1 . According to a study published this week, habitual napping (打盹) appears to be associated with a large brain volume in adults although experts stressed that further research was needed. It reduces the cost caused from the lost time and the fatigue-related errors. The work followed previous studies that suggested a brief doze could improve people’s ability to learn.
Arianna Huffington, a co-founder of Huff Post and the founder and chief executive of Thrive Global, said, “Given the latest science on the effectiveness of napping and the clear link between employees feeling well rested and their productivity, it’s long past time that businesses embrace short naps at work.”
Some businesses, including Thrive Global, have already introduced facilities for employees to take naps. Google introduced sleep pods as far back as 2014 and companies like Nike and Ben & Jerry’s introduced nap rooms. The practice has even been adopted by the NHS, with a growing number of hospitals introducing sleep pods for staff in an effort to help them get more rest. Employees, it seems, are enthusiastic. Sean Greenwood, of Ben & Jerry’s, said, “If a quick nap gets employees more involved and creative, we’re happy to provide that for our team members.”
Unfortunately, the practice of napping still suffers from our collective concept that sleep equals weakness and laziness. However, the performance-enhancing benefits of naps have been no secret to many leaders throughout history. It also gives the higher-ups the chance to acknowledge the 24/7 culture and come up with top-down solutions that encourage workers to take care of themselves in and out of work.
While sleep experts stressed that a daytime doze could be beneficial, they said it was crucial to get enough shut-eye at the end of a day. It is the late stage of sleep, sometimes missed by early risers, that strengthens the nerve circuits that make for learning and memory, allowing the brain to make and consolidate new neutral connections. Additionally, prioritizing sufficient sleep during the regular nightly sleep period is essential for overall well-being.
1. What is paragraph 1 mainly about?| A．Work stress. | B．Learning abilities. |
| C．A research finding. | D．The brain volume. |
| A．Dismissive. | B．Approving. |
| C．Unclear. | D．Critical. |
| A．To advocate enough rest. | B．To praise creative employees. |
| C．To compare the differences. | D．To present the current situation. |
| A．The approaches to shut-eye. | B．The importance of napping. |
| C．The secrets to well-being. | D．The benefits of memory. |
2 . Now, new research suggests frequent exercise might help you live well in another meaningful way—that is, in terms of income. Researchers investigated whether individuals who stayed active would earn more money as a result of their active lifestyle. It revealed that staying active not only resulted in higher present earnings, but also predicted increased future income throughout one’s life.
The researchers set out to explore three key correlations (相互关系)：How mobility-the ability to move, affected income, how mobility influenced income overtime, and whether exercise could help people maintain their mobility as they aged. The team analyzed data from Health and Retirement Study(HRS), the largest study tracking changes overtime in Americans aged 50 and above. This study takes into account various life aspects, including work, social status, health, psychology and family matters, as individuals age.
To evaluate the impact of current mobility on income, the researchers examined data from over 19, 000 respondents (调查对象) to determine how well they could perform simple tasks, such as climbing stairs, or moving around a room. Each person received a score, with 5 indicating full mobility and 0 indicating difficulties with these tasks. The researchers found that for each decrease in the mobility category, individuals lost out on an average of $3, 000 in annual income compared to their peers. Those who were active were also significantly more likely to remain working for longer than the other group. It appeared that engaging in exercise enabled individuals to maintain mobility and engage in professional life for a longer period of time than those who were less active.
Looking at earnings overtime revealed even more substantial benefits for those who remained active throughout their lives. Active individuals showed an overall income level that was $6, 500 higher, along with higher rates of employment. For the third part of the study, it’s not surprising that those who engaged in exercise continued to maintain their mobility after the age of 55 and had higher employment rates. Even exercising just one day a week showed improvements in mobility outcomes.
While this study doesn’t definitively prove that leading a healthy lifestyle directly leads to higher earnings, it strongly suggests that staying healthy and mobile brings benefits beyond just lower levels of disease.
1. What didn’t researchers take into consideration when designing their experiment?| A．Family matters | B．Work and social status |
| C．Health and psychology | D．Educational background |
| A．Increased mobility slightly reduces annual income |
| B．Greater mobility is closely related to higher income |
| C．Decreased mobility greatly increases the overall income |
| D．Maintaining mobility has nothing to do with the income |
| A．Favorable | B．Indifferent | C．Opposed | D．Doubtful |
| A．Exercise Lowers Levels of All Diseases |
| B．Exercise Promotes Work Efficiency |
| C．Exercise Helps to Make More Money |
| D．Exercise Ensures A Longer Lifespan |
3 . How to communicate complex information?
Did you ever have to read a presentation where you felt like you’re lost in confusing terms, data and concepts? Are you giving others this same experience?
Use interactive content. It gets the readers more involved in your presentation by letting them play an active part.
Narrate your content.
Use examples and fables. They can help explain clearly the complexity of ideas for they are what we’ve already known and understood.
| A．Show, don’t tell |
| B．Make every word count. |
| C．This makes the complex concepts less new and more familiar |
| D．If you don’t sound excited, the listeners won’t feel excited either |
| E．Storytelling is another powerful tool for communicating complex concepts. |
| F．Communicating complex information is a common challenge in presentations |
| G．For example, allow them to choose the content route they wish to take and control the pace. |
4 . Your neighbors are probably the first line of defense in case of any problematic situation.
The first step is introducing yourself when you move to a new neighborhood or when a newcomer moves in. Leave them a note under their door to introduce yourself.
Be respectful of your neighbors. It’s in poor taste to have regular insensitive parties at your place causing disturbances. Before your party, it’s good practice to notify your neighbors. Besides, avoid chatting them up for hours on end, which may be inconvenient, especially if you don’t know their schedules.
As Emma Seppälä put it, “social connectedness generates a positive feedback loop (圈) of social, emotional and physical well-being.” It feels so easy to just stay home without having to engage with your neighbors but connecting with them is worth the effort.
| A．Remember every small gesture counts. |
| B．A crisis is a test of communication skills. |
| C．It can actually boost your mood in the long run. |
| D．Slipping it in their mailbox further solidifies friendship. |
| E．It’s essential to ensure you maintain decent relationships with them. |
| F．Alternatively, you can give them a gift while making yourself known to them. |
| G．Only by establishing healthy boundaries will you achieve peaceful coexistence. |
5 . The 2023 Shanghai Coffee Culture Week opened on May 13, with a variety of activities integrating industry, culture and lifestyle scheduled.
Shanghai, home to more than 8,00 coffee houses, has hosted the event since 2021. This year’s Coffee Culture Week is organized by the Shanghai Cultural and Creative Industry Promotion Association, and will run through to June 2.
Coffee has become a key part of Shanghai culture, showcasing the city’s characteristics of opening-up and inclusiveness(包容),local officials said at a news conference in early May.
On the event’s opening day, Yongpu Coffee, in collaboration with the food delivery platform Eleme and China Construction Bank, offered 30,000 cups of coffee for free. Multiple coffee brands such as Luckin Coffee and McCafe will also provide free coffee and coupons (优惠券) during the event.
From May 18 to 21, West Bund International Coffee and Lifestyle Festival is taking place in Xuhui Binjiang area, involving more than 100 coffee brand outlets (销售点) located along a 5-kilometer shoreline of the Huangpu River.
It is the first time that Shanghai has launched such a large coffee-themed market, organizers said. In addition to enjoying freshly brewed coffee, visitors can attend diverse activities such as exhibitions, performances and workshops to experience coffee culture.
Many cultural sites in the city are also participating in the coffee culture week. Sinan Mansions in downtown Shanghai is holding the Bonjour Coffee Art Fair from May 19 to 21,which has attracted some 20 coffee staff members and 80artists.
The Shanghai History Museum will launch the Square Coffee Festival, inviting fans and industry experts to share their knowledge about coffee. Meanwhile, the Shanghai Books and Periodicals Distribution Association will hold a coffee-themed book fair in more than 80 stores across the city.
Organizers said they hope these events will boost the consumption of coffee and cultural products, and promote the coordinated development of the two industries.
The Shanghai Coffee Industry Summit will take place on May 26, which includes two roundtable discussions and about 10 seminars. Corporate leaders will discuss the latest consumer trends and offer their insights into hot topics.
According to data from domestic tech and retail giant Meituan, the value of China’s freshly brewed coffee industry is expected to reach 15.79 billion yuan ($2.25 billion) this year. It was valued at 8.97billion yuan in 2021.
1. Why was the Coffee Culture Week hosted?| A．To hold diverse activities. | B．To spread knowledge about coffee. |
| C．To show the city’s unique features. | D．To promote coffee industry and culture. |
| A．Get coupons and make freshly brewed coffee. |
| B．Enjoy free coffee and read coffee-themed books. |
| C．Visit coffee exhibitions and put on performances. |
| D．Share ideas about coffee and get employed in workshops. |
| A．Coffee consumption is increasing rapidly in China. |
| B．Meituan has benefited a lot from coffee industry. |
| C．The Coffee Culture Week has boosted the coffee industry. |
| D．Freshly brewed coffee industry is the most promising industry. |
| A．Entertainment. | B．Culture. | C．Health. | D．Science. |
6 . Black Beauty by Anna Sewell is a great book that has attracted young and old readers for over a century. Its long-lasting popularity shows Sewell’s skillful storytelling and the great message at the novel’s heart.
Through the eyes of Black Beauty, readers are sent to a world filled with trouble, pity, and hope. Sewell’s choice to tell the story from the horse’s viewpoint (角度) was a new method which made it easier for future writers to explore the thoughts of animals. The main ideas in the novel are just as important today as they were in the Victorian times.
Black Beauty is a lovely black horse that begins as a carriage (马车) horse, but when he is hurt, his rich owner decides that he is no longer good enough to be a carriage horse. From that moment, he is passed from owner to owner and goes through lots of hard work. Even though many unpleasant things happen to Black Beauty at the hands of unkind humans, he lives up to his name both outside and inside.
This story of his life from birth to old age is beautifully descriptive. Everything from his active days as a baby horse on a farm to a hard life pulling carriages on stone roads in London can be readily pictured in the readers’mind. Each part carries an important message about animal well-being, kindness, and respect, and is filled with plenty of page-turning suspense (悬念).
This Collector’s Edition of Black Beauty shows respect for this beloved book. Each part of the book has been carefully considered. From the drawings on the cover to the colored blocking, this is truly one-of-a-kind. The matching colored endpapers add an extra touch of luxury (奢侈), making it the perfect addition to any collector’s library and a great chance to experience the story that will reach your heart and stay with you forever.
1. What of Black Beauty helps future writers most?| A．The main idea. | B．The storyline. |
| C．The touching ending. | D．The way of writing. |
| A．It’s thin and weak. | B．It hates hard work. |
| C．It has good qualities. | D．It feels not up to the job. |
| A．To introduce each part. |
| B．To share feelings about the horse. |
| C．To give opinions about the story. |
| D．To give examples of page-turning suspense. |
| A．A diary entry. | B．A news report. |
| C．A children’s story. | D．A book review. |
7 . Jim Thorpe is one of the greatest athletes of all time. He had amazing athletic abilities and was well-known during his lifetime, yet that did not make Thorpe a stranger to adversity.
Thorpe was an American Indian from Oklahoma who developed his extraordinary athletic skills in his youth through hard labor. It was also in his youth that he learned to endure hardship brought upon by racial prejudice. Many would say his childhood was not easy. He grew up poor and at age 9 his twin brother passed away and a few years later he lost both of his parents.
But that did not stop him from doing what he loved and pursuing his dreams. Nothing seemed to stop him, not even stolen shoes. Just hours before Thorpe was going to compete in the 1912 Olympics, somebody stole his shoes. Thorpe improvised (临时拼凑) by getting shoes out of the garbage. The shoes were two different sizes. He wore an extra pair of socks on one foot to even them out.
He still went on to win two gold medals—winning each event he competed in except for one, the javelin (标枪). The javelin was the only event he didn’t win, probably because he had never competed in that event before. It is interesting to note that Thorpe had tried to throw the javelin once before in the Olympic trials. At the time, he didn’t know that he could throw it with a running start. He threw it standing still and was placed second.
At the Olympics，he also took part in the decathlon (十项全能运动). He finished first in two events, third in four events, and fourth in two more. Thorpe ended up finishing third in the world. He was undoubtedly a dominating force that couldn’t be stopped and just kept on going.
I think Paul Dughi said it best, “It’s hard to imagine now that pro athletes get paid millions of dollars just to wear a particular brand of shoes. For Jim Thorpe, it didn’t matter what kind he wore.”
1. What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．The adversity Thorpe met with led to his success. |
| B．Thorpe’s success was no guarantee of a better life. |
| C．Thorpe’s career brought him both gains and losses. |
| D．Thorpe suffered many hardships despite his success. |
| A．To prevent the foot from injury. | B．To make the shoe fit the foot. |
| C．To stop the shoe from being stolen. | D．To show his problem-solving skills. |
| A．Loss of his own sports shoes. | B．A casual attitude towards the event. |
| C．Lack of experience in the event. | D．A shortage of talent for the event. |
| A．Loyal and enthusiastic. | B．Genuine and creative. |
| C．Tough and strong-minded. | D．Selfless and good-tempered. |
8 . Humans have many unique behaviors among animals. For example, we have a formal language that permits communication about things that exist in the past, present, and future. Yet we share at least one emotion with many other species fear.
To really understand our fears we have to go further to study how animals long before humans came into being assessed (评估) and managed predation (捕食) risk in the wild. All animals, past and present, must assess life-threatening predation risks (风险) and make decisions to avoid or otherwise manage those risks. It is a proper balance: being too fearful is costly if fear means that you miss out on getting food, mates, or other important resources. However, being too brazen could end very poorly indeed. It is the context that influences all decisions. If they’re hungry, it’s wise to take more risks or they will go hungry. And, if they’re powerful and can steal food from others at will, perhaps it’s OK to be a bit more careful. Successful individuals are those that make right assessment, and because of this, leave more descendants.
Natural expressions of fear influence the structure of ecological communities, and the removal of predators changes entire ecosystems. To manage predation risks, animals modify(调整) their activity patterns, habitat selection, and their diet. Fear of predators can also reduce an individual’s reproductive(繁殖)success. All of these fear-driven modifications can have a great influence on both the environment and the diversity of many species. Fear, as it turns out, is an essential part of healthy ecosystems and helps keep biodiversity.
Fear is a natural emotion, and that it’s impossible to completely avoid it. It is comforting to know that fear comes from a long line of ancestors, both human and nonhuman. It is a compass(指南针)that, when used I properly, guides us away from danger and toward opportunity.
1. What do we know about animals’ risk assessment and management according to paragraph 2?| A．Animals are too fearful to make right assessments. |
| B．Animals will fail to get food when they are fearful. |
| C．Animals have to make proper decisions based on different situations. |
| D．Animals which arc more fearful are more likely to make right assessment. |
| A．brave | B．afraid | C．hungry | D．strong |
| A．The ways animals manage fear |
| B．The influence fear has on ecosystem |
| C．The approaches to keeping a healthy ecosystem |
| D．The problems fear brings about to the ecosystem |
| A．Fear from Our Deep Past | B．Survival of the bravest |
| C．Emotion from human and nonhuman. | D．Path to risk management |
9 . Visit Iceland — A Space-like Odyssey (奇幻历险)
With all of its unique experiences, a trip to Iceland will take your breath away. Iceland is truly an outdoor enthusiast’s paradise. If you are planning to visit Iceland, choose one from the handpicked tour operators.
ELDHESTAR-Volcano horse-riding
At Eldhestar we develop activities to combine pleasure, comfort and adventure in a way of respecting nature. We offer various riding tours all year round. For experienced riders, the adventure of 6-7 days on horseback in the Icelandic highlands is highly recommended.
CONTACT: 480-4800; info@eldhestar.com; www.eldhestar.is
ADVENTURE VIKINGS
Just join our great selection of scheduled day tours available all year round! We provide diverse adventures from easy hiking to extreme sports and we can even plan a customized adventure for you. We are also the first to offer surfing school for beginners in Iceland.
CONTACT: 571-2900; info@adventurevikings.com; www.adventurevikings.is
EXTREME ICELANDIC ADVENTURES
We are a tour operator, with a focus on tours and adventures in the north of Iceland. If you want to explore Iceland by hiking, snowmobiling, driving super jeeps or parachuting (跳伞), send us an email and we fix what you need.
INTO THE GLACIER
Join Into the Glacier for an adventure that will lead you to the untouched beauty and raw nature of Langjokull, Iceland’s second largest glacier It’s an opportunity of a lifetime as we journey up the white slopes and go deep inside the man-made ice tunnels.
CONTACT: 578-2550; info@intotheglacier.com; www.intotheglacier.is
There is always an adventure waiting to happen in Iceland. Click here and look for more things to do in Iceland!
1. Which number would you dial if you want to try water sports in Iceland?| A．862-7988. | B．578-2550. | C．571-2900. | D．480-4800. |
| A．They best suit outdoor lovers. | B．They are located in northern Iceland. |
| C．They provide services all year round. | D．They offer extreme sports experiences. |
| A．A travel journal. | B．An academic article. |
| C．A travel website. | D．A geography magazine. |
10 . Health and fitness help a person live a good and healthy life. Often due to various pressures, we tend to ignore our health. This makes our body suffer and we will catch other diseases. It is the fitness level of our body that helps us fight these diseases.
Health and fitness are interrelated to each other. We need to be fit to have a healthy body.
Similarly, if we are healthy we shall naturally be attracted towards maintaining the fitness of our body. Health is the state of our body at a given time. We may not have any disease but still have a weak body, which is ready to be targeted by viruses. For instance, we may have a tendency to catch a cold easily. This does not definitely mean that we are not healthy. It means the fitness level is not in accordance with our age and the climatic conditions we live in.
It is important for everyone to devote some time to health and fitness. There are some activities which everyone should do in our life. For instance, we must exercise daily regardless of our age and working style. There are different levels of exercises for different age groups and we must do them according to our own health and age.
Additionally, it is important to relax our body. We should have at least six to eight hours of sleep every day. It helps in improving our immune(免疫) system and protects us against diseases. It also helps in keeping us calm and relaxes our mind. This, in turn, gives us new goals of health and fitness.
1. According to the passage, what will be the result of ignoring our health?| A．Our body will fight disease more easily. |
| B．Viruses will attack our body easily |
| C．We will be under great pressure |
| D．Our immune system will work for us. |
| A．in control of.. | B．at the sight of | C．in agreement with | D．in favour of |
| A．Health and fitness are related to our age and working style. |
| B．It is important to keep the fitness of our body. |
| C．Health are closely connected with fitness. |
| D．Health and fitness help people live a good life. |
| A．New goals of health and fitness |
| B．Ways to fight discase |
| C．Work out on a daily basis |
| D．Health and fitness |
