In today’s competitive world, the emphasis in athletics is so often put on breaking records. A runner’s creed: “I will win; if I cannot win, I shall do my best.” Those inspirational words, and others like it, fuel the soul of the long distance runners. Competing not only with one another, they hope to achieve their own “personal best”.
For one teen Brandon Schutt, a student in Omaha Burke High School, had been looking forward to his final cross-country race before graduating from high school. He was determined to finish the race with a respectable enough time to qualify for the upcoming state meet. Like him, all other runners were accumulating strength for a take-off.
One runner, Blake Cerveny, whose record was the fastest, tried to beat his own best. After a fast start, he continued to push himself to the limit. If he could hold on to his lead, there was no doubt that he would win. However, with less than 400 meters to go, Cerveny’s legs cramped up(抽筋)and failed him. Resolve to finish，Cerveny rose up from the ground, and continued on his way,only to fall again.His legs had simply given out. Seconds later, he lay curled on the ground, frustrated and disappointed. Other runners surpassed Cerveny with-out stopping. His will to go on faded from his body gradually.
A few moments later, Brandon, running at a very aggressive speed, drew near Cerveny. He had actually been in the same position three weeks prior when he wasn’t able to complete a race. He felt awful about not finishing. He had trained so hard for this final race in high school, to hopefully qualify for the state meet. So this time, he had made up his mind to prove himself under no circumstances.
注意
1.续写词数应为150左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
However, noticing Cerveny’s struggle at arm’s length, Brandon hesitated.
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Everyone in attendance recognized Brandon’s decision as true sportsmanship.
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2 . A method to transform a commonly thrown-away plastic to a resin(树脂) used in 3D printing could allow for making better use of plastic waste. A team of Washington State University researchers developed a simple and efficient way to transform polylactic acid (PLA) (聚乳酸),a bio-based plastic used in products such as filament,plastic silverware and food packaging to a high-quality resin.
“We found a way to immediately turn this into something that’s stronger and better, and we hope that will provide people with the inspiration to upcycle this stuff instead of just throwing it away,” said Yu-Chung Chang, a postdoctoral researcher in the WSU School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and a co-corresponding author on the work. “We made stronger materials just straight out of trash. We believe this could be a great opportunity.”
Although it’s bio-based, PLA, which is categorized as a number 7 plastic, can float in fresh or salt water for a year without degrading. It is also rarely recycled because like many plastics, when it’s melted down and re-formed, it doesn’t perform as well as the original version and becomes less valuable.
“It’s biodegradable and compostable, but once you look into it, it turns out that it can take up to 100 years for it to rot away in a landfill,” Chang said. “In reality, it still creates a lot of pollution. We want to make sure that when we do start producing PLA on the million-tons scale, we will know how to deal with it.”
While the researchers focused on PLA for the study, they hope to apply the work to poly-ethylene terephthalate(PET)(涤纶树脂), which is more common than PLA and has a similar chemical structure and presents a bigger waste problem. They have filed a temporary patent and are working to further improve the process. The researchers are also looking into other applications for the upcycling method.
1. What can the method help do according to paragraph 1?| A．Solve financial crisis. |
| B．Change waste into wealth. |
| C．Control plastic production. |
| D．Determine 3D printing skills. |
| A．Unrealistic. | B．Imaginable. | C．Promising. | D．Common. |
| A．They are hard to break down. |
| B．They are easy to deal with. |
| C．They are invaluable to recycle. |
| D．They are difficult to sort out. |
| A．Applications of an upcycling method. |
| B．3D printing with newly found materials. |
| C．A new way to turn plastic into valuable products. |
| D．Some better methods to break down different plastics. |
The prize may go to the fastest, but sometimes, the first one to cross the finish line isn’t the only winner. Nowhere was that more true than at a recent 5K invitational (邀请赛) in Shelbyville, Indiana.
There were two players in the match: Levi LaGrange and Axel Aleman, who hadn’t known each other before. Levi LaGrange, an 18-year-old student from Western Boone High School, has been expecting to be a professional sportsman for many years. Axel Aleman, who is from Sheridan High School, is a friendly and generous person and he is always more concerned about others than himself. Axel once said to his classmates, “When you are standing at a crossroad, you can choose the path of self-interest, or you can go the extra mile for someone in need. As a teen athlete, the choice is extremely clear.”
The game went very well at first. However, with less than half a mile to go, Levi LaGrange slipped, twisting his ankle. He said, “I was running up the little rolling hill and I hurt my ankle. I felt something was wrong with my ankle.”
Levi stopped and signed to Axel to pass him. Generally, winning a match should be the mission for a sportsman, But at that moment, the race became a secondary concern for Axel. “I was able to see he was in a lot of pain,” Axel recalled. “As I got closer to him, he narrowly fell down. I asked if he was all right. He said he felt like something broken in his leg.”
Rather than running ahead, in an extraordinary act of true sportsmen, Axel refused to leave Levi behind. “As soon as I saw him, I knew I had to do something,” Axel said. “It just seemed like the right thing to do. That mattered more than the race. I told him I wasn’t going to leave. I wanted to help him finish the match.”
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Minutes later, Axel walked closer to Levi.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Axel gained a lot from the incident.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1.活动相关内容；
2.鼓励与期待。
注意
1.写作词数应为80左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答；
3.参考词汇：“中国让我没想到”My China Surprise。
Dear Miriam,
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Yours
Li Hua
The stamps and the mini sheet of five competition venues (场馆) of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 came out
The set of the stamps
China Post has also made a variety of other
6 . Tips for Traveling on a Low Budget
These days, a lot of people travel as a result of rising wealth.On social media,friends ,families, and complete strangers are sharing beautiful images of the places they’ve been Traveling can be a lot of fun, but it does take money to get on a plane and see the world.
Plan ahead. Planning is possibly the most important aspect of any trip. If you want to keep your costs down, you must make a plan. That will allow you to spend the least amount of money to meet your demands when traveling.
Prepare alternative destinations.
Remember travel insurance. Consider travel insurance as an investment rather than an extra cost.
| A．Look for discounts. |
| B．Take free walking tours. |
| C．So how exactly should you travel on a small budget? |
| D．Your budget trip can be more colorful with secondary destinations. |
| E．While working hard to save you shouldn’t become sick while traveling |
| F．Given that you can use it in an emergency,it may save a ton of money in the long run |
| G．Everything should be planned, such as plane tickets, the hotels and the things you’ll buy. |
The frightening day of our diving test was here. Our parents thought we were lucky to have an Olympic-size swimming pool at the school. My mom stressed that the swimming pool was one of the best in our city. But I didn’t feel happy about it at all. Instead, I felt afraid of the swimming pool. It was mainly because I was terribly shy.
I was so shy that I always sat at the back of the room in class so I’d not be called upon to read. As for the present physical education class each Monday morning, I would work my way to the back of the line forming at the diving board so I would not have to practice the dives.
Now, it was another Monday morning - the morning of our diving test. My blood ran cold when the teacher Ms. Robbins announced that we would be graded for our final on the most difficult dive- the jackknife. And she added, “This diving test is important. The one who fails has to spare time in the following Monday mornings to practice diving in this swimming pool and attend this test again.”
My body kept shaking with fear as the line to the scary diving board shortened. As I watched, each student seemed to perform the challenging dive effortlessly. And shortly I would have to attempt something that I had never even practiced before.
Then I remembered someone telling me that when you picture yourself doing a skill over and over, it’s just as effective as physically practicing that skill. So I watched carefully as each classmate jumped at the end of the board once, added a jump for height, folded their body in half to reach for their toes, and finally straightened out like an arrow for going into the water. After carefully watching for a while, I was actually in a state of surprise, because all of a sudden I realized that it was possible for me to perform these four steps of diving.
Eventually all classmates except me finished jumping. The teacher announced that it was my turn.
注意：1. 续与词数应为150左右；2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
With my heart knocking wildly, I walked down the diving board towards its end.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Knowing I failed, I climbed out of the pool, embarrassed.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________8 . What does your dog do if you lie down on the floor and put your arms or legs out straight to exercise? Does your dog come to your rescue in the same way as if you fell down, or realize you mean to do that? Researchers in Germany carried out a series of experiments to see whether dogs understand if humans do things on purpose.
For their study, they had 51 dog owners drop off their pets to the laboratory. First, the dogs learned that a human experimenter would feed them treats through a gap in a glass partition (隔断). And the researchers designed two situations, which were known as “unwillingness vs. inability”. In the “unwillingness” situation, the experimenter held the food in front of the dogs but didn’t give it to them on purpose, often teasing (戏弄) them before pulling it away. For the “inability” situation, they had two conditions, one where the person seemed clumsy (笨拙的) and he appeared as if he were trying to give the treat to the dogs, but it fell down. In the other, the gap was enveloped and the pet couldn’t get the treat.
In all of these experiments, the experimenter left the treat on the floor in front of the dogs, and the dogs were easily able to get to the treat. How quickly they got back the food depended on the specific situation. The researchers predicted correctly that the dogs would wait longer to go to get the treat if they thought the experimenter didn’t want them to have it, while they went to get it quickly when the treat was meant for them. “They probably understood that -This guy is not very skilled but he wants to give the food to me.” Bräuer suggests.
Bräuer says that there could be other factors that led to the dogs’ such performance in the experiments. Although she thinks the findings are important, Bräuer says she is looking forward to what other scientists around the world will say.
1. What does the underlined word “enveloped” probably mean in Paragraph 2?| A．Covered. | B．Widened. | C．Created. | D．Noticed. |
| A．The dogs would leave the food where it was. |
| B．The dogs would try to break through the gap |
| C．The dogs would go and get the food quickly. |
| D．The dogs would wait a while before getting the food. |
| A．Careful and open-minded. | B．Determined and creative. |
| C．Humorous and loving | D．Strict and patient. |
| A．How quickly dogs react? | B．How quickly dogs learn? |
| C．Can dogs predict your behaviors? | D．Can dogs understand your intention? |
9 . I am not sure how many years ago it was, but I still had a cassette player (盒式磁带放录机) at the time. I was tired of television and was in the mood for music. I pulled out one of my favorite cassettes. It started to play but before long the music stopped. I opened the player and saw the tape in the cassette was all pulled out and twisted. I tried to fix it, but it was already broken beyond repair. I frowned. I didn’t want to risk another of my cassettes with a tape eating machine, but I really wanted some music.
Then I noticed my ancient record player in the corner. I walked over and dusted it off. I pulled out an old record of my mom’s that my Dad had given me after she died. I turned on the record player and gently put the record on the turn-table (唱机上的转盘). “Pop!” “Crack!” went the record for a second as I put the needle down. Then a beautiful melody from my childhood started to play. I smiled and started to do my house work. The sweet songs I grew up on touched my soul. I felt the music coming out of me. I started to sing letting my weak voice join in joyously with the music. I even dared to dance a little while I did the dishes. “This is how life is supposed to be!”
These days all my music is on CDs. My daughter says I am behind the times. She says I should buy a cellphone and download all the music I want. But instead, I think I will dust off those old records again, put them on that record player and start to sing along.
We all have music within us just waiting to get out. Don’t let your music die within you then. Share your song with the world. And don’t forget to dance a little too.
1. Why did the author give up listening to cassettes?| A．He preferred records to cassettes. |
| B．His cassettes were out of order. |
| C．His cassette player was twisted. |
| D．His cassette player didn’t work. |
| A．upset | B．content | C．grateful | D．relieved |
| A．It is inconvenient. | B．It is out of fashion. |
| C．It is hard to sing along. | D．It brings good memories. |
| A．Records can better express music. |
| B．Music helps us keep up with the times. |
| C．Music helps strength family bonds. |
| D．Life with music is beautiful. |
10 . Hoping to live on the moon one day? Your chances just got a tiny bit better. Researchers found that lunar pits and caves reach stable temperatures, making them potentially suitable for human life.
Planetary scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles have been doing the research. Although much of the moon’s surface temperatures ranges from as high as 260 degrees during the day to as low as 280 degrees below zero at night, the moon has pits and caves where temperatures stay at roughly 63 degrees Fahrenheit, making human habitation a possibility, according to their new research.
For perspective, a day or night on the moon equals a little over two weeks on the earth—making long-term research and habitation difficult with such extremely hot and cold temperatures. Researchers say these stable spots could transform the future of lunar exploration and long-term habitation. The shadowed areas of these pits could also offer protection from harmful elements, such as solar radiation, universal rays and micrometeorites (微小陨石).
About 16 of the over 200 discovered pits most likely come from collapsed lava tubes—tunnels that form from cooled lava or crust, according to Tyler Horvath, a UCLA doctoral student and head of the research. The researchers think overhangs inside of these lunar pits, which were initially discovered in 2009, could be the reason for the stable temperature.
The research team also includes UCLA professor of planetary science David Paige and Paul Hayne at the University of Colorado Boulder. “Humans evolved living in caves, and to caves we might return when we live on the moon,” said Paige in a UCLA press release.
There are still plenty of other challenges to establishing any sort of long-term human residence on the moon—including growing food and providing enough oxygen. The researchers made clear that NASA has no immediate plans to establish a base camp or habitations there.
1. What did the researchers find?| A．Humans like the life on the moon. |
| B．People lived in lunar pits and caves. |
| C．Steady temperature exists somewhere on the moon. |
| D．Temperatures in caves and pits vary a lot on the moon. |
| A．Solar heat. | B．Harmful liquids. | C．Universal gases. | D．Micrometeorites. |
| A．Appeared. | B．Developed. | C．Hunted. | D．Escaped. |
| A．It has no such plans. | B．Food there tastes bad. |
| C．Many challenges exist. | D．There is no oxygen. |
