1 . According to the majority of Americans, women are every bit as capable of being good political leaders as men. The same can be said of their ability to dominate the corporate boardroom. And according to a new Pew Research Center survey on women and leadership, most Americans find women indistinguishable from men on key leadership traits such as intelligence and capacity for innovation, with many saying they're stronger than men in terms of being passionate and organized leaders.
So why, then, are women in short supply at the top of government and business in the United States? According to the public, at least, it's not that they lack toughness, management talent or proper skill sets. It’s also not all about work-life balance. Although economic research and previous survey findings have shown that career interruptions related to motherhood may make it harder for women to advance in their careers and compete for top executive jobs, relatively few adults in the recent survey point to this as a key barrier for women seeking leadership roles. Only about one-in-five say women's family responsibilities are a major reason why there aren't more females in top leadership positions in business and politics.
Instead, topping the list of reasons, about four-in-ten Americans point to a double standard for women seeking to climb to the highest levels of either politics or business, where they have to do more than their male counterparts to prove themselves. Similar shares say the electorate and corporate America are just not ready to put more women in top leadership positions.
As a result, the public is divided about whether the imbalance in corporate America will change in the foreseeable future, even though women have made major advances in the workplace. While 53% believe men will continue to hold more top executive positions in business in the future, 44% say it's only a matter of time before as many women are in top executive positions as men. Americans are less doubtful when it comes to politics: 73% expect to see a female president in their lifetime.
1. What do most Americans think of women leaders according to a new Pew Research Center survey?| A．They have to do more to distinguish themselves. |
| B．They have to strive harder to win their positions. |
| C．They are stronger than men in terms of willpower. |
| D．They are just as intelligent and innovative as men. |
| A．They have unconquerable difficulties on their way to success. |
| B．They are lacking in confidence when competing with men. |
| C．Their failures may have something to do with family duties. |
| D．Relatively few are affected in their career advancement. |
| A．Personality traits. | B．Gender bias. |
| C．Family responsibilities. | D．Lack of vacancies. |
| A．More and more women will sit in the boardroom. |
| B．Gender imbalance in leadership is likely to change. |
| C．The public is undecided about whether women will make good leaders. |
| D．People have opposing opinions as to whether it will have more women leaders. |
2 . Kindness
Good friends are not just kind to you; they are kind to others as well. People like being around them because they are positive people. The kindness they spread comes from inner feelings of happiness and self-confidence. In contrast, social aggression, such as meanness, is a quality that shows lack of respect for others and discontent with oneself. These feelings outwardly show and eventually prevent communications and genuine friendships from forming.
Accepting
Good friends are easy to talk to because they accept what you are. They understand the things that are important to you and the values that you hold. Although they may not necessarily agree with all of your beliefs and actions, they will never judge you. People who can accept you also are better able to accept themselves. High self-esteem and self-acceptance are intertwined.
Interest
According to American writer and lecturer, Dale Carnegie, showing genuine interest in others is one way to promote feelings of goodwill. People are more likely to remember how you make them feel. This goes beyond good listening skills. Good friends ask questions about things that matter to you. To do this, they must put aside their own needs and focus on helping others feel important. If you make them feel inferior, they will not enjoy the time you spend together.
Honesty
Although honesty is important to friendships, it may be one of the most difficult qualities to maintain. When you ask a friend for honesty, she may prefer preserving the peace over telling you what she really thinks. But honesty promotes trust. A good friend cares enough to tell you the truth and has sufficient confidence in the relationship to be assured of a positive outcome.
1. What does the kindness of a friend come from according to the passage?| A．Respect. | B．Excitement. | C．Happiness. | D．Belief. |
| A．They will begin to care about their own needs. |
| B．They will take no interest in you. |
| C．They will feel uncomfortable to stay with you. |
| D．They are more likely to question about themselves. |
| A．connected | B．complicated | C．obvious | D．common |
| A．Being kind to friends. | B．Why we need friends. |
| C．How to make friends. | D．Qualities of a good friendship. |
3 . We've seen a worldwide health crisis (危机) bring out the worst in some people, but fortunately, we've also been able to see it bring out the best in others.
A taxi driver in Spain has been providing COVID-19 (新冠肺炎) patients with free rides to and from the hospitals. Doctors and nurses wanted to surprise him with their thanks for helping out.
They tricked him down to the hospital under the pretense of needing to pick up a sick patient, but in reality, doctors and nurses lined the hall waiting to applaud (鼓掌) him.
“This is a surprise that has been given to a taxi driver who takes patients to the hospitals without charge,” wrote the taxi company that first shared the video.
The man seemed completely taken aback by the gesture, stopping in the middle of the doors as the whole room cheered for him.
He was also given an envelope full of money and the satisfying results of his own COVID-19 test.
The video has since been shared tens of thousands of times across the world, because kind gestures break the language barrier (障碍).
“When the crisis is finished, there will have been two types of people... the good and the bad,” one user wrote. “With workmates like him, I am proud to be a taxi driver, son of a taxi driver, and father of a taxi driver.”
With the word in hard times, just knowing good people are there doing good deeds is something we can all appreciate.
1. We can learn from the story that____________.| A．the driver took doctors to and from the hospitals |
| B．the taxi company ticked the driver to pick up a patient |
| C．the patients lined the hall to thank the driver |
| D．the driver stayed safe from COVID-19 |
| A．Worried. | B．Amazed. | C．Frightened. | D．Excited. |
| A．It moves people of different nations. |
| B．It encourages more people to be a taxi driver. |
| C．It shows there will have been two types of people. |
| D．It calls for doctors and nurses to fight COVID-19. |
| A．There is always kindness around us. |
| B．We should be proud of our own jobs. |
| C．Helping others is the biggest happiness. |
| D．Taxi drivers play an important part in this crisis. |
4 . Americans celebrate Valentine’s Day each year on February 14th. So do candy companies, jewelry stores and people selling flowers. Valentine’s Day is for lovers. It is a good day to ask your boyfriend or girlfriend to marry you. It is also a popular day for marriage. But other couples might celebrate with a dinner at a nice restaurant.
The holiday is named for Saint Valentine. He was an early Christian churchman who was said to have helped young lovers. Valentine was executed for his Christian beliefs on February 14th, more than one thousand seven hundred years ago. But the day is even older than that.
The ancient Romans celebrated a holiday for lovers more than two thousand years ago. As part of the celebration, each girl wrote her name on a piece of paper and put it in a large box. Each boy reached into the box and pulled out the name of a girl. That girl became his girlfriend for a year.
Lovers still put their names on pieces of paper on Valentine’s Day. They send each other cards that express their love. Sometimes they send other gifts, too, like jewelry, flowers, candy, or all three!
It was reported that the average American spent about $134 for Valentine’s Day in 2014. That was up about three dollars from 2013. Men spent about twice as much on their partners as women did. And it is said the total spending for Valentine’s Day in the United States reached about $17.3 billion.
1. Valentine’s Day is named for Saint Valentine mainly because Valentine_____.| A．came up with the idea for Valentine’s Day |
| B．lost his life because of his Christian beliefs |
| C．once helped young lovers as a churchman |
| A．a boy got his girlfriend quite by luck |
| B．boys and girls exchanged cards to show love |
| C．a girl had the freedom to choose her boyfriend |
| A．Writing lovers’ names on pieces of paper. |
| B．Sending gifts like candies, flowers and jewelry. |
| C．Asking your boyfriend or girlfriend to marry you. |
| A．After Valentine’s Day in 2013. |
| B．Before Valentine’s Day in 2013. |
| C．After Valentine’s Day in 2014. |
5 . I have a special place in my heart for libraries. I have for as long as I can remember. I was always an enthusiastic reader, sometimes reading up to three books a day as a child. Stories were like air to me and while other kids played ball or went to parties, I lived out adventures through the books I checked out from the library.
My first job was working at the Ukiah Library when I was 16 years old .It was a dream job and I did everything from shelving books to reading to the children for story time.
As I grew older and became a mother, the library took on a new place and an added meaning in my life. I had several children and books were our main source(来源) of entertainment. It was a big deal for us to load up and go to the local library, where my kids could pick out books to read or books they wanted me to read to them.
I always read ,using different voices ,as though I were acting out the stories with my voice and they loved it !It was a special time to bond with my children and it filled them with the wonderment of books .
Now, I see my children taking their children to the library and I love that the excitement of going to the library lives on form generation to generation.
As a novelist, I’ve found a new relationship with libraries. I encourage readers to go to their local library when they can’t afford to purchase a book. I see libraries as a safe haven(避风港) for readers and writers, a bridge that helps put together a reader with a book. Libraries, in their own way, help fight book piracy(盗版行为) and 1 think all writers should support libraries in a significant way when they can. Encourage readers to use the library. Share library announcements on your social media. Frequent them and talk about them when you can.
1. Which word best describes the author’s relationship with books as a child?| A．Cooperative. | B．Uneasy. | C．Inseparable. | D．Casual. |
| A．Pleasure from working in the library. |
| B．Joy of reading passed on in the family. |
| C．Wonderment from acting out the stories. |
| D．A closer bond developed with the readers. |
| A．Sponsor book fairs. | B．Write for social media. |
| C．Support libraries. | D．Purchase her novels. |
| A．Reading: A Source of Knowledge |
| B．My Idea about writing |
| C．Library: A Haven for the Young |
| D．My Love of the Library |
6 . Here is a surprising and important fact: Mental work alone can't make us tired.It sounds funny. But a few years ago, scientists tried to find out how long the human brain could labor without reaching a stage of fatigue (疲劳). To the amazement of these scientists, they discovered that blood passing through the brain, when it is active, shows no fatigue at all! If we took a drop of blood from a day laborer, we would find it full of fatigue toxins (毒素) and fatigue products.But if we took blood from the brain of an Albert Einstein, it would show no fatigue toxins at the end of the day.
So far as the brain is concerned， it can work as well and swiftly at the end of eight or even twelve hours of effort as at the beginning.The brain is totally tireless.So what makes us tired?
Some scientists find that most of our fatigue comes from our mental and emotional attitudes. One of England's most outstanding scientists, J.A. Hadfield, says, “The greater part of the fatigue from which we suffer is of mental origin.In fact, fatigue of purely physical origin is rare(罕见的).” Dr Brill, a famous American scientist, goes even further. He says, “One hundred percent of the fatigue of a sitting worker in good health is due to emotional problems.”
What kinds of emotions make sitting workers tired? Joy? Satisfaction?No! A feeling of being bored, anger, anxiety, tenseness, worry, a feeling of not being appreciated-those are the emotions that tire sitting workers. Hard work by itself seldom causes fatigue. We get tired because our emotions produce nervousness in the body.
1. What did the scientists discover a few years ago?| A．We could hardly find fatigue toxins in a laborer’s blood. |
| B．Albert Einstein didn’t feel worn out after a day’s week. |
| C．A mental worker’s blood was filled with fatigue. |
| D．The brain could work for many hours without tiredness. |
| A．difficult work |
| B．endless tasks |
| C．unpleasant emotions |
| D．physical labor |
| A．Have some good food |
| B．Exercise regularly |
| C．Enjoy the work |
| D．Discover fatigue toxins |
| A．How to take away nervousness |
| B．How to work well and swiftly |
| C．How to deal with hard work |
| D．How to get much satisfaction |
7 . Speaking, writing and reading are necessary to everyday life, where language is the major tool for expression and communication. Studying how people use language — what words they unconsciously choose and combine — can help us better understand ourselves and why we behave the way we do.
Linguists (语言学家) try to determine what is unique and universal about the language we use, how it is learned and the ways it changes over time. They consider language as a cultural, social and psychological phenomenon.
“Understanding why and how languages differ tells us about the range of what is human,”said Dan Jurafsky, chair of the Department of Linguistics at Stanford.
Stanford linguists and psychologists study how language is interpreted (理解) by people. Even the slightest differences in language use may show the biased (有偏见的) beliefs of the speakers, according to research.
For example, a relatively harmless sentence, such as“girls are as good as boys at math,” because of the statement’s grammatical structure (结构), suggests that being good at math is more common or natural for boys than girls, the researchers said. Language can play a big role in how we and others see the world, and linguists work to discover how words and phrases can influence us, unknowingly.
People speak about 7,000 languages worldwide. Although there is a lot in common among languages, each one is unique. Jurafsky said it’s important to study languages other than our own and how they develop over time because it can help linguists understand what lies at the foundation of humans' unique way of communicating with one another.
Linguists analyze how certain speech patterns influence particular behaviors, including how language can influence people’s buying decisions. Jurafsky said. “Understanding what different groups of people say and why is the first step in determining how we can help bring people together.”
1. What does the example mentioned in Paragraph 5 show?| A．Misunderstanding is common in daily life. |
| B．People should avoid using harmful sentences. |
| C．Speech patterns can show people’s biased beliefs. |
| D．Some grammatical structures are difficult to understand. |
| A．Researching languages. |
| B．Learning from linguists. |
| C．Developing good learning habits. |
| D．Communicating with others frequently. |
| A．To show the power of language. |
| B．To give an introduction to Jurafsky. |
| C．To teach readers how to learn a language. |
| D．To call on readers to learn more languages. |
8 . When fashion designer Mindy Scheier’s middle child, Oliver, came home one day and told her he wanted to wear jeans to school rather than sweatpants (宽松运动裤), she was faced with difficulty. Oliver has a rare disease, which causes him to struggle with everyday tasks, such as dressing himself. Would she tell her 8-year-old son that he couldn’t wear what everyone else got to wear, or could she figure out a way in which he could? She chose the latter, altering (更改) a pair of jeans for him. And with that, the Runway of Dreams Foundation was born.
Scheier started the foundation in 2014 to make adaptive clothing more accessible and fashionable for people with disabilities. As part of its aims, Runway of Dreams Foundation partners with brands to make stylish adaptive clothing lines available to the disabled, creates scholarships for students focusing on adaptive clothing and helps with employment opportunities for people in the disability community.
“It is truly unbelievable how one pair of jeans has changed the world,” Scheier said. “Creating adaptive clothing for people with disabilities and trying to make change happen in the fashion industry felt so much bigger than just Oliver or just me. It felt like something that had to happen. The future of fashion is inclusion. We’ve been dressing different body shapes, and now it’s time to dress different abilities. I am so thrilled that Runway of Dreams Foundation really started a movement to make change happen.”
“They told my mother that I wasn’t going be able to do anything for myself, but I proved them wrong. What people like me can do with a disability is the same as someone who doesn’t have one. It might look a little bit different, or a little bit strange, but it can be done. I never opened up a magazine and saw someone that looked like me. So it’s good now for disabled young kids to see a model in an ad with a disability,” said Oliver.
1. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?| A．The goals of Runway of Dreams Foundation. |
| B．The popularity of Runway of Dreams Foundation. |
| C．How Runway of Dreams Foundation was founded. |
| D．How Runway of Dreams Foundation raises money. |
| A．It should focus on normal people. |
| B．It will lead to changes in the fashion industry. |
| C．It has little influence on disabled people's life. |
| D．It fails to take fashion designing into consideration. |
| A．He never reads magazines. |
| B．He feels ashamed of himself. |
| C．He dreams to become a model. |
| D．He appreciates adaptive clothing. |
9 . A few weeks ago, I bought a locally-grown salad from a vending machine(自动售货机). But then I immediately realized that it was packaged in a plastic jar. ''I guess I live with this jar now and forever. '' I thought sadly as I stared down at my new child.
The salad jar was only the latest in a long line of examples of how I am addicted to the responsibility of reusing everything, trying to never throw anything away. Water bottles have been given second lives, and berry containers are transformed into Tupperware. I recently even looked at a plastic straw in my fruit juice: Could I reuse it too…?
Yet trying to squeeze my salad jar under my kitchen counter this weekend, I finally had to admit: Being an environmentalist has turned me into a hoarder(囤积者). While keeping a certain number of jars and vegetable bags will allow me not to buy new containers, at a certain point those 30 berry containers begin to get a bit unnecessary. Who am I kidding? Then one day I came across a blog post that asks accusingly. ''Are you turning your own home into a landfill(垃圾填埋场)? ''
In my defense, there is absolutely no excuse not to be a conscious consumer. The solution is painfully obvious, but hard to admit: Delaying waste is not, in fact, rejecting waste. In an over-packaged, over-consuming culture, this can feel like a burden. While I refuse to throw away packaging, the fact remains: I already have it. The damage is done. I've been ignoring one of the most essential and difficult parts—reduce, reuse, recycle. Even if I go out of my way to reuse the waste I do have, I need to reduce what I am bringing home in the first place.
While I might not be ready to go full zero-waste, it's a goal that is admirable to work toward. Until then, my salad jar child is going to make a great overnight oats jar.
1. What does the author try to indicate by the last sentence in paragraph 2 ?| A．How important reusing is. |
| B．How enthusiastic she is about reusing. |
| C．How she makes use of the plastic straw. |
| D．Why she is responsible for reusing plastic straws. |
| A．She enjoys collecting a variety of small jars. |
| B．She has saved far more containers than she needs. |
| C．She likes the idea of saving fine packages in daily life. |
| D．She stores more berry containers than other containers. |
| A．Over-packaging. | B．Delaying waste. |
| C．Over-consuming. | D．Rejecting waste. |
| A．buy fewer over-packaged goods |
| B．throw away unnecessary packaging |
| C．reuse materials as much as possible |
| D．appreciate the value of recycling materials |
10 . It was late, about 10:15 p.m, when Janice Esposito arrived at the New York train station and began the 20-minute drive home. She had traveled the route so many times that she almost drove on autopilot (自动驾驶):a left onto Station Road, then a left on Montauk Highway, and then-bang! Out of nowhere, a car T-boned Janice’s car, pushing her backward onto the railroad tracks.
As it happened, Pole DiPinto was gelling ready for bed. He'd just closed his book when he heard the loud crash not far outside his bedroom window. A volunteer firefighter and retired teacher, 64, never stopped to think, He grabbed a flashlight and still in his pajamas (睡衣), ran out the door. “Any firefighter would have? done what I did,” he said, “We're always on duly.”
The first car he came upon was the one that had hit Janice. Once DiPinto concluded the driver was OK, he looked around and spotted Janice's car lay across the railroad tracks. And then he heard a terrible sound: the bells signaling an on-coming train.
DiPinto rushed to Janice's cur and banged on the driver's side window. She just looked at him, her eyes unfocused. “I don't know where I am,” she said. She seemed unhurt. “Honey, you're on the railroad tracks,” DiPinto shouted, “We have to get you off right now!” He pulled hard on the door handle, but it didn't work. The heavy train, traveling at 65 miles per hour, was heading toward them. DiPinto ran to the passenger side and threw open the door. “Please, God, don't let her be trapped”, he thought. He pushed aside the airbags, grabbed Janice's arms, and pulled her toward him across the passenger seat until he could help her out and walk her to safety. Within six seconds, he estimated, the train crashed into the car.
“It was like a Hollywood movie,” DiPinto told reporters the next day. But this one had a difference. That night, the hero arrived in pajamas, not in a fire truck.
1. Which of the following words can best replace the underlined word "T-boned" in Paragraph 1?| A．Crashed into. | B．Came across. |
| C．Pushed forward. | D．Scratched the side of. |
| A．He was the volunteer firefighter who was on duty that night. |
| B．He wasn't aware of the coming train when he was rescuing Janice. |
| C．He was in sound sleep in his bedroom when the accident happened. |
| D．He first confirmed the other driver before he came to Janice's rescue. |
| A．Janice didn't know where she was. |
| B．The airbags protected her in some way. |
| C．DiPinto rescued Janice without difficulty. |
| D．All the doors of Janice's car were in good condition. |
| A．A Hero in Pajamas. | B．A Hollywood Movie. |
| C．A Dangerous Heavy Train. | D．A Horrible Car Accident. |
