1 . Tourist Guide to the National Gallery

Opening hours: Daily 10: 00 am- -6: 00 pm; Friday 10: 00 am- 9: 00 pm

Closed: 2426 December

Reasons to visit:

With over 2, 300 paintings in the collection, there are hundreds of reasons to visit the Gallery. Here are some to get you started...

Get into great art. From Leonardo da Vinci to Vincent van Gogh: See priceless works of art for free.

Get creative. Brush up your skills, and create your own great works of art...

Learn about art. Discover more about paintings...

Regulations:

Talk in a low voice when you use your cellphone in the gallery

Please do not touch the paintings or other exhibits. Do not take pets in or cross the barriers.

Consume food and drink in designated areas only i.e. not in rooms that contain paintings.

Follow our no smoking policy in any part of the building.

Follow our no photograph policy in exhibitions where a sign is displayed.

Access:

The National Gallery aims to make access to the paintings enjoyable and welcoming to the widest possible public. There are a range of facilities to help you see the collection, visit exhibitions and come to events.

The Gallery offers British Sign Language-interpreted talks on paintings for visitors who are deaf, and special art sessions(展期) for visitors who can't see.

Address: The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square London WC2N 5DN

Click here to find more information.

1. What are visitors allowed to do in the National Gallery?

A．Make a phone call.	B．Take a dog in.
C．Smoke a cigarette.	D．Take photos.

2. Who are the special art sessions intended for?

A．Young visitors.	B．Deaf visitors.
C．Blind visitors.	D．Old visitors.

3. Where can we read the tourist guide?

A．In a newspaper.	B．On a poster.
C．In a magazine.	D．On the Internet.

2 . What’s a spacewalk? Any time an astronaut gets out of a spacecraft while in space, it is called a spacewalk. Astronauts go on spacewalks for many reasons. For example, experiments can be placed on the outside of a spacecraft. This lets scientists learn how being in space affects different things. By going on spacewalks, astronauts can also fix certain things instead of bringing them back to the earth to fix.

When astronauts go on spacewalks, they wear spacesuits to keep themselves safe. Inside spacesuits, astronauts have the oxygen they need to breathe and the water they need to drink. To keep the astronauts and the spacecraft safe, the astronauts must leave and go back to the spacecraft through a special door. When on a spacewalk, astronauts use safety tethers to stay close to their spacecraft, which connect the spacewalkers with the spacecraft. They keep astronauts from floating away into space. Another way astronauts stay safe during spacewalks is by wearing a SAFER. SAFER is worn like a backpack. It helps an astronaut move around in space.

How do astronauts train for spacewalks? One way is by going for a swim. Floating in space is a lot like floating in water. Astronauts practice spacewalks underwater in a huge special swimming pool. For every one hour they will spend on a spacewalk, astronauts need to train seven hours in the pool. Another way astronauts practice for a spacewalk is by using virtual reality(虚拟视镜). It looks and feels just like a spacewalk.

Today, only three countries have finished spacewalks independently. They are Russia, the United States and China. The first person to go on a spacewalk in the world was Alexei Leonov from Russia. Zhai Zhigang is the first Chinese astronaut to go on a spacewalk. The world record of spacewalks is held by Russian astronaut Anatoly Solovyev. He has been on 16 spacewalks and spent more than 82 hours outside in space.

1. What can an astronaut do by going on a spacewalk?

A．Fix different objects.	B．Collect any things he wants.
C．Carry out an experiment.	D．Study how things changes in space.

2. What does the underlined word “tethers” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．Special ropes.	B．Spacesuits.
C．Spacecraft.	D．Special backpacks.

3. What can we learn from the last two paragraphs?

A．Walking in space is as easy as going swimming.	B．A virtual reality should be used in a spacewalk.
C．Only three countries have ever tried spacewalks.	D．Russia keeps the world record of spacewalks.

4. Where is this passage most likely from?

A．A diary.

B．A magazine.

C．A novel.

D．A guidebook.

3 . There’s nothing magical about the number 10,000. In fact, the idea of walking at least 10,000 steps a day for health goes back many years to a marketing campaign started in Japan for the sale of a pedometer (计步器). And, in the years that followed, it was accepted in the US as a goal to build up good health. It’s often the default setting (默认设置) on fitness trackers, but what’s it really based on?

“The original basis of the number was not scientifically determined,” says researcher I-Min Lee of Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She was curious to know how many steps you need to take a day to maintain good health and live a long life, so she and her workmates designed a study that included about 17,000 older women. Their average age was 72. The women all agreed to wear devices to track their steps as they went about their day-to-day activities.

It turns out that women who took about 4,000 steps per day got an increase in longevity (长寿), compared with women who took fewer steps. In fact, women who took 4,400 steps per day, on average, were about 40 percent less likely to die during the follow-up period of about four years compared with women who took 2,700 steps. The findings were published Wednesday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Another surprise: The benefits of walking maxed out at about 7,500 steps. In other words, women who walked more than 7,500 steps per day saw no additional increase in longevity.

Janz, who released the new national exercise recommendations last November, says the message that comes from this study was encouraging. “I think it’s really good news for women who may not be particularly active.” says Janz. “All they have to do is walk. To me, this study suggests there are more benefits to light activities than we were previously thinking there might be.”

1. How did the idea of walking 10,000 steps a day come into being?

A．It was made up by a group of elderly ladies.

B．It was indeed the result of a scientific research.

C．It actually came from a business advertisement.

D．It was based on a test by both Japan and the US.

2. Which is an ideal choice for women walkers according to the study?

A．2,700 steps.	B．4,400 steps.
C．10,000 steps.	D．17,000 steps.

3. Which of the following does Janz agree with?

A．Light activities benefit people most.

B．The study is not as satisfying as expected.

C．Women should be more active than before.

D．The result of the study is a little surprising.

4. In which part of a newspaper can you read the passage?

A．Health.	B．Culture.
C．History.	D．Tourism.