1 . Which is more important for parents, making more money to give the kids a better life or spending more time with them? It is a problem for parents and it is not easy to decide. A new study shows that today’s parents are spending more time with their children than parents in the past. According to the study, today’s college-educated mothers spend about 21.2 hours a week taking care of their children. But women with less education spend about 15.9 hours. Before 1995, it was only 12 hours.
Dads are spending more time on ball games. Before 1995, fathers with college educations only spent about 4.5 hours a week playing with their children. Today, it increases to 9.6 hours a week. For fathers with high school education, the time goes up from 3.7 hours to 6.8.
These days, parents don’t care more about the cleaning or the cooking. They are trying their best to spend time with their families. As for the kids, they don’t mind how much time their parents spend with them. They just want to enjoy the time their parents do be with them.
So, take part in the kids’ activities when you are with them, such as helping with homework or playing soccer with them.
1. How long do college-educated mothers spend taking care of their kids a week?| A．About 9.6 hours. | B．About 12 hours. |
| C．About 15.9 hours. | D．About 21.2 hours. |
| A．Women with less education spend about12 hours staying with their kids, |
| B．Mothers in the past spent less time staying with kids than mothers these days. |
| C．Mothers with college education are lazier than those with less education. |
| D．Dads spend more time staying with their kids than mothers do. |
| A．About 4.5 hours. | B．Less than 9 hours. |
| C．About 13.5 hours. | D．About 18 hours. |
| A．They care about how much money their parents can make. |
| B．They care about how much time their parents spend with them. |
| C．They care if their parents are really with them. |
| D．They care if their parents can give them a better life. |
2 . 23-year-old Taleigh Loven walked downstairs to her graduation party last October. She was
Mike Loven, 47, decided four years earlier that he was going to restart his study in Grand Canyon University, the
“There was no real reason for
The
| A．expecting | B．enjoying | C．receiving | D．checking |
| A．uncle | B．brother | C．dad | D．friend |
| A．Imagining | B．Noticing | C．Having | D．Sending |
| A．very | B．former | C．nearby | D．public |
| A．introduced | B．registered | C．admitted | D．invited |
| A．advanced | B．online | C．professional | D．crash |
| A．idea | B．doubt | C．chance | D．certainty |
| A．requesting | B．leaving | C．keeping | D．preferring |
| A．attempt | B．goal | C．achievement | D．surprise |
| A．immediately | B．partly | C．really | D．hardly |
| A．responsibility | B．experiment | C．recognition | D．school |
| A．saddest | B．toughest | C．greatest | D．largest |
| A．stressful | B．boring | C．awkward | D．discouraging |
| A．plan | B．practice | C．advantage | D．struggle |
| A．kept pace with | B．contributed to | C．made up for | D．broke away from |
Katie was exceptionally small. We were in the fifth grade, but she was as short as a third grader. Although her body was small, Katie was big at heart. She had a sharp mind, too. Sometimes she got her share of teasing, but Katie knew how to handle it. All the kids who knew Katie liked her a lot.
Katie loved helping others in the class, so whenever someone was stuck on the computer he always called her for help and advice. Katie loved jokes and she always had a joke that would cheer someone up whenever he was down. She was truly the most kind and generous friend anyone could ask for.
But the other day she was in big trouble. She was such a sweet girl; a third-grade teacher always dreamed of having a classroom filled with students like Katie. She was never ever a discipline(纪律)problem. I just couldn’t imagine why she had made her parents so angry.
It seemed that Katie had been running up(积欠)sizable charges in the lunchroom. Her parents explained that Katie brought a great homemade lunch each day, and there was no reason for her to buy school lunch. They assumed a sit-down with Katie would solve the problem, but failed. So they asked me to help them get to the bottom of this situation.
So the next day, I asked Katie to my office. “Why are you charging(记账)lunches, Katie? What happens to your homemade lunch?” I asked. “I lose it,” She responded. I leaned back in my chair and said, “I don’t believe you, Katie.” She didn’t care. “Is someone stealing your lunch, Katie?” I took a new track. “No. I just lose it,” she said. Well, there was nothing else I could do.
注意:1. 续写词数应为 100 左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
The problem was still unsolved the next week until I noticed a boy in the school canteen.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________4 . Black taxis have been a common sight in London for many years. Now these taxis and their drivers have become the focus of a new study into Alzheimer’s (阿尔兹海默症). For those on the outside, it may seem that behind the wheel of these black taxis are just common people who help move us to our places. But hidden within their brains is a map of London’s streets that has put GPS technology to shame for many years.
“The knowledge”, the test for London’s taxi drivers, stands among the hardest tests one could ever experience. It includes remembering information repeatedly from the memory of minute details about between 25, 000 and 56, 000 streets in London, depending on who’s taking the test, from the Trafalgar Square to the tiniest residential lanes (居民巷).
Usually, the hippocampus (马体) feels the influences of Alzheimer’s most. The hippocampus controls the brain’s short-term memory and spatial memory (空间记忆) systems. University College London and Alzheimer’s Research UK are coming together to study these taxi drivers’ brains. And the taxi drivers’ hippocampi continue to grow as they go on doing the job for more years. This suggests that perhaps there’s something we can do to reproduce the influence on the general population.
Lead researcher Hugo Spiers was part of the team which 20 years ago found that, like birds’, the taxi drivers’ hippocampi slowly got bigger. In fact, research has found for years that any animal that requires detailed spatial knowledge of their land experiences growth in the hippocampus.
Spiers’ team hopes to deal with Alzheimer’s by studying the taxi drivers “brains, since the hippocampus becomes smaller with the development of Alzheimer’s. To collect more information, Spiers has asked thirty London’s taxi drivers connected to an MRI machine to drive around. The machine will allow the researchers to keep a real-time watch on the workings of the hippocampus. “It’s been a joy to help scientists fight the disease,” said taxi driver Robert Lordan.
1. What can we learn about “The knowledge’?| A．It lasts for a few minutes only. | B．It invites some residents to be testers. |
| C．It is a great challenge to people’s memory. | D．It is usually held in London's busy streets. |
| A．Animals’ hippocampi are quite different from humans’. |
| B．The new study can do good to animals as well. |
| C．More detailed studies on animals’ brains are needed. |
| D．Animals’ hippocampi are similar to humans’ |
| A．To decide who has the largest hippocampus. |
| B．To find out what their hippocampi are doing at work. |
| C．To know how Alzheimer’s develops in their brains. |
| D．To test whether the machine influences the hippocampus. |
5 . Our neighbors had a loud party last night. We weren’t
What
And it really worked in their favor. My husband and I were so friendly that even when the event went past the
It takes such little effort to make people feel that they
| A．located | B．explored | C．challenged | D．invited |
| A．trapped | B．impressed | C．annoyed | D．embarrassed |
| A．later | B．closer | C．earlier | D．further |
| A．shocking | B．frightening | C．puzzling | D．amazing |
| A．call number | B．room number | C．account number | D．car number |
| A．anxiously | B．politely | C．regularly | D．obviously |
| A．imagination | B．consideration | C．recognition | D．organization |
| A．promised | B．supplied | C．designed | D．compared |
| A．stress | B．anxiety | C．worry | D．anger |
| A．respond | B．adapt | C．contribute | D．stick |
| A．figure | B．succeed | C．matter | D．access |
| A．sleep | B．maintain | C．travel | D．relax |
| A．noticed | B．delivered | C．explored | D．proved |
| A．surrounding | B．respect | C．curiosity | D．distance |
| A．strategy | B．apology | C．communication | D．inspiration |
1. Where was the woman when the accident happened?
| A．At a bus stop. | B．At a restaurant. | C．At a store. |
| A．Around 1:00 p.m. | B．Around 1:10 p.m. | C．Around 1:15 p.m. |
| A．It moved fast. |
| B．It crashed into a walker. |
| C．It was brought to a sudden stop. |
| A．A doctor. | B．A reporter. | C．A policeman. |
1. Who is the man?
| A．The woman’s school friend. |
| B．The woman’s colleague. |
| C．The woman’s neighbor. |
| A．By taxi. | B．By bus. | C．By car. |
8 . Here are some of the best nonfiction books of recent years.
Somebody’s Daughter
$ 16 at Amazon
Ashley C. Ford talks about growing up as a black girl in Indiana, dealing with poverty, the complexities of adolescence, and a tense relationship with her mother. She often wished that she could express her feelings with her father, but failed for reasons she didn’t know. Until one day — after going through a heart-broken experience with a boy, which she kept from her family — her grandmother told her. And what she learned turned her entire world upside down.
Crazy Stories About Racism
$ 14 at Amazon
New York-based comedian Amber Ruffin, along with her sister Lacey Lamar, shares their everyday experiences about their bad conditions. It gets especially bad for Lacey who still lives in their home state of Nebraska, and is a start for these ridiculous but all-too-real encounters (遭遇).
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
$ 25 at Amazon
If you want to get in touch with your creative side, this book might just be the trick. As the title suggests, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a literary master class that takes readers into the mind of Booker Prize-winning author George Saunders. He discusses what makes great stories, how they work, and what they say about ourselves and today’s world.
All In
$ 21 at Amazon
Sports legend Billie Jean King writes a self-portrait that talks about the highs and lows of her amazing tennis career, her work in activism, and the ongoing fight for social justice and equality.
1. What is special about Somebody’s Daughter?| A．It tells a girl’s relationship with parents. | B．It tells a confused girl. |
| C．It tells a girl’s education. | D．It describes a girl’s secret. |
| A．The steps of writing a good story. | B．The secret of George Saunders’ success. |
| C．The situations of the present society. | D．Experiences of swimming in a pond. |
| A．All In. | B．Somebody’s Daughter. |
| C．A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. | D．Crazy Stories About Racism. |
9 . He had run for 208 hours and 35 minutes in ten days. So, when Pan Junfan managed to cross the finish line in Guazhou, Gansu Province, on Sept. 18, the tears began to flow.
The 513 kilometers he had completed over rough terrain (地形)in northwestern China would challenge the greatest athletes in the world. The challenge was all the greater for Pan, who pulled off the remarkable feat (功绩) after having part of his right leg amputated (截肢) following a car accident in 2015.
Pan’s challenge was originally the Ultra Gobi, which is considered a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many marathon runners. Unfortunately, the 400-km race was canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. After careful consideration, Pan contacted the race’s organizers and they agreed to reschedule the route and allow him to undertake solo challenge.
During the challenge through the Gobi Desert and the Altun Mountains, the 40-year-ad faced temperatures ranging from—20℃ at right to 30°C by day, wild animals and even a hurricane. Carrying a backpack containing the hare minimum of equipment he would need, Pan battled sleep deprivation(缺乏) and very low body temperature during the journey.
Beginning from the “Mars Camp”in Qinghai Province, the ultra extreme course was expanded to more than 500 km over sand dunes (沙丘), dry valleys, stony plateaus and snowy mountains, finishing in Guazhou.
“I hope that by completing the challenge I can inspire people and tell them that life has limitless possibilities and not to stop trying,” Pan said.
In the last few years, Pan has established a dozen firsts for below-the-knee amputees (被截肢者). These included completing the 2018Ironman 70. 3 Xiamen’s 113 km triathlon (铁人三项) in 7 hours and 26 minutes, finishing the Gangshika Xtrial’s 100 km race in 27 hours and 40 minutes, and successfully conquering the Ironman Western Australia in 2019 which involves swimming for 3. 8 km, cycling for180 km and running for 42. 2 km. As a result, he has been dubbed “the Chinese blade runner”.
1. When did Pan Junfan start his 513-kilometer challenging race?| A．On Sept. 3. | B．On Sept. 9. | C．On Sept. 15. | D．On Sept. 19. |
| A．He had part of his left leg removed. | B．He established a hi-tech company. |
| C．He was involved in a traffic accident | D．He participated in the Ironman Australia. |
| A．Losing touch with his team. | B．Getting lost in the desert. |
| C．Having a high fever. | D．Lacking enough sleep. |
| A．Strong-willed. | B．Warm-hearted. | C．Quick-minded. | D．Cold-blooded. |
1. Who did Fred have a fight with last night?
| A．A storekeeper. | B．A policeman. | C．His brother. |
| A．At home. | B．In the hospital. | C．In the police station. |
