1 . You've probably heard it suggested that you need to move more throughout the day, and as a general rule of thumb, that "more" is often defined as around 10,000 steps. With many Americans tracking their steps via new fitness-tracking wearables, or even just by carrying their phone, more and more people use the 10,000-step rule as their marker for healthy living. Dr. Dreg Hager, professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins, decided to take a closer look at that 10,000-step rule, and he found that using it as a standard may be doing more harm than good for many.
“It turns out that in 1960 in Japan they figured out that the average Japanese man, when he walked 10,000 steps a day burned something like 3,000 calories and that is what they thought the average person should consume so they picked 10,000 steps as a number” Hager said.
According to Hager, asking everyone to shoot for 10,000 steps each day could be harmful to the elderly or those with medical conditions, making it unwise for them to jump into that level of exercise, even if it's walking. The bottom line is that 10,000 steps may be too many for some and too few for others. He also noted that those with shorter legs have an easier time hitting the 10,000-step goal because they have to take more steps than people with longer legs to cover the distance. It seems that 10,000 steps may be suitable for the latter.
A more recent study focused on older women and how many steps can help maintain good health and promote longevity (长寿).The study included nearly 17,000 women with an average age of 72. Researchers found that women who took 4,400 steps per day were about 40% less likely to die during a follow-up period of just over four years: Interestingly, women in the study who walked more than 7,500 steps each day got no extra boost in longevity.
1. What does the underlined word "it' in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．The phone recording. | B．The 10,000-step rule. |
| C．The healthy living. | D．The fitness-tracking method. |
| A．How many steps a Japanese walks. |
| B．How we calculate the number of steps. |
| C．If burning 3,000 calories daily is scientific. |
| D．Where 10,000 steps a day came from. |
| A．Senior citizens. | B．Young short-legged people. |
| C．Healthy long-legged people | D．Weak individuals. |
| A．4,400 steps. | B．10,000 steps. |
| C．2,700 steps. | D．7,500 steps. |
2 . Earthquake rescue robots have experienced their final tests in Beijing. Their designers say with these robots, rescuers will be able to save lives during an earthquake. This robot looking like a helicopter, is called the detector-bot. It’s about 4 meters long, and it took about 4 years to develop the model. Its main functions (作用) are to collect information from the air, and send goods of up to 30 kilos, to people trapped by an earthquake.
This robot has a high definition 360 degree panoramic (全景) camera. It can work day and night and will also be able to send the latest pictures from the quake area.
Dr. Qi Juntong, Chinese Academy of Science, said, “The most important feature of this robot is that it doesn’t need a distant control. We just set the destination (目的地) 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 gas, a camera is placed in the 40 centimeter long robot, which can work in the dark.
Another use for the rescuers is the supply part, with its 10 meter 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 will enter production, and serve as part of the national earth-quake rescue team as soon as next year.
1. According to the passage, this robot________.| A．is carried by the helicopter | B．weighs about 30 kilos |
| C．is a machine with a length of 10 meters | D．hasn’t been put into production so far |
| A．a camera | B．a robot | C．a rescuer | D．a detector |
| A．It is designed to prevent the earthquake. | B．It is unable to send goods. |
| C．It can take and send pictures even in the dark. | D．It can be used to take in poisonous gas. |
| A．what the robot looks like | B．an introduction to the robot |
| C．how the robot is made | D．information about earthquakes |
3 . In my everyday life, I am on an ongoing journey to figure out different ways to reduce my carbon footprint on the planet. A carbon footprint is the measure of influence our activities have on the environment, in particular climate change. It is calculated by the amount of greenhouse gas we produce in our daily lives. Fortunately, nowadays it is much easier to make eco-friendly lifestyle choices than, let's say, 20 years ago. But one question has been on my mind a lot lately: is it better to buy new eco-friendly products or used traditionally produced goods?
After doing some research, I have decided that some things are better new and others are better used. Let me try to explain.
A carbon footprint is made up of two parts, the primary footprint and the secondary footprint. The primary footprint is a measure of our direct emissions(排放)of carbon dioxide(CO2)from the burning of fuels, including household energy consumption and transportation. The secondary footprint is a measure of the indirect CO2 emissions from the whole lifecycle of products we use-those related to their production and breakdown.
Based on this understanding, we have a good deal of control and responsibility over our carbon footprint. Things like dishes, clothes and furniture fall into the “secondary footprint” group, so less is more and we can focus on finding used goods to avoid the added production. However, for the car and the other appliances(设备)that we need we can go with new, energy-saving models. I heard somewhere that electronics and appliances give off 90% of their carbon footprint after they leave the factory. So it seems most reasonable to go for the energy-saving models. The main concern here is the amount of energy that goes into the making of new products and whether or not that extra carbon is worth the footprint the product will make once it gets to you.
1. What is the text mainly about?| A．What appliances to buy to save energy. |
| B．What a carbon footprint means in our life. |
| C．How to identify different carbon footprints. |
| D．How to make eco-friendly lifestyle choices. |
| A．It is related to our consumption of fuels. |
| B．It is made when we are buying the products. |
| C．It is less harmful than the primary carbon footprint. |
| D．It is counted as ours though not directly made by us. |
| A．Using second-hand textbooks. | B．Using old and expensive cars. |
| C．Buying new but cheap clothes. | D．Buying new wooden furniture. |
| A．using the product | B．recycling the product |
| C．making the product | D．transporting the product |
4 . When building houses, people used to think about not only the climate of the areas but also the building materials and the fashions for their houses. However, since electricity became more and more expensive, people began to pay much more attention to the energy they could get for their houses and the new ways they could find to protect their houses from both cold and heat.
Now, houses of an old yet new type have been widely built. In some parts of the world, people share their houses with their livestock(家禽). During cold weather, they gather their cows, goats, or other animals and keep them on the first floor of their houses. The reasons are that the animals can be protected from the cold and that they can help to heat the houses as well. The body heat given off by the animals rises to the second floor of the houses, where people live in. By sharing their houses with their livestock, people gain a source of heat.
People who live in or near cities do not usually keep livestock. However, home builders use the fact that heat rises. This natural law can be used in building houses in these areas. Instead of keeping livestock on the first floor, builders fill it with large rocks. As they are open to the sun’s rays during cold weather, these rocks take in heat. They also give off the heat, and, of course, the warm air rises into the living areas of the houses. So these houses are energy-saving.
House-building becomes a great challenge to building designers and energy engineers. They try to meet this challenge by learning from old traditions and by using modern technology. And someday in the future, people will be able to live in more energy-saving houses.
1. What did people begin to consider as electricity was no longer cheap?| A．The climate of their areas. |
| B．The fashions for their houses. |
| C．The energy for their houses. |
| D．The building materials for their houses. |
| A．heat goes in the upward direction |
| B．heat raises the temperature in the houses |
| C．heat goes up if temperature is raised |
| D．heat increases the temperature of rocks |
| A．people will no longer consider building materials in the future |
| B．energy- saving buildings will become more popular in the future |
| C．almost all people will move into the houses heated by large rocks |
| D．energy engineers will devote themselves only to modern technology |
5 . Last week, Education Secretary Arne Duncan declared a war on paper textbooks. “Over the next few years," he said in a speech at the National Press Club, “textbooks should be abandoned." In their place would come a variety of digital-learning technologies, like e-readers and multi-media websites.
Such technologies certainly have their place. But Secretary Duncan is threatening to light a fire to a tried-and-true technology that has been the foundation for one of the great educational systems on the planet. And while e-readers and multi-media may seem appealing, the idea of replacing an effective learning platform with a widely hyped (炒作) but still unproven one is extremely dangerous,
An expert on reading, Maryanne Wolf, has recently begun studying the effects of digital reading on learning, and so far the results are mixed. She worries that Internet reading, in particular, could be such a source of distractions for the student that they may cancel out most other potential benefits of a web-linked, e-leaning environment, and while it's true that the high-tech industry has sponsored considerable amounts of research on the potential benefits of Web-based learning, not enough time has passed for longitudinal (纵向的) studies to demonstrate the full effects.
In addition, digital-reading advocates claim that lightweight e-books benefit students' backs and save schools money. But the rolling backpack seems to have solved the weight problem, and the astonishing costs to equip every student with an e reader, provide technical support and pay for regular software updates promise to make the e-textbook a very pricey choice.
As both a teacher who uses paper textbooks and a student of urban history, I can't help but wonder what parallels exist between my own field and this sudden, wholesale abandonment of the technology of paper.
1. What does the underlined part “a tried-and-true technology" in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Foundation | B．Paper | C．E-books | D．Platform |
| A．Its price. | B．Its efficiency. | C．Its content. | D．Its weight. |
| A．E-readers and multimedia websites are learning methods that are proved effective. |
| B．the results of digital reading effects are understandable |
| C．digital reading can't provide potential benefits for users |
| D．students may not focus on leaning by digital reading |
| A．Objective. | B．Supportive. | C．Positive. | D．Disapproving. |
6 . The idea of having car, a plane, drone(无人驾驶飞机) parked outside your home may not be as unlikely as it seems.
We are going to have personal air vehicles that are both cars and planes. At least that's Missy Cumming's vision of the future. It's basically the intersection of a drone with a robotic car, so your plane is also your car, but the quick development of technology is that you are actually driving neither.
Drones have a negative image in the media, says Cummings, because they are basically seen as spy cameras. But most people don't realize that when they are on a plane they are effectively travelling on a drone. The fly-by-wire technology that exists on all Airbuses and many crafts of Boeing is the exactly same technology that exists on drones.
The reason why drones are the answer to the future is that we are terrible drivers. Humans have a half-second lag(时滞) in almost any quick response that they need to have. Even a half- second delay can mean the difference between life and death, and computers and automated(自动化的) systems don't have that.
So, our transportation network of the future, both on the ground and in the air，will actually be safer when we turn it over to computers.
There really aren't any technological difficulties to this idea. The biggest difficulties we have in terms of giving up the car are psychological and cultural, but no new technology needs to be developed to have your own personal flying car. What we have to do is to improve production and reduce manufacturing costs.
People should be excited about this: it promises much in terms of safer travel, and people in parts of the world where the road and air networks are poor will be able to get the goods and services.
1. What is the meaning of the underlined word”intersection” in paragraph 2?| A．交叉 | B．部分 | C．交流 | D．结构 |
| A．The truth. | B．The difference. |
| C．The quick response. | D．A half-second delay. |
| A．Their being expensive. | B．Lacking advanced technology. |
| C．People's not accepting the idea. | D．People's failing to improve production. |
| A．Future Vehicles | B．Future Flying Cars |
| C．An Answer to the Future | D．Safer Travel |
7 . Mario Cohn-Haft remembers the sinking feeling he had when he realised the parrot he had come to see would probably not appear before him again. He had taken a bird-watching tour to the area where the very last wild Spix’s macaw(金刚鹦鹉), a blue parrot native to Brazil, was known to show itself. But that tour was the first he had led that couldn’t spot it. “I was one of the first people to experience it being extinct in the wild,” says Cohn-Haft, an ornithologist (鸟类学家). That was 20 years ago. No wild Spix’s macaws have been seen since.
But today there is hope. Spix’s macaws still exist. A small number of breeding pairs are currently living in captivity ( 圈 养 ). Conservationists are in the middle of a project to raise healthy birds and prepare them for release into the wild. The Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots (ACTP) is leading current efforts.
Cromwell Purchase, a director at the ACTP, explains that the group plans to send 50 Spix’s macaws to rehabilitation facilities in Brazil, which are currently under construction. If all goes well, the birds will be shipped from Germany soon. The conservation team will first practice a technique for releasing the birds on a small flock of Illiger’s macaws. Then, in 2021, the Spix’s will be released with a small group of the Illiger’s, which will hopefully help them to adapt to the forest of Caatinga.
The real test will be whether the birds take to their native surroundings and whether they successfully breed and raise chicks in the wild. But Brazil wants the plan to work. “We know how to reintroduce parrots. There are now many publications and case studies that show we can get birds out into the wild and have them survive,” says Don Brightsmith, an expert in parrots. Brightsmith notes one important point — the birds must be shown how to raise chicks independently. Otherwise, any reintroduced population will quickly collapse.
Happily, Purchase says this is something he and his colleagues are working on. Should the birds flourish, the blue flash of a Spix’s wings might one day be seen again by locals and, perhaps, fascinated groups of bird-watchers.
1. What do we know about Cohn-Haft’s bird-watching tour 20 years ago?| A．It turned out to be fruitless. |
| B．It was his last bird-watching tour. |
| C．It inspired him to study the Spix’s macaw. |
| D．It allowed him to spot the last wild Spix’s macaw. |
| A．Some Spix’s macaws being sent to their natural habitat. |
| B．Some Spix’s macaws and Illiger’s macaws being crossbred. |
| C．Some new Spix’s macaw rehabilitation facilities being built. |
| D．Some breeding Spix’s macaws being imported from Germany. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Confused. | C．Confident. | D．Concerned. |
| A．Case-studying wild Spix’s macaws. |
| B．Enabling Spix’s macaws to fly again. |
| C．Increasing the population of Spix’s macaws. |
| D．Training adult Spix’s macaws to be qualified parents. |
8 . Do parents have a constitutional right to homeschool their children? No, according to a California District Court judge, who recently ruled that a child must be schooled "by a person holding a valid state teaching credential for the grade being taught”.
What started as a Los Angeles County child welfare case involving one specific family has gone into proceedings that have actually put on trial the very nature of what constitutes a sound education. “For decades we’ve been happily homeschooling, and then this comes up suddenly,” says Mary Griffith, a homeschooling parent. Griffith says California had traditionally given homeschooling parents the freedom to choose the kind of education they want for their child.
This particular family in Los Angeles had enrolled their children in a private school independent study program not in their home. In response to abuse charges against the family, the children were enrolled in public schools. The parents stated they had a constitutional right to homeschool on religious grounds; that's when the court ruling was issued. However, Griffith says if the ruling ends up affecting anyone, it will mainly be those who also enroll their children in off-site homeschooling. “This won't be far-reaching for homeschooling parents."
That's how organizations like the Homeschool Association of California (HSC) would like to keep it, anyway, and they've hired a team of lawyers to limit the impact of the case. Griffith says the legal team for HSC is trying to establish that while this ruling may indeed be necessary for this particular family, it should not set a precedent for all.
What does this case really mean for homeschooling families nationwide? According to Darren A. Jones, this decision is certain to affect homeschooling on a national scale. Jones claims that it is common for state courts to look to other states’ rulings for assistance in deciding issues where no precedent exists. “A poor legal decision in California could become part of a trend across the nation.’’
1. In Griffith’s opinion, ________.| A．parents don’t have a right to homeschool their children |
| B．a child must be schooled by an expert with a credential |
| C．homeschooling should be forbidden in the whole country |
| D．it is understandable for parents to homeschool their children |
| A．parents happily homeschool their children |
| B．parents don’t have a right to homeschool their children |
| C．a child must be schooled by a person with a teaching credential |
| D．a Los Angeles County child welfare case involves a special family |
| A．To avoid the abuse charges against them. | B．To receive the better education in it. |
| C．To break away from their parents. | D．To cooperate with the expert’s jobs. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Sympatric. | C．Negative. | D．Objective. |
9 . Among all the fast-growing science and technology, the research of human genes, or biological engineering as people call it, is drawing more and more attention now. Sometimes it is a hot topic discussed by people.
The greatest thing that gene technology can do is to cure serious diseases that doctors at present can almost do nothing with, such as cancer and heart disease. Every year, millions of people are murdered by these two killers. And to date, doctors have not found an effective way to cure them. But if gene technology is applied, not only these two diseases can be cured completely, but also the great amount of money people spend on curing their diseases can be saved, so it benefits the economy as well. In addition, human life-span can be prolonged.
Gene technology can help people to give birth to more healthy and clever children. Some families, with the British royal family being a good example, have hereditary diseases. This means their children will for sure have the family disease, which is a great trouble for these families. In the past, doctors could do nothing about hereditary diseases. But gene technology can solve this problem perfectly. Scientists just need to find the wrong gene and correct it, and a healthy child will be born.
Some people are worrying that the gene research can be used to manufacture human beings in large quantities. In the past few years, scientists have succeeded in cloning a sheep, so these people predict that human babies would soon be cloned. But I believe cloned babies will not come out in large quantities, for most couples in the world can have babies in the normal way. Of course, the government must take care to control gene technology.
1. What does the underlined word "them" in the second paragraph refer to?| A．People with cancer or heart disease. | B．Millions of people with serious diseases. |
| C．Some diseases doctors can do nothing with. | D．The two illnesses of cancer and heart disease. |
| A．It can help the British royal family out. | B．It can be used to clone human babies. |
| C．It can help people to give birth to a baby. | D．It can cure hereditary diseases. |
| A．Human babies may be cloned in large quantities. | B．Healthy human babies will soon be cloned. |
| C．Scientists may find the wrong genes. | D．The government may not control gene technology. |
| A．Gene Technology Will Benefit People | B．Gene Technology Will Do Harm As Well |
| C．Gene Technology Is A Hot Topic | D．Gene Technology Is Growing Fast |
10 . My fifteen-year-old son has just returned from abroad with rolls of exposed film and a hundred dollars in uncashed traveler’s checks, and is asleep at the moment. His blue duffel bag lies on the floor where he dropped it. Obviously, he postponed as much sleep as he could: when he walked in and we hugged, his electrical system suddenly switched off, and he headed directly for the bed, where I imagine he beat his old record of sixteen hours.
It was his first trip overseas, so weeks before it, I pressed travel books on him, and a tape cassette of useful French phrases; drew up a list of people to visit; advised him on clothing and other things. At the luggage store where we went to buy him a suitcase, he headed for the duffels, saying that suitcases were more for old people.
During the trip, he called home three times: from London, Paris, and a village named Ullapool. Near Ullapool, he climbed a mountain in a rainstorm that almost blew him off. In the village, a man spoke to him in Gaelic, and, too polite to interrupt, my son listened to him for ten or fifteen minutes, trying to nod in the right places. The French he learned from the cassette didn’t hold water in Paris. The French he talked to shrugged and walked on.
When my son called, I sat down at the kitchen table and leaned forward and hung on every word. His voice came through clearly, though two of the calls were like ship-to-shore communication. When I interrupted him with a “Great!” or a “Really?”, I knocked a little hole in his communication. So I just sat and listened. I have never listened to a telephone so attentively and with so much pleasure. It was wonderful to hear news from him that was so new to me. In my book, he was the first man to land on the moon, and I knew that I had no advice to give him and that what I had already given was probably not much help.
The unused checks are certainly evidence of that. Youth travels light. No suitcase, not much luggage and a slim expense account, and yet he went to the scene, and came back safely. I sit here amazed. The night when your child returns with dust on his shoes from a country you’ve never seen is a night you would gladly turn into a week.
1. During the trip, the author’s son ______.| A．ran out of money | B．forgot to call his mother |
| C．had inadequate sleep | D．failed to take good pictures |
| A．Polite and careless. | B．Creative and stubborn. |
| C．Considerate and independent. | D．Self-centered and adventurous. |
| A．It is important to listen to your child’s story. |
| B．It’s easy to interrupt the chat with your child. |
| C．The author is proud of her son landing on the moon. |
| D．The son no longer needs much help from his mother. |
| A．Good parents should protect their children from potential dangers. |
| B．The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page. |
| C．It’s a win-win choice to give a child space to experience and explore. |
| D．Communication between parents and children is extremely important. |
