1 . In the dictionary of Jessica Cox, a woman aged 36 from Tucson, Arizona, there seems to be no such words——can’t or impossible. How does that
Jessica was born without
She has lived with her
Now Jessica and her husband are working together touring the world as Jessica gives encouraging speeches. “I wanted to
So, next time you are
| A．take down | B．take place | C．take apart | D．take up |
| A．arms | B．legs | C．feet | D．ears |
| A．kept | B．believed | C．enlarged | D．stopped |
| A．dressed | B．equipped | C．wore | D．applied |
| A．perform | B．operate | C．direct | D．lead |
| A．reduce | B．remind | C．replace | D．react |
| A．confidence | B．condition | C．comment | D．contact |
| A．with | B．in | C．by | D．without |
| A．regard | B．refer | C．skim | D．watch |
| A．anything | B．nothing | C．none | D．neither |
| A．overcoming | B．ensuring | C．achieving | D．entertaining |
| A．disappointment | B．regret | C．attraction | D．amazement |
| A．expressed | B．impressed | C．explored | D．influenced |
| A．pilot | B．physicist | C．director | D．driver |
| A．exporting | B．exploring | C．earning | D．exchanging |
| A．demand | B．support | C．surround | D．encourage |
| A．in a way | B．by the way | C．on the way | D．in the way |
| A．willing | B．ready | C．confused | D．content |
| A．outgoing | B．wealthy | C．excellent | D．thoughtful |
| A．book | B．dictionary | C．notebook | D．argument |
2 . From Mozart to Metallica, tons of people enjoy listening to various types of music while they paint, write, or draw. Many believe that music helps increase creativity, but an international study done by English and Swedish researchers is challenging that notion. Their findings show that music actually prevents creativity.
To come to their conclusions, researchers had participants complete verbal problems designed to inspire creativity while sitting in a quiet room, and then again while music played in the background. They found that background music “significantly damaged” the participants' ability to complete tasks connected with verbal creativity. The research team also tested background noises such as those commonly heard in a library, but found that such noises had no effect on participants' creativity.
The tasks were simple word games. For example, participants were given three words, such as dress, dial, and flower. Then, they were asked to find a single word connected with all three that could be combined to form a common phrase or word. The single word, in this case, would be “sun” (sundress, sunflower, sundial). Participants completed the tasks in either a quiet room, or while listening to three different types of music; music with unfamiliar lyrics, instrumental music, or music with familiar lyrics.
“We found strong evidence of damaged performance when playing background music in comparison to quiet background conditions,” says co-author Dr. McLatchie of Lancaster University. Dr. McLatchie and his colleagues conclude that music(even familiar music with well-known lyrics) damages the verbal working memory processes of the brain, blocking creativity. Also, as far as the library background noises having seemingly no effect, the study's authors believe that was the case because library noises create a “steady state” environment that doesn't affect concentration.
“To conclude, the findings here challenge the popular view that music strengthens creativity, and instead show that music, regardless of its types, consistently damage creative performance in problem solving,” the study reads.
1. What does the underlined word “notion” in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Suggestion. | B．Principle. | C．Opinion. | D．Theory. |
| A．2. | B．3. | C．4. | D．5. |
| A．To prove that music is beneficial to health. |
| B．To test whether music is helpful for creativity or not. |
| C．To make it known that music can improve memory. |
| D．To indicate why background music in a library is popular. |
| A．Concentration. | B．Hearing ability. | C．Environment. | D．Patience. |
3 . I never meant to be a teacher. I watched my mother over the years, and I knew it wasn’t for me.
Going back to school to learn French and then teach the language, our mother changed the center of her world when we are little kids.
I saw how hard our mother worked, the long hours she kept as she graded papers when we went to bed. I knew how worried she could be over her students when they were troubled and how much of their stress she took on herself.
What I didn’t realize was that this life she’d chosen offered her wonderful things in return.
As I grew up, I fell in love with a French-speaking Swiss man who asked me to marry him and move to Switzerland. Years later, when I found myself back in my hometown with a small child and a love of my second language, a chance came up for me to join my mother’s world of education, and I accepted it.
I found a teaching job in a primary school in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. From the first week, I knew I’d stick with teaching. This is the most challenging experience I’ve ever had, and absolutely the best. I teach French, and I have never felt so much excitement as when I receive smiles from children, or praise from other teachers.
Most of my students have not travelled outside the town where they live, and for some, a trip to the city museum proves the most adventurous experience in their lives.
I work late into each night creating lessons and activities for the following day, trying to come up with ways to attract my students and connect them to the larger world. I also plan to go back to school for further study so that I can also teach science, math, social studies, reading and writing.
1. Why did the author refuse to be a teacher at first?| A．She didn’t enjoy working with children. |
| B．She would devote too much time and energy. |
| C．Her mother wanted her to do something else. |
| D．She didn’t think she could do it well. |
| A．When she had her own child. |
| B．During the time when she lived abroad. |
| C．Soon after she started teaching. |
| D．When she learned about her students’ dreams. |
| A．Their lives go within their hometown. |
| B．Most of them come from poor families. |
| C．They work hard and dream big. |
| D．They knew nothing about French in the beginning. |
| A．Teach more subjects besides French. |
| B．Seek for a new job in a larger school. |
| C．Try some new teaching ways. |
| D．Go to night school for further education. |
4 . Oregon is a beautiful Northwest State, filled with amazing places to visit. Many of these wonderful places are within National Parks. Here are some of this state’s fantastic national parks.
Crater Lake National Park
Crater Lake is one of the most unique areas in Oregon and the country. The park makes a great summer and winter time place to visit. Most of the year the park is covered in snow, and the summer window is very short, lasting only from July to October. During the short summer visitors can enjoy the Rim Drive, hiking, camping, fishing, swimming in the lake and even take a boat tour of the lake.
Fort Vancouver National Historic Site
Visitors to Fort Vancouver have the chance to learn about the history of the fur trade in the Pacific North-west. This place offers travelers the chance to learn about the cultures that lived in the area, and it also has information about the military history of this place.
John Day Fossil Beds National Monument
This amazing National Monument protect the changes of ecosystems over 40 million years. Visitors can learn about the amazing history of how plant and animal changed. This park has three parts, where visitors can enjoy the views and learn about the history of this place.
Oregon Caves National Monument
Visitors to the Siskiyou Mountains can explore Oregon Caves National Monument. This National Monument has marble caves. These caves were formed as rainwater from forests above slowly dissolved the surrounding marble, creating these amazing caves. Visitors can take tours of the caves, led by a guide.
1. What can you do in Crater Lake National Park?| A．Swim in December. | B．Camp in summer. |
| C．Dig amazing caves. | D．View animals and plants. |
| A．The history of the fur trade. | B．The military history of the area. |
| C．The history of plant and animal. | D．The cultures of the place. |
| A．Crater Lake National Park | B．Oregon Caves National Monument |
| C．Fort Vancouver National Historic Site | D．John Day Fossil Beds National Monument |
增加：在缺词处加一个漏词符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词。
2. 只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
If you have learnt some maths at school, you can quite quickly work out that one eleventh is about 9 percent. But did you know that 9 percent is also the number of children who is not at school? That’s right—one in 11 children is studying and probably even cannot do the simple maths you just did so very easy. They drop out of school because our families are too poor and they have to work like adults. In 2013, million of children and teenagers were out of the school. Most live in poor countries, and there are also some boys and girls who cannot go to school in rich countries. If you are one of the lucky ones who can go to a senior high school, you should be grateful to the opportunity. So the next time you feel like you do not want to do bored, difficult homework or go to class, think about the children who don’t have the chance to get a good education. Make the most of your education and make the world better place.
The San Francisco Bay Area is so expensive that even tech employees（雇员）at compaies（公司）such
More than 58% of tech workers in th Golden Gate City agreed that the
A total of 8,284 people took part in the survey—most of them employees at 14 tech companies.
Although average yearly salaries（平均年薪）in the Bay Area are around $142,000—according to a report by the website Hired—the average price of a home is more than four
And the average cost of raising
1. 取中文名；
2. 名字的意义。 注意：
1. 词数 100 左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 开头和结尾已为你写好，不计入总词数。
Dear May,
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
8 . How to protect your hearing
All sounds that are louder than 85 decibels(分贝) — from industrial machines to heavy traffic and loud music — are a threat to your hearing, especially if your exposure is long or repeated. That’s because loud sounds can injure or destroy hair cells in your inner ear that are involved in sending sound signals to your brain.
Deafeningly loud noise is not to blame for all hearing loss, though.
If you suspect you’ve lost some hearing, see a GP or audiologist.
The technology itself “can take a while to get used to because your brain needs to readjust,” says audiologist Dr. Gemma Twitchen. “
| A．As the condition affects each sufferer differently |
| B．A hearing aid could improve your abilities noticeably |
| C．The louder the noise, the more likely it will cause damage |
| D．Occasionally, the root of the problem can be a cracked eardrum |
| E．They could ease it by giving your brain external sounds to focus on |
| F．Listening to music through earphones is a common cause of hearing loss |
| G．It’s much easier if you take action on getting your hearing assessed early on |
9 . The last thing Caitlin Hipp would have expected as she prepared to turn 28 years old was to be living at home with her parents. But through working as a part-time skating instructor and restaurant server, she isn’t able to earn enough to live anywhere other than home.
To some degree, multigenerational households (家庭) have always been a part of American life. However, the number of young adults who have been moving back in with their parents — or never leaving home in the first place — has been growing steadily.
UBS Financial Services released a report that even suggests one reason for the growing number of young adults still living at home could be that their family doesn’t want them to leave.
The report shows that 74 percent of millennials (千禧一代) get some kind of financial support from their parents after college. It finds that millennials have redefined the ties that connect parents and children. Millennials see their parents as peers (同龄人), friends and instructors. Nearly three quarters talked with their parents more than once a week during college. In return, their parents happily provide financial support well into adulthood, helping fund everything for them.
Stuart Hoffman, chief economist for the PNC Financial Group in the US, said the number of young adults striking out on their own fell during the Great Recession. Although job growth for millennials since 2014 has improved, that doesn’t necessarily mean that millennials are starting to fly the nest. He said, "They may like living at home and being able to save money."
"There’s no doubt it has held back household formation and purchases of things people spend money on related to household formation and perhaps related to child-raising," Hoffman explained. "But they are probably traveling more and eating out more if they don’t have a house expense or marriage. I don’t know if it represents a change in moral values. But it’s much more common for adult children to live in their parents’ homes because it’s becoming part of the culture."
1. What can be learned about Caitlin Hipp?| A．She is in her thirties. | B．She is ambitious for her career. |
| C．She can barely make ends meet. | D．She prefers living with her parents. |
| A．The lack of job opportunity. | B．Their parents’ need for them. |
| C．The high pressure from modern life. | D．Their parents’ overprotection of them. |
| A．It will never go out of fashion. | B．It may allow of more travel chances. |
| C．It results from the change in moral values. | D．It goes against America’s cultural development. |
| A．To introduce different types of living arrangements. |
| B．To stress the importance of financial independence. |
| C．To inform people of a social phenomenon in the US. |
| D．To explain why Chinese young adults still live at home. |
10 . Most of our 400 national parks and historic sites are free, and even the ones that aren't offer several free days during each year. And don't forget admission and tours are free at all our state capitol buildings. So, pull out a map and start planning to find out your destinations.
California: Jelly Belly Factory
Who doesn't like Jelly Bellies? Free tours of the Jelly Belly Factory are offered daily at 1 Jelly Belly Lane in Fairfield, California. Free samples, too! Can't decide which flavor to try first? Check out our ranking on the best jelly bean flavors.
Colorado: United States Air Force Academy
Driving around and taking in the spectacular natural beauty of Colorado is, of course, free. If you know some kids who might be interested in becoming a future cadet, then head to the United States Air Force Academy, just outside Colorado Springs, where free tours are offered daily.
Connecticut: Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut was the first place in the U.S. to offer pizza by the slice to hungry customers, including students of a little college called Yale University. While in New Haven, you can go on a tour of the campus, free of charge, every day of the week. It's the Alma mater(母校) of both President Bushes, Bill and Hillary Clinton, journalist Bob Woodward, and Samuel F.B. Morse, inventor of the Morse code to name a few. Make sure you check out the best state gifts from each state while you're at it.
Florida: Beaches
From the spectacular sunsets in Key West, the southernmost point in the U.S. mainland, to strolling the streets way up north in historic and charming Fernandina on Amelia Island, Florida is chock full of free beaches to enjoy.
1. What can you do while visiting Jelly Belly Factory in California?| A．Taste some jelly beans for free. |
| B．Try and decide your favorite flavor. |
| C．Rank all the flavors you have tasted. |
| D．Walk into all the factories as you like. |
| A．It teaches how to make pizza. | B．It is a very large university. |
| C．It used to have a few names. | D．It is a place where some famous people studied. |
| A．Fairfield. | B．Key West. |
| C．New Haven. | D．Colorado Springs. |
