1 . If you want to do your kids a favor, consider having them walk to school. Walking to school provides many benefits – improving academic performance, reducing anxiety, boosting spirits, better sleep, a sense of independence, having an opportunity to familiarize oneself with a neighborhood, to notice small details, to feel a sense of wonder at the surroundings. The list goes on.
Parental fears still exist, however. Parents are terrified of cars, of injury, of harsh weather, of encounters with strangers and wild animals. These fears prevent parents from letting their kids do something that's actually enormously beneficial to them, despite the fact that removing an opportunity to be active contributes to an increase in childhood obesity, which can have a greater negative impact on a child's life than the risk of being injured due to being active.
How do we go from being a society that does not encourage its children to walk independently to being one that does? Parents must face their own discomfort with letting go. Brussoni, an expert who researches children's outdoor and risky play, said "We want to move parents from focusing solely on protecting their child to building trust in their child’s abilities and strategies to support their child’s skills in navigating the streetscape."
Schools can play a role by encouraging children to walk to school. Brussoni offers additional suggestions: "They should promote a culture that walking to school is the norm, help educate parents on why this is important, and consider closing the streets around the school to cars before and after school."
Parents might do well to put themselves in their children's shoes. As adults, we know how good a morning walk feels to start off a day or to end one. Walking energizes us and cheers us up, and it can do the same for children. As we go through this pandemic that has shaken up all of our lives, it's a good time to practice new routines and establish new habits. Walking to school is a great place to start.
1. What can we infer about kids’ usual way of going to school?| A．They walk to school alone. | B．They are driven to school. |
| C．They ride bikes to school. | D．They are led to school by teachers. |
| A．Focus on their child’s safety. | B．Protect their child against injury. |
| C．Believe their child’s abilities. | D．Strike traffic rules into their child’s heart. |
| A．Schools. | B．Societies. | C．Governments. | D．Children. |
| A．To illustrate the roles of parents and schools. |
| B．To advise parents to have kids walk to school. |
| C．To promote a way of establishing a new routine. |
| D．To encourage kids to form a good habit. |
2 . The terraced rapeseed(油菜)flower hills of Jiangling, Wuyuan is well-known as one of the four “seas of flowers” in China, attracting thousands of plant-loving tourists to come and appreciate and photograph the vast and endless rapeseed flower fields.
“Rapeseed flowers are the messenger of spring,” said Bin Zhan, manager of Jiangxi Wuyuan Tourism, “Jiangling is the best place for a relaxing spring trip to enjoy the most visually impressive views of golden seas of rapeseed blossoms covering layered terrace fields”.
The rapeseed blossom in the terraced fields of Jiangling, located 45 kilometres to the northeast of Wuyuan County, Jiangxi Province, reached full bloom in the second week of March.
This year. Wuyuan restores ancient farming traditions and practices to give visitors an idea or the history ，culture and folk customs of the county by adding scarecrows(稻草人) in the rapeseed flower fields. The creative scarecrows of Wuyuan County are designed in the shapes of popular cartoon characters, Hui-style architecture and folk customs. They are placed in the rapeseed fields to provide more fun and interactions for visitors on flower viewing tours.
“As flower viewing is becoming more popular in recent years, Jiangling is seeing a growing number of returning visitors, especially professional photograph who come back every year for the dramatic rapeseed blossoms,” Zhan said. “The blossoms only last one to two months. April is the last chance to catch a flower-viewing tour this year.”
In addition to flower viewing, Wuyuan County is also home to the most well-protected ancient Hui-style architecture in China. As one of the most beautiful countryside villages in China, it attracts photographers from around the world every year to document not only the natural scenery, but also the unique farming culture and folk traditions.
1. Which is NOT one of the features of the rapeseed blossoms of Jiangling？| A．The rapeseed fields cover a limited area. |
| B．The rapeseed is planted on layered terraces. |
| C．Rapeseed flowers blossom, at the beginning of spring. |
| D．When the flowers blossom, the fields are like a golden sea. |
| A．Folk customs. | B．Hui-style buildings. |
| C．Creative scarecrows. | D．Models of popular cartoon characters. |
| A．Returning visitors get discount when entering Jiangling. |
| B．Visitors could catch the last flower viewing tour in May. |
| C．It is in March and April that Jiangling has the most visitors. |
| D．Not many professional photographers will go to see the blossoms. |
| A．To introduce Wuyuan County as a tourist destination. |
| B．To report how many people visited Jiangling this year. |
| C．To introduce the history of rapeseed farming in Jiangling. |
| D．To remind visitors the best viewing time for rapeseed blossoms. |
3 . Earthquake rescue robots experienced their final tests in Beijing. Their designers said with these robots, rescuers would be able to buy more time to save lives during an earthquake.
This kind of robot looking like a helicopter is a flying robot. It’s about 3 meters long, and it took about 4 years to develop the model. Its main functions (功能) are to collect information from the air, and send goods of up to 30 kilos to people trapped by an earthquake. It has a high-definition 360-degree panoramic (全景的) camera. It can work day and night and is also able to send the latest pictures from the quake area.
Dr Qi Juntong, a researcher at Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, “The most important feature of this flying robot is that it doesn’t need a distant control. We just set the destination information on it, and then it takes off, and lands by itself. It flies as high as 3, 000 meters, and as fast as 100 kilometers per hour.
This robot has a different function—it can change as the environment changes. Its main job is to search for any signs of life in places where human rescuers are unable to go. As well as a detector (探测器) that finds victims and detects poisonous gases, a camera is placed in the 3-metre-long robot, which can work in the dark. Another use for the rescuers is the supply bot. With its 10-metre-long pipe, people who are trapped in the ruins will be able to get supplies including oxygen and liquids.
Experts have said that the robots would enter production and serve as part of the national earthquake rescue team as soon as possible.
1. What does Dr Qi Juntong think makes this robot mainly different from the others?| A．It has more functions. | B．It has a unique shape. |
| C．It has more advanced cameras. | D．It can work by itself once given the information. |
| A．A camera. | B．A detector. | C．A rescuer. | D．A supply. |
| A．It is carried by the helicopter. | B．It weighs about 30 kilos. |
| C．It is a machine with a length of 10 meters. | D．It hasn’t been put into production so far. |
| A．What the robot looks like. | B．An introduction to a robot. |
| C．How the robot is made. | D．Information about earthquakes. |
4 . The way that others judge you is similar to placing marbles (玻璃弹珠) on a scale (天平盘) as soon as they get any information. We form impressions of people the same way we form an impression of anything: As soon as our scale of marbles starts tipping one way, we start collecting evidence to back that up by picking up the marble that’s easiest to pick up.
Why? Our brains are lazy and our time is limited. As we get more choices, we become more careless about everything. “Basically, we get around choice overload by ignoring most of the choices we have,” says the decision-making researcher Peter Todd.
Think about an employment manager working through a stack of résumés (一摞简历), one of which advertises an applicant’s (申请人的) fluency in French. Does it matter, even if the position is for a web designer? It just might.
“Suppose the manager has a great interest in learning French to talk to her elderly aunt in Montreal. No doubt the applicant would feel excited about being offered the job,” writes Warren Thorngate in Judging Merit. “But how would you feel about such a one-step judgment, especially if you’d spent three days preparing your résumé for the job opening but did not trouble to note in your résumé that you, too, spoke French?”
I called Thorngate to ask how such things manage to continue. “Some very good applicants may be missed, but they don’t care,” the judgment and decision-making researcher replied.
“It’s one of those problems where everybody thinks that they’re a good judge of character,” says the researcher Kristine Kuhn. “But obviously people just are not nearly as good as they think they are. Even if they met someone and judged them as great employees and employed them, and then they turned out to be bad, that doesn’t shake people’s confidence. They can always explain away that it really didn’t have anything to do with them not being a good judge of character.”
1. What does the author say about first impressions in Paragraph 1?| A．They’re lasting. |
| B．They’re important. |
| C．They’re hard to make. |
| D．They’re often unreliable. |
| A．To prove it is not easy to prepare a résumé. |
| B．To suggest the employment manager is irresponsible. |
| C．To explain how your résumé makes a first impression. |
| D．To show first impressions are formed quickly and easily. |
| A．Employment managers. |
| B．Decision-makers. |
| C．Researchers. |
| D．Applicants. |
| A．They would hide it. |
| B．They would be punished. |
| C．They would excuse themselves. |
| D．They would lose their confidence. |
5 . You know that squeak(吱吱声)you hear from your pet mouse or the pest mouse? It turns out that it is 'not really a squeak, but a sweet song by male mice to attract females. This is the conclusion reached by biologist Dustin Penn and his team at the Veterinary University of Vienna.
The scientists who have been conducting a series of studies on house mice for a number of years, began by recording the high-pitched(声调高的)sounds male mice made the moment they sensed a female mouse around. What they discovered when they played them back to females was that the ladies could tell between those made by their brothers and the ones made by unrelated males. Just like human, they tended to ignore the ones made by their brothers.
The researchers then took the experiment one step further and analyzed the squeaks. To their surprise they discovered that while the squeaks sounded similar, they each had a different "tune". The biggest surprise of all was that the mice could even learn tunes from each other.
However, not all scientists agree with this finding. Some like Kurt Hammer, a scientist at the German Primate Center believe that the test sample was too small to make such a conclusion.
The researcher's next plan to test if the females care about the quality of the “song”. In some bird species, males that can sing the most complex tunes seem to get the most attention.
So why do we care whether mice can sing or not? Clearly, since they are being used as laboratory testers, it will help us make advances in human speech disorders like the ones found in people suffering from autism(自闭症).
1. What does Dustin Pen describe the squeak made by a male mouse as?| A．A hungry signal. | B．A sad cry. |
| C．A terrible noise. | D．A pleasant sound. |
| A．The male mice. | B．The female mice. |
| C．The squeaks made by the male mice. | D．The squeaks made by the female mice. |
| A．More studies should be made. | B．Mice are intelligent animals. |
| C．The conclusion is reasonable. | D．Mice shouldn't be studied. |
| A．It can find ways to kill mice. |
| B．It can inspire musicians with their work. |
| C．It can help treat human speech disorders. |
| D．It can find ways to select intelligent mice. |
6 . Anyone who commutes(通勤)by car knows that traffic jams are an unavoidable part of life. But humans are not alone in facing potential backups.
Ants also commute—between their nest and sources of food. The survival of their habitats depends on doing this efficiently.
When humans commute, there’s a point at which cars become dense(稠密) enough to slow down the flow of traffic, causing jam. Researchers wanted to know if ants on the move could also get stuck. So they regulated traffic density by constructing bridges of various widths between a colony of Argentine ants and a source of food. Then they waited and watched, trying to find out at what point they are going to have a traffic jam.
But it appears that that never happened. They always managed to avoid traffic jam. The flow of ants did increase at the beginning as ants started to fill the bridge and then levelled off at high densities. But it never slowed down or stopped, even when the bridge was nearly filled with ants.
The researchers then took a closer look at how the behaviour of individual ants impacted traffic as a whole. And they found that when ants sense overcrowding, they adjust their speeds and avoid entering high-density areas, which prevents jams. These behaviors may be promoted by pheromones, chemicals that tell other ants where a trail is. The ants also manage to avoid colliding(碰撞) with each other at high densities, which could really slow them down.
Can ants help us solve our own traffic problems? Not likely. That’s because when it comes to getting from point A to point B as fast as possible, human drivers put their own goals first. Individual ants have to be more cooperative in order to feed the colony. But the research could be useful in improving traffic flow for self-driving cars, which can be designed to be less like selfish humans—and more like ants.
1. What does the underlined word “this” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Surviving. | B．Commuting. | C．Finding food. | D．Avoiding jams. |
| A．Through closer observation. | B．By regulating their numbers. |
| C．By finding out the dense points. | D．By controlling the widths of their path. |
| A．They follow a special route. |
| B．They level off at high densities. |
| C．They never stop or slow down on the way. |
| D．They depend on their natural chemicals to adjust their speeds. |
| A．Traffic jams | B．Survival of an ant colony |
| C．Unavoidable? Not for ants! | D．Differences between human and ants |
7 . I have well travelled in Spain and visited a good number of Spanish cities. However, no city will ever quite match Cadiz, where I spent six months studying as a student.
Before that, I knew very little about Cadiz but I decided to take a risk and explore it. Well, the risk certainly paid off.
Cadiz, Europe’s oldest city, hangs off Spain’s southern coast on a peninsula (半岛), surrounded almost entirely by water. As you leave the shady streets of the historical old city and explore more of it, you are met with vast areas of the blue Atlantic Ocean and white sandy beaches, which in my opinion are some of the best in Spain!
One of the great things about Cadiz is the wonderful, rich culture of food and drink. There are little tapas (小吃) bars lining every street and most will serve tapas for around 1.50~2 euros, meaning you can try a whole variety of Andalusian dishes.
Cadiz has also come to be known as “The Singing City”. It comes from the annual carnival (狂欢节), one of the biggest in Europe. A very large number of people go to Cadiz to see it. During those ten days, Cadiz’s narrow streets are filed with the sound of singing as musical groups fight for a place in the contest, which takes place on the last Saturday of carnival. The songs perfectly show the sense of humor of the Gaditanos, who, besides being so warm and welcoming, are said to have the best sense of humor in Spain!
That is my experience of Cadiz: a wonderful, typically Andalusian city which is often overlooked but well worth a visit. I can currently living in Huelva, just a short drive from Cadiz, so please pay attention to my next sharing!
1. What dose the word “that” underlined in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Studying in Cadiz. | B．Competing in a match. |
| C．Teaching a student. | D．Becoming an explorer. |
| A．The unknown origin and long history of Cadiz. | B．The beautiful life of people living to Cadiz. |
| C．The geographic position and scenery of Cadiz. | D．The author’s complex attitude towards Cadiz. |
| A．A number of local people enjoy humorous songs. |
| B．Singing is everywhere during a big annual carnival. |
| C．Many grand carnivals attract well-known singers. |
| D．A lot of singing competitions take place each year. |
| A．A post on the Internet. | B．A geography textbook. |
| C．A travel brochure. | D．A biography. |
8 . Annette Larkins is an incredible woman who looks like a healthy 40-year-old, although she just turned 70. She follows a special raw diet and only drinks rainwater.
She looks so young that people mistake her to be the daughter, when she’s out with her husband of 54 years, but I suppose he isn’t complaining.
Mrs. Larkins says the secret to her beauty lies in her special diet, consisting of organic vegetables, fruits, seeds and nuts grown in her own garden; she calls it the “fountain of youth”. The woman doesn’t touch anything that has been cooked.
And another strange thing she does is to collect rainwater, to keep her garden blossoming, but also to drink. But the residents of Miami-Dade County, Florida, didn’t always have such a healthy lifestyle. In fact, she consumed meat regularly, as her husband used to own a meat factory way back in the 1960s. It was then that she decided to change her eating habits forever. And what a great decision that was. I mean, just look at her!
When she started off, Mrs. Larkins was just looking for a few health benefits and never anticipated that she would look like a 40-year-old at the age of 70. Over the 27 years that she has been eating raw, Mrs. Larkins has written two booklets railed Journey to Health and also produced a DVD containing all her healthy secrets.
Her husband, Mr. Larkins, wishes he had followed her example, because now he looks much, much older and also suffers from diabetes（糖尿病）and high blood pressure. He takes prescription medicine every day, but Annette doesn’t even take an aspirin.
1. What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 3 refer to?| A．The organic food. | B．Her beauty. |
| C．Specially cooked food. | D．Her raw diet. |
| A．Strong-willed. | B．Honest. |
| C．Modest. | D．Open-minded. |
| A．She sold them to the local people. |
| B．She abandoned them at the age of 70. |
| C．She publicized them in various ways. |
| D．She improved them with her husband’s help. |
| A．Disapproving | B．Supportive. |
| C．Sympathetic. | D．doubtful. |
9 . Artificial intelligence (AI) technology may soon be a useful tool for doctors. For example, it may help them better understand and treat diseases like breast cancer（乳腺癌）in ways that were not possible.
Rishi Rawat teaches AI at a University in Los Angeles. He is part of a team of scientists who are researching how AI and machine learning can more easily recognize cancerous growths in the breast. He says, "You put information about cancer cells（细胞）into a computer and it will learn the cancerous growth patterns（方式）. The pattern recognition is very important to making decisions."
At present, researchers have to take a thin piece of tissue（组织）, put it on a small piece of glass and add color to better see the cell-growth patterns. That process could take days or even longer. Scientists say artificial intelligence can do it better than just count cells. Through machine learning, it can quickly recognize patterns, or structures, and learn how the cells are organized.
The hope is that machines will soon be able to make a quick recognition of cancerous cell-growth patterns that is free of human mistakes. Rawat adds that the process could be done “for almost no cost for the patients”. But having a large amount of information about cells is important for a machine to effectively do its job.
Once the cancerous growth pattern is recognized, doctors still have to treat the patient. The form of treatment depends on the kind of cancer.
David Agus is another researcher of the team. He believes, “Computers will help doctors make better decisions and look for those patterns that the human brain can’t recognize by itself. But they will not treat patients.”
1. AI technology may ______.| A．treat breast cancer all by itself |
| B．provide free cancer treatment for the patients |
| C．recognize the cancerous I growth patterns faster |
| D．help doctors avoid making mistakes in cancer treatment |
| A．The process of treating cancers. |
| B．The process of adding color to cells. |
| C．The process of taking a piece of tissue. |
| D．The process of recognizing the cell-growth. |
| A．AI will develop fast in the future. |
| B．AI can be useless in treating cancers. |
| C．AI will not replace doctors. |
| D．AI can provide the doctors with treatments. |
| A．The Advantages of AI | B．AI Makes Better Doctors |
| C．Future Cancer Treatments | D．AI Helps Pattern Recognition |
There is a plan to build a new supermarket on the edge of the Whitefields housing estate（住宅区）, on the land where the local library now is. I live at Whitefields, and I would like to express my concern about this plan. It is not that I am completely against the idea of building a supermarket—I just think that as a community we need to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages before committing ourselves.
It is clear that the library is under-used and in poor condition. It is also clear that there are very few shops near here and a supermarket would be a good thing to have. But the people who want to build the supermarket seem to think that no one wants the library any more, and that it isn’t a must because of the Internet and so on. Is this necessarily true, especially for elderly people? What about young people who don’t have the Internet at home and need to go to the library to do their homework? Where can they study if they have to share a room with a younger brother or sister?
On the other hand, there is an argument that a new supermarket would not only bring more choice of shopping and more convenience for local people, but it would also bring some much-needed jobs for younger people in the town—and this is a good point. What we need to do is consider the effect a supermarket will have on our quality of life. Certainly local people, including me, will find shopping a lot easier and more convenient. But there will also be extra traffic. In a few years from now, the roads in and around will be full of cars in the daytime and delivery lorries at night, and not only that—we will have got used to it, too. Are more jobs and more convenience worth such an influence on our daily lives? Perhaps, but this is what we have to ask ourselves.
I believe that all the people of Whitefields, and the authority, need to discuss this question in an open-minded way—and I hope that by the time a decision is taken, we will have had a full and fair discussion of the issues involved, and that the local authority will have really listened to everyone’s view. Is that too much to ask?
Yours faithfully,
Tom Watkins
1. The supporters of the supermarket probably think ________.| A．the library is no longer needed |
| B．the library is too poor to be rebuilt |
| C．the supermarket brings down goods price |
| D．supermarket increases local workers’ income |
| A．Shopping convenience. | B．Job opportunity. |
| C．Life quality. | D．Traffic condition. |
| A．Approving. | B．Neutral. |
| C．Negative. | D．Confident. |
| A．To promote effective public reading. |
| B．To call for concern over an urban project. |
| C．To discuss ways of improving life quality. |
| D．To express dissatisfaction with public equipment. |
