1 . Patients often come into my office and ask, “How can I look younger?” While I always suggest healthy living — a balanced diet and regular exercise — in order to look and feel younger, I have never thought of facial exercises as part of that plan. That is, until a recent study, published in JAMA Dermatology (皮肤学), showed promising results that routine facial exercise may slow the merciless tide of time.
The theory behind the study originates from the fact that a major part of facial aging is due to the loss of fat and soft tissue, which leads to the growth and spread of wrinkles. If we can lift weights at the gym and enlarge muscles in arms, why couldn’t the same be done for muscles in our faces, therefore to create a more youthful face?
The concept of facial exercise is not a new one. A simple Internet search will produce a lot of blog posts and books on the subject, as well as various programmes that promise to be the next fountain of youth. What the JAMA Dermatology researchers did in their study, which was the first of its kind, was to examine this question from a more strict scientific aspect. They enrolled 27 women between the ages of 40 and 65 to perform daily, 30-minute exercises for eight weeks, and then continue every other day for a total of 20 weeks.
Dermatologists who did not know the participants were asked to rate their photographs before and after the exercise. The dermatologists found an improvement in cheek fullness and estimated the age of the participants at 51 years of age at the start of the programme and 48 at the end of the 20-week study. Furthermore, all the participants felt improvement in their own facial appearance at the end of the study.
While these results seem exalting, the study has some obvious limitations. Of the 27 patients involved, 11 gave up before completing the study. One reason may be that the programme was to time-consuming, clocking in at 30 minutes a day. The overall small size of the study also limits its generalizability to the larger population. In addition, there was also no control group, which would have helped reduce the possibility that this improvement happened by chance.
It’s also hard to draw conclusions about the longevity of these results. Probably the exercises must be continued to keep their effects. But for how long? And how frequently? Which exercises are most effective? Most studies are need to answer these questions.
1. According to the passage, which statement is true?| A．Though the concept of facial exercise is new, much information about it can be found on the Internet. |
| B．Some participants did not feel improvement in their facial appearance at the end of the study. |
| C．If there is a control group, the possibility that the improvement in the facial appearance happened by chance will be increased. |
| D．The reason why some participants quit the study before it was completely may be that they had not enough time. |
| A．Calming. | B．Challenging. | C．Frustrating. | D．Exciting. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Positive. | C．Opposed. | D．Indifferent (中立的). |
| A．The study published in JAMA Dermatology is not reliable. |
| B．Healthy living is the only way to make someone look and feel young. |
| C．More studies are needed to further the present study on facial exercises. |
| D．As a dermatologist, the author was involved in the research project on facial exercises. |
2 . Smith had to drive across the Sahara Desert. It was a journey across hundreds of miles of empty desert.
After he had been driving for a few hours, there was a sandstorm. His car left the road and then broke down.
Smith began walking north across the hot sand under the scorching sun. He hoped he would soon reach the road again. Soon, his tongue was thick with thirst. He needed water, but everywhere he looked there was nothing except sand.
Smith kept walking. Then, about an hour later, a man riding a camel came into sight. Smith waved to him. The man on the camel rode up to him and stopped. “Please,” Smith said, “I am dying of thirst. Let me have some of your water.” The man slowly shook his head. “You can’t have any water,” he said, “but I’ll sell you a necktie.” “I don’t want a necktie,” Smith shouted at him furiously. “I need water.” But the man turned away quickly and rode off.
Smith continued walking. Two hours later, he met another man riding a camel. This time he asked if he could buy some water, but the man refused, saying, “No, but I’II sell you a necktie.” Angrily, Smith turned away from him and continued walking.
Three hours later, by which time he was near death, Smith saw a large luxury hotel in the distance. It stood alone in the middle of the desert, surrounded by palm trees.
Smith managed to reach the main entrance. He was about to enter the hotel when the doorman stopped him. “Hey!” he said. “This is a first-class hotel. You can’t come in here without a necktie.”
1. What happened to Smith at the very beginning of the sandstorm?| A．He became thirsty. | B．He saw two men riding a camel. |
| C．He lost his necktie. | D．There was something wrong with his car. |
| A．slowly. | B．politely. |
| C．angrily. | D．painfully. |
| A．He was thirsty. | B．He was not properly dressed. |
| C．He had no money. | D．He was very sick and near death. |
| A．We’d better not go to the Sahara Desert. |
| B．Your car should be maintained before a journey. |
| C．It’s a good idea to buy neckties during the journey. |
| D．When looking backwards, you can connect many events. |
3 . With attractiveness in its structure (结构) and in its presence, the Eiffel Tower has become a great site of France and Gustave Eiffel's architectural wonder. Also known as La Tour Eiffel, the Eiffel Tower is climbed by millions of visitors every year. Do you know how tall the Eiffel Tower is? Standing at 1, 063 feet tall, this is the second tallest building in France after the Millau Viaduct, a road bridge across the river Tarn. Nicknamed La Dame de Fer, or the iron lady, this tower is a symbol of France even today.
The tower was built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance for the World Fair. This event was to mark the 100th celebration of the storming of the Bastille and the French Revolution. Ironically, at first, the tower was considered unpleasant by a lot of art enthusiasts. Several members from the arts community said it only ruined the empty skyline of the Paris city. French novelist Guy de Maupassant expressed his dislike for the tower by eating lunch every day at the tower's restaurant — his explanation was that it was the only place in Paris where one could not see the structure! Whatever may have been the opinion about the structure at the time, the fact remains that it became an object that attracted many people around the world.
The tower, weighing 10, 000 tons, includes several non-metallic (非金属的) parts as well. The metallic parts used in the structure weigh 7,300 tons, which, if melted (熔化), will fill up a 125-meter square with a depth of 6cm. At the time when the tower was built, the great structure amazed lots of engineers and common people. The Eiffel Tower needs 50~60 tons of paint every seven years to keep the rust (铁锈) away.
The structure decorates the Parisian skyline. Being one of the most visited sites in the world, the Eiffel Tower still remains an architectural wonder!
1. What does “the iron lady" refer to in paragraph 1?| A．Gustave Eiffel. | B．The Eiffel Tower. |
| C．Millau Viaduct. | D．The river Tarn. |
| A．impolitely | B．impossibly | C．unexpectedly | D．cautiously |
| A．170 tons. | B．220 tons. | C．5,500 tons. | D．10,000 tons. |
| A．To show how huge the Eiffel Tower is. |
| B．To show the Eiffel Tower is a good entrance. |
| C．To show the materials used to build the Eiffel Tower. |
| D．To show how difficult it is to clean the Eiffel Tower. |
4 . Like other pandemics and emerging disease outbreaks, COVID-19 is creating immense psychosocial disturbances. The disease involves an unfamiliar threat that is difficult to detect and challenging to distinguish from more benign illnesses. Dynamic pandemic conditions will draw out the anxiety. Things will get worse before they get better. A vaccine absent, non-pharmaceutical (非药物的) interventions are the only way to prevent infections, and they dramatically upset everyday bodily habits, social interactions and economic exchanges.
Recent grocery store runs are a sign of concern in the community. Personal actions to avoid infection such as stocking hand sanitizer also present a sense of control over an uncertain danger. Improvements to current risk communication can alleviate（减轻）widespread distress. Top elected officials and health authorities should empathize with people’s fear, normalize stress reactions, provide clear guidance on recommended health behaviours, and instruct in concrete protections including those for mental health.
However, more interventions are essential because specific groups are at a higher risk of both acute and lingering emotional distress. Health care workers on the epidemic front lines face compounding stressors: the prospect of more and longer shifts, finite supplies of personal protective equipment, fear of bringing infection home, witnessing co-workers becoming ill, and making tough allocation decisions about scarce, lifesaving resources like mechanical ventilators (通风设备).
Exposed individuals confront a potential fall of challenging circumstances. To protect others, they may enter a state of self-quarantine. During the incubation period (潜伏期), they must live with uncertainty and limit physical contact with others while trying to maintain social connectedness. Less income-generating activities and unmet obligations to others can increase the stress. Infected individuals may become sick, experience a lengthy convalescence (康复期), feel survivor’s guilt, and be avoided despite a complete recovery.
For people with pre-existing mental health conditions, a pandemic can further heighten their anxious thoughts and compulsive behaviours. Previously managed symptoms can flare up, requiring additional care beyond what was sufficient before the crisis.
1. The underlined word “benign” is closest in meaning to ______.| A．friendly to the environment | B．mild and favourable |
| C．not harmful in effect | D．not caused by cancer |
| A．put enormous stress on health care workers only |
| B．create immense psychosocial disturbances |
| C．definitely alleviate the anxiety |
| D．impose compulsive behaviours on healthy people |
| A．Vaccine is the only effective way available to prevent infections. |
| B．Personal actions like stocking can help keep the pandemic in control. |
| C．The mental crisis caused by COVID-19 should be treated equally with the physical one. |
| D．The health care workers are mainly confronted with temporary emotional stress. |
| A．A New Kind of Virus | B．Selfless Health Care Workers |
| C．On Experiencing Coronavirus Infection | D．COVID-19’s Psychosocial Impacts |
5 . New York City is known as America’s economic and cultural capital. It’s a city where young people want to go, whether to take up a high-paying job on Wall Street, study, or struggle to pay rent while working in the arts.
It’s also the setting of some of America’s most popular TV shows and movies. The best known may be TV series “Sex and the City”. It features four women enjoying the comfortable life of chatting, shopping, clubbing and looking for their Mr. Right.
However, Dunham, 26, said TV shows only touch the surface. “TV shows never get how expensive things are in New York, Manhattan,” she said, adding that she knows a married couple who are in their 30s, have good jobs, and still share a couch because their apartment is so small.
To Dunham, reality in New York means getting a quick lunch at food stands, smelling the piles of rubbish every week on trash day and paying tolls to cross bridges and tunnels—things that TV series rarely show.
Elise Glick, 23, an artist living in Brooklyn, said that while New Yorkers can sometimes be unfriendly, it’s often because of their nature as driven, ambitious individuals. “People here are mostly young and single,” she said, “a lot of people are confident and know what they want.”
25-year-old legal(法律的) assistant Jin Jing agrees. During her three-month experience as a United Nations intern(实习生), Jin found New Yorkers to be friendly and helpful people. But she also learned that the TV show “Friends” were fantasy and unreal. “When I went to America, I realized that ‘Friends’ was not real life,” Jin said. “In New York, people have no time for friends. People have no time to hear you talk.” But she said she didn’t feel like a stranger, thanks to the diversity(多样性) all around her. “Most of the time, I forgot that I didn’t belong there, since there are people of different skin colors,” she said.
While Dunham admits that life in New York can be both good and bad, special moments help her fall in love with the city. She once paused to watch dancers and street musicians performing in a subway tunnel and found herself among many other busy New Yorkers attracted by their show. “People who were clearly in a rush to get home just stopped to watch because these guys were really good,” she said. “From businessmen to mothers—everyone was represented. In that moment we were all together before we went our separate ways.”
1. According to the passage, which of the following views doesn’t the writer agree with?| A．Life there is very busy. |
| B．New Yorkers sometimes are unfriendly because of their nature. |
| C．People find it impossible to make friends there. |
| D．The scenes in “Sex and the City” and “Friends” can hardly be found in New York. |
| A．tickets | B．money | C．fines | D．tax |
| A．People with different nationalities can be found in New York. |
| B．New York is a place where people can have a comfortable and relaxing life. |
| C．The living cost in New York is very low. |
| D．The street dancers and musicians are beggars, only asking money from passengers. |
| A．Unfriendly New Yorkers | B．Busy New Yorkers |
| C．New Yorkers’ Stories | D．New Yorkers’ True Life |
6 . Two years ago, Wendy Hasnip, 47, experienced a brain injury that left her speechless for two weeks. When she finally recovered, she found herself talking with what seemed to be a French accent. “I phoned a friend the other day, and she spent the first ten minutes laughing,” Hasnip said at the time. “While I have nothing against the French, this is not me.”
Hasnip suffered from foreign accent syndrome, a rare condition in which people find themselves speaking their own language like someone from a foreign country. The condition usually occurs in people who have experienced a head injury or a stroke—a sudden loss of consciousness, or movement caused by a blocked or broken blood vessel in the brain.
The condition was first identified during the Second World War in a Norwegian woman whose head was hit by shrapnel during an attack by the German military. The woman recovered but was left with a German-sounding accent, to the horror of fellow villagers who shunned her after that.
Researchers at Oxford University have now discovered that victims of foreign accent syndrome suffer from damage to several parts of the brain. The combined effect of that damage makes victims lengthen certain syllables, mispronounce sounds, and alter their normal voice. Those changes in speech add up to what sounds like a foreign accent, says one of the researchers, Jennifer Gurd, an expert in the scientific study of nerves and relevant diseases.
Another researcher, John Coleman, an expert in language, says victims of the syndrome don’t acquire a true foreign accent. Their strangely altered speech only resembles the foreign accent with which it has a few sounds in common.
1. When Wendy Hasnip spoke her native language with a French accent, she felt ___.| A．upset | B．excited | C．scared | D．satisfied |
| A．who were once hit by shrapnel during a military attack |
| B．who were once attacked by horrible fellow villagers |
| C．whose blood vessels were once blocked or broken |
| D．whose brain was once damaged in several parts |
| A．got rid of | B．laughed at | C．stayed away from | D．laid blame on |
| A．It can’t be cured at present. | B．It helps victims pick up a foreign language. |
| C．It will disappear in the end. | D．It is just a change in the length of syllables. |
7 . The first two years of Stuart Singer’s retirement were pure play, killing time in the New York City by bike and visiting museums and art galleries.
“At some point, I realised I should do more than this,” said Mr Singer, a former high school teacher.
Now Mr Singer, 74, and his wife Madine, 69, are involved in the Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme. Mr Singer volunteers with the Community Health Advocates Programme, which started in 2010. The programme helps consumers to know better about the health insurance coverage(医疗保险). And it helps them to find access to low-cost or free care. Mr Singer’s main task is to answer phones for the Community Health Advocates’ helpline.
“There are lots of calls from different people who need medical care, but they can’t get it because their insurance company won’t pay for it,” he said. “And you got to go through doctors, and get the papers filled out. But when you get it done, yeah, it feels good.”
The helpline helps about 250 callers each week and has saved consumers $12.1 million since it began. Mr Singer comes in once a week, helping 10 callers every shift. In total, he estimates he has saved New Yorkers $443,000.
Despite the challenges, the work is a joy, not drudgery for Mr Singer, which inspired his wife to sign up for volunteer training after she retired in late 2014 as vice president of the Insurance Information Institute. It put her fear of retirement at ease.
Mrs Singer trained with the Advocacy, Counseling and Entitlement Services Project before being placed with the Actor’s Fund, a national human services organization for performing arts and entertainment professionals founded in 1882. “It just seems so unfair that these people have trouble finding housing,” said Mrs Singer. Since she started in early 2015, Mrs Singer has had more than 270 appointments with clients, from ticket takers to screenwriters to dancers. “Having someone help them really means a lot to them,” Mrs Singer said.
Much of her work is helping clients who are applying for affordable housing sort through a variety of income sources they receive. “It keeps the mind going,” Mrs Singer said. “It keeps the social life going, and I’m doing something.”
1. In paragraph 2, this refers to_________.| A．riding bikes in New York City | B．visiting museums and art galleries |
| C．spending Mr Singer’s life purely for fun | D．teaching in a high school |
| A．tiring training | B．boring work |
| C．inspiring training | D．exciting work |
| A．Meaningful. | B．Easy. | C．Affordable. | D．Relaxing. |
| A．Live a Simple Life after Retirement |
| B．Adapt to Social Life after Retirement |
| C．Find Rewards in Volunteering after Retirement |
| D．Overcome Difficulties in Volunteering after Retirement |
8 . If you are a recent social science graduate who has had to listen to jokes about unemployment from your computer major classmates, you may have had the last laugh. There are many advantages for the social science major because this high-tech “Information Age” demands people who are flexible and who have good communication skills.
There are many social science majors in large companies who fill important positions. For example, a number of research studies found that social science majors had achieved greater managerial success than those who had technical training or pre-professional courses. Studies show that social science majors are most suited for change, which is the leading feature of the kind of high speed, high-pressure, high-tech world we now live in.
Social science majors are not only experiencing success in their long-term company jobs, but they are also finding jobs more easily. A study showed that many companies had filled a large percentage of their entry-level positions with social science graduates. The study also showed that the most sought-after quality in a person who was looking for a job was communication skills, noted as “very important” by 92 percent of the companies. Social science majors have these skills, often without knowing how important they are. It is probably due to these skills that they have been offered a wide variety of positions.
Finally, although some social science majors may still find it more difficult than their technically trained classmates to land the first job, recent graduates report that they don’t regret their choice of study.
1. Compared with graduates of other subjects, social science graduates _____.| A．are ready to change when situations change |
| B．are better able to deal with difficulties |
| C．are equally good at computer skills |
| D．are likely to give others pressure |
| A．Willingness to take low-paid jobs. | B．Readiness to gain high-tech knowledge. |
| C．Skills in expressing themselves. | D．Part-time work experience. |
| A．keep for some time | B．successfully get |
| C．immediately start | D．lose regretfully |
9 . Genetic testing offers people insight into the types of diseases they are most likely to develop — but a new study suggests most people do not alter their lifestyles based on this information. These tests — known as genome sequencing — analyze a person's DNA, telling patients about their known risk for diseases like cancer or diabetes. But being told you’re at a higher risk for lung cancer doesn’t seem to motivate anyone to quit smoking or alcohol, this study suggests. Because of this, the scholars argue that genetic testing should be banned as a tool for improving people's health.
Today’s finding came from pulling data from 18 other studies that followed people after they received the results of genetic tests. Receiving information about genetic risks didn’t inspire people to eat differently, exercise more, or stop smoking, "Expectations have been high that giving people information about their genetic risk will empower them to change their behavior, but we have found no evidence that this is the case," study author Theresa Marteau, director of behavior and health research said in a press release.
Genetic testing, which the National Institutes of Health says costs anywhere from $100 to $2,000, has become much more accessible as commercial testing companies such as 23andMe and Sure Genomics have sprung up. These companies are not allowed to share disease risk estimates with consumers thanks to the Food and Drug Administration. However, today’s study didn’t specify whether the genetic testing were purely from academic sequencing, or if any of these companies had had a role in supplying the data.
Genetic testing doesn’t get people to change their behavior for the better, but it doesn't have any known negative effects either. Knowing the results of these tests didn't change people's depression or anxiety levels. And there's no indication that testing inspires people to pick up risky or dangerous health habits either, the study found.
Actually a genetic predisposition to a certain disease is common among people. Some people are born weak in heart. Some are innately vulnerable in digestive system. But these most common risk factors usually don't raise a person's chances of getting the disease by a significant amount. It's possible that some of the patients in the study had substantially high disease risks based on their DNA profile, but those patients tend to be rather rare. "It’s still likely that communicating this type of information is very valuable to some people, but it’s just that there aren’t that many of those people," Zikmund-Fisher from the University of Michigan said. "The idea that providing genetic risk information is going to be transformative to everyone seems unlikely."
1. Why did some experts suggest stopping genetic testing?| A．Genome sequencing aren’t accurate in detecting certain disease risks. |
| B．Genetic testing results fail to encourage people to remove bad habits. |
| C．Genetic testing does neither good nor harm to people’s behaviorial improvement. |
| D．Genetic testing results are offered by commercial testing companies. |
| A．testing on | B．prediction about | C．sensitivity to | D．insight into |
| A．Theresa Marteau believes genetic testing helps to change people’s behaviors. |
| B．Sure Genomics is forbidden to deliver illness risk expectations to patients. |
| C．Genetic testing results are totally coming from academic sequencing. |
| D．Genetic testing results in a way worsen the patients’ moods and emotions. |
| A．getting rid of bad life habits doesn’t do much good to people’s health |
| B．almost all people have certain disease risks based on genetic testing |
| C．providing genetic risk information interferes with the medical treatment |
| D．genetic testing shows few people are at a high risk of getting certain diseases |
10 . Our youngest daughter can be stubborn about receiving gifts, and I told her so.
“Where do you think I get it from?” she asked.
“I’m not stubborn when it comes to receiving gifts,” I said. “I used to be but not now.”
She has a birthday coming up and we want to get her some new cowboy boots.
Cowboy boots aren’t cheap, but we want to do something special and get her something she could use and enjoy for years to come.
But my daughter is pushing back, saying she’s happy with her current boots-which are old and worn-out.
I push back, she pushes back, and we become locked in a mother-daughter match over stubbornness and how much is too much to spend on a special gift.
She thinks my husband and I do too much for her. I used to think the same thing about my parents—my parents weren’t rich, but they were generous.
They kept saying they enjoyed giving me gifts, but all I could think about was how much money they were wasting on me.
Years ago, I mentioned to a friend that I thought my mother overdid it when it came to buying gifts for her children.
My friend, closer to my mothers age than mine, looked at me and said, “Who are you to tell your mother what she can do?”
I wanted to argue with her, but I didn’t. I didn’t fully understand it then but I understand it now—now that I’m a grandmother myself.
The longer you live, the more you see how often things go wrong.
Marriages fail, friendships break down， family members become estranged, and accidents and illnesses cut lives short.
There is a brokenness that fills many of our lives.
So, when you see life going well, families working hard and growing strong, you want to celebrate.
It took a lot of time for me to understand that giving is an expression of joy, as much as it is an expression of love, understand where my daughter is coming from, but I also understand where my parents were coming from—a place of pure and simple joy celebrating those moments when life goes well.
1. Why did the author’s daughter try to refuse her mom’s gift?| A．She had many boots to wear. |
| B．She wanted something else for her birthday. |
| C．She didn’t like the style of the boots. |
| D．She didn’t want her mom to spend too much money. |
| A．listened to her friends’ advice |
| B．experienced brokenness in life |
| C．communicated with her husband |
| D．received gifts from other family members |
| A．lonely | B．distant | C．joyful | D．complete |
| A．It is the best way to express our love to others. |
| B．It is an expression of hope for the future. |
| C．It is a way to show our joy when life is going well. |
| D．It is a way for people to escape bad things in life. |
