1 . Where do you usually put your toothbrush? Do you keep it in the bathroom? How’s your toothbrush looking these days? Even if you can’t see it with a naked eye, experts say it may be saturated(使饱和)with millions of toilet germs!
Dr. Charles Oerba, a germ expert, is a microbiology professor at the University of Arizona. He says there are approximately 3 million bacteria per square inch in most toilet bowls, and every time you flush it without closing the lid, those millions of bacteria droplets spray into the air as far as twenty feet away and dirty everything in their path. And a common victim is your poor toothbrush, usually, left out on the bathroom sink, right?
So, what do we do? Dr. Gerba says it’s easy. Close the toilet lid before you flush—that’ll greatly cut down the germs, which will otherwise float in the air. And wash your toothbrush every few days in mouthwash or peroxide to get rid of any germs hiding in it. You can even put it through the dishwasher to sanitize(消毒)it. And always store your toothbrush in a closed cabinet.
Here’s one more tip from Dr. Gerba, who says our kitchen sink is probably dirtier than our toilet. “If an alien came from space and studied the bacterial counts, he probably would conclude he should wash his hands in your toilet and go to the bathroom in your sink.” He says that’s because the kitchen sink is a great place where E. coli(大肠杆菌)to live and grow since it’s wet and damp. Bacteria feed on the food that people put down the drain or—that’s left on dishes in the sink. To reset your sink’s bacteria count back to zero, you’d better regularly wash it with hot water and sanitize your sink with special chemicals. In fact, you may want to do it every day or before preparing dinner.
1. What is the purpose of the text?| A．To show how to brush your teeth. |
| B．To tell people the importance of health. |
| C．To warn people of the invisible germs. |
| D．To introduce a microbiology professor. |
| A．Bathroom sinks are the dirtiest places. |
| B．Bacteria are bad for people’s health. |
| C．Why bacteria spread through the air. |
| D．How bacteria spread in the bathroom. |
| A．The food. | B．The toothbrush. |
| C．The sink. | D．The chemical. |
| A．To tell us a fiction story of an alien studying bacteria. |
| B．To show our kitchen sink may be dirtier than our toilet. |
| C．To teach us how to reset sink’s bacteria count back to zero. |
| D．To prove coli prefers to live in the kitchen and the drain. |
2 . After written art had to fight a tough battle for attraction during the first decade of social media, owing to a certain group of writers, it is now on a significant rise. How Instagram and Twitter have offered jumpstarts to careers of authors like Dean Cocozza sets a blueprint for thousands of ambitious writers.
Cocozza started writing lyrics for his music as a teenager. He immediately had to experience that translating art to social media is not as simple as posting whatever his pen put down.
“Anyone who uses the platform with an intent will quickly learn that you only have the glimpse of a moment to catch the viewer’s attention. So the work I shared shifted to be more to the point, often one-liners. Then stuff started to go viral.”
The success and demand for more poems resulted in his first book Zero Dark Thirty, which sold out quickly. Despite the book containing mostly short writings, even said one-liners, Cocozza emphasizes that he doesn’t write for social media. “It was a very personal project resulting from a certain period of time” in his life. There are much bigger things that he works on and plans to get involved in.
Dean Cocozza has brought back emotional depth. In-between monetized (货币化的) content, blatant (明目张胆的) advertising and “perfect lives”, social media holds a spot for a new generation of artists, including literature. Critical thinkers and authentic writers remind the app’s consumers of their emotional human nature. Art galleries and bookstores might have lost a big part of their audience to digital media — but the art itself will always find ways to survive.
1. What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Written art. | B．A tough battle. | C．Social media. | D．A group of writers. |
| A．To earn a living. | B．To draw readers’ attention. |
| C．To protect his personal life. | D．To show emotional depth. |
| A．Works with emotional depth are widely accepted on social media. |
| B．People with perfect lives like social media better. |
| C．Art galleries and bookstores will soon disappear. |
| D．Arts of emotion depth still hold value on social media. |
| A．Positive. | B．Carefree. | C．Doubtful. | D．Disapproving. |
3 . Maybe you live in places where English is not the main language. When you speak, your speech might be slower than you would like. This is because your mind is still translating things from your first language into English，which can also sound unnatural. English, like every other language, has its own sentence structure. The good news is that thinking in English can bring you a huge step closer to fluency! It is not very difficult, but it does take conscious effort and practice.
Think in single words
Charles Thomas has taught English to Union members, children and teenagers for over 10 years. He tells his students to name the things that they see around them, wherever they are. Start with nouns and then add in verbs, he suggests.
Think in sentences
For example, if you are sitting in a park, you can tell yourself things like,“It s such a beautiful day” and “People are playing sports with their friends.” Once this becomes easy, you can move on to more difficult sentences.
Think in conversation
This is a great way to practice what you might say in a real conversation. For example, let's say the imaginary person asks you a question like, “What did you think of the talk show last night?” How would you answer? Imagine the conversation and practice it in your head. You can do this out loud or in silence.
Practice it daily
“When you're doing it every day, over and over again, little by little, that's the key. Because when you make things a habit, it just pops up into your mind without thinking and then, before you know it, really, you're thinking in English,” Thomas says.
1. What does the underlined word “This” in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．English has sentence structure. | B．Translation from your language. |
| C．Your speech are delivered slower. | D．English is not mother language. |
| A．Train your brain to think in English. | B．Think in single words and start with nouns . |
| C．Start from simple sentences to difficult ones. | D．To think in conversation you must speak. |
| A．Train your brain to think in English. | B．Make your English learning naturally. |
| C．Form a good habit of translating English. | D．Translate your language into English. |
4 . Fu Cong, a Chinese-born pianist, died on Monday at a hospital in London, where he had lived for many years.
A lover of classical music from a young age, Mr. Fu began taking piano lessons when he was 7. He made his first stage appearance in 1952. The concert caught the attention of officials in Beijing, who selected him to compete and tour in Eastern Europe. Mr. Fu soon moved to Poland, where he studied at the Warsaw Conservatory (音乐学校) on a scholarship. To prepare for the fifth Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1955, he practiced so hard that he hurt his fingers and was nearly cut from the first round of the competition.
Mr. Fu was one of the first Chinese pianists to achieve global fame when he took third place in the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1955. He also won a special prize for his performance of Chopin's mazurkas. Almost overnight, he became a national hero. To China, Mr. Fu's recognition in a well-known international competition was evidence that the country could stand on its own artistically in the West. Chinese reporters came to interview Mr. Fu, while many others went to his father, Fu Lei, for advice on child-raising.
In 1981, a volume of letters written by his father, was published in China. Full of advice, encouragement, life teachings and strict paternal love, the book Fu Lei's Family Letters became a best-seller in China. Besides influencing a generation of Chinese, Mr. Fu's words resonated (引起共鸣) long after his death with the person for whom they were intended.
“My father had a saying that 'First you must be a person, then an artist, and then a musician, and only then can you be a pianist,'" Mr. Fu Cong once recalled in an interview. "Even now, I believe in this order-that it should be this way and that I am this way.”
1. What is paragraph 2 mainly about?| A．Fu Cong's achievements in music. | B．Fu Cong's stage performances. |
| C．Fu Cong's experiences of learning music. | D．Fu Cong’s efforts for competitions. |
| A．It earns Chinese arts a place in the West. |
| B．It promotes the spread of Chinese culture. |
| C．It proves Chinese people's love for music. |
| D．It enables Chinese art education to be recognized. |
| A．Fu Lei's Family Letters. | B．Young people of China. |
| C．Fu Cong and his family. | D．Readers of Fu Lei's Family Letters. |
| A．It's easy to be an artist. |
| B．It requires various qualities to be a pianist. |
| C．Everyone should develop an interest in art. |
| D．Talent is of greatest importance for a pianist. |
5 . That youngsters were glued to online games on their smart phones was a great concern for Ngurang Meena, a school teacher in Nirjuli. The 30-year-old social science teacher, who ran the Ngurang Learning Institute, an adult literacy centre, said that she felt disheartened when she read student papers. “The graph of student performance is falling every year. It breaks my heart whenever I see answer sheets — basic grammar skills are missing and there's an absence of any cohesive (连贯性的) expression. They lack guidance and reading culture is almost zero,” Meena said. When her school and the centre she ran had to close due to infectious diseases, she planned to do something to address the problem.
Inspired by a similar proposal in Mizoram, Meena set up a bookshelf with around 80 books as well as some benches on the side of the road in Nirjuli on August 30th, 2020, where passers-by could spend time reading. The selections included motivational books, biographies and novels as well as comics for young children. “I have to please the minors with sweets to sit and read, but that is okay,” she laughed.
Meena's bookshelf became a hit among youngsters who spent hours in the reading corner. Within two months, her effort became the talk of the town.
Now, generous contributions of books come in from the public and she is even receiving requests to set up such libraries in other parts of the state, including one in the capital, Itana-gar. Since the tiny libraries are far from the main town, she also lends books out to those who want to read at home.
“I never thought that this would become such a big inspiration,” Meena said. “Since childhood, we have been told that books are our best friends. The next generation of kids is focused on games and other things. I don't want them to head on the wrong track,” she added.
1. What's the aim of Meena's reading program?| A．To highlight the importance of reading for adults. | B．To help adults learn some cohesive expression. |
| C．To keep Ngurang Learning Institute running well. | D．To care for youngsters lacking in reading. |
| A．She provided them with transportation. | B．She offered some rewards to them. |
| C．She chose novels with beautiful covers. | D．She selected books covering every category. |
| A．People’s generous contributions of books. | B．Her setting up the reading corner. |
| C．People’s request to set up libraries. | D．Young people’s passion for reading |
| A．The Roadside Reading Corner | B．Books: Sources of Knowledge |
| C．The Library: a Paradise for the Young | D．New Ideas about Setting a Reading Plan |
6 . An Edinburgh inventor has created a fully biodegradable bottle that is made from paper and a secret combination of plant materials, and it could help save the planet's oceans from plastic pollution and can also be eaten by sea creatures.
The Edinburgh-based Durham University chemistry graduate James Longcroft started a non-profit bottled water company two years ago. He wanted to put all his profits into a charity that provided clean drinking water to countries in Africa.
However, after concerns about the environmental impact of plastic bottles, Mr. Longcroft decided the Edinburgh and London-based company, Choose Water, should go plastic-free. So he came up with a new type of water bottle—a waterproof paper bottle.
“The outside is made from recycled paper, but the inside has to be waterproof, and provides strength so the bottle would keep its structure, and keep the water fresh,” Mr. Longcroft said.
When the bottle is thrown in the ocean the degrading process begins within hours leaving the bottle totally degraded (分解)within weeks. The steel cap breaks down within a year.
Mr. Longcroft now believes these novel bottles could revolutionise the industry and says the cost of producing the bottle is around 5 pence more than one made from single-use plastic.
“The main difficulty we face is breaking into a saturated (饱和的)market and competing with an old industry,” he said. “Changing an industry will be a big uphill battle, but with the support from the public, we will change the way we look at bottled water.”
Researchers warn that eight million tonnes of plastics currently find their way into the ocean every year which will stay in the environment for centuries.
“We really want to get our bottles on shelves and into people's hands as soon as possible—if we can stop even one plastic bottle ending up in the environment it will be worth it,” said Mr Longcroft.
1. What is special about the bottle?| A．It can be recycled. | B．It is plastic-free. |
| C．It purifies sea water. | D．It can be used for food. |
| A．To raise money for charity. | B．To keep the water fresh |
| C．To reduce ocean pollution. | D．To prompt the sale of bottled water. |
| A．They face stiff competition to enter market. |
| B．They are more costly than plastic ones. |
| C．They still lack in the public support. |
| D．They take a long time to break down. |
| A．Cutting down on plastic pollution. | B．Providing clean water to the public. |
| C．Stopping the use of the plastic bottles. | D．Getting people to accept the new bottles. |
7 . The scientists who re-engineered the plastic-eating enzyme(酶) PETase have now created a new enzyme called “cocktail” , which can digest plastic up to six times faster.
PETase breaks down PET back into its building blocks, creating an opportunity to recycle plastic and reduce plastic pollution. PET is the most common thermoplastic(热塑性塑料) used to make single-use drinks bottles, which takes hundreds of years to break down in the environment, but PETase can shorten this time to days. The initial discovery set up the prospect of a revolution in plastic recycling, creating a potential low-energy solution to tackle plastic waste.
Now, the same trans-Atlantic team have combined PETase and its “partner”, a second enzyme called MHETase, to generate much bigger improvements: simply mixing PETase with MHETase doubled the speed of PET breakdown, and engineering a connection between the two enzymes to create a “super-enzyme”, increased this activity by a further three times.
The team was co-led by the scientists who engineered PETase, Professor John McGeehan and Dr Gregg Beckham. Professor McGeehan said: “Gregg and I were chatting about how PETase attacks the surface of the plastics and MHETase chops things up further, so it seemed natural to see if we could use them together. Our first experiments showed that they did work better together, so we decided to physically link them. It took a great deal of work, but it was worth the effort — we were delighted to see that our new enzyme is up to three times faster than the separate enzymes.”
The original PETase enzyme discovery indicated the first hope that a solution to the global plastic pollution problem might be within grasp, though PETase alone is not yet fast enough to handle the tons of PET bottles. Combining it with a second enzyme, and finding together they work even faster, means another leap forward has been taken towards finding a solution to plastic waste. PETase and the new combined MHETase-PETase both work by digesting PET plastic. This allows for plastics to be made and reused endlessly, reducing our reliance on fossil(化石) resources.
1. What can we learn about “cocktail” from the text?| A．It doubles the breakdown of plastics. |
| B．It takes hundreds of years to break down. |
| C．It contributes to breaking down plastic quickly. |
| D．It deals with the plastic waste three times faster. |
| A．A new study of PET. | B．The breakdown of PET. |
| C．The discovery of PETase. | D．The functions of PETase. |
| A．Co-leading the trans-Atlantic team. | B．Combining PETase and MHETase. |
| C．Attacking the surface of the plastics. | D．Talking about conducting experiments. |
| A．PET pollution is no longer a difficult problem to deal with. |
| B．New enzyme is speeding up our reliance on fossil resources. |
| C．MHETase-PETase makes the world free from plastic pollution. |
| D．Plastic-eating enzyme “cocktail” promises new hope for plastic waste. |
8 . A lunch break – it’s an important and often necessary part of our working or school day. And now we’re spoilt (惯坏) with a lot of places to buy our lunch from, all offering attractive dishes and sandwiches to eat on the go.
But our appetite for buying our lunchtime fare is not just costing us money, there might be a cost in terms of damaging our planet too. Just grabbing a sandwich, crisps and maybe a cake and coffee can produce at least four items of waste. Paper boxes, cups, wrappers and plastic knives and forks are all part of our disposable (一次性的) feast in addition to the food waste we create. Some experts say throwing away food, which produces methane (甲烷) as it rots, is a bigger cause of climate change than plastics.
But regardless of what causes the most damage, the solution, according to an environmental campaign group called Hubbub, is to eat packed lunches. Tessa Tricks from the group says “People are saying that they are buying food to take out because life has got busier.” And she says people think they are being more efficient; but she argues that it's usually healthier and cheaper to make your own lunch. It means you can eat the things you really want and make the quantity that you actually need.
Of course, preparing your lunch is another thing to fit into your morning scramble (忙乱) of getting ready for work, so if you haven’t got time and you are going to buy lunch, an alternative that Hubbub suggests is to take your own container to a shop and ask them to put your food in it. The idea of using reusable coffee cups for hot drinks and refilling water bottles has already proved successful, so this could be another step in the right direction.
1. What’s the second paragraph mainly about?| A．It costs a lot of money buying lunch. |
| B．Eating fast food is no good to health. |
| C．Buying lunch leads to great damage to environment. |
| D．Experts give suggestions on eating. |
| A．Stop eating packed lunches. |
| B．Eating what you like. |
| C．Trying to be more efficient in work. |
| D．Making lunch by yourself. |
| A．Buying lunch. |
| B．Taking your own container. |
| C．Using reusable coffee cup. |
| D．Using refilling water bottles. |
| A．Make a full use of lunch time. |
| B．Eating properly to keep healthy. |
| C．Doing what you can to reduce pollution. |
| D．Giving lunch time eating habit a thought to reduce damage to environment. |
9 . Not so long ago therapy (治疗) was limited to an hour-long advising session on a sofa; now you can access free advice on TikTok in under a minute. Perhaps this new trend is growing because it offers easy bite-size answers to big complex questions.
The problem with TikTok, however, is that the videos have to be under 60 seconds, which are about serious mental health illnesses being reduced to brief sentences with quick fixes from sometimes unqualified non-professionals. And with the average age of TikTok users between 18 and 24, how helpful is TikTok therapy?
“When I first started creating mental health content, I didn't expect anyone to listen,” explains Jane Smith, who runs a private practice in Hampshire. “But it turns out people are hungry for this sort of information.” Although there is a concern about the videos' increasing the risk of self-diagnosis (自诊), Jane thinks otherwise. She compares self-diagnosing a mental health problem to self-diagnosing a common cold, “If you want to find out about the symptoms of a cold, you can look it up online. That's not a risk because you can't do much with that information until you get to the doctor anyway. ”
Yet despite concerns, the comments on TikTok therapy videos are filled with praises. Rachel, 23, says she finds them very relatable: “If you see a video discussing anxiety, it can you help you acknowledge and discuss topics you might not feel sate to do in other places. It makes me feel less alone. ”
We've seen some great mental health content on Tik1ok. However, it’s important to ask remember that not all the information you find online will be reliable and it can be useful to ask yourself some questions including who is sharing it and why.
1. Why is TikTok therapy getting popular?| A．It sells at a low price. |
| B．It aims at younger users. |
| C．It provides brief solutions. |
| D．It is offered by professionals. |
| A．They may cause some potential risks. |
| B．They are better than going to doctors. |
| C．They are of much help to people in need. |
| D．They show symptoms of disease in detail. |
| A．Concerns. | B．Videos. | C．Comments | D．Praises. |
| A．TikTok will replace hospitals in the future. |
| B．It is quite easy to find reliable medical advice. |
| C．Everyone can create his own TikTok videos. |
| D．We should be careful about online information. |
10 . People dream of living long. In a survey on Longevity several years ago, 77 percent said they’d like to make it to 100. So we diet, count steps, pop supplements and hope for miracle treatments. Yet although diet and exercise are certainly vital for health, science shows there is another longevity secret we often overlook: finding purpose.
Research reveals that people who believe their existence has meaning have more favorable gene expression. If a 90-year-old with a clear purpose in life develops Alzheimer’s disease, that person will probably keep functioning relatively well despite some changes in the brain, one study found. Another analysis of 10 studies involving more than 136,000 people found that having purpose in life can lower your death risk by about 17 percent—about as much as following the famed Mediterranean diet.
Two years ago when researching my new book, “Growing Young: How Friendship, Optimism and Kindness Can Help You Live to 100,” I talked to scientists and centenarians in Japan about the reason behind their nation’s exceptional longevity—life expectancy at birth in that country stands at 84.2 years, almost six years longer than in the United States. While similar interviews I’ve conducted in the West tended to center on diet and exercise, in Japan the conversations quickly moved to ikigai, which is seen as having such measurable effects on longevity.
In one study conducted on over 43,000 Japanese, not having ikigai was linked to a 60 percent higher risk of dying of cardiovascular disease. That’s a lot. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables per day can cut the danger of cardiovascular disease by “just” 27 percent. Elderly Japanese I interviewed talked about ikigai as “taking care of grandchildren,” “volunteering,” “keeping their street clean and pretty.” So Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has included it in the official health promotion strategy.
The good news is that it’s possible to boost our sense of meaning and purpose through simple things, such as volunteering. If we keep such things going, if we find purpose and meaning in the current gloom, we may end up not just happier but healthier and longer-lived.
1. Why does the author compare “finding purpose” with “the Mediterranean diet”?| A．They are new methods to get rid of Alzheimer. | B．They have similar effects on people’s longevity. |
| C．They both have a good fame in medical science. | D．They used to be overlooked as a vital treatment. |
| A．Well recognized. | B．Kind of impractical. |
| C．A bit ridiculous. | D．Seemingly illogical. |
| A．Volunteering. | B．The study in Japan. |
| C．Ikigai. | D．An interview. |
| A．To investigate the true meaning of life. |
| B．To explain how to live purposefully. |
| C．To introduce the secret of longevity from a new perspective. |
| D．To warn us of some traps when seeking longevity. |
