1 . “I had no intention to adopt a cat that day. I just liked being around animals.” Miranda says. But when she saw Nala in her metal cage, “We made eye contact and I couldn't resist（抗拒）her big blue eyes.” At that point, “Nala was so small. I asked the shelter if I could hold her. Once had Nala in my arms, Nala looked up at me and licked（舔）my face.” And that was when she knew she had to take this kitty home.
Still, Miranda never imagined Nala would become an Insta-star. “I started Nala’s Instagram account in 2012 as a way to share photos with my close friends and family in Thailand,” she explained. The possibility of Nala gaining attention beyond that small group of people hadn’t occurred to her until it happened.
Miranda says, “Each time Nala’s photo was featured on Instagram’s popular page, her account would gain 1,000 new followers.” From there, Nala’s popularity snowballed. Large nationwide brands messaged Miranda about hiring Nala to do ads. “This took us by surprise because we couldn’t believe that a big brand wanted to pay them to take photos with their products next to Nala.”
Nala started life out in a shelter, just waiting to be loved like many other animals that were abandoned. Today that dream has surely come true. Nala has over 4 million followers on Instagram, which earned her the title “Guinness World Records Most Popular Cat on Instagram.”
In addition to managing her Insta fame, Nala is being asked to test various cat food brands. More importantly, “Nala is our chance to share the love to help create a better life for other animals, so they can grow well and bring joy to the world like Nala has.”
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．Visits to a shelter. | B．Love at first sight. |
| C．Power of blue eyes. | D．Duty to adopt cats. |
| A．To meet Nala’s needs. | B．To help Nala be a sta. |
| C．To share Nala’s pictures. | D．To attract public attention. |
| A．Satisfied | B．Amazed. | C．Upset. | D．Disappointed |
| A．Being well treated like many of her kind. | B．Starting life in the shelter. |
| C．Gaining chances to earn money. | D．Being raised by Instagram fans. |
2 . For many years doctors have warned us about the dangers of stress (压力) and have given us advice about how to cut down our stress levels. Everyone agrees that long-term stress, for example having to look after someone who has a chronic (慢性的) illness, or stressful situations where there is nothing we can do, for example being stuck in a traffic jam, should be avoided whenever possible. However, some medical experts now believe that certain kinds of stress may actually be good for us.
Dr Marios Kyriazis, an anti-ageing expert, points out that what he calls "good stress” is beneficial to our health and may, in fact, help us stay young and attractive and even live longer. Dr Kyriazis says that “good stress” can strengthen our natural defences which protect us from illnesses common among older people, such as Alzheimer's and heart problems.
According to Dr Kyriazis, running for a bus or having to work to meet a deadline are examples of “good stress”, that is situations with short-term or low stress. The stress usually makes us react quickly, and gives us a sense of achievement — we did it! However, in both situations, the stress damages the cells(细胞) in our body or brain and they start to break down. But then the cells own repair mechanism “switches on”and it produces proteins which repair the damaged cells and remove harmful chemicals that can gradually cause disease. In fact, the body's response is greater than is needed to repair the damage, so it actually makes the cells stronger than they were before.
“As the body gets older, this self-repair mechanism of the cells starts to slow down,” says Dr Kyriazis.“The best way to keep the process working efficiently is to ‘exercise’ it, in the same way you would exercise your muscles to keep them strong. This means having a certain amount of stress in our lives.”Other stressful activities that Kyriazis suggests as being good stress include redecorating a room in your house over the weekend, packing your suitcase in a hurry to reach the airport on time, or shopping for a dinner party during your lunch break.
So next time your boss tells you that she wants to see the report finished and on her desk in 45 minutes, don't worry; just think of it as “good stress” which will benefit your long-term health!
1. What is Dr Kyriazis' opinion probably based on?| A．How to get a sense of achievement. |
| B．How to cut down our stress levels. |
| C．The benefits of doing physical exercise. |
| D．The relationship between stress and health. |
| A．The daily stress. | B．Long-term stress. |
| C．The increasing stress. | D．Short-term or low stress. |
| A．Being stuck in a traffic jam. |
| B．Packing for a trip at the last minute. |
| C．Being late for work for several days. |
| D．Looking after a patient with heart trouble. |
| A．Stress beats success | B．Stress attracts illness |
| C．Get stressed, stay young | D．Less stress, better health |
3 . A rainforest is an area covered by tall trees with the total high rainfall spreading（扩大） quite equally through the year and the temperature rarely falling below 16°C. Rainforests have a great influence on the world environment because they can take in heat from the sun and adjust the climate.
Without the forest cover, these areas would reflect（反射）more heat into the atmosphere, warming the rest of the world. Losing the rainforests may also influence wind and rainfall patterns，potentially（潜 在地） causing certain natural disasters all over the world.
In the past hundred years, humans have begun destroying rainforests in search of three major resources ： land for crops, wood for paper and other products, land for raising farm animals. This action affects the environment as a whole. For example, a lot of carbon dioxide in the air comes from burning the rainforests. People obviously have a need for the resources we gain from cutting trees but we will suffer much more than we will benefit.
There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, when people cut down trees, generally they can only use the land for a year or two. Secondly, cutting large sections of rainforests may provide a good supply of wood right now, but in the long run it actually reduces the world’s wood supply. Rainforests are often called the world's drugstore. More than 25% of the medicines we use today come from plants in rainforests. However, fewer than 1% of rainforest plants have been examined for their medical value. It is extremely likely that our best chance to cure diseases lies somewhere in the world’s shrinking（减 少）rainforests.
1. Rainforests can help to adjust the climate because they______.| A．reflect more heat into the atmosphere |
| B．bring about high rainfall throughout the world |
| C．rarely cause the temperature to drop lower than 16°C |
| D．absorb（吸收） the heat from the sun, reducing the effect of heat from the sun on the earth |
| A．We will lose much more than we can gain. | B．Humans have begun destroying rainforests. |
| C．People have a strong desire for resources. | D．Much carbon dioxide （二氧化碳）comes from burning rainforests. |
| A．we can get enough resources without rainforests |
| B．there is great medicine potential in rainforests |
| C．we will grow fewer kinds of crops in the gained land |
| D．the level of annual rainfall affects wind patterns |
| A．How to Save Rainforests? | B．How to Protect Nature? |
| C．Rainforests and the Environment. | D．Rainforests and Medical Development. |
4 . Dubai is the commercial capital of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf. But officials want to turn it into the world’s “smartest” city. Earlier this year, Dubai announced plans to be the world’s first city to use self-driving taxis. In June, it placed the first robot police officer at shopping centers and places popular with visitors. Dubai police officials now say they plan to use self-driving vehicles to patrol (巡逻) city streets by the end of the year.
Dubai will be the first in the world to use the O-R3 vehicle, according to the Singapore company that builds it. The company, OTSAW Digital, recently signed an agreement with the Dubai Police force to supply the driverless robots.
The vehicles look a lot like most other automobiles, but are much smaller. They are equipped with cameras, machine learning tools and 3D technology to help them operate independently. The robots automatically charge themselves when power gets low.
The vehicle’s cameras can scan faces and record registration information to check for criminals and possible illegal activities. A police official said the robot can recognize people in any area. It will be used to “identify suspicious objects and follow suspects.” “We seek to increase operations with the help of technology such as robots,” said Dubai’s police chief. “We always search for the best technology to serve our police work for a safer and smarter city.”
The O-R3 can communicate with computers at police centers in different locations. The patrolling robot is able to send data and video to the centers, where operators can control the vehicle remotely. The vehicles can also work together with drones (无人机) that can be launched from the back of the robot. The drones can then follow the vehicles and provide more support from the air.
The CEO of OTSAW Digital, Ting Ming Ling, says the use of such vehicles is designed to help humans with their jobs, not replace them. “Eventually, robots exist to improve the quality of human lives, where men take on high value jobs while robots perform the low skilled ones,” he said.
1. What does the underlined word “them” in paragraph 3 refer to?| A．Learning tools. | B．O-R3 vehicles. |
| C．Common automobiles. | D．3D cameras. |
| A．To take the place of the work of human beings. |
| B．To gather information of faces in the streets. |
| C．To help investigate criminal activities more effectively. |
| D．To keep an eye on people’s behaviors in the city. |
| A．Gather more information for O-R3 vehicle. |
| B．Protect the vehicle from the sky. |
| C．Show directions for the vehicle. |
| D．Control the vehicle remotely. |
| A．Police in Dubai Have the Most Advantaged Equipment |
| B．Dubai Will Put Self-Driving Police Vehicles on Streets |
| C．You Will Not See Police Officers in the Streets of Dubai |
| D．Robot Police Officers Are Much Smarter than Human Ones |
5 . Eyes are like a window into our thought processes. Recent studies have found that the eyes not only reflect what is happening in the brain but may also influence how we remember things.
Researchers tracked volunteers' eye movements while they said a list of 40 numbers. They found that the direction and size of the participants’ eye movements accurately predicted whether the number they were about to say was bigger or smaller than the previous one and by how much. Each volunteers’ gaze shifted up and to the right just before they said a bigger number, and down and to the left before a smaller one. The bigger the shift from one side to the other, the bigger the difference between the numbers.
This suggests that we somehow link abstract number representations in the brain with movement in space. But the study does not tell us which come first : whether thinking of a particular number causes changes in eye position, or whether the eye position influences our mental-activity. Researchers in Sweden published evidence that it's the latter that may be at work : eye movements may actually facilitate memory retrieval.
They asked each one of the 24 volunteers to carefully examine a series of objects displayed to them in one corner of a computer screen. The participants were then told to listen to a series of statements about some of the objects they had seen, such as "The car was facing to the left" and asked to indicate as quickly as possible if each was true or false. Some participants were allowed to let their eyes move about freely; others were asked to fix their gaze on a cross at the centre of the screen, or the corner where the object had appeared, for example.
The researchers found that those who were allowed to move their eyes freely during recall performed significantly better than those who fixed on the cross. Interestingly, though, participants who were told to fix their gaze in the corner of the screen in which objects had appeared earlier performed better than those told to fix their gaze in another corner. This suggests that the more closely the participants eye movements during information encoding corresponded withthosethat occurred during retrieval of the information, the better they were at remembering the objects.
1. If the previous number was 50, which is the most probable number when a participant looked up and right?| A．90 | B．50 | C．40 | D．30 |
| A．The way that eye movements take place. |
| B．The way that memory retrieval takes place. |
| C．The relationship between eye movements and numbers. |
| D．The relationship, between eye movements and mental activity. |
| A．The objects. | B．The corners. |
| C．The participants. | D．The eye movements. |
| A．To find ways to improve a person's memory. |
| B．To test the influence of eye movements on memory. |
| C．To test the effects of different eye movements. |
| D．To see how eye movements help to identify objects. |
6 . The best hope for ending the COVID19 pandemic is a vaccine. There is no shortage of candidates. The World Health Organization is tracking 34 in various stages of development. How well they will work though, is another matter. On September 9th Astra Zeneca, a drug firm, announced it was pausing its trials after a participant fell ill. Such pauses are common in vaccine development, a discipline in which effort does not always bring reward. In 1987 the first trial of an HIV vaccine began in Maryland. Three decades later, the cupboard remains bare.
The news about COVID-19 in two new papers is more encouraging. The first written by a team of scientists at deCODE genetics, an Icelandic company, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, reports antibody levels in 1,200 Icelanders who had been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and recovered. More than 90% tested positive for antibodies twice — once immediately post infected and again four months later. People who had suffered more serious disease, such as those who had been hospitalized, developed higher levels of antibodies. So did men and older people, both of whom are at greater risk of more severe illness.
The four-month lifespan is cheering for two reasons. Antibodies that hang around are more likely to offer immunity. That means a vaccine that provokes (驱使；刺激) their production should provide reasonably long-lasting protection. They are also easier to find.
In the second study, scientists led by Tao Dong, an immunologist at the Medical Research Council (MRC), in Britain, went hunting for T-cells. These get less press than antibodies, but play an equally vital role in battling infections and securing long-term protection. Their importance is vividly demonstrated by HIV, which targets and kills them.
Al Edwards, an immunologist turned biochemical engineer at the University of Reading who was not involved with either paper, is cautiously optimistic. The immune response to the disease seems to be working roughly as expected, he says. If that continues, then vaccines developed to trigger long-lasting immunity should work at least in theory.
In practice, it is still too early to celebrate. Dr. Edwards warns that immunology has never been a predictive science. There is no test that can show definitively that a vaccine will work short of actually trying it in the real world.
1. What can we infer from the first paragraph?| A．Scientists have made great achievements in HIV vaccine. |
| B．The vaccine is the only way of ending the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| C．The COVID-19 is bound to be developed by a drug firm in no time. |
| D．While many people work on the vaccine, it is hard to develop a vaccine successfully. |
| A．Antibodies that hang around can offer immunity. |
| B．A vaccine will not work short of actually trying it in the real world. |
| C．The higher levels of antibodies are, the more serious disease people will suffer. |
| D．T-cells are less important than antibodies in battling infections and securing protections. |
| A．T-cells | B．HIV |
| C．Antibodies | D．Long-term protection |
| A．Negative | B．Indifferent |
| C．Disapproval | D．Cautious |
7 . Baby sign language is a growing movement． Pointing to a colorful flower， Campbell lifts her baby's soft hand， and rapidly moves it from one side of his nose to the other as she sniffs （嗅）．"Flower！" she says loudly． Gregory smiles and looks carefully． It could be a year before Gregory， 4 months old， can speak， but now his mother hopes to communicate with her baby through sign language．
Like others around the world， Campbell is part of a growing movement of parents teaching hearing babies simple signs to communicate before they can talk． The baby sign language has been more popular in recent years． The movie，"Meet the Fockers"，where the main character teaches his young grandson to sign， makes it well developed．
Babies generally begin to talk between 12 and 15 months， but babies can use sign language to communicate before they learn how to speak．
"We know they are learning language faster than they are able to show you with their speech production because that system takes a long time to develop．" says McRoberts， director of developmental research at the Haskins Laboratories．
"They are understanding words before they are able to say them． From around 16 to 18 months， they might say 50 words but understand 200．They understand short sentences well．" says McRoberts．
Studies have shown deaf children learn to use sign language earlier than hearing children learn to speak meaningfully． As to whether hearing babies can communicate earlier with sign language， McRoberts says，"I think that's still unknown． It may not． I'm very interested in that very question．"
1. From the first paragraph we can know ______ ．| A．Campbell teaches her son to speak early |
| B．Gregory can use baby sign language well |
| C．baby sign language can help a child speak at the age of four months old |
| D．baby sign language is becoming more and more popular |
| A．how to teach a grandson |
| B．making baby sign language meaningful |
| C．the movement of teaching babies sign language |
| D．the movie， "Meet the Fockers" |
| A．communicate with their babies |
| B．make their babies learn English fast |
| C．make their babies clever |
| D．make their babies interested in language |
| A．Babies learn to talk quickly． |
| B．Babies can understand more words than they can say． |
| C．Hearing babies can communicate earlier． |
| D．Deaf babies understand short sentences well． |
8 . For sports fans, nothing could be better than watching a live event on TV or at a sports field. But there’s nothing worse than that event being called off because of bad weather. Bad light, a water-logged court or too much heat can cause matches to be postponed. But according to the latest research, extreme weather might be disturbing the sporting calendar more than ever in the future.
In one sport, golf, major tournaments like The Open, are already predicted to be victims of our changing climate. In the UK, an organization called The Climate Coalition says that golf courses such as St Andrews could be under water by the end of the century if sea levels rise even slightly. It told the BBC that its research predicts "cancelled football matches, flooded cricket grounds and golf courses sinking into the sea."
The threat to sporting events from climate change has been further highlighted in a new report, officially approved and licensed by the Rapid Transition Alliance. Writing about this for the BBC, Matt McGrath says that "By 2050, it's estimated that almost one in four English football league grounds can expect flooding every year." This will mean fewer matches played, less opportunity to watch the beautiful game and reduced government taxation from ticket sales.
Cricket also faces huge challenges globally as temperatures rise in places like India, Australia and the West Indies. The report says that stadiums in Adelaide and Perth will see a 60% increase in days with temperatures over 40 degrees centigrade over the next decade.
Of course, we know that the solution lies with reducing our carbon footprint. We could travel less to attend sports events, and reduce our waste when we do go. But this latest report finds that sports leaders are generally failing to address the issue seriously. However, because sport is universally popular and can be very influential, maybe it should be players, teams and their sponsors as well as fans who should promote a wide low carbon message to help protect sporting fields—before it’s 'game over'.
1. What is the latest research above mainly concerned with?| A．the forbidden sporting events | B．the influential climate change |
| C．the severe environmental pollution | D．the rising sea level |
| A．Football fans cannot afford the entrance fee. |
| B．Overheat will largely affect the cricket calendar. |
| C．The golf games will thoroughly disappear due to rising sea level. |
| D．Sports leaders will face bigger challenges to lead their teams to win. |
| A．the constant increase in sea level | B．the fading popularity of sport events |
| C．the changing attitude of sponsors. | D．the effective reduction of carbon footprint |
| A．inform the readers of the worsening global climate change |
| B．require governments’ protection of sporting fields |
| C．promote awareness of low carbon life on sports |
| D．urge financial support from sponsors |
9 . Thirst is one of the fundamental urges a living thing can have. After all, water is the solvent that we rely on to transport essential molecules (分子) around our bodies to keep us alive. So it is perhaps a bit suspicious that water doesn’t seem to have any flavor. Shouldn’t we have evolved a taste for this essential substance?
Well, perhaps we have. Several new studies seem to indicate not only that water does, in fact, have a taste, but that we might have taste buds (味蕾) that respond directly to it.
We now know that there are at least five basic tastes: salty, sour, sweet, bitter and umami. If there is a sixth taste for water, then we should be able to see evidence for it somewhere in the mouth or tongue. Yuki Oka and his colleagues have sought to solve the issue once and for all. They have thought up an experiment that seeks to identify any water sensing taste receptor cells (TRCs) on the tongues of lab mice.
The team first used a technique known as genetic knockout to silence different types of TRCs, in order to remove the possibility that those cells might accidentally discover some other taste within the water besides the water itself. They then flushed the rodents’ mouths with water to see if any cells were still responding. It turned out that the acid-sensing sour TRCs were still firing vigorously indicating these cells might have a double purpose, capable of distinguishing water or acidic fluids.
So if you are on the side of the debate that argues that water is flavorless, you might still be correct. But water isn’t senseless. At least it doesn’t appear that way according to this research. The study also opens up the possibility that our tongues and taste buds might be doing more than merely providing us with a sense of taste. If this study doesn’t prove that water is the sixth flavor, it might nonetheless be the first evidence of a whole other sense entirely: a water sense.
1. Why is the question asked in the first paragraph?| A．To introduce the main topic. |
| B．To show ordinary people’s puzzlement. |
| C．To express the writer’s curiosity. |
| D．To explain the reason for suspicion. |
| A．Researchers. | B．Yuki oka’s colleagues. |
| C．Thirsty people | D．Mice. |
| A．to create some cells | B．to remove some cells |
| C．to identify some certain cells | D．to disable some cells |
| A．Water is flavors without doubt. |
| B．Water is the sixth flavor. |
| C．Water can be sensed. |
| D．Water can attack TRCs. |
10 . We can achieve knowledge either actively or passively. We achieve it actively by direct experience, by testing and proving an idea, or by reasoning.
We achieve knowledge passively by being told by someone else. Most of the learning that takes place in the classroom and the kind that happens when we watch TV or read newspapers or magazines is passive. Conditioned as we are to passive learning, it's not surprising that we depend on it in our everyday communication with friends and co-workers.
Unfortunately, passive learning has a serious problem. It makes us tend to accept what we are told even when it is little more than hearsay (传间) and rumor.
Did you ever play the game Rumor? It begins when one person writes down a message but doesn't show it to anyone. Then the person whispers it, word for word, to another person. That person, in turn, whispers it to still another, and so on, through all the people playing the game. The last person writes down the message word for word as he or she hears it. Then the two written statements are compared. Typically, the original message has changed.
That's what happens in daily life. The simple fact that people repeat a story in their own words changes the story. Then, too, most people listen imperfectly. And many enjoy adding their own creative touch to a story, trying to improve on it, stamping it with their own personal style. Yet those who hear it think they know.
This process is also found among scholars and authors: a statement of opinions by one writer may be restated as the fact by another, who may in turn be quoted by yet another; and this process may continue, unless it occurs to someone to question the facts on which the original writer based his opinion or to challenge the interpretation he placed upon those facts.
1. Which of the following will help us achieve active learning?| A．Reading scientific journals. |
| B．Listening to the teacher in class. |
| C．Doing a chemical experiment. |
| D．Watching news programs on TV. |
| A．Knowledge. | B．Newspaper. |
| C．Active learning. | D．Passive learning. |
| A．Playing games can make people more active. |
| B．A message may be changed when being passed on. |
| C．People tend to like telling lies when playing games. |
| D．People may have problems with their sense of hearing.. |
| A．Passive learning may not be reliable. |
| B．Active learning is much more important. |
| C．Active learning occurs more frequently. |
| D．Passive learning is not found among scholars. |
