1 . European researchers say they have created a process that can produce oxygen from moon dust. The process could provide a major source of oxygen for humans taking part in moon exploration activities in the future.
Researchers from the European Space Agency, or ESA, carried out the experiments at a laboratory in the Netherlands. They reported their results in a study published in Planetary and Space Science.
The team says ESA’s experimental “plant” was able to successfully produce oxygen from simulated moon dust. The dust is part of a material known as regolith (月壤)，a top layer of dirt and rock pieces that sit on the surface of the moon.
Samples of regolith from the moon have confirmed that the material contains about 45 percent oxygen by weight. However, the oxygen is chemically locked in the form of minerals or glass, so it is not easily available for use. Having real samples of regolith from the moon made it possible for the researchers to create the simulated moon dust material used during testing.
The oxygen extraction (提取)process is carried out using a method called molten salt electrolysis (熔盐电解). This involves first placing the regolith in a metal container. Calcium chloride salt is added to the mixture, which is then heated to 950 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the regolith remains solid. Next, an electrical current is passed through the material. The researchers say it is this step that results in oxygen being extracted from the regolith. The study reported that up to 96 percent of oxygen in the simulated moon dust was extracted during the experiments.
ESA’s long-term goal is to design an oxygen -producing “pilot plant” to operate full-time on the moon. The first technology demonstration of the system is expected to take place in the middle of 2020s.
The researchers reported that “as a bonus”，the process also results in the production of usable metallic materials.
1. What can benefit from the process?| A．The treatment of some patients. | B．The environment of the moon. |
| C．Future moon exploration activities. | D．Future experiment in the laboratory. |
| A．It exists in the form of solid. |
| B．It only exists on the surface. |
| C．It is mixed with other materials. |
| D．It is locked in a metal container. |
| A．Adding calcium chloride salt to the mixture. |
| B．Placing the regolith in a metal container. |
| C．Passing an electrical current through the material. |
| D．Heating the metal container to 950 degrees Celsius. |
| A．Mixed. | B．Copied. | C．Exposed. | D．Abandoned. |
2 . Despite the anxiety that the first digital novel caused in 1993, publishers weren’t too concerned that e-books would one day replace printed books. However, that attitude was changed suddenly in 2007 when Amazon Kindle came onto the market, which led to e-book sales jumping up to 1,260%. Since then, e-books’ popularity has continued to rise steadily. The publishing industry seemed to have lost all possible ability to regain its position. Will printed books eventually become a thing of the past? According to Mike Shatzkin, founder and CEO of the Idea Logical Company, printed books just for reading will, in 10 years from now, be unusual. “Not so unusual that a kid will say, ‘Mommy, what’s that?’ but unusual enough that on the train you’l see one or two people reading something printed, while everyone else is reading on a tablet computer screen.” And Shatzkin believes that the demise of print is sure to happen, though such a day won’t arrive for perhaps 50 to 100 or more years.
Robert Stein, founder of The Institute for the Future of the Book, however, believes that books won’t disappear entirely, at least not anytime soon. “Print will exist, and it may have an artistic value,” he says. He predicts that the distance between writers and readers will be made less obvious by a social reading experience in which authors and consumers can digitally interact with each other to discuss any passage, sentence or line.
Should print really disappear entirely? According to Maryanne Wolf, director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University, electronic reading can negatively affect the way the brain responds to the text, including reading comprehension and the ability to pay attention to details like the order of events. “My worry is that we’ll have a short-circuited(短路的) reading brain, excellent for gathering information but not necessarily for forming critical, analytical deep reading skills,” Wolf says. He hopes that we continue to keep a “bi-literate” society — one that values both the digital and printed words. “A full reading brain circuit is a huge contribution to the intellectual development of our species. Anything that threatens it deserves our attention.”
1. How did publishers feel about the rising e-book sales inspired by Amazon Kindle?| A．Worried. | B．Excited. |
| C．Curious. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．rise | B．death |
| C．adjustment | D．popularity |
| A．the artistic value |
| B．the digital interaction |
| C．the growing popularity |
| D．the traditional design |
| A．e-reading will strengthen the power of our brain |
| B．digital books and paper books should not coexist |
| C．e-reading will make us more critical and thoughtful |
| D．we should not risk losing a full reading brain circuit |
3 . Since I graduated from high school, I’ve worked in the factories surrounding my hometown every summer. However, making the transition (转变) between school and full-time blue-collar work during the break never gets any easier. For a student like me who considers any class before noon to be uncivilized, getting to a factory by 6 o'clock each morning is a torture.
There’re few people as self-confident as a college student who has never been out in the real world. People of my age always seem to overestimate the value of their time and knowledge. In fact, all the classes did not prepare me for my battles with the machine I ran in the plant, which would jam whenever I absent-mindedly put in a part backward or upside down.
The most stressful thing about blue-collar life is knowing your job could disappear overnight. Issues like downsizing (裁员) and overseas relocation always seemed distant to me until my co-worker told me that the unit I was working in would shut down within six months and move to Mexico, where people would work for 60 cents an hour.
After working 12-hour shifts in a factory, the other options have become only too clear. When I’m back at the university, skipping classes and turning in lazy rewrites seem too irresponsible after seeing what I would be doing without school. All the advice and public-service announcements about the value of an education that used to sound stale (out of date) now ring true.
These lessons I’m learning, however valuable, are always tinged (带有) with a sense of guilt. Many people pass their lives in the places I briefly work, spending 30 years where I spend only two months at a time. “The job pays well, but it is very hard,” said one co-worker. “Study hard and keep reading,” she added.
My experiences in the factories have inspired me to make the most of my college years before I enter the real world for good.
1. The underlined word “torture” in Paragraph 1 most probably means__________.| A．Misery | B．Fortune | C．Anxiety | D．Acceptance |
| A．They expect too much from the real world. |
| B．They think too highly of themselves. |
| C．They have little interest in blue-collar life. |
| D．They are confident of their future. |
| A．They do not get good pay. |
| B．They have to work 12-hour shifts. |
| C．They do not have job security. |
| D．They have to move from place to place. |
| A．He learned to be more practical. |
| B．He came to respect blue-collar workers. |
| C．He acquired a sense of urgency. |
| D．He came to appreciate his college education. |
4 . Throughout history，people have been interested in knowing how languages first began，but no one knows exactly where or how this happened. However, we do know a lot about languages，the languages of today and also the languages of earlier times. There are probably about three thousand languages in the world today. Chinese is the language with the most speakers. English，Russian and Spanish are also spoken by many millions of people. On the other hand，some languages in the world have less than one hundred speakers.
There are several important families of languages in the world. For example, most of the languages of Europe are in one large family called Indo-European. The original language of this family was spoken about 4,500 years ago. Many of the present-day languages of Europe and India are modern forms of the language of 4,500 years ago.
Languages are always changing. The English of today is very different from that of 500 years ago. With time going by, some even died out completely. About 1,000 years ago，English was a little-known relative of German spoken on one of the borders of Europe.
If a language has a large number of speakers or if it is very old, there may be differences in the way it is spoken in different areas. That is, the language may have several dialects. Chinese is a good example of dialect differences. Chinese has been spoken for thousands of years by many millions of speakers. The differences between the dialects of Chinese are so great that speakers of Chinese from some parts of China cannot understand speakers from other parts.
1. According to the passage, _____ has the most speakers.| A．Chinese | B．English | C．Spanish | D．German |
| A．a special language spoken by Chinese |
| B．the sign used by the Chinese people in a special area |
| C．the difference between the old and today’s language |
| D．the form of a language used in one part of the country |
| A．there are great differences between the dialects of Chinese |
| B．Chinese and many foreign languages are not of the same family |
| C．Chinese is a very old language |
| D．there are great differences between the old Chinese and the present-day Chinese |
5 . It’s important for children to take part in social activities during their summer holidays. “Kids should have a break during the summer. They’ve worked hard during the school year and this is their time to relax, but they should continue communicating with their friends and meeting new people,” said Dr. Jin Han. He’s a professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
Spending time with friends and meeting new people by doing fun and educational activities such as music, arts and sports programs in summer help with their development. “If children spend a lot of time alone on their electronic equipment, then they will fail to communicate with others,” Han said. “In today’s world, it’s very easy for kids to stay indoors all day and keep in touch with others, but that is not a good way to connect with others. Face-to-face communication is necessary and important. Parents should restrict the time their children spend on electronic equipment. For example, the time they spend on their phones cannot be more than one hour a day.”
It’s also important for children to spend quality time with their parents and sisters or brothers. “It’s not the length of time, but the quality of time that families spend together that is really valuable,” Han said. “This type of communication is not something that you can get from anywhere else. It doesn’t matter how old the child is, because family bonding (人与人之间的关系) experiences can happen at any time.”
Having children spend time with friends and families doesn’t have to spend money in the wallet, either. For example, going to the neighborhood swimming pool or having a picnic is a great way to spend quality time together.
1. What does Dr. Jin Han think about the summer holidays according to the first paragraph?| A．It is necessary for children to have a rest during summer holidays. |
| B．Children should relax as much as possible during summer holidays. |
| C．Making new friends in summer holidays is difficult for children. |
| D．Children should prepare for schoolwork in summer holidays. |
| A．Increase. | B．Control. | C．Spend. | D．Employ. |
| A．How long children spend with families matters. |
| B．What to do with families depends on the parents. |
| C．When to spend time with families makes a difference. |
| D．How to enjoy the time with families is of great importance. |
| A．The importance of friends and families. | B．The introduction of some social activities. |
| C．The suitable ways to spend summer holidays. | D．The necessity of face-to-face communication. |
6 . Nasr Majid started hunting this fall at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge (保护区) on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in USA. He’s one of the relatively few new hunters who officials hope will help stop a nearly four-decade decline nationally in what has become a hobby for fewer than 5 percent of Americans.
Natural resources and wildlife officials in Maryland are encouraging hunting of deer, turkeys and some other wild animals, which is believed to be good for the environment. Without hunting, they say, sika deer will overpopulate the wildlife refuge and they’ll overeat the bushes and other plants that provide important habitat for birds. On the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay, hunting is also important to prevent the spread of diseases such as Lyme.
In many families, the hunting tradition has been handed down for generations. But as longtime sportsmen age and children lose interest, the number of hunters in the United States fell by 2 million, from 2011 to 2018, to about 11 million.
“Everything is changing. Kids are growing up in front of video games and computers instead of going hunting.” said Chris Markin, a hunting specialist for the state natural resources department. “Adults usually focus on working and providing for their families. Those pressures are preventing many other potential hunters from going out, and from raising the next generation of hunters.”
To avoid such a decline, a new approach is needed. Government agencies and nonprofit groups are now launching mentoring (指导) programs to train more hunters, which not only helps preserve an industry and a culture but also means more protection for wildlife and their habitats through deer population control and investment.
Luckily, there are those still eager to learn, like Majid. He was just looking for an outdoor hobby he could share with his children when he came across the mentorship program. Now, he feels capable of hunting on his own, but also has someone he can text with questions that pop up. His new pastime has already paid off for him—on his second hunt with his mentor, in the last minutes of daylight, he bagged his first deer.
1. In this passage, Nasr Majid is considered as a symbol of________.| A．devotion | B．bravery | C．enthusiasm | D．hope |
| A．No one is interested in hunting any more. |
| B．The hunting tradition is facing challenges. |
| C．Parents fail to spend enough time with kids. |
| D．Hunting adds to many adults life pressures. |
| A．Raising questions. | B．Looking for hunters. |
| C．Learning to hunt. | D．Sharing a new hobby. |
| A．Teach hunters new skills | B．Make hunting more popular |
| C．Reduce the pressure of life | D．More protection for wildlife |
7 . In many walks of life and in many situations, persuading people to do what you want them to do is the key to success. Researchers have looked into different aspects of persuasion and come up with some interesting results which are surely helpful to us.
One advertising copywriter came up with an approach to selling a product on a TV shopping channel via phone sales. Instead of being instructed “Operators are waiting, please call now”, viewers were told “If operators are busy, please call again”. The results were extraordinary. The ad suggested operators weren’t sitting around hoping people would call. Instead there were so many people wanting the product that people might have to wait until they could get it.
What role does choice have in persuading people to buy or get something? One study in a supermarket showed the effect of choice. A particular supermarket displayed either 6 or 24 different kinds of jam. The large display attracted more interest than the small one. But when the time came to purchase things, people who saw the large display were one-tenth as likely to buy. If they do buy, they are less satisfied with their selection, even though they have made a good choice. A wider range of choices require more time and effort and lead to unreasonably high expectations.
Another aspect of persuasion concerns getting someone to change their mind. It’s hard to prove to someone that a previous decision is wrong, and as people get older they get less and less willing to change their minds. People want things to be unwavering; they want their attitudes, statements, values and actions to follow a set pattern. The only way to persuade them to change is to acknowledge this by agreeing that the previous decision they made is a perfectly understandable one. This allows them to focus on your suggestion without feeling their previous decision is wrong. As a result, they may be persuaded to break out of their established pattern.
1. What does the advertising copywriter want to indicate about the product?| A．It’s rare. | B．It’s in demand. | C．It’s for sale. | D．It’s precious. |
| A．Increased choices decrease satisfaction. | B．More selections bring more actions. |
| C．More and more people don’t want to choose. | D．Some choices are more attractive than others. |
| A．Unreliable. | B．Unbelievable. | C．Unchanging. | D．Unique. |
| A．To compare different forms of persuasion. | B．To discuss various studies on persuasion. |
| C．To analyze how persuasion affects success. | D．To teach how to get better at persuasion. |
8 . After bikes and umbrellas are made sharable across China, some companies started eyeing the fitness market, so shared gym rooms have hit the streets in Beijing.
Unlike regular gyms that provide large, open spaces for many members to share at the same time, the newly built shared gym rooms are small, stand-alone rooms for a person to use, often set up near living communities.
Every four-square-meter room is equipped with a treadmill (跑步机), an air cleaner, a mirror, a television and an air conditioner, and users can let down the curtains for privacy. When exercising, users can listen to music, watch movies and check emails by connecting to the Internet by the screen fixed on the treadmill. There’s no shower or washbasin.
Similar to using a shared bike, users can locate a shared gym room by smartphone application, book a room in advance and then need to scan (扫描) a QR code for use. A refundable deposit (保证金) of 99 yuan is required, and users are charged 0.2 yuan per minute.
The shared gym rooms are created by Misspao, a Beijing-based technology company founded in July. Within two weeks since it was founded, the company has already got two rounds of funding valued over 100 million yuan, Yicai Global reports. The idea of the shared fitness experience is not entirely nascent. Last December, the Shanghai-based technology company VRUN set up shared treadmills in office and apartment buildings.
The sharing economy is still becoming popular in China. According to Yicai Global, confident investors are pouring millions into sharing start-ups. In March, the State Information Center published a report which predicts that the total value of China’s sharing economy will see a yearly growth of 40% in the coming years, and it is expected to contribute around 10% to the country’s GDP by 2020.
1. What makes the shared gym room different from the regular one?| A．Offering open spaces. | B．Standing in the living zone. |
| C．Holding one person at a time. | D．Having some advanced equipment. |
| A．Users can have a shower in it after exercise. |
| B．Users who want to use it need a smartphone. |
| C．Users who use it first need to pay for 99.2 yuan. |
| D．Users’ privacy can’t be protected while they are exercising. |
| A．Simple. | B．Popular. | C．Satisfying. | D．New. |
| A．To introduce shared gym rooms. |
| B．To advertise a technology company. |
| C．To predict the future of the sharing economy. |
| D．To persuade people to support the sharing economy. |
9 . In the West, people are taught to wear masks only when they get sick. Masks are seen as a tool to protect sick people and prevent the disease from spreading, so healthy people don’t need to wear them. Therefore, during the novel coronavirus outbreak, overseas Chinese students said that they would be “stared at like a virus spreader” if they go out with a mask. According to a survey done by Global Times among some European and American people, wearing a mask in public can make them feel “worried”, “shy”, and “afraid of being looked at differently.”
But as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to grow around the world, many people in the West are changing their attitudes. In the US, for example, the need for masks is very high now. The US surgeon general (卫生局局长) has been asking people to avoid hoarding too many masks, as they are more needed in hospitals than by the general public.
However, in Asian countries like China and Japan, there has been a long tradition of mask-wearing. In China, for example, when doctor Wu Liande invented the modern medical mask during the pneumonic plague (肺鼠疫) in 1910, the mask became a symbol of China’s position as a modern, scientific nation, according to Scottish medical anthropologist (人类学家) Christos Lynteris. The 2003 SARS epidemic led to the wide use of masks as a form of anti-viral (抗病毒的) protection in China and elsewhere in East Asia.
In Japan, wearing masks has long been seen as a manner to reassure (使安心) others when one catches a cold or flu. Some Japanese also turn masks into fashion accessories (配饰), with different colors and patterns to match their clothes. Wearing masks is also a way to “hide” for young women when they don’t have their makeup (化妆) on.
In more collectivist (集体主义的) cultures in Asia, wearing masks might also be a symbol of solidarity (团结) during the outbreak, according to Lynteris. People wear masks “to show that they want to stick together” in the face of danger, Lynteris wrote.
1. Why don’t healthy people in the West wear masks?| A．They don’t think masks can prevent disease. |
| B．Only medical workers need to wear masks. |
| C．They think masks are for sick people to wear. |
| D．Wearing a mask looks funny. |
| A．wearing | B．making | C．throwing | D．keeping |
| A．the outbreak of SARS in 2003 |
| B．the pneumonic plague in 1910 |
| C．Christos Lynteris wore one publicly |
| D．the invention of the modern medical mask |
| A．proving the importance of wearing masks during an epidemic |
| B．showing opinions about masks between different countries |
| C．explaining why Westerners don’t wear masks |
| D．introducing the history of wearing masks |
10 . Why, you may wonder, should spiders be our friends? Because they destroy so many insects, and insects include some of the greatest enemies of the human race. Insects would make it impossible for us to live in the world; they would devour all our crops and kill our flocks and herds, if it were not for the protection we get from insect-eating animals. We owe a lot to the birds and beasts who eat insects but all of them put together kill only a fraction of the number destroyed by spiders. Moreover, unlike some of the other insect eaters, spiders never do the least harm to us or our belongings.
Spiders are not insects, as many people think, nor even nearly related to them. One can tell the difference almost at a glance, for a spider always has eight legs and an insect never more than six.
How many spiders are engaged in this work on our behalf? One authority on spiders made a census of the spiders in a grass field in the south of England, and he estimated that there were more than 2,250,000 in one acre, that is something like 6,000,000 spiders of different kinds on a football pitch. Spiders are busy for at least half the year in killing insects. It is impossible to make more than the wildest guess at how many they kill, but they are hungry creatures, not content with only three meals a day. It has been estimated that the weight of all the insects destroyed by spiders in Britain in one year would be greater than the total weight of all the human beings in the country.
1. Spiders are our friends because they_______.| A．are beneficial insects |
| B．protect insect-eating animals |
| C．destroy insects without hurting us in any way |
| D．include some of the greatest enemies of the human race |
| A．protect | B．eat up | C．be beneficial to | D．help |
| A．eat as many insects as spiders |
| B．eat more insects than spiders |
| C．can’t compare with spiders as destroyers of insects |
| D．destroy a large fraction of insects than spiders |
| A．have eight legs | B．have six legs or less |
| C．be able to fly | D．not destroy their own kind |
