1 . Twenty-nine-year-old Maxim Kiselev lives in Moscow, Russia, with his beautiful wife, Natalia, and lives with a disease which mainly affects the left side of his body. Maxim is a wheelchair dancer, and does both ballroom style dancing and figure skating on ice.
He initially took up dancing when he was 14 years old as a way to strengthen his body--in particular his left arm and fingers which had limited functionality at the time. Gradually, he began to think about becoming the standing partner of a person using a wheelchair; however, his challenges with balance meant it wasn't going to be possible. His mother and coach suggested he get into a wheelchair himself. He unwillingly got into a wheelchair but was quickly pleased by his progress.
The possibilities without a partner were limited, so Maxim went on in search of a dance partner. With only some practice with his first partner, the pair took part in their first tournament, where they performed well. While his start in partner dancing was good, finding a right partner wasn't easy. His mother would get in touch with the girls' parents or coaches and the vast majority had very rude reactions as soon as they found out he was disabled.
His coaches drove him to grow and develop as a dancer, and came up with some great techniques to help him. His dancing was improved even further when his third coach forced him to think in the way a standing dancer did. Maxim says this is what helped his performance to look like dancing rather than just rolling back and forth on the dance floor.
Maxim says his greatest pride is having taken his dancing skills on ice. He is the first high level figure skater in a wheelchair, and still the only one to this day. Maxim is taking a break from dance because of health issues, but he recently participated in a Russian Virtual Reality Project which aims to motivate people with disabilities to get more active in real life.
1. How does Maxim's disease affect him?| A．He gives up his dream to become a dancer. |
| B．He can only control half of his body freely. |
| C．He has no way to make a living all the time. |
| D．He has an extremely unhappy marriage life. |
| A．To be a standing dance partner. | B．To meet his mother's expectation. |
| C．To improve his physical condition. | D．To get himself out of a wheelchair. |
| A．Few people praised his talent. |
| B．Nobody helped with the search. |
| C．He was rejected because of his skills. |
| D．He faced discrimination due to disability. |
| A．Mastering dancing techniques. | B．Thinking like a standing dancer. |
| C．Helping people with disabilities. | D．Making some progress in dancing. |
2 . An afternoon nap(午睡)is one of the joys of life, although too much napping could signal all is not well. In some cultures, people will have a daily nap — this is fine. The warning comes when people start sleeping during the daytime, when they did not before. There is certainly a good reason to believe that daytime sleepiness — as in the Alzheimer's study — can be a marker of an underlying condition.
For most people, napping during the day is mainly a sign that you are not getting enough sleep at night, says Dr. Neil Stanley, a sleep expert. "If you feel sleepy during the day, you should think about taking a nap. That is what the body needs — it doesn't need to be kept awake with caffeine, it needs sleep. "The feeling to notice is "sleepiness", he says, not "tiredness", which could be more psychological and linked to stress.
So how do you nap well? The key thing, says Stanley, is how long your nap lasts. Choose either a 20-or 90-minute nap. "When you fall asleep, you'll quickly go through the lighter stages of sleep into your first period of deep sleep. You don't want to wake up in deep sleep because that's when you wake and feel worse than you did before. "Napping for 20 minutes means you will wake up before you go into deep sleep; napping for 90 minutes means you'll complete a sleep cycle.
Once you factor in the time it takes to fall asleep — some people are better at napping than others but, says Stanley, "a healthy adult will fall asleep in between 5 and 12 minutes" — you can set an alarm, allowing a 30- to 40-minute period for a short nap, and up to two hours for a longer one.
A good time to nap is during the body's natural dip in the afternoon, between 2 pm and 4 pm. "You don't really want to be napping much past that because then you are going to be eating into your night-time sleep," Stanley says. The point, he stresses, is to get good night-time sleep, which would ensure you probably don't need to nap at all.
1. What does an afternoon nap indicate for most people?| A．Caffeine addiction. | B．Psychological stress. |
| C．Insufficient night sleep. | D．Potential physical illness. |
| A．Duration. | B．Surroundings. | C．Health. | D．Stages. |
| A．A 30- to 40- minute period. | B．Between 2 pm and 4 pm. |
| C．Between 5 and 12 minutes. | D．A 20- to 90-minute period. |
| A．Why to phase a nap | B．When to take a good nap |
| C．What to learn from a nap | D．How to have a successful nap |
3 . In the aftermath of the deadliest fire California history last fall, it was difficult for anyone in the town of Paradise to find hope.
Shane Grammer paid close attention to the news of the fire’s deadly path. He felt quite powerless to help when seeing the picture shared by his childhood friend Shane Edwards in the town, in which Edwards photographed a white chimney, the only part of his house left after the fire.
“I’ve got to paint that chimney,” he said. “I’m not trying to say anything. It’s just that I’m an artist. And it was an opportunity for me to express myself and be an artist, wasn’t it?”
Grammer spent three hours spray-painting the image of a woman on the chimney in black and white, which was strikingly mysterious. Perhaps it served as a reminder of the hope of life or just life itself.
Then Grammer put its picture on social media. On seeing it, the victims of the fire could not contain themselves. “Beautiful and impressive,” one of them remarked. And another said, “You bring wonder and hope.”
At this time, Grammer became aware that something deeper had been transformed by a purely artistic expression. “When the first mural (壁画) moved so many people, I knew I had to come back,” he told the journalist. Grammer returned to Paradise eight times in three months, during which he completed 17 murals of victims and other figures, including the original one, on walls, pickups, and shards of buildings.
Today, Grammer’s efforts have developed into a movement. He has also painted murals in dark places around the world that seriously need some light.
Ironically, the first painting, on the chimney in Paradise, existed for just several months, since the bulldozer (推土机) was a merciless art critic. But Grammer couldn’t be more pleased about it, which means the spirit of Paradise is rising again.
1. Why did Grammer say he wasn’t trying to say anything?| A．Because he felt quite helpless. |
| B．Because he didn’t want to show his feelings. |
| C．Because he had his way to express himself. |
| D．Because he felt it difficult to say something. |
| A．People’s inner feelings. |
| B．People’s remarks. |
| C．The meaning of the murals. |
| D．The artistic expression. |
| A．The bulldozer was so cruel that it destroyed Grammer’s mural. |
| B．The people in Paradise are in high spirits now. |
| C．Grammer is not happy with the destruction of his mural. |
| D．Paradise is recovering from the disaster in a short time. |
| A．Painting: A Way of Bringing Light |
| B．Artistic Murals Brought Victims Hope |
| C．Creativity: A Chimney Left after the Wildfire |
| D．Achievements May Come after A Disaster |
4 . A recent study suggests that vitamin D pills can help speed up the time taken for burns to heal, and prevent scarring(结疤). The vitamin, which is produced naturally in the body when the skin is exposed to sunshine, is believed to help protect against burning.
Previous studies have shown that vitamin D pills help decrease redness and swelling after sunburn, and may be one of the reasons why the body produces the chemical.
The research from Birmingham University, has found they may also help relieve other types of burn. Researchers monitored 38 patients who had suffered serious burns for a year and recorded their levels of vitamin D. They found that those with the highest levels of vitamin D had better wound healing and fewer scars.
Professor Janet Lord said: “Low vitamin D levels were associated with worse results in burn patients including life-threatening infections(感染),death and delayed wound healing. Major burn injury severely reduces vitamin D levels and adding this vitamin back may be a simple, safe and cost-effective way to improve the condition for burn patients.” Professor Lord and her team are now focusing on finding out why there is a rapid loss of vitamin D in patients immediately following burn injury and hope that they may be able to prevent this in future.
The amount of reduction in patients’ vitamin D levels was not related to the severity(严重程度) of the burn, so levels may also be decreased in minor burn injury, suggesting taking vitamin D pills could also help people with everyday burns. Public Health England now recommends that all Britons take vitamin D pills in the winter because it is impossible to make sufficient quantities in the darker months.
1. What does the new study find?| A．People with low vitamin D levels get burned easily. |
| B．Vitamin D helps with the recovery from burn injury. |
| C．Vitamin D pills aid in reducing the swelling from burns. |
| D．Vitamin D is more beneficial to serious burns than minor burns. |
| A．The severity of one's burn reflects his vitamin D levels. |
| B．Vitamin D pills are more needed in the autumn months. |
| C．Burn patients lacking vitamin D are at high risk of infection. |
| D．Minor burns have no effect on patients’ vitamin D levels. |
| A．The researchers. | B．Vitamin D pills. |
| C．Previous studies. | D．Some kinds of vitamins. |
| A．Vitamin D: A Necessity for Our Health |
| B．Vitamin D Pills: When Are They Needed? |
| C．Vitamin D: How Much Does the Body Need? |
| D．Vitamin D Pills: Heal Burns &. Prevent Scarring |
5 . Embroidery(刺绣)is an important art form in Chinese culture.People often embroider handkerchiefs,bed covers,tablecloths and dresses.Shu embroidery is one of the most famous embroidery styles in China.It's known for its strong expression and smooth needlework.
The characteristics are greatly influenced by geographical environment,customs and cultures.Called the“Land of Abundance”,Sichuan province is rich in grain production.The people of this area also enjoy a slow lifestyle.So when embroidering,they are usually patient and willing to spend time pursuing the form’s complexity and elegance.This could also be a reason why Shu embroidery was listed as a national-level intangible cultural heritage in 2006.
Making beautiful Shu embroidery products is never easy.
It requires superb workmanship.Meng Dezhi,59,was born to a family of embroiderers.She was one of the most talented employees at the Chengdu Shu embroidery factory.Even so,the long and repetitive nature of the process often challenges her.And in winter,when her hands and feet are freezing,things become more difficult.But her love for the work has encouraged Meng to continue.Even for an experienced master like Meng,finishing a piece requires several days or even a few months.
“These experiences may sometimes discourage me,but the love for Shu embroidery always gives me motivation to continue,”said Meng.
Meng has also popularized the culture of Shu embroidery when the tradition was at risk of declining.
Many cheap products are made by modern machines.In 2005,the factory Meng worked in was forced to close.To make a living and pass along the traditional technique,Meng rented a small space of 10 square meters to teach Shu embroidery skills to the kids and young people.
“In the early days,I set up the company just for survival,but now I really feel that I have the responsibility to pass on Shu embroidery skills to young people.”“It is like sowing a seed—who knows which of them will become an inheritor(继承人)or guardian of our culture in the future?”she told China Daily.
1. What is special about Shu embroidery?| A．It mainly features images of animals. |
| B．It is complex and delicate in workmanship. |
| C．It affects local lifestyles in Sichuan province. |
| D．It’s developed from traditional Chinese paintings. |
| A．The nature of Shu embroidery. |
| B．The passion for Shu embroidery. |
| C．The influence of her family tradition. |
| D．The profits from Shu embroidery products. |
| A．Setting up a company for a living. |
| B．Renting a 10-square-meter space. |
| C．Making cheap products with modern machines. |
| D．Teaching Shu embroidery skills to the young generation. |
| A．Art Made with Modern Machines | B．The History of Shu Embroidery |
| C．Passing on Needlepoint Perfection | D．A Talented Shu Embroidery Employee |
6 . Almost every community has some form of rules and some way of enforcing them. So why do we have rules, and what makes people follow them?
Studies have suggested that the reason we don't like rule-breaking is because fairness is programmed into our brains. Scientists have found that the brain reacts in a particular way when we feel we are being treated unfairly.A fair situation makes us feel comfortable and even happy, but unfairness causes our brains to respond with negative feelings.The study found that this a so happened when subjects saw others being treated unfairly. They concluded that fairness is one of basic human needs.
Arriving at a feeling of fairness means considering different, often conflicting, points of view. Regardless of the disagreement, people almost always need to compromise. But it can be difficult to arrive at a compromise when there are conflicting interests. This is why communities have rules that everyone must follow.
Social controls are an important factor in setting and following rules.They influence the way we be have, and can be internal (内在的) or external. Internal controls come from within and are based on our values and fears. Most of us don't steal, for example, because we believe that theft is unfair and wrong. We also don't want to disappoint our family and friends. In other words, our internal controls keep us from behaving in ways that cause conflict.
External controls include rewards and punishments. Rewards, such as job promotions and praise, are designed to encourage people to be have and actin the interest of the whole community.
Punishments, such as public embarrassment, fines, and even imprisonment can prevent people from acting against the community's best interests.
People need their communities to function smoothly.If there were no rules, most people would probably still behave positively. However, there would always be a minority who would not. This is why a society without rules is unlikely to exist.
1. What does the underlined word ''this'' in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．A program in human brains. |
| B．A comfortable situation. |
| C．The response with bad feelings. |
| D．The requirement off fairness. |
| A．To punish illegal activities. | B．To prevent disagreement. |
| C．To promote fairness. | D．To meet various demands. |
| A．Take exams honestly because cheating is shameful |
| B．Park in the right place so as not to get a parking ticket. |
| C．Pay the electricity bill on time in order not to get a late fee. |
| D．Cooperate with your classmates to win a prize for your class. |
| A．Living by the rules | B．Why communities need rules |
| C．Reaching a compromise | D．How fairness functions |
7 . One of the greatest sources of unhappiness, in my experience, is the difficulty we have in accepting things as they are.
When we see something we don’t like, we wish it could be different. We cry out for something better. That may be human nature, or perhaps it’s something ingrained(根深蒂固的) in our culture. The root of the unhappiness isn’t necessarily that we want things to be different. However, it’s that we decided we didn’t like it in the first place. We’ve judged it as bad, rather than saying, “It’s not bad or good, and it just is it.”
In one of my books, I said “You should expect people to mess up and expect things to go differently than you planned”. Some readers said it’s too sorrowful to expect things to go wrong. However, it’s only negative if you see it as negative and judge it as bad. Instead, you could accept it as the way the world works and try to understand why that is.
This can be applied to whatever you do: how other people act at work, how politics works and how depressing the news media can be. Accept these things as they are, and try to understand why they’re that way. It will save you a lot of sadness, because you’ll no longer say, “Oh. I wish bad things didn’t happen!”
Does it mean you can never change things? Not at all. But change things not because you can’t accept things as they are, but because you enjoy the process of changing, learning and growing.
Can we make this world a better place? You can say that you’ll continue to try to do things to help others, to grow as a person, to make a difference in this world. That’s the correct path you choose to take, because you enjoy that path. Therefore, when you find yourself judging and wishing for difference, try a different approach: accept, and understand. It might lead to some interesting results.
1. The author believes that we feel unhappy maybe because ________.| A．it is our natural emotion in the life |
| B．culture asks us to be different from others |
| C．everyone has their own opinions on things |
| D．we dislike something in the beginning |
| A．Acting well at work and in politics. |
| B．Feeling depressed for the news media. |
| C．Accepting and understanding what has happened. |
| D．Saying something negative when bad things come. |
| A．Help others and make a difference. |
| B．Enjoy what you have to do in the work. |
| C．Judge yourself and make a wish for you. |
| D．Try a new way when making the world better. |
| A．Accepting can make our life happier and better. |
| B．Expecting things to be different gives us hope. |
| C．Traditional culture becomes root of unhappiness. |
| D．Judging good or bad is important for our world. |
8 . Let’s face it. No one drinks diet sodas for the taste. People drink diet sodas in the hope that it will help them lose weight or at least keep them from gaining it. Yet it seems to have exactly the opposite effect, according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Texas said those who drank two or more diet sodas a day had waist size increases that were six times greater than those who didn’t drink diet sodas. ＂What we saw was that the more diet sodas a person drank, the more weight they were likely to gain,＂said Sharon Fowler.
The study was based on data from 474 participants in a large, ongoing research project, where the participants were followed for nearly 10 years.
While the findings are surprising, they also offer some explanations. Nutrition expert, Melanie Rogers, who works with overweight patients in New York, has found that when patients are switched from regular to diet sodas, they don’t lose weight at all. ＂We weren’t seeing weight loss necessarily, and that was confusing to us＂, said Rogers.
So why would diet soda cause weight gain? No one knows for sure yet, but it could be that people think they can eat more if they drink diet sodas, and so over-compensate for the missing calories.
A related study found some sweeteners (甜味剂) raised blood sugar levels in some mice. ＂Data from this and other potential studies suggest that the promotion of diet sodas and artificial sweeteners may be risky, said Helen P. Hazuda, professor at the University of Texas’s school of medicine. ＂They may be free of calories, but not of consequences.＂
1. People drink diet sodas to ____________.| A．enjoy its taste | B．stay in fashion |
| C．achieve weight loss | D．gain more energy |
| A．causes people to become heavier | B．helps people to be healthier |
| C．makes people much thinner | D．offers people more calories |
| A．regular sodas make people lose more weight | B．diet soda drinkers tend to eat more food |
| C．diet sodas do help reduce calories | D．most blood diseases come from diet sodas |
| A．sweeteners | B．diet sodas and artificial sweeteners |
| C．sodas | D．diet soda drinkers and sweetener takers |
9 . Some people think that success is only for those with talent or those who grow up in the right family, and others believe that success mostly comes down to luck. I’m not going to say luck, talent, and circumstances don’t come into play because they do. Some people are born into the right family while others are born with great intelligence, and that’s just the reality of how life is.
However, to succeed in life, one first needs to set a goal and then gradually make it more practical. And, in addition to that, in order to get really good at something, one needs to spend at least 10,000 hours studying and practicing. To become great at certain things, it’ll require even more time, time that most people won’t put in.
This is a big reason why many successful people advise you to do something you love. If you don’t enjoy what you do, it is going to feel like unbearable pain and will likely make you quit well before you ever become good at it.
When you see people exhibiting some great skills or having achieved great success, you know that they have put in a huge part of their life to get there at a huge cost. It’s sometimes easy to think they got lucky or they were born with some rare talent, but thinking that way does you no good, and there’s a huge chance that you’re wrong anyway.
Whatever you do, if you want to become great at it, you need to work day in and day out, almost to the point of addiction, and over a long period of time. If you’re not willing to put in the time and work, don’t expect to receive any rewards. Consistent hard work won’t ensure you the level of success you may want, but it will ensure that you will become really good at whatever it is you put all that work into.
1. Paragraph 1 mainly talks about ________.| A．the meaning of success | B．the reasons for success |
| C．the standards of success | D．the importance of success |
| A．setting a practical goal | B．being good at something |
| C．putting in more time | D．succeeding in life |
| A．it takes a lot of time to succeed |
| B．work makes one feel pain |
| C．one gives up his work easily |
| D．one tends to enjoy his work |
| A．Successful people like to show their great skills. |
| B．People sometimes succeed without luck or talent. |
| C．People need to achieve success at the cost of life. |
| D．It helps to think that luck or talent leads to success. |
