1 . There is nothing so great as a star’s life.That, at least, is what we’re led to believe, as we
Lin Wang was a mechanic who happened to meet Barkley one night in Sacramento in a
Wang’s daughter Shirley didn’t really believe
Success means you meet a lot of people.As Barkley says, you
True friendship isn’t
A.respect | B.admire | C.understand | D.love |
A.excitement | B.disappointment | C.astonishment | D.sorrow |
A.bar | B.cinema | C.barber’s | D.stadium |
A.in mind | B.in place | C.in touch | D.in order |
A.at least | B.at first | C.at most | D.at last |
A.hold out | B.keep out | C.work out | D.hang out |
A.explanation | B.declaration | C.description | D.conclusion |
A.minded | B.denied | C.enjoyed | D.kept |
A.recognize | B.change | C.influence | D.know |
A.hopefully | B.certainly | C.properly | D.probably |
A.true | B.clear | C.bright | D.rich |
A.limited | B.compared | C.connected | D.developed |
A.success | B.friendship | C.benefit | D.value |
A.by | B.with | C.besides | D.beyond |
A.helps | B.houses | C.values | D.encourages |
2 . A few years ago, a friend sent me a restaurant gift card for Christmas, and I picked a pretty, sunny Sunday afternoon to use it. It felt good taking my two grown sons and daughter to a nice sit-down restaurant instead of the fast food places we usually ate at. The meal was delicious, and we all had a good time just being together. The gift card covered almost all of the check. I reached into my wallet to get enough cash to cover the rest. I saw two bills in the front of it. The first would cover the rest of the check. The second would cover the check and give the waitress a nice tip. I reached down to pick out the first one.
At that moment, my mind flashed back to 30 years ago. I was working as a busboy (餐厅勤杂工) in a restaurant much like the one we were in. It was long hours of hard work for low pay. I went home just barely making enough to feed my young family. I also remembered how more than once I saw the waitresses counting their small tips while worrying about how they were going to pay the rent and buy their kids the things they needed. I remembered the pain in their eyes and saw the sadness in their faces at the end of the day.
I blinked (眨眼睛) and was back in the present again, with my fingers touching the smaller bill in my wallet. I smiled, pushed it back down and picked out the larger bill. I folded it around the gift card and covered both of them with the check. As we all got up from the table, I handed them to the hardworking waitress. “You keep the change,” I said with a smile and a happy heart.
We are all one family in this world. We live together and suffer together. Do your best to be kind. Do your best to be a good person and replace the suffering with joy.
1. What do we know from the first paragraph?A.The author’s family had a hard life. |
B.The gift card was enough to pay the check. |
C.The author seldom ate together with his family. |
D.The author values spending time with his children. |
A.describe struggles he faced in the past | B.complain about his job at the restaurant |
C.explain why he chose the larger bill | D.show how hard waiters work |
A.Moved. | B.Pleased. | C.Puzzled. | D.Concerned. |
A.To tell people to be kind. |
B.To remind us not to forget our hard days. |
C.To stress the importance of tipping servers. |
D.To show that we should thank friends and family. |
A.Tipping: a kind tradition |
B.Helping hand for servers |
C.Working as a busboy |
D.Kindness makes the world go around |
3 . All you need to know about German Tutor
Do you call yourselves language novices or beginners? Whatever you like to call yourselves, we can enable you to speak a new language.
In order to put our money where our mouth is, we commissioned researchers from two universities in America to conduct a study that tested the effectiveness of our German Tutor app for German beginners in just two months. Then we challenged 15 employees to learn as much German as possible by using the app in just three weeks.
Here are three reasons why you should use German Tutor to learn a new language.
1. You will make great progress.
The study’s findings: 85% of our participants were complete beginners to German.However, they learned the language faster than more advanced learners.
German Tutor challenge’s findings: Although our employees were complete beginners, they made satisfactory progress. Before taking the challenge, they struggled to even comprehend German sentences, but after only three weeks, they could successfully talk with a native.
2. You don’t need to spend a lot of time.
The study’s findings: Our study drew a conclusion that participants only needed to study by using the German Tutor app for about two hours per week to improve their German by at least one college semester level, while the complete German beginners only needed a total time of 15 hours over two months to improve by one college semester level.
German Tutor challenge’s findings: Our employees spent about 15 minutes a day on German Tutor during their three-week challenges.
3.You will enjoy learning with German Tutor.
The study’s findings: An amazing 99% of the participants said that they wouldn’t stop using German Tutor after the study, as it is easy to use and the sense of success can greatly motivate them to continue their learning.
German Tutor challenge’s findings: Most of our employees fell in love with German and many of them promised to continue learning it.
1. Why did German Tutor carry out the study?A.To show how the app works | B.To see how popular the app is |
C.To find how often the app is used | D.To prove how effective the app is |
A.15 hours | B.Three weeks | C.Two months | D.Over two months |
A.They could teach complete beginners. |
B.They could talk with native German speakers |
C.They could only comprehend German sentences. |
D.They could reach the same level as more advanced learners. |
A.Personal preference | B.Low cost |
C.Innovative design | D.The sense of success |
A.You will make great progress after using German Tutor. |
B.German Tutor challenge found that 99% of the participants would stop using German Tutor after the study. |
C.Using German Tutor may save your time in learning German. |
D.German Tutor is an app for language novice. |
4 . If you're planning on hitting up a festival this summer, make sure you check out the latest packing guide to camping music festivals.
Quebec City Summer Festival
When: July 4-14
Where: Toronto, Quebec
300 shows, 10 places and 11 days of music make this festival one of Canada's biggest music festivals. Every year, this festival attracts over one million festivalgoers to Quebec City's historic district for concerts by international superstars and top new talents.
Center of Gravity
When: July 28-30
Where: Kelowna, British Columbia
Canada's hottest beach festival is back! Now in its 10th year, the biggest and exciting festival to hit the Okanagan includes three days packed with extreme sports, sandy beaches, and some of the biggest DJ names in the world.
Future Forest
When: August 5-7
Where: Fredericton, New Brunswick
Future Forest is an outdoor camping festival with a focus on electronic music. The festival originated in 2012 as a fundraiser for a brilliant DJ, Jay Hamilton, who was diagnosed with cancer. Future Forest proudly shows the idea that there are no audience at the event but rather participants who in some way contribute to the overall experience.
Shambhala Music Festival
When: August 9-10
Where: Salmo River Ranch, British Columbia
This is Canada's earliest electronic music festival. Cutting edge talent, lights and sound come together to give life to this event. Seeing it for yourself is the only way to understand exactly what is Shambhala.
1. What can people do in the Quebec City Summer Festival?A.Enjoy the performances of superstars. | B.Learn about Quebec City's history. |
C.Do some extreme sports. | D.Play on the sandy beaches. |
A.To honor brilliant Jay Hamilton. | B.To raise money for a cancer patient. |
C.To provide outdoor camping activities. | D.To promote electronic music. |
A.Quebec City Summer Festival. | B.Center of Gravity. |
C.Future Forest. | D.Shambhala Music Festival. |
5 . How much sleep do we need? It’s a fundamental question about a basic human function we’ve been practicing for long, but there’s still no simple answer. But whether you’re a morning or evening person could be guided by your genes. That said, your sleeping pattern will change naturally with age, which is also reflected in the National Sleep Foundation recommendations: it suggests 14-17 hours of shuteye a day for newborn babies and only 7-8 hours for over-65s.
But scientists said it’s about more than simple duration. Teens and people in their early 20s do want to go to bed later and get up later too, something researchers suggest might be to do with changing hormones(荷尔蒙). “On average, there’s about a two-hour difference in preferred sleep times of somebody in their late teens or early twenties to somebody in their late 50s or early 60s,” he said. “So asking a teenager to get up at 7 o’ clock in the morning is the equivalent of asking a 55-year-old to get up at five in the morning.”
At the end of the day, the best way to measure how much sleep you each need is to listen to your own body. Do you rely on an alarm clock to wake up? Do you take a long time to feel awake? Are you dependent on coffee drinks to keep you focused during the day? Are you overly impulsive(冲动的) or do you find yourself running a lot of traffic lights, for instance? All these could be signs that you’re not getting enough sleep.
And that, we know today, is bad. The environment can affect your sleep preferences but your genes stay. Scientists said that the understanding of the importance of sleep was “one of the great achievements of modern neuroscience(神经科学),” and that society was moving away from the all-nighter culture to respect the need for sleep.
1. What’s the writer’s intention of writing the passage?A.To report his research results. | B.To express the importance of sleep. |
C.To list some sleeping patterns. | D.To persuade people to have enough sleep. |
A.Age. | B.Genes. |
C.Hormones. | D.Sleeping pattern. |
A.Not getting enough sleep. | B.Listening to your own body. |
C.Running a lot of traffic lights. | D.Not understanding of the importance of sleep. |
A.Sleeping Patterns |
B.The Importance of Sleep |
C.A Great Achievement of Neuroscience |
D.Different People Need Different Amounts of Sleep |
6 . People made wings and strapped them to their arms. They flapped their arms but couldn’t fly. They built gliders(滑翔机), light aircraft with wings. Some didn’t work, but some did.
The gliders that worked had special wings. These wings were arched on both the top and the bottom. The air pulled the wings from above and pushed the wings from below. When the wings went up, so did the glider! Arched wings help create a force called lift. Lift is the force that keeps the gliders in the air.
Most gliders have long, thin wings. The wings create enough lift to carry the aircraft and its passengers. Gliders usually ride currents of air the same way a hawk soars(飞翔).
Gliders are very light, and long wings and air currents can give them enough lift to fly. But to carry more than just a passenger or two, an aircraft needs a lot more lift. The question is: How do you create more lift?
The engine is the answer!
The engine is a machine that changes energy into movement. The forward movement that an airplane needs to fly is called thrust. More thrust makes an airplane move forward faster. Moving faster creates more lift. And with more lift, an airplane can carry more weight so an aircraft with an engine can carry passengers or cargo.
In 1903 the Wright brothers figured out how to get wings and an engine to work together in order to give an airplane enough thrust to fly. They made the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
Since then people have made airplanes that can fly faster than sound can travel. They have made airplanes that can fly all the way around the world without stopping.
Today, thousands of people travel in airplanes every day. People really have learned how to fly!
1. If a flyer wants to stay in the air, it needs enough ________.A.lift | B.thrust |
C.wings | D.engines |
A.The air. | B.The lift. |
C.The thrust. | D.The wind. |
A.the lift | B.the thrust |
C.the sound | D.the engine |
A.how gliders were built | B.how important the engine was |
C.how people learned to fly | D.how the first airplane was made |
A terrible fire began to burn at France’s world-famous Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral (巴黎圣母院)
Notre-Dame
One man said, “Notre-Dame
8 . In 1949, I just returned home from the war. On every American highway you could see soldiers in uniform hitchhiking (搭便车) home to their families, as was the
I left the hospital
I was too upset to
It got very
My mother
A.concern | B.custom | C.view | D.disadvantage |
A.Surprisingly | B.Obviously | C.Sadly | D.Disappointedly |
A.wanted | B.asked | C.needed | D.desired |
A.immediately | B.gradually | C.frequently | D.actually |
A.valuable | B.common | C.magical | D.rare |
A.banks | B.shops | C.hospitals | D.factories |
A.body | B.blood | C.health | D.identity |
A.success | B.perfection | C.possibility | D.match |
A.crying | B.dying | C.suffering | D.bursting |
A.on purpose | B.in peace | C.in relief | D.in tears |
A.so that | B.in case | C.as though | D.if only |
A.Driving | B.Walking | C.Removing | D.Wondering |
A.road | B.stop | C.place | D.route |
A.ever | B.even | C.never | D.already |
A.anything | B.something | C.everything | D.nothing |
A.peaceful | B.calm | C.active | D.quiet |
A.commanded | B.allowed | C.told | D.persuaded |
A.away | B.in | C.around | D.down |
A.lived | B.died | C.recovered | D.disappeared |
A.stranger | B.rescuer | C.lover | D.angel |
Science for Kids This month’s most popular books. | |
1. Women in Science by Rachel Ignotofsky Price $25 We all know the story of Marie Curie and her many scientific achievements. But many other brilliant female scientists are far less well known. This book is a great introduction to the lives and works of some of the most important and up-to-now unknown women in science. Recommended for Ages: 12-15 【Order Now »】 | Special Offer For this month only, all Besthooks Book Club members will pay 20% less for every book ordered. Join our club for free and save big money! Delivery We bring every book you order right to your door within three days. For Bestbooks Book Club members, this is free. Non-members must pay an extra $2 per book. |
2. First Big Book of How by Jill Esbaum Price $15 An excellent book about sea life for young children. The book is divided into 4 parts, one for each of the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian and Arctic oceans. It focuses on the different animals found in each of these seas, along with interesting facts and amazing pictures. Ages: 5-10 【Order Now »】 | |
3. A Really Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson Price $15 Bill Bryson takes readers on a very funny and educational trip through the history of modern science-from its unexpected successes to its great failures and everything in between. Ages: 14 and over 【Order Now »】 | |
4. National Geographic’s First Big Book of the World by Jan Carn. Price $20 This book is the perfect introduction to the seven continents. It tells young readers about the different animals that live on each of these lands and gives a simple descnption of the people’s history and culture. Ages: 5-12 【Order Now »】 |
A.By price. | B.By popularity. |
C.By reader’s age. | D.By writer’s name. |
A.$24. | B.$26. |
C.$30. | D.$34. |
A.Women In Science |
B.First Big Book of How |
C.A Really Short History of Nearly Everything |
D.National Geo-graphic’s First Big Book of the World |
A.To sell books to young readers. |
B.To attract new book club members. |
C.To encourage students’ interest in science. |
D.To review books young readers might like. |
A.Mail a letter. | B.Use the restroom. | C.Find the police station. |