1 . When it comes to higher education in the United States, one of the biggest issues of discussion and concern in recent years has been the cost. Data from the U.S. Department of Education suggests the average cost of college doubled between 1989 and 2016.

James Kvaal is the director of The Institute for College Access and Success. He told VOA that one of the main reasons for the cost increase is reduced government support for colleges and universities. This, in turn, has led schools to raise their prices.

Earlier this year, the Center for the Study of Education Policy at Illinois State University published a report on state spending on higher education. The report found a 5% overall increase in proposed spending throughout the country. But Kvaal argues this is still nowhere near the level it was 30 years ago or where it needs to be now. He notes that a lot of students still depend on loans to help pay for their education. To date, about 10% of student borrowers are in default. In other words, they are failing to make the necessary payments toward their debts.

Last November, Georgetown University published a study on return on investment in American higher education. Students who attended private colleges and universities made an average of about $73,000 more over 40 years than those who attended public schools. Although the immediate costs to attend a private U.S. university might be higher, the increased cost might be worth it, notes Professor Martin, associate director of the Georgetown Center.

One reason these schools have a better return on investment is their reputation. The selectiveness that makes these schools so well-known and well respected, however, creates its own form of inequality. These colleges pay off well if you can afford to go there and if you can get in. But the fact is, the vast majority of people can't do either:   They can't afford it.

1. Why did the American universities increase their fees?

A．They followed the rules of the market.

B．They required more pay for teachers.

C．They improved their quality of higher education.

D．They received less support from the government.

2. What is the possible result of the higher cost of education?

A．More uneducated people.	B．More unpaid debts of students.
C．A larger gap between universities.	D．An effect on the government's reputation.

3. What is Professor Martin’s attitude toward the higher costs of private colleges?

A．Positive.

B．Objective.

C．Negative.

D．Uncaring.

4. Where does this text probably come from?

A．A speech.	B．A guidebook.
C．A business magazine.	D．An education report.

2 . Like the rest of us, scientists have long suspected the healing capacity (修复能力) of a good hug. Unlike the rest of us, they’ve gone about trying to prove it.

“Laboratory studies suggest that things like hugs help us feel safer. They can also make us less sensitive to physical pain and less reactive when we’re faced with threatening experiences,” says Michael Murphy. He is a research professor in the department of psychological sciences at Texas Tech University. “This lab work has shown that hugs and other touch behavior are related to stress. The more stress we have, the more our heart rates and blood pressure go up. At this time, hugs and other forms of personal touch may give off all sorts of feel-good chemicals, so that stress can be reduced.”

“There’s a lot that we still need to learn, and there’s a lot we don’t know,” Murphy says. “However, what seems to be rising up is that hugs, as well as other forms of loving and gentle touch, are really powerful. They remind people that they’ re cared about and that they have someone in their corner.”

We expect touch. When we were born, we were placed in our mothers’ arms almost immediately. In that first year of our life, we spend a lot of time being held by other people. And as we grow up, we seek out hugs and touch as a way of connection. I think what we have lost in the past few years are these really easy opportunities to be reminded of connection.”

While he was at Carnegie Mellon, Murphy was the lead author of a hug-centered 2018 article in the scientific journal PLOS One. In a series of interviews with 404 adults over a two-week period, the researchers found that receiving a hug is associated with the attenuation of negative emotions that occur on days with interpersonal conflicts. That is to say, generally, hugs help to reduce the negative impacts that personal conflicts may cause in our daily lives.

1. What can we infer about hugs from the laboratory studies?

A．They show people’s good social relationships.

B．They can cure us of our mental disease.

C．They can put much pressure on people.

D．They make us feel calm and at ease.

2. Why do people seek out hugs and touch as they grow up?

A．To recall childhood memories.

B．To keep connected with others.

C．To solve relationship problems.

D．To express their social politeness.

3. What does the underlined word “attenuation” in the last paragraph probably mean?

A．Expression.	B．Influence.
C．Suffering.	D．Reduction.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．The Power of Hugs

B．How to Reduce Stress

C．How to Care for Others

D．The Importance of Interpersonal Relations

4 . Today’s journalists face modern challenges. Online media platforms are springing up. And the lowly newspaper---and its reporters---are fighting money, tech, and distrust issues. Journalism students and teachers must emphasize new skills to keep their profession alive.

A trustworthy press helps inform people and monitor all levels of government. That is essential to a nation. Yet this useful establishment is growing increasingly unpopular. According to the University of North Carolina (UNC), newsroom jobs across the Country are fewer than half what they were 10 years ago. And on many college campuses, the news about the news is bleak too.

Take the Syracuse, New York, student-run newspaper The Daily Orange: It isn’t daily anymore. The paper prints just three times each week. Next year, The Diamondback of the University of Maryland will be online only. Half the newspapers that still exist on paper say they don’t print as many copies. And UNC’s The Daily Tar Heel has cut staff pay and rented cheaper offices to make its budget.

Considering the problems in journalism, it’s surprising that the enrollment(注册人数) in college journalism programs is up. The Daily Orange managing editor Catherine Leffert calls the layoffs and cutbacks disheartening. “But what keeps me wanting to be a journalist is seeing the effect that The Daily Orange has,” he says.

But journalism educators wonder, “Are we preparing young people for a dying industry?” Years ago, journalism graduates took low-level reporter jobs at newspapers or television stations. That still happens. But today’s jobs more often involve digital editing, social media production, and video streaming. Some universities are taking action. The University of Florida offers a sports media program. Several schools highlight statistics-driven data journalism.

The news isn’t all bad. Journalism professor Kathleen Culver says, “When I look at 18-and 20-year-olds in journalism and see what they want to do, I’m optimistic.” Maddy Arrowood is the student editor of The Daily Tar Heel. She says her experience makes her more interested in a journalism career, not less. Her optimism “comes from knowing that people still need news. They still need information.”

1. What does the underlined word “bleak” in paragraph 2 mean?

A．Hopeless	B．Interesting
C．Useless	D．Encouraging

2. How do some universities respond to today’s journalism?

A．They reduce student enrollment.

B．They offer students specialized programs.

C．They prepare students for low-level reporter jobs.

D．They encourage students to run their own newspaper.

3. Why is Maddy Arrowood mentioned in the last paragraph?

A．To show people’s positive attitudes to journalists.

B．To prove the potential of a career in journalism.

C．To show the popularity of The Daily Tar Heel.

D．To prove people’s thirst for the latest news.

4. What might be the best title for the text?

A．What is journalism?

B．What does a journalist do?

C．Does journalism have a future?

D．Are journalists still influential today?

5 . On the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), red tourism has gained popularity among tourists who flood in to visit historic sites with a modern revolutionary heritage.

Jinggangshan

This is one of the most crucial and splendid chapters of history of establishing Red China as well as a unique and wonderful ecosystem, which is covered with rich forest, rugged peaks and several memorials to the Red Army. The best time to visit is between April and October, with the most temperature timing April and May when the large azaleas (杜鹃花) bloom.

Open: 8:00-17:00 (Feb. 16-Nov. 15). 8:00-16:30 (Nov. 16-Feb. 15)

Xibaipo

It is an old revolutionary base where the leadership of the Communist Party of China was stationed, drawing up the blueprint for a new country. A memorial hall was built to honor the memory of this site. The lake and the hill here add brilliance and beauty to each other and form pleasant scenery.

Open: Tuesdays to Sundays 9:30-17:00 (Xibaipo Memorial Hall)

The Nanhu Revolutionary Memorial Hall

A new exhibition is held with updated display approaches, including phantom imaging (全息影像) and oil painting, which are used to improve visitors' experiences. The exhibition shows four stages of the CPC from its establishment to its achievements.

Open: Tuesdays to Sundays 8:30-18:00 (closed on Mondays)

Former Site of the Editorial Department of New Youth

New Youth started the New Culture Movement and spread the influence of the May Fourth Movement. The site was briefly based in Beijing but moved back to Shanghai in 1920 and also served as the office for the Communist Party of China Central Committee in the 1920s.

Open: Thursdays to Tuesdays 9:00 - 11:30, 13:30 - 16:30 (closed on Wednesdays)

1. Where would visitors learn more about the history of the Red Army?

A．Jinggangshan.

B．Xibaipo.

C．The Nanhu Revolutionary Memorial Hall.

D．Former Site of the Editorial Department of New Youth.

2. What do we know about the Nanhu Revolutionary Memorial Hall?

A．It focuses on Chinese achievements in art.

B．It mainly advertises the coming anniversary.

C．It applies modernized methods to the exhibition.

D．It briefly introduces the rise and fall of Nanhu.

3. When can tourists visit Former Site of the Editorial Department of New Youth?

A．At 1:00 p.m. on Mondays.	B．At 9:00 a.m. on Wednesdays.
C．At 2:00 p.m. on Fridays.	D．At 5:00 p.m on Sundays.

6 . Last Tuesday, a robotic ship called the Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) took off from Plymouth, England. Its mission (使命) was to recreate the 1620 crossing of the Atlantic by the Mayflower, which brought the first European settlers to the USA. But unlike the original Mayflower, there are no people on the MAS. Everything about the ship is designed to run automatically. The ship is guided by an artificial intelligence (AI) system called "AI Captain".

The MAS is a project run by a group called ProMare along with the computer company, IBM. The ship's electric motor is powered by solar energy. The goal of the project is to test different kinds of technologies for collecting information about the sea. If these can be handled by machines, it could be a big advance in ocean research.

Because the MAS didn't have to carry humans, its designers were free to think about how to make the best ship for the job. In addition to cameras and radar to help the ship guide itself, the ship is carrying many different kinds of tools and sensors. It has special listening devices which can detect whales and dolphins. It even has a special "tongue" which can report back on the chemicals in the water.

Last Friday morning, scientists tracking the ship noticed that it was going about half as fast as it should have been going. The AI Captain was working well, but there seemed to be something slowing the motor down. Since the ship had only covered 10% of the way across the Atlantic, the team decided to bring it back to Plymouth so they could fix the problem and send it out again. They sent the MAS instructions to turn back.

When the MAS finally does put out to sea again, it is expected to take about three weeks to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The fastest speed for the MAS is about 10 mph (16 kph). That may seem slow, but it's about 5 times faster than the original Mayflower, which took 66 days to make the journey.

1. What is the main mission of the MAS project?

A．Take more Europeans across the Atlantic.

B．Explore the ocean with high technologies.

C．Develop new artificial intelligence system.

D．Test the new robotic ship of IBM on the sea.

2. What happened to the MAS on the sea?

A．There was something wrong with the AI Captain.

B．The scientists failed to guide the ship completely.

C．The ship couldn't reach its destination as planned.

D．The robotic ship's electric motor didn't work well.

3. What can we know from the last paragraph?

A．The robotic ship will set sail again soon.

B．The journey will be difficult and dangerous.

C．The entire journey will be about 2, 100 miles.

D．The MAS will travel farther than the original one.

4. What's the best title for the text?

A．A Robotic Ship Guided by the AI Captain System.

B．Self-Driving Mayflower Ship Forced to Turn Back.

C．The Fastest Robotic Ship Sailing Across the Atlantic.

D．Another Mayflower Recreating the Cross-Atlantic Trip.

7 . Pret A Manger looks like any traditional London sandwich shop. It features freshly prepared sandwiches, salads and coffee. But it is not your usual restaurant; it is a food shop with a mission. The company has been giving unsold food daily to the homeless since the first shop opened in 1986. It started small with just a handful of sandwiches but has grown to over three million meals across the UK every year.

Pret A Manger also has a Rising Star Program. For those with a bad record or without a home address, it's tough to find a good job and have a fresh start. Since 2008, the program has opened the door to over 500 people, offering jobs in local Pret shops. The program takes on 40 rising stars every year and so far has helped 462 people and has an 80 percent success rate since it began.

This project is managed by The Pret Foundation, an international charity that was founded to help the homeless and is funded by private donations and the sale of the shop's products. "When we set up The Pret Foundation, we want to break the cycle of homelessness so that the homeless can live on their own and no longer lead a poor life. To do that, we believe that people need three things: food, work and a place to live, " said CEO Clive Schlee.

Now Pret is doing even more for the homeless. It has partnered the West London Mission to open a new home for the homeless. The home can hold up to 13 people at a time who will live there for 6-12 months before moving into a privately rented home. The program provides more than just a place to live, and the participants will also get expert advice to help them know how to live off the streets. Each of them will be offered guidance on necessary skills like opening a bank account, reading and writing, and computer skills.

1. What is special about Pret A Manger?

A．It has a pretty long history.

B．It offers free food regularly.

C．It provides free and quality customer service.

D．It presents customers with various healthy food choices.

2. What does the Rising Star Program focus on?

A．Raising money for the needy.

B．Helping small businesses grow big.

C．Giving away wasted food to the poor.

D．Providing work chances for people in difficulty.

3. Why was The Pret Foundation set up?

A．To open more coffee shops worldwide.

B．To advertise Pret A Manger's products.

C．To improve the living conditions of the homeless.

D．To make more young people join in volunteer work.

4. What is the extra benefit for the people living in the Pret home?

A．They are to learn some life skills.

B．They can live there as long as possible.

C．They will get their own houses for free.

D．They will gain knowledge of building houses.

8 . Travelling with some of your favourite people is an exciting experience. If done well, group travelling can be the most thrilling experience ever, filled with games, laughter, and unforgettable memories.     1     Read on for some of the things you need to note and do for an enjoyable experience.

    2    

Ideas are usually exciting when they are fresh. The longer you delay, the more you’ll find excuses not to go. Let all interested parties meet as soon as possible to decide on dates, locations and budget. It’s best to plan the trip three or four months in advance.

Assign roles

For the trip to be successful, it has to be well organized. You’re going on a trip far from home, not the shopping mall. This is why the group should assign a leader who would be responsible for planning and organizing the trip.     3     Break them down further. For example, choose someone to handle booking a hotel and another person to take care of the meal.

Budget pool

    4     You can do a weekly or monthly payment plan before your trip. Once you decide how much would fund the trip, members can start contributing the money weekly or monthly. The leader would then use the money to pay for accommodations, meals, transportation and more while you’re on vacation. If there’s money left in the end, split it up or go wild one last night.

Create a flexible itinerary（行程）

An easy way to create and share an itinerary is through Google Docs. Add the group members to the document and give them permission to edit it. Suggest one or two optional activities per day which do not require advance bookings, such as a local hike or museum.     5    

A．Start early.

B．Get fresh ideas.

C．So how do you plan for your group trip?

D．Collect a set amount from everyone before your trip.

E．Don’t forget to create room for something unexpected.

F．Also, divide the other responsibilities as they arise so that everyone participates.

G．The group leader generally keeps in contact with everyone, handling most of the detailed work.

9 . Since its discovery by astronomers in 2015, the exoplanet K2-18b has caused much excitement. About 110 light years away from Earth, the distant world sits not close enough to its host star to be too hot and not far enough away to be too cold, so that liquid water could flow across its surface. That is a significant condition for life.

Now astronomers have fueled the assumption. Follow-up images taken by Hubble suggest K2-18b has an atmosphere containing large amounts of water vapor (蒸汽)- the first one to have this confirmed. Most exoplanets previously found with atmospheres have been gas giants. K2-18b instead looks like it could be a rocky planet twice as big as Earth, perhaps with vast ice-covered seas,

To discover atmospheric water, Angelos Tsiaras, an astronomer at University College London, and his colleagues looked at how light passed through the atmosphere of K2-18b between 2015 and 2017. This technique is a common way to analyze the atmospheric composition of exoplanets, but it is difficult for the cold rocky worlds that could hold the conditions for life.

Writing this week in Nature Astronomy, Dr Tsiaras describes how his team wrote software that could analyze the data collected by Hubble to try to do the same job, to some degree. They were not able to figure out the exact form and amounts of the water they found. Instead they used computer models to simulate (模拟) the most likely situations, and concluded that as much as half of the atmosphere of K2- 18b could be water vapor.

With Dr Tsiaras's analyais, K2-18b is now the best candidate for a life-supporting exoplanet out there. The temperature on the surface could be about the same as Earth and there could be similar clouds hanging in the sky. However, the plane's closeness to the star could produce intense space weather. And it would be advisable to pack sun cream: the ultraviolet radiation(紫外线) would be out of range.

1. Why has he exoplanet K2 18b bough about great interest?

A．It seems to have a proper climate like its host star

B．It's about 110 light years away from Earth.

C．It may be our future place of residence.

D．It's a planet covered with liquid water.

2. What do the images taken by Hubble imply?

A．The discovery of gas giants.

B．The size of the exoplanet K2-18b.

C．The existence of atmospheric water.

D．The presence of vast ice-covered seas.

3. What does the underlined word“the same job" in Para. 4 refer to?

A．Making use of computer models.

B．Simulating the most likely situations.

C．Analyzing the data collected by Hubble.

D．Figuring out the atmosphere composition.

4. What might be the problem of K2- 18b according to the last paragraph?

A．Strong ultraviolet radiation.

B．Few atmospheric clouds.

C．Low surface temperature.

D．Unchangeable space weather.

5. What can be the suitable title for the text?

A．A Rocky Planet: Twice as Big as Earth

B．K2-18b: an Exoplanet with Water Vapor

C．Liquid Water: Most Important Condition for Life

D．Hubble: Latest Technology for Space Exploration