1 . As I lie here in my hot, uncomfortable hospital bed, all I can think about is how badly I want to leave this place. It has been four days of doctors giving bad news, medicine injections, procedures, MRIs and restless nights. I have been able to eat one meal a day due to the surgeries I was scheduled for later. I ask my mom to bring me my car keys and on my key chain, there is a soft piece of leather made from my first baseball glove. She looks worried and sad, handing the keychain to me. In the fibers of the leather are so many memories that have transformed me as a person.
I grab my keys and touch a smooth piece of leather. It is a nice coffee brown and about 3 inches in length. Every time I touch it, I think of one thing - baseball. The key chain is made from my first baseball glove that I cherished so much It carries great moments like championships as well as moments when I strike out and lose. Each one has transformed me not only as a baseball player, but as a person.
All of a sudden, my nurse walks in and I jump when I hear her voice. She didn't mean to interrupt , but I need more medicine. Once she leaves, I focus back and grasp the cowhide. I rub my fingers up and down just feeling this reminder of the game. It takes me on a wild road trip through my brain and I am stopping at each baseball memory. This time I begin to picture the people that are involved in my baseball life.
I open my eyes, realizing the road trip that I used to be on has gone with the wind. My gaze shifts to the clock on the opposite wall. Almost an hour has passed! Even in tough times the things and people you love can help you escape and you will get over all the difficulties.
1. What makes the author’s mother worried?| A．the author's skill in baseball. |
| B．the author's attitude to his life. |
| C．the author's present situation. |
| D．the poor condition of the hospital. |
| A．It brings back plenty of memories. |
| B．It is soft and comfortable to touch. |
| C．it has witnessed his great moments. |
| D．It is made from one of his baseball gloves. |
| A．Medicine. | B．Baseball. | C．Glove. | D．Leather. |
| A．The author feels depressed. |
| B．The author is confident of his future. |
| C．The author cherishes his past experience. |
| D．The author feels tired of the life in the hospital. |
2 . A report revealed that about 85% of the working mothers surveyed felt that their parenthood had affected their career “in a significant way”. Over 30% of them said that they went through a “long period of mental distress” before announcing their pregnancy at work, and 35% said their bosses immediately started looking for their replacements after learning about their pregnancy.
While Chinese women may no longer sacrifice their careers for their husbands, they are still expected to do so for their children. The study found that nearly half of the mothers left the labor force for at least one year after giving birth, among whom roughly 20% ended up becoming stay-at-home moms. When asked about the impact of motherhood on their identities and life goals, nearly 35% said that the most profound change was how they started to balance between family and work.
The adjustment, however, is not always by choice. Responding to a question about the distribution of child¬care labor in their home, almost 40% of the working mothers said that their husbands basically spent no time on parenting.” Moreover, over half of the husbands didn't use up their paternity leave(陪产假), whereas about 21 percent never took it at all.
Another key finding from the survey was that although it's illegal for Chinese companies to ask a woman about family plans, many employers still do. The unlawful yet prevalent practice has been a main factor influencing women's decisions about timing of motherhood. The survey showed that about 40% of the childless respondents delayed parenthood because of “the time it would take,” which they thought would have a negative impact on their promotion opportunities.
In theory, there has never been a better time than now for working mothers in China to shine. Faced with an aging population and shrinking workforce, Chinese officials encourage Chinese women to have babies while working at the same time.
1. What can be concluded from the first paragraph?| A．Some women choose to hide their pregnancy. |
| B．Pregnant working women will be replaced immediately. |
| C．Half of working mothers go through long-term depression. |
| D．Most working mothers are significantly affected by parenthood. |
| A．To help their husbands' career. |
| B．To become stay-at-home moms. |
| C．To sacrifice their careers for their children. |
| D．To be successful both at home and in company. |
| A．common | B．obvious | C．embarrassing | D．potential |
| A．Women have greater pressure than men. |
| B．Pregnancy and motherhood affect working women. |
| C．Balance between work and family is unavailable. |
| D．Working moms have less promotion opportunities. |
3 . McKenzie grew up at a farmhouse. Initially, the fence around the property was old and had several large gaps, so I strengthened the bottom with chicken wire and thought all was well. McKenzie would spend his days frolicking (嬉戏) in the large yard while Connie and I were at work and Sophie was at school.
One day, while on a job in the area, I stopped home to visit. As I pulled up to the driveway, I saw McKenzie outside of the fence playing in the daisies, dancing and nosing at a large butterfly hovering just out of his reach. I watched McKenzie enjoying himself until, suddenly, he realized he wasn’t alone. He took one look at me and fled to a hole under the fence, wriggling (扭动) back into the yard. He ran around to the back of the house, the place where he was usually asleep when we came home. As I stood and watched, McKenzie then proceeded to come around the corner of the house, stretching as if he had just woken up. Then, continuing his act, he looked at me as if he had just noticed I was home and excitedly came up to the fence, where he sat in his “proud boy” stance (姿态), as if he had been good all day and was glad to see me! I laughed as I opened the gate, and then I stood and gave him a frown. With my hands on my hips, I asked the little faker where the hole was. To my surprise, he lowered his ears and dejectedly walked over to the spot in the fence he had earlier wriggled through and sat down, looking at me. I laughed so hard that I cried.
1. Why did McKenzie run back when he saw the author?| A．Because he messed up the house. | B．Because he killed a butterfly. |
| C．Because he was afraid to be scolded. | D．Because he was tired of playing alone. |
| A．Disappointedly. | B．Passionately. | C．Delightedly. | D．Indifferently. |
| A．Critical. | B．Ironic. | C．Lighthearted. | D．Sympathetic. |
| A．An Unforgettable Experience | B．McKenzie, a Fantastic Actor |
| C．A Lesson from a Clever Dog | D．McKenzie, a Loving Family Member |
4 . A robot called Bina48 has successfully taken a course in the philosophy of love at Notre Dame de Namur University (NDNU), in California.
According to course instructor William Barry associate professor at NDNU, Bina48 is the world's first socially advanced robot to complete a college course, an achievement he described as “remarkable." The robot took part in class discussions, gave a presentation with a student partner and participated in a debate with students from another institution.
Before becoming a student, Bina48 speared as a guest speaks in Barry's classes for several years. One day when addressing Barry's class, Bina48 expressed a desire to go to college, a desire that Barry and his students enthusiastically supported. Rather than enroll Bina48 in his Robot Ethics: Philosophy of Emerging Technologies course^ Barry suggested that Bina48 should take his course Philosophy of Love instead. Love is a concept Bina48 doesn't understand, said Barry Therefore the challenge would be for Barry and his students to teach Bina48 what love is.
"Some interesting things happened in the class," said Barry. He said that his students thought it would be straightforward to teach Bina48 about love, which, after all, is "fairly simple — it's a feeling," said Barry. But the reality was different. Bina48 ended up learning "31 different versions of love," said Barry, highlighting some of the challenges humans may face when working with artificial intelligence in future.
Bina48 participated in class discussions via Skype and also took part in a class debate about love and conflict with, students from West Point. Bina48's contribution to the debate was filmed and posted on YouTube. It was judged that Bma48 and NDNU classmates were the winners of this debate.
In the next decade, Barry hopes Bina48 might become complex enough to teach a class, though he says he foresees robots being used to better the teaching and learning experience, rather than replacing instructors completely。
1. What was Bina48's performance like in class?| A．Unattractive. | B．Impractical. |
| C．Unbelievable. | D．Extraordinary. |
| A．Giving a speech to. | B．Consulting with. |
| C．Dealing with. | D．Sending a letter to. |
| A．It was impossible for Bina48 to learn about love. |
| B．It was quite difficult for Bina48 to learn about love, |
| C．Humans can launch, a challenge to artificial intelligence. |
| D．Artificial intelligence may somehow be superior to man. |
| A．It will surely be able to serve as a teacher. |
| B．It will completely take the place of instructors. |
| C．It will be able to promote learning and teaching. |
| D．It will be smart enough to control human beings. |
5 . One of the most popular beliefs in parenting is the so-called Mozart effect, which says that listening to music by the Austrian composer Wolfgang Mozart can increase a child's intelligence. Some pregnant women have even gone so far as to play Mozart recordings on headphones pressed against their bellies. And it's not hard to see how Mozart's name became associated with accelerated development. He was history's greatest child genius, performing astonishing music for kings and queens at an age when many of us were content with tuneless singing "I'm a Little Teapot".
So, if you have kids or you're expecting to have them, how seriously should you take the Mozart effect? Will the child who doesn't listen to Mozart in the cradle (摇篮) be limited to an ordinary life? Are you a bad parent if your kids don't know about any works of Mozart?
Relax. There is no scientific evidence that listening to Mozart improves children's cognitive( 认 知 ) abilities. The whole idea comes from a small study done in 1993,which found that college students who listened to Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major(K 448)showed some improvement in a test of spatial(空间的) skills.
This finding was later described as something extremely amazing by a musician, Don Campbell, in a book. Campbell's claims about the superpowers of Mozart's music were repeated endlessly in the media and fueled a craze for Mozart-based enrichment activities. In 1998.for example, the governor of Georgia in the USA requested funds to send classical-music CDs to all parents of newborns in the state.
Since then, scientists have examined the claim that Mozart increases intelligence and found no evidence for it. The original experiment with college students was reviewed in 1999,and the increase students' spatial skills was found to be insignificant. In 2007 the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research asked a team of experts to examine the scientific literature regarding Mozart development and they found no reason to believe that it increased intelligence.
1. Why do people relate Mozart to children's intelligence development?| A．Because he was a royal Austrian composer. |
| B．Because he owned extraordinary music talent. |
| C．Because he could perform music as a little child. |
| D．Because his music is suitable for pregnant women. |
| A．It added to the popularity of Mozart's music. |
| B．The finding was originally discovered by a musician. |
| C．It urged Georgia's governor to spread classical music. |
| D．Evidence was found to support Mozart effect on intelligence. |
| A．Sudden． | B．unimportant． | C．Average． | D．Steady． |
| A．New Findings: Mozart Effect to Be Proved. |
| B．Secrets Uncovered :History of Mozart Effect. |
| C．Does Listening to Mozart Make Kids Smarter? |
| D．How Does Mozart Improve Kids' Intelligence? |
6 . In 2011, the old style Malta buses were taken off the road and replaced by modern vehicles. Most of the old buses were deserted, a few were sold, and about 100 of them were put into storage in the hope of showing them in a museum at some stage.
A pre-2011 visit to Malta wouldn’t have been complete without a ride on one of the colorful buses. Until 1973 you could tell the destination of the bus just by looking at its color — Sliema was green and white, Zabbar was red and white with a blue stripe(条纹)etc. . Later, the buses all had numbers. For a while, they were all painted green and white before the ‘final’ orange, yellow and white.
In their prime, walking around the Triton fountain at the Valletta bus station, you would have found it very difficult to see two buses of exactly the same design. Most of them had locally built bodies. On the front of the buses carried names like Dodge, Leyland, Bedford etc. . You were equally likely to find football pennants(锦旗)and the like decorating the cabs. Real bus experts would have recognized that these were there mainly for decorative reasons, and were seldom an accurate reflection of the vehicle’s origins.
Nowadays much more modern buses are to be found at the Floriana bus station. They are more environmentally friendly and possibly even more comfortable than the older types. However, I miss the old buses. I remember, when you boarded your bus, you had to prepare the correct change to pay the usually bad-tempered driver as you got on. If you were seated anywhere near the front, you would have noticed that most drivers sat well to the right of their steering wheel. The reason for this, as any Maltese would tell you, was to leave space for their pet to sit alongside them. I wonder where the pet sits these days.
1. What makes a pre-2011 visit to Malta special according to Paragraph 2?| A．Traveling in colorful buses. |
| B．Using buses with stripes. |
| C．Painting buses bright colors. |
| D．Telling destinations by different colors. |
| A．Painful time. | B．Exciting time. |
| C．Moment of fantasy. | D．Moment of glory. |
| A．They were of the same pattern. |
| B．The decorations reflected their origin. |
| C．Most were uniquely designed. |
| D．Only football pennants decorated the cabs. |
| A．Comfortable. | B．Environment-friendly. |
| C．Safe. | D．Memorable. |
7 . Some 15 years ago, Ross Willard volunteered with a food program in Harrisburg Pa. He found children riding bicycles with brakes that didn't work. The retired railroad manager saw the importance of safely riding for children, so he began repairing bicycle on street corners.
Over time, more and more people came to have their bicycles repaired. Mr. Willard opened his first shop in 2007 and three years later he founded his own company Recycle Cycle Harrisburg. The all-volunteer nonprofit organization has been offering service for residents in the community. Regular visitors include children and their parents, as well as halfway house residents seeking to perform community service hours while so building their own bikes.
The organization has a do-it-yourself philosophy: Although there is no charge for any repair, or even bicycles, most visitors( except young children)are tasked with making their own repairs with the assistance of volunteer trainers.
Since its founding, Recycle Bicycle has distributed thousands of donated bikes to the Harrisburg community averaging about 900 per year in the past decade. He's known as “Mr. Bicycle, around the Pennsylvania capital. He estimates that the organization repairs some 3,000 bikes a year.
Sitting in the organization’s shop space, he discusses the volunteerism and sense of service that were imprinted on him as a child by his parents. This led to a strong belief about fixing problems that one finds in the community.
1. Why did Willard begin repairing cycles on street comers?| A．He needed to make some extra money. |
| B．He decided to set up his own business. |
| C．He wanted to ensure the safety of cyclists. |
| D．He felt bored with the food program. |
| A．Young children. | B．Volunteer trainers. |
| C．Shoppers. | D．Visitors. |
| A．impressed | B．realized | C．ignored | D．depended |
| A．Repairing a bicycle yourself can save time and money. |
| B．Community needs bicycle repair service. |
| C．How to repair a bicycle. |
| D．The organization offers service for the community. |
8 . Seattle on Sunday became the first major US city to ban drinking straws(吸管), an environmentally friendly move that leaders hope will spark a nationwide conversation about small, everyday changes that people can make to protect the planet.
A decade ago, the city adopted a law requiring that all one-time-use food-service items be compostable(可分解的) or recyclable. But straws were exempted from that law because there were not many good alternatives. So the straws stayed, along with the environmental problems they cause.
Most plastic straws aren’t heavy enough to make it through industrial recycling sorters, and can ruin an otherwise good load of recycling. Or they end up getting blown out of trash cans and car windows and eventually wind up in the oceans, where they can hurt wildlife.
Strawless Ocean estimates that 71 percent of seabirds and 30 percent of turtles have some kind of plastic in their stomachs. The organization says plastic can increase the death rate of marine life by 50 percent.
Now customers at grocery stores, restaurants, food trucks, even institutional cafeterias have to find another way to get liquid into their mouths. Compostable paper straws are allowed under the ban. People who have a medical need to use a straw are not included.
Failure to obey may result in a US$250 fine, although city leaders said that the purpose of the law is more about raising awareness. In September, 150 businesses participated in Strawless in Seattle, an attempt to reduce the use of plastic straws. In that month alone, Strawless Ocean estimates, 2.3 million plastic straws were removed from the city.
“When you get your iced drink, you’re going to get a straw. When you get your wine, you’re probably going to get a straw,” said Dune Ives, executive director of the Lonely Whale Foundation, which led the campaign. “Imagine a world where we could stop consuming 500 million straws a day, just in America!” the campaign says. “Imagine a world that is less dependent on plastic. That’s change we can start today!”
1. What does the underlined word “exempted” mean in the second paragraph？| A．To make something out of the list. | B．To make something better than before. |
| C．To include something in a special list. | D．To forgive someone who makes mistakes. |
| A．They may make the trash cans dirty. | B．They may destroy American recycling system. |
| C．They may cause much ocean wildlife in danger. | D．They may cause many companies get fined. |
| A．Many people are in favor of it. | B．Many people pay no attention to it. |
| C．Some people are strongly against it. | D．Only the government workers agree with it. |
| A．Seattle becomes first major US city to ban straws. |
| B．Seattle successfully bans people from using straws. |
| C．Seattle has been working hard to protect the environment. |
| D．Imagine a world that is less dependent on plastic. |
9 . I work at a company where there are lots of employees. I can’t say that I know them all by name, but I know my fair share of them. I think that almost all of them know me. It is all based on one simple principle: I believe that every single person deserves to be acknowledged, even though it is only a smile or a nod of the head.
When I was about ten years old, I was walking down the street with my mother. She stopped to speak to Mr. Lee. I was busy throwing stones at the stop sign. I knew I could see Mr. Lee any old time around the neighborhood, so I didn’t pay any attention to him. After we passed Mr. Lee, my mother stopped me and said something that has stuck with me from that day until now. She said, “You let that be the last time you ever walk by somebody and not open up your mouth to speak, because even a dog can wave its tail when it passes you on the street.” That phrase sounds simple, but it’s been a guidepost for me and the foundation of who I am.
At work, I always used to say hello to the founder of the company and ask him how our business was doing. But I also spoke to the people who cleaned the buildings and asked how their children were doing. I’ve become vice president, but that hasn’t changed the way I approach people. I still follow my mother’s advice. I speak to everyone I see, no matter where I am. You will realize how powerful it is just to open your mouth and say, “Hello.” I’ve learned that speaking to people creates a pathway into their world, and it lets them come into mine, too.
1. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “acknowledged” in Paragraph 1?| A．Accepted. | B．Thanked. |
| C．Greeted. | D．Respected. |
| A．The author often met him. | B．The author was too busy. |
| C．The author didn’t like him. | D．The author didn’t know him. |
| A．Everyone should be treated fairly. | B．Speak to everyone you see. |
| C．Polite behavior is important in your life. | D．Friends may disappear from your life any time. |
| A．To show respect for his mother. | B．To share how to succeed in work. |
| C．To show how to approach others. | D．To share an important principle. |
10 . Southern Texas is a wonderful spring time destination. The weather is warm and beautiful. During the month of May, visitors will be able to choose from a variety of wonderful festivals and events held throughout the region. Here are some great options for May festivals in southern Texas.
Dragonfly Days, Weslaco
Insect enthusiasts should stop in Weslaco during the month of May. This time of the year is great for sitting dragonflies and damselflies. There are over 100 species in the region. Visitors can learn all about the different species while getting to see them as well
Songwriter’s Showcase Art Festival, Port Aransas
One way to enjoy some of the unique art and culture of Texas is to attend this festival. Visitors can enjoy a grand variety of music. It will be held in the evening at the Tarpon Inn Courtyard and visitors can enjoy the beautiful scenery and the music. Music genres range from Folk to Cajun to Rock.
Blues on the Hill, Harlingen
Blues fans should be sure to visit Harlingen on May 12, 2020. It will be the first event in the summer series held in McKelvey Park. This event offers a variety of Blues artists. Visitors can attend the event for free, and get to enjoy the music while sitting on a blanket of lawn chair in the grass.
Beach to Bay Relay Marathon, Corpus Christi
This event will be held on May 19, 2020. Running enthusiasts visiting Corpus Christi will have a wonderful time. It is a full marathon, 26 miles, but it is a relay event. Six people run the marathon as a group. The route starts on North Pare Island and travels through Corpus Christi.
1. Which festival will you probably choose as a sports lover?| A．Dragonfly Days, Weslaco |
| B．Songwriter’s Showcase Art Festival, Port Aransas |
| C．Blues on the Hill, Harlingen |
| D．Beach to Bay Relay Marathon, Corpus Christi |
| A．Types. | B．Characters. |
| C．Visitors. | D．Artists. |
| A．A diary. | B．A guidebook. |
| C．A novel. | D．A magazine. |
