1 . On March 14, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic (新冠疫情) forced 57th Street Books, in Chicago, to close its doors. The store wouldn’t reopen for nearly a year and a half. During that time, director Jeff Deutsch was worried. Customers couldn’t come to the shop. His main advantage over online business had gone overnight.
Deutsch said he and his team were lucky. Customers stepped up. They offered gifts and support. “There was something very beautiful in the way our community came together,” he said. “We really supported one another’s businesses,”
Similar stories played out over the past two years in cities and towns around the country. Though independent bookstores were forced to close during the pandemic, many found ways to connect with and help their community.
Anne Holman is co-owner of the King’s English Bookshop. It’s in Salt Lake City, Utah. She said the store put books outside for reading and started doing a lot of events online. Other stores set up bookselling hotlines, and improved their tools for e-business.
Some bookstores did events that went more than bookselling. They offered COVID testing. They collected food for people in need. “Having an independent bookstore in your community is almost like a town square,” said Samira Ahmed, an author of books for young adults. “It’s an important place to build community.”
11-year-old Adele Sorkin, a fan of 57th Street Books, is on its Young Readers Advisory Board. Members receive early copies of books in exchange for writing reviews. “I think of the bookstore as a cookie jar (罐子),” Adele says. “It’s something special and fun that is always there for you.” Jeff Deutsch sees a bright future. “If we reimagine bookstores and do our best to support them,” he says, “then bookstores can thrive (兴盛).”
1. Why did Jeff Deutsch feel lucky?| A．A smart team had been built. | B．He could shop on the Internet. |
| C．Customers gave him a hand. | D．Online business grew overnight. |
| A．How they sold books to the young. | B．When they built a town square. |
| C．Why they helped people in need. | D．What they did for the community. |
| A．She dreams of running a business. | B．She praises the 57th Street Books. |
| C．She often brings cookies with her. | D．She tries to write a short story. |
| A．They will mostly offer COVID testing. |
| B．Their advantage has turned into nothing. |
| C．They could take the place of e-business. |
| D．Their growth is tied to the community. |
2 . Hundreds of little robots are walking around colleges and cities in the United States, China and elsewhere. The robots, about 50 centimeters tall, are bringing food like pizza to hungry students.
“We saw needs for robot usage just go through the ceiling,” said Alastair Westgarth. He is the head of Starship Technologies, whose robots recently made their 2 millionth delivery(递送). “I think the need is always there, but it was brought forward by the pandemic effect(疫情影响).”
The robots use cameras, sensors and GPS to move around and even cross streets on their own at the speed of 8 kilometers per hour. Operators keep watch on several robots at a time but they say they hardly need to stop or move them around a barrier(障碍). When a robot arrives, people enter a code(密码)from their phones to open the robot and get their food.
There are some disadvantages for now. The robots have to be recharged(再充电)regularly. They are slow and cannot travel far. They will not leave food at the door. And big cities like New York and Beijing are not welcome them.
Ji Hye Kim is chef of Miss Kim Restaurant in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She used robot delivery when her dining room was closed last year. Kim prefers robots to delivery companies which charge more and sometimes cancel orders if they do not have enough drivers. Delivery companies also group several orders per trip, she said, so food sometimes arrives cold. Robots take just one order at a time.
Denis Maloney is vice president at Domino’s Pizza. His company is testing robots from Nuro, a California-based company. The robots are about 1.8 meters tall and can travel at a top speed of 40 kilometers on streets, not sidewalks. Maloney said delivery from Nuro costs more than using human drivers for now. But as the technology scales up and gets more refined, the costs will go down.
1. What do we know about robot food delivery?| A．Robots are very popular among university students. |
| B．Only pizza can be brought by robots to hungry students. |
| C．The pandemic has changed the way of fast food delivery. |
| D．The pandemic saw sharp growth of robot food delivery. |
| A．The operators use a code to control the robots. |
| B．The robots run at a high speed on the street. |
| C．They are controlled by a high level of intelligence. |
| D．The robots don’t need to be charged regularly. |
| A．Longer distances to travel. | B．Lower costs than drivers. |
| C．More than one order per trip. | D．High speeds and exact delivery. |
| A．Robot food delivery is increasing greatly. |
| B．The pandemic affected people’s daily life. |
| C．Scientists are making new types of robots. |
| D．Robots has increased business of restaurants. |
3 . As a nurse, Fawcett jumps around from the emergency room to the COVID-19 units upstairs. The unique
At a morning meeting, Fawcett decided to
The
| A．goal | B．role | C．habit | D．desire |
| A．fortunate | B．content | C．energetic | D．grateful |
| A．annoyed | B．surprised | C．embarrassed | D．discouraged |
| A．checking out | B．settling down | C．flooding in | D．holding on |
| A．share | B．discuss | C．compare | D．match |
| A．development | B．encouragement | C．commitment | D．accomplishment |
| A．strange | B．confident | C．brave | D．weak |
| A．shouted | B．prayed | C．argued | D．complained |
| A．returning | B．struggling | C．recovering | D．progressing |
| A．incredible | B．irregular | C．unreasonable | D．unavoidable |
| A．smile | B．comfort | C．passion | D．enthusiasm |
| A．standard | B．strength | C．spirit | D．pace |
| A．exposed | B．connected | C．stuck | D．locked |
| A．Due to | B．Apart from | C．In spite of | D．In response to |
| A．typically | B．probably | C．apparently | D．eventually |
4 . During the most worldwide pandemic (流行病) in a century, it’s time to take a closer look at what may result in loneliness. “A common belief is that the loneliest people are those who are alone; actually, it’s important to separate the two.” said Dr. Perissinotto, a professor at the University of California. “Kids with their families can be lonely because they can’t see the friends at school; people who are not physically isolated can feel lonely because the community doesn’t welcome them in; and older adults can experience loneliness through death of a loved one.” What leads to loneliness is much deeper than being alone.
With the pandemic exacerbating loneliness issues, an increasing number of health professionals are concerned about the mental and physical health risks associated with loneliness. That’s why it’s time to look more closely at what we can do about loneliness.
“When it comes to fighting loneliness, the key is not looking at circumstances and assuming what feelings should be associated with it, but actually asking yourself if you are lonely,” Perissinotto said. “If your solitude (独处) is a choice and you have people who can support you if you need help, there is no saying you can’t live a happy life.” And just as solitude doesn’t necessarily equal loneliness, interaction doesn’t mean fulfillment (成就感) for everyone, according to Hawkley, a professor at the University of Chicago.
Hawkley divides connections into three primary types and holds that loneliness may result from a lack of any of them. “The first type happens when someone like a spouse (配偶) is so close to you that part of your identity becomes closely connected with his or hers. Then there is the second type, which you establish with your close friends, as well as the third type — those interactions that make you feel part of a community.”
It is suggested that one should recognize what kind of loss of connection his loneliness is coming from and then evaluate the quality of his various relationships. recognizing the kind of connection that one is eager for and the quality of the relationships he already has are important first steps, but where one goes from there depends entirely on his specific circumstance.
1. The underlined word “exacerbating” in paragraph 2 most probably means ________.| A．confusing | B．exploring | C．worsening | D．solving |
| A．people who live alone are much more likely to feel lonely |
| B．those choosing to be alone do not necessarily feel unhappy |
| C．asking someone if he’s lonely doesn’t help fight loneliness |
| D．death of loved ones is the main cause of people’s loneliness |
| A．There’re no obvious connections among three different types of loneliness. |
| B．Hawkley holds that people lacking one of the three connections feel lonely. |
| C．The quality of one’s relationships is as important as his specific circumstance. |
| D．Recognizing one’s missing connection is helpful in dealing with loneliness. |
| A．Causes of loneliness and ways to deal with it. |
| B．Differences between being alone and lonely. |
| C．Effects of a pandemic on people’s way of keeping connected. |
| D．Reasons for people’s loneliness and importance of fighting it. |
5 . I’ve spent a long time thinking about one of the lessons life has to offer uncertainty. I often hear,“ Nothing could have prepared us for this pandemic.” While it came as a surprise, some of us have had to deal with times of great uncertainty before.
This was the case for my family when my father began falling over. We would blame the ice. Then just the road.“ Who makes these things so high?” we wondered. Then, he slowed. He began to drag his feet.“ Well,” we said,“ he’s getting older.”
When his speech became worse, it became harder to explain. When did he last see a doctor anyway? We searched the Internet as he worsened—because we felt real medical attention was not required.
Uncertainty.
It’ s uncomfortable. It makes your stomach tighten. If you don’ t fight it, it will seep through (渗入)your body, lighting your brain up with anxiety. When a neurologist(神经病学家) explained the problem, it wasn’t what we wanted to hear. Instead, we opened a Pandora’ s box of even more unknowns.
When we found out he had AIS (肌肉萎缩性侧面硬化病)the uncertainty became a burden. He was losing control of his muscles, his speech, ability to swallow—and we were paralyzed on how to prepare.
ALS is cruel. It traps you in your body. When the future looks so dark, you have to take comfort in the tiniest pleasures. I wish I’d done more. But I was new to uncertainty. I’d never experienced such a lack of control. I was focused on solving problem that couldn’t be solved.
I worried about how my father would get worse. I read everything I could to try and help his situation, but there was nothing I could do. But my dad didn’t live long enough for me to prepare for his condition to get worse. Life doesn’t go according to plan and there is a difference between preparation and worry.
As we battle global uncertainty, it is teaching us the same lesson. A lesson about humility (谦卑) . About the fact that you cannot save something you love alone. If COVID -19 is disturbing everyone, we should consider what we can learn. These lessons are hard, teaching us to hold on to what matters and how to let go.
1. Why is the pandemic mentioned in the beginning ?| A．To explain its impact on the author’s life. |
| B．To lead up to the topic of uncertainty. |
| C．To show how the author got used to it. |
| D．To tell the lessons the author learned from it. |
| A．Anxious | B．Peaceful | C．Annoyed | D．Optimistic |
| A．It makes people stronger. | B．It leads to a lack of control. |
| C．It brings family closer to each other. | D．It can remove the darkness in life. |
| A．Be humble to the unknown. | B．Prepare for uncertainty in advance. |
| C．Express our love before it’s too late. | D．Cherish what matters and learn to let go. |
6 . To beat the blues of staying at home all day, I
I had my doubts, though. For one, it involved
There is something intimate (亲密的) about exchanging books with strangers. By
The posting about the book exchange on social media brought me
| A．looked up to | B．took part in | C．kept up with | D．got hold of |
| A．possible | B．boring | C．difficult | D．important |
| A．recommending | B．explaining | C．sending | D．selling |
| A．continue | B．discover | C．check | D．recognize |
| A．now and then | B．in time | C．more or less | D．in return |
| A．reported | B．observed | C．wondered | D．regretted |
| A．bravely | B．delightedly | C．willingly | D．doubtfully |
| A．disappointed | B．puzzled | C．amused | D．astonished |
| A．coming out | B．pouring in | C．working | D．disappearing |
| A．worried about | B．looked forward to | C．got back to | D．gave up |
| A．in case | B．even if | C．as though | D．so that |
| A．delivering | B．sharing | C．collecting | D．discussing |
| A．closer | B．kinder | C．more serious | D．more sensitive |
| A．irregular | B．natural | C．busy | D．flexible |
| A．cancelled | B．dropped | C．opposed | D．ruined |
7 . The COVID-19 global health emergency is not yet over, the World Health Organization says, but determining how to measure the end of a pandemic is not a simple equation (方程式, 等式), according to experts.
During a briefing on Thursday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made it clear he believes COVID-19 remains a global health emergency and that fighting it requires ongoing attention and diligence.
“I have said that the pandemic is not over, but the end is in sight. Both are true,” Tedros said. “Being able to see the end does not mean we’re at the end.”
The number of weekly deaths is now just 10 per cent of what it was at the global peak in January 2021 and two-thirds of the world’s population is now vaccinated (接种疫苗) , including three-quarters of health workers and older people, which are all positive signs, Tedros said.
But 10, 000 people are still dying of this disease every week, and that’s 10, 000 too many when these fatalities are preventable, he added. “We are still in the tunnel, and we will only get to the end by focusing on the path ahead and by moving forward with purpose and care.”
Debate over whether the pandemic is still active was sparked late last week when U. S. President Joe Biden declared in a Sunday interview “the pandemic is over.”
Biden’s comments came after WHO said last week the end of the coronavirus pandemic is in sight, pointing to a global decrease in the number of weekly fatalities in recent weeks.
The WHO’s Emergency committee is now in active discussions about what standard should be used to decide when COVID-19 is no longer an emergency, Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead, said.
1. According to paragraphs 2, 3, Tedros’ attitude to the present pandemic situation is __________.| A．worried | B．confident | C．objective | D．doubtful |
| A．the number of vaccinated people. | B．the number of weekly fatalities. |
| C．the global fighting efforts. | D．WHO’s official declaration. |
| A．To prove the end of the pandemic | B．To blame his judgement |
| C．To lead to the correct conclusion | D．To tell us it is a hot debate |
| A．deaths | B．infections | C．diseases | D．serious conditions |
8 . During the first COVID-19 outbreak, Dr. Kirby White struggled to get enough disposable gowns (一次性罩衣), so she and her colleague Dr. Nicole Lowe decided to act. In March2020, they developed a gown that could be laundered and reused, allowing them to keep seeing patients at their Bendigo’s clinic.
“The second COVID-19 wave made it impossible for anyone to purchase disposable gowns, says Kirby, who explains one reusable gown lasts as long as 130 single-use gowns. “It was important to have a reusable gown. We didn’t know how long the pandemic would last so we needed a sustainable solution.”
Two weeks later, Gowns for Doctors was created. Taking to social media, Kirby, 36, shared the initiative (新方案) in a local Facebook group. Overnight, hundreds of volunteers put up their hands to sew (缝), donate fabric and distribute the gowns. She was blown away by the unbelievable response. “We had400 emails overnight! “Kirby says. “It’s the spirit that allowed us to send out so many gowns to people in need. Months later, Gowns for Doctors still has a lot of gowns if medical staff are in need of them. We are continuing to help those who need them.”
The success of the initiative has now gone global, after a company contacted Kirby to create a Barbie doll (芭比娃娃) in her image, celebrating all the healthcare heroes globally. “Seeing my one-of-a-kind Barbie doll for the first time was a heart-skip moment. There were tears of joy. She looks just like me! ”
After hand-packing every order, Dr. White loves seeing happy healthcare workers wearing their donated gowns. “We’ve been sent photos of medical staff wearing their gowns with big smiles,” she says. “Everyone has been so appreciative; we are inundated with thank-you cards. It’s so nice to see them.”
1. Why did Kirby start to make reusable gowns?| A．There was a lack of gowns’ materials. |
| B．The number of the patients was large. |
| C．There weren’t enough disposable gowns. |
| D．The quality of the disposable gowns was poor. |
| A．They wrote a lot of emails. | B．They helped make the gowns. |
| C．They bought many new gowns. | D．They called some medical staff. |
| A．Annoyed. | B．Curious. | C．Upset. | D．Touched. |
| A．Flooded. | B．Competed. | C．Compared. | D．Equipped. |
9 . For months now, our routines have been interrupted and we’ve been forced to adapt. Reportedly, one major consequence is a state of mental tiredness. It feels as if we’re all in a state of constant distraction.
“It felt like I had a mental block preventing me from focusing on the page,” says Sophie Vershbow, who recognized the mood early in the pandemic (流行病) when her tweet about “not being able to concentrate enough to read a book” was liked more than 2,000 times.
For many people, especially working parents, the sudden switch to home working has meant a conflict between work and life. It’s tricky to focus on a document as your kids wrestle for the TV remote control. But even when work is finished for the day and the kids are in bed, it’s hard to find any focus to escape into a novel or box-set.
A psychological theory called Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) might help explain why living in the age of COVID-19 may have turned our minds to soup. Put simply, CLT characterizes our minds as information processing systems. When we’re working on a problem, especially an unfamiliar one, we depend on our “working memory”, which is very limited both in its capacity and the length of time it holds information. The less familiar you are with a task, the more you depend on your working memory to help deal with the relevant information; in contrast, when you’re an expert, most of what you need to know is stored in long-term memory and you can complete the task automatically.
So COVID-19 has robbed you of the ability to do things on auto. Take a work meeting for example, before, you would just have turned up and joined in the discussion, but now if you’re working remotely you have to fire up your video-conferencing software, worry about your Wi-Fi and so on. The same applies to domestic challenges too, like ordering your groceries online instead of shopping in person. These adaptations force you out of auto-pilot and draw on your limited working memory capacity.
1. What is the result of COVID-19 mentioned in the text?| A．Being worn out mentally. | B．Drawing online attention. |
| C．Lack of interest in reading | D．Sticking to the old routines. |
| A．They wrestle with children for the TV remote control. |
| B．They can strike a balance between work and life. |
| C．They enjoy no form of entertainment. |
| D．They find it hard to concentrate. |
| A．Being interrupted by our kids. |
| B．The decline of our memory capacity. |
| C．Being occupied with new daily routines. |
| D．The independence of our working memory. |
| A．New situation, new solution | B．CLT accounts for new challenges |
| C．New life in the age of COVID-19 | D．Adjust yourself to working online |
10 . Research by the Policy Institute at King’s. College London and Ipsos MORI showed that around 54% of British people will miss some parts of lockdown (封城), including family time. 19% of the 2,442 adults said the last year had been better than they expected it to be when the first lockdown started. The research also found that 32% of people felt the past year had been similar to or better than usual for them personally. People have enjoyed being closer to their family, friends, and neighbours throughout to pandemic (流行病), with 28% feeling closer to their family, 19% to their neighbours, and 31% to their friends.
Professor Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London, said: “There is no doubt that the public would rather the pandemic hadn’t happened at all — but that doesn’t mean it’s been all bad for everyone, or that people see it deeply influencing their future. What’s surprising about the findings is that for a group of people the last year turned out better than expected, or even better than a normal year.”
He added “Of course, many have been badly influenced. The findings draw attention to a key area of the pandemic, that while action to control the pandemic has been taken, its influence depends hugely on your own circumstances.”
Almost half of the public felt the last year had been worse than expected and 43% expected its mental health because of the pandemic.
The research found that some people plan to continue with some habits they formed in lockdown, with saying they will shop locally more and 38% saying they plan to walk more post-pandemic. Gideon Skinner, research director at Ipsos MORI, said British people expect the pandemic will lead to long-term changes but bold different opinions on what the changes could be.
1. What did the research mainly find?| A．About half of British people would like to keep some parts of lockdown life. |
| B．Most British people thought they were disconnected from their friends. |
| C．Life during lockdown was better than British people’s normal life. |
| D．Lockdown was much worse than British people had thought. |
| A．The pandemic deeply influenced people’s future. |
| B．The public would miss some parts of lockdown. |
| C．The public would prefer there had been no pandemic. |
| D．The pandemic seemed to be out of control last year. |
| A．The changes brought by the pandemic are still unclear. |
| B．People will pay more attention to their family life. |
| C．The pandemic is helping people form good habits. |
| D．People are losing their confidence in the future. |
| A．Ways to spend time during lockdown. |
| B．Bad influences of the pandemic on people’s life. |
| C．People’s social relationships during the pandemic. |
| D．A research result on people’s life during lockdown. |
