1 . To walk is to be human. We' re the only creature that gets around by standing up and putting one foot in front of the other. In the more than 4 million years that humanity' s ancestors have been u-sing only two legs for walking, our ability to walk upright has allowed humankind to travel great distances and survive changing climates, environments and landscapes.
But walking is more than just transportation. It also happens to be really good for us. Countless scientific studies have found that this simple act can provide a number of health benefits and help people live longer. In fact, a walking routine-if done properly-might be the only exercise people need.
How much walking should one aim for? You’ve likely heard we need 10,000 steps a day. That’s about 5 miles. But contrary to popular belief, this recommendation doesn’t come from science. Instead, it stems from a 1960s advertising campaign to promote a pedometer(计步器)in Japan. Perhaps because it's a round number and easy to remember, it stuck.
Since the 1960s, researchers have studied the 10,000 - steps - a - day standard and have turned up mixed results. Although 10,000 steps is certainly a healthy and worthwhile goal, it’s not a one - size - fits - all recommendation.
For instance, a recent Harvard University study involving more than 16,000 senior women found that those who got at least 4,400 steps a day greatly reduced their risk of dying early when compared with less active women. The study also noted that these benefits continued up to 7, 500 steps before leveling off. This 7,500 mark isn't surprising: It’s in line with common public health recommendations, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate (适度的) physical activity a week for adults.
Research has shown that picking up the pace might be a good idea, too-fast enough to raise your heart rate, even if just for a short burst.
1. Which statement will the author believe?| A．Walking 10000 steps a day fits us all who lack exercise. |
| B．Walking is the only exercise that unhealthy people need. |
| C．To be healthy, walking great distances is strongly suggested |
| D．The benefits of walking depend on frequency, intensity and duration |
| A．A walking routine | B．A round number |
| C．The popular belief | D．The pedometer Ads. |
| A．4,400 steps a day. | B．7,500 steps a day. |
| C．10,000 steps a day. | D．150 minutes a day. |
| A．The Only Exercise You Need-Walking |
| B．10,000 - Step Goal Is More Marketing Than Science |
| C．Walking Is One Of The Best Exercises For Health |
| D．Walk Often, Walk Fast And Walk Long |
2 . Using Google's unique digital(数字的)technology, the stories of some English Heritage(遗产)sites around the country-from Tintagel Castle in Cornwall to Chesters Roman Fort on Hadrian's Wall-are brought to life and shared by way of the Google Arts & Culture platform.
 Stonehenge Skyscape | English Heritage's Stonehenge Skyscape enables people around the world to experience the skies above the stone circle, to learn about movements of the sun, moon and planets. Experience a live and special sunrise over Stonehenge, see the journey of the stars and the moon from within the stone circle and learn more about the design of Stonehenge and how its builders may have understood their place in the universe. |
 Osborne, Isle of Wight | Take a 360 video tour of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's palatial(豪华的)holiday home on the Isle of Wight in the company of English Heritage director Michael Hunter, including the Italian terraces(露台)with views over the Solent, which reminded Prince Albert of the Bay of Naples, and the Indian-inspired Durbar Room, designed to show Queen Victoria's position as Empress of India. |
 Audley End House and Gardens, Essex | Explore the story of one of the greatest houses of early 17th-century England, deep in the heart of the Essex countryside, and fly over the great formal gardens designed by Capability Brown. |
 Tintagel Castle, Cornwall | Explore this medieval(中世纪的)castle set high on Cornwall's north coast. Linked with the legend of King Arthur, for centuries this impressive castle and coastline has inspired the imaginations of writers, artists and even the brother of a king. Discover the Early Medieval history of a distant outpost(哨站)trading objects from Spain, North Africa and Turkey. |
1. Which heritage can you choose if you are interested in a unique sunrise?
| A．Stonehenge Skyscape. | B．Osborne, Isle of Wight. |
| C．Audley End House and Gardens, Essex. | D．Tintagel Castle, Cornwall. |
| A．Both were built for their kings. |
| B．Both were built in the same age. |
| C．Both are related to previous rulers. |
| D．Both are palatial holiday homes for the rulers. |
| A．History. | B．Travel. |
| C．Geography. | D．Culture. |
3 . We all love animals, but animals don’t feel the same way about us. When we enter their wild world, we are “unnatural” invaders into their homes.
There was a video many of you may have seen on the Internet recently of a bear and its cub (幼崽) climbing up a steep, snow-covered hill in Russia. The mama bear makes it to the top without too much trouble, but the baby bear keeps sliding back down. It takes three attempts to reach the top and, no doubt, many cheered at the cub’s never-give-up spirit. But nature scientists who saw the video didn’t cheer.
Instead, the scientists were upset that the two bears had been frightened into making a dangerous, unnecessary climb by the drone (无人机) that was filming them. Sophie Gilbert of the University of Idaho said, “It showed a complete lack of understanding from the drone operator of the effects his actions were having on the bears.” Other scientists have found that when a drone is hovering near, a bear’s heart rate can increase from 41 beats per minute to 162 beats per minute — a high enough rate to cause a heart attack.
Human disturbance has actually been having a far-reaching influence on wildlife. Researchers at the University of Berkeley recently found that many mammals are turning into “night owls” again to avoid contact with humans. Such a shift might not only affect those species themselves, but also have numerous chain effects.
We human beings find ourselves in a strange position in nature. We are part of it but also separate from it, now more than ever, since most of us live in cities. So, when we go off hiking into wild areas to “re-connect” with nature, we should go softly and considerately. It’s OK to get close to our animal friends, just not too close — we wouldn’t want to scare them, would we?
1. What does the video feature?| A．The baby bear’s climbing. | B．The mama bear’s care. |
| C．The dangerous environment. | D．The experiment by scientists. |
| A．They knew the bear’s family well. |
| B．They were against other scientists. |
| C．They knew the cause of the bears’ climbing. |
| D．They lacked understanding of the drone operator. |
| A．Food shortage. | B．Changing habitats. |
| C．Ecological imbalance. | D．Less contact with humans. |
| A．Lose connection with nature. |
| B．Tighten the bond with wild animals. |
| C．Respect the human-animal distance. |
| D．Shoot more videos on animals for study. |
4 . 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. |
5 . Do you want to look fashionable? Is looking fashionable more important than being comfortable? Many people seem to think so, judging by the things they wear. But fashion is not everything. It is more important to be a healthy and good person.
People go to great lengths to be fashionable. Some people think they have to have a certain body type, so they go on extreme, unhealthy diets in order to change their bodies. In addition, many women wear uncomfortable fashions, such as high-heeled shoes that create blisters, tight body shapers that limit blood flow, and sticky false eyelashes（假睫毛）. Men and women alike spend time and money on products that change their natural hair color and use hot irons and blow dryers to curl or straighten their hair. Some people spend several hours a day in front of a mirror. Is fashion important enough to spend so much time and effort on changing how they look like?
If the purpose of fashion is to make a person feel good, it does not make sense that he or she would go through so much discomfort to be fashionable. Fashion should not come first. People should prioritize（优先考虑）being healthy and positive. What people wear does not indicate anything about their personalities. Instead of spending hours choosing a suit, perhaps you should call your friends and do something together. Instead of going on strict diets and starving, why not eat some healthy foods and then exercise? By doing these things, you can keep a healthy lifestyle and truly grow as a person.
1. Why does the author ask questions in the first paragraph?| A．To enrich the content. | B．To introduce the topic. |
| C．To reflect different attitudes. | D．To make readers think and give their opinions. |
| A．Fashion can make people do some unhealthy things. |
| B．Fashion increases famous people’s self-respect. |
| C．When you look good, you feel good. |
| D．People need to diet to lose weight. |
| A．Shopping for fashionable clothes. | B．Going on a strict diet with a friend. |
| C．Going skating with friends. | D．Changing the hairstyle every week. |
| A．show readers advantages and disadvantages of dieting |
| B．persuade readers to value health more than fashion |
| C．tell readers ways to become fashionable |
| D．inform readers of the latest fashion trends |
6 . Robots are often cast in popular science fiction as the bad characters that take over the world and enslave mankind. But with the beginning of some serious diseases, robots are increasingly being employed as helpers, taking on often dull, difficult and dangerous tasks and thus reducing humans' exposure to some terrifying virus.
In the United States, two of the main ways in which robotic technology is being used in the hospitals are to disinfect(消毒）hospital rooms and act as a telemedicine portal, allowing doctors and health care workers to communicate via video conference directly with patients without unnecessarily exposing themselves to those highly infectious virus.
In Boston, doctors, researchers and robotics engineers have teamed up to bring a friendly, dog-like, four-legged robot named Spot into Brigham and Women' s Hospital, allowing doctors to communicate with patients via telemedicine.
In March, at the start of the pandemic, a league from hospital, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Spot's manufacturer-Boston Dynamnics, began testing the robot's design to enable Spot to communicate with patients, thus reducing the exposure of frontline health care workers to the virus. In the place of a head, Spot has an iPad affixed to a stand, allowing doctors to conduct telemedicine services with their patients.
“Most people actually really like it,” says Dr. Peter Chai, an emergency medicine physician who serves as the hospital's chief researcher on the robot project.
Researchers are working to increase the robot's diagnostic abilities, enabling it to measure the patients temperature and his or her respiratory rate (呼吸率）.
Chai predicts that hospitals will continue to find more ways to use robots, and tie wonders whether robots can deliver supplies to rooms or see patients with other infectious diseases
1. What words can best describe the jobs robots are employed to do?| A．Normal and easy. | B．Exciting and dangerous. |
| C．Dirty and complex. | D．Frightening and difficult. |
| A．To save money. | B．To replace doctors. |
| C．To protect doctors from infecting virus. | D．To deliver supplies to patients and doctors. |
| A．It is a friendly dog. |
| B．It can deliver supplies to hospital rooms. |
| C．It can help adjust the patient's temperature. |
| D．It allows doctors to conduct telemedicine services. |
| A．Spot the Robot Dog |
| B．Train Robot Doctors |
| C．Robots Being Used in Hospital |
| D．Robots in Popular Science Fiction |
7 . If you think English means endless new words, difficult grammars and sometimes strange pronunciations, you are wrong. Haven’t you noticed that you have become smarter since you started to learn a language?
According to a new study by a British university, learning a second language can lead to an increase in your brain power. Researchers found that learning other languages changes grey matter. This is the area of the brain which processes information.It is similar to the way that exercise builds muscles.
The study also found the effect is greater when the younger people learn a second language. A team led by Dr. Andrea Mecheli, from University College London, took a group of Britons who only spoke English.They were compared with a group of “early bilinguals” who had learnt a second language before the age of five, as well as a number of later learners.
Scans showed that grey matter density in the brain was greater in bilinguals than in people without a second language. But the longer a person waited before mastering a new language, the smaller the difference.
“Our findings suggest that the structure of the brain is changed by the experience of learning a second language, ”said the scientists. It means that the change itself increases the ability to learn.
Professor Dylan Vaughan Jones of the University of Wales, has researched the link between bilingualism and maths skills.“Having two languages gives you two windows on the world and makes the brain more flexible (灵活的), ”he said, “You are actually going beyond language and have a better understanding of different ideas.”
The findings were matched in a study of native Italian speakers who had learned English as a second language between the ages of 2 and 34. Reading, writing, and comprehension were all tested.The results showed that the younger they started to learn, the better. “Studying a language means you get an entrance to another world, ” explained the scientists.
1. The main subject talked about in this passage is ________.| A．science on learning a second language | B．man’s ability of learning a second language |
| C．language study can help improve brain power | D．language learning and maths study |
| A．say language is also a kind of physical labor |
| B．prove that one needs more practice when he (she) is learning a language |
| C．show the importance of using the language when you learn it |
| D．make people believe language learning helps grey matter work well |
| A．researchers on language learning | B．second language learners |
| C．persons who can speak two languages | D．active language learners |
8 . As a child, I was really afraid of the dark and of getting lost. These fears were very real and caused me some uncomfortable moments. Maybe it was the strange way things looked and sounded in my own room at night that scared me so much. There was never complete darkness, but always a streetlight or passing car lights, which made clothes on the back of a chair take on the shape of a wild animal. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the curtains seem to move when there was no wind. A very low sound in the floor would seem a hundred times louder than in the day. My imagination would run wild, and my heart would beat fast. I would lie very still so that the “enemy” would not discover me.
Another of my childhood fears was that I would get lost, especially on the way home from school. Every morning I got on the school bus right near my home. That was no problem. After school, though, when all the buses were lined up along the street, I was afraid that I would get in the wrong one and be taken to some other strange places. On school or family trips to a park or a museum, I wouldn’t let the leaders out of my sight.
Perhaps one of the worst fears of all I had as a child was that of not being liked or accepted by others. Being popular was so important to me then, and the fear of not being liked was a serious one.
One of the processes growing up is being able to realize and overcome our fears. Understanding the things that scared us as children helps us achieve greater success later in life.
1. The author had _______ kind(s) of fears when she was a child.| A．One | B．two | C．three | D．none |
| A．Streetlight and car lights | B．Wild animals and enemies |
| C．Moving curtains and wind | D．Clothes and walls |
| A．walk away without others | B．take a bus by herself |
| C．follow others closely | D．make sure not to take a wrong bus |
| A．She thought being popular among people was important. |
| B．She was always the leader of the others. |
| C．She always got poor grades. |
| D．She was not liked by others at all. |
9 . Most of the sandstorms that had swept China last year originated from foreign land, a Chinese official in charge of desertification control said Monday. And the invasions (入侵) could partly explain the frequent sandstorms in the country in recent years despite its achievements in desertification control.
Since the start of last spring, the north and northwestern Chinese regions had been hit by 17 sandstorms, of which, a dozen came from foreign land.
Situated in the central-Asia sandstorm region, one of the world’s four largest sandstorm sources, China also suffers from sandstorms from outside the country while being blamed as a sand source to northeast Asia. The other three major sources are in Africa, North America and Australia.
The land suffering from desertification has been decreasing by 7,585 sq.km annually in China, and the area of sandy land has also been falling by 1,284 sq.km a year.
The shrinkage (收缩) forms a clear contrast to the fact that the land suffering from desertification and sandy feature was added by 10,400 sq.km and 3,436 sq.km late last century, respectively.
Currently, the desertification land in China makes up 2.64 million sq.km, accounting for 27.46 percent of the nation’s land, and its sandy land totals 1.74 million sq.km, accounting for 18.1 percent of the country’s total.
1. What does the underlined word “decreasing” mean in Paragraph 4?| A．Going up. | B．Going down. |
| C．Coming from. | D．Taking up. |
| A．The northern Chinese regions. |
| B．The northwestern Chinese regions. |
| C．Foreign countries. |
| D．The western part of China. |
| A．China. | B．Africa. |
| C．Mongolia. | D．Australia. |
| A．entertainment | B．health |
| C．education | D．environment |
10 . British parents encourage their children to play musical instruments as part of a family tradition(传统) rather than raise their children’s competitiveness as the American parents do.
Dr. Aaron Reeves from Oxford University found that the UK parents did not see musical practice as character building or useful in getting university places or jobs for their children. Instead, they usually encouraged their children to follow their interests.
This is different from what the other researchers had found in America. Middle-class parents in the US appear to associate(与……相联系) these cultural practices with other worldly benefits and often center these music activities around the school subjects.
Researchers think that it may be due to(由于) the fact that the US parents have become increasingly worried about providing their children with skills and abilities enabling them to stand out from their competitors.
However, for British parents, no such direct connection was made with future educational or job advantages. The parents interviewed here did not connect music with usefulness but rather they just paid attention to the value of music as a family tradition and, to some degree, as something valuable in its own right.
One Scottish parent said during an interview, “We’ve got two learning musical instruments. If they think it is fun, we try and encourage them, but we wouldn’t force them.” Another housewife said, “My son has just turned five and I want him to play the guitar because his uncle is good at it, but it’s up to my son.”
“Lots of UK parents don’t think music practice could be very helpful for the children’s confidence or school success. They say that it takes time and some talent for the children to gain a competing advantage,” said Dr. Reeves. “I think they are right.”
1. What does the underlined word “their” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．The US parents’. | B．The UK children’s. |
| C．The UK parents’. | D．The US children’s. |
| A．It is useful for their children to get better jobs. |
| B．It can be helpful to build their children’s confidence. |
| C．It helps their children to succeed in their schoolwork. |
| D．It would be better to take it as a hobby for the children. |
| A．Both the US and UK parents are right. |
| B．The other researchers’ findings are misleading. |
| C．Dr. Reeves agrees more with the UK parents. |
| D．Only the talented children can benefit from music learning. |
| A．The benefits of extra music learning for children. |
| B．The American parents’ attitude towards music learning. |
| C．Differences in the British and American parenting styles. |
| D．Different attitudes towards music learning in the UK and USA. |
