1 . International Women's Day is March 8. The first celebration was held in 1911, and the event was recognized by the United Nations starting in 1975.

It's a great time to think about the origin of the word "woman". Some people think the word “woman" is a compound(混合)of the words“womb”and“man". Not so. Rather,it's a compound of "wife" and "man", a combination that can be traced back to Old English. You see, when Old English was first being spoken in the 5th century AD, there were two distinct words for men and women: "wer" meant "adult male",and "wif” meant “adult female". There was a third word,“man", which simply meant "person"or "human being”. These words could be combined:“wer" plus“man"(in the form of "waepman")meant "adult male person" and“wif” plus"man”("wilman") meant “adult female person”.

Those middle forms,“wimnan"and "wommon"with the two M's in the middle, remind me of Noah Webster's efforts to simplify English spelling by suggesting changing the spelling "woman” to“wimmen" to have the spelling better match the pronunciation. He put that in his 1806 Compendious Dictionary o f the English Language, but it didn't become popular.

And the Old English word for "adult male" evolved into a simplified form. The compound word "weapman" melted into the simple word we use today: "man".

Maybe the lesson to take from all this is that the role of women in society has always been complex. Whatever the case, the word "woman" today was originally a compound of the Old English words for"woman” and “human being”.

1. Where can you find the first source of the word "woman"?

A．In paragraph 1.

B．In paragraph 2.

C．In paragraph 3.

D．In paragraph 4.

2. Why did Webster suggest changing the spelling "woman" to "wimmen"?

A．To link the spelling to the pronunciation.

B．To keep up with the times more closely.

C．To satisfy the readers’ requests

D．To make it easy to pronounce.

3. When did the spelling "woman" started?

A．By the 1600s.	B．In the 5th century AD,
C．In 1809.	D．By the Middle English period

4. What is the purpose of the author in writing the text?

A．To tell us the origin of Women's Day.

B．To tell us the history of the word "woman".

C．To stress the roles women are playing

D．To teach us the development of a language

2 . A 29-year-old woman Chelsea Haley of Marietta, Georgia, who adopted (收养) a former student and his brother, is now celebrating being completely debt-free. She has paid off a total of $ 48,683.41 — the amount she owed in credit cards and student loans with interest. “It doesn’t feel real yet,” Haley, mom of Jerome, 17, and Jace, 6, told the press.

Haley was teaching in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 2015, on a two-year commitment to Teach for America, which is an organization that finds recent college graduates to work in low-income schools. Her son, Jerome, was in her 4th-grade class at the time.

When Haley saw Jerome having difficulty in progressing academically, she started spending time with him — going to his football games, buying him school supplies and more. Soon, Haley adopted Jerome together with his brother. “Being their mom is the greatest blessing of my life,” Haley said.

Haley went to all the expense of adopting the two boys. She also borrowed money to afford taking care of them, which increased the difficulty for her to pay their student loans. Determined to rid herself of debt, Haley took on part-time jobs. On top of being a teacher, she was teaching an individual student or a small group in her spare time a couple of days a week. On Fridays, she was paid extra to stay late at the school and work as the building manager. Haley also delivered (送) groceries. She sold her home and moved back to live with her parents on Nov. 6. Her goal is to save money for a new house and prepare Jerome for college. Both boys are doing well in school.

“It allows me to focus on the boys’ future,’’ Haley said. “Earning and saving money for them, and not spending money saved in the past.”

Her advice for making a determined effort to free us of debt is never to ignore your spending and stick to a plan.

1. How did Chelsea Haley feel when she had just paid off the debt?

A．Unforgettable.	B．Unbelievable.
C．Unpredictable.	D．Unacceptable.

2. When did Haley start to help Jerome?

A．As soon as Jerome first became her student at school.

B．Immediately she came to the school Jerome studied in.

C．When she found Jerome had difficulty studying further.

D．After she had decided to adopt Jerome and his brother.

3. What does the fourth paragraph mainly talk about?

A．Why Haley returned to live with her parents.

B．Why Haley kept herself busy making a living.

C．What part-time jobs Haley did to earn money.

D．How Haley managed to pay off her debt finally.

4. According to Haley, what is the most important for her success?

A．Making a practical plan.	B．Relying on your savings.
C．Getting help from parents.	D．Borrowing friends’ money.

3 . Tomatoes were first planted in 700 AD by Aztecs and Incas. Explorers returning from Mexico introduced the tomato into Europe, where it was first mentioned in 1556. The French called it “the apple of love”，the Germans “the apple of paradise(乐园）”.

Tomatoes are rich in vitamins A and C and fiber，and are cholesterol(胆固醇）free. An average size tomato (148 grams or so) has only 35 calories. Furthermore, new medical research suggests that the consumption of lycopene(番茄红素) ，the stuff that makes tomatoes red，may prevent cancer. Besides, the fruit now appears to have two more health giving benefits. Protection against sunburn and helping keep the skin looking youthful are the latest pluses, a study has found.

Professor Mark Birch-Machin said tomatoes could provide a cheap and easy way of improving health. Researchers at Manchester and Newcastle universities recommend two tomato-based meals a day for health. Possible menus include a glass of tomato juice with breakfast and a salad later or tomato soup for lunch and pasta(意大利面）with a tomato sauce for dinner.

To test the fruit’s ability to protect the skin，ten volunteers were asked to eat five tablespoons of tomato paste mixed with olive oil every day for three months. Another ten had a daily dose of olive oil - minus the tomato paste. The tests showed the tomato-eaters were a third better protected against sunburn at the end of the study than at the start, the British Society for Investigative Dermatology’s annual conference heard.

The researchers stressed, however, that their findings were not an excuse to throw away the sun cream. Professor Lesley Rhodes, a Manchester University dermatologist, said: “People should not think tomatoes in any way can replace sun creams but they may be a good additive.”

1. Why does the writer talk about the history of tomatoes in Paragraph 1?

A．To lead in the topic.	B．To raise a concern.
C．To introduce a question.	D．To make a statement.

2. What is mainly talked about in Paragraph 2?

A．The components of tomatoes.	B．The benefits of tomatoes.
C．The latest findings of tomatoes.	D．The functions of tomatoes on patients.

3. What is the best way to keep the skin looking youthful?

A．Eating more tomatoes.	B．Using more sun cream.
C．Staying inside as often as possible.	D．Using sun cream and eating tomatoes.

4. How do the researchers test tomatoes’ ability to protect the skin against sunburn?

A．By giving an example.	B．By setting up a database.
C．By making a comparison.	D．By analyzing possible reasons.

4 . It might seem like something from a science fiction movie, but scientists today are working on ways to combine certain kinds of bacteria with tiny robots. Scientists want to use these creations to improve the way we give medical treatment. They claim that drug therapy (疗法), disease diagnosis, and even surgery could be greatly aided by the use of nanobiotechnology. Nano-means “tiny”, and bio-means “life”. This tiny technology will use living organisms in combination with electronics.

Electronics makers already use tiny robots to build complex but very tiny circuits. Medical scientists want to use these robots to repair patients’ damaged organs or to direct medicines to affect specific cells. For example, tiny robots could be engineered to deliver chemotherapy (化疗) directly to cancer instead of to the entire body.

Existing electronics are the right size, but they lack practical use. Robots that can be built small enough to enter a person’s cells would be too tiny to move on their own. Therefore, scientists want to use tiny organisms such as bacteria to act as vehicles for the robots. The bacteria will be “driven” through the bloodstream by magnetic pulses (磁脉冲). Once the bacteria are in the correct locations, the robots will be able to do their jobs. In theory, these robots will cause less damage to the body than traditional methods of delivering medicines or performing surgeries.

Nanobiotechnology has yet to be put into practice, but many people already have concerns about its use. Some people worry about the ethic (道德标准) involved with controlling live organisms—and the possible side effects for their human hosts.

1. What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?

A．The application of tiny robots.	B．The influence of tiny robots.
C．The operation of tiny robots.	D．The origin of tiny robots.

2. Which of the following could be a future benefit of nanobiotechnology?

A．Cheaper medicine.	B．Less harm to the body.
C．Longer life expectancy.	D．Faster performance of surgeries.

3. According to the medical scientists, robots ______.

A．can locate he bacteria.	B．are driven by medicine.
C．can act as vehicles.	D．are carried by bacteria.

4. Where does the text probably come from?

A．A computer textbok	B．A life magazine
C．A science magazine	D．A biology textbook

5 . A first grade teacher from Suffolk, Virginia found a way to teach her students about black history by taking them back in time to meet celebrated black figures. For each day of Black History Month, LaToya McGriff has dressed up like a famous African-American pioneer and taught her students about their significant contributions to the U.S.

On Monday, February 3, she dressed up as Virginian native Mary Jackson and began her creative class. “She was a mathematician who worked as an aeronautical (航空的) engineer whom people referred to as a human computer,” McGriff wrote on Facebook. She shared a photo of herself in 1960s clothing, like Jackson would have worn when she worked for NASA.

Jackson was one of the three “human computers” described in the book and film Hidden Figures, which revealed the African-American female mathematicians whose efforts helped put men on the moon.

Once McGriff started dressing up, she kept going. By February 18, McGriff's Black History Month lessons were starting to gain attention online. She was interviewed by CBS News, and said she works at a majority-black school and “wanted students to see that people who look like them contribute”.

She said that the seeds for this project were planted in her years ago by a teacher who did something similar. “That’s what I remember, having a teacher come dressed as a storybook character. Well, I could dress up as a different figure, an African-American figure from the past or present so they can see themselves represented,” McGriff said.

“My students will want to know who I will be tomorrow. Today, they just said ‘Are you going to be so-and-so?’ Because they want to know and kind of prepare themselves for it so that they can tell me something they know about the person,” she said.

McGriff said bringing history alive kept her students curious and asking questions, and she’s hoping the overall project will give them the confidence to know that, like these historic figures, they can be great, too.

1. What can we learn about LaToya McGriff from the text?

A．Her students are all black.

B．She is a primary school teacher.

C．Her lessons receive little attention online.

D．She posted a 1960s-style photo of Mary Jackson on Facebook.

2. What is the fifth paragraph mainly about?

A．The result of McGriff's project.

B．McGriff’s reflections on teaching.

C．How McGriff came up with this teaching method.

D．Why McGriff’s students can see themselves represented.

3. How are her students according to McGriff’s words in the last two paragraphs?

A．They have a lot of energy and determination.

B．They have a strong desire to know about something.

C．They give serious attention to what is quite challenging.

D．They show the ability to invent and develop original ideas.

4. Why is McGriff carrying out the project?

A．To help her students get high grades.

B．To introduce African history to her students.

C．To stress big figures’ contributions to the US.

D．To encourage her students to trust themselves to do better.

6 . If you’re putting together a team for a project, you might tend to pick people with cheerful, optimistic characters and flexible thinking. But a new management study indicates your team might also benefit from people who have the opposite emotions (情感), according to experts from some universities.

The study, co-authored by Jing Zhou, investigates (研究) the effects of "team affective (情感的) diversity" on team creativity. The paper is among the first research to show how, why and under what condition teams "affective diversity" promotes team creativity

Team members with what researchers call "negative affect" exhibit critical and continuous thinking that allows them to find problems needing solutions, as well as to search out and critically evaluate relevant information. On the other hand, team members with "positive affect" engage in broad and flexible thinking that expands their range of information and helps them see unusual and creative connections, the researchers say.

"At any given point of time, some team members may experience positive affect such as joy and inspiration, while others may experience negative affect such as frustration and worry," Zhou said. "Instead of trying to homogenize (使类同) team members' affect, teams should enthusiastically accept affective diversity.”

When a team experiences a high level of this "affective diversity", what Zhou describes as "dual-tuning (双调谐)" leads to greater creativity.

"Our study suggests that teams may be aided in using their affective diversity via involvements that focus on building the team's memory system, which can be accelerated when team members spend time together, share goals, receive information about member specializations and train on the task together," Zhou said.

1. What is the new management study about?

A．Teams benefit more from negative people.

B．People with cheerful characters make good teams

C．Teams only benefit from people with flexible thinking

D．People with negative feelings might also benefit teams.

2. How do team members with "negative affect" influence their teams

A．By addressing problems more efficiently	B．By assessing related materials seriously.
C．By encouraging broad and complicated thinking.	D．By investigating unusual and creative connections

3. How can teams urge the team members' greater creativity?

A．By balancing team members' different emotions	B．By inspiring a high level of the affective diversity.
C．By praising positive affect like joy and inspiration.	D．By avoiding negative affect like sadness and worry.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Use Your Team's Emotions to Promote Creativity	B．Win Great Creativity by Searching for Its Reasons
C．Create an Excellent Team with Optimistic People	D．Homogenize Team Members' Affect Enthusiastically

7 . How to Teach A Child to Ride A Bike?

You never forget how to ride a bike, but most of us forget how hard it was to learn.     1    . Here’s what to keep in mind when instructing little ones from two feet to two wheels.

Begin with the right equipment. Start with a bicycle that’s the right size. A newbie should be able to sit on the seat with both feet flat on the ground. If the child has been using a bike with training wheels, remove them.     2    . Long pants and long-sleeved shirts aren’t a bad idea, either, to prevent injury in the event of a fall.

    3    . Head to a location that has smooth, flat, open pavement and little or no traffic to distract or endanger your child. It helps if there’s no one around, too, so he won’t feel self-conscious. The ideal spot? A school parking lot on the weekend.

Emphasize the basics. The fundamentals of biking are balance, coasting, pedaling, and steering. To help a child learn these basic skills, remember to show how to do that in the flesh and dare to let him try. No doubt there will be more than a few stops and starts and maybe even a fall or two.     4    .

Now practice a lot. After a fair number of dry runs, it’s time to move to the big stage. Find a bike path or a little-travelled street in a residential neighbourhood.     5    . Bike along with him to check that he’s using proper safety techniques and feels comfortable pedaling in traffic.

A．Find a safe spot to learn

B．Go to practice with the child

C．Encourage him to slow down and go on

D．Show him how to share the road with cars

E．A good-quality, well-fitting helmet is also a must

F．That’s why the experience of teaching children to ride can be frustrating

G．But eventually, he will manage to ride a fair stretch without stopping or falling

8 . Simple Ways to Give Great Praise to Motivate Everyone on Your Team

*Recognize a project hero.

Did someone on your team go the extra mile on a recent project? Is there anyone who was critical to their success?     1     A simple note thanking them can be all the fuel they need to want to keep working that hard for the team. Remember: Those going unrecognized are three times more likely to quit.

*Notice your unsung（被埋没的）heroes.

The best way to have high performance at all levels of your team is to, “Create heroes in every role. Don't forget your unsung heroes. Make sure every role performed at a level of excellence is treated as a respected profession.” Maybe they are the lowest paid, or the ones that do the most repetitive work.     2    

*     3    

As your team grows, it becomes harder and harder to keep a close eye on the work of everyone on your team. What you see can be very different from the things they actually do behind the scenes.

It’s easy to catch a problem in someone’s project. Unfortunately, if you only focus on what’s wrong, you can discourage your team.     4     You’d better make an effort to find things you like and praise.

*Praise any improvement in the work.

When you’re trying to turn around an underperformer, or just coach up someone’s weakness, praise can make all the difference. It takes hard work and focus to improve at something you're struggling with.

Think about when you were a kid trying to learn to ride a bike, throw a ball, or learn to read.     5     And what helped you keep trying? It must be the encouragement from a friend, a family member, or a parent.

A．Don't let them go unnoticed.

B．Tie their efforts to a great purpose.

C．Dig into their work and find something you like.

D．You had to fail many times before you succeeded.

E．Even the most junior person on your team deserves praise.

F．When you’re working with your team, keep your role in mind.

G．Actually, what you should do is more than look for what's wrong.

9 . How to Be a Good Upstairs Neighbor

One must remember to be polite when living in an apartment building. You may unintentionally bother your neighbors with actions that you think to be harmless.     1     Living upstairs, you must always be aware that everything you do may be heard by those who live below. This doesn’t mean that you have to completely change your lifestyle, though.

    2     This will greatly reduce the sound of your footsteps, thus limiting the sound your downstairs neighbor will hear. You should always remember to change your shoes when entering your apartment to ensure that your downstairs neighbor doesn’t hear you walking around.

Place carpets in your apartment if you have hardwood floors. Doing so is another way to decrease the sound of steps coming from an upstairs apartment. You can also put your furniture on these carpets.     3    

Close your windows when you can. A floor is usually about three meters high, so it’s quite easy to hear your conversations.     4     Therefore, whenever you are watching TV or listening to a radio, try to keep your windows closed as much as possible.

Do your cleaning on weekend afternoons.     5     Doing such housework at 3:00 pm on a Saturday is much better than doing so at 9:30 on a Tuesday night.

A．Wear slippers while in your upstairs apartment.

B．It becomes much easier when your windows are open.

C．No matter what you do, consider your neighbor’s requirements.

D．There’ll be a time when you will run a cleaner to clean your room.

E．This is especially true for those people who live above an apartment.

F．It will disturb your downstairs neighbor who has to work the next morning.

G．This keeps your furniture from moving around, thus limiting noise a downstairs neighbor may hear.

10 . The world that we live in is beautiful because it’s made up of people from a diverse set of backgrounds and cultures.     1     There’s no better way than to acknowledge Global Diversity Awareness Month every October.

During this time, our multicultural world is embraced and celebrated for all of the variety and joy it brings. Can you imagine a world where everyone looks the same, has the exact same hobbies and interests, and even eats the same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner?     2     And bringing those differences together makes us better.

To put it simply, our diversity and inclusiveness (包容性)are our biggest strengths. We’ll all profit from a more diverse, inclusive society, understanding, accommodating, even celebrating our differences, while pulling together for the common good. As such, Global Diversity Awareness Month is a great chance for us to learn more about the beliefs, values and customs of other cultures.         3    

    4     For example, we can host a multicultural movie night and watch foreign films, or listen to music from around the world or visit cultural art exhibitions. Another way we can celebrate diversity is by inviting our friends and family to dinner. Everyone can bring traditional dishes from their countries and hometowns.

There is no doubt that diversity and inclusiveness make our world a better place.     5     As Mahatma Gandhi once said, our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization. Hopefully, with each passing day, we get closer and closer to that achievement.

A．There are many ways we can celebrate diversity.

B．How can we make the world a better place to live in?

C．What can possibly be a better way to celebrate that diversity?

D．Respect for world diversity is the key to bridging the differences.

E．It’s our unique differences that make the world so wonderful and interesting.

F．What’s important is that we reach out to other people and appreciate those differences.

G．In this way, we can open our mind to new ideas and ways of thinking to better our society.