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2 . Teenagers’ fitness is now a major concern，and physical exercise is very important. It reduces stress and improves fitness. Exercise makes your body strong，and helps you to keep the right body weight. Sports scientist Dr. Helen Lopez offers the following advice to teenagers：“First，you need to find out your present level of fitness. Then you can design a programme that will help you become healthier.”
Dr. Lopez suggests that there are three levels of fitness that need a change of lifestyle.“Overweight”means that the person gets very little exercise and often has a serious weight problem. “Inactive” means that the person does not join in many physical activities，but is not seriously overweight.“Active”refers to people who take part in sports and other physical activities，but do not have a high fitness level.
According to Dr. Lopez，overweight teenagers should work out to keep healthy.“Ride a bike，play volleyball or basketball for a while，and go for a twentyminute walk each day. All these will help to burn calories.”Inactive teenagers should do similar activities, but add some bending and stretching exercises, such as pushups and situps, starting with twenty of each a day.“Inactive people can take a little more exercise than overweight people because their bodies are stronger，”Dr. Lopez said. The same rule applies to active teenagers.
Dr. Lopez suggests one hour a week or more on running and other forms of intensive exercise，together with fifteen minutes a day spent on stretching and bending activities.“These are really important in order to prevent injuries,” Dr. Lopez said. Some weighttraining and other bodystrengthening exercises could also be planned in the programme in order to increase the person’s strength.
1. What can we learn from the passage?| A．Active people always have a high fitness level. |
| B．Overweight people always take more exercise. |
| C．Keeping fit means changing teenagers’ lifestyle. |
| D．Inactive teenagers are not seriously overweight. |
| A．Physical exercise can make the teenagers grow taller. |
| B．Physical exercise can help teenagers become healthier. |
| C．Physical exercise can help to burn up calories. |
| D．Physical exercise can increase teenagers’ strength. |
| A．walking exercises | B．streching and bending |
| C．riding | D．weighttraining |
| A．Doing Exercise |
| B．Teenagers’ Fitness |
| C．Different Lifestyles |
| D．Overweight Teenagers |
3 . Are you looking for some good places for you and your four-leg friend? Here are some for you.
Tahmoor Gorge (峡谷)
The number and quality of swimming holes in this valley immediately take us back to some of our favourite places in Kakadu national park. The only difference here is that you don’t need a four-wheel drive, so the best way togo to the gorge is walking. This pet-friendly walk follows the Bargo River through an open gorge that gradually drops to a deep gorge. It is a popular place for locals on weekends. The further you run into the gorge, the less people there are.
Sirius Cove, Mosman
Sirius Cove is one of many quietly beautiful places along the Taronga Zoo to Balmoral Beach walking trail (路线). The deep, U-shaped bay, with a large grassy area, is popular with picnicking families and their dogs.
Kutti Beach, Vaucluse
We heard about it from a friend, but it is so hidden that it is not easy to find the entrance. Follow Wharf Road until it dead ends at the Vaucluse Amateur Sailing Club. Go right up to the building and look left. There is a very narrow set of stairs leading to the beach. Go down the steps and open the gate at the bottom. Follow the narrow road along the wall to the sand. The best bit? It’s dog-friendly.
MacKenzies Beach, Tamarama
From whale watching hot place MacKenzies Point, follow the sloped (斜的) road to MacKenzies Beach, a dog-friendly, short-time beach that only appears every couple of years when the right combination (结合) of wind and sand on the normal rocky reef. They say you aren’t a local until you’ve seen sand at MacKenzies.
1. What do we know about Tahmoor Gorge?| A．It’s a must to drive there. |
| B．It’s a popular place on weekdays. |
| C．It’s a good way to go there on foot. |
| D．It’s a popular place for foreign visitors. |
| A．Tahmoor Gorge. | B．Kutti Beach, Vaucluse. |
| C．Sirius Cove, Mosman. | D．MacKenzies Beach, Tamarama. |
| A．They are beside the sea. |
| B．They are dog-friendly. |
| C．They are places where whales are seen. |
| D．They are open to the public only on weekends. |
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5 . We’re increasingly relying on automation and artificial intelligence in everyday life. But we still don’t quite trust robots and fear they will take our jobs.
Humankind has a complicated relationship with robots. On the one hand, we appreciate how they can do dangerous, repetitive work so we don’t have to. Robots don’t need vacations or medical insurance. And in areas such as agriculture, where farmers can’t find enough people to pick the produce, robots can shoulder some of those tasks. But polls (民意调查) show that the growing robotization of the planet makes us feel deeply agitated - and threatened.
Pew Research Center surveys found that more than 80 percent of Americans believed thạt by 2050, robots would do much of the work humans now do and about 75 percent believed that would make economic inequality worse. Across lines of race, age, and education, people who said automation has hurt workers outnumbered those who said it’s helped workers by two to one.
National Geographic sent David Berreby around the world to look at the present and future state of robots in society.
“Robots now deliver food in Milton Keynes, England, carry supplies in a Dallas hospital, disinfect (给……消毒) patients’ rooms in China and some European countries, and wander parks in Singapore, asking pedestrians (行人) to maintain social distance,” Berreby writes.
“It’s an unavoidable fact that we are going to have machines, artificial creatures; that will be a part of our daily life,” Carnegie Mellon University AI roboticist Manuela Veloso told Berreby. “When you start accepting robots around you, like a third species, along with pets and humans, you want to relate to them.”
A third species? That’s a new idea indeed. But were not there yet. So far, Berreby reports, robots can’t equal the human mind’s ability to do a lot of tasks, especially unexpected ones, and robots haven’t yet mastered common sense - all sill required to be a magazine editor.
1. What does the underlined word “agitated” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Disappointed | B．Proud. | C．Comfortable | D．Worried. |
| A．Most people regarded workplace automation as good. |
| B．Most people agreed robots helped stimulate the economy. |
| C．More people thought robots did more harm than good. |
| D．More people feared robots would bring more social problems. |
| A．People enjoy robots’ company. |
| B．People have a growing reliance on robots, |
| C．Robots will pose a serious threat to humans. |
| D．Robots will soon replace humans in many fields. |
| A．Disapproving. | B．Favorable. | C．Concerned. | D．Reserved |
6 . Teenagers who spend more time on after-school activities and less than two hours of screen time after school are more mentally (心理上) healthy, according to a study published in the journal Preventive Medicine. The new study was carried out by researchers from the University of British Columbia.
The study used information collected from more than 28, 000 seventh-grade Canadian students between 2014 and 2018. The students first answered questions about their usage of screen time after school, including how much time they spent watching TV, Netflix or something else. Then, students reported how many days they had taken part in after-school activities such as sports or arts programmes. After that, researchers asked students to describe their state of mind. For example, when given a statement such as “I start most days thinking that I will have a good day”, they could choose to what level they agreed with it on a scale (等级).
Some of the results were expected, researchers said in the study. Students with no after-school activities usually had high levels of screen time, for example. And they expected girls would score higher on negative indicators (消极指标) of mental health, as earlier research had found that they tended to have higher levels of anxiety (焦虑) compared to boys.
What was noteworthy, researchers say, is that even among students who took part in after-school activities, 46% still went beyond the recommended screen time of two hours. At the same time, 67% of students who didn’t take part in after-school activities also had more than two hours of screen time. Together, this suggests high screen time among teenagers generally.
“The findings suggest that after-school activities are valuable for the happy growing of teenagers,” the study said. “While past studies have proved the importance of after-school activities for social and academic (学业的) development, the present study shows their importance for good mental health results.”
1. Which of the following came last when students took part in the new study?| A．Talking about their lifestyles. | B．Introducing their after-school activities. |
| C．Reporting their mental states on a scale. | D．Answering questions about screen time use. |
| A．They often have higher levels of satisfaction. |
| B．Few of them take part in after-school activities. |
| C．Anxiety has become a serious problem among them. |
| D．Too much screen time may be more harmful to them. |
| A．Earlier findings about screen time are wrong. |
| B．High screen time is common among teenagers. |
| C．No after-school activities mean no screen time. |
| D．Screens attract teenagers more than after-school activities do. |
| A．They are good for teenagers’ physical health. |
| B．They help to improve teenagers’ mental health. |
| C．They encourage teenagers’ social development. |
| D．They allow teenagers to become better learners. |
7 . What kind of people can become scientists? When a group of researchers posed that question to ninth- and 10th-graders, almost every student gave such responses as “People who work hard” or “Anyone who seems interested in the field of science.” Many of these same students struggled to imagine themselves as scientists, citing concerns such as “I’m not good at science” and “Even if I work hard, I will not do well.” It’s easy for them to see a scientist’s work as arising from an inborn talent.
But for high school students, learning more about some struggles of scientists can help students feel more motivated to learn science. Researchers at the University of Washington designed an intervention (干预) to change students’ beliefs that scientific achievement depends on ability rather than effort by exposing students to stories of how accomplished scientists struggled and overcame challenges in their scientific efforts.
During the study, the students read one of three types of stories about Albert Einstein, Marie Curie and Michael Faraday. Intellectual (智力的) struggle stories: stories about how scientists “struggled intellectually,” such as making mistakes while solving a scientific problem and learning from them. Life struggle stories: stories about how scientists struggled in their personal lives, such as not giving up in the face of poverty or lack of family support. Achievement stories: stories about how scientists made great discoveries, without any discussion of challenges.
Researchers found that students who heard either type of “struggle stories” improved their after-intervention science performance, compared to students in the control group. The effect was especially pronounced for lower performing students, for whom exposure to struggling stories led to significantly better science-class performance than low-performing students who read achievement stories. In addition, students who read struggle stories reported feeling more personally connected to the scientists. By recognizing a scientist’s struggles and introducing the growth mindset he or she applied to accomplish great works, the students were able to empathize with the scientists during their own struggles.
1. Why do students fail to imagine themselves as scientists?| A．They are short of confidence. |
| B．They lack interest in science. |
| C．They don’t have inborn talent. |
| D．They have no ability to study science. |
| A．To introduce some inspirational stories to students. |
| B．To expose students to scientists’ great achievements. |
| C．To ensure students will become scientists in the future. |
| D．To clear students’ misunderstandings of scientific work. |
| A．Important. | B．Noticeable. | C．Strange. | D．Long-lasting. |
| A．Science ability has nothing to do with efforts. |
| B．Students are more motivated by achievement stories. |
| C．Scientists’ struggle stories can influence readers’ beliefs. |
| D．Low-performing students tend to feel connected to scientists. |
8 . Honeybees rely heavily on flower patterns not just colors when searching for food, new research shows.
A team led by the University of Exeter tested bee behaviour and built bee’s-eye-view simulations (模拟装置) to work out how they see flowers.
Honeybees have low resolution vision, so they can only see a flower’s pattern clearly when they are within few centimeters. However, the new’ study shows bees can very effectively distinguish between different flowers by using a combination of colour and pattern.
In a series of tests, bees rarely ignored pattern, suggesting colour alone does not lead them to flowers. This may help to explain why some colours that are visible to bees are rarely produced by flowers in nature.
“We studied a large amount of data on plants and bee behaviour,” said Professor Natalie Hempel, from Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour. “By training and testing bees using man-made patterns of shape and colour, we found they relied flexibly on their ability to see both of these elements. Showing how insects see colour and learn colour patterns is important to understand how pollinators (传粉者) may, or may not, create evolutionary ‘pressures’ on the colours and patterns that flowers have evolved (进化). Our findings suggest that flowers don’t need to evolve too many different flower colours, because they can use patterns to vary their displays so bees can tell them apart from other flowers.”
One typical feature identified in the study is that the outside edges of flowers usually contrast strongly with the plant’s leaves while the centre of the flower does not have such a strong contrast with the leaf colour. This could help bees quickly identify colour differences and find their way to flowers.
While flowers may be beautiful to humans, Professor Hempel stressed that understanding more about bees and the threats they face meant we need to see the world “through the eyes of a bee and the mind of a bee.”
1. What does the new research focus on?| A．The source of bees’ food supply. | B．The way of bees finding flowers. |
| C．The effect of bees’ poor eyesight. | D．The evolution of bees’ behavior. |
| A．It’s not a must. | B．It’s a pressing need. |
| C．It’s beyond belief. | D．It’s a temporary solution. |
| A．An explanation of the research intention. |
| B．Dramatic changes in the research strategy. |
| C．Conflict between different research outcomes. |
| D．Supporting evidence for the research findings. |
| A．Research data. | B．Research methods. |
| C．Research objects. | D．Research frequency. |
9 . A man went to buy fruits and asked the shopkeeper about the
After the woman left with a smile, the shopkeeper looked toward the customer and said, “I didn’t mean to
After he learned the story, tears
| A．quality | B．variety | C．price | D．taste |
| A．raised | B．addressed | C．examined | D．explained |
| A．strength | B．request | C．contact | D．thought |
| A．excitement | B．joy | C．anxiety | D．shock |
| A．nervously | B．peacefully | C．cheerfully | D．hurriedly |
| A．cheat | B．harm | C．frighten | D．ignore |
| A．check | B．comparison | C．stop | D．preparation |
| A．content | B．grateful | C．excited | D．ready |
| A．neighborhood | B．community | C．block | D．department |
| A．reasonable | B．high | C．half | D．minimum |
| A．concentrating | B．depending | C．focusing | D．pressing |
| A．disappear | B．decline | C．increase | D．start |
| A．dried up | B．welled up | C．slowed down | D．settled down |
| A．bargaining | B．arguing | C．comparing | D．balancing |
| A．explore | B．serve | C．help | D．connect |
10 . Florence, a 17-year-old senior student in high school, was busy composing (创作) a song. She plans to publish an album (音乐专辑) with three other music lovers whom she met at the 2016 Campus Singing Competition. Edward, 18, is another one of the four students to make their own album. Actually he was the one who came up with this fun idea in the first place.
“Everyone loves music. Being a good way to express our feelings and emotions, music can tell something about who we are and our experience of the world. We hope we can use our music to touch our peers (同龄人),” Edward said.
The album includes 15 songs on three themes-love, campus life and youth, with pop and electronic music styles. The inspiration for the songs came from the students’ lives. Take the song Sea of Tranquility for example—it was written by Edward during a flight back to Chengdu after he took part in the China High School Biology Olympiad in summer. “The sky is clear and the ground looks small from the plane. This scene makes me feel calm and peaceful,” Edward explained.
The songs were created one by one with the efforts of the four writers. But a challenge soon appeared. The students found that they didn’t have enough money to produce the album. So to cut down their costs, they used an iPad and headphones to record the songs in an empty classroom on the weekend.
Apart from reducing their costs, they also tried to raise money through crowdfunding on the Internet. They raised more than 7,000 dollars before the album was published in October. “Thanks to all the supporters, we’ll keep working on our own music,” Edward said.
1. Why did Edward and his music team make the album?| A．To earn money. | B．To be famous. |
| C．To influence young people. | D．To make friends. |
| A．They were written by Edward. |
| B．They are based on students’ lives. |
| C．They are quite different in style. |
| D．They are mainly about friendship. |
| A．They were short of money. |
| B．They disagreed on the theme. |
| C．They received stress from teachers. |
| D．They had poor abilities to make music. |
| A．Album Collections. | B．Student Musicians. |
| C．Theme Music. | D．School Life. |
