1 . Once upon a time, when you first attended a youth sporting event, your parents probably weren't expecting you to become a professional athlete.They signed up for a basketball, football or swimming course for you in the hope that you might learn lessons about winning gentlemanly, losing with dignity(尊严)and insisting on it when things get hard. Yes, playing games is good exercise, but it is the life lessons that matter most.
For many of us, instead of looking to improve our minds and spirits, we began judging progress only by the size of our muscles or the numbers on a weighing machine. The thought that athletic competition is about greater life lessons and the building of character has been further undermined(削弱)by headlines about professional athletes.
“And yet there's still strong evidence that sports strongly improve certain personal qualities,” says Angela Lumpkin, Professor of the Department of Health, Sport and Exercise Sciences at the University of Kansas. And that's true for athletes of any age.Amateur sports(业余体育运动)provide a safe place for competition. They also provide a practice ground for managing stress.
The advantages of taking part in a sport can seep(渗透)into your professional life, too. In basketball, for example, “Getting everyone to play the right role on the court is the key to success,” says Alan Arlt, the founder of the Life Time Fitness basketball program Ultimate Hoops. “That is certainly useful in the business world, where everyone understands their own role in the organization.” “In athletic events, you go through good and bad times often in the period of two hours,” says former NBA head coach Flip Saunders. “Do you have the calm manner to settle yourself down, or do you totally lose it and get thrown out of the game which hurts both you and your team？All of that oncourt experience has a real effect on how you deal with reallife situations.”
1. What would parents expect when their children joined in sports?| A．To win as many games as possible. |
| B．To improve their health. |
| C．To make more friends. |
| D．To get through difficulties. |
| A．People play sports to build their character. |
| B．People still hold the idea that sports can keep us fit. |
| C．People keep playing sports to improve minds and spirits. |
| D．People pay more attention to the news of professional athletes. |
| A．support Lumpkin's idea |
| B．introduce the next topic |
| C．show another piece of evidence |
| D．show the main idea of the paragraph |
| A．how to succeed in the future |
| B．how to keep calm in certain situations |
| C．how to deal with reallife situations |
| D．how to understand the role on the court |
2 . “When we first rescued Ovi, he was bleeding from a cut on his leg and we realized his flight feathers were gone, as well as him being really dirty,” El Oud told The Dodo. “We later discovered he had a fever.” They brought the pelican(鹈鹕) back to shore, and El Oud researched how to care for the bird. With the help of the wildlife rehabilitation group Lebanese Wildlife, they were able to nurse Ovi back to health.
El Oud trained Ovi through positive reinforcement so he could better care for him and Ovi quickly caught on. “When he acted well, I’d give him a fish, and when he didn't I'd just ignore it,” El Oud said. “In less than a day, he became a very friendly bird toward me. [He’s a] very intelligent animal.”
Unfortunately, without his flight feathers, most likely clipped by wildlife traffickers, Ovi could no longer make it long distances. Luckily, he was already in the perfect place to get his strength back.
El Oud’s father, Ali, is the manager at the seaside restaurant Abou Mounir Fishery in Beirut, Lebanon. Ali knew Ovi would be safe at the marina, where the family is friendly with all the locals and fishermen. Soon, protecting and caring for Ovi became a community effort. El Oud fed Ovi around the marina until the pelican learned where the fish were coming from and became the restaurant’s best customer.
Now, Ovi waddles into the bustling café to get a snack multiple times a day. “Essentially, what he does is hang out down from the restaurant and does whatever he wants,” El Oud said. “But sometimes if he's hungry and wants food, he comes up by himself because he realized that's where the food is coming from.”
Ovi has become something of a mascot for the restaurant, but the family hopes he can also become a symbol of how to properly interact with wildlife. “Everyone here takes care of him. He’s become the symbol of this place,” Ali El Oud told The National. “Hopefully, he won’t become domestic and will migrate again. We want him to have a life that a pelican should have.”
1. Which can be defined as positive reinforcement according to the text?| A．Jack passed the English exam and he didn’t need to help do housework. |
| B．Jack passed the English exam and he was rewarded with a bike. |
| C．Jack failed in the English exam and he had to help do housework. |
| D．Jack failed in the English exam and he wouldn’t get a bike. |
| A．Drug traffickers. | B．Wildlife dealers. |
| C．Wildlife activists. | D．Locals and fishermen. |
| A．Negative. | B．Curious. |
| C．Indifferent. | D．Supportive. |
| A．Ovi may end up in the wild. |
| B．Ovi is afraid of people. |
| C．Ali El wants to keep Ovi as a pet. |
| D．Ovi is always hungry. |
3 . As scientists around the world race to find a treatment for the coronavirus, a young girl among them stands out.
Anika Chebrolu, a 14yearold from Frisco, Texas, has just won the 2020 3M Young Scientist Challenge and a $25,000 prize for a discovery that could provide a potential therapy to Covid19 (or SARSCoV2 virus).
Anika's winning invention uses insilico methodology to discover a lead molecule that can selectively bind to the spike protein of the SARSCoV2 virus.
"The last two days, I saw that there is a lot of media hype about my project since it involves the SARSCoV2 virus and it reflects our collective hopes to end this pandemic as I, like everyone else, wish that we go back to our normal lives soon," Anika told CNN.
The coronavirus has killed more than 1.1 million people globally since China reported its first case to the World Health Organization (WHO) in December. The United States has more than 219,000 deaths, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Anika, who is Indian American, submitted her project when she was in 8th grade but it wasn't always going to be focused on finding a cure for Covid19. Initially, her goal was to use insilico methods to identify a lead compound that could bind to a protein of the influenza virus.
"After spending so much time researching about pandemics, viruses and drug discovery, it was crazy to think that I was actually living through something like this," Anika said.
"Because of the immense severity of the Covid19 pandemic and the drastic impact it had made on the world in such a short time, I, with the help of my mentor, changed directions to target the SARSCoV2 virus." Anika said she was inspired to find potential cures to viruses after learning about the 1918 flu pandemic and finding out how many people die every year in the United States despite annual vaccinations and antiinfluenza drugs on the market.
1. What won Anika Chebrolu the 2020 3M Young Scientist Challenge?| A．The discovery of a therapy to Covid19. |
| B．The invention of the insilico methodology. |
| C．The finding of a molecule that may help treat Covid19. |
| D．The invention of a lead molecule. |
| A．They want to get rid of pandemic and restore their lives. |
| B．They want more racial equality in the world . |
| C．They want to strengthen the education of science. |
| D．They want to see a lot of media hype about her project. |
| A．Fortunately | B．Finally |
| C．Personally | D．Originally |
| A．Anika experienced the 1918 flu pandemic. |
| B．Vaccinations and antiinfluenza drugs work perfectly. |
| C．Vaccinations and antiinfluenza drugs are not good enough. |
| D．A lot of people die from flu every year. |
4 . Basketball star Lebron James made ＄33 million last year. And that probably doesn’t surprise anyone. We’re used to watching professional athletes(运动员) make and spend millions of dollars.
But there was a time when professional athletes could barely buy a car. For most sports teams in 1950, there were main ways to make money. They sold tickets to games and popcorn in the stadium. For fans, it was a good deal(交易). You could see a Brooklyn Dodgers baseball game for 60 cents. For players, the deal wasn’t so great. There wasn't much money to go around. So salaries(薪水) stayed low. In some professional sports, players couldn’t spend the off-season working out. They had to get second jobs so they could pay the rent.
In the 1960s, television changed everything. In 1950, only 1 in 10 American homes had TVs. By 1960, 9 in 10 homes had TVs. And people loved watching sports. At first, team owners were worried about TV. They thought fans wouldn't pay to come to the stadium anymore. But the TV networks paid millions of dollars for the right to show games. That’s when sports teams started to get rich. Finally, the teams shared their wealth with players. In 1974, several baseball teams wanted a player named Catfish Hunter, who chose to play for the New York Yankees. They paid him ＄1 million just for picking their team. Since then, athletes have only gotten richer. In 2018, the highest-paid player in baseball will make ＄33 million. In basketball, the average salary is about ＄7 million a year.
Are sports stars worth the money? Many fans seem to think so. They will pay crazy prices to cheer for their favorite players.
1. What does the underlined word “barely” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．finally | B．hardly | C．usually | D．personally |
| A．It was unfair to players. | B．It was a bit expensive. |
| C．It was cheap at the price. | D．It was less attractive to them. |
| A．Sports became a big business. |
| B．People were more willing to play sports. |
| C．More and more fans came to the stadium. |
| D．Tickets to games became more expensive. |
| A．How sports stars become famous. |
| B．Why fans are crazy about sports star. |
| C．Why sports become more and more popular. |
| D．How professional athletes started getting rich. |
5 . People may set an alarm on the phone or clock that sounds like this: beep beep beep. That hard, unpleasant sound may be making it harder to shake off the sleepy feeling in the morning known as grogginess. So, is there a better way to wake up? A recent study says yes. The answer is music.
The study, carried out by researchers in Australia, involved 50 people. The researchers found that people who wake up to musical alarms reported feeling more awake and alert. Stuart McFarlane, a lead writer of the study stated, “We are very surprised by these findings as one might expect a harsh beeping sound to be more successful,” at waking up a person.
Sleep inertia is another term for grogginess. It means a person has a heavy feeling when waking up, and has trouble getting moving again after sleeping. McFarlane said people need to better understand sleep inertia’s harmful effects on human performance later in the day.
Not everyone will experience the full effect. But for those who do, “care should be taken” when performing duties that require a top performance within this period, he said. This includes “dangerous tasks like driving or riding our bikes” shortly after waking up. The same is true for people who work in dangerous situations shortly after they wake, including firefighters and pilots.
So, what makes musical alarms better for waking up? The researchers think the music may be more successful in reducing sleep inertia because it has several tones, compared to the single tone of a “beeping” alarm. McFarlane said that the changes over time between the music tones may help increase a person’s attention when waking from sleep.
And is there a kind of music that is best to wake up to? There may be, McFarlane said. “We could suggest alarm sounds that are tune full and easy to hum or sing along with. The current sounds I have been using include ‘Close to me’ by the Cure and ‘Borderline’ by Madonna.”
No matter how you wake up, experts say, the amount of sleep you get also matters a lot.
1. Which of the following might be the best title for the text?| A．What is grogginess? | B．Why are musical alarms better? |
| C．Which music is the best? | D．How can we overcome grogginess? |
| A．Sleep inertia is another cause for grogginess. |
| B．How long a person sleeps is of great importance. |
| C．The ‘beeping’ alarm is not effective mainly because of its noisy tone. |
| D．It is dangerous for everyone to effective mainly because of its noisy tone. |
| A．example of good musical alarms |
| B．more finding of the application of music |
| C．explanations about why music is more helpful |
| D．suggestions on how to sleep well and feel fresh each morning |
| A．Health. | B．Fiction. | C．Technology. | D．Entertainment. |
6 . In tough economic times, school counselors (顾问) don’t just wait for students to come to their offices in search of college brochures, health pamphlets or other help. These days, they are looking for at-risk kids to prevent personal or academic troubles before they arise. Nowadays, students and families need the guidance more than ever.
Counselors play a steadying role in schools as the economy weighs on families, college admission becomes even more competitive, immigration continues to reshape the population and state-testing pressures many students. They use computers to search through attendance data, grades and standardized test scores for kids who might need extra help.
Schlatter, director of guidance and counseling at Prince William County’s Woodbridge Senior High School, has checked attendance records against grades and test results to start peer groups (同年龄群体) for students who are failing classes but not skipping them. She said group counseling is another way to reach more students though it can be difficult. “Kids really do start helping and sharing with each other.”
At Fairfax High School, counselors found through surveys that students who transferred (转学) to the school after ninth grade enjoyed school significantly less than those who had been there all four years. The counseling staff set up a special program and group for new arrivals in response, said Marcy Miller, the school’s director of student services. Counseling staff members also have started small study groups for students to prepare for state Standards of Learning exams, which Miller said have helped raise test scores. She said that some of the newest counselors have had some of the freshest ideas.
1. We can learn from the passage that __________.| A．counselors don’t wait for kids to come to ask for help now |
| B．counselors are trying to help people with economic problems |
| C．counselors have made college admission less competitive |
| D．counselors are trying to reach more kids in need of help |
| A．counseling work is obviously effective | B．many students transfer there for help |
| C．new arrivals will no longer skip classes | D．counseling means little to new arrivals |
| A．What assistance they can offer. |
| B．The significance of their counseling job. |
| C．Other approaches to counseling at-risk kids. |
| D．The barriers of counseling the students with troubles. |
| A．Guiding Hands Find New Ways | B．Small Study Groups Raise Test Scores |
| C．Transferred Students Need More Help | D．Tough Times See More At-risk Kids |
7 . Feel the Music
We’ve all heard of smart phones, but how about smart clothing? The CuteCircuit company has stepped up the technology beat and invented the SoundShirt, which was designed specifically for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. How does this incredible shirt work?
First, let’s talk about a little science. People who have either all or some hearing loss don’t actually listen to music the way that hearing people do, but they can feel it. Sound is made up of vibrations, called sound waves, which hearing people can hear through their ears with the help of the brain. What’s really cool is that deaf people sense vibrations in the part of the brain that others use for hearing!
So how is this remarkable technology able to function? First, CuteCircuit had to figure out a way to send signals to the body, kind of like how you can feel when your phone vibrates in silent mode. Those connections the body can feel are called haptics, a use of technology that simulates the senses of touch and motion. The SoundShirt has tiny sensors woven into the shirt to pick up sound and transfer signals to the brain and body.
To test this music-to-shirt-to-wearer’s brain connection, CuteCircuit set microphones around the stage of a symphony orchestra. The shirt’s computer system digitally received the sounds coming from the instruments. Then the sensors, working like little motors, changed the signals into vibrations and the shirt wearer’s brain did the rest.
The SoundShirt lets people who are deaf or hard of hearing enjoy music in a unique way. The very deep musical sound, or pitch, of instruments like drums and basses vibrates in the lower part of the shirt. Higher pitched sounds from instruments like the flute or violin vibrate higher, around the neck and arms. As the music plays, the sensations combine while the brain gets to work putting together all the different vibrations, allowing the wearer to “hear” the concert.
You might think this innovation would look like something out of a science fiction movie, but in fact, these shirts are wireless! And the decorative laser-lined design on the shirt looks like an image of sound waves.
Technology’s purpose is to help people and make life better. Think of all the amazing things designers, engineers, and producers of wearable tech will be able to do for humankind.
1. What’s the passage mainly about?| A．Wearable technology like the SoundShirt is the wave of the future. |
| B．CuteCircut tested the SoundShirt with a symphony orchestra. |
| C．The SoundShirt lets people who are deaf or hard of hearing enjoy music. |
| D．Deep musical sounds from drums vibrate in the lower part of the SoundShirt. |
| A．Tiny sensors in the SoundShirt change sound signals into vibrations. |
| B．Those who have hearing loss are able to sense sound vibrations. |
| C．Deep musical sounds vibrate in the lower part of the SoundShirt. |
| D．It’s amazing that the SoundShirt is made without any wires. |
| A．Before the SoundShirt, deaf people had no way of feeling sound. |
| B．The SoundShirt doesn’t work without the power of the human brain. |
| C．The SoundShirt works when the wearer is listening to a symphony orchestra. |
| D．CuteCircuit is giving away its SoundShirts to those deaf or hard of hearing. |
| A．advise that companies should focus on applying wearable technology |
| B．advocate that technology can be used to create products that help others |
| C．prove that the design of wearable technology is a rewarding industry in future |
| D．exemplify that musical instruments can be used to change technology for the better |
8 . For many parents, raising a teenager is like fighting a long war, but years go by without any clear winner. Like a border conflict between neighboring countries, the parent-teen war is about boundaries: Where is the line between what I control and what you do?
Both sides want peace, but neither feels it has any power to stop the conflict. In part, this is because neither is willing to admit any responsibility for starting it. From the parents’ point of view, the only cause of their fight is their adolescents’ complete unreasonableness. And of course, the teens see it in exactly the same way, except oppositely. Both feel trapped.
In this article, I’ll describe three no-win situations that commonly arise between teens and parents and then suggest some ways out of the trap. The first no-win situation is quarrels over unimportant things. Examples include the color of the teen’s hair, the cleanliness of the bedroom, the preferred style of clothing, the child’s failure to eat a good breakfast before school, or his tendency to sleep until noon on the weekends. Second, blaming. The goal of a blaming battle is to make the other admit that his bad attitude is the reason why everything goes wrong. Third, needing to be right. It doesn’t matter what the topic is—politics, the laws of physics, or the proper way to break an egg—the point of these arguments is to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong, for both wish to be considered an authority—someone who actually knows something—and therefore to command respect. Unfortunately, as long as parents and teens continue to assume that they know more than the other, they’ll continue to fight these battles forever and never make any real progress.
1. Why does the author compare the parent-teen war to a border conflict?| A．Both are about where to draw the line. |
| B．Both can continue for generations. |
| C．Neither has any clear winner. |
| D．Neither can be put to an end. |
| A．The teens tend to have a full understanding of their parents. |
| B．The teens agree with their parents on the cause of the conflict. |
| C．The teens cause their parents of misleading them. |
| D．The teens blame their parents for starting the conflict. |
| A．give orders to the other |
| B．know more than the other |
| C．gain respect from the other |
| D．get the other to behave properly |
| A．Solutions for the parent-teen problems. |
| B．Examples of the parent-teen war. |
| C．Causes for the parent-teen conflicts. |
| D．Future of the parent-teen relationship. |
9 . China's Bao Yongqing has been named the overall winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition for 2019, claiming one of the world's top photography awards.
The competition is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum in London. This year's competition, the 55th, drew more than 48,000 entries from 100 countries. The winning entry by Bao, a native of Qinghai province, is titled The Moment. It captures a remarkable standoff between a Tibetan fox and a marmot, and was taken on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. "Photographically, it is quite simply the perfect moment," said Roz Kidman Cox, the chairwoman of the judging panel. "The expressive intensity of the postures holds you transfixed, and the thread of energy between the raised paws seems to hold the protagonists in perfect balance, Cox said. "To have captured such a powerful interaction between a Tibetan fox and a marmot — two species key to the ecology of this high-grassland region — is extraordinary. Museum Director Michael Dixon said the picture captured "nature's ultimate challenge — the battle for survival". Bao, in a group interview on Wednesday, said of the photo: "It is very difficult and rare to capture this kind of moment, so I knew it was something very special. It took about two or three hours to get this photo. I was watching them for a long time. I have paid attention to this competition for a long time, and my first purpose was to show my image to the world, and secondly to protect the environment and my homeland," he said. " In my hometown, everyone looks after the animals, so when I go home with this award, it will be an encouragement to our people to be more protective of animals and the environment." In addition, the photographer said : "This competition is one of the most important among photographers in China, so I wanted to draw people's attention to animal protection. I hope it will introduce a passion for animals to more people."
The exhibition at the Natural History Museum in Kensington will open on Friday and run through the end of May next year, when it will go on a national and international tour. Entries for next year's competition will be accepted beginning on Oct. 21.
1. What does the underlined word " protagonists" in the 2nd paragraph mean?| A．Onlookers. | B．Photographers. |
| C．Hunters. | D．Main characters. |
| A．The competition originated from London. |
| B．It is a domestic competition in China. |
| C．The competition drew worldwide attention, making it the best event in photography. |
| D．Entries are strictly restricted, mainly focused on endangered animals. |
| A．His capturing a crucial moment between two typical species. |
| B．His expertise in photography. |
| C．His devotion to wildlife protection. |
| D．His publicizing the knowledge of rare animals. |
| A．The exhibition will go on a tour in China. |
| B．Bao has decided to submit his latest photo. |
| C．Taking photos is not painstaking. |
| D．Photograph is a way to raise people's awareness of animal protection. |
10 . Nowadays, the most effective way to get power comes from burning fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. They are less costly than other forms of energy. But burning fuels releases carbon dioxide, known as CO2 gas. Scientists agree that increasing amount of CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere is partly to blame for the rising temperature. It's clear the change in the atmosphere can have a big effect on the weather condition around the world.
However, keeping extra CO2 from entering the atmosphere is a difficult process. It’s not enough to advise people to burn the fuels in a clean way. As a result, scientists are looking for the best method for capturing the gas and storing it away from the atmosphere. Some of this research is taking place in Norway. The Technology Center in Mongstad (TCM) is the largest facility in the world for major testing of the CO2-capturing technology.
Tore Amundsen is its chairman. He says TCM has produced important information since it opened. The center is connected to a nearby electric power plant. It treats the waste gas from the plant using the chemical solvent (溶剂) which attracts the CO2 molecules. Then researchers take the solvent with the CO2 molecules and boil it. In this way, they can separate CO2 from the solvent and use the solvent again to capture more CO2. TCM can help capture 90 percent of the CO2 from the waste gas. With the current state of technology, it will increase the cost of electricity between perhaps 30% to 40% when the technology is applied to a power plant.
Experts say the best way to store the captured CO2 gas is to place it below the surface of the ground. Scientists can use the pumping technology to put it into areas left empty after the removal of oil or natural gas. But TCM does not pump the CO2 it captures. Instead, it releases the gas into the atmosphere. Tore Amundsen says only highly developed industrial nations can afford the pumping technology. So far, only Canada has a power plant that pumps CO2 gas. In total, there are just a few similar power plants in the world.
1. What can we learn about the CO2 gas?| A．It is usually found in coal. |
| B．It leads to world climate change. |
| C．It is a new kind of energy. |
| D．It does good to the atmosphere. |
| A．sending it into the atmosphere |
| B．finding clean fuels to use |
| C．collecting it with technology |
| D．stopping people from burning fuels |
| A．It works well in treating the waste gas. |
| B．It’s the only center to study the CO2 gas. |
| C．It was set up by Tore Amundsen. |
| D．It helps the power plant save a lot of money. |
| A．can be used with oil or natural gas |
| B．should be put underground |
| C．must be allowed to go into the air |
| D．should stay in the chemical solvent |
