1. What did the man do over the weekend?
| A．He did some exercise. | B．He watched a movie. | C．He worked overtime. |
| A．The ticket price. | B．The special effects. | C．Their lines. |
注意：
1. 写作词数应为80个左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Hello, everyone! I’m glad to have this chance to share my view on…
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Thanks for listening!
3 . Pick up any packaged processed food, and there’s a decent chance that one of its listed ingredients will be “natural flavour”. The ingredient sounds good, particularly in contrast to “artificial flavours” since there is a common belief that ingredients from nature are necessarily safer than something artificially made. But it’s not true. Then what exactly does the natural flavour mean? It refers to extracts (提取物) got from natural sources like plants, meat or seafood. When consumers see the “natural flavour” on a label, they are unlikely to assume that someone is squeezing the juice from oranges into their bottles. They know even though natural flavour must come from natural sources, it needn’t all come from the plant or meat. For example, orange flavours might contain not only orange extracts, but also extracts from bark and grass.
So if flavours like orange are needed, why not just use oranges? The answer comes down to “availability, cost, and sustainability”, according to flavour chemist Gary Reineccius of the University of Minnesota. “If you’re going to use all your grapes on grape soda,” Reineccius says, “you don’t have any grapes for wine making; the products are going to be exorbitant; besides, what do you do with the by-products you create after you’ve squeezed all the juice out of the grapes?”
Actually, while chemists make natural flavours by extracting chemicals from natural ingredients, artificial flavours are made by creating the same chemicals artificially. The reason why companies bother to use natural flavours rather than artificial flavours is simple: marketing. “Many of these products have health titles,” says Platkin, professor from Hunter College. “Consumers may be talked to believe products with natural flavours are healthier, though they are nutritionally no different from those with artificial flavours. Natural flavours may involve more forest clear-cutting and carbon emissions from transport than flavours created in the lab.”
Platkin suggests getting more transparent (易懂的) labeling on packaging that describes exactly what the natural or artificial flavours are, so consumers are-not misled into buying one product over another because of “natural flavours”. Reineccius also offers simple guidance: “Don’t buy anything because it says ‘natural flavours’. Buy it because you like it.”
1. Which is misunderstanding about the “natural flavour” juice according to Paragraph 1？| A．It comes from 100% original fruit. |
| B．It is nothing but advertising tricks. |
| C．It certainly contains extracts made in the lab. |
| D．It is absolutely safer than juice with artificial flavours. |
| A．Popular. | B．Expensive. | C．Favorable. | D．Innovative. |
| A．To cut the costs. | B．To promote the sales. |
| C．To advocate a healthy diet. | D．To avoid food safety issues. |
| A．Gary and Platkin hold opposite perspectives. |
| B．Natural flavours are more environmentally friendly. |
| C．Customers are misled for ignoring labels on packaging. |
| D．Natural and artificial flavours are more alike than you think. |
4 . New research suggests tea might help those who drink it live longer than those who do not. Past studies in China and Japan, where green tea is popular, have suggested several health benefits. Now, scientists say black tea may show similar benefits.
Scientists from the United States National Cancer Institute carried out the study. They examined years of data gathered about the tea drinking behavior of almost 500,000 adults in Britain for as many as 14 years. Black tea is the most common kind of tea in Britain.
The study found that high tea intake — two or more cups a day — was linked to a moderate benefit: a 9 to 13 percent lower risk of death from any cause than non-tea drinkers.
The research was published in Annals of Internal Medicine. The scientists say the lowered risk of death held true for study subjects with heart disease. However, researchers said there was no clear finding in connection with deaths from cancer. Researchers were not sure why. “It is possible that there were too few confirmed cancer deaths to measure,” said Maki Inoue-Choi, who led the study.
Tea contains various elements, including polyphenols, which are thought to be responsible for the health benefits that have traditionally been linked to tea, especially green tea. Green tea is reported to improve mental ability, ease digestive problems and head pain, and help people with weight loss. Green tea has also been studied for possible protective effects against heart disease and cancer.
The study of British tea drinkers was based on observing people’s behaviors and health.
This kind of methodology cannot prove cause and effect.
“Observational studies like this always raise the question: Is there something else about tea drinkers that makes them healthier?” said Marion Nestle. She is a professor of food studies at New York University.
“The study does not offer enough evidence to advise people to change their tea behaviors,” said Inoue-Choi.
1. How is the result of the study presented?| A．By analyzing cause and effect. | B．By giving definitions. |
| C．By listing numbers. | D．By presenting examples. |
| A．Fewer and fewer people are dying of cancer. |
| B．Drinking tea has no effect on cancer patients. |
| C．We can’t confirm the leading cause of cancer deaths. |
| D．Drinking tea can lessen the risk of death from heart disease. |
| A．This method has its limitations. | B．This is an easy and effective method. |
| C．They don’t need to be proved. | D．Behaviors and health are closely connected. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Objective. | C．Negative. | D．Indifferent. |
Jane Eyre (《简爱》) is a timeless classic that attracts readers with its powerful storytelling and unforgettable characters.
The novel is a masterpiece of Victorian literature, exploring themes of love, morality, and social class. Jane Eyre’s strong sense of self-worth and independence makes her attractive, while her love for Mr. Rochester adds depth
Bronte’s writing style is
One of the most memorable aspects of Jane Eyre is its
Overall, Jane Eyre is an everlasting masterpiece
6 . The moon has no air, no water and an extreme 250-degree celsius temperature range, but among the most tricky challenges for space agencies hoping to set up camp is the dust. It damages space suits, blocks machinery, affects scientific instruments and makes moving around difficult.
Now scientists have come up with a potential solution, demonstrating that moon dust could be melted using a giant lens (透镜) to create solid roads and landing areas. “You might think: Streets on the moon, who needs that?” said Prof. Jens Gunster, of the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) in Berlin and co-author. “But in fact it’s a kind of depressing demand early on.”
Dust has destroyed previous missions, such as the Lunar Surveyor 3 spacecraft — damaged by dust kicked up by the Apollo 12 landing — and overcoming this challenge is a priority for NASA, which aims to establish a permanent lunar base.
Taking building materials to the moon would be too expensive, so new solutions are needed. “You need to use what’s there and that’s simply loose dust,” said Gunster.
He and colleagues experimented with a fine-grained material called EAC-1A, developed by the European Space Agency as a substitute for lunar soil. They used a laser beam (激光) to heat the dust to about 1, 600℃ to melt it. They then traced out bendy triangle shapes, each about 25 cm across, which could be interlocked to create solid surfaces across large areas for roads and landing areas.
The process is slow. Each small geometric unit took about an hour, meaning it would take about 100 days to create a landing spot measuring 10 meters by 10 meters. “It sounds like forever, but think about constructions on Earth,” said Gunster.
The authors calculate that a lens of about 2. 37 sq meters would need to be transported from Earth to act as a sunlight concentrator in place of the laser. But dust would still be an issue for the lens itself. “When you accumulate dust on the lens, it will sooner or later not function any more,” said Gunster, adding that a shaking lens may help ease off this problem.
1. Why is the demand for streets on the moon “kind of depressing”?| A．Streets are not necessary on the moon. |
| B．Streets would get damaged by moon dust. |
| C．Building materials are too expensive to transport. |
| D．There are better solutions available for lunar base. |
| A．Finding a substitute for lunar soil. |
| B．Setting up a permanent lunar base. |
| C．Solving the problem caused by moon dust. |
| D．Repairing the damaged Lunar Surveyor 3 spacecraft. |
| A．Slow but workable. | B．Expensive and fast. |
| C．Important but impractical. | D．Difficult and unnecessary. |
| A．In a personal diary. | B．In a newspaper. |
| C．In an official report. | D．In a textbook. |
7 . To study the behavior of mysterious animals, scientists routinely fix them with GPS location trackers. But such devices’ battery capacity limits how long they operate, often bringing an early end to vital conservation work.
Solar-powered trackers break easily, making them a poor choice for devices tied to larger mammals—and they don’t work for nocturnal (夜行的) creatures. So biologist Rasmus Worsoe Havmoller of the University of Copenhagen and his colleagues turned to another abundant power source: kinetic energy (动能) generated by an animal’s movements.
Their kinetic tracker, which Havmoller’s team recently tested on domestic dogs, a wild small horse and a European bison, could theoretically survive for the entire life span of an active animal. It is also lighter and cheaper to make than its battery-powered counterparts.
“The design is clever and exciting,” says Mark Hebblewhite, a habitat ecologist at the University of Montana, who was not involved with the new work. The proof-of-concept kinetic tracker works by means of a magnetic pendulum (磁摆) that swings around a copper coil, generating electricity as the tagged animal moves. The dogs and bison in the study were active enough to create the energy to transmit one location per day for 14 days and 17 days, respectively. One of the wild horse’s trackers lasted at least 146 days but didn’t generate adequate power for daily transmissions, the researchers reported in PLoS ONE.
“The limited power generated by the animals’ movements means the technology isn’t ready for prime time just yet,” says ecologist Emily Studd of British Columbia’s Thompson Rivers University, who wasn’t involved in the study. When the researchers want to monitor animals closely, they often need GPS fixes more than once a day. But Studd says that “with a bit more development, this could be a game changer for wildlife animal research and monitoring”.
Havmoller and his colleagues hope conservation workers can one day use this technology to track species such as tigers, leopards and wolves, which can easily destroy solar-powered trackers and which hunt and travel at night.
1. What is the main problem with current GPS location trackers used in conservation work?| A．Their batteries are harmful to animals. | B．Their battery life is limited. |
| C．They send weak signals. | D．They break easily. |
| A．It is expensive to make. |
| B．It isn’t suitable for larger mammals. |
| C．It doesn’t work for nocturnal creatures. |
| D．It can’t produce enough power for daily transmissions. |
| A．It needs improvement. | B．It can be widely used now. |
| C．It has reached its prime time. | D．It isn’t good for monitoring wildlife. |
| A．The Importance of Wildlife Trackers |
| B．The Meaning of Monitoring Different Wild Animals |
| C．Tough New Wildlife Tracker Runs on Animal Power |
| D．Conservation Workers Use New Methods to Protect Animals |
Laughter is said to be the best medicine in our life. Nothing works faster or more dependably to bring your mind and body back into balance than a good laugh. Laughter lightens your burdens, inspires hope, connects you to others, and keeps you more focused on the positive. I like to laugh and be happy whenever there is a reason for it. Cracking jokes usually makes us happy and light-hearted after a day of hard work, and so do many funny incidents which we may sometimes experience in our daily life.
However, today, I would like to talk about a funny incident that happened to me a few years ago, when I was still a student at primary school. That very incident took place at a birthday party held at my aunt’s house. In fact, it was a birthday party held for one of my little cousins.
On that special occasion, everybody, including all of my family members, close relatives and some of the little friends of my cousin’s, was invited to the party on a lovely summer evening in order to enjoy the party. By the way, the party was supposed to be concluded as early as possible, because all the little guests, friends of my cousin’s, needed to return to their homes safely before it was getting too late at night. So, after several hours of busy preparations, the party formally started at around 8 pm. The adults and the kids all came up to the table and gently opened up the various colorful gift boxes one by one with a formal ceremony. Once we were done with opening the gift boxes, the time came for us to sing the “Happy Birthday to You” song in chorus, and we all sang the song in order to wish a very happy birthday to my little cousin. Finally came the moment we all had been waiting for eagerly. And we were ready to open the cake box and cut the birthday cake.
注意： 1.续写词数应为150个左右；2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
To our surprise, the cake had already been cut!
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Hearing what my aunt said, we expressed our willingness to give our share to the homeless.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________China recently shared exciting news about its space exploration efforts, and revealed the names of its manned lunar lander and a new crew spaceship. This development marks
The crew spaceship has been named Mengzhou, or Dream Vessel,
These names, Lanyue and Mengzhou, were selected
My kitchen was a mess. Clouds of flour dusted the counters, the floor, and the aprons of the women gathered there.
Peels from 40 pounds of apples were piled in the corner. Mixing bowls sticky with cinnamon and sugar tipped messily in the sink. The wrappers from 12 pounds’ worth of butter spilled from the trash. But, wow, it did smell sweet.
Six of us had gathered that Saturday morning to make apple pies. Once colleagues, now simply friends, we shared an intense curiosity about all sort s of things, and we loved to chat.
Today our curiosity and chatter were directed to pie-making. While I was no top chef, I knew how to use a rolling pin and I’d had years of practice serving up strawberry cakes, coconut cream, and sour cherry pies to my family.
Pie-making is a lot of work. Whoever coined the phrase “easy as pie” must have meant consuming, not creating. We spent hours peeling, coring, slicing, measuring, and learning to handle delicate dough (面团).
“It’s sticking to the rolling pin,” one of them said, her voice full of depression.
“Oh no, it’s cracking!” came another cry. I assured them the patched crust (皮) would simply serve as a reminder that these pies were home-made.
Outside, an October snowstorm struck heavily. Inside, though, it was all steamy windows, soft music and happy laughter as we finally put our pies into the oven.
When planning “Pie Day”, we decided that we would each make two pies: One for our families and one to donate to someone else.
By early afternoon, 12 pies had been placed on the counter, their perfectly imperfect crusts shining goldenly. We rushed to prepare for delivery, packing the pies messily in boxes and bags. We marched down the driveway. The snow had melted (融化); the roads were clear. It was time to deliver.
Then, disaster struck. One of the painstakingly crafted pies melted through the bag it was packed in and fell onto the driveway. Screams of horror followed.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
One friend ran back into the kitchen and returned with forks.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The best part was still to come: Handing out pies was even better than eating pies.
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