1 . I spend 99 percent of my time writing about others. However, so many people have encouraged me to turn the tables and write about my own running journey, that I’ve decided to try “first person” for once.
Sunday, November 11, 2018 will forever be a treasured memory. It was a near-perfect first-time marathon experience. The weather was perfect and the sun was shining, but more than that, I truly felt the love of family and friends the whole day.
For more than a year, my goal was to run my first marathon before the age of 50. But my long term goal is to stay healthy enough to continue running the rest of my life. I had all but given up on the possibility of ever running again, after cracking(断裂) my kneecap at the age of 16. I tried to get back into running in my 20’s and 30’s, and finally five years ago at the age of 44 thanks to yoga, ballet & Pilates cross training, I was strong enough! I can’t imagine “not running” ever again, now that I’ve rediscovered it. Running inspires and challenges me, and in return, I hope my story inspires others. It’s never “too late” to do anything you set your mind to do.
Some of the runs I cherish the most take place with my daughters, when they are home from college or work, or when I can join them for a run where they live. How many teenage “kids” actually WANT to be seen in public with their mom, let alone be seen running with her? We have done lots of 5Ks together and they are some of my favorite races. Every run over the past year formed a building block for the marathon, and my journey has introduced me to many special people, including my beloved ones.
1. How does the writer describe her first Marathon?| A．A pitiful moment. | B．A valuable experience. |
| C．An amazing legend. | D．A great honor and success. |
| A．To share her precious memory. |
| B．To touch the readers with a sad story. |
| C．To tell the readers she was not expert at running. |
| D．To show that it takes determination to reach a goal. |
| A．Marathon is a race made up of daily runs. |
| B．The author gets on well with her daughters. |
| C．Many special people guide the author on her running journeys. |
| D．The author has done lots of 5Ks together with different teenager kids. |
2 . Most people began to count in tens because they had ten fingers on their hands. But, in some countries, people counted on one hand and used the three parts of each of their four fingers. So they counted in twelves, not in tens.
Perhaps because of this system (系统、体系), the Egyptians (埃及人) divided (划分) the day into twelve hours, and later scientist divided the circle into twelve parts of 30°.
People also used the number twelve with money. The Romans(罗马人) divided their money into twelve parts. The old British money was the same; there were twelve pence(便士)in a shilling (先令; used until 1971 ). But strangely there were twenty shillings in a pound(镑).
Today many people in Europe(欧洲) still count eggs in twelve. They buy "a dozen (or twelve eggs in a shop, or they buy "half-a-dozen" (or six)eggs. They do not buy eggs in ten or five.
1. The Egyptians had ________.| A．twenty-four hours in a day |
| B．thirty hours in a day |
| C．twelve hours in a day |
| A．six pens | B．five pens | C．ten pens |
| A．a shilling was twelve pence |
| B．there were twelve shillings in a pound |
| C．a shilling was twenty pounds |
| A．there are pounds, shillings and pence |
| B．there are pounds and shillings |
| C．there are pounds and pence |
| A．Most people once counted in twelves; some counted in tens. |
| B．Most people once counted in tens; some counted in twelves. |
| C．Once nobody counted in tens; everybody counted in twelves. |
3 . Many things about us, such as our accent (口音), behavior and personality, can show others where we are from, but did you know the same idea applies to facial (面部的) movements and your body?
While it's true we all smile when we're happy and nod our head when we agree with others, many studies have shown that small differences can correctly show your ethnicity (种族渊源) and background.
One such study came from researchers Hillary Elfenbein and Abigail A. Marsh. They showed a, group of Americans two collections of photos of Japanese and Japanese Americans. It was only when these photos showed facial expressions that the study group correctly guess their ethnicity.
Besides facial expressions, did you know your body also shows your culture through movements? According to the Atlantic, the Americans always walk with larger strides (大步) and a noticeable arm movement compared to most Europeans. Unlike them, Japanese people walk with more shoulder and less arm movement. Often, your walking style comes from your parents, and recently Chinese technology company Watrix said their technology can identify (识别) people just from their walking.
One famous example is Russian President Vladimir Putin. As a former KGB agent (间谍) for 15 years, he was trained to keep his "gun arm" close to his weapon. Even today, as president, when he walks, he still hardly moves his right arm while keeping his left arm swinging naturally.
Another common tell is how one counts numbers on their fingers. In the UK, three would be shown with the middle three fingers, whereas the thumb, index (食指), and middle finger would be used in Germany. Furthermore, in Japan, five would be shown with a closed fist.
All of these go to show that we can communicate as much with our bodies and faces as we do with our voices.
1. What did the study by Hillary Elfenbein and Abigail A. Marsh find?| A．Our accent, behavior and personality can show our ethnicity. |
| B．Smiling or nodding your head has the same meaning around the world. |
| C．Facial expressions can show where people are from. |
| D．East Asians have fewer facial expressions than Westerners. |
| A．Body movements can show your background. |
| B．Walking styles can show your personality. |
| C．Your career determines your walking style. |
| D．It is impossible to change your walking style. |
| A．To ask readers to respect cultural differences. |
| B．To tell readers that body language shows a lot about you. |
| C．To explain how walking styles are different across the world. |
| D．To tell readers how to use body language to communicate. |
4 . Alexis, 17, sat quietly in the passenger seat of her dad's car. She let her eyes lazily scan, the field for wildlife. Then a deer came into sight about 200 yards in front of them. "Dad, there's a deer there!" Alexis said. It was a male deer with sharp antlers(角)on each side of its head.
As the car moved closer, Alexis saw that the deer's head was bent toward the ground. Then she heard a scream and saw an arm fly up near the deer's head. Alexis realized the deer was attacking a woman. Sue, a 44-year-old mother, had been out for her morning run. The deer followed her and edged closer. "I knew I was in trouble," Sue says. She went to pick up a stone for self-protection, and the deer attacked. It lifted her with its antlers and threw her into the air. Sue could feel blood flew down her leg. Within seconds, the deer had pushed her off the road.
When Alexis and her father pulled up, the deer was throwing Sue like a doll. Alexis looked into the woman's frightened eyes, and before her father had even stopped the car, the teenager jumped quickly out of the car and ran toward the deer. "I was kicking it to get its attention," she says. Then her father, who had followed his daughter, pushed the deer away from the women.
Alexis helped Sue into the car, and then applied a piece of cloth to Sue's injured leg. "We're going to take you to a hospital," Alexis said. Then she heard her father shout loudly. He had been knocked to the ground. Alexis took hold of a hammer from the car and ran to where her father lay on his back. She beat the deer's head and neck, but it didn't scare it away. "I was losing faith," she says. "More strikes, Alexis," said her father. "You can do it." Turning the hammer around. Alexis closed her eyes and beat the deer's neck with all her strength. When she opened her eyes, the deer was running away. Alexis got in the driver's seat and sped toward the nearest hospital.
After Sue was treated, she tearfully thanked the teenager and her father. "You expect a teenage girl to get on the phone and call for help," she says, "not to beat up a deer."
1. What was Sue doing when she was attacked by the deer?| A．She was driving home. | B．She was resting on the road. |
| C．She was taking exercise. | D．She was feeding wild animals. |
| A．changed | B．cut | C．attacked | D．moved |
| A．She pushed the deer away. | B．She hit the deer with her feet. |
| C．She drove the car to hit the deer. | D．She beat the deer with a hammer. |
| A．Strong. | B．Well-educated. |
| C．Energetic. | D．Brave. |
5 . A conference was held with former technology industry leaders calling for immediate measures to protect children from smartphone addiction.
Among those major changes is Tristan Harris—a former high-level employee at Google. He just organized a group that will seek to gather and publish evidence of how digital devices and social media can harm children and young people. Harris says he believes companies like Google, Facebook and Apple have a “moral responsibility” not to create technology products that can “hijack how the mind works”.
The conference where Harris spoke was supported by Common Sense Media, a child and family activist group. The organization says research suggests that half of all teenagers feel addicted to their mobile devices, while about 60 percent of parents believe their kids are addicted.
The group also mentions a recent study of eighth-graders that found heavy users of technology were 56 percent more likely to say they are unhappy, while 27 percent more likely to be depressed. Even Facebook spoke of research last year suggesting that social media use can harm mental health when used in certain ways.
James Steyer is the founder of Common Sense. He says more than half of schools in the US are already members of the organization. The group provides teachers and parents with learning materials intended to help students develop critical thinking skills and balance their digital lives.
Some US schools, however, have tried to limit or remove technology to improve learning. One of them is in Silicon Valley, the center of the American tech industry.
The Waldorf School of the Peninsula does not use any computers or digital technology in its education programs up to the seventh grade. The school’s website says while Waldorf teachers recognize the role technology can play in the classroom, it must wait until the student reaches the right developmental age. Normally when students reach high school, they are allowed to use computers and digital tools in the classroom.
1. What is Facebook, Google and Apple’s “moral responsibility” according to Tristan Harris?| A．Preventing children from chatting on social media. |
| B．Stopping making products that do harm to young people. |
| C．Providing parents with materials to help their children. |
| D．Finding a way to get children away from addiction. |
| A．Waldorf School bans technology from its education programs. |
| B．Waldorf School doesn’t believe that computers can improve learning. |
| C．Waldorf School pays much attention to improving learning. |
| D．Waldorf School limits the use of digital tools in its classrooms. |
| A．Computer Companies Should Live up to Their Moral Responsibility. |
| B．Digital Addiction Does Harm to Children’s Mental Health. |
| C．Waldorf School Doesn’t Use Digital Tools in its Education Program. |
| D．A Conference Calls for Actions to Protect Children from Digital Addiction. |
6 . A few days ago, I was sitting in a Thai restaurant enjoying a meal when I got on a phone call from a friend I hadn’t spoken to in a long time. In my enthusiasm and excitement, I talked quite louder than usual voice and in Spanish, my mother tongue.
A few minutes into the call, an old lady sitting at the table beside mine got up, seemingly annoyed, and asked the restaurant staff to relocate a table as far away as possible from this man who seemed to be impolite.
I sank in my seat out of embarrassment. I ended the call soon afterwards and wanted to apologize. Before getting up, I looked around to see where she was and she was at the table farthest away from me. I noticed that the lady was alone and staring out the window. I found a tinge of sadness or anxiety and perhaps a desire for aloneness and peace. But I had clearly destroyed it minutes earlier.
Right then I gave up my plan for a traditional apologetic gesture. Seeing those funny smile cards in my wallet, I took one out and wrote some words to express my apology. On signing my restaurant bill, I asked a waiter to secretly charge the lady’s meal to me and hand her the smile card instead of her bill.
Did she take it the wrong way, I wondered? Did she get confused? Did she refuse the anonymous offer? And so on. I just waited and felt nervous to learn the result. To my pleasant surprise，things turned out the best possible way.
The waiter approached me in a joy, telling me, “In the many times she had dined here before, I had never seen the old lady smile as she did when receiving the smile card and the $0 bill. She thanked me even though I explained that someone else did the job.”
1. The old lady changed her seat mainly because of _____________.| A．her private phone call | B．the author’s loud voice |
| C．the views out of the window | D．the restaurant staffs mistake |
| A．Apologize to the lady. | B．Pay for the lady’s meal. |
| C．Conduct an experiment. | D．Give the lady a smile card. |
| A．A Misunderstanding Caused by Different Culture | B．An Unpleasant Experience in Thailand |
| C．A Smile Card for a Sincere Apology | D．An Old Lady Who Never Smiles |
7 . Leaving everything behind to go after true happiness takes courage, and Sophie Matterson has enough to go around. The 3l-year-old enjoyed a good life in Brisbane, Australia, with a job in the TV and film industry, but it didn’t make her heart sing. That’s why she decided to try a different path. Now she’s trekking (跋涉) across the continent with five camels (骆驼) — and is the happiest she’s ever been!
In 2016, Sophie changed jobs and ended up somewhere she never expected: milking camels on a farm in Queensland.
“What I wasn’t anticipating was how much I would end up falling in love with these animals,” she wrote. “What was only going to be a six-month break from my ‘real job’ turned into five years of running after camels around Australia and other parts of the world.”
After taking tourists on camel treks for a while, Sophie decided to have an adventure of her own. She planned out a 5,000-kilometer trip from Shark Bay to Byron Bay before catching and training five wild camels in January 2019. Then she was finally ready to explore her country with Mac, Delilah, Clayton, Jude, and Charlie!
As one might imagine, the trip can be lonely at times, but Sophie’s camels make surprisingly good companions.
“It’s quite lovely and relaxing camping with camels,” she said. Best of all, she can see great views!
Sophie hopes to arrive in Byron Bay in the next nine months. In the meantime, she’ll be enjoying every second with her camel friends.
1. Why did Sophie give up her job in the TV and film industry?| A．It was of no interest to her. |
| B．It took much courage to carry on. |
| C．She needed to move to another country fora new job. |
| D．She was unwilling to leave everything behind to go for it. |
| A．believing. | B．discovering. | C．trying. | D．expecting. |
| A．From a farm. | B．From some friends. |
| C．From the wild. | D．From some tourists. |
| A．thoughtful. | B．Adventurous. | C．responsible. | D．confident. |
8 . When Clara Harlowe Barton was 11 years old, her older brother was seriously injured in a fall. Barton spent two years nursing him back to health until he fully got well. Although she had this early nursing experience, Barton would not work as a nurse until later in life.
At the age of seventeen, Barton worked as a teacher in Massachusetts. Twelve years later, she opened the first free public school in New Jersey. The school grew from only six students on the first day of classes to more than 200 students by the end of the school year. When the school opened in the fall of 1853, Barton was surprised to learn that a man had been hired as the school’s head teacher, being paid twice her salary to run the school that she had set up and made successful. Outraged at this news, she quit her teaching position. “I may sometimes be willing to teach for nothing, but if paid at all, I shall never do a man’s work for less than a man’s pay,” she said.
In 1861, the Civil War began; Barton began collecting supplies and got passes from the government to send her supplies and services to the front line and field hospitals. And then she became known as the “Angel of the Battlefield”.
In 1869, Barton took a trip to Switzerland where she learned about the International Red Cross. Later, Barton set up the American Red Cross. Under Barton’s leadership, the American Red Cross helped thousands of people in need.
During her lifetime, Barton gave her life and effort to the service and the care of others as a teacher, a Civil War nurse, and founder of the American Red Cross.
1. What does the underlined word “Outraged” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．Sad. | B．Moved. | C．Angry. | D．Frightened. |
| A．She set up a field hospital. | B．She provided supplies for soldiers. |
| C．She did a man’s work in the front line. | D．She helped thousands of people in need. |
| A．Her brother’s serious injury. | B．Her dream to become a nurse. |
| C．Her experience in Switzerland. | D．The soldiers’ encouraging praise. |
| A．Barton’s life of service to people in need. | B．Barton’s rich experiences at different ages. |
| C．Why Barton set up the American Red Cross. | D．How Barton opened the first free public school. |
9 . On the evening of April 8, Dunhuang Academy and Huawei jointly launched (发布) a brand-new technology-driven tour experience at the Mogao Grottoes (洞穴). Using Huawei's newly-released Hetu artificial intelligence platform, coupled with the output of the Digital Dunhuang project, visitors to the Mogao Grottoes can enjoy a fantasy experience before entering the attraction.
Zhao Shengliang, director of the Dunhuang Academy, said that it has been cooperating with Huawei since March 2019. Using Huawei's latest Hetu technology, visitors are able to see the detailed contents of the Dunhuang Art Murals (壁画) outside the caves, through their Huawei mobile phones. This will reduce the time tourists spend inside the cave, aiding the protection of the cultural relics, while at the same time helping to increase the amount of information visitors can get. It is also considered to be a new way of promoting Dunhuang Art.
The Dunhuang Academy has used digital technology to preserve the research and exploration of Dunhuang Grottoes since the early 1990s. It has collected a wealth of data and has realized the goal of sharing of digital Dunhuang globally. It has played an important role in the protection and research of cultural site, as well as promoting the development and progress of related work.
The Huawei Hetu platform has not only re-created the real tour of the scenic spot, but also developed a new way of digitally experiencing the grottoes. When people visit the site, they not only have the experience of seeing the real grottoes, but they can appreciate the admirable artworks more clearly and in greater detail.
In the future, Dunhuang Academy will continue to cooperate with Huawei to create more colorful virtual(虚拟的) content to enrich the experience of Mogao Art on the platform, helping people around the world get to know Dunhuang Art better.
1. Which is NOT the advantage of the Hetu technology?| A．Decrease the cost of the visitors. |
| B．Reduce the time visitors spend inside the cave. |
| C．Help to protect the cultural relics. |
| D．Provide more information for tourists. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Subjective. |
| C．Hopeful. | D．Concerned. |
| A．Huawei Newly Released Hetu AI |
| B．Dunhuang Grottoes Attract Tourists |
| C．AI Tech Helps Tourists Enjoy Dunhuang’s Art |
| D．Dunhuang Academy Preserves Grottoes Well |
10 . I often hear some of you saying, "I don't care what other people think! I do whatever I want!" There is a strong wish for independence in adolescence (青春期)and you say you only care about your own opinion. But be honest - don't you care about what certain people think? Most teenagers have a circle of people who can influence them.They care very much about what this circle of people think, especially about them.
Most teenagers want to be independent, but they don't want to be alone. They don't want to stand out, away from the crowd. They want to have connection to other people, especially other teenagers.
During adolescence, friendships with other teens become very important. They care about what other teenagers think because they want to be accepted and they are afraid of what other people think. Fear makes them care.
Some teenagers are leaders and some are followers. You might think that teenage leaders don't care what other people think, but that is not true. After all, a leader really isn't a leader unless other people follow. If leaders don't care about what followers think, those followers may leave and follow someone else. Followers care about what the leader thinks because they want to be part of the group.
There is a famous playwright named William Shakespeare. In one of his plays, Hamlet, the character Hamlet said, "To thine own self be true." In other words, whatever you do, always be true to yourself. Sure, teenagers can care about what other people think of them, but the most important thing is what they think of themselves. This is one of the most important tasks that teenagers should have.
1. What do we know about teenagers from the text?| A．They value friendship. | B．They have difficulty making friends. |
| C．They are deaf to others' advice. | D．They keep themselves away from others. |
| A．Teenagers prefer to be leaders. |
| B．Teenage leaders must listen to followers. |
| C．Teenage followers should read leaders' mind. |
| D．Teenage leaders and followers should care about each other. |
| A．Think of others around you. | B．Do what you think is right. |
| C．Make friends whenever possible. | D．Go easy on yourself and others. |
