1 . Annoying brother or sister may break your toys, but he or she may help you when you are in trouble. A new study suggests that younger siblings might be good for your health.
Children who didn't welcome a baby brother or sister into the family before first grade had almost three times the likelihood of obesity compared with kids who experienced the birth of a sibling when they were around 3 to 4 years old, the study found.
“It is possibly because when there is a younger sibling in the family, a child might become more active—for example, running around more with their younger sibling,” said Julie Lumeng, a public health researcher at the University of Michigan.
“Maybe families are more likely to take the kids to the park when there is a younger sibling, or maybe the child is less likely to sit, watching TV, when there is a younger sibling to ask them to join more active pretend play,” she added.
Mealtimes might also be different with a second kid at the table.Parents of only child can often focus too much on what their kid eats, which can lead to bad eating habits, some previous research suggests.
“When parents use restrictive or pressuretoeat feeding practices, children have an increased risk of being overweight,” said Jerica Berge, a researcher at the University of Minnesota.
“When a new child is introduced, parents may relax their focus on the older child's eating behaviors, making it possible for the older child to selfregulate their eating,” said Berge. “This selfregulation may lead to a healthier weight for the child with a sibling.”
For their study, Lumeng and colleagues followed 697 U．S. children from birth through age 6.However,the authors acknowledged that their study lacked objectively measured birth weights and information on events such as a divorce, a move or a job loss in the family—all of which can influence the odds of children becoming obese. For more information about this topic, please click here.
1. Compared to children with younger siblings, an only child may .| A．become overweight | B．become selfish |
| C．have a healthier lifestyle | D．get better parental care |
| A．They may refuse to play at home. | B．They may have more physical activities. |
| C．They may feel annoyed and unhappy. | D．They may spend more time with their parents. |
| A．Paying more attention to kids' eating habits. |
| B．Using some restrictive feeding practices. |
| C．Allowing kids to control their eating. |
| D．Letting the older child regulate the diet of the younger child. |
| A．On TV. | B．On the Internet. | C．On the radio. | D．In the newspaper. |
2 . If Confucius(孔子)were still alive today and could celebrate his September 28 birthday with a big cake, there would be a lot of candles. He'd need a fan or a strong wind to help him put them out.
While many people in China will remember Confucius on his special day, few people in the United States will give him a passing thought. It's nothing personal. Most Americans don't even remember the birthdays of their own national heroes.
But this doesn't mean that Americans don't care about Confucius. In many ways he has become a bridge that foreigners must cross if they want to reach a deeper understanding of China.
In the past two decades, the Chinese studies programs have gained huge popularity in Western universities. More recently, the Chinese government has set up Confucius Institutes in more than 80 countries. These schools teach both Chinese language and culture. The main courses of Chinese culture usually include Chinese art, history and
philosophy(哲学). Some social scientists suggest that Westerners should take advantage of the ancient Chinese wisdom to make up for the drawbacks(缺陷)of Western philosophy. Students in the United States, at the same time, are racing to learn Chinese. So they will be ready for life in a world where China is an equal power with the United States. Businessmen who hope to make money in China are reading books about Confucius to understand their Chinese customers.
So the old thinker's ideas are still alive and well.
Today China attracts the West more than ever, and it will need more teachers to introduce Confucius and Chinese culture to the West.
As for the old thinker, he will not soon be forgotten by people in the West, even if his birthday is.
1. The opening paragraph is mainly intended to______________.| A．provide some key facts about Confucius |
| B．attract the readers' interest in the subject |
| C．show great respect for the ancient thinker |
| D．prove the popularity of modern birthday celebrations |
| A．have a great interest in studying Chinese |
| B．take an active part in Chinese competitions |
| C．try to get high scores in Chinese exams |
| D．fight for a chance to learn Chinese |
| A．Forgotten Wisdom in America |
| B．Huge Fans of the Chinese Language |
| C．Chinese Culture for Westerners |
| D．Old Thinker with a Big Future |
| A．a personal biography | B．a history paper |
| C．a cultural newspaper | D．a philosophy textbook |
3 . A new report from the U. K. says more than 1 in 5 teens there spend five hours or more per day on social media. And the heavier users of social media get to bed later and get poorer quality sleep. The new study was based on self-reported survey data from nearly 12,000 teenage participants in the U. K. Millennium Cohort Study.
Megan Moreno, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin Madison, says social media is too often described as either entirely good or bad, when the reality is more complicated(复杂的) for teens. Social media may have its problems, but it is the way that they stay in touch with each other,” she says.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the study found a link between high social media usage and poor sleep patterns. Especially, teens who are heavier users of social media go to sleep later. And the researchers note late bedtime is linked with poorer academic and mental health consequences.
Holly Scott, a researcher at the University of Glasgow, isn’t sounding the alarm. She says, “It’s easy to look at the results of this and think, ‘We should just get teenagers to spend less time on social media. ‘ I think that’s an understandable response, but what I really encourage people to do is look beyond that. “ She says people should pay attention to the important emotional ,cognitive (认知的)and social factors when teenagers are using social media.
Scott stresses that the study is pointing to a connection between social media and poor sleep, but not necessarily explaining cause and effect.
“Certainly some teens do say they struggle to get away from social media at night - they might be worried about missing out on things, or affecting their friends by not answering messages -and they stay up late for that,” she says. “As for some of those young people, they have a naturally later body clock and they are passing their free time at night on social media until they’e ready to fall asleep.”
1. What’s the purpose of the new study in the U. K. ?| A．To find the benefits of using social media. |
| B．To know the effects of using social media. |
| C．To promote the development of social media. |
| D．To prove the growing popularity of social media. |
| A．Positive. | B．Doubtful. | C．Objective. | D．Confused. |
| A．Make better use of social media. |
| B．Spend less time on social media. |
| C．Study how social media influences teens. |
| D．Understand why teens like using social media. |
| A．Health. | B．Education. | C．Science. | D．Entertainment. |
4 . National Treasure has Chinese audiences fired up. But don't confuse it with the Hollywood action film of the same name, in which the hidden history of the United States going back around 250 years is discovered. In the Chinese show producers are lucky –China has a much longer history, and their plan to introduce relics is welcomed by the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City, and eight key province-level museums.
Yu Lei, director of the show, explained how items are chosen, "Our standard is not to choose the most precious items. We want the ones with most attractive stories. These cultural relics are like aged people. They have so much to tell us. If people are bored, there is something wrong with our methods," she said.
In each 100-minute period, three key exhibits from a museum are introduced by entertainment stars, called the "guardians of the national treasure", through short stage dramas, telling the history of the legends behind the items. Some lesser-known stories on how the items were unearthed are featured in the show. In the periods, people are also invited on stage to share their stories linked to such relics. Knowledge, entertainment, taste and an accessible approach have been put together in one show. When people see cultural relics in this lively way, they feel history.
The aim of the show is not to create a hit program but to attract more people to museums. More seasons of National Treasure are planned, and some treasures from the show are to be featured in a touring exhibition soon after the first season ends. A show like this fuels people's pride in their country.
1. We can learn that National Treasure is a(n) _______.| A．historical program aimed at creating a hot topic |
| B．Hollywood action film telling the whole American history |
| C．Chinese show introducing relics through short dramas |
| D．exhibition welcomed by nine province-level museums |
| A．like cultural relics whose stories can be told by aged people |
| B．choose some valuable items with most attractive stories behind |
| C．think something is wrong with their methods of choosing relics |
| D．don’t like the most precious items because they’re not attractive |
| A．Film experts. | B．Ordinary people. | C．Museum guides. | D．Entertainment stars. |
| A．Science | B．Health | C．Economy | D．Culture |
5 . China Science Daily announced Thursday that it has used software to automatically generate news stories about the latest discoveries from the world’s leading science journals. The robot science reporter, called “Xiaoke”, was co-created by the newspaper and researchers from Peking University in about half a year.
It is the latest case of Chinese news organizations using computer technology to create content. According to its inventors, Xiaoke has generated over 200 stories based on the English abstract of papers published in journals such as Science, Nature, Cell and the New England Journal of Medicine.
Before publication, the automatically generated articles will go through a review process. A group of scientists and the newspaper’s editors will check the content or give supplementary (补充的) information.
Zhang Mingwei, head of the program and vice editor-in-chief of the newspaper, said inventors would make Xiaoke a “cross-linguistic (跨语言的) academic secretary” to help Chinese scientists overcome language barriers and have easy and quick access to the latest scientific advances in English-language publication. Lead researcher Wan Xiaojun, of Peking University in charge of the system’s design and technology, stressed that the content generation tool could do far more than translation. According to Wan, Xiaoke is good at selecting complex words and sentences, which can help turn articles full of confusing technical terms into easy and readable news reports.
The readers of the robot reporter is not limited to professionals but also includes the general public. Science reporting is important in spreading information about discoveries and in popularizing knowledge to people.
1. What can we learn about “Xiaoke”?| A．It is a professional translator. |
| B．It has the most advanced AI. |
| C．It can make up fiction stories. |
| D．It generates science news reports. |
| A．Upgrade the artificial intelligence. |
| B．Select complex words and sentences. |
| C．Check the content and add information. |
| D．Help it get the latest scientific advances. |
| A．Science. |
| B．Education. |
| C．Entertainment. |
| D．Health. |
| A．The robot writer of science news. |
| B．The readers of the science reports. |
| C．The editor-in-chief of the newspaper. |
| D．The latest case of news organizations. |
The Dutch research is one of three human studies that give strong scientific support to the long held belief that eating fish can provide health benefits, particularly to the heart.
Heart disease is the number-one killer in the United States, with more than 550,000 deaths occurring from heart attacks each year. But previous research has shown that the level of heart disease is lower in cultures that consume more fish than Americans do. There are fewer heart disease deaths, for example, among the Eskimos of Greenland, who consume about 14 ounces of fish a day, and among the Japanese, whose daily fish consumption averages more than 3 ounces.
For 20 years, the Dutch study followed 852 middle-aged men, 20 percent of whom ate no fish. At the start of the study, average fish consumption was about two-thirds of an ounce each day, with more men eating lean fish than fatty fish.
During the next two decades, 78 of the men died from heart disease. The fewest deaths were among the group who regularly ate fish, even at levels far lower than those of the Japanese or Eskimos.This relationship was true regardless of other factors such as age, high blood pressure, or blood cholesterol（胆固醇）levels.
1. In which section of a newspaper can we read this passage?
| A．Ads | B．Movies |
| C．Briefs | D．Health and Diet |
| A．the high incidence of heart disease in some countries |
| B．the changes in people’s diet |
| C．the effect of fish eating on people’s health |
| D．the daily fish consumption of people in different cultures |
| A．the amount of fish eaten | B．regular fish-eating |
| C．the kind of fish eaten | D．people of different areas |
| A．a heart doctor | B．a science researcher |
| C．a supporter of healthy eating | D．a university student |
7 . The world's top automakers(汽车制造商)are increasingly offering more electric car models. This growth is expected to continue, with more people choosing to hit the road with clean- running electric cars.
Environmentalists have praised the automakers for taking major steps to limit harmful pollutants linked to worldwide climate change. But electric cars are also known for not producing another kind of pollution - noise. They run on batteries instead of fuels, and can operate in silence.
While many people might consider this a good thing, quiet cars can also cause problems. The main danger is that people around electric vehicles face a greater risk of being hit if they cannot hear the cars coming.
Governments in the United States and Europe have recognized this problem. So they have set requirements for automakers to add warning sounds to electric vehicles. The U.S. Department of Transportation finalized its rules a year ago. The rules require electric and hybrid (混合物) cars to be equipped with some warning sounds when moving at a speed of up to 30 kilometers per hour. The rules are aimed at preventing injuries among people walking or riding bicycles and protecting the blind.
So what kind of sound can we expect to hear from the next generation of electric cars? One of the easiest solutions would be for carmakers to reproduce the sound of a traditional car running on fuels. But many industry officials believe this would be a mistake. They say this would not support electric cars' true identity. Frank Welsch, the head of technical development at Volkswagen, said that finding the perfect sound mix is not an easy process. He said, "It cannot be too annoying. It cannot sound like anything we had in the past." An official from Mercedes-Benz said the sound was designed to provide a safe warning without annoying passengers inside the car. He said the goal was to create a car that remains completely quiet inside.
It might seem strange to think that part of our automotive future is currently being developed in the same kinds of recording studios used by musicians. But that is exactly what is happening.
1. What's Paragraph 2 mainly about?| A．The main advantages of electric cars. | B．The useful ways to improve electric cars. |
| C．The automakers' effort to limit pollutants. | D．The effect of climate change on the car industry. |
| A．To add functions. | B．To increase sales. |
| C．To prevent injuries. | D．To make cars smarter. |
| A．The sound similar to that of a traditional car. | B．The sound not troubling people inside cars. |
| C．The sound matching cars' identity. | D．The sound chosen from recorded ones. |
| A．A newspaper. | B．An advertisement. |
| C．A science report. | D．A research plan. |
8 . Working out can help teenagers boost their grades, a new study suggests. Adolescents who routinely engaged in moderate to vigorous（剧烈的）exercise showed long-term improvements in their academic performance, the British Journal of Sports Medicine study reported.
“Our study suggests that the effect of physical activity may be quite large,” John Reilly, a professor at the University of Strathclyde said. The researchers looked at a sample of about 5000 children who were involved in a long-term study that tracks children born in the U.K. between 1991 and 1992. When children reached 11 years old, their daily physical activity levels were measured using an accelerometer（加速器）for three to seven days. The device, similar to a pedometer（计步器）tracking the number of steps taken, recorded the average time children exercised, which was 29 minutes a day for boys and 18 for girls.
“The actual levels of daily physical activity at age 11 were quite low,” Mr. Reilly noted. The children had their academic performance tested at ages 11 and 13 with compulsory national tests for students, and also at 15 or 16 with the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exam. The tests assessed the children’s abilities in English, math and science subjects. The results showed that the more children participated in moderate to vigorous physical activity, the higher their test scores were at age 11 in all three subjects. For girls, science scores were most strongly linked to exercise.
When children were tested again at age 13, their academic scores were still linked to how much they had exercised when they were 11 years old. By the time the youngsters took the GCSE exam, each 17-minute-per‑day increase in physical activity for the boys was linked to an improvement in their scores. Every additional 12-minute increase a day in exercise for the girls was also linked to an increased score, especially in the science category.
The researchers have called for more studies to look at the possible academic benefits that could be derived if students exercised the recommended 60 minutes or more a day.
1. What’s the study about?| A．The influence of exercise on students’ scores. |
| B．The secrets of students’ ranking high in class. |
| C．The causes of students’ participating in sports. |
| D．The ways of improving students’ physical conditions. |
| A．Students at age 11 do more exercise than at other ages. |
| B．Boys at age 13 get more benefits by doing more exercise. |
| C．Girls’ science scores are more closely related to exercise. |
| D．More and more students do exercise to improve their scores. |
| A．Maintained. | B．Obtained. | C．Concluded. | D．Reduced. |
| A．In a storybook. |
| B．In a fashion magazine. |
| C．In an exercise guide. |
| D．In a research report. |
9 . Sagrada Familia (2,056,448 visits/year)
Opening hours: 09:00—18:00 (October—March); 09:00—20:00 (April—September) Admission: $ 11, or $ 10 with the Barcelona Card.
Disabled Access: Yes.
The temple has been under construction since 1882 and they’ve still got another 30 to 80 years to go before it is finished. The project’s vast scale and its special design have made it one of Barcelona’s top tourist attractions for many years.
La Pedrera (1,133,220 visits/year)
Opening hours: November—February: 09:00—18:30; March—October: 09:00—20:00
Admission: $ 9.50. Save 20% with the Barcelona Card.
Disabled Access: No.
This building used to be called Casa Mila but nowadays it’s more commonly known as La Pedrera. It is a unique modernist building in Barcelona and was made of bricks and had colorful tiles (瓦). It was built between 1906 and 1912 by famous Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi (1852—1926) and in 1984 it was declared a UNESCO World Her it age site with other Gaudi buildings in Barcelona.
Barcelona FC Museum (1,032,763 visits/year)
Opening hours: 6th April—4th October: (Monday to Saturday) 10:00—20:00; the rest of the year: 10:00—18:30
Admission: $ 8.50 for entry to the museum and $ 17 for a guided tour.
Disabled Access: Yes.
When you buy your ticket you have two options. You can buy a ticket for the museum to see the football stadium or you can buy a dual (双的) ticket for $ 15 where you get to see the museum and the scenes at the club.
Miro Museum (518,869 visits/year)
Opening hours: Check the website for details as they vary relying on the time of the year. Admission: $ 8. Save 20% with the Barcelona Card.
Disabled Access: Yes.
This museum has a wide range of Miro’s works dating back as far as 1914. This art work collection not only includes his paintings but also a good selection of sculptures.
1. Which of the following attractions is the most popular with people?| A．Sagrada Familia | B．La Pedrera |
| C．Barcelona FC Museum | D．Miro Museum |
| A．Sagrada Familia is the largest building in Barcelona. |
| B．La Pedrera is well-known for its colorful material. |
| C．Barcelona FC Museum may attract football fans. |
| D．Miro Museum was built in 1914. |
pay ____ .
| A．$ 25.5 | B．$ 32 | C．$ 42.5 | D．$ 34 |
| A．They are all famous for their architectural style. |
| B．They are available for the disabled people. |
| C．Their opening hours are changeable in different seasons. |
| D．Tourists can have a discount of 20% with the Barcelona Card. |
| A．A novel | B．An advertisement | C．A poster | D．Travel brochure |
10 . The Education Secretary Michael Gove said all schools should follow the example set in the Far East where pupils are expected to follow a longer day and get less time off. In a speech, he warned the current shape of the academic year was created to fit the needs of an agricultural economy, with pupils taking time off in October to help harvest. The lack of time spent in the classroom is particularly damaging to children from poor backgrounds, Mr. Gove said.
Some of the Government's flagship academies---state schools run independent of local council controls---are using their independence to reform the school day, he said. Some open at 8:30 am and expect children to remain until at least 4:30 pm to undertake sport, music and other extra-curricular activities. Other schools such as David Young Community Academy operate four-week summer holidays for fear that children suffer an academic fall during the traditional six-week break.
Mr. Gove suggested all schools should follow a similar model to enable the nation to catch up with education systems elsewhere in the world. But his suggestions are likely to cause anger among teachers who are fiercely protective of the six-week summer break which they claim is vital for them to recharge their batteries.
Earlier this month, the National Union of Teachers actually called for a shorter school day. But addressing the Spectator Education Conference in central London, Mr. Gove said a "higher level of effort is expected on behalf of students, parents and teachers" in nations such as Singapore and elsewhere in the Far East.
He insisted the Government was changing teachers' pay and working conditions which meant they could be paid more for taking on extra duties, allowing heads to organize their staff "in a way to get more out of young people".
"The expectation is that to succeed, hard work is at the heart of everything," he said. "If you look at the length of the school day and summer holiday in England---and we compare it to the extra tuition and support children are receiving elsewhere---then we are fighting or actually running in this global race in a way without doubt we start with a significant obstacle."
1. Which of the following is right according to the passage?| A．Some schools in the UK have prolonged the school day. |
| B．A shorter school day helps employ more young teachers. |
| C．Teachers in the Far East long to have a longer holiday. |
| D．A longer school day makes no difference to poor children. |
| A．They will get less pay if the holidays are shorter |
| B．Children’s performance will be worse if holidays are shorter |
| C．They will not have enough time to relax |
| D．Children will have fewer after-school activities. |
| A．The length of holidays should be increased. |
| B．The length of the school day is disadvantageous to England. |
| C．England has lost the global race in education. |
| D．The government offers a higher pay to attract more teachers. |
| A．An agricultural book. | B．A notebook. |
| C．A diary. | D．A newspaper. |
