1 . Two of the saddest words in the English language are “if only”. I live my life with the goal of never having to say those words, because they express regret, lost chances, mistakes, and disappointment.
My father is famous in our family for saying, “Take another minute to do it right.” I always try to live by the “another minute” rule. When my children were young and likely to cause accidents, I always thought about what I could do to avoid an “if only” moment, whether it was something small like moving a cup full of hot coffee away from the edge of a table, or something that required a little more work such as taping padding (粘贴衬垫) onto the sharp corners of a glass coffee table.
I don’t only avoid those “if only” moments when it comes to safety. It’s equally important to avoid “if only” in our personal relationships. We all know people who lost a loved one and regretted that they had foregone a chance to say “I love you” or “I forgive (原谅) you.” When my father announced he was going to the eye doctor across from my office on Good Friday, I told him that it was a holiday for my company and I wouldn’t be here. But then I thought about the fact that he’s 84 years old and I realized that I shouldn’t give up a chance to see him. I called him and told him I had decided to go to work on my day off after all.
I know there will still be times when I have to say “if only” about something, but my life is certainly better because of my rule of doing everything possible to avoid that possibility. And even though it takes another minute to do something right, or it sometimes takes an hour or two in my busy timetable to make a personal connection, I know that I’m doing the right thing. I’m buying myself peace of mind and that’s the best kind of insurance for avoiding saying “if only”.
1. Why does the writer regard “if only” as two of the saddest words in the English language?| A．Because people use them when they feel sad. |
| B．Because they mean sadness in the English language. |
| C．Because they mean regrets and disappointment in life. |
| D．Because they make the writer think of some sad experiences. |
| A．given up. | B．looked for. |
| C．waited for. | D．made use of. |
| A．see a doctor | B．finish her work |
| C．join a celebration | D．create a chance to see her father |
| A．Advice from My Father | B．The “Another Minute” Rule |
| C．Avoidance of saying “If Only” | D．The Saddest Words in English |
2 . Ultrasound（超声）is used widely in medical imaging, but in recent years scientists have started developing it for another use: stimulating nerves to treat disease. In two new studies in mice, researchers focused the sound waves on nerves in the spleen（脾）that communicate with the immune system, reducing symptoms. If the approach proves safe and effective in people, it could serve as a treatment for diseases such as arthritis（关节炎）.
In one study, led by scientists at the Feistein Institute and GE Research, mice receiving a few minutes of ultrasound treatment to the spleen nerve had a diminished symptoms to an injected（注射）poison. In another study, researchers at the University of Minnesota and their colleagues reduces symptoms of arthritis in mice by stimulating their spleen nerves for 20 minutes every day for a week. “Zeroing in on the spleen may provide a more precise approach than focusing on the vagus nerve（交感神经）, which connects with the immune system via a second nerve that stimulates the spleen.” says Hubert Lin, lead author of the latter study. “When we’re targeting the spleen we have less of an effect all over the body.”
“Little is known about how repeated ultrasound affects the spleen or whether it has other harmful effects,” says neuroscientist Denise Bellinger of Loma Linda University, who was not involved in either study. An ongoing clinical trial aims to assess the treatment’s safety in humans with arthritis. A bigger unknown is how ultrasound activates in general. Scientists are now exploring the use of ultrasound on other parts of the nervous system, including the brain. “We know how to control nerves with electricity, and we’ve been doing it for more than 100 years,” neuroscientist Kevin Tracey says, “But the idea of controlling nerve signals with ultrasound is a brand-new field.”
1. What do scientists expect of the new application of ultrasound?| A．It'll be applied in medical imaging |
| B．It'll be used to activate nerves to treat disease. |
| C．It’ll be applied in spleen transplantation. |
| D．It'll be employed to rebuild immune system. |
| A．Complicated. | B．Worsened. |
| C．Decreased. | D．Associated. |
| A．Side effect. | B．Time length. |
| C．The procedure. | D．The cost. |
| A．Assessing the treatment' s safety on humans. |
| B．Activating nerves in general with ultrasound. |
| C．Exploring the use of ultrasound on the brain. |
| D．Controlling nerve signals with ultrasound. |
3 . The Giraffe Center in Nairobi is one of the oldest giraffe conservation organizations in the world. When it was founded in 1979, there were only 150 Rothschild's giraffes left in Kenya.
Stanley Kosgey, in charge of conservation education at the center, says the tallest animals in the world have never really gotten the same attention from conservationists and governments that other African mammals have. In some ways, he thinks, it's because they're hard to miss. In Kenya, it's not rare to see half a dozen of them as you drive past some fields on the highway. It can take you several safaris （旅行队）before you catch sight of a lion.
“Giraffes are in what I would call a silent extinction," Kosgey says.
In a lot of ways, he says, a perfect storm has fallen on the species. Climate change means longer droughts and new diseases; civil unrest means giraffes become easy food; and as African countries grow, humans have encroached （入侵）on wildlife areas and the removal of trees becomes a huge problem. Giraffes are huge creatures, and they require a lot of space and plants.
Kosgey says the good news is that the world has begun to pay attention. In Kenya, which has some of the best conservation policies on the continent, there is a plan underway to treat giraffes in the same way that lions, rhinos and elephants are treated. That's to put in place detailed action plans and programs to make sure those animals thrive. The first step for giraffes is to get a deeper understanding of their population by conducting a survey.
Kosgey says their conservation effort alone has saved the Rothschild's giraffe. There are now about 650 of them in Kenya. Worldwide, there are 1,671 Rothschild's, about 26 percent more than there were in the 1960s, according to the IUCN （International Union for Conservation of Nature）.
“They are tall, graceful animals and they should be heard/5 Kosgey says.
1. What can we learn about the giraffes from the first two paragraphs?| A．They run the fastest in the world. |
| B．They are in danger of extinction. |
| C．They are harder to see than lions in Kenya. |
| D．They draw conservationists' more attention. |
| A．It is hard for them to survive. | B．A terrible storm attacks them. |
| C．They live where humans live. | D．Removing trees leaves them space. |
| A．become healthy | B．hang out |
| C．move away | D．grow strong |
| A．Protecting the Earth. | B．Living with Animals. |
| C．Saving the Giraffes. | D．Loving Peaceful Nature. |
4 . There were far fewer cars on the streets and crowds were not seen in the shopping malls in Central China's Wuhan on Jan 24 — the Eve of the Chinese New Year. The scene was quite different from the occasion in the previous years because of the novel coronavirus, which had resulted in 41 deaths in China by the end of New Year's Eve, mostly in Wuhan, according to the National Health Commission.
Chen Li, a doctor in a Wuhan hospital, spent the Chinese Lunar New year's Eve at home to quarantine herself for having had contact with infected patients, but luckily she has no signs of symptoms for the time being. Chen's husband is at the forefront of the fight against the epidemic （流行病）. "We haven’t seen each other for over a week,” said Chen. On Saturday morning, she put on protective clothing again and returned to work.
Wuhan is following Beijing’s SARS treatment model in 2003 to build a makeshift hospital with 1,000 beds for receiving infected patients. It will be completed and put into use prior to Feb 3, less than 10 days away. “It’s going to be another all-nighter. We need to speed up the work,” said Lyu Jun, a young truck driver at the construction site. This is his first Spring Festival away from home.
For ordinary people, this year's Lunar New Year's Eve lacks some gatherings. Yin Yeqiong, from Hunan Province, refunded （退掉）her tickets back home after much debate. “I had it in my mind to still go home, but finally decided to stay in Wuhan,” she said. “Our stay will help reduce panic in other places."
Doctors, nurses and experts from across the nation have been selected to join the battle, and manufacturers have restarted their plants to produce medical consumables that have been running short in many places.
“This is going to be an unforgettable Spring Festival,” said Chen Ying, a writer. ''Because I feel that at this moment, there are so many families that I do not know, in every corner of this city, praying for our home."
1. What does the underlined word "quarantine" mean in paragraph 2?| A．Support. | B．Supply. |
| C．Serve. | D．Separate. |
| A．She couldn't afford the ticket home. |
| B．She was eager to work as a volunteer. |
| C．She didn't want to cause unnecessary trouble. |
| D．She was not allowed to go back to her home. |
| A．The Chinese are fighting against the epidemic together. |
| B．The epidemic is not so serious that we can enjoy our normal life. |
| C．Coronavirus, a highly infectious disease, is spreading around China. |
| D．Not until the makeshift hospital is completed will the doctors find the cure. |
| A．The Spring Festival in China this year is the same as before. |
| B．Chen Li and her husband are fighting against coronavirus in Wuhan. |
| C．Lyu Jun and his coworkers will help complete the hospital in Bering. |
| D．There is no need to worry because we have plenty of medical consumables. |
5 . When most people think about the "American culture", images of Coca-Cola, hot dogs, baseball games, big cars come to mind. Actually, American culture is more than that, and its history features the variety of American culture. Especially southern culture, plays a part in American culture. And the southerners are known for their hospitality, language and food.
Southerners' hospitality is very famous in the world. People who live in the South are very nice and are always willing to help another person in any way they can. If someone is from out of town and needs directions to a certain place, Southerners will make sure he or she knows how to get there. Southerners are very polite. Everytime they pass someone on the road, they are going to wave at him or her. Towns in the South have fewer people and everyone knows everyone. The people in the South are nicer than anywhere else in the United States.
Language in the South varies according to which area someone is in and what the person's background is. Most white people have a country draw in the accent. Most black people talk using Ebonies(黑人英语)，but some do have a draw in their accent. The other groups talk in their native languages or in English with an obvious accent. The languages in the South are alike in most places except in Southern Louisiana
The South's food is like no other places. It is colourful, has a wonderful smell that fills the whole house and tastes good. All the things that the Southerners use will wake up one's taste and are really delicious.
Southern culture is well-known in the world. The South is very different from other areas in the United States. The people are nice, the language is very different and the food is great.
1. What does the underlined word "hospitality" in Paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Being honest. | B．Being friendly. |
| C．Being generous. | D．Being beautiful |
| A．They enjoy waving at others. | B．They prefer to talk on the road. |
| C．They are glad to help strangers. | D．They don't get along well with others. |
| A．People in the South speak the same language. |
| B．People in the South are the nicest in America. |
| C．The culture in the South is unique in the world. |
| D．The food in the South are different from other places. |
| A．The Origin of Southern Culture. | B．American Culture. |
| C．Southerners' Hospitality. | D．Southern Culture. |
6 . The cultures of the East and the West are really different from each other a lot. This is because the culture systems are two separate ones on the whole.
The origin (起源) of the Eastern culture is mainly from two countries: China and India. Both of the two cultures are developed by rivers — the Yellow River in China and the Hindu River in India. They helped the two cultures develop for centuries and form their own styles.
When the two mother rivers gave birth to the Eastern culture, another famous culture was up on the Mesopotamian Plain — the Mesopotamian Civilization. This civilization later on developed into the cultures of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. And these two are well-known as the base of the European culture. Like the Chinese culture, the European culture also crossed waters. When the British settled down in America, their culture went with them over the Atlantic Ocean. So the American culture doesn’t have much difference from the European culture.
At the same time, some other differences add to the cultural differences. Take the language system for example. In the East, most languages belong to the pictographic (象形) language while the western languages are mostly based on the Latin system. Other causes like human race differences count as well. But what’s more, due to the far distance and the steep areas between the East and the west, the two cultures seldom communicate until recent centuries. So they grew up totally in their own ways with almost no interference from the other.
The differences are everywhere. They are obvious and make people’s ways of thinking and their views of the world different. But different cultures make the world of 21st century more colorful. The cultural difference should not be the obstacle (障碍) to the civilization of human being. It ought to be the driving force of our going farther.
1. What is the text mainly about?| A．The origin of cultures. | B．Culture differences. |
| C．Language systems. | D．Colorful world. |
| A．Both of the two cultures have a very long history. |
| B．They have the same mother rivers as the Chinese culture. |
| C．The early settlers from Britain brought their culture to America. |
| D．Both the British and the American live along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. |
| A．difference | B．influence |
| C．confidence | D．environment |
| A．A diary. | B．A magazine. |
| C．A novel. | D．A guidebook. |
7 . Singles Day: Alibaba Says a Lot of People in China Bought Online
The planet’s biggest shopping day has come and gone, and Alibaba again showed the world how many mountains of stuff (物品) it could persuade people to buy in the 24 hours.
Monday was Nov. 11, known in China as Singles Day. This year, nearly $38.3 billion worth of stuff was sold on Alibaba’s platforms (平台) that day, beating last year’s $30.8 billion and making Black Friday look, yet again, like a yard sale.
China has grown richer and more digitally connected. Alibaba has become a technology powerhouse. Along the way, the company has made a few famous friends. This year the singer Taylor Swift performed in its live-streamed evening gala (庆典) in Shanghai on Sunday. In previous years the model Miranda Kerr and the actors Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig also showed on the Singles Day stage.
Alibaba started taking the lead in China, simply enough, by connecting big Chinese manufacturers with big buyers across the world. Its business-to-business site, Alibaba.com allowed people to buy almost everything. Alibaba’s advantage wasn’t hard to see: size. Alibaba is just big, even by Chinese standards.
Alibaba now calls itself a data and technology company, one that provides digital tools to help the businesses on its platforms. That, in turn, leads consumers to look to those platforms for their every need, from shopping and services to entertainment and travel. Today, Alibaba is itself a gigantic company, and it wants to grow bigger still.
1. Where is this passage probably from?| A．A textbook. | B．A newspaper. |
| C．A science news report. | D．An advertisement. |
| A．2. | B．3. |
| C．4. | D．5. |
| A．Its platform. | B．Its service. |
| C．Its price. | D．Its size. |
| A．Large. | B．Small. |
| C．Good. | D．Successful. |
8 . Working out can help teenagers boost their grades, a new study suggests. Adolescents who routinely engaged in moderate to vigorous (剧烈的) exercise showed long-term improvements in their academic performance, the British Journal of Sports Medicine study reported.
“Our study suggests that the effect of physical activity may be quite large,” John Reilly, a professor at the University of Strathclyde said. The researchers looked at a sample of about 5000 children who were involved in a long-term study that tracks children born in the U.K. between 1991 and 1992. When children reached 11 years old, their daily physical activity levels were measured using an accelerometer (加速器) for three to seven days. The device, similar to a pedometer (计步器) tracking the number of steps taken, recorded the average time children exercised, which was 29 minutes a day for boys and 18 for girls.
“The actual levels of daily physical activity at age 11 were quite low,” Mr. Reilly noted. The children had their academic performance tested at ages 11 and 13 with compulsory national tests for students, and also at 15 or 16 with the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exam. The tests assessed the children’s abilities in English, math and science subjects. The results showed that the more children participated in moderate to vigorous physical activity, the higher their test scores were at age 11 in all three subjects. For girls, science scores were most strongly linked to exercise.
When children were tested again at age 13, their academic scores were still linked to how much they had exercised when they were 11 years old. By the time the youngsters took the GCSE exam, each 17-minute-per-day increase in physical activity for the boys was linked to an improvement in their scores. Every additional 12-minute increase a day in exercise for the girls was also linked to an increased score, especially in the science category.
The researchers have called for more studies to look at the possible academic benefits that could be derived if students exercised the recommended 60 minutes or more a day.
1. What’s the study about?| A．The influence of exercise on students’ scores. |
| B．The secrets of students’ ranking high in class. |
| C．The causes of students’ participating in sports. |
| D．The ways of improving students’ physical conditions. |
| A．To record how long students exercise. |
| B．To record the walking speed of students. |
| C．To record how many steps students walk. |
| D．To record the number of calories students consume. |
| A．Students at age 11 do more exercise than at other ages. |
| B．Boys at age 13 get more benefits by doing more exercise. |
| C．Girls’ science scores are more closely related to exercise. |
| D．More and more students do exercise to improve their scores. |
| A．Maintained. | B．Obtained. |
| C．Concluded. | D．Reduced. |
| A．In a storybook. | B．In a fashion magazine. |
| C．In an exercise guide. | D．In a research report. |
9 . When I was growing up, Mother’s Day was as important as Christmas.
The energy around the house was always positive, mostly thanks to my father who made sure that his kids appreciated their mother. We would clean the house, and Mum got breakfast in bed in the morning and didn’t have to lift a finger all day. And in the evening, we went to a restaurant for a traditional Mother’s Day dinner.
What I learned from my father over the years, was that no matter what, he always put my mother before himself. He absolutely loved her and never let her forget that.
I maintain my father’s Mother’s Day tradition with my wife. Growing up, I learned that showing affection to the woman you love or who gave birth to you is an important part of life. You see, it goes both ways, and the love you have for your mother comes back to you again and again.
Believing that and feeling it when you can may keep you from being lonely, even if your mum isn’t close by or has passed away. There are a number of us who no longer have a mother in our lives, and truth be told, there are often times when I wish my mum were still here comforting me. So instead, I remember the times she did just that. It makes me smile, and somehow, those memories of a more simple and loving life give me the comfort I’m looking for.
If you are mumless, you too should find a deserving woman in your life and celebrate Mother’s Day with her. If you don’t know anyone, there are plenty of lonely mums in rest homes who would enjoy your company for a couple of hours. The visit will make both of your days, and perhaps our lives, a little bit better.
1. What did the author learn from his father?| A．We should always put others before ourselves. |
| B．It’s necessary to express love to those we love. |
| C．It’s important to have an interesting family tradition. |
| D．Mother’s Day is just as important as Christmas. |
| A．honor | B．pass on |
| C．get rid of | D．continue |
| A．It can set a good example for kids to follow. |
| B．It is what mothers expect their children to do. |
| C．It’s important to follow your father’s rules. |
| D．It can warm your mother’s heart as well as yours. |
| A．Visit lonely mums in rest homes on Mother’s Day. |
| B．Try to get used to life without a mum. |
| C．Turn to other family members for love. |
| D．Give all your attention to your mother-in-law. |
| A．disappointed | B．lonely |
| C．warm | D．content |
10 . Some of the greatest problems we face today are the destruction (破坏)of our environment.Brown clouds, polluted water, endangered wild animals..., these problems seem so huge.
So my family does what we can. We take cloth bags to stores instead of using plastic bags. We walk where we don’t have to drive.
But does it do any good? When I am the only one in line at the market with cloth bags, am I doing any good? Does my walking to stores make any real difference to the world?
I recently learned something about flamingos(火烈鸟)which like to get together in groups of a thousand or more Every year when the time comes for migration (迁徙), a few of them first take off from the lake. But none of the others seem to notice, so the small group returns. However, the next day they try again. This time a few more fly along with them, but most of them still pay no attention, so they return again. They try for several times. Every time a few more birds join in but ,since the thousands of others still take no notice, the great migration plan is once more stopped.
Then one day something changes. The same small group of birds once again starts flying and a small number more join in just as before, then more. Finally, they all take flight and the migration really begins. What a spectacular sight it must be--thousands of flamingos taking off into the sky at once!
A few can make a difference. Even if you’re the one to take the first step, and continue trying,others will someday take notice and together we will solve even our greatest problems.
1. Where would you most probably read this passage?| A．A guidebook. | B．A movie poster. |
| C．An animal magazine. | D．A personal blog |
| A．There are only cloth bags in stores. |
| B．All the people use cloth bags in stores. |
| C．He thinks plastic bags are more expensive. |
| D．He wants to do some good to the environment. |
| A．Disappointing. | B．Fantastic. |
| C．Terrible | D．Surprising |
| A．To show that the writer loves to see the migration of flamingos. |
| B．To tell readers to continue trying and it can make a difference. |
| C．To introduce a special kind of flamingo to readers. |
| D．To show that there' re many problems in the world. |
