1 . The phrase “Keeping up with the Joneses" has been an American saying for decades, likely coming from a picture book, which describes a family in a constant straggle to achieve the social status of their neighbors, the Joneses. While the picture book is long gone, the saying remains and the phenomenon still exists.
The Joneses are everywhere, living a successful and wealthy life. Their skin is beautiful, their body is perfect, and they have much money. They have the good house, pets, smart children and they seem never to struggle. For people, the Joneses take the form of a particular family and they regard the Joneses as a description of perfection.
We tell ourselves constantly if we could become someone just like our neighbors, we would be happy. However, as we compare ourselves with others, we notice the deep pain that these comparisons bring about. Well then, what do we do about the Joneses? We should remind ourselves nobody is perfect and perfection is an illusion. So we should train our brains to question or change the distorted (歪曲的) ways of thinking, and see the big picture.
While the methods above do help us see others more clearly, the methods alone won't solve the problem. Moving away from comparison means turning inward to address our insecurities and inviting more mercy. From there, we can honestly begin to notice what we want for ourselves and work to reach those goals. That, finally, is the road to a peaceful mind.
As we move away from the comparative model of judging worth and stop seeing others, success as a treat, we can even feel glad that the Joneses have meaningful careers. We can hope their marriage is happy, their bank account is full, and that their children are successful. We can hope good things happen to the Joneses.
1. What does Paragraph 2 mainly talk about?| A．How "the Joneses" live. |
| B．What your neighbors have. |
| C．Why "the Joneses" are perfect. |
| D．How your neighbors affect you. |
| A．Being grateful to life. | B．Understanding others. |
| C．Gaining peace of mind. | D．Being close to perfection. |
| A．Follow our neighbors. | B．Avoid perfect people. |
| C．Show our love to other people. | D．Treat others with a normal attitude. |
| A．How Do We Become Perfect? |
| B．Should We Keep up with the Joneses? |
| C．How Should We Get on with Neighbors? |
| D．Does the Phenomenon of Comparison Exist? |
2 . China's historic 23-day Chang'e 5 mission has not only obtained precious rock and soil samples from the moon, but has also brought back a group of seeds that traveled the furthest in the nation's agricultural and forestry histories. More than 30 kinds of seeds, including that of rice, oats etc., were placed inside the multi-module Chang'e 5 spacecraft and orbited around the moon for about 15 days.
Scientists wished to check what would happen to the seeds after being exposed to extraterrestrial (地外的) forces in lunar orbit and also hoped that they could develop beneficial mutations (突变). This mission offered good opportunities to scientists, which enabled them to deepen their studies on the effect of cosmic rays on the growth and evolution of life on Earth.
Space-based mutation breeding refers to the process of exposing seeds to forces such as microgravity, vacuums and cosmic radiation during a spaceflight and then sending them back to Earth for further observation and planting. Researchers observe and examine several generations of plants grown from space-bred seeds and investigate their mutations-some are positive and desirable while others are negative. Those with positive mutations will be kept and analyzed, and will be introduced to farmers after their certification and approval.
Space breeding can generate mutations faster and more conveniently than ground-based experiments and can bring about some desirable traits that are otherwise hard to introduce. Compared with natural or conventionally bred types of plants, space-developed versions with positive mutations usually feature higher nutritional content, greater annual yields, shorter growth periods and better resistance to diseases and insect pests.
China conducted its first space breeding experiment in 1987, using a satellite to carry seeds into space. Since then, hundreds of kinds of seeds and seedlings have traveled with dozens of Chinese spaceships. Space breeding has helped to produce more than 200 new types of mutated plants in China that have been approved for large-scale cultivation, ranging from grains to vegetables and fruits. The Chang'e 5 robotic mission returned 1,731 grams of lunar rock and soil to Earth, marking a historic accomplishment 44 years after the last lunar substances were taken back.
1. Why were the seeds placed inside Chang'e 5?| A．To pick out the fittest for mutations. | B．To understand extraterrestrial forces. |
| C．To study the intensity of cosmic rays. | D．To expose them to a special environment. |
| A．It is not a time-consuming process. | B．Mutations develop in a random way. |
| C．It often brings about desirable effects. | D．Approval will be granted to mutated plants. |
| A．It is a custom to put seedlings on a spacecraft. |
| B．China was the first to do a space breeding experiment. |
| C．It is some time since seeds were last taken into space. |
| D．Space breeding has brought us commercial benefits. |
| A．Space-bred Seeds Offer Great Chances | B．Chang'e 5 Returns with a Big Package |
| C．Plant Mutations Result in a Better Life | D．Seeds from Space Mark a New History |
3 . If you're daydreaming of future travels while stuck at home during the Covid-19 outbreak, why fantasize about the beaches of Ball or the canals of Venice when vacationing in space could be in your future?
Back in 2019, Californian company the Gateway Foundation released plans for a hotel that could one day float above the Earth's atmosphere. This futuristic concept was scheduled to be fully operational by 2027.
Now the hotel, Voyager Station, is set to be built by Orbital Assembly Corporation, a new construction company run by former pilot John Blincow, who also heads up the Gateway Foundation.
In a recent interview, Blincow explained there had been some Covid-related delays, but construction on the space hotel is expected to begin in 2026, and a hotel in space could be a reality by 2027.
"We're trying to make the public realize that this golden age of space travel is just around the corner. It's coming. It's coming fast," said Blincow.
Space tourism is becoming an increasingly hot topic, and there are several companies trying to make it happen — from Virgin Galactic to Elon Musk's SpaceX.
The team behind Voyager Station have said they're hoping to eventually make a stay at the hotel equal to "a trip to Disneyland ".
The team are also hoping to build research stations and spark space tourism and commerce opportunities. They imagine the government or private companies might use the space hotel for training crews heading to the moon, Mars and beyond.
The eventual goal, as the team put it in 2019, is "to create a starship culture where people are going to space, and living in space, and working in space. And we believe that there's a demand for that."
1. What can we learn about the space hotel from the text?| A．Its construction has already begun. | B．It has been delayed due to Covid-19. |
| C．It can float to the moon, Mars and beyond. | D．It is in great demand worldwide. |
| A．The Gateway Foundation. | B．Orbital Assembly Corporation. |
| C．The government. | D．The universities. |
| A．Exploring outer space. | B．Competing with other companies. |
| C．Opposing space tourism. | D．Building a spaceship culture. |
| A．First Ever Space Hotel Is Coming | B．There Is A Place Like No Other |
| C．Research Stations Are Getting Popular | D．Human Explorations Are Endless |
4 . Caroline Woodward wakes each morning to the sound of waves crashing onto the rocks that surround her home, Lennard Island, British Columbia, Canada.
This rocky island is home to a bright white lighthouse with a fire engine red top. Lennard Island's lighthouse has been a fixture of the Western Canadian coast since 1904, when the first wooden lighthouse was built to guide sailors navigating the surrounding waters.
There's been a lighthouse keeper on Lennard Island ever since, and today, that job falls to Woodward, who also writes poetry and children's stories, and her husband Jeff George.
"I think many people have romantic, 19th century ideas of lighthouses," says Woodward. Not many of them are correct, she says.
No, she doesn't live in the tower itself — and no, she doesn't have much time to kill. What Woodward does have is a busy, fun, and rewarding role, one she wouldn't trade for the world.
Woodward and George take turns to send a 3:15 a.m. weather report to the local Coast Guard radio. It's the first of seven they deliver each day. They survey the sea and sky from the lookout points. Their routine work also involves maintaining the twelve buildings that make up Lennard Island Lightstation.
The couple work seven days a week — vacations come only when the Coast Guard organizes relief keepers. In between, there's time for tending to the garden, hiking, and keeping watch on the wildlife that populates Lennard Island and its spectacular surrounds.
"We have resident bald eagles, lots of gulls, crows, and water and shorebirds all the year round. We also host Pacific tree frogs and wonderful insects."
There are, fortunately, no bears or wolves, says Woodward.
The wildlife and landscapes provide plenty of inspiration for her writing, too. Woodward has recently finished a novel, which she says was inspired by the stunning surrounds of the North Pacific Ocean.
1. Which of the following is a duty of the lighthouse keepers?| A．Living in the tower of the lighthouse. | B．Sending seven weather reports daily. |
| C．Taking care of the garden. | D．Observing the wildlife on the island. |
| A．She values her job greatly. | B．She finds her job boring. |
| C．Reality disappoints her. | D．She wants to change her job. |
| A．She lives a romantic life there. | B．She secures long vacations. |
| C．Her creativity in writing is inspired. | D．Her physical health is improved. |
| A．Why Woodward becomes a lighthouse keeper. |
| B．What it is like to be a lighthouse keeper. |
| C．How the lighthouse keepers kill the time. |
| D．Where Woodward continues writing. |
5 . Tears well up in people's eyes for a lot of reasons. A teardrop running down the cheek is the ultimate symbol of sadness, but people may also cry because they just cut an onion, or maybe they're trying to blink out an eyelash.
For the most part, tears help maintain healthy eyes. When you blink, basal (基底的) tears clean and smooth the eyes, which helps you to see clearly, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Moreover, reflex (反射性的) tears, or those that happen unconsciously, help clear the eyes of irritants (刺激物), including dust and the gas that's produced when a knife slices a raw onion, said Andre Silva, a doctoral student of psychology at the University of Minho in Portugal.
Emotions can also bring about tears in humans. These emotional tears can serve as a means of nonverbal communication. Silva said, “Babies cry to signal to their mothers that something's up. It's a pure attention call. Some people think that babies are capable of controlling adults by crying, but that idea is false and misleading, as a baby is not conscious of being tricky: In a way, we can consider these tears as being somewhere between basal tears and emotional tears.”
As people grow older, they begin to use their tears to express emotions, such as happiness or sadness. These tears may promote compassion and empathy in others. But beware of people who may use their tears to control others. “Some sensitive people may be easily controlled through the crying of others, and may easily shed tears that can also be used by others to control them,” he said.
So, emotional tears have both advantages and disadvantages. “They are a powerful communication device and a powerful manipulative (操纵别人的) device,” Silva said. Crying also makes it hard for some people to mask their feelings when they're in the middle of an extreme emotional state.
1. What's the function of reflex tears?| A．Reflecting our feelings. |
| B．Being used to affect others. |
| C．Serving as a means of interaction. |
| D．Clearing away harmful matters in the eyes. |
| A．Tears are usually used to pity others. |
| B．Babies burst into tears without tricks. |
| C．People mask their feelings when crying. |
| D．Blinking out an eyelash makes it easy to cry. |
| A．We ought to identify tears. |
| B．We should control babies, crying. |
| C．We need to smooth our eyes by emotional tears. |
| D．We can hardly fan others' sympathy by tears. |
| A．Why do people cry? |
| B．Why can tears control others? |
| C．How do people express emotions? |
| D．How can people make use of tears? |
6 . Motion sickness is an uncomfortable feeling. The sickness it causes can strike people on an airplane, playing video games, or, commonly, when riding in a car. In a future where people may find themselves running around streets in self-driving vehicles, the problems could get worse.
We typically sense our physical position and movement in the world by relying on our eyes, the feeling we get in our body, and our inner ear. Motion sickness may develop when there's disagreement between what your eyes see and what your inner ear senses. If you're looking at your phone in a moving vehicle, your eyes see a stationary screen but your inner ear feels that you're moving. The result of that dissonance can cause sickness. The common-sense solution is to just stop looking at your phone, but some of the appeal of self-driving cars is that you could use the time to be productive or entertained by what's on a screen.
Researchers of a car-making company and a video game company have been studying ways to address these issues. And their solution uses an interesting medium: sound. The research had two goals: to explore if sound could help relieve motion sickness, and to help people trust self-driving cars more. They experimented with two different categories of sound: tips that tell passengers what's about to happen, and noises that alert passengers when the device has noticed something, like a pedestrian.
The most convincing experiment took place on a closed airport runway in Sweden, near Gothenburg, in August of last year. On that track, brave participants had to ride in the backseat of a car driven by a human and read from a tablet while the car navigated the course. With just 20 people, the study was small, but according to researchers, the presence of sound tips made people report that they felt less ill. Participants said the sounds helped prepare them physically, or adjust their bodies for what was about to happen.
1. When does motion sickness usually happen?| A．Sleeping during travels. | B．Closing eyes on vehicles. |
| C．Driving vehicles speedily. | D．Riding in moving vehicles. |
| A．Confusion. | B．Potentiality. | C．Randomness. | D．Disagreement. |
| A．Uncertain. | B．Optimistic. | C．Concerned. | D．Dissatisfaction. |
| A．A study of motion sickness. | B．Self-driving vehicles. |
| C．A convincing experiment. | D．The cause and handling of motion sickness. |
7 . Twelve-year-old Lydia Denton was recently named the winner of CITGO's Fueling Education Student Challenge, where she earned $20,000 after creating the Beat the Heat Car Seat, which is a portable device placed in the car seat that not only senses weight over five pounds but monitors temperature when the baby is in the seat.
The soon-to-be seventh grader says she became inspired to make the invention after watching the news that babies were being left in hot cars, often by accident.“At first, I thought about raising money for the families, but that wouldn't fix the problem: I wanted to invent something that could prevent the deaths from happening.”
Lydia's device is started when it senses the weight of the child and the temperature setting reaches over 100 F (38℃). At that point, an alarm goes off and a warning is sent via SMS to the parents. If the parents don't reset the device within 60 seconds, a built-in GPS chip sends a message to local authorities with the vehicle's location. After many rounds of testing with her local 911, Lydia is proud to say that Beat the Heat Car Seat is a success.
Though many newer vehicles come with warning systems and smart seat systems, Lydia's goal was to create a device that would reach more people and that could also transfer from car seat to car seat as the child grew. She decided to use her prize money to continue making improvements on the device, which would sell for only about $40.
Lydia is now working with an instructor who is helping her with production and teaching her about business. Lydia hopes that her work will inspire more kids of her age to make their ideas come true. “Don't think that you have to accept things in the world. If there is something that bothers you, think of ways to make it better!”
1. Why did Lydia make the invention?| A．To win 20,000-dollar prize. |
| B．To raise money for unlucky families. |
| C．To help stop babies dying in hot cars. |
| D．To guarantee babies' safety in a car crash. |
| A．How it works. | B．What it consists of. |
| C．Why it raises the alarm. | D．How parents respond to it. |
| A．It will be much stronger. | B．It will be more affordable. |
| C．It will be less problematic. | D．It will be more effective on older kids. |
| A．No competition, no progress. |
| B．It's never too late to go into business. |
| C．One should be open to any suggestion. |
| D．Creative thinking is the key to success. |
8 . Unless your parent is a head chef or bento box（便当盒）master, school lunch is usually nothing to write home about. For artist and father Dominick Cabalo, however, his son Nicholas’ lunches are an oil painting cloth for creativity. Cabalo makes carefully designed drawings on each of 12-year-old Nicholas’ paper lunch bags, usually representing popular lively characters and colorful superheroes.
Cabalo began drawing on the bags about three years ago to help Nicholas make new friends in elementary school. “I noticed he was a bit shy when it came to talking to others,” he said. “So by creating a piece of artwork to ‘break the ice’, kids would come up to him and start talking and hopefully a conversation, or better yet, a new friendship, would start.”
Though Nicholas is in middle school now, he still asks his dad to draw on the lunch bags, and will make requests for characters or drawings that he’d like to see on the next bag. Cabalo has drawn about 400 lunch bags in the past three years. He explained that the bags had really helped his son become more confident at school. “He’s broken out of his shell because of this, and I like to think that I had a hand in helping him do this with these bags.” he wrote.
Nicholas keeps most of the bags. “Some come back in better condition than others,” Cabalo said. “We may lose one due to the occasional wet sandwich or leaky drink, but that’s to be expected.” As for the bags that make it home undamaged, Cabalo posts their photos to social media. His favorites are the more time-consuming series of bags that can be joined up to create a larger image, such as the “Finding Nemo” triptych（三联画）.
1. What special feature makes Nicholas’ lunch bags distinguished?| A．Delicious food cooked by a head chef. |
| B．Beautiful oil paintings produced by artists. |
| C．Colorful superheroes drawn by Nicholas. |
| D．Lively characters drawn by the kid’s loving father. |
| A．To help his son to make new friends. |
| B．To make his son’s lunch bags attractive. |
| C．To encourage his son to be more confident. |
| D．To improve his son’s academic performance. |
| A．Friendly. | B．Noble. | C．Caring. | D．Gifted. |
| A．Cabalo draws popular lively characters and colorful superheroes for his son. |
| B．Dad’s special lunch bag drawings help his shy son come out of his shell. |
| C．Nicholas’ new friends in elementary school make him more confident. |
| D．Nicholas keeps the more time-consuming series of bags designed by his father. |
9 . A number of people hold an optimistic attitude toward artificial intelligence's ability to reshape education nowadays. However, many feel such claims are overblown.
Kentaro Toyama, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Information, is one of those doubtful about the idea of using AI in the classroom.
Toyama mentioned a situation he encountered while working in an after-school program in digital literacy（数字技术素养）. He said, “In trying to teach students to use technology, the greatest difficulty is the technology itself." As soon as he looked away from the students, they would “very quickly find the most fun games they could find on the computer and start playing them”. That reveals the problem with putting too much faith in Al for teaching. “There is great potential for it to be a distraction." he said.
Toyama once surveyed a large group of people about their preference for the following educational situations: a school with no teachers but powerful AI, one with bad teachers but strong computers, one with good teachers but no computers, or one with great teachers and many computers. The result showed that nobody would send their children to a school with powerful AI but no teachers, or one with bad teachers but strong computers. Toyama concluded, "Good teachers are what matters; everything else is secondary compared to that."
Toyama is also concerned that AI and technology may widen the gap between disadvantaged schools and wealthier schools. He said, "In the case of schools, well-resourced schools will find the best ways to use technology. But if you' re in a school district that is underfunded and parents are not involved, it doesn't make a difference how good the technology is, and it will not turn that situation around."
When asked when schools should adopt AI, Toyama suggested that they should wait until the basics are in place, teachers want it, and the technology is proved to have positive educational values.
1. What does the underlined word "it" in Paragraph 3 probably refer to?| A．AI. | B．Faith. | C．Teaching. | D．Computer. |
| A．To emphasize the key factor in education. |
| B．To recommend his favorite school for parents. |
| C．To compare the differences between AI and teachers. |
| D．To prove that preference for schools varies among people. |
| A．Al has the potential to reshape teaching and learning. |
| B．A good school should put students and technology first. |
| C．AI will be able to educate students as well as real teachers. |
| D．Al and technology may unbalance educational resources. |
| A．Al Reshapes Education | B．Using Al in the Classroom? |
| C．Will AI Dominate School? | D．AI and Technology |
10 . When whales die and sink to the ocean floor, their bodies -known as whale falls -provide rich nutrients for other creatures of the deep.
Chinese scientists found a whale fall in the South China Sea during a recent scientific research voyage. It was the first time that Chinese researchers had run across this rare type of ecosystem. It was an important finding, showing China's progress in deep-sea exploration technology, Xie said, a professor at Sun Yat-sen University.
During the 22-day deep-sea exploration from March 10 to April 2. 60 scientists conducted 22 dives and successfully completed a number of scientific tasks. The research aimed to gather information about the key processes of typical seamount ecosystems in the Western Pacific: Ocean. The whale fall was found in a seamount 1,600 meters deep in the central South China Sea. Though the whale fall was only about 3 meters long, it was of great importance in understanding the sea ecosystems, Xie said.
There were dozens of white armored shrimp, red shrimp and several eels found near the whale fall. The eels were eating the tail muscles of the whale fall. This shows that the whale died not long ago and that the whale fall was still in the first stage of decomposition and thus had rare value for long-term observation, Xie said.
Like cold springs, whale falls are homes for creatures of the deep. In the northern Pacific Ocean, they have supported the survival of at least 12,490 kinds of organisms—classed in 43 species—and promote prosperity far beneath the surface, according to data from the university.
1. What do we know about the whale fall in the South China Sea?| A．It is found on March 10. | B．It is a rare sea ecosystem. |
| C．It is a kind of cold springs. | D．It is found 3 meters deep in the sea. |
| A．By giving data. | B．By giving examples. |
| C．By giving definitions. | D．By making a contrast |
| A．Change | B．Disappearance. | C．Richness. | D．Tourism. |
| A．A deep-sea exploration led by China. |
| B．A whale fall found in the South China Sea. |
| C．China's progress in deep-sea exploration technology. |
| D．The protection of deep-sea biodiversity resources in China. |
