1 . To learn to think is to learn to question. Those who don't question never truly think for themselves. These are simple rules that have governed the advancement of science and human thought since the beginning of time. Advancements are made when thinkers question theories and introduce new ones. Unfortunately, it is often the great and respected thinkers who end up slowing the progress of human thought. Aristotle was a brilliant philosopher whose theories explained much of the natural world, often incorrectly. He was so esteemed by the scientific community that even 1，200 years after his death, scientists were still trying to build upon his mistakes rather than correct them!
Brilliant minds can intimidate upandcoming thinkers who are not confident of their abilities. They often believe they are inferior to the minds of giants such as Aristotle, leading many to accept current paradigms instead of questioning them.
I, like many thinkers of the past, once believed in my mental inferiority. I was certain that my parents, my teachers-adults in general-were always right. They were like a textbook to me; I didn't question what was written on those pages. I respected them, and accepted whatever they told me. But that attitude soon changed. My mind's independence was first stimulated in the classroom.
A stern, 65yearold elementaryschool science teacher once told me that light is a type of wave. I confidently went through years of school believing that light is a wave. One day，however I heard the German exchange student mention that light could be made up of particles. As the others laughed at his statement, I started to question my beliefs.
Maybe the teachers and textbooks hadn't given me the whole story. I went to the library, did some research and learned of the lightasawave versus lightasaparticle debate. I read about Einstein's discovery of the dual nature of light and learned the facts of a paradox(悖论) that puzzles the world's greatest thinkers to this day. Light behaves as both a particle and a wave, it is both at once. I realized I had gone through life accepting only half of the story as the whole truth.
Each new year brought more new facts, and I formulated even more questions. I found myself in the library after school, trying to find my own answers to gain a more complete understanding of what I thought I already knew. I discovered that my parents and teachers are incredible tools in my quest for knowledge, but they are never the final word. Even textbooks can be challenged. I learned to question my sources, I learned to be a thinker. I once believed that everything I learned at home and at school was certain, but I have now discovered to reexamine when necessary.
Questions are said to be the path to knowledge and truth, and I plan to continue questioning. How many things do we know for sure today that we will question in the future? At this moment, I know that our sun will burn for another five billion years, and I know nothing can escape the gravity of a black hole. This knowledge, however, may change in the next 20 years-maybe even in the next two. The one thing we can control now is our openness to discovery. Questions are the tools of open minds, and open minds are the key to intellectual advancement.
1. In the first paragraph, Aristotle is taken as an example to show that ______.| A．he is the greatest and respected philosopher of all time |
| B．huge influence of great thinkers may block human thought |
| C．advancements are made when thinkers question theories |
| D．great thinkers often make mistakes and then correct them |
| A．Frighten. | B．Encourage. | C．Strength. | D．Persuade. |
| A．what he learned from textbooks before turned out to be wrong |
| B．he was inspired by the different ideas from an exchange student |
| C．he was laughed at by other students for his unacceptable statement |
| D．he was not satisfied with his life and desperate to achieve success |
| A．looks down upon great thinkers all the time |
| B．never doubts what he has learned in the textbook |
| C．always throws himself into the laboratory |
| D．determines to be a thinker and questioner |
| A．the author is not quite sure about his future |
| B．we human beings don't dare to predict future |
| C．theory of black holes will change in two years |
| D．questioning is necessary to promote advancement |
| A．Following rules. | B．Challenging yourself. |
| C．Questioning giants. | D．Predicting future. |
2 . Kyle Cassidy and three other members of the Annenberg Running Group were stretching on the grounds of the University of Pennsylvania, waiting for a few latecomers. The Penn colleagues and other community members meet three days a week for a roughly 30-minute jog and an occasional lecture. That's right― during some runs, one of them delivers a talk. Topics range from the brain to Bitcoin.
But on this day last January, it would not be their normal run. The first clue that something was off was the man who sprinted past them. "Running at an amazing pace," Cassidy told Runner's World admiringly. Cassidy discovered why the sprinter was so fleet of foot when another man ran by, yelling, “Help! He took my phone and laptop!"
At that, the group did what running clubs do: They ran, trailing the suspect down the streets of Philadelphia until he ducked into a construction site. The runners split up. Cassidy ran around to the far side of the site to cut the thief off while the others wandered the neighborhood hoping he had dumped the loot （赃物）in a backyard.
No luck. So they decided to ask residents whether they'd seen the guy. When they knocked on the door of one row house, they were in for a surprise. Unknown to them, he had already emerged from the construction site—and was hiding behind a bush by that very house. As the owner opened the door, the suspect darted out from behind the bush ... and right into the arms of campus police, who'd joined the chase shortly behind the runners.
The members of this running group are not hard-core athletes. But they do understand the benefit of a little exercise. ''Running is typically a useless sport where you turn fat cells into heat," Cassidy told The Philadelphia Inquirer. "But occasionally it can be useful, and here was one of those opportunities."
1. Why do the group members gather together?| A．To do some stretching. | B．To have a regular run. |
| C．To deliver a lecture. | D．To cover some topics. |
| A．Dashed. | B．Pushed. |
| C．Jumped. | D．Escaped. |
| A．the assistance of the runners | B．the owner of the row house |
| C．the campus police on patrol | D．the joint efforts of the people |
| A．Athletic and generous. | B．Courageous and ambitious. |
| C．Helpful and humorous. | D．Thoughtful and demanding. |
3 . Regrets are often painful. A study suggests that some people can overcome them, said Jia Wei Zhang, a psychology graduate at the University of California. But this isn’t the case for everyone, he said.
The researchers wondered why some people report feeling improvement from regrets but others don’t. Does it lie in how people approach their regrets?
In the study, the researchers focused on self-compassion (自我同情) as a potential factor in why some people have an easier lime leaving their regrets behind them.
400 people attended an experiment. First, they were asked to write about their biggest regret. Half wrote something they did but wish they hadn’t done; the other half wrote something they didn’t do but wish they had. Then, the participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: self compassion, self-esteem and a control group. The self-esteem group was asked to respond by “talking to yourself about this regret from the aspect of confirming your positive qualities”.
The control group was asked to write about their favorite hobby rather than their regret. Then, they were asked about their feelings of forgiveness, acceptance and personal improvement following the exercise.
They found that the self-compassion group reported greater feelings of acceptance, forgiveness and personal improvement, compared with the control group and the self esteem group. In other words, focusing on your best qualities is not what helps you feel better about a regret. Rather, being compassionate toward yourself is what may make a difference, the researchers found.
It’s possible that people who practice self-compassion are able to confront their regrets and see what went wrong, so they can make a better choice in the future, Zhang told Live Science. Self-compassion pushes people to accept their regret instead of running away from it.
The researchers used an example of this from a previous study on breast cancer patients who were asked to try thinking about their treatment in a positive light before it began. The women who did so reported greater feelings of personal growth later on.
1. What does the underlined word “confront” in Paragraph 7 mean?| A．Handle | B．Forget. |
| C．Ignore | D．Show. |
| A．Think of a way out. | B．Write about their regrets. |
| C．Record their favorite hobbies. | D．Treat their regrets in positive ways. |
| A．To cover up their regrets. |
| B．To see if they have weaknesses. |
| C．To see if they have self compassion. |
| D．To help them feel better about their regrets. |
| A．To show the method of the research. |
| B．To show the value of the acceptance. |
| C．To show the truth of people’s feeling. |
| D．To show the difficulty of the research. |
4 . Not long ago, “blind box economy” suddenly became popular, winning the heart of large numbers of faithful fans. People simply get interested in it. A couple spent 200 thousand yuan on them. Another sixty-year-old guy spent over 700 thousand yuan in buying blind boxes. Statistics showed that last year 300 thousand hobbyists made deals through a second-hand shopping platform.
The blind boxes usually contain peripheral (周边的) dolls of comics and animation, or film and television, or specially designed ones. A single blind box usually costs about thirty to fifty yuan. But there is no mark on the box, and only after opening it can the buyer see what he has bought. This is rather like buying lottery tickets, for the buyer has to bet on his luck.
However, addiction to blind box is much like that to gambling (赌博). It is highly nontransparent compared with lottery ticket. Nobody knows whether sellers of blind boxes exaggerated (夸大) the winning rate so as to attract people to buy them, thus digging a consumption trap. Besides, it is also unknown whether the objects in the blind boxes are genuine or not. The blind box economy promoted its second-hand trade. The price of some classic dolls or dolls of limited edition have skyrocketed in second-hand trade platforms, and some may reach thirty to forty times. But it is difficult for buyers to judge whether it is the result of real supply and demand, or the consequence of businessmen’s tricks.
The basis of the “blind box economy” is the cultural trend of collection. Many of the target consumers are young people who have scanty experience of life. They are thus attracted by deliberately exaggerated probability of “winning a prize” and constantly throw money to buy blind boxes in order to gain dolls that they desire. Or they may buy at second-hand trade platform high-priced blind box dolls, thinking they can keep value preservation and appreciation, thus falling into the fixed pattern of trap carefully designed by businessmen.
Therefore, it is necessary to remind young people to control their consumption in case they become addicted.
1. A couple and a sixty-year-old guy are mentioned in Para.1 to ________.| A．stress the importance of “blind box economy” to people |
| B．tell how much money people spend on “blind box economy” |
| C．show the popularity of “blind box economy” among people |
| D．prove older people can afford more to buy “blind box economy” |
| A．The fondness of gambling to bet on their luck. |
| B．The high winning rate exaggerated by sellers. |
| C．The blind faith in the cultural trend of collection |
| D．The possibility of making a fortune in second-hand trade. |
| A．previous | B．inadequate | C．personal | D．unforgettable |
| A．To inform readers of the “blind box economy”. |
| B．To promote the products of “blind box economy”. |
| C．To list the reasons behind the popularity of “blind box economy”. |
| D．To warn the consumers to think twice before buying blind boxes. |
5 . The joy of giving is real, according to a study. Research presented in the Journal of the Association for Psychological Science shows that those who give gifts are happier — and happier for longer — than those who receive gifts.
Researchers conducted two studies last year. In one，participants were given $5 every day for five days and were required to spend the money on the same thing each day. Some participants were required to spend the money on themselves, while others were required to give to make a donation to charity. In a second experiment that was done online, participants played 10 rounds of a word puzzle game and each won 5 cents per round, which they could keep or donate.
In both experiments, participants reported their overall happiness. Those who donated their money showed that their happiness declined at a much slower rate than those who kept the money or spent it on themselves.
The researchers note that when people focus on an outcome, they can easily compare outcomes, which may diminish their sensitivity to each experience. When people focus on an action, they may focus less on comparison and instead experience each act of giving as a unique happiness-inducing event. Further analyses ruled out some potential alternative explanations, such as the possibility that participants who gave to others had to think longer and harder about what to give, which could promote higher happiness.
The results are especially interesting because according to one of the researchers, Ed O’Brien of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, they conflict with past research. “If you want to sustain happiness over time, past research tells us that we need to take a break from what were currently consuming and experience something new. Our research reveals that the kind of thing may matter more than assumed: Repeated giving, even in identical ways to identical other，may continue to feel relatively fresh and relatively pleasurable the more we do it,” O’Brien said.
So for all the holiday gifts you give this season, expect to feel happy and know that feeling is going to stick around for a while.
1. What’s the function of the first paragraph?| A．To lead to the topic. |
| B．To highlight the importance of the study. |
| C．To recommend a journal. |
| D．To persuade people to give gifts regularly. |
| A．To challenge the past research. |
| B．To rule out different experimental data. |
| C．To show the benefits of donation. |
| D．To make the conclusion more convincing. |
| A．Develop. | B．Show. | C．Reduce. | D．Lack. |
| A．Gift giving will result in longer happiness than receiving. |
| B．Thinking longer and harder on giving will promote higher happiness. |
| C．The feeling of happiness will disappear soon if people just give holiday gifts. |
| D．Taking a break from what were currently consuming will sustain happiness. |
6 . When I was a child, I often saw my Grandma throwing bread that was no longer fresh to birds. Not surprisingly, this attracted few birds. Later on, we discovered bird food at the local store. Feeding garden birds in the UK has come a long way since then. Today, the birds can enjoy many kinds of food: from plant seeds to sunflower hearts and from cakes to meat balls. All this comes at a huge cost of about £200m a year. Sometimes, I wonder if we might be feeding our garden birds better than our kids. But maybe it’s worth it. Our generosity is having an important effect on the behavior and even evolution of these birds.
Take the goldfinch for example. In the 1960s, this was a rare bird. Today, goldfinches can be seen in many gardens. Other new visitors include the spotted woodpecker, which has left its usual woodland for food on bird tables. Evolution is meant to progress slowly: over thousands of years. Yet during the past few decades, the beaks of many kinds of birds have become longer because birds with longer beaks can get more food, and then are more likely to live on.
Actually, the British habit of feeding garden birds goes back much further. During the sixth century, St Serf of Fife fed a robin in his garden; during the winter of 1890, workers in London were seen giving their lunches to songbirds. The real change took place in the 1980s, when a few farsighted businessmen realized that encouraging the British to be more generous to garden birds can help them make money. Therefore, various kinds of bird food and modern bird feeders were produced. As a result, the number of species using garden feeding stations increased very quickly, from about 10 to over 100. Then, in 2005, Springwatch came, which turned our love of garden birds into an entertainment show.
Is bird feeding completely good for birds? Not everyone thinks so. Studies by the Zoological Society of London have shown that by bringing together many birds, bird feeders may help the spread of disease. In Australia, some bird experts believe—probably wrongly—that bird feeding creates a “dependence culture”.
But we shouldn’t forget one major benefit of feeding garden birds—it connects millions of people to the natural world. This is especially important for people who seldom reach the wider countryside. As I write this, there comes some noise outside my window: several birds were singing and flying around in my garden. It’s a sight I could only imagine years ago, when feeding garden birds just meant throwing hard bread to them.
1. What does the author mean by saying the underlined part in Paragraph 1?| A．Feeding garden birds is a huge waste of money. |
| B．We spend quite a lot of money on the food of garden birds. |
| C．We should care more for our kids rather than garden birds. |
| D．Feeding garden birds can bring more joy than feeding kids. |
| A．These birds have given up traditional woodland. | B．Food for these birds becomes richer and better. |
| C．Longer beaks mean more chances of survival. | D．These birds grow faster than ever before. |
| A．It is completely good for birds. |
| B．It may help the spread of disease. |
| C．It connects more and more people to the natural world. |
| D．It may reduce birds’ ability to find food by themselves. |
| A．Annoyed. | B．Pleased. | C．Surprised. | D．Bored. |
7 . Germans have a word “wanderlust” which translated into English would be “the desire to wander”. Nowadays the chance to travel is endless. Thanks to cheap air tickets, travelling abroad is very easy and sometimes it's even cheaper to fly out of the country than to travel within your own. So, yes, travelling is cheap but there have to be other reasons to travel and you're right. There are plenty of reasons!
I have always had this feeling of wanderlust. It started from me wanting to explore my local woods at the back of my garden as a young girl and as I have grown, so has my sense of adventure. And I found my local woods being replaced with the Brazil wetland, Pantanal, where I went last summer in search of jaguars, snakes and crocodiles. The thing with travelling is that it's always different. Even if you went to the same country, to the same town and stayed in exactly the same hotel, it would be a completely different experience. The people you meet will be different, and they will tell you their own travelling stories: stories of holiday romances, holiday worries and stories that seem so outrageous that you can hardly believe them until something similar happens to you.
Or maybe the difference is you? Maybe you have changed since last time you were there? And that's the thing with travelling—it changes you. When you travel you are forced to experience a new culture. Whether it's eating a guinea pig, or staying with a family where neither of you speak a common language and you have to communicate through hand actions and smiles, the experience gives me itchy feet to do it all again. And although wanderlust is a German word, the English idiom “to have itchy feet” has a similar idea. Someone who has itchy feet needs to leave or travel. This desire to explore is found not only in language but in us.
1. According to Paragraph 2, what is the most important part of travelling?| A．Having different experiences. |
| B．Hearing many travelling stories. |
| C．Experiencing holiday romances. |
| D．Taking more adventures. |
| A．interesting | B．surprising | C．moving | D．disappointing |
| A．Staying with a family without common languages. |
| B．Communicating through hand actions and smiles. |
| C．Eating a guinea pig with a family. |
| D．Experiencing a different culture. |
| A．give various reasons for travelling |
| B．encourage people to travel abroad |
| C．explain the German word “wanderlust” |
| D．share the writer's travelling experiences |
8 . As my husband and I drove down a country road, we passed a fire station with a sign that read, "Are you ready for the next storm?” Our area had just been in the path of Hurricane Irma, causing downed trees and outages. We were stuck in the dark and cut off from the outside world.
We have had our share of storms in the past--a snowstorm and other heavy snows that knocked down trees, sometimes up to a week at a time. Those days in a cold house weren't fun, but we learned so much from those early storms, things that made later storms easier to bear.
Now we have stored up flashlights, lanterns and candles. We bought a battery-operated radio to keep up with the news. We stocked up on batteries so that we'd have plenty for extended power failures. We make sure our grill（烤架） is ready and its tank is full, and we purchase food that can be easily prepared and then cooked or heated on the grill. And we don't forget to buy emergency chocolate! We have book lights to read in the dark. We keep our car gas tanks full and have emergency cash on hand.
We're ready for the next storm, but we wouldn't have learned to do all those things if we hadn't encountered a storm in the past. The same is true spiritually. Those little storms in our lives are never fun, but they prepare us for the big storms--the big trials--that will come our way, They can teach us some valuable lessons.
Are you ready for the next storm? Now is the time to get ready. . . not when the storm arrives.
1. Which can replace the underlined word "outages” in paragraph 1?| A．weather change |
| B．virus' spreading |
| C．power failure |
| D．emotional reaction |
| A．The lessons that storms can teach us. |
| B．The importance of being ready for storms. |
| C．The necessities the author bought for her daily life. |
| D．The preparations the author made for the next storm. |
| A．It was rewarding. |
| B．It was annoying. |
| C．It was thrilling. |
| D．It was frightening. |
| A．Things will work out. |
| B．Keep something for a rainy day. |
| C．Don't stop regardless of the weather. |
| D．Sunshine always comes after the storm. |
9 . When we are kids, we are constantly being compared to others. Our parents may compare us to our siblings (兄弟姐妹). Our teachers probably compared us to other students. Kids compared us to other kids.
Those comparisons created either a sense of humiliation or a sense of pride. Either way, it has become second-nature. Everything we’d done has been followed by looking around and seeking validation (确认感).
Midway through my psychology PhD program at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, I felt that I lacked whatever magical ability is required to finish and publish a project. It seemed as though other graduate students were authoring several papers in the time it took me to complete a single experiment. I worked as hard as I could, but my progress seemed to be incremental (渐进式增加的) compared with theirs. When I shared these concerns with my adviser, she had a different take on the situation. “You’re not doing anything wrong,” she assured me, “you’re just pursuing a different kind of research.”
Comparing yourself to others is not necessarily a bad thing.
When you catch yourself comparing yourself to others, get curious about the feeling that is being triggered (引起). Is it jealousy? Is it obsession? Is it admiration? Is it love? Is it inspiration? Your triggered feelings will give you a clue as to what is going on within you.
Most likely, you are jealous because you wish you had what it takes to achieve what the other has achieved or to have what they have. Get curious and figure out why you still don’t have it and what would it take to get there. It is never a good idea to make yourself wrong for comparing yourself to others or to make yourself wrong for not getting where you wish to be.
But if all this comparison mounts to is bitter jealousy, then your problem is bigger than a simple comparison. Always bear in mind that your only competition is the one in the mirror and—believe me—it is the toughest competition of all.
1. Which of the following words has the closest meaning to the underlined word “humiliation” in Paragraph 2?| A．Virtue. | B．Shame. | C．Excitement. | D．Tiredness. |
| A．The author made great progress. |
| B．The author worried unnecessarily. |
| C．The author had magical power. |
| D．The author did something wrong. |
| A．Progress made with great effort. |
| B．Clues found through research. |
| C．Comparisons triggered by curiosity. |
| D．Emotions activated by comparisons. |
| A．How to view comparisons in a reasonable way. |
| B．How to seek validation when compared with others. |
| C．How to show second-nature in comparison with others. |
| D．How to get rid of feelings caused by comparisons. |
10 . Amazon is reportedly working on a free, ad-supported music offering as another option to its paid Amazon Music Unlimited and Prime Music services to better compete with Apple Music, Google Music and Spotify. According to Billboard, the free plan could go live as soon as possible. At this time, the service is only available in the US for users who request music by a trial version (HIA), but a full-fledged version of the free ad- based music service is expected to be launched sometime in the future.
Billboard reports that Amazon is now in talks to make an ad-based free level available for its music service. The company is expected to advertise the plan with its Echo speakers. By now, Amazon Music Unlimited runs $ 10 per month standalone (单机), the same as Apple Music and Sportify. Meanwhile Prime Music offers Amazon Prime members a more limited selection of content for no extra charge. A new ad supported free level would make Amazon the third music offering.
Billboard notes that it's not clear how many paying users Amazon currently has, though it may have been around 20 million last year for all of its services. In contrast, Apple Music reportedly hit 28 million paying users in the US alone, beaten by Spotify.
Amazon hasn't disclosed how many paying music users it has, but some reports last year estimated it counts over 20 million users across its offerings and expect it to gain steadily thanks to integration with its market-leading smart speakers.
But Spotify is still the market leader for global users when it comes to music services with close to 100 million users. Amazon’s move could attract more and more users.
1. What does the underlined word "full-fledged" in paragraph 1mean?| A．Modern. | B．Junior. | C．Powerful. | D．Perfect. |
| A．It wants support from users. |
| B．It has too many advertisements. |
| C．It would be the third biggest Music offering. |
| D．It will lose more free users. |
| A．Spotify. | B．Amazon. | C．Google Music. | D．Apple Music. |
| A．Amazon has the most piece of music. |
| B．Amazon will release a free music service. |
| C．Amazon will defeat Apple Music and Spotify. |
| D．Amazon has defeated Apple Music and Spotify. |
