1 . “Uncle Chuchu, look!” Uncle Chuchu turns to where Preet is pointing. She quickly eats up the chips on his plate. He always falls for this trick！
Chuchu is the pet name Preet has given him. Uncle Chuchu is the kindest person in Preet’s world. He is also her best friend. One day, Preet sees Uncle Chuchu scoop (抓起) handfuls of candies from a jar and drop them from his bedroom window. She watches in amazement as he ducks under the windowsill, trying hard not to laugh.
Cries of delight float up from the street!
At the end of the lane is a school. When the lunch bell rings, Uncle Chuchu secretly drops candies down to the school children as they pass under his window.
After lunch, Uncle Chuchu walks back to his office with his briefcase. When he passes the children playing, he doesn’t look at them. So, the children never guess that the hand that sends them candies every day belongs to this thin, solemn man!
But one day, Uncle Chuchu has a terrible pain in his stomach. As he’s taken to the hospital, he presses Preet’s hand one last time...
Now, Preet sits in Uncle Chuchu’s empty room. His yoga mat is on the floor. She remembers that long ago one day when she had walked in and found a pair of long legs poking into the air.
“Help!” Preet had yelled. “Uncle Chuchu is hurt!” Mom and Grandma had rushed into the room and burst out laughing! “He’s not hurt.” Mom said. “He’s doing yoga!” Grandma said. “Yoga,” repeated Preet. She had watched with wondering eyes as Uncle Chuchu lifted his body on the palms of his hands, like a bird about to fly away!
Preet’s eyes are wet. Nobody can fill the Uncle Chuchu-shaped hole in her heart.
…
1. The scene described in the first paragraph is intended to show readers ________.| A．that Uncle Chuchu is easily fooled by others |
| B．what fun Preet used to have with Uncle Chuchu |
| C．how Preet enjoyed eating snacks such as chips |
| D．that Uncle Chuchu always treated Preet equally |
| A．hide | B．hang | C．drag | D．mark |
| A．He didn’t want to eat up all the candies. |
| B．He was too shy to greet the children directly. |
| C．He wanted to bring delight to the children. |
| D．He took pity on the homeless children in the street. |
| A．Uncle Chuchu’s Yoga Mat | B．Preet’s Farewell to Uncle Chuchu |
| C．Preet’s Innocent Childhood | D．Uncle Chuchu’s Jar of Candies |
2 . One way people are responding to food safety concerns is by growing their own food. However, not everyone lives on property with enough space for a private plot. One solution is community gardens, which have become popular worldwide, numbering 18,000 in North America alone. In addition to providing low-cost, delicious food, these public spaces offer cities a range of other benefits.
Community gardens are located in a town or city and tended by local residents. Often, the land is on a vacant lot owned by the city. The site is divided into manageable plots, which may be tended by individuals or by the garden's members collectively. Since the land is usually publicly owned, the cost for gardeners to lease it is minimal. In fact, New York City, which is home to more than 750 community gardens tended by more than 20,000 members, charges people just $1 a year to lease a plot. Other costs involve soil, tools, seeds, fencing, and so on. However, because they're shared by many people, individual gardeners pay very little.
A community garden can quickly pay off, in terms of delicious fruits and vegetables, in addition to beautiful flowers. Excess produce can be sold for a profit at farmers markets. But a garden's benefits don't stop there. They also beautify cities, foster strong relationships among residents, and lower an area's crime rate. Award-winning spaces like London's Culpeper Community Garden even attract tourists. Beautiful and affordable, community gardens are often described as oases in crowded cities.
1. Community gardens are designed for those who ______.| A．are concerned about food safety. |
| B．live in a house with a private plot. |
| C．can’t afford to buy organic food. |
| D．don’t have their own property. |
| A．is owned by 20,000 individual gardeners. |
| B．charges residents a lot to lease tools and fencing. |
| C．contains more than 750 community gardens. |
| D．is tended by professional gardeners and local residents. |
| A．People can enjoy safe and delicious vegetables and animal meat. |
| B．Residents are more familiar and related with each other. |
| C．The neighborhood is becoming safer but of lower taste. |
| D．People can make some profits from the visiting tourists. |
| A．cultural and art centers. |
| B．popular platforms for exchanges. |
| C．peaceful and safe lands. |
| D．commercial and prosperous places. |
3 . A busy brain can mean a hungry body. We often seek food after focused mental activity, like preparing for an exam. Researchers think that heavy bouts of thinking drain energy from the brain, whose capacity to store fuel is very limited.
So the brain, sensing that it may soon require more calories (卡路里) to keep going, apparently stimulates bodily hunger, and even though there has been little in the way of physical movement or calorie consumption, we eat. This process may partly account for the weight gain so commonly seen in college students.
Scientists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and another institution recently experimented with exercise to counter such immoderately post--study food consumption.
Gary Hunter, an exercise physiologist at U.A.B., oversaw the study. Hunter notes that tough activity both increases the amount of blood sugar and lactate (乳酸盐) — a byproduct of intense muscle contractions (收缩) — circulating in the blood and increases blood flow to the head. Because the brain uses sugar and lactate as fuel, researchers wondered if the increased flow of fuel-rich blood during exercise could feed an exhausted brain and reduce the urge to overeat.
Thirty-eight healthy college students were invited to U.A.B.’s exercise lab to report what their favorite pizza was. At a later date, the volunteers returned and spent 20 minutes dealing with selections from college and graduate-school entrance exams. Next, half the students sat quietly for 15 minutes, before being given pizza. The rest of the volunteers spent those 15 minutes doing intervals on a treadmill: two minutes of hard running followed by about one minute of walking, repeated five times. Hunter says, that should stimulate the release of sugar and lactate into the bloodstream. These students were then allowed to gorge on pizza, too. But by and large, they did not overeat. In fact, the non-exercisers, however, consumed about 100 calories more.
The study has limitations, of course. We only looked at lunch, Hunter says; the researchers do not know if the runners consumed extra calories at dinner. They also cannot tell whether other types of exercise would have the same effect as running, although Hunter says they suspect that if an activity causes someone to break into a sweat, it should also increase blood sugar and lactate, feeding the brain and weakening hunger’s call.
1. According to the passage, ______ may cause many college students to overeat and gain weight.| A．a lot of energy-consuming mental activities |
| B．numerous physical movements or calorie burning |
| C．failure to resist the temptation of delicious food |
| D．bodily hunger caused by physical growth |
| A．stimulate | B．maximize | C．balance | D．prevent |
| A．Running is more beneficial than walking. |
| B．Sweating in exercise can make people hungrier. |
| C．The amount of blood sugar and lactate can affect people’s appetite. |
| D．When the brain feels exhausted, people tend to do exercise for relaxation. |
| A．Mental activities can make people feel hungry. |
| B．Physical exercise can make people refreshed and stay hungry. |
| C．Sugar and lactate can help energize and restore people’s brain. |
| D．It’s uncertain what types of exercise can effectively feed the brain. |
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 . What does it say about the future of meat when the country’s largest processor of chicken, pork, and beef buys a stake(股份) in a start-up that aims to “perfectly replace animal protein with plant protein”?
Tyson Foods announced this week that it purchased a 5 percent stake in Beyond Meat, the Southern California-based food-tech start-up that made headlines earlier this year with its veggie burger that reportedly cooks and tastes like real beef.
To be sure, Beyond Meat’s meatless creations have yet to take the country by storm. Although the 100 percent plant-based burgers have achieved plenty of positive press since they appeared for the first time in May, so far they’re only available at Whole Foods stores in seven states. Even though the company’s “chicken” strips, “beef” pies, and meatless frozen dinners are available nationwide, Beyond Meat is hardly a household name.
That may be what makes the news of Tyson’s investment all the more noteworthy. While the two companies declined to give details about the deal, it’s doubtful that Tyson’s 5 percent stake made much of dent(凹陷) in the meat giant’s coffers(金库).The company posted $41.4 billion in sales last year; prior to the deal with Tyson, Beyond Meat had reportedly raised $64 million in project capital funding—about what Tyson earns before lunch on any given day.
Tyson is doing pretty great. The company reported record third-quarter earnings per share in August and says that it expects overall meat production to increase 2 to 3 percent during the next financial year. But like a big oil company shelling out cash to invest in wind power, Tyson’s toe-in-the-water move to team up with a start-up devoted to bringing more plant-based protein to American dinner tables seems to suggest the meat industry is starting to see which way the winds are blowing.
Sales of plant-based protein, which totaled an estimated $5 billion last year, continue to pale compared with the market for meat in America—but vegetarian alternatives to meat are booming, with sales growing at more than double the rate for food products overall. The steady drumbeat of news about the negative health impacts, environmental problems, and animal welfare concerns associated with meat consumption appears to be sinking in. According to a survey released in April, more than half of Americans surveyed said they plan to eat more plant-based foods in the coming year.
1. Beyond Meat’s veggie burger made headlines probably because __________.| A．it makes perfect use of animal protein |
| B．it uses high tech in the making process |
| C．it tastes as good as a genuine beef burger |
| D．it represents the diet trend in South California |
| A．It is the creator of the country’s first 100 percent plant-based burgers. |
| B．It has been well received as its products are available nationwide. |
| C．It is far from being a match to real food processing giants like Tyson. |
| D．It provides high-quality dining experience in selected Whole Foods stores. |
| A．seem unimportant |
| B．seem white |
| C．seem weak |
| D．seem faint |
| A．Meat will still take over the market in spite of other alternatives. |
| B．A major American meat company is betting on plant-based protein. |
| C．Tyson and Beyond Meat work together to build a global meat giant. |
| D．Plants have been found to contain protein that does more good to human beings. |
6 . In 2013 Mr. Baugher planted 7,000 Fuji apple trees in the orchard (果园).Three years later,just when the trees should have been bearing fruit, he noticed that a few of them had yellow leaves. Within weeks they were dead. The next year，the problem spread to more than a few trees. By last year,2,000 of Mr Baugher’s 7,000 new trees were dead.
Mr. Baugher has the worst case of"rapid apple decline" (RAD)in the county, but he is not alone. The mysterious disease has been troubling growers across America's northeast for at least six years. Kari Peter, a fruit-tree specialist first observed massive die-offs in her research orchard in 2013. She came up with the term"RAD". But her attempts to explain it have not produced much fruit. The usual reasons for the death of tree-mould infestation, a known virus, disease, an early frost-didn't fit symptoms. Her investigation only ruled things out.
The dead trees tend to be younger: two to eight-years-old. They are nearing he prime of production. Dwarf trees, which are commonly used by commercial growers, seem to be the most subject. Historically, orchards held 600-700 apple trees an acre, but most are now high producing dwarf trees, which are more compact. Growers plant 1, 200-1, 500 trees per acre. Working with the Department of Agriculture Kan found a new hidden apple virus in the infected trees. But they cannot be sure if this new virus has any connection with the decline.
Researchers at Cormell University found that severe cold followed by drought (旱灾)could have weakened the trees leaving them subject to viruses.Other scientists think that herbicides may be to blame. Dan Donahue, a fruit-tree specialist says it could be any or all of those theories. In a recent sampling, he found that 64% of young trees had hidden viruses. These do not show symptoms, but they could affect vitality. Older, larger apple trees were better at shrugging off the viruses.
RAD is a big worry for the apple growers. Customer taste is changing. Traditional varieties like Red Delicious are no longer a customer favourite, so growers are having to invest in new varieties. Few of the orchard growers are able to absorb the economic losses.
Mr. Baugher found some relief in the Tree Assistance Programme, through which the federal government provides financial assistance to orchard-owners whose trees are damaged by natural disasters. The sudden death of apple trees may not seem as dramatic as a hurricane, but it is perhaps even more dangerous. Americans have given considerably more before in the defense of apple pie.
1. The underlined word"compact"is closest in meaning to .| A．complex | B．dense | C．remote | D．regular |
| A．It took her six years to come up with the term RAD. |
| B．Her research led to a breakthrough in apple cultivation. |
| C．She failed to find out the definite cause of RAD. |
| D．She was the first scientist to research apple trees. |
| A．extreme weather | B．a new virus | C．way of tree cultivation | D．location of the orchard |
| A．RAD adds to the pressure on the already struggling apple growers. |
| B．RAD doesn't qualify orchard growers for financial assistance. |
| C．The government needs to fund more research into RAD. |
| D．Apple growers should have stuck to traditional varieties. |
7 . Have you ever noticed how the recital (叙说) of an adventure always finds ready audience? The man with a story of some stirring adventure always takes the floor Men will stop the most important discussion to listen. Women will forget to rock the cradle. Boys and girls will neglect any sport or game. Try it sometime and see how it grips all kinds and all ages. And the reason is that none of us ever really grows up. We are always boys and girls, a little older in years, but with the same nature—alert to the new, questioning, investigating, growing, living; stirred by martial music; thrilled by the sight of the fire-houses dashing madly down the street; lured by tales of subtle intrigue (阴谋)and splendid daring.
It would be sad if men and women ever lost this capacity to be attracted by tales of heroism. The man whose heart leaps for joy at the sight of a heroic deed is the man who will act the hero when his turn comes. No, the love of adventure will never be lost. It is a fundamental part of human nature, just as sentiment (感情) is.
So we reasoned that a magazine edited for this universal hunger of human nature for adventure ought to have a wide appreciation and appeal, and we decided to publish such a magazine and call it ADVENTURE.
It is published as a magazine wherein thousands of men and women can find adventure without being obliged to read through large amounts of stuff they care little about for the sake of getting a little they care a lot about, which is frankly made for the hours when the reader cannot work, or does not wish to, or is too weary to work and made for the reader’s recreation rather than his or her creative hours. If you care for stirring stories (and who does not?) —if you wish to get away for a brief time from the hard grind of the daily mill so that you can come back to it again with renewed passion and courage to walk through the knotty problems and nagging limitations, get a copy of Adventure.
You can get away for such a trip every month for 15 cents or you can get a season ticket entitling you to twelve trips for $1.50. No other kind of story in the magazine; just Adventure Stories. Fact-stories as well as fiction stories .If you don’t like that kind, don’t buy; but if you do like that kind, Adventure is sure to delight you.
1. Which of the following statement is TURE about man’s sense of adventure?| A．People are increasingly attracted by adventures as they grow. |
| B．The sense of adventure is rooted in a childhood curiosity. |
| C．Adventure stories are more attractive when told with sentiment. |
| D．Only children with curiosity grow into adults fond of adventures. |
| A．to draw a clear line between | B．to capture the attention of |
| C．to affect the way people think | D．to give equal treatment to |
| A．It reminds its work-burdened life driven readers of good old days. |
| B．It helps them regain their adventurous selves lost in tough life. |
| C．It offers a refreshing escape from long weary working hours. |
| D．It encourages them to face the toughness of life and work. |
| A．One can buy one copy for 15 cents. | B．Adventure is available one issue a month, |
| C．It contains fictional and true stories. | D．Season ticket holders can enjoy free tours. |
| A．To instruct publishers in how to produce a popular magazine. |
| B．To explore the psychological cause and impact of adventure. |
| C．To attract potential readers by giving the editorial philosophy. |
| D．To recommend to working people a refreshing way of recreation. |
8 . Last July, Angela Peters, 36, rolled her wheelchair into a nail salon located at the Walmart shopping center in Burton, Michigan, with the idea of painting her nails. But Peters, who has cerebral palsy（脑瘫）, was turned away. The salon (which is not owned by Walmart), she says, told her that they were afraid it would be too difficult to properly do the job given that her hands shook. What was meant to be a day of beauty bliss for Peters was now a disappointment.
Watching the interaction from a few feet away was a Walmart cashier about to go on her break. Ebony Harris, 40, recognized Peters as a Walmart regular. Now what she recognized in Peters was a kindred spirit. “She’s just like you, me, my daughter, anybody,” Harris told ABC News, “She wants to look pretty. So why can’t she?”
Harris approached Peters. “Do you want me to do your nails?” she asked. A smile spread across Peters’ face. “Yeah!” Having found a table for two, Harris gently took Peter’s hand into hers and carefully began painting her nails.
“I was a little nervous and was shaking because I didn’t want to mess her nails up,” Harris admitted. “I told her she’s a blessing to anybody, not just me. She makes me look at life and appreciate it much more than I have.”
Watching it all with amazement and admiration was Subway employee Tasia Smith. What struck her most was the ease and gentleness displayed by Harris as she painted Peters’ nails, all the while chatting as if they were old friends. Smith was so taken by the scene that she wrote about it on Facebook. “They were so patient with her,” she wrote. “Thanks to the Walmart worker for making this beautiful girl’s day!”
Peters, who runs a poetry website, harbors no bitterness toward the nail salon that turned her away. “When people do us wrong, we must forgive,” Peters wrote on Facebook. “I just want to educate people that those with different challenges, like being in a wheelchair, can have our own business and get our nails done like anyone else.”
1. Why was Peters declined when she wanted to have her nails painted?| A．She insisted on sitting in a wheelchair. |
| B．She was not a regular customer of the salon. |
| C．Her hands shook involuntarily due to disability. |
| D．There was no need for her to have nails painted. |
| A．Peters was in high spirits just like others around her. |
| B．Peters was approached with special attention and care. |
| C．Peters was more tolerant of the denial than normal people. |
| D．Peters was no different from the people around her. |
| A．Peters deserved to be happy and be treated kindly. |
| B．Harris was reminded why she should be grateful. |
| C．Harris felt obliged to offer her a hand on a voluntary basis |
| D．Peters got her nails done despite the previous rejection. |
| A．Beauty is about having a pretty mind, a pretty soul, as well as pretty poetry. |
| B．Forgive others who have wronged us, and we are likely to enjoy our life more. |
| C．Being grateful is a way to sing for our life which comes just from our love and hope. |
| D．Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it. |
9 . It is one of the greatest mysteries of nature. In case you haven’t noticed, all living things follow very definite, individual rhythms, all as regular as a clock, but what makes them regular?
Though many scientists maintain that these rhythms are the result of some outside force like gravity or radiation or both, the results of most scientific researches agree with other scientists who believe that each living thing has its own built-in biological “time clock.”
Take the mystery of migration for example. Scientists can’t really explain why many species of birds migrate in the autumn even though the temperature is still summery. The birds just seem to snub the comfortable weather that they are having. When a certain time comes, they travel south by the thousand. In spring time, they migrate northwards when though there probably is snow still covering the ground when they finally arrive. Something said “go”, and they did.
Animals that hibernate are obeying individual time clock, too. When their clock indicates the time to take a winter’s nap, they do, and nothing can stop them. At a certain time in the spring, they wake up and come out regardless of the weather outside.
Plants appear to have yearly rhythms, such as the sprouting(发芽)of seeds, and they also have daily rhythms. Notice sometimes that plants raise their leaves in daylight and lower them at night.
If you live along the California coast, you can easily observe a demonstration of this mysterious clock functioning regularly. There, from February to September, the highest tides occur exactly every fourteen and four-fifths days, and during these high tides, but at no other time, small silvery fish called grunions surf-ride a wave to the beach. There the female deposits her eggs in the sand and the male, fertilize them; then both hitch a wave-ride back to the sea. Exactly fourteen and four-fifths days later, never before or after, the tiny eggs hatch, and the high tide carries the new habits out to sea.
1. According to the passage, the mysterious rhythms result from ________.| A．the influence of gravity on living species |
| B．the effect of radiation on living species |
| C．the influence of a mysterious outer force on living species |
| D．the internal mechanism inside the living species |
| A．fight | B．ignore |
| C．symbolize | D．criticize |
| A．Hibernating animals are obeying an internal time clock. |
| B．The positioning of the leaves of some plants is due to the daily rhythms. |
| C．The internal clock functioning is demonstrated in the reproducing habits of grunions. |
| D．The yearly hibernation is more because of the weather influence than the biological functioning. |
| A．the rhythms of life | B．the reasons of mysterious hibermation |
| C．strange behaviors of species | D．the timing for different events in the world of species |
10 . As more and more people speak the global languages of English, Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic, other languages are rapidly disappearing. In fact, half of the 6,000 - 7,000 language spoken around the world today will likely die out by the next century, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, an Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
In an effort to prevent language loss, scholars from a number of organizations - UNESCO and National Geographic among them -- have for many years been documenting dying languages an the cultures they reflect.
Mark Turin, a scientist at the Macmillan Center, Yale University,who specializes in the languages and oral traditions of the Himalayas, is following in that tradition. His recently published book, A grammar of Thangmi with an Ethnolinguistic Introduction to the Speakers and Their Culture, grows out of his experience living, working, and raising a family in a village in Nepal.
Documenting the Thangmi language and culture is just a starting point for Turin, who seeks to include other languages and oral traditions across the Himalaya reaches of India, Nepal, Bhutan, and China. But he is not content to simply record these voices before they disappear without record.
At the University of Cambridge, Turin discovered a wealth of important materials -- including photographs, films, tape recordings, and field notes -- which had remained unstudied and were badly in need of care and protection.
Now, through the two organizations that he has rounded -- the Digital Himalaya Project and the World Oral Literature Project -- Turin has started a campaign t make such documents, found in libraries and stores around the world, available not just to scholars but to the younger generations of communities from whom the materials were originally collected. Thanks to digital technology and the widely available Internet, Turin notes, the endangered languages can be saved and reconnected with speech communities.
1. Many scholars are making efforts to _______.| A．promote global languages |
| B．rescue disappearing languages |
| C．search for language communities |
| D．set up language research organizations |
| A．Having full records of the languages. |
| B．Writing books on language teaching. |
| C．Telling stories about language users. |
| D．Living with the native speakers. |
| A．The cultural studies in India. | B．The documents available at Yale. |
| C．His language research in Bhutan. | D．His personal experience in Nepal. |
| A．Write and donate. | B．Record and reward. |
| C．Collect, protect and reconnect. | D．experiment and report |
