1 . As the coronavirus outbreak continues, many Americans are fearful of using public transportation.They are also looking for ways to get exercise without going to a gym.So, it may not be surprising that the pandemic has led to a major increase in bicycle sales.
In the US, bicycles at big stores have sold out.And small bicycle stores cannot keep up with demand for “family-style” bicycles: the low-cost, easy-to-ride models.“The bicycle industry is seeing its biggest sales increase since the oil crisis of the 1970s,” said Jay Townley, an industry expert.He compared the sale of bicycles to the rush to buy products like toilet paper at the start of the pandemic.
The rise in bicycle sales is not happening just in the US. Italy has created bicycle paths for the growing number of people who want to avoid public transportation.In London, city officials plan to ban cars from some central roads.Bike shop owners in Manila say demand is even stronger than what they see at Christmas time.
Of course, you can only buy a bicycle if you can find one.In the US, the shortages now mean it may take many months to get a bicycle. High demand is not the only reason for the shortage. Many bicycle factories were shut down to stop the spread of COVID-19.The increase in bicycle demand began in March as countries began to close down.In April, the sale of bicycles increased 200 percent in the US.
Joe Minutolo is the co-owner of Bar Harbor Bicycle Shop in Maine.He said he hoped the increased sales meant a change in the way people think about transportation.“People are having a chance to rethink things,” he said, “Maybe we’ll all learn something out of this, and something really good will happen.”
1. What causes the increase in bicycle sales?| A．Outbreak of the coronavirus. | B．Shortage of public transportation |
| C．People’s desire to defeat disease. | D．People’s fear of natural disasters. |
| A．More bikes are sold than at Christmas time. | B．“Family-style” bicycles are in great need. |
| C．New bicycle paths have been built. | D．Cars are banned from some central roads. |
| A．It’s impossible to buy a bike. | B．High demand for bikes began in March. |
| C．Bike factories were closed in April. | D．It takes many months to produce a bike. |
Sapphire Fish lived with her mom, dad, sister Mariana, and baby brother Matthew in a blue house across the street from the Elizabeth River. Sapphire loved the water. Maybe it was because her last name was Fish.
Sapphire liked to make sailboats out of paper. Taking a plain square, Sapphire folded and folded until two wide sails appeared. Then she tested the boats in the bathtub. No matter how hard she tried, though, Sapphire couldn’t keep the boats from slowly sinking into the water.
So Sapphire folded more and more paper and made bigger or smaller sails. But still the boats tipped over and disappeared underneath the surface of the water. Sometimes, the boats sank very slowly. Other times, an entire boat got pulled quickly underneath the water, almost like an invisible hand was grabbing it.
One day, the sky grew dark and the wind whistled against the house. Rain fell all day. And all night. In the afternoon, the rain finally stopped. Sapphire looked outside the living room window. There was water everywhere! The river ran right into the street and was filling up Sapphire’s front porch (前门廊).
The next day, Sapphire put on her blue boots that squeaked when she walked. She ran outside to the muddy front yard, where the river had been the day before.
Sapphire looked down at her feet and noticed something shiny and silvery. The most beautiful silver fish was wiggling in the wet mud. It was trying to get back to its home in the river.
Sapphire was scared. She knew that fish couldn’t breathe out of water. Either she had to return the fish to his family in the river or bring the fish inside her house and give him water. But how? Her mother had forbidden her to walk past the tree in the front yard. Waves of water still covered the street. It was too dangerous.
She couldn’t put him in a bowl of water from her house. The water from her sink (水槽) was very different from the river water the fish was used to. He might get sick living in the bowl.
注意：1.所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2.至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3.续写部分分为两段，每段的开头已为你写好；
4.续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph 1:
Suddenly, Sapphire had an idea.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
The wind pushed the boat along, past the street, and the boat was about to enter the Elizabeth River.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3 . Genes (基因)are made up of DNA. Genes tell your body how to grow and work. They are passed down from parents to children.
Genes control everything in your body. They control things like your eye color and height. Scientists think they might control how well you play sports. This is called your athletic ability. But scientists still have many questions.
Stephen Roth is a scientist in Maryland. He studies exercise science. He also studies genes. We asked him questions. Here are his answers.
How much do genes affect athletic ability?
Nobody knows for sure. It is hard to measure(测量) these abilities with numbers. We do not know how genes affect a person's ability to play football. This is hard to measure. Most studies look at how genes affect muscle strength. This is easier to measure.
How many genes play a role in sports talent?
We do not know. I work with other scientists who study these genes. We make lists of the genes that we study. We have recorded 200 genes that have some relationship with athletic abilities. But every person has more than 20,000 genes. So there are many more genes left to study.
Are there special genes that determine fitness?
A gene called ACTN3 tells your body how to make a muscle protein (蛋白质). Some people do not have ACTN3. Their muscles do not work as well. Studies show that this keeps them from being star athletes. But scientists have only studied this in professional athletes.
Another gene is called ACE. It can affect your endurance(忍耐力). This is how long you can play a sport before your muscles get tired. Scientists are still trying to figure out if ACE is important. It plays a smaller role than scientists first thought.
What can tests that check for ACTN3 tell us?
Some companies sell saliva tests. The test looks for the ACTN3 gene. The results can tell you whether you have the protein in your muscle.
So far, scientists know that the gene affects abilities in the very best athletes. For example, some trained athletes do not have ACTN3. They might not run as fast as star athletes. But scientists do not know if it affects other people. They do not know if it affects how well a kid can play sports.
1. According to the text, what can we know about genes?| A．Genes control everything. |
| B．Genes help people grow up. |
| C．Genes affect kids' athletic ability. |
| D．Genes are from children to parents. |
| A．How much do genes affect athletic ability? |
| B．How many genes play a role in sports talent? |
| C．Are there special genes that determine fitness? |
| D．What can tests that check for ACTN3 tell us? |
| A．In a literature book. |
| B．In a science magazine. |
| C．On an economic website. |
| D．In an informational brochure. |
4 . Running isn’t exactly fun. It demands determination and a lot of energy before you get to enjoy it.
Determine your “why”.
Don’t take it too seriously. There’s nothing wrong with taking things lightly when it comes to running.
Make a playlist. The proper music is very powerful in helping you through a running practice. Create a playlist that you can run to. Your running playlist will become a marker for your running.
| A．You should also find out the best foods to eat before and after a run. |
| B．This is identifying the reasons why you’re even running in the first place. |
| C．Most people drop out of their running habits before they get to enjoy them. |
| D．If you take it too seriously, you’d end up putting a lot of pressure on yourself. |
| E．Before you know it, you’ve hit your goal without being disappointed in yourself. |
| F．For instance, you’ll feel good when you finish your run before the end of a specific song. |
Ball games are a big source of modern amusement. But they're nothing new. For instance, consider a 4,500-year-old ball
So far, researchers
＂We are quite sure they were used in some sort of bat-and-ball game."Patrick Wertmann is an expert at the University of Zurich
As for how this ancient ball-and-stick game
Since we don't have any textural evidence and we don't have any sticks from the same period, we don't really know
6 . It goes without saying that many Western wedding customs are completely different from those of Asian cultures. Some are so rooted in history that many Westerners have no idea whether they even exist.
Traditionally,June has been the most popular month for people to get married. One reason is that June 1 was the date of an ancient Roman festival celebrating the marriage of the god Jupiter and his wife Juno.Another reason will likely. astonish you. Centuries ago, taking a bath was not as common as it is today. Some people took a bath only once a year, typically in May. Since June was a time most wedding guests would not be too smelly, that month was preferred.
Another wedding custom is for the bride to "wear something old, something new,something borrowed,and something blue."Having something old is said to protect the newlyweds' future baby, while the new item shows optimism for the future. Meanwhile, something borrowed is meant to bring good luck, and something blue is a promise of being faithful. Lesser known is the fact that the bride is also supposed to have a sixpence in her shoe for prosperity(兴旺)。 Interestingly,in Sweden, brides are given two coins before getting married-one gold from her mother and the other silver from her father-also to put in her shoes. These fascinating customs show just how important certain wedding traditions are in Western cultures.
The concept of the “white wedding”， in which the bride wears a white wedding dress, is a familiar one. It is thought, mistakenly though, that this is a tradition that developed in ancient times and originates from the belief of white being a symbol of purity. Actually, the custom of brides wearing this color dates back less than 200 years and is attributed to the wedding of Queen Victoria. The queen's choice of white for her wedding was unusual for the time as other colors, especially red, were much more common.
After news of Victoria's highly publicized wedding to Prince Albert spread, not just around the United Kingdom,but to other nations including the United States,women began following in her footsteps and wearing white dresses at their wedding ceremonies. With white being the choice of a powerful royal figure like Queen Victoria, the color became associated with wealth. nobility. and the fashion-conscious.
1. Based on the text, June has been a popular month to get married probably because| A．Queen Victoria married Prince Albert in June of 1840 |
| B．June is the month in which Romans recall the soul of gods |
| C．some people didn't take a bath before May in ancient times |
| D．it is considered to be the luckiest time of year to get married |
| A．Wearing something old. |
| B．Wearing something blue. |
| C．Wearing a shoe with a coin in it. |
| D．Wearing something borrowed. |
| A．The white wedding dress is a symbol of purity and nobility. |
| B．Red rather than white was once popular in English weddings. |
| C．Queen Victoria wore white in the hope of breaking old customs. |
| D．The custom of the white wedding started thousands of years ago. |
| A．Routines of marriage ceremonies. |
| B．Highlights of traditional weddings. |
| C．Reflecting on old traditions. |
| D．Exploring western wedding customs. |
7 . I was 15 years old the day I skipped school for the first time. It was easily done: Both my parents left for work before my school bus arrived, so when it showed up at my house on that cold winter morning, I simply did not get on. The perfect crime!
And what did I do with myself on that glorious stolen day, with no adult in charge and no limits on my activities? Did I get high? Hit the mall for a shoplifting extravaganza (狂欢)?
Nope. I built a warm fire in the wood stove, prepared a bowl of popcorn, grabbed a blanket, and read. I was thrilled and transported by a book ---- it was Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises ---- and I just needed to be alone with it for a little while. I ached to know what would happen to Jake Barens and Lady Brett Ashley and Robert Cohn. I couldn’t bear the thought of sitting in a classroom taking another biology exam when I could be traveling through Spain in the 1920s with a bunch of expatriates (异乡客).
I spent that day lost in words. Time fell away, as the room around me turned to mist, and my role ---- as a daughter, sister, teenager, and student ---- in the world no longer had any meaning. I had accidentally come across the key to perfect happiness: I had become completely absorbed by something I loved.
Looking back on it now, I can see that some subtle things were happening to my mind and to my life while I was in that state of absorption. Hemingway’s language was quietly braiding itself into my imaginations. I was downloading information about how to create simple and elegant sentences, a good and solid plot. In other words, I was learning how to write. Without realizing it, I was hot on the trail of my own fate. Writing now absorbs me the way reading once did and happiness is their generous side effect.
1. Why did the author skip school on that day?| A．Because she was fascinated by novel. | B．Because it was a cold winter morning. |
| C．Because she hated to take the biology exam. | D．Because her parents left home early. |
| A．Reading by the fire. | B．Travelling in Spain. |
| C．Being occupied by one’s passion. | D．Breaking the regulations. |
| A．I was tired of my real-life roles. |
| B．Hemingway’s style influenced me a lot. |
| C．Becoming a writer was my childhood dream. |
| D．I learnt how to write on the internet. |
8 . Facebook is an American online social media and social networking service. The Facebook website was launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg, along with fellow Harvard College students and roommates.
The founders had limited the website’s membership to Harvard students at first; however, later they expanded it to various other universities, and eventually to high school students as well. Since 2006, anyone who claims to be at least 13 years old has been allowed to become a registered（注册了的）user of Facebook, though differences exist in the youngest age requirement, depending on local laws. Facebook has more than 2 billion monthly active users as of June 2017. As of April 2016, Facebook was the most popular social networking site in the world, based on the number of active user accounts.
Facebook may be accessed by a large range of desktops, smartphones over the Internet and mobile networks. After registering to use the site, users can create a user profile showing their names and so on. Users can add other users as “friends”, exchange messages, post photos and so on.
Facebook makes most of its income from advertisements which appear on screen, marketing access for its customers to its users.
1. What does the underlined word “launched” in Paragraph 1 mean？| A．Prevented. | B．Started | C．Permitted. | D．Supplied. |
| A．Harvard students. | B．High school students. |
| C．Students in all universities. | D．Old people. |
| A．How to become a Facebook member. | B．How Americans communicate today. |
| C．A brief story of Mark Zuckerberg. | D．A brief introduction to Facebook. |
9 . I travel a lot, and I find out different “styles” of directions every time I ask “How can I get to the post office？”
Foreign tourists are often confused in Japan because most streets there don’t have names; in Japan, people use landmarks（地标）in their directions instead of street names. For example, the Japanese will say to travelers, “Go straight down to the corner. Turn left at the big hotel and go past a fruit market. The post office is across from the bus stop.”
In the countryside of the American Midwest, there are not usually many landmarks. There are no mountains, so the land is very flat; in many places there are no towns or buildings within miles. Instead of landmarks, people will tell you directions and distances. In Kansas or Iowa, for example, people will say, “Go north two miles. Turn east, and then go another mile.”
People in Los Angeles, California, have no idea of distance on the map; they measure distance in time, not miles. “How far away is the post office？” you ask. “Oh,” they answer “it’s about five minutes from here.” You say, “Yes, but how many miles away is it？” They don’t know.
It’s true that a person doesn’t know the answer to your question sometimes. What happens in such a situation? A New Yorker might say, “Sorry, I have no idea.” But in Yucatan, Mexico, no one answers “I don’t know.” People in Yucatan believe that “I don’t know” is impolite. They usually give an answer, often a wrong one. A tourist can get very, very lost in Yucatan！
1. When a tourist asks the Japanese the way to a certain place, they usually ______.| A．describe the place carefully. | B．show him a map of the place. |
| C．tell him the names of the streets. | D．refer to recognizable buildings and places. |
| A．New York. | B．Los Angeles. | C．Kansas. | D．Iowa. |
| A．To show cultural differences in showing directions. |
| B．To show how to ask the way properly in different countries. |
| C．To explain why people have similar understanding of direction. |
| D．To share the experience of traveling around the world. |
A 3-year-old boy who was lost in the woods for two days is now safe at home with his family. But Casey Hathaway told
