1 . If you don't use it, you lose it. At least, that's how the old saying goes. It refers to the idea that something which does not get used regularly quickly falls into a state of decline. Muscles, for example, will waste away without use. In order to resist this, people take regular exercise to keep their skills sharp.
Well, what about the brain? As we age, our brains can naturally begin to decline. In some cases, this can lead to certain mental conditions such as dementia(痴呆)，which I'm sure you will agree, no one wants. However, all is not lost because these days it's relatively easy to train your brain. Smart phones and apps have put programmes into our hands that can test, maintain and even improve our memories, mathematical skills and a lot of other mental abilities. With a little practice every day, we can keep our brains nice and sharp, right?
Well, no, actually. According to a report from the Global Council on Brain Health, even though many people thought it was important to play online games, such as puzzles and mind games, which are designed to improve brain health, the evidence of the benefits was “weak to non-existent”.
There are other ways to promote the old grey matter. It recommends seeking out new activities that challenge the way you think and are socially engaging，while leading to a healthy lifestyle. Among their suggestions are practising tai chi, taking photography classes, learning new technologies, gardening, art projects or volunteering.
There's more good news, too, James Goodwin, chief scientist at Age UK has said that brain decline is not inevitable (不可避免的）. As long as the activities are “new to you and require your concentrated attention”, they can provide benefits for brain health. So, hurry up, get out there and try something new. Maybe it's time to try that hobby you've always wanted to do. And as for me? I'm off to learn the piano.
1. From which is the text probably taken?| A．A biology textbook. | B．A healthy magazine. |
| C．A travel brochure. | D．A research paper. |
| A．Making more shopping. | B．Avoid brain decline. |
| C．Doing exercises alone. | D．Going out with friends. |
| A．Trying something new. | B．Using smart phone regularly. |
| C．Playing games online. | D．Doing what you are good at. |
| A．Advantages of trying something new. |
| B．Disadvantages of using smart phones. |
| C．Ways to keep our brain as sharp as possible. |
| D．How to spend time meaningfully at an old age. |
2 . "Ni Hao! Lao Tie! I am your foreign friend. Just have a bite of our organic apples and place your orders here!" Erik Nilsson, a Swedish traveler, greeted through TikTok livestreams in a village of Jiangxi Province. His appearance online increased that day's sale greatly. After experiencing a special day in the rural area, Erik said jokingly, "I wish I could change my job."
This village is not alone. Nowadays, China' s e-commerce platforms have helped open up the market for Chinese farmers produce, bringing an increasing number of sales online. This new trend has made livestreaming a new way to rid farmers of poverty, with mobile phones becoming new farm tools".
Everyone has brought their own agricultural products. How can you make the audiences believe that they' re delicious through the screen in front of you? Now, let 's feel the look on your face during the livestreaming!" The Farmers' Education Training Center (FETC) in Hainan Province invites professionals such as directors and makeup stylists to teach farmers a variety ofskills ranging from short video editing to livestreaming sales sills. However, at first, only a few villagers had a strong desire. We helped them get training in livestreaming, short video marketing,and other courses. It wasn't fancy, but simple, practical, and effective.''
"Everybody, please take a look. This is the best coconut. Taste it." said Pei Yanqin, 59,speaking Mandarin with a strong local accent and communicating smoothly with netizens through her livestreaming software. Just over a year ago, she was one of those villagers with the least intention to get training.
In 2018, the demonstration project of national e-commerce for rural areas was launched.Today, the village has developed eight e-commerce livestreaming courtyards. Some presenters work alone, while others are husband and wife teams.
1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To lead in the topic. |
| B．To add to the atmosphere. |
| C．To introduce culture contrast. |
| D．To give background knowledge. |
| A．Thrilled. | B．Doubtful. | C．Disappointed. | D．Impressed. |
| A．Erik wants to seek for a new job. |
| B．E-commerce is a family business. |
| C．Livestreaming is the best way to remove poverty. |
| D．Government helps farmers become skilled in marketing online. |
| A．A travel log. |
| B．A government report. |
| C．A research paper. |
| D．A frontpage article. |
3 . Due to climate changes, Arctic ice is breaking up earlier in the spring, and its area is decreasing. This is creating problems for polar bears that make their homes off northern Alaska and in Hudson Bay.
Polar bears off Alaska normally hunt and raise their young on ice sheets that float on the ocean. But as the ice has melted, the polar bears have been forced to spend more time on land. There, they have begun to frequent beaches, feeding on the remains of whales caught by native hunters. For polar bears, this food is less nutritious than seals that they normally catch on ice sheets. The shrinking (减少) ice has also forced more polar bears into the ocean. In the past, they only had to swim short distances between ice sheets. But as the ice has shrunk, polar bears have been forced to swim longer and longer distances in the open ocean. This poses a severe danger during rough weather, and an increasing number of drowned polar bears have been observed.
In Hudson Bay, the ice breaks up three weeks earlier in the spring now than it did 20 years ago. Polar bears on Hudson Bay fast (绝食) during the summer, waiting for ice to form in the fall to hunt. Every year, the summer gets longer, and the bears get skinnier. Over the past 25 years, the average weight of the female bears has dropped 68 kg. This loss affects their ability to reproduce, and already the number of births has dropped by 15 percent. Unless the bears can learn to survive these climate changes, these giants of the ice may one day disappear.
1. What is Arctic ice doing earlier each year?| A．It's freezing. | B．It's hardening. |
| C．It's melting. | D．It's expanding. |
| A．Their young are dying. | B．Their diet is changing. |
| C．Their health is improving. | D．Their families are growing. |
| A．They are having fewer young now. | B．They suffer from various sicknesses. |
| C．They don't need stronger protection. | D．They can't find enough good males. |
| A．Medical News. | B．Society Today. |
| C．Wildlife Journal | D．Design Magazine. |
4 . Schuylerville High School students have a broad range of interests, which are reflected by the number of clubs and organizations in which our pupils participate. Here are some of the most popular clubs.
Environmental Club
Open to students in grades 9-12
Advisor: Mrs. Flores
The High School Environmental Club is open to all students interest increasing environmental awareness throughout the school. Activities include: recycling, environmental competitions, volunteering with green schools and outdoor events. This run student club collects and recycles paper products throughout the school building.
Freshman Class
Open to students in grades 9-10
Advisor: Mr. winslow
The freshmen class participates in several activities throughout the year to raise money for the class account. The class officers meet once a month to discuss business that affects the entire class. All members of the freshman class are encouraged to participate in some type of community service during the year.
Literary magazine
Open to students in grades 10-12
Advisor: Mr. Sgambati
Members of the Literary Magazine collect, edit and often contribute to the body of student work. Literary Magazine meetings will also give students the opportunity to share and receive feedback on the creative pieces that they re working on, as well as the chance to learn about writing practices and strategies.
Mock Trial Team
Open to students in grades 11-12
Advisor: Mrs. Lewis
Mock Trial is an after-school activity that helps students develop useful knowledge about the law. Students play out all the roles and use general rules of evidence and fact explanations in a school court. They will work with a real lawyer and an advisor to further understand the court process.
1. At which club can you take part in the community service?| A．Environmental Club. | B．Freshman Class. |
| C．Literary Magazine. | D．Mock Trial Team. |
| A．To encourage students to be lawyers. | B．To develop students’ writing skills. |
| C．To explain all kinds of facts at school. | D．To help students learn more about laws. |
| A．A news report. | B．A school website. |
| C．A research paper. | D．A science magazine. |
5 . Plenty of children ask their parents for a pet. And now it might be harder for parents to refuse their requests, as a new study shows that young adults who care for an animal have stronger social relationships. American scientists also found that looking after a pet might also help teenagers develop better social skills.
Animals can have positive effects on children, but little is known about the benefits that caring for animals every day can bring to young people. “The young teenagers in the study who cared for pets felt more connected to other people,” said Dr. Megan Mueller, a professor at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, Massachusetts.
Dr. Mueller surveyed more than 500 young people aged between 18 and 26 about their attitudes towards animals. Their responses were used to measure their positive youth development characteristics such as caring, confidence and connection, as well as feelings of depression. The study found that young adults who cared for animals helped their friends or family more and showed stronger leadership qualities than those who did not look after a pet. The more actively they took part in the pet’s care, the higher they scored on their sociable deeds.
“We can’t draw causal links with this study, but it is a good starting point to better understand the role of animals in our lives, especially when we are young,” said Dr. Mueller. To further develop the research, scientists need to look at how specific features of human experiences are connected with animal experiences, as well as how these relationships develop over time, and look at a larger number of people.
1. If teenagers look after pets, they will probably _____.| A．Score highly at school. | B．Develop better social skills. |
| C．Become leaders in the future. | D．Have only positive characteristics. |
| A．Children should love pets. |
| B．Little is known about pets. |
| C．Children’s growth is connected with pets. |
| D．Pets can benefit children. |
| A．To study more people. | B．To communicate with animals. |
| C．To care for more animals. | D．To measure youth development characteristics. |
| A．A scientific journal. | B．A health magazine. |
| C．A storybook. | D．An education program. |
6 . How to visit Argentina
What can holidaymakers do in Argentina? Express. co. uk might help you to find more.
When is the best time of the year to visit Argentina?
As with most holiday destinations, when you want to visit depends on what you wish to do during your trip.
If you want to avoid crowds and peak price(人群和高峰价) while still enjoying everything on offer, Lloyd Boutcher advises visiting from October to mid-December(Argentinian spring) and April to mid-June(their autumn).
If you want to see the Patagonia penguins(企鹅), Tom Bourlet advises going between October and March.
If you like to party, Tom Hughes recommends heading to Argentina during carnival(狂欢节) time in February.
Where are the best places to visit in Argentina and why?
Thanks to Argentina’s size, the country has something to offer everyone.
“Buenos Aires is a melting pot of cultures,” said Tom Hughes. “Here travellers will discover a wealth of culture, not to mention it is the birthplace of a fast dance, tango. Nature lovers should head to the world’s largest waterfall system, Iguazu Fail.”
“I highly recommend San Carlos de Bariloche—a beautiful and fantastic town in the Andes mountains,” Tom Bourlet said. “It also acts as a good base for exploring the Lake District.”
What is the best accommodation in Argentina?
Lloyd advises avoiding some of the chain hotels. “While it may be attractive to stay at well-known hotels, I recommend some of the smaller boutique hotels in the city,” he said.
1. Which of the following will be the best time of the year to visit Argentina for an animal lover?| A．June | B．April |
| C．December | D．September |
| A．Discover diverse culture. |
| B．Explore the Lake District. |
| C．Get to know the origin of tango. |
| D．Appreciate the world’s largest waterfall system. |
| A．Science | B．Travelling |
| C．Education | D．Nature |
7 . It could be the return of “The Blob (变形怪体),” and scientists are worried. A mass of warm water extending from Baja California in Mexico all the way to Alaska and the Bering Sea could result in death for many sea lions and salmon, as well as poisonous algae (藻) blooms that can poison mussels (贻贝), crabs and other sea life. When it happened in 2014 it was known as “The Blob” and disturbed sea life between Southern California and Alaska. Now it’s back. The ocean heat wave began to form in June.
The surface temperatures in the affected areas are 5 to 7 degrees above the long-term average. The so-called blob (团)covers an area of 4 million square miles, or three times the size of Alaska. It’s 165 to 325 feet deep. The warming comes from some high pressure that keeps winds calm.
Whether it will last as long as the 2014 heat wave is impossible to know. “If the weather patterns that led to its development change all of the sudden and we get some cold weather and storms, then it could disappear pretty quickly,” said Stephanie Moore.
The heat waves are unprecedented. Satellite records go back about 40 years and ship observations 100 years, but nothing in the historical record has matched either of these two events.
Along the California coast, the blob-like warm areas are still about 1,000 miles away from shore.
In Washington state, the warm area has reached the shore, where it is causing a poisonous algae bloom that has prompted health officials to warn against eating mussels from state beaches.
Mussels have been collected on Washington shores that contained more than 10 times the regulatory limit of the toxin for human consumption. The warm area that continued to exist off the West Coast in 2014 and 2015 wasn’t something scientists had seen before.
1. What do we know about “The Blob”？| A．It occurred frequently in the USA. | B．It made sea products unfit to eat. |
| C．It was the most severe pollution. | D．It struck the Bering Sea per summer. |
| A．Ocean surface. | B．Warm wind. |
| C．High air pressure. | D．Alaskan’s climate. |
| A．Caused. | B．Intended. | C．Banned. | D．Expected. |
| A．Entertainment. | B．Culture. | C．Science. | D．Environment. |
8 . 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. |
9 . It's now time to get dressed for the Central Missouri Renaissance Festival 10 a. m. to 6 p.m., October 19-20, in Kingdom City.
The festival is in its 15th year and its footprint at its location at 4274 County Road 220 has grown in the past six years, said Kevin Briscoe, festival casting director and board of directors member.
"When I first started at the fair years ago it was just tiny,” Briscoe said. “The acts were more localized and now we see some nationally recognized acts, and we have probably three times the size of the original grounds. We're starting to see permanent shopping structures. It has been unbelievable.”
The fair has around 60 shops and craftspeople(匠人) making products from medieval(中世纪的) renaissance and other time periods, said Briscoe. It gives people a chance to experience life from these periods. There are also musical acts, comedy acts, magicians, food trucks and stands. The festival also takes food donations,which are then given out to area food kitchens. A board of seven directors work year-in-year-out to prepare for the three festival weekends, one in April, May and October. The final weekend in October is the big weekend.
"We volunteer, we go out and cut grass, we build, and we do all of the work out there because we are a nonprofit fair, so everything we do is done through volunteers and it works," Briscoe said. People can expect a lot of fun, laughter, music entertainment, shopping, good food and drinks. "We try to offer something for everybody. We have a fairyland for all the kids. We want you to be entertained." he said.
Briscoe lives and breathes renaissance festivals. If there is such a fair happening somewhere and it's his weekend off from work, he's likely going there. "I go to St. Louis Renaissance Festival on my weekends off, when I'm not in Kansas City Renaissance Festival working at its fair and just go hang out, " he said. "That's how much I love what I'm doing.”
1. What did Briscoe say about the fair in Paragraph 3?| A．It faces challenges. | B．It needs more support. |
| C．It should be made local. | D．It has developed quickly. |
| A．It provides visitors with free food. | B．It is based on volunteers' efforts. |
| C．It lasts for the whole of October. | D．It is held mainly for children. |
| A．He is very confident about the fair. |
| B．He has little time to work at the fair. |
| C．He is enthusiastic about renaissance festivals. |
| D．He works for two renaissance fairs in St. Louis |
| A．A fair manager. | B．A news reporter. |
| C．A casting director. | D．A skilled craftsman. |
10 . Ride-sharing services are thought to help to reduce pollution since fewer people use private vehicles and cause carbon dioxide．However, a new study has found that these services result in much more pollution than other kinds of private and public transportation．Ride-sharing trips also draw passengers away from more environmentally-friendly methods of travel, like public transportation, walking or biking, the study found．
Several studies in recent years have suggested that ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft can worsen traffic problems in cities, which continue to have high rates of private vehicle ownership．
The new study, carried out by the nonprofit group Union of Concerned Scientists, represents an attempt to center on how ride-sharing services affect pollution．The research examined the effects of ride-sharing services on seven of America's largest cities．Overall, the researchers reported that ride-sharing trips now “result in about 69 percent more climate pollution on average than the trips they replace”．The study notes that the same passengers could have chosen to travel by bus, train, bike, scooter(小型摩托车)or on foot．
One of the big reasons they give for this result is that ride-sharing vehicles are often driven with no passengers in the car．This happens when drivers are either waiting for rider requests, are on the way to pick up passengers or are driving between pickups．
This situation, known as“deadheading” takes up about 42 percent of the ride-sharing driving activity, the study found．The researchers said that “deadheading” results in about 50 percent more carbon dioxide than one person driving in a private vehicle．
The study urges services like Uber and Lyft to increase the number of electric vehicles on the road and to improve connections to public transportation centers．The two companies already operate businesses that offer electric scooters and bikes and have begun to include public transportation information in their systems．In some cities, they have also promoted vehicle electrification．
1. According to the text, it is generally thought that car-sharing services _____________．| A．lower the price of private cars | B．guarantee a healthier lifestyle |
| C．greatly cut down travel expenses | D．are environmentally-friendly |
| A．The so-called “deadheading”． | B．The old way vehicles travel． |
| C．The huge number of passengers． | D．The unfamiliar ride-sharing trips． |
| A．It is opposed by ride-sharing services． | B．It is actually of practical significance． |
| C．It requires improving in the long term． | D．It earns much money for Uber and Lyft． |
| A．Travel． | B．Technology． | C．Economy． | D．Environment． |
