1 . Motion sickness is an uncomfortable feeling. The sickness it causes can strike people on an airplane, playing video games, or, commonly, when riding in a car. In a future where people may find themselves running around streets in self-driving vehicles, the problems could get worse.
We typically sense our physical position and movement in the world by relying on our eyes, the feeling we get in our body, and our inner ear. Motion sickness may develop when there's disagreement between what your eyes see and what your inner ear senses. If you're looking at your phone in a moving vehicle, your eyes see a stationary screen but your inner ear feels that you're moving. The result of that dissonance can cause sickness. The common-sense solution is to just stop looking at your phone, but some of the appeal of self-driving cars is that you could use the time to be productive or entertained by what's on a screen.
Researchers of a car-making company and a video game company have been studying ways to address these issues. And their solution uses an interesting medium: sound. The research had two goals: to explore if sound could help relieve motion sickness, and to help people trust self-driving cars more. They experimented with two different categories of sound: tips that tell passengers what's about to happen, and noises that alert passengers when the device has noticed something, like a pedestrian.
The most convincing experiment took place on a closed airport runway in Sweden, near Gothenburg, in August of last year. On that track, brave participants had to ride in the backseat of a car driven by a human and read from a tablet while the car navigated the course. With just 20 people, the study was small, but according to researchers, the presence of sound tips made people report that they felt less ill. Participants said the sounds helped prepare them physically, or adjust their bodies for what was about to happen.
1. When does motion sickness usually happen?| A．Sleeping during travels. | B．Closing eyes on vehicles. |
| C．Driving vehicles speedily. | D．Riding in moving vehicles. |
| A．Confusion. | B．Potentiality. | C．Randomness. | D．Disagreement. |
| A．Uncertain. | B．Optimistic. | C．Concerned. | D．Dissatisfaction. |
| A．A study of motion sickness. | B．Self-driving vehicles. |
| C．A convincing experiment. | D．The cause and handling of motion sickness. |
2 . 60-DAY FREE TRIAL ON WINDOWS ASP. NET HOSTING
 | Free Trial with Instant Activation（激活）（Credit Cards NOT Required） Smarter ASP. NET believes in try it before buy it. We are completely confident in our ASP.NET hosting quality and customer service. Anyone is welcome to come and try us for a FULL60 days before they decide whether or not they want to buy. Unlike many other hosting companies out there, we DO NOT ask for your credit card information in advance and hope that you will forget to cancel our service. We won't ask for your credit card information until you decide to buy our service! Free Temporary Domain Name（域名） We'll give you a free temporary domain name to try out our service. You do not need to buy a domain name from us or transfer a domain name to us. |
 | Instant ASP. NET Hosting Setup & Instant Upgrades You can get your free trial. net hosting account up and running within the next few minutes. Try us risk free and start building powerful websites and save money at the same time. You can easily upgrade to a paid package in your control panel（控制板面）without any downtime. |
 | Free Support Included! Free Trial doesn't mean you're getting anything less! We offer every customer, including the Free Trial ones,24/7 Support. Should you have any questions at any time, feel free to contact our support team. Click Here To Sign Up For A Free Trial NOW! |
1. To try ASP. NET HOSTING, firstly, you must________.
| A．obtain a paid domain name | B．show your credit card |
| C．apply for a free trial online | D．determine to purchase it |
| A．you can get your free trial within several seconds |
| B．you will get fewer services in your free trial |
| C．ASP. NET HOSTING can save money for you |
| D．ASP.NET HOSTING is a free Anti-virus software |
| A．post | B．promote | C．pack | D．provide |
3 . An early spring morning I woke up with a strange thought "Something's gonna happen." The weather was beautiful and the morning promised a perfect day. I was still in bed, enjoying the sun and fresh air. Suddenly, the phone rang. I got it and a strange voice said: "Good morning. Are you sleeping yet?"
I wondered who it was. It was a nice woman's voice with a special accent. She told me that she wanted to see me and hung up. That phone call made me think a lot. A few minutes later 1 forgot this. 1 had breakfast and went out for a walk. The smell of spring was hovering in the air. The weather was warm. I was walking through the park, enjoying the beautiful nature.
Just then. I saw a young boy picking up a wallet from the ground. It seemed to me that I had seen this wallet before. First, I thought that he had dropped it, but his next actions made me think the opposite. The boy took the wallet carefully. cleaned it, and put it into his pocket. After that, he ran as quickly as he could. I didn't know what to do, so I began to scream loudly. I hoped there would be somebody nearby to catch him. But there was nobody around. I ran after him, but he disappeared somehow.
Then I reached in my pocket and realized that this wallet was mine. I felt very hopeless—no money, no keys, nothing. Maybe I had dropped it. That was a very awful day.
Suddenly, while I was sitting on a bench, a fascinating young woman appeared. She asked: "What has happened to you? Where have you been?" It was the same voice which I had heard that morning on the phone. The special accent I had heard on the phone. The same special accent! I couldn't believe my eyes. She was standing in front of me, trying to tell me something.
At that moment I felt someone shaking me and saying: "Wake up, wake up. It's getting late. Wake up!"
I opened my eyes and saw my mother. What a pity! No fascinating young lady, no park, nothing. I jumped out of bed immediately and checked where my wallet was. Thank God! It was there. It had only been a bad dream.
1. Why did the author begin to scream loudly?| A．He met something scary. |
| B．He wanted to have the boy caught. |
| C．He wanted the boy to stop running |
| D．He wished the fascinating woman to appear. |
| A．It was gentle. | B．It was from his find. |
| C．It was special accent. | D．It often appeared on his phone. |
| A．Staying in one place | B．Waiting in an uncertain way. |
| C．Rising last in the sky | D．Flying away quickly. |
| A．He lost it in the park | B．It was still in his pocket. |
| C．The boy took it away. | D．His mother hid it |
| A．The author's friend | B．The author's mother. |
| C．The young boy's sister | D．There's no such woman. |
4 . 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. |
5 . Members of a native community in the arctic (北极的)areas of Sweden say their reindeer (驯鹿)are facing possible hunger from unusual weather related to climate change. The local Sami community takes care of about 8,000 reindeer throughout the year. The animals are moved between traditional feeding areas in high mountains close to Norway in the summer and forests farther east in the winter.
A community member, Inga, is worried about his reindeer. He said climate change has affected the area's weather activity and created food shortages. "If we don't find better areas for them where they can feed themselves and find food, the reindeer will die from hunger,” Inga said. He verified the problem by reaching down into the snow and pulling up a hard piece of ice close to the soil.
The area received unusual snowfall early in the fall, followed by rain that froze. Inga said this traps the plants that reindeer eat under a thick cover of ice. Some of the hungry reindeer have now moved away from their traditional feeding areas in search of food.
Community members say half the reindeer moved towards the east as planned. But the rest headed back to the mountains, where they face the risk of attacks by other animals or being caught in an avalanche (雪崩). Older members of the Sami community say that in the past, they only remember bad winters about once every ten years. But now, Inga says “extreme and strange weather are appearing more and more often,“ happening several times a year.
Snowfall is common for the area. But as temperatures increase, rain can also fall, creating a “rain-on-snow” effect. When this happens, food remains trapped under the ice where the reindeer cannot reach it. This causes the animals to grow weaker and struggle to make it through the winter. Weather changes have hit the Sami community hard.
“We don't want money because we can’t buy better weather with money. We need the EU to take action and they need to do it now,“ said Inga.
1. What problem do reindeer meet with at present?| A．Cold weather. | B．Risk of hunger. |
| C．Long march for food. | D．Polluted environment. |
| A．Proved. | B．Solved. | C．Ignored. | D．Answered. |
| A．Traps under the snow. | B．Hunt from human beings. |
| C．Rocks falling down the mountain. | D．Threat from other animals. |
| A．Flood. | B．Drought. |
| C．Rain-on-snow effect. | D．Snowfall. |
6 . On April 30. 2020, the world's most famous musicians met online to celebrate the tenth International Jazz Day. with the hope to revive jazz music and explore its possibility as a unifying voice across cultures.
Despite the celebrations, though, the jazz audience continues to grow older because the music has failed to attract the younger generations. It's their job to help change that.
Jason Moran, the Kennedy Center's artistic adviser for jazz, was one of the musicians. He hopes to widen the audience for jazz and make the music more accessible and enjoyable.
“Jazz seems like it's not really a part of the American appetite （胃 口）. " Moran tells National Public Radio's reporter Neal Conan. "I hope that the younger generations understand that jazz is not black anymore. It's actually colorful, and it's actually digital.
Moran says one of the problems with jazz today is that the fun side of the music has been lost. “Today, the music can't be presented the way it was in 1908 or 1958. It has to continue to move, because the way the world works is not the same. " says Moran.
Last year, Moran worked on a project that arranged Fats Waller's music for a dance party, “I just wanted to put it back in the mind that Waller is dance music as much as it is concert music. says Moran. “For me, it's just to re — contextualize. Sometimes we lose sight that the music has a wider context. It can be adapted to（适应）different situations.
During the interview, he asked- "In music, where does the feeling lie? Are we, as humans, gaining any insight（感悟）on how to talk about ourselves and how a Fats Waller record gets us into a dialogue about our emotions and our thoughts?”
He added that most of the musicians have recognized the need and agreed to continue those dialogues for the year.
1. Why did the musicians meet online on April 30?| A．To celebrate the Jazz Day. | B．To show the value of jazz. |
| C．To remember the birth of jazz. | D．To protect different jazz cultures. |
| A．To mix jazz with other music. |
| B．To adapt to different situations. |
| C．To be performed by different bands. |
| D．To play with more advanced instruments. |
| A．It will disappear gradually. | B．It should be black and white. |
| C．It has to keep up with the times. | D．It has become more popular. |
| A．The Rise and Fall of Jazz | B．Goals Set for Jazz Day 2020 |
| C．The Story of a Jazz Musician | D．The New Problems With Jazz |
7 . The owner of a dog has received a message saying her dog would be killed unless she paid 1,000 pounds. Cathryn Hussain said her Christmas had been “a washout” of “sick” prank (恶作剧) calls about her dog.
Five days before Christmas, Waffle, a six-month-old labradoodle, was stolen in St Austell while the owner Cathryn took him for a walk in Belmont. Cathryn said she was approached by a male holding what she believed to be a knife. The suspect was dressed in black and spoke with a foreign accent.
Sergeant Steve White from Devon and Cornwall Police said: “The family of Waffle are very upset at the theft of their pet dog. All of the officers at the police station dealing with this crime also feel very sad for the family over what is a cruel and mean-spirited crime, especially during the Christmas period.” Officers have been checking local CCTV and making enquiries into the theft of Waffle.
Waffle still hasn’t been found. Police are trawling through lots of CCTV.
“We are all just a bit fed up of the prank calls that all seem to go through to my daughter’s phone. We received a text from someone saying they wanted 1, 000 pounds or Waffle would be beheaded.” Police have traced the person who was a male and not from Cornwall. “How dare someone use Waffle’s disappearance to make money. ”
“Christmas was difficult as I’ve got a five-year-old grandson so I had to force a smile for him. We haven’t told him exactly what happened to Waffle yet. Christmas really was a washout and was extremely upsetting for us. We just want Waffle to go home and things to go back to normal.”
1. What does the underlined word “washout” mean?| A．Failure. | B．Surprise. | C．Shock. | D．Fortune. |
| A．A man stole the dog from the owner’s house. |
| B．The owner walked the dog and it ran away by itself. |
| C．The dog lost its way when wandering around. |
| D．Someone threatened the owner and the dog was stolen. |
| A．The family have been troubled by prank calls during Christmas. |
| B．The police have traced the person who was a female from Cornwall. |
| C．The grandson was upset when he knew the dog’s disappearance. |
| D．The family wanted to pay 1000 pounds to let the dog back. |
| A．A sad owner of a pet dog | B．A valuable pet dog stolen at Christmas |
| C．Prank calls about a pet dog during Christmas | D．A lost pet dog found during Christmas |
Goodbye! You have been a long year. I have felt your effect in many ways. I can say that I’ve learned quite a few things somewhere within the eternity of your 12 months.
One of the things I’ve learned is to cherish the time I spend with others. I often think of our lives before quarantine (隔离), the simple pleasures, such as going to grab a coffee with a friend or settling in for a movie night. I realize now that I took this time for granted. Looking back, these simple pleasures are the times I cherish the most.
I’ve also learned to appreciate the people around me. I now cherish my parents and appreciate their love and support more than ever before. I cherish my friends and their ability to make me laugh no matter the circumstances. And I’ve learned how to cherish myself. Spending months and months stuck in my home, I’ve had ample time to work on the person I am and gain a little more appreciation for my body and my mind.
Within the long months of quarantine, I have also found things to be grateful for. Personally, I’m thankful for the shows, movies and music that I’ve discovered, the creativity I’ve found in the world now that our doors are closed and our minds are open. Overall, most importantly, 2020, you have taught me how to look for the good hidden among the bad.
However, I won’t miss the goodbyes you have forced us to say or the losses that others have gone through. I won’t miss the darkness of you, 2020, and the great pain you have caused.
We have felt the lows and the highs and everything in between. We will feel the impact of you long after you end, but we will learn to live beyond it and grow into something better.
Goodbye, 2020. It is your time to end.
Sincerely,
A writer from the Clog
1. What was the most important thing did 2020 teach the author?| A．Cherish the time spent with others. |
| B．Realize the simple pleasures. |
| C．Appreciate the people around her. |
| D．Look for the good hidden in the evil. |
| A．Annual. | B．Enough. | C．Awesome. | D．Optional. |
| A．She enjoyed it all the time. |
| B．She was sick of the stuck time. |
| C．She felt ups and downs. |
| D．She missed all the past in 2020. |
| A．The sufferings of 2020. |
| B．A farewell to 2020. |
| C．A regret in 2020. |
| D．The expectations for 2021. |
9 . Have you ever wondered why certain pop songs just make you feel so good? Researchers studying the question found that uncertainty and surprise give listeners the most pleasure. The study included 80,000 chords（和弦）in 745 pop songs between 1958 and 1991.
Each song was stripped of its melody（旋律）and lyrics（歌词）so that only chords were left and the results couldn’t be misunderstood by other imaginations of the songs that listeners might have had.
They found two things. Listeners got great pleasure from unexpected chords when they knew what would happen. However, they still found it pleasant to hear familiar chords when they did not know what would follow.
Vincent Cheung, the lead researcher, said, "Pleasant songs are likely those which keep a good balance（平衡）between knowing what is going to happen next and surprising us with something we did not expect. Understanding how music starts our pleasure system in the brain could explain why listening to music might help us feel better when we are feeling blue.”
Cheung told CNN that pleasure in music is connected to expectation. The study before had looked into the effects of surprise on pleasure, but his team's study also paid attention to the uncertainty of listeners' expectations.
1. What does the underlined word in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．Removed. | B．Added. |
| C．Played. | D．Recorded. |
| A．They listened to lots of pop songs. |
| B．They focus on the chords in popular songs. |
| C．They imagined the songs that can make people pleased. |
| D．They found lots of songs and then compared each other. |
| A．Pleasant music can explain human nature. |
| B．Listening to music might make people feel blue. |
| C．Music can improve the pleasure system of people. |
| D．Pleasant music comes from the balance of expectation and surprise. |
| A．His study only paid attention to chords in songs. |
| B．His study focused on the effects of surprise on pleasure. |
| C．His study took time to how music starts the pleasure system. |
| D．His study paid attention to the uncertainty of listeners' expectations. |
10 . Before she could even talk, Ellie Heath spent hours drawing pictures. When she grew older, the 15-year-old discovered the joy of sewing (缝纫). She says she finds it calming. She started out making small things, like jewelry and soft toys. Over time, she began making clothing. Her love of the creative work led her to open a business. Three Blue Bunnies is the name of her company, which makes what he calls “wearable art.”
“My definition of wearable art is something that makes you feel unique. It’s one of a kind, often handmade,” she explains. She sells her creations in farmers markets and at sales for local churches.
All the pieces Ellie creates are made of used or donated fabrics(捐赠的布料). She works a lot with jean jackets, renewing them with artistic additions. The process starts with finding cloth material that looks good with the jackets. “Then, I find out the design that works on it through trial and error (反复尝试) or the design comes to me,” she explains.
Ellie sharpened her creative skills at school. Cheryl Crow was one of her teachers early on. Crow call Ellie “a dream student.” She says Ellie worked hard and made progress. “She was always very creative, but also very kind, helpful to the other students.”
Ellie has many dreams. She wants to be a teacher and spread the joy of creativity among children. She also dreams her business will grow and become a model for other young people who have a dream they want to come true.
1. What does “wearable art” mean according to Ellie Heath?| A．Something that can be worn. |
| B．Something that is valuable. |
| C．Something that cannot be found anywhere else. |
| D．Something that makes you different from others. |
| A．Responsible and clever. | B．Energetic and outgoing. |
| C．Creative and warm-hearted. | D．brave and capable. |
| A．All of the cloth comes from donation. |
| B．Ellie got a lot of pleasure from her design. |
| C．It is a piece of cake for Ellie to create a wearable art. |
| D．The process of artistic design is usually not easy. |
| A．Improved. | B．Performed. | C．Changed. | D．Applied. |
