1 . We thought we had it all---a beautiful house, three healthy children and one more on the way, two cars, a couple of four-wheelers for entertainment---and we loved it. Then, the market turned and my husband’s job at a construction company was gone. The company was closing down for good.
We both started looking for jobs right away, but there weren’t any to be found. With each passing day we were getting increasingly worried and we continued to work together in order to pull our family through. The more we pulled together, the closer we got. I felt feelings of admiration for my husband that I hadn’t felt in years.
That’s why it was so hard for me to watch him blame himself for our present situation. I continually asked him to stop, but he seemed to want to punish himself for not having a job.
Finally, one afternoon I pulled him aside and said, “We have four healthy children. That's what's important. That makes you a rich man.” “But what if we lose the house? They’ll hate me---you’ll hate me,” he replied.
I smiled at him and put my hands on both sides of his face to make him look me in the eye.
“No matter where we live I will be happy---as long as I have you.” I smiled again. In all the struggling together I had found that deep love for him that I had on the day we said “I do”.
I could see his shoulders and neck relaxed. He held me close and we were able to talk and plan and dream together in a way that we hadn’t for quite some time. It was a turning point for us as a couple and a family.
We are still struggling for our better life, but I consider us well-off because we have something that money can’t buy and no one can take away from us.
1. The underlined sentence in the second paragraph means that ________.| A．they became closer as they struggled together |
| B．they hoped to find jobs in the same company |
| C．both of them had the courage to face difficulty |
| D．they were trying to make their relationship closer |
| A．She thought she should be blamed. |
| B．She thought he had tried his best. |
| C．She thought he would get a job someday. |
| D．She thought it would remind her of sad memories. |
| A．Bitter but quiet. | B．Comfortable and easy. |
| C．Hard but happy. | D．Well-off and relaxing. |
| A．We Have It All | B．We Find It Again |
| C．A Perfect Couple | D．A Hard Time |
2 . Now many young people are traveling around the world on their own, not because they have no one to travel with, but because they prefer to go alone.
Kristina Wegscheider from California first traveled alone when she was at college and believes that it is something everyone should do at least once in their life. “It opens up your mind to things and pushes you out of your comfort zone.” Wegscheider has visited 46 countries covering all seven continents.
In foreign countries, with no one to help you read a map, look after you if you get ill, or lend you money if your wallet is stolen, it is challenging. This is what drives young people to travel alone. It is seen as character building and a chance to prove that they can make it on their own.
Chris Richardson decided to leave his sales job in Australia to go traveling last year. He set up a website, The Aussie Nomad, to document his adventures. He says he wished he had traveled alone earlier. “The people you meet, the places you visit, or the things you do, everything is up to you and it forces you to grow as a person.” said the 30-year-old man.
Richardson describes traveling alone like “a shot in the arm”, which “makes you a more confident person that is ready to deal with anything”. He said, “The feeling of having overcome something on my own is a major part of what drives me each day when I’m dealing with a difficult task. I walk around with my head up because I know deep down inside that nothing is impossible if you try.”
The great 19thcentury explorer John Muir once said. “Only by going alone in silence can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness.
1. Which of the following will Kristina Wegscheider agree with?| A．Traveling alone is a necessary experience for everyone. |
| B．It is more meaningful to travel in foreign countries. |
| C．It is comfortable to travel around without a friend. |
| D．Traveling abroad helps people to find new things. |
| A．you have to make things on your own. |
| B．it is hard for you to prove yourself to others. |
| C．you can only depend on yourself whatever happens. |
| D．it will finally build your character. |
| A．He started traveling alone at an early age. |
| B．He was once shot in the arm. |
| C．He used to work as a salesman. |
| D．His website will inspire others to travel alone. |
| A．Travel Abroad | B．Travel Alone |
| C．Travel Light | D．Travel Wide and Far |
3 . Artificial Intelligence (AI) advice is as influential as human’s, but positive crowd views still overpower.
In a study, researchers found that machines that make recommendations—or AI experts—were as influential as human experts when the AI experts recommended which photo users should add to their online business profiles. However, both AI and human experts failed to budge them if their feedback was negative and went against popular views among other users, said S. Shyam Sundar, a professor of Media Effects.
Because people are increasingly using social media to look for feedback, studies suggest that expert opinions and the bandwagon（从众效应）effect may be important factors in influencing decisions, according to Jinping Wang, a doctoral candidate in mass communication and first author of the study. “Nowadays, we often turn to online platforms for opinions from other people—like our peers and experts—before making a decision,” said Wang. AI experts are often less expensive than human experts and they can also work 24 hours a day, which, Wang suggests, might make them appealing to online business.
The researchers also found that the AI’s group status—in this case, national origin was pointed out—did not seem to affect a person’s acceptance of its recommendation. Among human experts, however, an expert from a similar national origin who offered a negative opinion of a photograph tended to be more influential than a human expert from an unknown country who offered a similar negative rating of a photograph.
While findings that suggest group status may not affect whether a person values the view of AI experts sound like good news, Sundar suggests that the same cultural prejudice might still be at work in AI experts for they could be hidden in the programming and training data.
“It can be both good—and bad—because it all depends on what you feed the AI,” said Sundar. “While it is good to believe in AI’s ability to transcend（超越）cultural prejudice, we have to keep in mind that if you train the AI on pictures from one culture, they could give misleading recommendations on pictures meant for use in other cultural contexts.”
1. What do the underlined words “budge them” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．Change users’ ideas. | B．Satisfy users’ needs. |
| C．Raise users’ spirits. | D．Fire users’ imagination. |
| A．Because AI experts are more knowledgeable. |
| B．Because AI experts are less influenced by feelings. |
| C．Because AI experts are always available and cost less. |
| D．Because AI experts are so new as to be more attractive. |
| A．An expert who has great achievements in arts. |
| B．An expert from countries with similar cultures. |
| C．An expert with better personality and attitude. |
| D．A foreign expert who is very popular worldwide. |
| A．People should have a mind of their own. |
| B．People should be able to tell good from bad. |
| C．People should be trained how to use AI properly. |
| D．People should know AI’s hidden cultural prejudice. |
4 . A team of researchers from the University of Queensland, WCS, and other organizations, doing a first-of-its-kind analysis(分析), found that Indigenous(土著)Peoples' lands are important to the survival of thousands of species of threatened and endangered wildlife.
Publishing their results in the journal, Conservation Biology, the team found that 2,175 mammal(哺乳动物)species have 10 per cent or more of their ranges in Indigenous Peoples' lands. Of those, some 646 species have more than half of their ranges within these lands.
Until this study, information on species composition(组成)within Indigenous Peoples' lands worldwide remained largely unknown. Although the maps of Indigenous Peoples' lands are still incomplete, the data used are the best available. It is clear that the maps used in this study reflect only a small part of Indigenous Peoples' lands worldwide which further strengthens how important the protection of those lands and the recognition of the rights of Indigenous Peoples are to the protection of biodiversity(生物多样性)worldwide.
The study shows that Indigenous Peoples and their lands are important for the long-term persistence(持续)of earth's biodiversity and ecosystem services. Indigenous Peoples' lands cover over one-quarter of the Earth's surface, an important part of which is still free from industrial-level human effects.
Said the study's senior author, James Watson of WCS and University of Queensland: "These results show just how important indigenous lands are for protection of mammals. As the biodiversity crisis grows, we must recognize that a necessary part to stopping the loss is greater recognition and support for Indigenous People's rights to and relationships with their land."
Across the planet, WCS works with Indigenous Peoples and local communities to achieve a shared wish for a more secure and bright future, where wildlife remains a visible(可见的), increasing, and culturally valued part of the wild places where our partners live and we work.
1. What does the author intend to tell us by data in Para. 2?| A．Many species are in Indigenous Peoples' lands. |
| B．Indigenous Peoples are kind to mammal species. |
| C．Indigenous Peoples' lands are suitable for farming. |
| D．A large number of mammal species are in danger. |
| A．Valuable. | B．Unknown. |
| C．Reliable. | D．Classical. |
| A．They will be fully protected in future. |
| B．Their rights to their lands will be improved. |
| C．Their relationship with their lands will be down. |
| D．They will be easier to respond to biodiversity crisis. |
| A．What to Do With Indigenous Peoples' Lands |
| B．How Important to Protect Indigenous Peoples' Lands |
| C．To Protect Environment, Protect Indigenous Peoples' Lands |
| D．To Save Wildlife from Extinction, Protect Indigenous Peoples' Lands |
5 . On a warm day in sunny St, Petersburg, Florida, John Joyce put on his hat and headed outside. He pulled his push mower and started walking down his driveway, into the street and then he just kept going. He walked mile after mile as the sun hit his back, stopping along the way to mow the lawns of his customers, who smiled and said hello to him
His customers were very happy to see John. For some, he had been cutting their grass for over 20 years. Everyone knew John was a dependable and hard-working man.
What his customers didn't know was that John’s truck stopped working a few months back. Unable to fix it, the 83-year-old man with arthritis started walking to the homes of his customers. He would walk 5-6 miles each day, just to make sure everyone was taken care of. That’s just the kind of man he was. Robert Norton, one of John’s customers explained, “John is a simple man with a heart of gold.”
So when Robert and his newly-wed wife, Nikki, learned that John was walking to work, they knew it was time to do something for him. They started a GoFundMe page, giving some of the money they’d received from their wedding to kick it off. In a few weeks they successfully raised $13, 000. It was enough to buy John a truck from a used-car dealer, buy him a new lawn mower and pay for gas!
John was very moved by the generosity shown to him. Not surprisingly, once the celebration was complete, John drove off the lot, and headed off to mow lawns!
1. Why did John walk to mow the lawns for his customers?| A．He favored walking to work. | B．He had to pull his push mower. |
| C．His truck didn’t work. | D．The weather was fine. |
| A．Buy. | B．Hit. | C．Assist. | D．Begin. |
| A．By helping him to mow lawns. | B．By repairing his truck. |
| C．By collecting money for him. | D．By taking care of him. |
| A．God help those who help themselves. | B．Goodness will have a good reward. |
| C．A friend in need is a friend indeed. | D．Where there is a will, there is a way. |
6 . New research into a long-lived tree has shown some of the tricks that have helped it survive for thousands of years. The ginkgo(银杏树) is a huge, slow-growing tree with fan-shaped leaves, native to China, but planted in parks and gardens across the world. Some of the largest ginkgoes are said to be more than 3 ,000 years old.
In order to discover how these and other trees can live for so long, scientists from the US and China studied 34 healthy ginkgoes of different ages. The team studied growth rings in each tree' s trunk(树干), as well as cells(细胞) from the bark, leaves and seeds. They found that 600-year-old trees were just as healthy as 2-year-olds.
To learn more, the team then looked in detail at the DNA of nine trees aged between three and 667 years old. DNA is the chemical in the cells of plants and animals that holds instructions that tell any living thing how to grow and develop-including what to do at different times in its life At the beginning of a tree's life, DNA instructs the cells in a seedling to divide quickly so the tree grows rapidly. The cells also make special chemicals to help the young plant survive difficult situations, such as disease. As most trees grow older, their DNA tells their cells to divide more slowly (so growth slows down) and to make fewer chemical defenses(防御).
Ginkgoes, however, do things differently. The team found that although their growth finally slows, both young and old trees make protective chemicals.“ The secret is keeping a really healthy defense system," said researcher Richard Dixon.“As ginkgoes age, they show no sign of weakening their ability to defend themselves from things like disease. ”Other trees that live for a long time may have the same ability.
For all their defenses， though, ginkgoes cannot live forever--they finally meet with deadly accidents such as fire, disease and storms. While they last, however, these leafy trees are some of the most beautiful trees in the world.
1. What do we know about ginkgoes?| A．They first grew in China. | B．The oldest ones are 3,000 years old. |
| C．They are little known to the public. | D．They are the oldest plants. |
| A．They mainly studied the trunks of ginkgoes. | B．They studied ginkgo cells. |
| C．They studied 600 different ginkgoes. | D．They mainly studied old ginkgoes. |
| A．Old trees are unhealthy. | B．Their cells divide quickly. |
| C．Young trees catch disease easily. | D．They grow more and more slowly. |
| A．They produce special chemicals. |
| B．Old trees grow as fast as young ones. |
| C．Their defense system is comparatively strong. |
| D．They meet with fewer diseases and accidents. |
7 . What better way to experience the history of a site than to have a hand in actually preserving it? This was the thought behind the founding of Adventures in Preservation(AIP) in 2001. The nonprofit's founders.Judith Broeker and Jamie Donahoe, were both long time preservationists and world travelers. They had seen a great many buildings in poor condition, as well as buildings that had been“restored" without the benefit of conservation expertise.
Twelve years on, they are still involved in the day-to-day management of the organization, supported by a volunteer staff located around the world, Judith' s favorite projects have long been the ones in Eastern Europe, and she enjoys opportunity to travel there each year. She, along with anyone else who's joined an adventure, always quotes their fellow jammers, as they' re called, as the highlight of each project. The groups are made up of people from all different ages, occupations, and cultures.Yet each time, they form a strong bond and work so well together that the work becomes fun. Which,after all, is the point of a working vacation, no?
Raising understanding of people's own heritage(遗迹) is another part of AIP projects. In many places, there is so much focus on the news that not only are heritage buildings being lost but so are the traditional building skills needed to keep them. By providing training and raising awareness of the importance of their heritage, AIP is helping keep both alive.
Next year, AIP has projects in Europe and the US. There will be even more projects the following year as projects currently under development in Ghana, Armenia, Ukraine and the US come on line. Each project is also an opportunity for travel, adventure, and personal growth, and AIP welcomes people from around the world to join a project and“"jam" with them.
1. For what major purpose was AIP set up?| A．To gain wonderful benefits. | B．To protect old buildings. |
| C．To hunt for experts. | D．To train fresh hands. |
| A．Machines. | B．Projects. | C．Colleagues. | D．Organizations. |
| A．Ambition. | B．Education. | C．Wealth. | D．Effort. |
| A．AIP' s boom(繁荣). | B．AIP' s eagerness. |
| C．AIP' goal. | D．AIP' function. |
8 . The coronavirus in China right now has really turned things upside down for a lot of people, but not even it can come between a marathon runner and his training.
Like many of his countrymen, Pan Shancu, an amateur marathon runner from Hangzhou, in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang, is trapped in his apartment because of the COVID-19，but he didn't let that small detail stop him from keeping in shape for his next race, whenever it may be. He has been using the small space in his apartment as a training track, jogging around two tables and the short length of a small hallway, and recently posted on social media.
“I could not bear siting around anymore," Pan wrote. "Let's run laps in the room! Yes, one lap is about eight meters (26 feet) and I ran 50 kilometers (31 miles)，I did it in 4:48:44. I am sweating all over, feeling great!"
The runner, who has a marathon best of two hours and 59 minutes, also wrote that he considers his neighbors while jogging, trying to step as lightly as possible on the floor as not to disturb them. He completed 6, 250 circuits in one of his rooms in four hours, 48 minutes and 44 seconds, and his neighbors have yet to complain.
Pan Shancu's achievement spread rapidly like virus this week, with people praising his training spirit, and saying to adopting similar strategies to stay in shape.
“I start in the kitchen, go through the living room, turn into my daughter's room, the less than 20m-long racecourse has beautiful scenery and on my left, my husband' s snoring is cheering me on," one commented on Pan' s post. "This is a silent battle. My husband' s opinion is that I have psychological issues.
1. What made Pan have to stay at home according to this passage?| A．His serious illness. | B．His desire to be in shape. |
| C．The marathon race. | D．The COVID-19. |
| A．Brave and active. | B．Aggressive and negative. |
| C．Determined and thoughtful. | D．Optimistic and selfless. |
| A．They complain about it. | B．They are encouraged by him. |
| C．They' re amazed by his strategies. | D．They think he has psychological problem. |
| A．A trapped person in China jogs 50 km in his apartment. |
| B．Running in the house does good to people' s health. |
| C．COVID-19 inspired people to stay in shape in their apartment. |
| D．People have shown some psychological issues in China. |
9 . Galapagos Giant tortoises (巨型陆龟), sometimes called Gardeners of the Galapagos, are creatures of habit. In the cold dry season, the highlands of the volcanoes are covered in cloud which allows plants to grow despite the absence of rain. In the lower areas, however, plants are not available all year round. Adult tortoises thus spend the dry season in the higher areas, and go back to the lower, relatively warmer areas where there are plentiful eatable plants when the rainy season begins. The tortoises often take the same migration routes over many years in order to find perfect plants and temperatures. The timing of this migration is important for keeping their energy levels high.
Researchers used GPS to track the timing and patterns of tortoise migration over many years. They expected the migration to be timed with current environmental conditions because many other migratory animals do it that way. However, tortoise migration is weakly related to current conditions such as rain and temperature. It is unclear at this point whether they are basing their migration decisions on memories of past conditions or if they are simply incorrectly assessing current local conditions.
Luckily, probably because of their long lives of up to 100 years and large body size, bad timing of migration has smaller effects on giant tortoises compared to small, short-lived animals. Giant tortoises can go up to a year without eating and survive, while other migratory animals might eat more often to keep their energy levels high.
Giant tortoises are important ecosystem engineers in the Galapagos, and their migration is key to the survival of many plants. How the difference in tortoises' migration time will affect the rest of the ecosystem is still unclear. It is quite possible that the mistiming of migration will keep increasing in the future. "One concern is that at some point in the future," says Bastille-Rousseau, lead author of the study, "migration may not be a perfect strategy for tortoises. There may be a reduction in the number of tortoises doing these long travels. This would likely have great effects on the whole ecosystem."
1. What do we know about Galapagos giant tortoises?| A．They prefer low temperatures. |
| B．They like living in the highlands. |
| C．They always hate the rainy season. |
| D．They seldom change migration routes. |
| A．The weather has much to do with it. |
| B．It disagrees with current conditions. |
| C．The research has strong effects on it. |
| D．It is decided by the tortoises' memories. |
| A．Their restless energy. | B．Their different body shape. |
| C．Their habit of eating healthily. | D．Their ability to go without food. |
| A．Migration is the only choice for giant tortoises in the future. |
| B．Damage to the ecosystem will reduce the number of giant tortoises. |
| C．Giant tortoise migration plays a major role in Galapagos’ ecosystem. |
| D．Giant tortoises protect the ecosystem by their different migration time. |
10 . A student was one day taking a walk with his teacher. As they went along, they saw a pair of old shoes lying in the path. They were a poor farmer’s, who was working in the nearby field.
The student turned to the teacher, saying: “we will hide his shoes, and hide ourselves behind those trees, and wait to see what he will do.”
“My young friend,” answered the teacher, “we should never make fun of the poor. Why not put a coin in each shoe, and then we will hide ourselves and watch?” The student did so and they both hid themselves behind the trees. The poor man soon finished his work, and came across the field to the path where he had left his coat and shoes.
After putting on his coat, he put his foot into one of his shoes, and felt something hard. Then he bent (弯腰) down to feel what it was, and found the coin. Surprised, he looked at the coin, turned it around and looked at it again. He then looked around, but no person was seen. He put the money into his pocket, and continued to put on the other shoe. His surprise was doubled on finding the other coin.
He couldn’t control his feelings and fell to his knees, looked up to the sky and expressed his thanks. Then he spoke of his wife, sick and helpless, and his children without bread. He said the help would save them from dying.
The student stood there deeply moved, and his eyes filled with tears. “Now,” said the teacher, “are you not much happier than if you had hidden the shoes?”
1. When the student saw the shoes, he wanted to _____.| A．steal them | B．find their owner |
| C．play a joke on the owner | D．give the owner some money |
| A．quiet and honest | B．kind and friendly |
| C．patient and clever | D．strict and careful |
| A．was very excited and grateful |
| B．was worried and looked up at the sky |
| C．was surprised and decided to find the owner |
| D．spoke of his difficulties and asked for more help |
