1 . Will your kids love your favorite childhood reads? Let’s get to it: Five Little Peppers and How They Grew. I’m reaching way back with this one (1881), but after all, who doesn’t love a good rags to-riches story?
Oh, those little Peppers. How well I remember Phronsie, Ben, Polly, Joel and Davie, and how hard they worked in the little brown house to help their poor mother, Mamsie. My kids are not yet at an age when they realize just how poor the Peppers are. But my kids are as drawn to this story as I was as a child. And I am not the one to turn down an opportunity to share an example of children gladly helping their mother.
I’m not reaching back quite as far with 1943’s Cherry Ames, Student Nurse by Helen Wells, but convincing my kids that once it wasn’t easy for nurses to wear caps and dresses. When I was little, I couldn’t get enough of Cherry’s adventures. How pioneering Cherry was! She had a job when there were few jobs available to women, she never got married, and she solved mysteries when men couldn’t. Cherry always knew what to do. She was smart, pretty, strong and ambitious. I love her.
I know the time will come when my son asks, “Come on, Mom, Didn’t you read any books with men in them?” and I’ll have to answer honestly, “No. But maybe one day a few.”
The day will come when we can go back to the library and see what is new on the shelves, and that will be a great day. But for now, I plan not to let any book on our shelves go to waste. It may seem that reaching for a book that’s more than a century older than my kids is just as ambitious as reading Frankenstein, but I’m really confident, this time.
1. What do the author’s kids feel about Five Little Peppers and How They Grew?| A．Frightened. | B．Interested. | C．Puzzled. | D．Disappointed. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Unconcerned. | C．Praiseful. | D．Afraid. |
| A．She is very poor, |
| B．She likes books about women. |
| C．She dislikes classical literature. |
| D．She is confused about her career. |
| A．Read less and faster. |
| B．Go back to the library, |
| C．Ask her kids to read books kept at home. |
| D．Inspire her kids to read newly published books. |
2 . Avi Loeb, a scientist, believes that we are not alone in the universe. The belief fits with Loeb’s alien (外星的) spaceship theory that at least one alien spaceship might be flying over the orbit (轨道) of Jupiter, which won the international attention last year.
Astronomers in Hawaii found the first known interstellar (星际的) object in late 2017. It was a bit of light moving so fast past the sun that it could only have come from another star. Almost every astronomer on the planet was trying to figure out how the object, called “Oumuamua” got to our far-away, part of the Milky way galaxy. “One possibility is that ‘Oumuamua’ is debris (碎片) from an advanced technological equipment,” Loeb said. “Technology comes from another solar system just showed up at our door.”
“‘Oumuamua’ is not an alien spaceship,” Paul Sutter, another scientist wrote. He suggested Loeb was seeking publicity. Most scientists think “Oumuamua” is some sort of rock. They think it could be an icy wandering comet.
Loeb says that “Oumuamua’s” behavior, means it can’t be a block of rock shaped like a long photo. He thinks it's more likely an object that’s very long and thin, perhaps like a long pancake or a ship’s sail. Loeb says that if someone shows him evidence that contradicts his beliefs, he will immediately give in.
Loeb believes himself a truth-teller and risk- taker in an age of very safe, too-quiet scientists. “The worst thing that can happen to me is that I would be relieved of my management duties, and that would give me even more time to focus on science,” Loeb says. He said he wouldn’t mind giving up all the titles he had and returning to the Israeli farming village where he grew up.
1. What does Loeb say about “Oumuamua”?| A．It is an icy comet. |
| B．It looks like a long photo. |
| C．It is actually some sort of rock. |
| D．It may come from another alien civilization. |
| A．Searches for. | B．Depends on. |
| C．Turns to. | D．Goes against. |
| A．He is foolish. |
| B．He is unsatisfied with his titles. |
| C．He is a firm believer in scientific truth. |
| D．He is uncertain about his career future. |
| A．Have Aliens Paid a Visit in Spaceships? |
| B．Do We Really Know about Space Theory? |
| C．Scientists Are Working on High Technology |
| D．Astronomers Are Encouraging Space Travel |
3 . Instagram has launched (发布) a machine learning technology to its app that better identifies self-harm and suicide (自杀) content in the UK after tragic death of a 14-year-old schoolgirl Molly Russell, who viewed Instagram content connected to anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide before ending her own life in November 2017.
Molly’s family later found she had been viewing content on social media, particularly pictures on Instagram, linked to anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide, which her father, Ian Russell, believed to “help to kill her.” Ian has demanded that web companies should take more responsibility for filtering (过滤) harmful content from the Internet, which may possibly contribute to more young people’s deaths.
Concerns have been raised about self-harm and suicide content online, especially how platforms deal with such content and its impact on certain users, young people in particular. Social media platforms are now increasingly being pressured to develop technology to help remove harmful content as quickly as possible, rather than waiting for users to report it.
Now, the new tool from Instagram automatically searches for suicide-related images and words on the platform. It then makes the content less visible (可见的) in the app or, in some cases, removes it completely after 24 hours if the machine learning decides it breaks the app’s safety rules.
Instagram boss Adam Mosseri said, “Our technology finds posts that may include suicide or self-harm content and sends them to human reviewers to make the final decision and take the right action.” Between April and June this year, around 90 percent of such kind of harmful content on Instagram was found by its own technology before any real user reported it to the platform. “But our goal is to get that number as close as we possibly can to 100 percent,” Mosseri added. “And I hope this could in some way help avoid tragic deaths like Molly Russell’s.”
1. What does Molly’s father mean by saying “help to kill her”?| A．Someone on Instagram helped her to kill herself. |
| B．She was suffering from cyberbully on Instagram. |
| C．Content on Instagram had negative effects on her. |
| D．She didn’t get any help from social media. |
| A．Social media platforms are all taking action to remove harmful content from the Internet. |
| B．Users can report harmful content online to the platform if they see any. |
| C．All images and words that the new technology finds will be completely removed. |
| D．Instagram has already achieved their goal to find 100 percent of harmful content in its app. |
| A．Negative. | B．Positive. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Worried. |
| A．A new technology brought out by Instagram after a teenager’s death |
| B．A schoolgirl’s tragic death after viewing harmful content online |
| C．Ways to prevent young people from self-harm and suicide |
| D．How to deal with depression, self-harm and suicide content online |
4 . A teenager from the UK almost died because of an addiction to unhealthy exercise.
Lisa Fouweather, 19, was so addicted to working out that she ran half marathons before breakfast. She started to practice running, hoping to become excellent at her running club, but quickly became addicted.
She was hardly eating to keep in shape. The teen’s meals would only include a few pieces of food from her “safe foods” list which was mainly fruit and vegetables. She would avoid anything containing sugar or fat. “I would throw my orange juice and bread out of the window when my parents left the room,” she said. At one point, her weight dropped to just 75 pounds — around 34 kg.
This helped to improve her running in the short-term when, in fact, her whole life was falling apart. It affected her education as she would turn up late to school every day to finish her morning running. She said, “Six-mile runs became half marathons, all on an empty stomach before breakfast. Upon my return, I would eat only fruit.”
However, although warned by her parents, Lisa refused to admit she had a problem and wouldn’t give up her way of working out until one day she had a heart attack after her running and was rushed to hospital, where she was diagnosed with anorexic (厌食症) and banned from exercise. “I was told that I could have died because my heart was under great pressure.” She was given dieting advice by doctors to help treat her eating disorders. Thanks to hard work and professional help, she managed to put a stop to her extreme exercise and dieting and has been in recovery for nearly three years.
Lisa said, “I want people who are going through the same problem as I did to know that there is help and support out there, and don’t wait until you’re at breaking point to seek that help.”
1. Why did Lisa start practicing running at first?| A．To become great at the running club. |
| B．To keep in shape. |
| C．To help her with her diet. |
| D．To improve her education. |
| A．She ran half marathons on an empty stomach. |
| B．She had an unhealthy way of eating. |
| C．She didn’t get any warning from others. |
| D．She wouldn’t quit her wrong way of exercise at first. |
| A．There are many people going through the same problem as Lisa did. |
| B．Lisa can provide help and support to people with the same problem. |
| C．You can wait for help if you’re going through the same problem. |
| D．People with the same problem should ask for help in time. |
| A．Science. | B．Technology. |
| C．Health. | D．Nature. |
5 . When it comes to eating, more and more Americans are ordering online instead of eating out. In some restaurants, cooks make food for other online restaurants at the same time. Online orders are only 5% of all restaurants orders, but they are growing about 20% each year.
The increase in online ordering in the US has created openings for new kinds of businesses. One is called Kitchen United. It builds kitchens for restaurants that want to enter take-out markets. Chick-Fil-A, The Halal Guys and Dog Haus all have opened kitchens through it. Another company, DoorDash, sends food to customers who order online. Fuad Hannon is the head of new business at DoorDash, He says, “The industry is still young. It may be too soon to know how it will grow, but what we know is that people love to get their favorite food sent.”
Two other businesses, Grubhub and Uber Eats, say their virtual (虚拟的) restaurant programs help small businesses compete. Both reach out to restaurant owners with suggestions for online. restaurants based on data from customer searches. This information helps owners. think about everything from how people get their food to what should go on the menu.
Kristen Adamowski heads Uber Eats. She says they have helped start 4,000 virtual restaurants worldwide, about half of them in the US and Canada.
Virtual restaurants have the benefit of testing new ideas without taking on expensive rents or employing more workers like traditional ones. But small restaurants should look at the risks before starting an online restaurant suggested by third-party app businesses. Those businesses offer no training for kitchen' workers to get used to making new foods. Other things to consider: whether their delivery containers are right for new dishes, or whether they want to increase their dependence on outside delivery drivers. Those are not small or easy things.
1. What can we learn about online food orders in the US from paragraph 1?| A．They’ve replaced traditional restaurant orders. |
| B．They take up only 20% of restaurant orders. |
| C．They’ve taken up most of the market, |
| D．They are rapidly increasing yearly. |
| A．Its customers are young. |
| B．It will surely develop well. |
| C．Its future remains to be seen. |
| D．It will help people build more restaurants. |
| A．Uber Eats. | B．Dog Haus. | C．Chick-Fi1-A. | D．DoorDash. |
| A．Better late than never. |
| B．Think carefully before you act. |
| C．Failure is the mother of success. |
| D．Where there is a will, there is a way. |
6 . On the banks of the beautiful Macquarie River, Bathurst is a town of pretty tree-lined streets, beautiful parks and wonderful heritage buildings. Many activities are held there year-round. Here are some for you.
The Lazy Sunday Afternoon
January 1
Join us for the Lazy Sunday Afternoon as we show you local award-winning wine from Three Views Vineyard. Please call in advance to book. Enjoy cheap wine tastings and a selection of cheeses. For those who do not want to drive, a pick-up is available.
International Museum Photograph Day
January 15
Celebrate International Museum Photograph Day with a selfie at Bathurst Regional Council Museums with free entrance. To win a prize for the most imaginative photographs, just use the marking Museum Photograph Day Bathurst when you post on Facebook.
Bathurst Miniature Railway
From February 1 to February 16
Bathurst Miniature Railway operates every third Sunday of the month. It is located next to the Tennis Centre in Durham Street. The club started in 1977 and today operates nearly 600 meters of race track in Durham Street Bathurst. Over the years more tracks for your enjoyment of sports have been added.
Challenge Bathurst
From November 28 to December 1
Challenge Bathurst is a great opportunity to drive your own street car or track racing car on the famous Mount Panorama Racing Circuit. With the most exciting 6.2 kilometers of bitumen (沥青) on the planet open for your speeding enjoyment, you won’t want to miss your chance to gain an unforgettable experience.
1. What do we know about the Lazy Sunday Afternoon?| A．It is held monthly. | B．It is free of charge. |
| C．It refuses to offer pick-up service. | D．It requires booking ahead of time. |
| A．A man loving food and wine. | B．A girl fond of taking pictures. |
| C．A kid expecting free car rides. | D．A teenager wanting to play tennis. |
| A．To introduce some events in Bathurst. | B．To advertise some summer activities. |
| C．To show races on the Bathurst streets. | D．To provide opportunities for indoor sports. |
7 . In times of stress, particularly when the water gets too warm, the coral(珊瑚)erupts the algae(海藻), and the coral turns white, causing a state called coral bleaching(漂白). Just a few degrees of heat can lead to coral bleaching, putting the coral on a path to starvation and death.
Driven by climate change, marine heat waves are becoming one of the greatest threats to the existence of coral, which is important to the ocean ecology. But in some rare good news researchers have discovered coral can recover from bleaching even before a heat wave ends, suggesting it has the potential to survive long heat waves. Coral was thought to survive only if a heat wave lasted just a few weeks.
But no one had studied this process during a longer heat wave. Then in 2015, Julia Baum, a marine ecologist at the University of Victoria, began a survey of two common species: brain and star coral around Kiritimati in the central Pacific Ocean. They checked the condition of the coral as the heat wave struck and disappeared.
Starting in May 2015, the temperature rose about 1 ℃ within 2 months. As expected, coral that housed heat-sensitive algae bleached sooner than those housing the heat-tolerant kind of algae. As the water continued to warm, even heat-tolerant algae erupted.
Many brain and star coral on Kiritimati recovered from bleaching while the water was still unusually warm. Baum said, "The unexpected recovery provides new hope, because it means that even under lasting heat waves, there's a path forward for some of them."
An unusual feature of the recovery is that brain coral that started out with heat-sensitive algae had a higher survival rate(82%)than coral that began with heat-tolerant algae(25%). "That finding is surprising," said Baum, expecting that heat-tolerant algae would be better suited for helping coral survive a heat wave. But during a longer heat wave, it might be more advantageous to start with a heat-sensitive algae.
1. What results in coral bleaching?| A．The white algae. | B．The coral's death. |
| C．An attack of waves. | D．A rise in ocean temperature. |
| A．To prove that coral can stop climate change. |
| B．To study how coral bleaching comes about. |
| C．To figure out whether coral survives long heat waves |
| D．To explain why coral bleaching is a big threat to coral |
| A．Ashamed. | B．Confused |
| C．Worried. | D．Astonished. |
| A．Protect the ocean environment. | B．Reduce coral bleaching. |
| C．Grow more different algae. | D．Regulate the heat wave. |
8 . Children's average daily time spent watching television or using mobile device increased from 53 minutes at 12 months old to more than 150 minutes at 3 years old, according to an analysis by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. Children aged 7 were more likely to spend the highest amount of screen time if they had been in bad home-based childcare or were born to first-time mothers.
“Our results indicate that screen habits begin early,” said Edwina Yeung, an investigator in National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), “This finding suggests that interventions to reduce screen time could have a better chance of success if introduced early.”
In the research, mothers of 4,000 children responded to questions on their kids' media habits when they were 12, 18, 24, 30, and 36 months of age.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends avoiding digital media exposure for children under 18 months of age, introducing children 18 to 24 months of age to screen media slowly, and limiting screen time to an hour a day for children from 2 to 5 years of age. In the current study, researchers found that 87% of the children had screen time exceeding these recommendations. However, while screen time increased throughout infancy, after 8 years of age, screen time fell to under 1. 5 hours per day. The researchers believe this decrease relates to time consumed by school-related activities.
The study authors classified the children into two groups based on how much their aver- age daily screen time increased from age 1 to age 3. The first group, 73% of the total, had the lower increase, from an average of nearly 51 minutes a day to nearly an hour and 47 minutes a day. The second group, 27% of the total, had the higher increase, from nearly 37 minutes of screen time a day to about 4 hours a day. Higher levels of parental education were associated with the lower odds of inclusion in the second group.
1. Which of the following is a reason for children's addiction to the media?| A．Low economic level. | B．Poor family education |
| C．The media's attraction. | D．The shortage of parents' love. |
| A．To stop children using the media. | B．To help parents care for children well |
| C．To reduce children's screen time earlier | D．To increase intervention to children |
| A．By giving some examples. | B．By showing some data. |
| C．By analyzing some reasons. | D．By concluding some results. |
| A．Probability. | B．Price. | C．Cost. | D．Income. |
9 . Kemira Boyd had just jumped in the shower when she heard her stepmother, Tammy Boyd, knocking on the door. Kemira's 12-day-old daughter Ryleigh was choking. Kemira tried everything, but she still couldn't breathe. Kemira knew Ryleigh needed to get to the hospital fast.
They had barely driven out of their neighborhood when a police car appeared behind them. Deputy Will Kimbro figured that the speeding driver was either too distracted to notice him or unconcerned. Kimbro soon found out it was a frightening combination of the two.
Once she'd pulled over, Kemira handed the baby to Kimbro. He put a hand on her little chest. Ryleigh's heart was barely beating. Kimbro radioed for an ambulance. At that time Ryleigh's lips were already blue.
The fact that Kimbro was there was a miracle. He had recently completed a CPR class and knew how to treat a child.
“Although I was shocked, my training kicked in, and I went to work to keep that child alive,” said Kimbro. Then he began tapping Ryleigh's chest, hoping to press her heart back into action. Thanks to the CPR class, Kimbro knew the choking child didn't have a chance if there was a blockage, and he used one finger to clear her airway. That was a magic touch. 20 seconds later, Ryleigh began to cry. “If she's crying like that, she's breathing,” said Kimbro.
But they still had five more minutes until the ambulance would arrive, and Kimbro worried that Ryleigh would choke again. He continued with delicate chest compression and clearing her airway.
After transferring Ryleigh to the ambulance, Kimbro drove away. At the hospital, Ryleigh recovered quickly thanks to a determined police officer who was in the right place at the right time.
1. Why did Kemira stop her car outside her neighborhood?| A．She wanted to ask for help. | B．She had broken traffic rules |
| C．She needed to care for the child. | D．She planned to talk with Kimbro |
| A．Nervous. | B．Frightened. | C．Calm. | D．Curious. |
| A．The CPR class. | B．The doctors' help. |
| C．Kemira's reaction. | D．Kimbro's first aid. |
| A．An encounter saved a life | B．A CPR class is important |
| C．A clever and brave mother | D．A policeman's experience |
10 . Sweetest Day is celebrated on the third Saturday in October as a day to make someone happy. It is an occasion which offers all of us an opportunity to remember not only the sick, the aged, and children who have lost their parents, but also friends, workmates, relatives and neighbors whose helpfulness and kindness we have enjoyed.
Over 60 years ago, when a Cleveland man noticed that some people, such as children who lost their parents and patients who lay in bed, too often felt forgotten and neglected, he developed in his mind the idea of showing them that they were remembered. He did this by giving them small gifts. With the help of his friends and neighbors, he gave those people small gifts on a Saturday in October. During the years that followed, other Clevelanders began to take part in the celebration, which came to be called "Sweetest Day". Over time, the Sweetest Day idea of spreading cheer to the poor, the sick and children who had lost their parents was broadened to include everyone, and became an occasion for remembering others with a kind act or a small gift. Soon the idea spread to other cities all over the USA.
Sweetest Day is not based on any single group’s religious beliefs or on a family relationship. It is a reminder that a thoughtful word or deed enriches life and gives it meaning. Because for many people remembering takes the form of gift giving, Sweetest Day offers us the opportunity to show others that we care, in a positive way.
1. What group of people is the Sweetest Day intended for?| A．The sick. | B．The aged. | C．The orphans. | D．All the people. |
| A．Ignored. | B．Forgotten. | C．Remembered. | D．Loved. |
| A．He felt lonely and wanted to be noticed. |
| B．He wanted to be helpful to those who need love. |
| C．He needed someone to give out some small gifts. |
| D．He was helped by his friends and neighbors. |
| A．A gift is always needed on Sweetest Day. |
| B．Only those sick and children need to be remembered. |
| C．Sweetest Day is limited to families and friends. |
| D．It's a chance for everyone to express your care. |
