your work and will never give you more care or help. He’ll only care about how much money you can help him earn.
Rule 4: TV is not real life. Your life is not a sitcom (情景喜剧). Your problems won’t be solved in 30 or 45 minutes. In real life, people usually have to leave the coffee stores to look for jobs.
Rule 5: Smoking does not make you look cool. Instead, it makes you look moronic (低能的). At the same time, purple hair and pierced body parts make you look like a silly kid. A grown-up teenager should know how to be smart.
1. How will the real world treat teenagers when they leave school?| A．It’ll care about them as their schools do. |
| B．It’ll tell them what it’s really like. |
| C．It’ll give them more help and chances. |
| D．It’ll explain to them how to be smart. |
| A．make | B．save | C．spend | D．waste |
| A．All rules can be learned at school by teenagers. |
| B．For teenagers, life is like a sitcom and it’s always full of joy and surprises. |
| C．Smart teenagers shouldn’t smoke and have purple hair. |
| D．Teenagers will meet fair bosses when they go to work. |
| A．The writer might be a teacher who has much experience. |
| B．No teenagers can really understand the real world. |
| C．Almost all teenagers won’t be able to get used to the future life. |
| D．There is much more for teenagers to learn when they leave school |
10 . We all need to eat, and when we go to buy food at the supermarket, we’re offered many choice. But we often buy food that’s been produced in huge amounts and that’s traveled many miles before it ends up on our plate. So for some, growing their own food is a better choice – and it tastes good too!
From growing vegetables in little pots on your balcony to taking care of a small plot of land, there are many ways to produce home-grown food. It can be backbreaking work digging, weeding and watering the soil, but the result is fresh, home-grown fruits and vegetables, helping us keep a ‘five-a-day’ diet.
The recent Covid-19 pandemic lock-down means demand for homegrown food has seen a comeback in the UK. Miriam Dobson from the University of Sheffield, told the BBC that some people have been spending a lot of their time on their plots, growing plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables – which, at times, have been challenging to buy in supermarkets. She says “Coronavirus has reminded people of the weakness within our global food system. In such a difficult time, interest in self-support rises.”
But for those with limited space, a solution to grow your own vegetables lies closer to home – using pots. Sheila Brand lives in a third-floor flat in Rotterdam. She has managed to grow tomatoes and eggplants and is already harvesting raspberries. She told the BBC watching the plants grow “is very exciting: 'Oh it's got a new leaf!' ”
As well as the benefits of saving money and enjoying tasty food, growing your own from a balcony or window ledge not only improves your well-being and immediate environment, you can actually grow a lot of vegetables. So, maybe it’s time for us all to get planting and develop our green fingers!
1. A “five-a-day” diet (Para. 2) probably refers to a diet that include__________ every day.| A．Five meals | B．Enough fruits and vegetables |
| C．Five kinds of rice | D．Plenty of water |
| A．It’s more interesting, cheap and delicious. |
| B．our global food system is doing harm to us. |
| C．It saves the time and money on transportation. |
| D．it can be hard to buy fresh food during the pandemic. |
| A．In a pot. | B．On a plate. | C．In a garden. | D．On the roof. |
| A．Growing your own food can do good to your health. |
| B．Growing your own food can make your fingers green. |
| C．Growing your own food can improve your gardening skills. |
| D．Growing your own food can bring your family more happiness. |
