1 . 20-year-old Colen Nulgit and his girlfriend, Shantelle Johnson, had gone out for a daytime fishing trip at Keep River National Park in Australia last week when their car became stuck in some mud (淤泥).
When they were unable to free the car from the mud, they began to worry. The park’s waterways are usually full of crocodiles, and the couple had already seen plenty of crocodile tracks running through the mud. Not only that, they had only brought a few bottles of water and little food for the trip.
Nulgit and Johnson tried to fall asleep in their car, but as the sun set and the nearby water levels began to rise, they feared that the high tide (潮水) would bring the crocodiles closer to their car. The young couple then moved towards dry land and hoped for rescue. They even used a piece of wood to write the word “HELP” into the mud along with a line pointed towards their car.
Thankfully, the couple had been careful to tell Nulgit’s parents where they were going and when they expected to be home; so when they failed to return the very same night, his worried mother called the police. Rescuers began searching the area by airplane the next morning. Upon hearing the sound of the plane, the couple started a fire so the rescuers would see the smoke. As the plane drew closer to the smoke, rescuers successfully located the couple after they caught sight of the “HELP” sign pointing towards the car.
Nulgit and Johnson were very thankful for the rescue. They now plan on putting together a set of emergency survival tools for the car.
1. What happened to Nulgit and Johnson?| A．They got lost. | B．Their car was broken. |
| C．They run out of supplies. | D．They got stuck in a dangerous place. |
| A．They started a fire for warmth. | B．They looked for survival tools. |
| C．They phoned their parents for help. | D．They made a sign. |
| A．Colen Nulgit. | B．Shantelle Johnson. | C．Nulgit’s mother. | D．Johnson’s father. |
| A．Clear-headed. | B．Confident. | C．Open-minded. | D．Independent. |
2 . Michael Todd wore the same clothes every day for the first three weeks of school. When the other kids began to notice that he was wearing the same black pants and blue, and gray long-sleeve shirt day after day, Todd, a freshman at Martin Luther King Jr. College Preparatory High School in Memphis, became the target of laughter. But there was little Todd could do. His mother simply couldn’t afford to buy him new clothes.
Two of the kids piling on were Antwan Garrett and Kristopher Graham, a pair of freshman football players. But over time, they realized that their unfavorable words felt like bullying (欺凌) and seemed to be slowly crushing (击垮) Todd’s spirit. Something finally clicked (被突然领悟) . “I felt like I needed to do something,” Graham told CBS News. So he and Garrett hatched a plan. They went home and hunted through their own drawers and closets.
The next day at school, they met Todd at their third-period class and asked him to come into the hall. Todd was understandably nervous about being called out by the larger boys. “He wasn’t smiling or anything, and I was like,’I think this is going to make you smile,’” Graham says. “I told him, ‘We’re in the same third period, and I apologize for laughing at you, and I want to give something to you to make it up.’” He then handed Todd a bag. Inside were clean shirts and shorts, plus a brand-new pair of New Balance sneakers.
Todd was blown away. “I was very happy,” he told CBS News. “Surprised and upset, completely.” And Todd got much more than a new wardrobe. He no longer sits alone at lunch. Now he eats with his new friends, Garrett and Graham.
“I’ve been bullied my entire life,” Todd told CBS News. Reflecting on the day Garrett and Graham called him into the hall, he called it “the best day of my entire life, basically.”
1. What can we learn about Todd and his family from the passage?| A．Todd worked hard to earn his living. |
| B．Todd’s family lived in extreme poverty. |
| C．Todd’s mother did nothing to change the situation. |
| D．Todd was made fun of from the beginning of school. |
| A．Formed. | B．Proved. | C．Confirmed. | D．Rejected. |
| A．Todd was eager to make more friends with others. |
| B．Todd felt puzzled when being shouted by Graham. |
| C．Todd received no apology from Garrett and Graham. |
| D．Todd was shocked but pleased at the kids’ help to him. |
| A．Helping the weak out is a virtue (美德) . |
| B．Accepting and living with each other’s weaknesses. |
| C．Hoping for the best while preparing for the worst. |
| D．Making friends with those having common interests. |
3 . When White met the pit bull puppy in 2018, Darby was young, playful, strong as an ox. Then, in the summer of 2019, came Darby’s date with destiny.
White was fishing in Northern Caledonia’s Bodega Bay. He left Darby, then a year old and 100 pounds, in the parked car with windows down, while he cast his line a few yards away. The fish weren’t biting, White recall, until, suddenly, they were.
At first, White thought he had hooked a stingray. But as he reeled (绕线) it in, he realized it was a sevengill shark, about 6 feet long. Not uncommon but still dangerous He brought it close and carefully unhooked it, expecting it to swim away. It didn’t. The shark bit his ankle.
“All of a sudden there was blood everywhere,” says White. He yelled for help, hoping the fishermen down the beach could hear. But they didn’t seem to know what was going on. Fortunately, Darby did. He jumped out of the car and ran toward the water. He ran right up to the shark and sank his teeth into its gills (鱼鳃).
“That just made the shark bite down harder,” White says. Darby backed off, then regrouped and attacked the shark’s tail. The shark released its grip (紧抓), and White managed to push it into shallow water, where it swam off. “The whole thing took less than a minute,” White says, “but it left plenty of damage.” White was able to stop the bleeding and get to a hospital, where he learned that the wound was very severe.
That would’ve been the end of it, had Darby’s story not gone viral. White was contacted by NBC News and CNN. That’s when the countless cash offers started to come in. But the big dog was not for sale.
1. What do the underlined words “date with destiny” mean?| A．A day for celebration | B．An important meeting |
| C．Important time in life | D．An appointment with White |
| A．White hooked a rare and dangerous shark. |
| B．Darby succeed in the fight against the shark at his first attempt. |
| C．White was not seriously injured thanks to Darby’s help. |
| D．Many people wanted to buy the dog. |
| A．Young and cute | B．Brave and devoted |
| C．Friendly and smart | D．Playful and naughty |
| A．How a dog saved its owner | B．How to fight against a shark |
| C．How a shark attacked people | D．How to go shark fishing with a dog |
4 . Sport is not only physically challenging, but can also be mentally challenging. Criticism (批评) from coaches, parents and other teammates, as well as pressure to win can create too much anxiety or stress for young athletes. Stress can be physical, emotional, or psychological and research has indicated that it can lead to burnout. Burnout has been described as dropping out of or quitting an activity that was at one time enjoyable.
The early years of growth are important years for learning about oneself and the sport setting is one where valuable experiences can take place. Young athletes can for example, learn how to cooperate with others, make friends, and gain other social skills that will be used throughout their lives. Coaches and parents should be aware, at all times, that their feedback to youngsters can greatly affect their children. Youngsters may take their parents and coaches’ criticisms to heart and find faults in themselves.
Coaches and parents should also pay attention that youth sport participation does not become work for children. The outcome of the game should not be more important than the process of learning the sport an other life lessons. In today’s youth sport setting, young athletes may be worrying more about who will win instead of enjoying themselves and the sport. Following a game, many parents and coaches focus on the outcome and find faults with youngsters’ performances. Positive support should be provided regardless of the outcome. Research indicates that positive support encourages and has a greater effect on learning than criticism. Again, criticism can create high levels of stress, which can lead to burnout.
1. What is the main idea of the first paragraph?| A．Sport can be mentally challenging. |
| B．Stress should be made less. |
| C．Mental stress should be reduced. |
| D．Sport should be made less competitive. |
| A．It enables them to criticize themselves. |
| B．It can provide them with valuable experiences. |
| C．It can help them learn more about society. |
| D．It teaches them how to set realistic goals for themselves. |
| A．Train children to deal with stress. | B．Help children to win every game. |
| C．Make sure children enjoy sport. | D．Understand the meaning of sport. |
| A．To stress the importance of encouraging children in sport. |
| B．To persuade young children not to worry about criticism. |
| C．To teach young athletes how to avoid burnout. |
| D．To discuss the skill of combining criticism with encouragement. |
5 . Researchers at the University of Alabama in Birmingham suggest that brainwave-sensing headsets (脑电波耳机), also known as EEG headsets, need better safety after a study which shows hackers (黑客) could guess a user’s bank account passwords by monitoring (监测) his brainwaves.
Nitesh Saxena, professor in the UAB, and his team found that a person who stopped a video game and entered into a bank account while wearing an EEG headset was at a risk of having his passwords stolen by a bad software program. Saxena and his team used one EEG headset that could be bought by customers online to show how easily an ill software program could eavesdrop on a user’s brainwaves. While typing, a user’s reaction corresponds with his hand, eye and head muscle (肌肉) movements. All these movements are caught by EEG headsets.
The team asked 12 people to type passwords into a text box as if they were entering into an online account while wearing an EEG headset, in order for the software to train itself on the user’s typing and the corresponding brainwave. The team found that when a user entered passwords, the ill software program could make educated guesses about the passwords by reading the EEG data recorded. And it just increases the chance of guessing a six-letter password from one in 500,000 to one in five.
“With the growing popularity of EEG headsets and all kinds of ways they could be used, they will become part of our daily life,” Saxena said. “It is important to study the possible risks with this new technology to raise users’ awareness to the risks and develop methods of avoiding the bad attacks.” One method suggested by Saxena and his team is to make noise anytime a user types a password while wearing an EEG headset.
1. How do hackers guess passwords of a user’s bank account (账户)?| A．They use a software program. | B．They use a new-type computer. |
| C．They guess the user’s brainwaves. | D．They talk with the user on the net. |
| A．recover from | B．depend on | C．connect closely | D．acquire secretly |
| A．They made a very exact answer. | B．They got close to the passwords. |
| C．They got a part of the passwords. | D．They failed to get the passwords. |
| A．More and more hackers come about. | B．More people use online bank accounts. |
| C．EEG headsets will become more popular. | D．EEG headsets still have problems in quality. |
The China International Search and Rescue Team (CISAR)
The team went on
Rescue workers are trained to find people, treat wounds, and hand
Rescue workers must have big hearts, too. It takes a lot of love and courage
7 . For thousands of years, humans have built cities. Some of our oldest cities have managed to remain pieces of their original characteristics while others have disappeared completely.
One of these lost cities belonged to the Anasazi people who lived in Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. They built houses along the river that ran through the valley. For nearly 300 years, the Chaco Canyon was the population center of many desert cities. Now nothing is left of this busy city but ruins. Scientists think that drought may have made the Anasazi suffer from starvation (饥荒) or that some kind of disease killed off many of the people. However, no one knows for sure what happened to the people of the Chaco Canyon.
Another lost city sits high atop the Andes Mountains in Peru: the city of Machu Picchu. It was once among the most powerful cities in South America. It was home to the Incan emperor. In 1527, its citizens packed up their belongings and moved for unknown reasons. Scientists guess that smallpox, a disease brought by European explorers, was the cause of Machu Picchu’s downfall. Today, tourists from all over the world climb thousands of steep stone steps to view the ruins of this once great city.
Yet another city that is no more was called Pompeii. This was one of the wealthiest cities of ancient Italy. This beautiful seaside city was a lively center of trade. However, a storm of lava (火山岩浆), smoke, and ash from Mt. Vesuvius buried the city of Pompeii, putting an end to its prosperity (繁华). Scientists have studied the ruins of Pompeii, which led to new discoveries about ancient civilizations of Europe.
Humans have always built cities as centers for trade, business, and family life. Cities that have been lost provide information about the past, helping to inform our future. By studying lost cities, we can learn how to protect our current cities.
1. Machu Picchu was once among the most powerful cities in South America because ________.| A．it was the center of the Inca Empire |
| B．it was located high atop the Andes Mountains |
| C．it was founded by powerful European explorers |
| D．it is visited by many visitors throughout the world |
| A．They were in ruins in the end. |
| B．They suffered from various illnesses. |
| C．They were unable to gain enough supplies. |
| D．They were the most powerful center of local economics. |
| A．making a comparison | B．stating causes and effects |
| C．expressing his own opinions | D．listing numbers and examples |
| A．We should set up powerful cities for a competitive world. |
| B．We should pass on certain customs of ancient civilizations. |
| C．We should work out the ways to save our cities from various disasters. |
| D．We should learn from the past to ensure that we do not lose cities in the future. |
Paul and I were on our school basketball team, The Lions. We loved basketball and were both huge fans of the NBA. My favourite player was LeBron James. Paul’s favourite player was Tyrone Bogues, a guy who played for the Charlotte Hornets, although we
During all those hours of doing jump shots
9 . A few years ago, I stood in a small classroom just outside of New York City, watching a high schooler named Serena Stevenson answer math questions. An instructor read outnumbers — 74,470, 70,809, 98,402 — and Stevenson added them in her head. For each question, she closed her eyes, and then the fingers of her right hand began to move. She answered most of the problems correctly.
The key to her success was an ancient technology called the abacus (珠算). Stevenson used a practice called “mental abacus”, imagining the abacus in her mind and then using her fingers to work through the problems.
From watching Stevenson, I knew that gaining skill at the abacus was more than a matter of counting beads, so I decided to sign up for an abacus course with my two daughters to see if we could also improve our math skills. I was one of the many who had some math doubts and I felt a touch of fear. My typical solution was avoidance, and if I had to calculate something like a percentage change, I would go online.
Then after a few abacus classes and a good amount of practice, math seemed a little less frightening. I didn’t become Euclid, the founder of geometry. But the practice brought my numerical fears down. This is a time-tested power of the abacus. Confidence grows easily in the device, and abacus students are less likely to be nervous about an upcoming math test, according to one study. Part of the reason, it seems, is that practice and outcomes appear to move in step.
My kids gained much as well. My youngest daughter could work out those math problems that once baffled her, while my older child brought her abacus to school to show it to her classmates and teacher. These were just small successes for them, but that was how they finally developed confidence.
1. What is the main purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To prove the difficulty of math. |
| B．To introduce the topic of the abacus. |
| C．To show the high intelligence of Stevenson. |
| D．To stress the importance of abacus learning. |
| A．He was weak in math. | B．He was good at computer. |
| C．He regarded math as useful. | D．He had a close relationship with kids. |
| A．Knowledge starts with practice. | B．It’s never too late to learn. |
| C．Faith can move mountains. | D．Practice makes perfect. |
| A．bored | B．inspired | C．confused | D．interested |
10 . Jim Thorpe is one of the greatest athletes of all time. He had amazing athletic abilities and was well-known during his lifetime, yet that did not make Thorpe a stranger to adversity.
Thorpe was an American Indian from Oklahoma who developed his extraordinary athletic skills in his youth through hard labor. It was also in his youth that he learned to endure hardship brought upon by racial prejudice. Many would say his childhood was not easy. He grew up poor and at age 9 his twin brother passed away and a few years later he lost both of his parents.
But that did not stop him from doing what he loved and pursuing his dreams. Nothing seemed to stop him, not even stolen shoes. Just hours before Thorpe was going to compete in the 1912 Olympics, somebody stole his shoes. Thorpe improvised (临时拼凑) by getting shoes out of the garbage. The shoes were two different sizes. He wore an extra pair of socks on one foot to even them out.
He still went on to win two gold medals—winning each event he competed in except for one, the javelin (标枪). The javelin was the only event he didn’t win, probably because he had never competed in that event before. It is interesting to note that Thorpe had tried to throw the javelin once before in the Olympic trials. At the time, he didn’t know that he could throw it with a running start. He threw it standing still and was placed second.
At the Olympics，he also took part in the decathlon (十项全能运动). He finished first in two events, third in four events, and fourth in two more. Thorpe ended up finishing third in the world. He was undoubtedly a dominating force that couldn’t be stopped and just kept on going.
I think Paul Dughi said it best, “It’s hard to imagine now that pro athletes get paid millions of dollars just to wear a particular brand of shoes. For Jim Thorpe, it didn’t matter what kind he wore.”
1. What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．The adversity Thorpe met with led to his success. |
| B．Thorpe’s success was no guarantee of a better life. |
| C．Thorpe’s career brought him both gains and losses. |
| D．Thorpe suffered many hardships despite his success. |
| A．To prevent the foot from injury. | B．To make the shoe fit the foot. |
| C．To stop the shoe from being stolen. | D．To show his problem-solving skills. |
| A．Loss of his own sports shoes. | B．A casual attitude towards the event. |
| C．Lack of experience in the event. | D．A shortage of talent for the event. |
| A．Loyal and enthusiastic. | B．Genuine and creative. |
| C．Tough and strong-minded. | D．Selfless and good-tempered. |
