1 . When I arrived in London, I couldn't speak a word of English. Not even "hello". I was 18. I'd been working for my dad's restaurant in Milan and I wanted a new experience. My friend from home lived in London and he used to tell me how incredible it was. I was really bored, so I took my luggage and left.
I was so lost when I arrived at Stansted. To me, English sounded like Chinese. I only arrived with a few hundred pounds. I lived with my friend in East London for a while. I couldn't find a job for a month. Finally I found a waiter role in a restaurant. At the time, I had nothing else going on in my life. I used to get up, go to work, and sleep. It was no difference every day. Then one day on my lunch break, I saw a Gymbox. When I took a look in, there was an amazing Muay Thai (泰拳) class. I used to do boxing when I was 15 but I wasn't that serious about it. There and then I joined the gym and signed up for the Thai boxing team.
I fell in love with it. I never missed a session (一场) . I started training a lot and the head coach said to me one day, "Do you want to fight?" I knew that's what I wanted to do. He put me in competitions and I won my first nine amateur games. After watching me progress, he offered to help me fight professionally. However, at one point I had a motorcycle crash and was out for 18 months. This year I've fought in Milan and London. I'd say I'm about 12 fights away from becoming a winner
Sometimes I can't believe how far I've come from that day I arrived in England. I think everything that's happened has been because I'm committed. But anyone could do it. If you put in 100%, you'll get there. I'm just happy because I did a positive thing with my life. It feels good.
1. What had the writer done before he came to London?| A．He had worked in a restaurant. | B．He had been a professional coach. |
| C．He had worked in a small company. | D．He had done nothing but travel around. |
| A．Exciting. | B．Scary. | C．Satisfying. | D．Dull. |
| A．Joining the boxing team. | B．Losing the competition in Milan. |
| C．Suffering from a motorcycle crash. | D．Being the head coach of the team. |
| A．Life is not all roses. | B．Difficulties make him stronger. |
| C．Failure is the mother of success. | D．Devotion makes him successful. |
2 . Sleep, considered a luxury by many, is essential for a person’s health and happiness. Researchers have found that inadequate sleep and tiredness increase a person’s risk of developing severe medical conditions, such as obesity, high blood sugar levels, and heart disease. Now, a new study has found that getting enough sleep is also the key to improving academic performance.
Jeffrey Gross, the university science professor who led the research, was not trying to find the relationship between sleep and grades when he handed out smart watches to the 100 students in his chemistry class. Instead, the professor hoped the wrist-worn devices (装置), which track a person’s physical activity, would show a connection between exercise and academic achievement.
While Gross’s data showed no relationship between these two factors (因素), the study found something surprising. As the researchers were analyzing their data, they noticed that there was a straight-line relationship between the average amount of sleep a student got and their results in the course’s 11 quizzes, three midterm tests, and the final exam.
Even more interesting, it was not enough for students to just head to bed early the night before a test. Instead, it’s the sleep you get during the days when learning is happening that matters most.
The time students went to bed each night was similarly important. Those who went to bed in early hours of the morning performed poorly, even if the total sleep time was the same as a higher- performing student. “When you go to bed matters,” Gross says, “If you go to bed at 10, or 12, or 1 at night, and sleep for seven hours, your performance is the same. But if you go to bed after 2, your performance starts to go down even if you get the same seven hours. So, quantity isn’t everything. ”
Perhaps the most interesting was the huge effect that small differences in sleep patterns had on the students’ grades. The entire course grades for students averaging six and a half hours of sleep each night were 25% lower than students who averaged just one hour more sleep. Similarly, students who changed their bedtime by even one hour each night had grades that dropped 45% below those with more regular bedtimes.
Who knew getting A’s just required some extra ZZZ’s?
1. Based on his original goals, which best describes Professor Gross’s research findings?| A．Complete. | B．Accidental. |
| C．Convincing. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．University student athletes. | B．Professor Gross’s own students. |
| C．Middle school chemistry students. | D．Volunteers from different universities. |
| A．Making the students wear a special watch. |
| B．Giving the students regular after-class quizzes. |
| C．Using students’ university entrance test results. |
| D．Using the students’ normal test and quiz grades. |
| A．A person who sleeps for a total of 7 hours each night. |
| B．A person who sleeps from 11 p. m. to 6 a. m. each day. |
| C．A person whose normal bedtime changes between 9 p. m. and 12 p. m. |
| D．A person who has a good night’s sleep the night before an important test. |
3 . The Adventures of Amilya Rose: The Lie
By Chavonne D. Stewart, Jasmine Mills, published in 2014
Enter for a chance to win a copy of the book.It is the first book in a surprising series of children’s books. That’s fun and exciting and teaches kids valuable lessons.
Chester and Gus
By Cammie McGoven, published in 2017
Chester has always wanted to become a service dog. When he fails his certification test, though, it seems that dream might never come true－until a family adopts him to be a companion for their ten-year-old son, Gus. But Gus acts so differently from anyone Chester has ever met. He never wants to pet Chester. Chester’s not sure how to help Gus, but he’s determined to figure it out and show he’s the right dog for the job.
Invisible Emmie
By Terri Libenson, published in 2017
The novel tells the story of two totally different little girls in a class — quiet, shy and artistic Emmie and popular, outgoing, athletic Katie — and how their lives unexpectedly connected one day, when an embarrassing note falls into the wrong hands. Emmie eventually learns to speak up for herself, realizing that being social isn’t as impossible as she thought.
Ocean Meets Sky
By Terry Fan, Eric Fan, published in 2018
“Young readers will be attracted.”— The Washington Post.
Finn lives by the sea and the sea lives by him. Every time he looks out of his window, it’s a constant reminder of the stories that his grandfather told him about the place where the ocean meets the sky. Finn’s grandfather has gone but Finn knows the perfect way to honor him. He’ll build his own ship and sail out to find this magical place himself! And when he arrives, maybe he’ll find something he didn’t know he was looking for.
1. What can we know about The Adventures of Amilya Rose: The Lie?| A．It’s the first children’s book in 2015. |
| B．It’s only for children’s fun. |
| C．It may be gained for free. |
| D．It’s mainly about teachers’ lessons. |
| A．The Adventures of Amilya Rose: The Lie | B．Ocean Meets Sky |
| C．Invisible Emmie | D．Chester and Gus |
| A．Chavonne D. Stewart and Jasmine Mills | B．Cammie McGovern |
| C．Terry Fan and Eric Fan | D．Terri Libenon |
4 . The fast spread of the virus has led most Chinese citizens to wear face masks in public to help reduce infections. The Beijing-based Hanwang Technology Ltd. says it has created a new facial recognition system that is the first to effectively identify people even if they are wearing masks.
China is recognized as a world leader in the development of artificial intelligence and facial recognition system. The new system is based on the existing technologies developed over the past 10 years.
“When wearing a mask, the recognition rate can reach about 95 percent, which can ensure that most people can be identified,” Hanwang’s vice president, Huang Lei, said. He added that the system’s success rate for people not wearing a mask is about 99.5 percent. However, the new system struggles to identify people wearing both a mask and sunglasses. “In this situation, all of the key facial information is lost. In such cases recognition is tough,” Huang said.
Hanwang is now selling two main kinds of products that use the technology. One performs “single channel” recognition and the other is a “multi-channel” recognition, which can identify individuals in a crowd of up to 30 people “within a second”.
Huang said officials can use Hanwang’s technology to compare images with ministry (部门) records on individuals in order to identify and track people as they move about. The system can identify crime suspects (嫌疑人), terrorists or make reports or warnings, he added.
While some citizens have expressed opposition to such tools, more people seem to have accepted the methods as a way to deal with the current health emergency.
So far, Huang says most interest in the new system has come from within China. But he sees the interest likely expanding if the virus continues to spread and the use of face masks increases.
1. What do we know about the new facial recognition system?| A．It has no relation to the existing tech. | B．It is being used both at home and abroad. |
| C．It can record people’s temperature. | D．It can be used for many purposes. |
| A．international companies | B．colleges and universities |
| C．the Ministry of Public Safety | D．the Ministry of Manpower |
| A．Supportive. | B．Disapproving. | C．Uncaring. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．To show China’s technological advances. | B．To introduce a newly developed system. |
| C．To demonstrate the innovation of China. | D．To advertise a new tech-based product. |
5 . The sky is large place, and though it has been carefully examined for centuries, new features still turn up. Last March it was the rule of Uranus (天王星), and last week astronomers announced what may turn out to be a new planet, though a very small one, in the solar system.
The object was first sighted last month by Charles Kowal, an astronomer at the Hale Observatories in Pasadena, Calif. Mr. Kowal observed a faint trail of light on photographic plates, indicating that something was moving in relation to the background of stars. Other observers have confirmed the discovery.
The “mini-planet”, identified for the time being as “Object-Kowal”, appears to be about 1.5 billion miles away, between the orbit of Saturn and Uranus, and its diameter (直径) has been estimated at between 100 and 400 miles. Its orbit has not been determined yet, but if the orbit proves to be roughly circular, like that of the major planets, the new object would probably take 66 to 70 years to make a circuit of the sun.
Some astronomers have speculated that Mr. Kowal’s discovery may be the first indication of an asteroid (小行星) belt beyond Saturn.
1. What may have been found in the solar system according to the first paragraph?| A．A small new planet | B．A new solar system |
| C．A large new object | D．A large new planet |
| A．What the object is like |
| B．How the object was found |
| C．Where the astronomers live |
| D．Why the object was moving |
| A．Astronomy | B．Industry |
| C．Spaceflight | D．Agriculture |
6 . Facial expressions carry meaning that is determined by situations and relationships. For example, in American culture (文化) the smile is in general an expression of pleasure. Yet it also has other uses. A woman’s smile at a police officer does not carry the same meaning as the smile she gives to a young child. A smile may show love or politeness. It can also hide true feelings. It often causes confusion (困惑) across cultures. For example, many people in Russia consider smiling at strangers in public to be unusual and even improper. Yet many Americans smile freely at strangers in public places (although this is less common in big cities).Some Russians believe that Americans smile in the wrong places; some Americans believe that Russians don’t smile enough. In Southeast Asian cultures, a smile is frequently used to cover painful feelings. Vietnamese people may tell a sad story but end the story with a smile.
Our faces show emotions (情感), but we should not attempt to "read" people from another culture as we would "read" someone from our own culture. The fact that members of one culture do not express their emotions as openly as do members of another does not mean that they do not experience emotions.
Rather, there are cultural differences in the amount of facial expressions permitted. For example, in public and in formal situations many Japanese do not show their emotions as freely as Americans do. When with friends, Japanese and Americans seem to show their emotions similarly.
It is difficult to generalize about Americans and facial expressiveness because of personal and cultural differences in the United States. People from certain cultural backgrounds in the United States seem to be more facially expressive than others. The key is to try not to judge people whose ways of showing emotion are different. If we judge according to our own cultural habits, we may make the mistake of "reading" the other person incorrectly.
1. What does the smile usually mean in America?| A．Love. | B．Politeness. |
| C．Joy. | D．Thankfulness. |
| A．show friendliness to strangers |
| B．be used to hide true feelings |
| C．be used in the wrong places |
| D．show personal habits |
| A．Learn about their relations with others. |
| B．Understand their cultural backgrounds. |
| C．Find out about their past experience. |
| D．Figure out what they will do next. |
| A．Cultural Differences |
| B．Smiles and Relationship |
| C．Facial Expressiveness |
| D．Habits and Emotions |
