1 . Most teenagers are still trying to find their passion and purposes in life. However, not Gitanjali Rao. The 15-year-old girl has been coming up with innovative solutions to worldwide problems since she was ten. It is, therefore, not surprising that the teenager has won the honor of “America's Top Young Scientist”.

In the third grade, Rao was inspired to build a device after witnessing the shocking story unfold in Flint, Michigan, where cost-cutting measures led to the use of a polluted river as the city's primary water supply and incredibly high levels of lead made their way into people's drinking water.

After two months' research, Rao designed a small and portable device that used sensors to instantly detect lead in water. Called Tethys, after the Greek Goddess(女神) of freshwater, it attaches to a cellphone and informs the residents via an app if their drinking water contains lead. The design earned her the 3M Young Scientist Challenge in 2017. She is currently working with scientists and medical professionals to test Tethys' potential and hopes the device will be ready for commercial use by 2022.

Later, Rao took on another social issue-drug addiction. Her app, called Epione, which won the Health Pillar Prize at the TCS Ignite Innovation Student Challenge in May 2019, is designed to catch drug addiction in young adults before it's too late.

More recently, the teenager has developed an app named Kindly, which uses artificial intelligence technology to detect possible signs of cyberbullying(网上欺凌). When users type in a word or phrase, Kindly is able to pick it up if it's bullying, and then it gives the option to edit it or send it the way it is. It gives them the chance to rethink what they are saying so that they know what to do next time.

All kinds of awesome, Gitanjali Rao has been selected from 5,000 equally impressive nominees(被提名人) for TIME Magazine's first-ever “Kid of the Year”.

1. What gave Rao the idea of inventing the device Tethys?

A．The incident of lead pollution.

B．The issue with drug addiction.

C．The shortage of water supplies.

D．The high cost of purifying water.

2. What is Rao expecting of Tethys?

A．It'll remove metal from water.

B．It'll make it to market soon.

C．It'll win her a higher prize.

D．It'll be fitted to cellphones.

3. What will Kindly allow users to do?

A．Receive pre-warning signals of threat.

B．Input words into a computer automatically.

C．Choose from secure social networking sites.

D．Weigh their words before posting them online.

4. Which of the following can best describe Gitanjali Rao as a young scientist?

A．Ambitious and humble.	B．Optimistic and adventurous.
C．Talkative and outstanding.	D．Creative and productive.

2 . 8:30 PM

Outlook

Outlook is back with a new series of reports to keep you up date with all that’s new in the world of entertainment. Stories go all the way from the technical to the romantic, from stage to screen. There will be reports of the stars of the moment, the stars of the future and the stars of the past. The director with his new film, the designer with the latest fashion, and the musician with the popular song are part of the new Outlook. The program is introduced by Fran Levine.

9:00 PM

Discovery

When a 10-year-old boy gets a first-class degree in mathematics or an 8-year-old plays chess like a future, grand master, they are considered as geniuses. Where does the quality of genius come from? Is it all in the genes or can any child be turned into a genius? And if parents do have a child who might become a genius in the future what should they do? In this 30-minute film, Barry Johnson, the professor at School of Medicine, New York University will help you discover the answer.

10:00 PM

Science/Health

Is it possible to beat high blood pressure without drugs? The answer is “yes”, according to the researchers at Johns Hopkins and three other medical centers. After a study of 800 persons with high blood pressure, they found that after 6 months, those devoted to weight loss— exercise and eating a low-salt, low-fat food- lost about 13 pounds and became fitter. Plus, 35% of them dropped into the “normal” category(范畴). This week, Dr. Alan Duckworth will tell you how these people reduce their blood pressure to a level familiar to what’s achieved with Hypertension drugs.

1. The main purpose of writing these three texts is           .

A．to invite people to see films	B．to invite people to topic discussions
C．to attract more students to attend lectures	D．to attract more people to watch TV programs

2. Who will be most probably interested in Discovery?

A．Children who are good at mathematics.

B．Children who are interested in playing chess.

C．Parents who want their child to become another Albert Einstein.

D．Parents who want to send their children to a school of medicine.

3. In Science/Health, “Johns Hopkins” is           .

A．a famous university	B．a medical center
C．a well-known doctor	D．a drug company

4. According to the third text, which of the following has almost the same effect as Hypertension drugs?

A．Exercise plus a healthy diet.	B．Loss of thirteen pounds in weight.
C．Six months of exercise without drugs.	D．Low-salt and low-fat food.

3 . A group of second-year college students have discovered hidden writing on a page from a book from the 1500s, using a special camera system they built.

Surprisingly, finding hidden writing on very old documents isn’t all that unusual. In fact, there’s even a special name for documents like this: a palimpsest (再生羊皮纸卷).

Long ago, writing was done on parchment — thin, dried animal skins specially prepared for writing. But parchment wasn’t easy to make and wasn’t cheap. So it became common to erase the old writing off a parchment and then reuse it for another piece of writing. That’s what creates a palimpsest.

The writing erased off the parchment can’t be seen directly, but scientists have learned ways to use special lighting to reveal the original writing. But it’s unusual for young college students to discover palimpsests.

Last year, first-year students at the Rochester Institute of Technology took part in a class that brought together many students to take on a project as a group. The project was to build a special camera system that could take pictures using different kinds of light.

Over the summer, the students working on the imaging camera managed to finish it. When they were done, they borrowed several old parchments from the collection at the school’s Cary Graphic Arts Collection. When they put one of the pages under their camera system with UV light, the hidden writing suddenly appeared. Under the UV light, handwriting in French could easily be seen behind the fancy writing and decorations normally visible on the page.

Zoe, a student involved in the project, said, “This was amazing because this document has been in the Cary Collection for almost 10 years and no one noticed it.” The students are even more excited because even though the parchment is no longer part of a book, they know where 29 other pages from the same book are. The students, who are now working with others to locate the other parchments, hope these, too, will have hidden writing and that they can figure out what it means.

1. What was parchment designed for in ancient times?

A．Writing.	B．Decorating.
C．Imaging.	D．Collecting.

2. What does the underlined word “reveal” in paragraph 4 mean?

A．Heat up.	B．Bring out.
C．Adjust to.	D．Clear away.

3. What are the students expecting to do according to the last paragraph?

A．Make a handwriting-recognizing camera.

B．Identify what the parchments are made of.

C．Track the origin of the palimpsests in the Cary Collection.

D．Discover hidden writing and its meaning on more parchments.

4. What’s the purpose of this text?

A．To tell about a new discovery.	B．To recommend a special book.
C．To explain a cultural phenomenon.	D．To introduce an old document.

4 . Allison Guallpa concentrates on following the video directions for an unusual painting at home — the eighth-grader must draw a face using fruits or vegetables. She chooses peaches for rosy cheeks and a banana for the mouth.

That’s just one project Guallpa and other children are participating in during a 10-week, free, virtual art education series led by Marie Saint-Cyr, owner of Saint-Cyr Art Studio. Other challenges have included drawing a black-and-white still life of bottles, creating a watercolor landscape (风景) and copying works of artists like Van Gogh.

Saint-Cyr began the program during the summer of 2020 to give children an opportunity to express themselves and their feelings during dramatic changes in their lives because of COVID-19. Saint-Cyr, 25, moved to Long Island at 8. The programs she attended after her arrival were free and influenced her so much that she wanted to create something alike for the next generation.

Parents first contact Saint-Cyr through her website, Saintcyrartstudio.com. Saint-Cyr works with program supporters who pay her and provide the supplies for the children, which parents can pick up or have delivered. Saint-Cyr then provides 30-minute videos through Google Classroom that walk students through creating their artwork projects. At 4 p.m. meetups Mondays through Thursdays, whoever can make it attends a Zoom meeting where children show off their works in progress, give each other feedback (反馈) and ask questions. They also do 5-to 10-minute small exercises to improve their skills. It might be “Find an object and draw it without lifting the pencil off the paper”. At the conclusion of the series, Saint-Cyr displays students’ work in the “walk-through” virtual gallery online. It looks as if viewers are really walking through a museum display with all the kids’ professional artwork hanging on the walls.

Instead of being bored, the students participating in the program have got something to do — create things, see all the students’ works and get ideas. Saint-Cyr is considering bringing the program to nearby schools as an optional after-school activity.

1. How does Guallpa learn to create the unusual painting?

A．Through TV programs.

B．Through picture books.

C．Through school courses.

D．Through video instructions.

2. Why did Saint-Cyr start the program?

A．To strengthen teacher-student relationship.

B．To help kids express emotions artistically.

C．To provide parents with painting supplies.

D．To sharpen kids’ organizational skills.

3. What’s paragraph 4 mainly about?

A．How the art program works.

B．How parents react to the art program.

C．What kids do at the regular meetings.

D．What viewers think of kids’ creations.

4. What’s the author’s attitude towards the program?

A．Doubtful.	B．Positive.
C．Uncaring.	D．Opposed.

5 . If you want to help others and improve the world, you still can, without leaving the house. Many volunteer opportunities require only a computer or a phone. We’ve rounded up four websites offering a variety of choices.

Points of Light

Founded by President George Bush, this is the world’s biggest organization about volunteer service.

 History and garden lovers can help make collections more available by copying historic documents or tagging (加标签) images of American gardens by plant type in its database.

 Help research cold cases of missing and unidentified people for the Doe Network.

Volunteer Match

This is a huge database of more than one million virtual (虚拟的) volunteer listings.

 Got a legal background? Lawyers can review online content for Illinois Legal Aid.

 Retired business owner? There are many opportunities to instruct small business owners in sales and marketing, business planning and product development.

Create the Good

AARP, the membership group for people 50+, operates this volunteer opportunities database for the 50+ age group.

 Offer career advice to high school students in poor families in fields from baking to handyman by email for Career Village.

 Raise awareness about scams (诈骗), especially those aimed at older people, identified by AARP’s National Fraud Team.

United Nations Volunteers

This group lists organizations for peace and development all over the world. You can:

 Research money and its sources for young people who start business in Asia and the Pacific.

 Brainstorm ideas to collect plastic waste in Cameroon.

Want to get involved? Click here to become a member or send an email to membership @seniorplanet.org to learn about opportunities.

1. What do all the volunteer opportunities have in common?

A．They are difficult to acquire.

B．They require no related knowledge.

C．They allow one to provide help at home.

D．They’re aimed at excellent professionals.

2. What can volunteers do through Create the Good?

A．Teach the elderly how to bake.

B．Raise money for poor families.

C．Provide job suggestions for poor students.

D．Train teenagers to run their own businesses.

3. Which website helps improve the environment?

A．Points of Light.	B．Volunteer Match.
C．Create the Good.	D．United Nations Volunteers.

6 . Are you thinking about holidaying alone, but a bit concerned about the dangers? You needn’t worry if you consider these tips first.

1. Safety

Unless you positively invite danger — i.e. wandering around a dark park at 3 a.m. with headphones on — travelling alone isn’t actually that risky.     1     In the case of taking taxis, always keep a record of the plate number and ask for an estimated fare before setting off. You should also carry your ID card with you and always keep a back-up. And most importantly, ensure that someone else knows your route and keep in regular contact with them.

2. Plan

Being alone means you can’t use your partner’s phone when yours runs out of juice, or rely on them should you lose your wallet.     2     It’s a good idea to write down some key numbers of friends, hotels and emergency services beforehand, and keep some back-up money in your bag, just in case.

3. Eating

Many single travelers have a fear of eating alone.     3     You can bring a book to avoid boredom, sit at counters to be less noticeable or use the opportunity to practice your foreign language on a waiter.

4. Making friends

    4     This is another common concern when travelling alone. In fact, acquiring new companions (伙伴) is easier than feared. You can smile at people, have open body language, read something interesting to start conversation, or ask strangers a question. All these help you look approachable. More hands-on tips include visiting bars, joining tours or using apps designed to help people make friends.

5. Enjoy it

Without having to consider others’ needs, the joy of solo travel is that you can be entirely selfish: walk at your preferred pace, eat what and when you want, and go wherever you like to see the sights that interest you.     5    .

A．What if no one likes me on my trip?

B．The biggest danger is being taken for a ride.

C．It’s actually not so hard to get over your worry.

D．You needn’t get into a panic if this really happens.

E．However well you plan in advance, things will go wrong.

F．Just appreciate your independence and enjoy that freedom.

G．So put emergency systems in place before starting your trip.

7 . Faced with a declining population and workforce, Japan has been increasingly turning to robots for help. Over the years, the robots have carried out a large number of human tasks, including building products and providing care for the elderly.

However, the robots currently being used by companies, like Walmart and Amazon, are only able to perform single, repetitive tasks, such as stacking boxes. Model-T, on the other hand, has a wider range of movement and is able to hold, pick and place objects of several different shapes and sizes into different locations, making it ideal for convenience and grocery stores, which sell a large variety of items.

Model-T robots are operated from a distant location by human “pilots” wearing a virtual reality (VR) headset and special gloves, which allow them to feel the product the robot is holding in their hands and guide it to the right shelf.

The VR-controlled robots are ten times cheaper than automated robots, because they don’t require advanced programming and are easier to develop and maintain. And their easy-to-use controls require little training. Tomohiro Kano, a general manager in charge of development at FamilyMart, believes this will enable the chain to recruit workers who would typically not work in stores.

Though Model-T appears to be getting rapidly through the experiments, it is not quite ready to enter the workforce. Besides being a lot slower than humans, it is also only able to lift packaged items, and cannot get hold of things such as fruits and vegetables. The company is working to improve the weaknesses and hopes to introduce a faster, more skillful Model-T within the next two years. They believe that in addition to the stores, the robots could also be useful in hospitals, allowing doctors to do operations from remote locations.

1. What is one of the features of Model-T according to the text?

A．It works much faster than humans.	B．It can easily hold all kinds of objects.
C．It can be operated from a distance away.	D．It is harder to produce than an automated robot.

2. What does the underlined word “this” in paragraph 4 refer to?

A．The low price of Model-T.	B．The easiness to operate Model-T.
C．The low-level programming of Model-T.	D．The strict training for maintaining Model-T.

3. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．Model-T is now being massively produced.

B．Japan’s workforce will be reduced by Model-T.

C．The weaknesses of Model-T have been overcome.

D．Model-T may be used in wider fields in the future.

4. In which section of a website can we read this text?

A．Technology.

B．Economy.

C．Lifestyle.

D．Environment.

8 . One day about eight years ago in the departure lounge (休息室) of a flight from New York's LaGuardia airport to O'Hare in Chicago, I found a young boy in tears and his mother at his side also appeared upset, I walked to them and invited them to our VIP lounge.

As it turned out, the boy, Miles and his mom were returning to their home in Kansas City. Miles has had some health problems. Though he had received more than thirty operations in a Jewish Hospital in New York, he would be back for more.

Miles enjoyed spending his time in our VIP lounge looking at the entire wall filled with the pictures of many celebrities (名人) who often came to our office. We soon added Miles' picture to the wall among those celebrities.

Among the celebrities, Miles like the country singer Garth Brooks best. Miles would just sit and stare at Garth's picture,

One day, Mr. Brooks was waiting in the lounge for his flight. As he looked at the collection of photographs, Garth asked about the youngster with the big smile. We told him about Miles. We also told him how much Miles loved and respected (尊重) him. He nodded and left.

About six months later, Garth was going to be performing in Kansas City and he asked our workers to help him get in touch with the family. He wanted Miles to be his guest. That evening, not only did Miles sit in the front row, but he and Garth also had a private meeting after the performance.

Although Miles would receive many more treatments after that special evening, his smile greeted us with every following visit. The face of a sick boy was changed by the joy of a stranger.

1. What does the author probably do?

A．A worker at an airport.	B．A killed photographer.
C．A country music singer.	D．A doctor in a Jewish hospital.

2. What did Miles enjoy doing in the VIP lounge?

A．Interviewing celebrities he saw there.

B．Seeing pictures of celebrities on the wall.

C．Drawing pictures of the celebrities there.

D．Singing together with his favorite singer.

3. Which words can best describe Garth Brooks?

A．Determined and generous.	B．Proud and selfish.
C．Kind and helpful.	D．Powerful and rich.

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

A．Importance of Good Service	B．Kindness from Strangers
C．A Serious Health Problem	D．A Helpless Mother

9 . British chemist David Evans has become an overnight celebrity on Chinese social media. His chemistry experiments have attracted over 2 million followers in just a few months. Evans is a chemistry professor at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology. The 60-year-old always wears a white lab coat, a pair of safety goggles(护目镜），and smiles often.Some web users say he looks just like the "grandpa of KFC".

Evans has posted videos of various experiments. His most popular experiments have attracted millions of hits on video-sharing apps. Excited children's cheers and shouts can be heard in his videos. “I hope my experiments can arouse people's interest in science,” he says.

Evans has been interested in China since childhood.In the early 1970s, before the reform and opening-up,he viewed it as a “country full of mysteries". He first visited the Chinese mainland in 1987 to attend a chemistry conference in Nanjing,Jiangsu Province. He quit his job in the United Kingdom and moved to Beijing in 1996. Many of his friends thought he was crazy. But Evans says they just saw China's challenges but not its potential.

Since 2011, Evans has turned to the Internet to popularize science. He learned short-video apps are also popular in small cities and rural areas. And he realized this enables him to reach more students, who lack opportunities to perform fun experiments. But even a one-minute video requires a considerable amount of work. Still, he thinks it's worth it to fulfill his responsibility to popularize science.

His experiments always fill schools' lecture halls with laughter. Some viewers call him "a Harry Potter-like magician”, but he disagrees. “A magician never tells the secrets behind his tricks, but a scientist always gives an explanation.” He sees himself as a teacher. He performs experiments to spread knowledge, inspire thinking, remove misunderstandings and show that science can create change. Evans says he looks forward to more "chemical reactions" with China.

1. Who is David Evans according to the passage?

A．A film celebrity.

B．A chemistry teacher.

C．A manager of KFC.

D．A British magician.

2. Why did Evans begin to post videos of experiments on the Internet?

A．To popularize science.

B．To rise to fame.

C．To apply short-video apps.

D．To make a fortune.

3. Which of the following statements is true according to paragraph 3?

A．Evans considered UK to be a country full of mysteries.

B．Evans first visited Chinese mainland in his childhood.

C．Evans went to China for a chemistry meeting in 1987.

D．Evans moved to Beijing with the support of his friends.

4. What can we infer from the passage?

A．Evans knows exactly how a magic works.

B．Evans was a serious scientist and barely smiled.

C．Evans will continue to post videos of experiments in China.

D．Evans' students like to interrupt his experiments with laughter.

10 . Half decade ago, at the end of my first semester teaching at Wharton, my student Kevin stopped by for office hours. He sat down and burst into tears. My mind started cycling through a list of events that could make a college junior cry: His girlfriend had broken up with him; he had been accused of cheating in exams; he forgot to turn in papers before the deadline. “I just got my first A-minus(减),” he said with his voice shaking.

Year after year, I watch in depression as students are crazy about getting straight A's. Some sacrifice their health; a few have even tried to charge their school after falling short(倒挂). All hold the belief that top marks are a ticket to best graduate schools and rewarding job offers. I was one of them. I started college with the goal of graduating with a 4.0. It would be a reflection of my brainpower and willpower, showing that I had the right stuff to succeed. But I was wrong.

The evidence is clear: Academic excellence is not a strong predictor of career excellence. Across industries, research shows that the connection between grades and job performance is modest in the first year after college and unimportant within a handful of years. Take Microsoft for example, once employees are two or three years out of college, their grades have no bearing on their performance. (Of course, it must be said that if you got D's, you probably didn't end up at Microsoft.)

Academic grades rarely assess qualities like creativity, leadership and teamwork skills, or social, emotional and political intelligence. Yes, straight A students master large amounts of information and reproduce it in exams. But career success is rarely about finding the right solution to a problem—it’s more about finding the right problem to solve. This might explain why Steve Jobs finished high school with a 2.65GPA, and Martin Luther King Jr. got only one A in his four years at Morehouse.

1. Why did the student Kevin feel sad?

A．He was caught cheating in exams.	B．His girlfriend abandoned him.
C．He didn’t hand in his papers before headline.	D．He failed to get straight A's.

2. What did the author once believe?

A．Marks didn’t reflect willpower and brainpower.

B．Top marks meant well-paid job offers.

C．It was wrong to care too much about marks.

D．Straight A's don't bring creative performances.

3. Why are the employees at Microsoft mentioned?

A．To stress the company values employees with top marks.

B．To indicate academic performance is important.

C．To show academic excellence isn’t a strong predictor of career performance.

D．To introduce successful example in the technology industry.

4. What should people focus more on to succeed according to the passage?

A．How to be a creative leader.	B．What to do with detailed information.
C．How to solve a problem.	D．What problems to be solved.