1 . E-cigarettes can damage vital immune system cells and may be more harmful than previously thought, a study suggests. Researchers found e-cigarette vapour disabled important immune cells in the lung and boosted inflammation (炎症).
The researchers caution against the widely held opinion that e-cigarettes are safe. However, Public Health England advises they are much less harmful than smoking and people should not hesitate to use them as an aid to giving up cigarettes.
The small experimental study, led by Prof David Thickett, at the University of Birmingham, is published online in the journal Thorax. Previous studies have focused on the chemical elements of e-cigarette liquid before it is vaped.
In this study, the researchers designed a mechanical process to mimic (模拟) vaping in the laboratory, using lung tissue samples provided by eight non-smokers. They found vapour caused inflammation and impaired the activity of alveolar macrophages cells (肺泡世噬细胞) that removed potentially damaging dust particles, bacteria and allergens. They sail some of the effects were similar to those seen in regular smokers and people with chronic lung disease.
They caution that the results are only in laboratory conditions and they are planning to do more research to better understand the long-term health impact the changes recorded took place only 48 hours.
Prof Thicket said while e-cigarettes were safer than traditional cigarettes in terms of cancer risk, they may still be harmful in the long-term. If you vape for 20 or 30 years, you can suffer from COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), then that’s something we need to know about.
1. What’s the widely held opinion about e-cigarettes?| A．They’re more harmful. | B．They’re less harmful. |
| C．They’re unknown to people. | D．They’re harmless. |
| A．It’s believable. | B．It’s conducted narrowly. |
| C．It’s accepted by most people. | D．It’ s carried out in America. |
| A．They are safer in terms of mental problems. |
| B．They may be little harm in the long run. |
| C．They are safer with regard to cancer risk. |
| D．They can completely replace traditional ones. |
| A．Can e-cigarettes damage vital brain system cells? |
| B．Can e-cigarettes become popular among people? |
| C．Can e-cigarettes be recommended to smokers ? |
| D．Can c-cigarettes damage vital immune system cells ? |
2 . When ads for the Netflix show Stranger Things first appeared in 2016, the shinning, colorful font (字体) that spelled out the title told viewers exactly what they could expect. Hollywood has long known this marketing trick. And in a crowded marketplace, many mainstream consumer brands have placed more focus on fonts as a crucial part of their marketing.
When Southwest Airlines upgraded its brand in 2014, it changed its font and logo as part of the project.
The company wanted to create the image of an airline that cared about customer loyalty. So, Southwest changed its Helvetica font to a thicker, custom﹣made Southwest Sans font, which also added a tricolor (三色的) heart to the logo. All these changes were meant to convey a softer, friendlier tone.
A survey of Southwest customers showed that 95 percent found the new identity appealing. "We've definitely seen an increase in bookings." said Helen Limpitlaw at Southwest Airlines. "We're in a very competitive world and we're trying to avoid that sameness."
The right fonts can help brands stand out in a competitive market. However, they need to know whom they are targeting and what they want to say. Monster Beverage is a good example. In 2002, it rolled out its Monster Energy drink logo, featuring three neon﹣green claw marks in the shape of an "M" on a black background. The eye﹣catching logo and colors connected with fans of sports, who were exactly its target customers. Now, 17 years later, Monster's logo remains valuable and recognizable.
It is not always wise of legacy companies (老牌公司) to make changes in fonts and logo. When the clothing retailer Gap changed its iconic spire-like font to Helvetica as part of a 2010 rebrand, customers pushed back hard. "The new logo lost all the personality the original mark had acquired over the years," said Matt See, senior art director at a branding and communications firm. "And it was released without explanation. It felt like no thought was put into it." The company ultimately switched back to its original logo.
Experts recommended that companies conduct plenty of surveys before making a change to their logos. Done right, fonts allow brands to show their human side and personality, which can then connect with consumers emotionally.
1. The function of Para 1 is________.| A．to introduce the topic |
| B．to promote the Netflix show |
| C．to show the background |
| D．to present the unevenly shaded font |
| A．it deleted its tricolor heart logo |
| B．it conveyed a strong and cooperative tone |
| C．it drew on its experience gained from the real life |
| D．it chose a special font that reflected its personality as a brand |
| A．a company should think twice before rebranding itself |
| B．there is no need for a legacy company to upgrade its brand |
| C．a company should ignore customers' advice when it comes to rebranding |
| D．it's possible for a company to attract new customers by changing its logo |
| A．Fonts should avoid the sameness. |
| B．Fonts matter in upgrading the brand. |
| C．Changes of fonts are out of date. |
| D．Companies need to change fonts. |
3 . Audiences may be ready to return. Will they have anything to watch? It is turning out to be a long pause.
Cinemas across the West closed in March and, despite attempts to reopen in the summer, the box office has not recovered. From October 9th Cineworld, the world's second-largest chain, will temporarily shut its 536 Regal theaters in America and its 127 British ones. AMC, the biggest, will cut the opening hours at some Odeon cinemas in Britain.
Early in the pandemic the problem was audiences. In March Disney's "Onward" closed as people refused to breathe the air with a crowd of strangers. Business got harder when governments ordered theaters to shut.
As countries have cased （解除）restrictions and audiences prepared to return, cinemas are finding little to show them. In China, where Covid-19 seems under control, studios have resumed pumping out hits. But Hollywood will not risk premiering （首映）costly blockbusters （大片）while many markets, including New York and California, remain closed, and cinema-goers cautious. Most big titles have been postponed.
Nine months without income would be disastrous （灾难性的）.America's National Association of Theatre Owners predicts that seven out of ten small or medium-sized cinema companies will go bust （破产）,which it has urged Congress to approve.
Both AMC and Cineworld are likely to stop a contract or file for going bust, believes Moody's, a ratings agency; AMC could run out of cash by January. Share prices of Western operators have dropped sharply this year, and are now worth a fifth as much as five years ago. Chinese ones have done better.
1. Which company will reduce the opening hours in Britain?| A．Cineworld. | B．Odeon. |
| C．AMC. | D．Hollywood. |
| A．Government's restriction. | B．Films' attraction. |
| C．Audience's attitude. | D．Operators, signing contracts. |
| A．They are applying for going bust. |
| B．They are complained by the audiences. |
| C．They will offer the audience more big titles. |
| D．They put off premiering most big blockbusters. |
| A．A few famous film companies. | B．Covid-19's effect on the cinemas. |
| C．The global economic situation. | D．Audience's desiring for films. |
4 . The minimalist lifestyle needs to be considered only after we own more than we need. Nowadays, the rapid development of the society has brought a lot of wealth and material possessions, which has become a burden for many. In addition, the fast-paced life we have today makes us busier than ever. Therefore, I think a minimalist lifestyle is necessary to help people ease their burden and focus on the best part of life.
Although I'm not a strict practitioner of minimalism, I do benefit a lot from a simpler life. When I got employed in 2018, I wasted my salaries on lots of clothes, shoes, cosmetics, books and food to enrich my life. However, piles of things made my room messy and a lot of stuff things had to be thrown away unused.
About one year ago, I laid my hands on a book named Danshari, which encourages people to cut out or throw away unnecessary things. Following the instructions, I started to change my lifestyle and surprisingly found out that my life is much better with less.
Another bad habit I have worked hard to change is spending too much time on my phone and iPad as a means to free myself from the work stress. A lot of my valuable time was wasted on various time-killing apps which didn't do much good to my self-improvement.
Adopting a simple life can be a bit challenging and needs constant effort. Here are some tips I find helpful. First, concentrate on things that are really important and meaningful. Second, access to information should be simple and well-targeted; reading books is a good alternative to meaningless social interaction and time-killing apps. Third, purchase fewer goods with better quality and tidy up your room regularly.
A minimalist lifestyle isn't equal to austerity (朴素).It's a habit we can form to simplify our life. With less desire both materially and mentally, there will be more room for self-improvement, happiness and inner fulfillment.
1. What does the underlined part mean in Paragraph 3?| A．recommended | B．remembered |
| C．wrote | D．read |
| A．Buying a lot of things we like. |
| B．Concentrating ourselves on the jobs. |
| C．Forming a habit of simple life. |
| D．Spending more time using apps. |
| A．Wealth Is Less | B．Mess Is Simple |
| C．More Is Happiness | D．Less Is More |
5 . 2020 was a really tough year. It affected our lives in many ways and made other serious issues even more difficult to address. There was also social and political unrest in the United States and other places around the world.
All of this added up to some big, stressful year called 2020. In fact, 2020 is a song filled with low, depressing notes.
In English, “low notes” are unpleasant things that happen during an event, any event. So if something ends on a low note, it ends in an unpleasant way. For example, once I took a fun vacation. But it ended on a low note. On the last day, all my money was stolen. Then my flight home was delayed. So, I had to sleep in an airport for two days!
However, we also have another phrase-- a “high note”! In English, a “high note” is something pleasant or gratifying.
So, to end something on a high note is to end it with something pleasant. It can also mean to end something at the best possible point -- for example, at the point when something is most successful.
Anything can be a high note, if you choose it to be. For example, 2020 was a disaster. But for me it ended on a high note. One cold night in late December, I saw on owl in a tree near my house. I love owls but had never seen one so close before! That was a high note for me.
Hopefully, all of us were able to end 2020 on a high note.
1. Which of the following does NOT show the writer’s attitude towards the year of 2020?| A．It’s a year that is filled with low notes. |
| B．It’s a year that ends on a high note. |
| C．It’s a year full of easy issues. |
| D．It’s a year full of unforgettable memories. |
| A．Humorous. | B．Enjoyable. | C．Permanent. | D．Concerned. |
| A．Because it ended on a high note. |
| B．Because it is a song with something pleasant. |
| C．Because the author loves owls that have high notes. |
| D．Because the author love owls and saw one so close. |
| A．The usages of “high notes” and “low notes”. |
| B．Examples about “high and low notes”. |
| C．The change of “low notes” and “high notes”. |
| D．Some serious issues about “high and low notes”. |
6 . When you hear the beginning of your favorite song from the radio, suddenly your neck is covered in goose bumps.
It's such a thing that a group of scientists call “skin excitement”—a feeling of cold caused not by a drop in temperature or sudden scare, but by the sense of beauty. “Skin excitement” can come from a song, a painting, a moving movie scene, or even a beloved memory-pretty much anything that causes the giving out of pleasure-soaked dopamine in your brain. But it does not come for all of us.
Your favorite music uncovers a lot about your personality，and so does how you respond to that music. Studies suppose that as few as 55 percent of people experience “skin excitement” when listening to music. And if you count yourself among this group, the goose bumps on your skin aren't the only giveaway—scientists can read it in your brain, too. In a new study published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Harvard researchers performed brain scans on 10 students who said they reliably got cold when listening to music, and 10 students who didn't. They found that the cold-prone brains may really be excited by stronger emotions.
Cold-prone brains are generally more likely to show stronger emotional intelligence than no-cold brains. Cold-prone minds tend to have unusual active imagination, reflect more deeply on their emotions, and appreciate nature and the beauty of music and art to a stronger degree than no-cold brains.
So, what type of music causes the chills? It seems that the type is not so important; participants in the new study reported getting cold from songs of every kind. And any song connected with a strong emotional memory of the listener can produce the most reliable results. For me, that's the song Sailing to Philadelphia by Mark Knopfler, which I listened to as a kid in the car with my dad, on the way to the summer camp.
1. What can we learn about “skin excitement” in the text?| A．It helps to produce doparmine. | B．It is caused by the pain in the skin. |
| C．It can be experienced by every music listener. | D．It is the human body's reaction to something nice. |
| A．The percentage of music lovers in students. |
| B．The solutions to the goose bumps on one's skin. |
| C．The differences between cold-prone and no-cold brains. |
| D．The relationship between one's music preference and personality. |
| A．Beautiful and intelligent. | B．Emotional and dishonest. |
| C．Imaginative and sensitive. | D．Brave and strong-minded. |
| A．Responses to Music Vary among People | B．A Feeling of Cold Is Caused by Horrible Music |
| C．Your Favorite Music Reveals Your Personality | D．Favorite Music May Bring Forth Goose Bumps |
7 . Justice in society must include both a fair trial to the accused and the selection of an appropriate punishment for those proven guilty. Because justice is regarded as one form of equality, we find in its earlier expression the idea of a punishment equal to the crime. “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” is such an example. This conception of retributive justice (报应正义) is reflected in many parts of the legal codes and procedures of modern times, especially when the death penalty is demanded for a person who has committed murder. This philosophy of punishment was supported by the German idealist Hegel. He believed that the criminal had by his own actions denied (否定) his true self and it is necessary to do something that will counteract (抵制) the denial and restore the self that has been denied. To the murderer nothing less than giving up his own life will pay his debt.
Modern jurists (法学家) have tried to replace retributive justice with the idea of corrective justice. The aim of the latter is not to abandon the concept of equality but to find a more adequate way to express it. It tries to preserve the idea of equal opportunity for each person to realize the best that is in him. The criminal is regarded as being socially ill and in need of treatment that will enable him to become a normal member. Only those criminals who are incurable should be permanently separated from the rest of society. This does not mean that criminals will escape punishment. It means that the goal of justice is to cure the person, not simply to get even with him. If severe punishment is the only adequate means of accomplishing this, it should be administered. However, the person should be given every opportunity to assume a normal place in society. His crime must not deprive him of the opportunity to make his way in the society of which he is a part.
1. Why is “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” presented?| A．To give moral support to retributive justice. |
| B．To prove that equality demands just punishment. |
| C．To justify the need for punishment as a part of law. |
| D．To prove that man has long been interested in justice. |
| A．Uncertain. | B．Disapproving. | C．Supportive. | D．Cautious. |
| A．The type of crime that was proven. | B．The severity of the punishment. |
| C．The reason for the sentence. | D．The outcome of the trial. |
| A．Fitting the punishment to the crime | B．Approaches to just punishment |
| C．Attaining justice in the courts | D．Improvements in legal justice |
8 . Every living cell(细胞) contains genes(基因). They are too small to be seen under a microscope, but they are vitally important. Each set of genes in the body contains all the instructions needed to make a human being. Some genes determine hair color. Some determine the shape of a nose. Some genes help determine your height and even your weight.
Genes are made of a chemical called DNA — the letters stand for deoxyribonucleic acid. In the early 1950’s two scientists, Francis Crick and James Watson, figured out how the parts of DNA fit together. Once scientists understood this structure, it became possible to take pieces of DNA apart and put them together in new ways. New kinds of genes could be made in this manner.
Scientists have studied the genes of many plants and animals. They have worked out which genes affect the color of a tomato and the thickness of its skin. Working out which genes determine which features is called genetic mapping, scientists have begun the Human Genome Project, an ambitious effort to map all the genes in the human body.
Some genes may be defective. For example, something might be wrong with the gene that makes blood clot(凝聚). An individual born with this defective gene could suffer serious hemorrhages(出血)or even bleed to death because his or her blood fails to clot. Scientists are trying to treat the defective genes, and have made great achievements. If scientists could know a child has any defective genes beforehand, they might even discover how to treat these genes before the child is born.
1. What was the achievement of Francis Crick and James Watson?| A．They discovered why people have different hair colors. |
| B．They learned that some people bleed for long periods of time. |
| C．They looked at human cells under the microscope. |
| D．They worked out the structure of DNA. |
| A．Defective genes can never be repaired. |
| B．Genes are too small to be seen through a microscope. |
| C．Genes help scientists understand how living things develop their characteristics. |
| D．The Human Genome Project may explain the role of every gene in the body. |
| A．Genes help determine your height and weight. |
| B．Genetic engineering is the most important scientific discovery of the last 25 years. |
| C．It is dangerous to make changes in genes. |
| D．Supermarkets should not sell genetically engineered food. |
| A．faulty | B．wonderful |
| C．perfect | D．useful |
9 . She was returning from teaching out in a small community. It was a black, moonless night, and a heavy snow was falling.
She thought back to the time when she had first started teaching out in small communities. During those days she had always picked up hitchhikers (搭便车者), until the day her sister told her that one of her friends had been shot in the head by a hitchhiker, all because she had stopped out of kindness to help him during a storm.
Her family didn't stop worrying about her safety over the hitchhikers until the family heard the promise: “No more hitchhikers!” The snow that night was making her think back to this.
Then she saw a man waving. She slowed down for him, but as he ran toward the car in the dark, she shook with fear. Yet she thought that if he was truly in need, she couldn't leave him here in this storm.
The stranger explained that his car was dead, and she told him to get in. They drove for an hour into the next city and she took him to a convenience store. She waited until he had made a call. When he reported back to her that a family member would soon come to pick him up, she wished him well and then left.
Tears fell on her cheeks as she drove away. It felt as though she had been holding her breath for an hour.
“I hope they'll understand why I had to break my promise,” she thought.
1. What made the woman's family worried about her safety?| A．She had been hurt by a hitchhiker. |
| B．A friend of her sister's was killed by a hitchhiker. |
| C．There were often snowstorms on her way home. |
| D．Her car often broke down on her way home. |
| A．his car had broken down | B．he would die |
| C．he couldn't find his way home | D．he couldn't get in touch with his friends |
| A．She was sorry to pick up the stranger. |
| B．She felt too tired to breathe. |
| C．She had been afraid of being with the stranger. |
| D．She had been too careful when driving in the storm. |
| A．A safety problem | B．An important hitchhiker |
| C．A friendly stranger | D．A broken promise |
10 . The last time wild bison(野牛) set foot in the UK, the Middle Stone Age was coming to a close as the English people living in caves discovered farming and started clearing forests for raising farm animals. Now, 6,000 years on, wild bison are coming back to our soil as part of a major conservation project.
In an effort to protect the European bison, a small group of the endangered animals are to be reintroduced into Kent in the spring of 2022. Conservationists hope the bison will also help decimate spare pine trees to create sunny new open space in the forest and improve insect, bird and plant diversity in the area.
To start with, one male and three females will be introduced, with each female expected to produce one baby per year through natural breeding. The bison to be released in the UK will likely come from the Netherlands or Poland,where similar reintroduction programs have been achieved.
These animals have a huge size, weighing up to a ton each. They are expected to kill off trees in former pine plantations by eating or rubbing against bark(树皮). The dead wood should provide food for insects, which will in turn provide food for birds including nightingales and turtle doves. Scientists who are part of this project believe that the reintroduction of bison will pose no threats to people living nearby since these bison have a peaceful nature and will not harm others.
Paul Hadaway, from Kent wildlife Trust, said, “Using missing keystone species like bison to restore natural processes to the home of animals and plants is the key to creating bio-abundance on our land.” Once the bison are settled in their 500-hectare land, the public will be able to pay a visit and observe the animals from viewing platforms. And as they grow year by year, some may be moved to similar locations across the UK.
1. What does the underlined word “decimate” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Destroy | B．Conserve | C．Discover. | D．Improve |
| A．They are home to bison. |
| B．They have similar environments. |
| C．They are a short distance away. |
| D．They have successful experience. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Favourable. | C．Critical. | D．Conservative |
| A．Wild bison disappeared in the UK. |
| B．The UK starts a conservation project. |
| C．Wild bison will return to the UK. |
| D．Wild bison are vital for bio-abundance. |
