1 . I sometimes find that watching a film adaptation (改编作品) of a book helps me to understand the story of a book.This is especially true for books from a different period or with a difficult dialect.My favourite example of these is Pride and Prejudice, which is also my favourite book.
Film and TV adaptations of books also mean that books reach a wider audience，prompting (促使) people to read the book if they really liked the film. In terms of language learning，watching film or TV adaptations of books can help to provide an understanding of a story that may have otherwise (否则) been difficult to understand.They also help to give a story a more modern twist (转折)，for example Oliver！As an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist.The language in the book can be enough to reduce a native speaker to tears，but the adaptation allows everyone to enjoy the story of the child Oliver. Similarly, the 1996 film Romeo and Juliet，an adaptation of the Shakespeare play of the same name，enables those of us who haven’t studied Shakespeare to still enjoy his play.
Of course, there are limitations and not every story that is translated onto the screen is liked by the many fans of the book，or even the author. For example, the author of the book Mary Poppins, P.L.Travers，hated Disney’s adaptation，but it is now a well－loved work. One of my least favourite adaptations is that of Still Alice by Lisa Genova.They changed the location from Boston to New York for no real reason，which for some readers changes the whole feel of the book.
In my opinion, adaptations are a great way to introduce people to the story and characters of a book before reading it.They’re also a good way for people who may not feel confident enough to read a whole novel in a different language，but still want to enjoy a specific story.
1. The film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice helps the author .| A．develop an interest in the book |
| B．understand the story of the book |
| C．learn history of a different period |
| D．understand the dialect in the book |
| A．By listing facts. |
| B．By giving examples. |
| C．By making comparisons. |
| D．By offering explanations. |
| A．The film Still Alice. |
| B．The book Still Alice. |
| C．The film Mary Poppins. |
| D．The book Mary Poppins. |
| A．He pays little attention to it. |
| B．He has doubts about it. |
| C．He is in support of it. |
| D．He is against it. |
2 . Lego is considering a brick rental scheme in an attempt to cut down on plastic waste.The Danish toymaker has promised to make all its bricks from sustainable sources by 2030 and is ploughing significant resources into finding alternatives.
Tim Brooks,vice-president responsible for sustainability,said the company was “totally open” to the idea of a product rental scheme but acknowledged that lost pieces could cause a significant problem.He said the rental scheme was “possible” but admitted there were some “technical barriers”,one of which is the complexity of some Lego kits (配套元件),many of which contain thousands of pieces.
“What are the chances of giving them to an eight-year-old child and getting them all back again?” Mr Brooks added.There is a lot of technical thinking that needs to be done.
“We are right at beginning of that.” Mr Brooks said Lego was exploring several ideas with a view to producing the highest value from products while consuming the least amount of resources.He said many would “probably never see the light of day” and there was no current plan to try a rental scheme.
Lego has come under increasing pressure to reduce its carbon footprint amid growing international alarm about the impact of plastic waste on the environment.It manufactures 19 billion pieces per year—36,000 a minute—that are made only of plastic while much of the internal packaging is also plastic.
So far,the only breakthrough has been the development of a line of bricks made from plant-based plastic sourced from sugarcane.The green trees,plants and flowers were first included in Lego sets late last year but account for only one or two percent of the total amount of plastic elements produced.Henrik Ostergaard Nielson,a production supervisor in Lego’s factory in Billund,told the New York Times last year,“We need to learn again how to do this.”
1. How will Lego cut down on plastic waste?| A．By considering a brick rental scheme. |
| B．By producing a new kind of toys instead of bricks. |
| C．By replacing common plastic with a renewable material. |
| D．By investing large amounts of money into market. |
| A．It’ll cause certain serious problems. |
| B．It’ll be of great complexity. |
| C．It’ll require more mature technical skills. |
| D．It’ll involve much more kits of bricks. |
| A．Ideas. | B．Values. |
| C．Products. | D．Resources. |
| A．Lego has to explore a new product to earn a profit. |
| B．A brick rental scheme has been put into mass production. |
| C．Plant-based plastic is environmentally friendly. |
| D．Lego is optimistic about the brick rental scheme. |
3 . We all know about the health benefits of swimming. It offers a great workout for the body—it builds endurance, muscle strength and cardiovascular fitness. If you don't mind getting wet, it can be fun too. But who would enjoy swimming in water that is ice cold. Well, many people are taking the plunge, based on evidence that it can actually be good for us.
Cold-water swimming—sometimes called wild swimming—involves swimming in natural areas including ponds, rivers and the sea. Jumping in gives a short sharp shock to the body, but many participants say they get used to it. A cold dip might wake you up, but research has found it can have much bigger benefits than that for your body and mind. As well as being good exercise, spending time outdoors and by water improves wellbeing.
There is much evidence, mostly anecdotal, that suggests cold-water swimming has cured certain health conditions. One man who suffered constant pain after surgery claimed he was cured by taking a plunge in cold open water. And another swimmer, Sandria Simons, told the BBC “the immersion of your body in cold, salt water, just feeling like you're at one with nature if you like, just feels amazing. ”
But what is it that people are gaining from this chilly experience? Doctors say getting into cold water evokes a stress response, but the more you do it, your reaction to stress is reduced. It's also thought to have a strong anti-inflammatory effect. But there are bigger benefits to this stress-reducing exercise. Some experts believe cold-water swimming helps 'cross-adaptation', where one form of stress prepares the body for another. For example? it also helps reduce the stress of exercising at high altitude.
So, if you're convinced that this is for you, take advice: approach it with caution, swim with a friend, and maybe start in the summer, when the water temperatures are higher!
1. What is the text mainly about?| A．Swimming and health. | B．Cold-water swimming. |
| C．Reducing stress. | D．A chilly experience. |
| A．The sharp body shock. | B．The benefit. |
| C．The cold dip. | D．The research. |
| A．It brings you close to nature. | B．It cures certain health conditions. |
| C．It has cross-adaptation effects. | D．It's a great physical exercise. |
| A．Start at an early age. | B．Do it immediately. |
| C．Adapt first in cold water. | D．Safety comes first. |
4 . Rome wasn't built in a day. And neither was the Roman subway system. Underground work is slow going, because construction workers often meet with frescoes(壁画) and other valuable stone foundations thousands of years ago. And a few years ago, they found the wooden foundations of a luxurious porch from a Roman building.
So local archaeologists called in Mauro Bernabei of the National Research Council of Italy. He's a dendrochronologist: someone who analyzes tree rings, which give age and environmental information.
"We have to study wood because it's full, really full, of information!" Bernabei and his team found that the wooden planks were oak(橡木). But the wood's origin was harder to determine. So they compared the tree rings in the oak floor to those available in libraries of tree rings that contain timber from all over Europe. And they found a match for the Roman wood—from the Jura region of eastern France, more than 600 miles away.
The researchers also determined that it was used in about 40 to 60 B.C. And some came from trees already up to 300 years old when they were cut down. The details are in the journal PLOS ONE.
The discovery is the first clear evidence of oak from north of the Alps being used to build ancient Rome. And it's a reminder that the Romans had a complex trading network. These trees, for example, likely floated down two rivers, across the Mediterranean and up another river to Rome.
Bernabei says Roman archaeologists usually destroy ancient wood—it's not as valuable as jewelry and vases and frescos. But he's hoping this study might change their minds."Save the wood, yes! And call me,if you don't want to save—please, call me!"He says.
1. Why does the subway in Rome go slowly?| A．It is hard to dig up the earth in Rome. |
| B．There are many ancient ruins buried here. |
| C．It is very dangerous to work too fast in Rome |
| D．The Roman are not experienced in building subways |
| A．The wealth in ancient Rome |
| B．The trading information of ancient Rome |
| C．The culture of ancient Rome |
| D．The social relations of ancient Rome |
| A．The stone | B．The subway |
| C．The French wood | D．The Roman foundation |
| A．Scientists found some information about ancient Rome |
| B．Wood was not as valuable as stones in ancient Rome |
| C．Only the rich people in ancient Rome could use wood |
| D．Ancient Rome could have a rich trading network. |
5 . Teenagers who travel around the world alone have been making headlines quite often. A young person alone in a dangerous situation attracts attention and sponsors. Young sailors also attract various views. For example, Jessica Watson was asked by the government to cancel her voyage, yet the Prime Minister called her “a hero for young Australians” when she returned. It seemed there is confusion about the competence and independence of young people.
The popular psychologists tell us that teenage brains are likely to make wrong judgments. But such ideas often do not apply to specific individuals. Between the ages of 14 and 18, teenagers vary greatly in their abilities. The amount of independence that each is allowed should be determined not simply by their age but by discussion with the related, responsible adults. Some teens are certainly inexperienced and capable of childish mistakes, but the ones who attempt dangerous journeys normally do so by winning the confidence of hard-headed and well-qualified adult supporters.
But it’s also wrong to think that any 16-year-old can desire to get achievements as unusual as Jessica Watson’s. Watson calls herself “an ordinary girl who had a dream”. Her intention is to encourage teenagers but this idea can have the opposite effect of making them feel not good enough because great achievements are beyond them. Should all teens have such dreams? Actually, individuals face varying circumstances that restrict their dreams.
Teenagers who travel around the world alone should not be judged by preconceived (事先形成的) views about young people. Nor should young “ordinary” teenagers feel pressure to long for extraordinary personal goals. In fact, I believe the example of solo sailing overstresses individualism. The teenage years are when most of us “ordinary” people learn that we can achieve great things in cooperation with others.
1. What can we learn about Jessica Watson?| A．She was criticized by the government. |
| B．She eventually canceled her voyage. |
| C．She has traveled around the world. |
| D．She made a successful voyage. |
| A．They have similar abilities. |
| B．They make decisions on their own. |
| C．They always make wrong judgments. |
| D．They need supports of responsible adults. |
| A．Parents. | B．Teenagers. |
| C．Psychologists. | D．Adults. |
| A．Divided Opinions on Young Adventurers |
| B．Problems Faced by Adventurous Teens |
| C．Various Ways to Become Independent |
| D．Pressure to Achieve Personal Goals |
6 . The traffic signals along Factoria Boulevard in Bellevue, Washington, generally don't flash the same length of green twice in a row, especially at rush hour. At 9:30am, the full red/yellow/green signal cycle might be 140 seconds. By 9:33am, a burst of additional traffic might push it to 145 seconds. Less traffic at 9:37am could push it down to 135. Just like the traffic itself, the timing of the signals changes.
That is by design. Bellevue, a fast-growing city just east of Seattle, uses a system that is gaining popularity around the US: intersection(十字路口) signals that can adjust in real time to traffic conditions. These lights, known as adaptive signals, have led to significant declines in both the trouble and cost of travels between work and home.
“Adaptive signals can make sure that the traffic demand that is there is being addressed, ” says Alex Stevanovic, a researcher at Florida Atlantic University.
For all of Bellevue’s success, adaptive signals are not a cure-all for jammed roadways. Kevin Balke, a research engineer at the Texas A&M University Transportation Institute, says that while smart lights can be particularly beneficial for some cities, others are so jammed that only a sharp reduction in the number of cars on the road will make a meaningful difference. “It’s not going to fix everything, but adaptive signals have some benefits for smaller cities,” he says.
In Bellevue, the switch to adaptive signals has been a lesson in the value of welcoming new approaches. In the past, there was often an automatic reaction to increased traffic: just widen the roads, says Mark Poch, the Bellevue Transportation Department’s traffic engineering manager. Now he hopes that other cities will consider making their streets run smarter instead of just making them bigger.
1. What does the underlined word “that” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Increased length of green lights. | B．Shortened traffic signal cycle. |
| C．Flexible timing of traffic signals. | D．Smooth traffic flow on the road. |
| A．They work better on broad roads. |
| B．They should be used in other cities. |
| C．They have greatly reduced traffic on the road. |
| D．They are less helpful in cities seriously jammed. |
| A．It is rewarding to try new things. | B．The old methods still work today. |
| C．It pays to put theory into practice. | D．The simplest way is the best way. |
7 . My school appeared on the news last week because we had made an important change in our local area. Our class had planted a large garden in what was once only a vacant lot. It was a lot of work but it was all worth it. I got blisters(水泡) from digging, and we all got insect bites, too.
I learned a lot about gardening and collaboration(合作), and then I learned about the media. Our teacher telephoned the TV station and informed them of what we had accomplished. She spoke with the producer. The producer checked with the directors, but they said there were plenty of stories similar to ours. They wanted to know what was special about our particular garden, since many schools plant them.
The teacher explained that, after going on the Internet to learn about the prairie(大草原), we had made a prairie garden. We had gone to a prairie and gotten seeds from the plants, and then we planted them. We did not water the garden, but we did weed it. We decided to let nature water it with rain, since that was how prairies grew in the past. We sent a picture of the garden to the news station. In the picture, the grass was so high that it stood taller than the fourth grade students.
As a result, the producer sent a reporter to our school. He interviewed the headmaster and asked him many questions about the garden. After that, they interviewed us, and we explained to them what we had learned through this project.
That night, we watched the news, and there we were. The news reporter told our story. It was only two minutes long, but it was us. We were famous. All that work, all those blisters, it was worth it. We knew that when we saw the garden every day, but now we knew that the whole city thought so, too.
1. What seemed to be the TV directors’ initial reaction to the garden?| A．They were excited. | B．They were surprised. |
| C．They were worried. | D．They were uninterested. |
| A．Weeds were allowed to spread naturally. |
| B．The grass grew faster than common grass. |
| C．The seeds came from the plants of a prairie. |
| D．Underground water was used for the plants. |
| A．We got blisters on our hands. | B．Our hard work was worthwhile. |
| C．The garden would be famous. | D．The project would be finished. |
| A．Annoyed. | B．Curious. | C．Proud. | D．Regretful. |
8 . Grown-ups are often surprised by how well they remember something they learned as children but have never practiced ever since. A man who has not had a chance to go swimming for years can still swim as well as ever when he gets back in the water. He can get on a bicycle after many years and still ride away. He can play, catch and hit a ball as well as his son. A mother who has not thought about the words for years can teach her daughter the poem that begins “Twinkle, twinkle, little star” or remember the story of Cinderella or Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
One explanation is the law of overlearning, which can be stated as follows: Once we have learned something, extra learning trials (尝试) increase the length of time we will remember it.
In childhood we usually continue to practice such skills as swimming, bicycle riding, and playing baseball long after we have learned them. We continue to listen to and remind ourselves of words such as “Twinkle, twinkle, little star” and childhood tales such as Cinderella and Goldilocks. We not only learn but overlearn.
The multiplication tables (乘法口诀表) are an exception (例外) to the general rule that we forget rather quickly the things that we learn in school, because they are another of the things we overlearn in childhood.
The law of overlearning explains why cramming (突击学习) for an examination, though it may result in a passing grade, is not a satisfactory way to learn a college course. By cramming, a student may learn the subject well enough to get by on the examination, but he is likely soon to forget almost everything he learned. A little overlearning, on the other hand, is really necessary for one’s future development.
1. What is the main idea of Paragraph 1?| A．People remember well what they learned in childhood. |
| B．Children have a better memory than grown-ups. |
| C．Poem reading is a good way to learn words. |
| D．Stories for children are easy to remember. |
| A．presenting research findings |
| B．setting down general rules |
| C．making a comparison |
| D．using examples |
| A．Commonly accepted rules. |
| B．The multiplication tables. |
| C．Things easily forgotten. |
| D．School subjects. |
| A．It’s helpful only in a limited way. |
| B．It leads to failure in college exams. |
| C．It’s possible to result in poor memory. |
| D．It increases students’ learning interest. |
9 . Every year around the world, humans waste an estimated 1.3 billion tons of food.This happens even though many people go hungry. So some people have made it their life's work claiming food before it goes to waste and then giving it to people who are hungry.
One of those people is Brett Myers. In 2011, Myers started Nourish Now, a food recovery and food bank in the U.S. state of Maryland. This non-profit organization collects food and then gives it to the poor and organizations that support them.
“Nourish Now is a food recovery-based food bank that recovers food from restaurants, catering companies, grocery stores, hotels, farms and more. And then donates that food directly to families in need, kids in need at local schools.”
Each month, it recovers more than 20,000 kilograms of food and serves 700 needy families, schools and social organizations. Every day, staff and volunteers repackage the donations and distribute them to recipients.
A woman named Rhoda is one of the recipients. She describes the quality of the food delivered to her family by Nourish Now. “It consists of fresh food, fruits and vegetables. You will get bread. Sometimes you get dairy products such as yogurt or milk. And you will get some meat items also. And if you get lucky you might get cooked food, or prepared salads, and stuff like that.”
The supplies can feed a family for five days. Each recipient is able to receive food every 30 days. And the packages are made to fit the dietary needs of each family.
Besides families, the organization also donates small meals called snacks to several nearby schools and social organizations.
Nourish Now has grown considerably since it opened. Brenda is one of them. Part of her job as a volunteer is to make sure that none of the food goes to waste.
“In the morning, I make sure that all the things that came late yesterday, get put away so that we use that last, and we used the things that came the day before first, so that we’re always giving fresh food and we're not throwing out anything.”
1. What do we know about Nourish Now?| A．It donates money to the poor. |
| B．It benefits from collecting food. |
| C．It gets food from many places. |
| D．It distributes food only to the poor. |
| A．Nourish Now. | B．The poor. | C．Food banks. | D．Organizations. |
| A．The recovered food is fresh and rich. |
| B．She isn’t satisfied with the food supplied. |
| C．Eating better can keep people healthier. |
| D．She can get food donations every five days. |
| A．People Should Take Care of the Weak |
| B．The Poor Are Suffering from Starvation |
| C．Nourish Now Calls on People to Save Food |
| D．Group Uses Leftover Food to Feed the Hungry |
10 . In today’s society , language plays a key role in defining gender (性别) by vocabulary, and also their non-verbal (非语言的) vocabulary. Each one of these different types of ways of communicating is obviously different between men and women.
Many different studies show that men tend to talk much more than women. It has also been proven that women tend to speak faster than men; this is due to the fact that women tend to be interrupted more often than men are, and also have the ability to speak more clearly, precisely, and more quickly than men. In one study it was found that women spoke for an average of three minutes describing a painting, as opposed to the thirteen-minute average it took men to describe it.
Men and women also tend to have a very different non-verbal way of communicating, which can also make it very hard for one another to understand what the opposite sex is trying to say. Men’s body language is much more reserved when talking to women. Men tend not to make as much eye contact and they generally stay farther away from women when talking to them. Men avoid other people’s body space while talking, and they also tend to sit back when talking. All of these have given off the impression of disinterest or boredom. Women are by far better listeners and much more enjoyable to talk with and they tend to raise more topics for conversation.
Women also make it clearer whether or not the conversation is going somewhere or just stuck in neutral. After learning about our styles of communicating with each other, I have decided that although men have not quite mastered communicating, what fun would it be if we all spoke the same “language”? The little games men and women play with each other while conversing would be lost. The question everyone asks himself or herself after talking with someone of the opposite sex, “I wonder if there’s something there?” would no longer exist.
1. What does the underlined word “this”in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．The differences between men’s and women’s languages. |
| B．The different speed of men’s and women’s speech. |
| C．The ability of men’s and women’s spoken language. |
| D．The non-verbal vocabulary of men and women. |
| A．Speed of understanding. |
| B．Understanding of speech roles. |
| C．Politeness of communication. |
| D．Application of body language. |
| A．Cautious. |
| B．Favorable. |
| C．Ambiguous. |
| D．Skeptical. |
| A．Women , born excellent talkers |
| B．Men’s and women’s social roles |
| C．Vocabulary and communication |
| D．Opposite gender, different language |
