1 . I was blind, but I was ashamed of it if it was known. I refused to use a white stick and hated asking for help. After all, I was a teenage girl, and I could not bear people to look at me and think I was not like them. I must have been a terrible danger on the roads. Coming across me wandering through the traffic, motorists probably would have to stop rapidly on their brakes. Apart from that, there were all sorts of disasters that used to occur on the way to and from work.
One evening, I got off the bus about halfway home where I had to change buses, and as usual I ran into something. “I’m awfully sorry,” I said and stepped forward only to run into it again. When it happened a third time, I realized I had been apologizing to a lamppost (街灯柱). This was just one of the stupid things that constantly happened to me. So I carried on and found the bus stop, which was a request stop, where the bus wouldn’t stop unless passengers wanted to get on or off. No one else was there and I had to guess if the bus had arrived.
Generally in this situation, because I hated showing I was blind by asking for help, I tried to guess at the sound. Sometimes I would stop a big lorry and stand there feeling stupid as it drew away. In the end, I usually managed to swallow (吞下) my pride and ask someone at the stop for help.
But at this particular evening no one joined me at the stop; it seemed that everyone had suddenly decided not to travel by bus. Of course I heard plenty of buses pass, or I thought I did. But because I had given up stopping them for fear of making a fool of myself, I let them all go by. I stood there alone for half an hour without stopping one. Then I gave up. I decided to walk on to the next stop.
1. The girl refused to ask for help because she thought ________.| A．she might be recognized | B．asking for help looked silly |
| C．being found blind was embarrassing | D．she was normal and independent |
| A．began to run | B．hit a lamppost by accident |
| C．hit a person as usual | D．was caught by something |
| A．to find more buses there | B．to find people there |
| C．to find the bus by herself there | D．to find people more helpful there |
Shu embroidery (蜀绣) enjoys a long history in China. As early as the Han Dynasty, Shu embroidery was already famous, enjoying a high reputation as “
Shu embroidery
3 . Educational authorities have asked schools to make sure students have 10-minute breaks between classes after hearing complaints that some school students are not allowed to leave classrooms during breaks-unless they need to go to the toilet-- to ensure their safety.
Some students said teachers often overrun by a few minutes, and that some start their classes a few minutes before the breaks are scheduled to end. In these cases students do not even have time to go to the toilet.
A mother of a primary school student in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province said her child’s school does not allow students to leave the classroom building during breaks. They are also forbidden to jump, run around or speak loudly.
The issue has caused a heated discussion on social media platforms.
“Teachers do not want to supervise students during class breaks. However, if students have accidents, some parents will still hold schools accountable,” said one netizen in a comment that received more than 10,000 likes. Another said, “Teachers are also tired, but the school makes such a requirement, and they have to follow.”
An official from the Ministry of Education said that it is important for schools to ensure students have time to rest during class breaks, which can help students relax, be healthy and avoid myopia (近视).
The ministry attaches great importance to class breaks, the official said. Apart from breaks between classes, schools should also make sure students have a 30-minute break each day for exercise. The ministry will urge local authorities and schools to implement the policies and prevent the practice of restricting class breaks in the name of “ensuring students safety”, the official said.
1. According to some parents, who is to blame if students have accidents during class breaks?| A．The children. | B．The schools. |
| C．Educational authorities. | D．The parents. |
| A．Because they have a lot of homework to do. |
| B．Because the teachers often end the classes late than scheduled. |
| C．Because schools want to ensure the students’ safety. |
| D．Because the students are told to do so by their parents. |
| A．relaxation for students. | B．avoid being short-sighted. |
| C．wellness of the students. | D．playing happily. |
| A．Schools will be urged to ensure students to have moderate class breaks. |
| B．Although tired, teachers are willing to supervise students during class breaks. |
| C．Students do not have time to go to the toilet because teachers often overrun by a few minutes. |
| D．Parents are in favor of not allowing the students to leave classrooms. |
4 . For people suffering from depression, there’s an all-natural treatment they should use — getting more exercise. It could help fight depression, even if people have a genetic risk, new research shows.
For the study, researchers collected information from nearly 8,000 people and found those with related genes were more likely to have depression over the next two years after examining them. But that was less likely for people who were more active at the study’s start, even if they had a family history of depression. Higher levels of physical activity helped protect even those with the highest genetic risk of depression.
Both high-intensity (高强度) exercise and low-intensity activities were associated with a reduced risk of depression. Adding four hours of exercise a week could lower the risk of a new episode (一段经历) of depression by 17%, according to the study. “Our findings strongly suggest that, when it comes to depression, being physically active has the potential to remove the added risk of future episodes in individuals who are genetically risky,” said lead author Karmel Choi. “On average, about 35 additional minutes of physical activity each day may help people to reduce their risk and protect against future depression episodes.”
Depression is a common mental illness globally, with more than 264 million people affected. “Depression is so ubiquitous, and that underlines the need for effective approaches that can impact as many people as possible,” Choi said. And mental health and primary care providers can use the findings to advise patients that there’s something meaningful they can do to lower their risk of depression.
1. How did the researchers reach their conclusion?| A．By analyzing a mass of data. |
| B．By conducting genetic research. |
| C．By comparing various levels of activity. |
| D．By tracking the subjects for many years. |
| A．Physical activity betters medical treatment. |
| B．Exercise is able to decrease and prevent it. |
| C．Different levels of exercise intensity matter the same. |
| D．Exercising 35 minutes daily is the most effective treatment. |
| A．Harmful. | B．Complex. |
| C．Unusual. | D．Common. |
| A．To discuss a disease. |
| B．To introduce a method. |
| C．To analyze a genetic risk. |
| D．To explain a phenomenon. |
5 . With the cold weather drawing nearer, few people will choose swimming as a daily or usual activity.
Good for your brain.
Swimming is one of the best activities you can do all year round, which benefits your body and your mind. Swimming has been found to increase blood flow to the brain, which leads to more oxygen.
Work your muscles.
Every time you swim, it is like doing a mini-resistance workout. Each kicks and pull works your muscles more than you could imagine, especially your arms, shoulders and gluteus — the muscles that are inactive all day when you’re sitting at your desk.
Lift your spirits.
While swimming is an individual sport, it is also very social. You can meet people from all walks of life when swimming. Have a chat in the lap pool, join a swimming club or get involved in social water sports to get to know people in your community. Besides, the great thing about swimming is that you can do it — rain or shine. Although your backyard pool, the river or beach cools down over winter, most inside swimming pools run heated pools year round, so you’ve got no excuse to stop swimming.
| A．Benefit your body. |
| B．Meet new people. |
| C．These chemicals can control your thought and action. |
| D．Swimming also works your abs (腹肌) and will reduce your waist line. |
| E．Exercise gives off chemicals in your body called endorphins (内啡肽). |
| F．And that means you’re experiencing better memory and sharp mind. |
| G．However, swimming in winter is of great benefit in cold days. |
6 . Once there was a little boy who became very ill. He had to spend all day in bed, unable to
Because other children weren’t
There wasn’t much he could do except look out of the
The boy was very
From that day on, the little boy always did his best to
| A．listen | B．move | C．speak | D．eat |
| A．allowed | B．ordered | C．forced | D．taught |
| A．used | B．grew | C．helped | D．suffered |
| A．street | B．garden | C．window | D．door |
| A．fear | B．happiness | C．shame | D．sadness |
| A．round | B．different | C．big | D．strange |
| A．small | B．open | C．broken | D．double |
| A．left | B．smiled | C．stood | D．escaped |
| A．worried | B．surprised | C．afraid | D．sick |
| A．For example | B．In fact | C．At first | D．In all |
| A．birds | B．characters | C．people | D．friends |
| A．stop | B．run | C．smile | D．count |
| A．visited | B．helped | C．believed | D．thanked |
| A．quality | B．service | C．skill | D．health |
| A．hospital | B．church | C．school | D．work |
| A．seen | B．remembered | C．heard | D．collected |
| A．Quickly | B．Finally | C．Luckily | D．Suddenly |
| A．hand | B．pocked | C．bag | D．box |
| A．call up | B．call on | C．wake up | D．cheer up |
| A．make sure | B．find out | C．work out | D．point out |
7 . Imagine this: You’re digging a well, and instead of hitting water, you unearth a headless human body made of pottery. This actually happened to farmers in Shanxi province in central China in 1974. Local archaeologists heard of the find and biked over to investigate. They realized that the figure had come from a tomb built over 2,000 years ago for China’s first emperor, Qin Shihuang. Archaeologists finally discovered three separate pits (穴) filled with 8,000 life-sized statues, all made from terracotta-a type of fired clay.
About a mile away from these pits, there’s a large mound (山丘). Archaeologists know that this is the main part of Qin Shihuang’s tomb, but they have never looked inside. They have left it alone out of respect for the first emperor and to protect the tomb as it is.
“Many people wish to see the treasures and mysteries inside, but we cannot,” says Xiuzhen Li, an archaeologist. Opening the tomb could damage its contents. Someday, Li hopes, we’ll have technology that will let us see inside the main part of the tomb without opening and disturbing it.
“Probably in the near future we’ll have some new technology that can see inside like an x-ray,” she says. Scientists are working on techniques that make it possible to see underground. Another idea is that a tiny robot could enter through a small hole and capture videos of what it sees. Even if this robotic exploration is done very carefully, however, it would still damage the tomb. For now, the Chinese government prefers to wait to do anything until they have even better technology.
1. What’s the suitable description of the figure from the tomb?| A．A copy of real soldiers. | B．A model of emperors. |
| C．In ruins. | D．In colors. |
| A．It might be ruined. | B．It is very dangerous. |
| C．The robot is not clever enough. | D．The government doesn’t allow it. |
| A．Technique | B．to see underground |
| C．an x-ray | D．the tomb |
| A．Unconcerned. | B．Doubtful. |
| C．Hopeful. | D．Objective. |
| A．An encyclopedia. | B．A history textbook. |
| C．A newspaper. | D．A travel guide. |
8 . One evening, 13-year-old Briar agreed to look after his four younger sisters while his parents were out. The parents were
The first thought coming to Briar’s mind was to rescue his little sisters. The family had
Briar remained calm and focused on the
Firefighters arrived on the
| A．courageous | B．ignorant | C．confident | D．obvious |
| A．presence | B．absence | C．assistance | D．silence |
| A．previously | B．rarely | C．extremely | D．eventually |
| A．excited | B．ashamed | C．prepared | D．determined |
| A．went | B．lived | C．got | D．spread |
| A．efficient | B．fluent | C．urgent | D．patient |
| A．took hold of | B．put emphasis on | C．showed mercy to | D．caught up with |
| A．safety | B．failure | C．awareness | D．sight |
| A．problem | B．difficulty | C．danger | D．store |
| A．except | B．besides | C．since | D．despite |
| A．actually | B．desperately | C．entirely | D．definitely |
| A．price | B．point | C．age | D．depth |
| A．faster | B．lower | C．larger | D．weaker |
| A．scene | B．position | C．time | D．way |
| A．frightened | B．respectful | C．amused | D．grateful |
Asad was a 13-year-old boy who was very honest and hardworking. Recently, he had entered a new school, so he had no friends yet. On Monday morning, he was nearly late for school. The night before, his family attended his cousin’s wedding and reached home late, which was why he couldn’t get up on time as usual.
At school, Asad could not pay attention to anything and wanted the bell to ring so that he could buy something to eat. After a few hours, when the bell rang, Asad quickly opened his schoolbag to find his money, but just then he remembered that he had left for school in a hurry in the morning and forgotten to take money. He looked under his books, hoping to find some money but there was nothing.
Not knowing what to do, he walked out of the classroom and sat on a bench in front of the canteen. He saw a few of his classmates there, among them was Fahad. He was one of the richest kids in his class, but he was a very arrogant(傲慢的)boy who thought everyone else was a loser. But as Asad was new, he didn’t know much about Fahad.
When he went towards Fahad and asked if he could borrow some money for his lunch, Fahad laughed a lot and said, “I knew you were a loser, maybe a beggar?” Fahad laughed out so loud that other kids also heard and made fun of the situation. He didn’t answer Fahad, and slowly walked back towards an empty bench.
When he reached the bench, he noticed something lying near it. It was a wallet. He picked it up and recognized it as Fahad’s, as he remembered Fahad showing it to his friends and telling that his uncle bought it for him from the UK. There was quite a lot of money inside for a kid.
At first, Asad wanted to keep it a secret and punished Fahad.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Then Fahad said, “Why are you giving back?”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________People send birthday wishes using cards and postcards in many cultures. It is not known when and where the tradition of
In 1840, the first postage stamp was issued (发行) in Britain and sending birthday cards became
Today usually cards
