1 . As I walked into the primary school, I looked down at my new black Mary Jane shoes—I wanted to be anywhere in the world but Fountain Inn Elementary School.
I stood at Mrs. Blackstone’s door. Before I tried the great escape, the wooden door suddenly opened to the loud voice of Mrs. Blackstone, my new fifth grade teacher.
“We’ve been waiting for you!” She said loudly. With a smile my mom walked away and I was left standing in front of a group of students.
Over the next few days, Mrs. Blackstone made it her job to find me a new best friend. During history lessons, when I didn’t want to speak in front of the class, she’d not only call on me but have me stand up to address my classmates.
One spring afternoon, Mrs. Blackstone asked me to stay after class.
“I’d like to speak with you, Amanda.”
My mind raced. Had I made a bad grade? Had I hurt someone’s feelings?
“Are you enjoying your new school?” She sat comfortably behind her desk.
“I want to tell you something, between you and me, not to be shared with anyone else.” With her eyebrows raised she continued, “I see something special in you. The way you communicate with others, the kindness you show—I think you have great potential to be something very important.”
I listened attentively to every word.
“I’ve been a teacher for over twenty-five years; I can see it. But you must believe in yourself. That’s very important. Remember that and you’ll go far.”
She then hugged me and said, “See you tomorrow.”
Her singsong voice was music to my ears that day. I walked out of her class, not staring at my Mary Jane shoes, but looking straight ahead with my head high. My teacher saw something special in me!
1. The author went to school unwillingly most probably because she________ .| A．did not like to study at all | B．often made low grades at school |
| C．felt embarrassed wearing her new shoes to school | D．was treated rudely by her classmates |
| A．speak to | B．deal with | C．look at | D．play with |
| A．embarrassed | B．nervous | C．disappointed | D．excited |
| A．To inform the author of her potential. | B．To make the author feel cared and loved. |
| C．To help the author to realize her mistakes. | D．To encourage the author to be confident. |
2 . I did an experiment last week. No, nothing involving test tubes or beakers (烧杯). Instead, I experimented with not watching the news right before I went to bed.
This is a long-time habit of mine so it’s probably not surprising that the first couple of nights I got a little twitchy when news time rolled around and I wasn’t watching. To distract myself, I went to bed a little earlier and read. Wow, what a treat that was! I love to read but I don’t always make the time for it so this felt quite luxurious. On the nights I didn’t read, I spent a little extra time petting my dog, Henry. He loved it. There’s never enough ear scratching for him. The compromise nights were when I had a book in one hand and was petting the dog with the other. Happy all around!
The funny thing about happiness is that it’s a whole lot easier to feel when you’re not being bombarded (轰炸) by images of bad news. It’s not like skipping the late news means that I don’t know what’s going on in the world. I still do read, listen to, and watch news stories. Just not right before I go to bed. That makes it easier to fall asleep and then stay asleep without dreaming about crime, wars, or natural disasters. (Although that dream I had about going to the prom might count as a natural disaster!) It’s definitely a much gentler way to end the day. I like it so much that I’m going to not only continue the no news before bed practice, but I’m also going to experiment with turning off other electronics earlier in the evening, things like the computer and smart phone.
Do you have any experience with turning off your electronics early in the evening? Does setting a particular time, like digital Quiet Hours, work? Please share any tips you have. Something tells me that this could be a little more challenging for me than no news.
1. What does the underlined word “twitchy” mean?| A．Angry. | B．Sad. | C．Anxious. | D．Pleased. |
| A．To treat himself with snacks. |
| B．To read to his dog. |
| C．To turn off the TV. |
| D．To read in bed. |
| A．He had more time to walk his dog. |
| B．He was less exposed to images of bad news. |
| C．He was cut off from the current world. |
| D．He had nightmares. |
| A．To encourage the readers to cut down time on electronics. |
| B．To gather the readers’advice in watching TV. |
| C．To share the effect of watching news. |
| D．To tell the readers the importance of reading. |
3 . If you were to throw, say, a banana peel out of your car while driving along the motorway, that would be a completely harmless action, due to the fact that it’s part of a fruit — right? Actually, no. A banana peel can take up to two years to be naturally processed, and with a third of motorists admitting to littering while driving, that’s a whole lot of discarded banana peels. An orange peel and a cigarette butt has a similar biodegrading (生物降解) term to that of a banana peel, but tin cans last up to 100 years; and plastic bottles last forever, as do glass bottles.
Despite the fact that longer-lasting materials will serve to damage the environment and its animals for longer, we can’t merely measure the severity of a certain type of rubbish by its lifetime. For example, despite having a fairly short length of biodegrading time, more than 120 tons of cigarette-related litter is discarded in the UK every day.
It’s not a cheap habit either: to keep our streets clean annually costs UK taxpayers £500 million, and when you include our green spaces, that goes up to £1 billion. So, it’s not surprising that if caught fly-tipping you could face a £20,000 fine or even jail time and, if you disposed of something dangerous, the court could give you five years to serve. Regardless of how severe these punishments might seem, however, among the reported cases only 2,000 were found guilty out of 825,000, so we still have some way to go in making sure people obey the rules.
1. What does the underlined word “discarded” in para1 mean?| A．Harmless. | B．Processed. | C．Thrown. | D．Long-lasting. |
| A．Glass bottles. | B．Tin cans. | C．Cigarette butts. | D．Banana peels. |
| A．The severity of rubbish can be measured by its lifetime. |
| B．Quite a few people were found guilty of illegally littering. |
| C．Every year UK taxpayers spend £500 million keeping streets free of dirt. |
| D．Cigarette-related litter and peels can be ignored for their fairly short lifetime. |
| A．To inform readers of different biodegrading terms. |
| B．To call for people not to litter illegally. |
| C．To encourage people to use fewer plastic bags. |
| D．To stress the importance of good behavior. |
4 . Perhaps you have ever heard the saying: Change is the only constant. Everyone, without doubt, goes through changes in their life, whether it is a physical state of aging or a mental state of emotional maturity. However, some are afraid to make the conscious decision to move or they think it's too late to have a fresh start.
I have a friend named Jack. At the age of 37, he is a Senior Manager at one of the Big Four. He has a great salary, owns his own apartment and enjoys the fine things in life, but not without the heavy burdens that his job brings. On the surface, it looks like he has got life figured out. Yet when I once asked if he was happy with his work, he answered that he some- times wished to quit his job to do something less stressful. But he’d become accustomed to this lifestyle and felt that it would be too late to give it up to achieve a new ambition.
For him, the risks are too high, so whether he can't abide his present job or not, he has to choose to suck it up. You might have come to a similar situation as Jack’s or you might be a Jack. You're now facing a wall. No matter what it is—the stress of your job or the terrible feeling, it’s time that you had to decide whether you'll tear down that wall or continue to let it enclose you. I suggest pushing back the boundaries and breaking the fixed patterns. Why do you feel it's too late to start over? That is simply because you're comparing yourself with others—younger or more successful individuals. In fact, you should compare yourself with the older version of you.
Don't become that person who lets life pass by only to regret it when you are making your way into old age. Don't let your life plateau（停滞不前）and waste away in the daily chores. Don't give up the potential you still have hidden and be locked away by your current state. Now, you’d better bravely start going after the things you want to do, without abandoning your dreams, ambitions and responsibilities.
1. What kind of people does Jack represent according to the author?| A．Those leading a happy life. |
| B．Those having an easeful career. |
| C．Those thinking it's too late to change. |
| D．Those having a high ambition to work. |
| A．Value. | B．Recommend. | C．Understand. | D．Tolerate. |
| A．Let life stand still. |
| B．Enjoy the present job. |
| C．Have a small goal in life. |
| D．Consider ourselves as a failure. |
| A．Everyone Can Meet a Jack |
| B．Don't Try to Control Yourself |
| C．Never Think Change Is Too Late |
| D．You Should Make Alteration Earlier |
5 . Australia's government has promised to pay “whatever it takes” to help communities recover from ongoing wildfires. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Monday an additional $1.4 billion in government aid for recovery efforts. Officials had already promised tens of millions of dollars to help rebuild from the fires.
About 200 wildfires have burned more than 6 million hectares of land in the southern Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria. At least 24 people have been killed. More than 2,000 homes have been destroyed by the fires.
The government assistance is to be used to help rebuild towns and repair infrastructure damaged by the fires. Morrison said the military was now attempting to get food, fuel and water to burnedout communities. Engineers were working to reopen roads and resupply evacuation centres.
Dry conditions and strong winds fed more than 135 fires burning across New South Wales. The fires hit earlier than usual this year after a severe lack of rain led to Australia's hottest and driest year on record. Scientists partly blame global warming caused by human activity for creating a high fire danger.
On Monday, rain and cooler temperatures provided a short break to some communities battling the wildfires. But the rain also made it more difficult for fire crews attempting to carry out controlled burning operations. The latest weather was welcomed in Victoria state. However, at least 20 centimeters of rain would be needed to put out the fires. That is about 20 times the amount of rain that fell during the past day.
Drier conditions and higher temperatures were expected to return to the area later this week. “We've got big fire danger coming our way toward the end of this week，” Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews said. “We are by no means out of this. And the next few days, and indeed the next few months, are going to be challenging.”
1. What does the underlined word “fed” in paragraph 4 probably refer to?| A．Contributed to. | B．Provided. |
| C．Raised. | D．Influenced. |
| A．Promising. | B．Positive. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Concerned. |
| A．Winds. |
| B．Lack of proper preventive measures. |
| C．Lack of rain. |
| D．Human activities. |
| A．The military was now trying to reopen roads and build shelters for those affected. |
| B．The rainfall amount was far from adequate to control fires. |
| C．The weather promises to cool down in the following days. |
| D．A total of $1.4 billion in government aid has been used for recovery efforts. |
6 . Picture this: It’s 2003 and your family has just finished arguing over which Netflix movie video tapes to rent that week. Movies come in the mail and the family watch them throughout the week. Then, fast forward to 2008, and you have started to watch TV shows on Netflix’s new platform.
Now, let’s come to the present. You sit down and open up Netflix on your TV and scroll （滚屏） for a while. Then check HBO GO. Finally, check Disney+. Then realize that you’re paying for three different streaming services, maybe more.
Let’s return to Netflix. More generally, streaming. There are over 100 video streaming services available, as well as quite a few music streaming, including YouTube Music, Google Play, and etc. The streaming world, at least to some, is on its way to getting out of control, with each service requiring its own monthly entertainment subscription. We haven’t even taken into account subscriptions like Microsoft Office and email newsletters. Subscriptions started out as a service of convenience, but now, the oversaturation may have become burdensome. The services believe customers will pay more to get the content they want. However, statistics show a growing frustration among consumers. With so many options, they find it harder than ever to make a decision on what to pick.
Not only does the oversaturation of streaming result in confusing navigation, it also creates a financial burden for the consumers. Let’s say if you want to watch The Handmaid’s Tale and Game of Thrones, which belong to two different services, you would have to pay nearly $50 a month to access both services, meaning it’s potentially more expensive, than cable.
People cut their cords （细绳） and went the streaming route because it was simpler and cheaper. Now, it’s just as inconvenient and difficult as cable was, if not more so, and unless you’re limiting yourself to one service, it’s not cheaper. Streaming will survive because we’re in a Golden Age of Media and because each service is able to create high-quality originals. But Golden Ages don’t last, and bubbles tend to burst. Until the unavoidable day when some product or service proves streaming out of date, we must suffer the choices in front of us. The next time you are scrolling through Netflix, Hulu, or whatever, and the over-choice is killing you, maybe you should just go pick up a book instead.
1. What is mainly talked about in the first two paragraphs?| A．Social progress has promoted the quality of life in the past decade. |
| B．Technology innovation results in different ways of relaxation. |
| C．Changes in home entertainment have brought us more options. |
| D．Netflix has been developing its service patterns. |
| A．The large number of subscriptions. |
| B．The frustration caused by poor service. |
| C．The rapidly developing entertainment market. |
| D．The confusing navigation resulting from streaming. |
| A．improve user satisfaction | B．raise entertainment costs |
| C．diversify entertainment forms | D．realize the resource sharing |
| A．the streaming service will have a bright future |
| B．reading has an advantage over streaming service |
| C．there will be some better service to replace streaming |
| D．nothing can end streaming services as long as media exists |
7 . As the effects of climate change become more disastrous, well-known research institutions and government agencies are focusing new money and attention on an idea: artificially cooling the planet, in the hopes of buying humanity more time to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
That strategy, called solar climate intervention (干预) or solar geoengineering, involves reflecting more of the sun’s energy back into space — abruptly reducing global temperatures in a way that imitates the effects of ash clouds flowing out from the volcanic eruptions. The idea has been considered as a dangerous and fancied solution, one that would encourage people to keep burning fossil fuels while exposing the planet to unexpected and potentially threatening side effects, producing more destructive hurricanes, wildfires floods and other disasters.
But. as global warming continues, producing more destructive hurricanes, wildfires floods and other disasters, some researchers and policy experts say that concerns about geoengineering should be outweighed by the imperative to better understand it, in case the consequence of climate change become so terrible that the world can’t wait for better solutions.
One way to cool the earth is by injecting aerosols (气溶胶) into the upper layer of the atmosphere. where those particles reflect sunlight away from the earth. That process works, according to Douglas MacMartin, a researcher at Cornell University.
“We know with 100% certainty that we can cool the planet,” he said in an interview. What’s still unclear, he added, is what happens next. Temperature, MacMartin said, is an indicator for a lot of climate effects. “What does it do to the strength of hurricanes?” he asked, “What does it do to agriculture production? What does it do to the risk of forest fires?”
Another institution funded by the National Science Foundation will analyze hundreds of simulations of aerosol injection, testing the effects on weather extremes around the world. One goal of the research is to look for a sweet spot: the amount of artificial cooling that can reduce extreme weather events without causing broader changes in regional rainfall patterns or similar impacts.
1. Why do researchers and government agencies work on cooling the earth?| A．To prevent natural disasters. | B．To win more time to reduce gas emissions. |
| C．To imitate volcanic eruptions. | D．To encourage more people to bur fossil fuels. |
| A．More volcanoes will throw out. |
| B．More solar energy will go into space. |
| C．More disasters will endanger the future of the world. |
| D．People will keep burning fossil fuels to keep warm. |
| A．He thinks more research remains to be done. |
| B．He is optimistic about the effect of cooling the earth. |
| C．He is concerned about the reduction in agriculture production. |
| D．He disapproves of the practice of solar climate intervention. |
| A．The rainfall pattern of a region. |
| B．The modest drop in temperature. |
| C．The number of extreme weather events. |
| D．The injection amount of aerosol. |
8 . What happens when you cross stem cells from a frog heart and frog skin? Not much-that is, until you program those cells to move. In that case, you've created a xenobot, a new type of organism that's part robot, part living thing.
Now a team of scientists has used living cells from frog embryos and assembled them into entirely new life-forms. These millimeter-wide xenobots can move toward a specific target and pull themselves through after being cut.
These are novel living machines," says Joshua Bongarch a computer scientist and robotics expert at the University of Vermont who co-led the new research. "They're neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal. It's a new living, programmable organism.
Xenobots borrow their name from Xenopus laevis, the name for the African clawed frog from which the researchers harvested the stem cells. They combined together well two different kinds of cells-heart and skin cells. The heart cells are competent in expanding and contracting, which aids the xenobot in locomotion, and the skin cells administer structure. Besides, they can't accomplish tasks without the help of computers.
By studying these curious organisms, researchers hope to learn more about the mysterious world of cellular communication. Plus, these kinds of robo-organisms could possibly be the key to drug transmission in the body or greener environmental clean-up techniques.
“Most technologies are made from steel, concrete, chemicals, and plastics, which degrade(降解)over time and can generate harmful ecological and health side effects the authors note in a research paper. "When these xenobots finally do stop working, they fall apart harmlessly.
“Promising as these organisms are, when we start to mess around with complex systems that we don't understand, we're going to get unintended consequences Michael Levin, a biophysicist and co-author of the study, says in a press statement.
1. What do we know about the xenobot?| A．It is not easy to degrade over time. |
| B．It can recover itself after being cut. |
| C．It will never die with a computer inside. |
| D．It is named after a kind of American frog. |
| A．Appearance. | B．Position. |
| C．Application. | D．Movement. |
| A．recycle waste in nature. |
| B．replace certain damaged organs. |
| C．deliver medicine inside patients. |
| D．improve communication technology. |
| A．Xenobots can be put into the market soon. |
| B．Xenobots are created totally by accident. |
| C．More research should be done on xenobots. |
| D．It is hard for people to understand xenobots. |
9 . I can remember occasionally nodding off with my phone between my ear and shoulder after hours of conversation with a friend. I’d wake up with the dial tone screaming in my ear. What happened? What did I say? The next day, my friend would tell me a funny story about how I had trailed off（声音逐渐减弱）with some meaningless words and begun snoring（打鼾）into the phone. We had a good laugh, but there was no harm because at least there was no permanent record of it.
For today’s young people, nodding off during a verbal phone call may mean a text written in their sleep. Who even knew texting while sleeping was possible before? But it’s possible today. A newly-published study from Villanova University’s M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing surveyed 372 college students and found that a quarter of them had sleep texting-texting while in a sleep state at some point. Of that group, 72% had no memory of the event. Respondents most likely to text in the sleep were, unsurprisingly, those who regularly slept with the phone on bed with them.
The study indicated that those who reported sleep texting admitted that cellphone use ravaged their sleep, which meant they suffered poor sleep. The study also found that most college students do not get high quality sleep, and that most do not turn off the cellphone when they go to sleep.
Young adults, especially college students, sleep even less than other age groups, often having only 6 to 7 hours of sleep per night. The demands of heavy class loads and the busy social life of college, combined with little to no adult supervision, have already been an environment fit for sleep disruption. Because of today’s technology of smartphones laptops, and so on, a solid night’s uninterrupted sleep sounds like a faraway dream indeed.
Maybe it’s time for a change.
1. Why did the author trail off with some meaningless words over the phone?| A．Because she wanted to horrify her friend. |
| B．Because she wanted to make up funny story. |
| C．Because she got tired and fell asleep gradually. |
| D．Because she was tired of talking with her friend. |
| A．Texting while sleeping is actually common. |
| B．Today’s young people can’t live without the phone. |
| C．College students often forget what they’ve done. |
| D．College students have a bad habit of texting before going to sleep. |
| A．Protected. | B．Damaged. | C．Improved. | D．Controlled |
| A．College students should stop using their smartphones. |
| B．College students’ class loads should be reduced. |
| C．Having a solid night’s uninterrupted sleep is impossible today. |
| D．College students should avoid using the phone before bedtime. |
10 . Yawning is something we all do -- maybe because we're bored carrying out boring tasks or because we're tired. Sometimes, just seeing other people yawn can set you off. But is this biological function really contagious, and why do we do it in the first place?
Many of us think we open our mouths when we yawn to take in more oxygen, but in fact it appears there is no clear biological reason. According to BBC Bitesize, new research suggests it might be because yawning cools the brain down and prevents it from overheating, much like the fan in your laptop. This might be why we're more likely to feel sleepy and yawn in warm temperatures.
What is clear is that we yawn more when we're exhausted and ready for a nap, and we can't control when we do it -- once we start, there's no stopping us! But it's also true that yawning is a very contagious behavior. John Drury, a researcher from Sussex University found in his research that there is a connection with our social group and how close we are to the people in it. If we identify with the person who exhibits the behavior, we are likely to copy it too.
Another research by the University of Nottingham in 2017 found similar results. They asked volunteers to watch other people yawn. They found their ability to resist yawning when others around them yawned was limited. And the urge to yawn was increased when people were told they couldn't. They also found, when using electrical stimulation, that they were able to increase people's desire to yawn. These findings, they say, could be useful in treating other conditions like Tourette's, which involve the same area of the brain.
What is certain is that a yawn can creep up on us at any time even when we think we're not tired --but, I hope, not when you're reading this article!
1. Which of the following is the closest in meaning to the underlined word “contagious”？| A．Infectious. |
| B．Active. |
| C．Dangerous. |
| D．Efficient. |
| A．we are too exhausted. |
| B．our brain needs more oxygen. |
| C．we are bored with difficult tasks. |
| D．our brain needs to be cooled down. |
| A．Humans can't stop yawning as it is beneficial. |
| B．When told not to yawn, we will yawn less frequently. |
| C．Using electrical stimulation can stimulate people to yawn. |
| D．We are more likely to yawn when someone around us yawns. |
| A．The reasons for yawning. |
| B．The benefits of studying yawning. |
| C．The necessity of yawning. |
| D．The similarity of the studies on yawning. |
