1 . A fourth-grade star athlete has made headlines for keeping up with high schoolers. However, it’s not for the honor. The selfless student is a guide runner for a blind autistic (患自闭症的) teen who needs a helping hand on the cross-country track.
Rebel Hays, 11, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, stepped up as a guide runner for a ninth-grader, Paul Scot, when West Fork High School put out a call for volunteers. Paul, their student, wanted to compete.
As they ran together, the pair became good friends. “Paul and Rebel’s story is so much more than running,” said Rebel’s mother, Lou Ann. “Paul doesn’t have many friends, so Rebel doesn’t just guide him a traces. They also spend time together,” she said, telling jokes. “Paul is grateful for his young guide’s direction.” “Rebel directs me whether there’s a ditch (沟)or there are hills, who encourages me to run faster.” Paul said.
In honor of their partnership, West Fork High School wrote a post on Facebook. Posting on Oct.6, 2021, after a 5K race at Chile Pepper where the boys achieved a personal record of 21 minutes, school representatives explained, “Rebel Hays has been helping Paul all season long. He is a promising runner, but more importantly, he has a huge heart! Thank you, Rebel! Thank you a lot!”
According to Mile Split Arkansas, Paul said that his goal this year was to break 21 minutes; however, they missed it at Chile Pepper but achieved it at Yan Buren Pointer Classic, finishing with a time of 20:59:44. With the help and direction from Rebel, Paul finished 59th out of 135 runners in the 3A boys race at the state Meet in Hot Springs in early November. Paul still has one more year of eligibility (资格) for cross-country and has now set a new goal of under 20 minutes.
1. What did Rebel do as a guide runner to help Paul?| A．He competed with Paul to break records. |
| B．He inspired Paul to make many headlines. |
| C．He directed Paul at different races. |
| D．He volunteered to tell jokes to Paul. |
| A．Creative. | B．Confident. | C．Ambitious. | D．Enthusiastic. |
| A．To claim Rebel to be promising. |
| B．To express appreciation to Rebel. |
| C．To draw public attention to Rebel. |
| D．To introduce Rebel’s achievements. |
| A．Taking part in a 5K race at Chile Pepper. |
| B．Directing others to finish the 3A boys race. |
| C．Breaking the record of twenty minutes. |
| D．Getting the qualification for cross-country. |
2 . The biggest risk I’ve ever taken was quitting my job and biking alone across western China.
One of the best parts of the whole experience was the people. I met people from across China and once got to attend a Tibetan wedding-something I never thought I would do.
The people were some of the best parts of the trip, but mostly each day, I was alone with nature. Throughout the rolling hills and the flowing streams, western China is home to some of the most amazing scenery in the world.
It was indeed an experience I will never forget. If anyone has an interest in traveling, I would highly recommend going by bicycle!
| A．It simply took my breath away. |
| B．My family were shocked and tried to talk me out of it. |
| C．The food was definitely another highlight of my journey. |
| D．I had never biked for more than two hours in one day before. |
| E．It really inspired me to push myself and go farther every day. |
| F．Traveling by bicycle was actually much cheaper than I thought. |
| G．The whole event was extraordinary, full of dancing, laughter and fun. |
3 . While attending a conference on campus last spring, Cecilia Miao, Fangdi Pan, and Mupe Niu took a quick look around the room. They couldn’t help but feel disillusioned with whom they saw — or rather, whom they didn’t see.
The conference was funded by the Wisconsin China Initiative, an effort housed in the Division of International Studies and created to, among other goals, strengthen ties between the University of Wisconsin (UW) and higher education institutions in China. Yet the three Chinese natives saw an absence of American-born students at the conference — a reminder of their first days, weeks, and months on campus. Back then, they had felt unwelcome and alone, struggling to adapt to life in Wisconsin.
The three recent graduates found their own approaches to fitting in, but they are now taking action to ease the transition (过渡) for future Chinese students. Motivated by their experience at last spring’s conference, they launched Channel C, a YouTube series of talk show videos that discusses cross-cultural concerns. Their goal was to tear down the social barrier between Chinese and American students at the UW — a wall, they say, that has been put up from accumulated disinterest and stereotyping (刻板印象) by both groups.
The show’s topics range from standards of beauty, to the secret of making conversations with different people, to the initial culture shock of the campus’s party. One video — “Why Don’t Chinese Students Speak English?” — has more than 100,000 views and 400 comments. Miao, Pan, and Niu say they never expected to reach such a large audience; they are receiving feedback from undergraduates across the nation, as well as younger Chinese students who aim to study in the United States.
“I’m just hoping students at the UW can be more sensitive towards someone with an entirely different background,” Miao says. “I think that’s the goal of liberal arts education (人文教育), anyway to be able to talk to and connect with people. And that’s our goal, too.”
1. What does the underlined word “disillusioned” mean in Paragraph 1?| A．Disappointed. | B．Angry. |
| C．Impatient. | D．Impressed. |
| A．Their competence in cooperation with others. |
| B．Their participation in last year’s conference. |
| C．Their successful adapt action to life at the UW. |
| D．Their support for the Wisconsin China Initiative. |
| A．Creative. | B．Inspiring. |
| C．Ambitious. | D．Successful. |
| A．By receiving liberal arts education. | B．By improving their language skills. |
| C．By reaching out with an open mind. | D．By following the talk show Channel. |
4 .
To get started, sit down with a map and make a plan. Ask yourself what you want to get out of walking aside from health benefits.
If making friends and socializing is your goal, call up your friends and schedule walks with them. Go online and look up your local mall (购物中心), which has groups that come daily to “walk the mall” and are always happy to include one more walker. Similarly, at your local park, you might find open groups of dog walkers who conduct diverse group hikes.
If lone walks are what you’re after, ask the local tourist authority about local hikes that get you out of town and into the wilderness or countryside. Thanks to the Rails to Trails program, railways across America are being transformed into scenic walking paths.
Headed to a new city? Then tie on your walking shoes and prepare to get to know it from the ground up! Many historic cities offer detailed and well-planned walking tours.
| A．Humans were made for walking: |
| B．Do you want to meet other people? |
| C．Some tourist offices even provide free maps. |
| D．They’re a perfect way to explore new territory. |
| E．Do you expect to get fit and stay in great shape? |
| F．But remember to stay on the lookout for charity walks. |
| G．Science uincovered a link between sociability and wellness. |
5 . There was once a boy called Mario who loved to have lots of friends at school. However, he wasn’t sure whether or not his classmates were his true friends, so he asked his grandpa. The old man answered, “I have just exactly what you need; it’s in the attic (阁楼). Wait here for a minute.”
Grandpa left, soon returning as though carrying something in his hand, but Mario could see nothing there. “Take it. It’s a very special chair. Because it’s invisible (无形的) it’s rather difficult to sit on, but if you take it to school and you manage to sit on it, you’ll be able to tell who your true friends are.”
Mario took the strange invisible chair and went to school. At break time he asked everyone to form a circle, and he put himself in the middle, with his chair. “Nobody move. You’re about to see something amazing,” Mario said.
Then Mario tried sitting on the chair. He missed and fell straight onto his backside. Everyone had a pretty good laugh. Mario wouldn’t be beaten. He kept trying to sit on the magic chair, and kept falling to the ground... until, suddenly, he tried again and didn’t fall. This time he sat, hovering (悬停) in mid-air.
Looking around, Mario saw George, Lucas, and Diana — three of his best friends — holding him up, so he wouldn’t fall. At the same time, many others he had thought of as friends were doing nothing but make fun of him, enjoying each and every fall.
Leaving with his three friends, Mario explained to them how his grandpa had so cleverly thought of such a good idea. Now he knows that those who take joy in our misfortunes (不幸) when we are in difficulty are not our true friends.
1. What did Mario’s grandpa take from the attic?| A．An invisible chair. | B．An old chair. |
| C．A real chair. | D．Nothing. |
| A．To see whether Mario could sit on it. |
| B．To test who were Mario’s true friends. |
| C．To let Mario have fun with his classmates. |
| D．To test whether Mario was popular at school. |
| A．He saw the invisible chair suddenly. |
| B．He managed to sit on the chair finally. |
| C．His friends held him up with their hands. |
| D．His classmates gave him a chair to sit on. |
| A．Never laugh at our friends. |
| B．True friends can help us do magic. |
| C．True friends are those who care for us. |
| D．Having too many good friends isn’t a good thing. |
6 . In the world of digital health, Silicon Valley-based Mindstrong stands out. It has a remarkable team and tens of millions of funding. It also has a fascinating idea-its app, based on mental functioning research, can help detect troubling mental health patterns by collecting data on person’s smartphone usage-how quickly they type, for instance.
The company’s app collects information about how people are typing and runs it through a machine learning algorithm (计算程序) to determine which data can predict their emotional state. The idea is to use that data to establish a “normal” pattern-so it can be compared with someone’s typing habits on any given day. If the habits change, slower or more anxious than normal, the app can warn a health care provider.
The promise of this technology has made Mindstrong incredibly popular since it was launched last year; already more than a dozen counties in California have agreed to apply the company’s app to patients. Does the app live up to its promise? There’s no way to tell. Almost no one outside the company has any idea whether it works, leading some experts to wonder if the technology is ready for the real world. “I wouldn’t waste all that time and money in the wild until they get sure that some of those things are as specific as they hope they are,” said Rosalind Picard, a researcher at MIT Media Lab, who is familiar with Mindstrongs work.
“It has passed the gold-standard clinical tests for depression and anxiety,” said Dr. Paul Dagum, the company’s founder. “We’re confident, and we’re already seeing some really exciting results.” Mindstrong officials said that among their most encouraging results is that its app can even predict how a person will feel next week, kind of like a weather app for your mood. “For a clinician(临床医生) or someone looking after a patient, they know that it could be very, very powerful,” Dagum said.
1. What can Mindstrong’s app do?| A．Improve its users’ mental health. | B．Get its users to type more quickly. |
| C．Discover its users’ mental state. | D．Work out the causes of its users’ trouble. |
| A．The ways of collecting data. | B．The app’s working principle. |
| C．The analysis of typing habits. | D．The development of the app. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Positive. | C．Uncaring. | D．Defensive. |
| A．The app has a powerful effect on anxiety. |
| B．The app can also predict weather conditions. |
| C．Care providers could be supporters of the app. |
| D．Doctors benefit more from the app than their patients. |
7 . Bike Rental & Guided Tours
Welcome to Amsterdam, welcome to MacBike. You see much more from the seat of a bike! Cycling is the most economical, sustainable and fun way to explore the city, with its beautiful canals, parks, squares and countless lights. You can also bike along lovely landscapes outside of Amsterdam.
Why MacBike
MacBike has been around for almost 30 years and is the biggest bicycle rental company in Amsterdam. With over 2,500 bikes stored in our five rental shops at strategic locations, we make sure there is always a bike available for you. We offer the newest bicycles in a wide variety, including basic bikes with foot brake (刹车), bikes with hand brake and gears (排挡), bikes with child seats, and children’s bikes.
Prices
Hand Brake, Three Gears | Foot Brake, No Gears | |
1 hour | €7.50 | €5.00 |
3 hours | €11.00 | €7.50 |
1 day (24 hours) | €14.75 | €9.75 |
Each additional day | €8.00 | €6.00 |
Guided City Tours
The 2.5-hour tour covers the Gooyer Windmill, the Skinny Bridge, the Rijksmuseum, Heineken Brewery and much more. The tour departs from Dam Square every hour on the hour, starting at 1:00 pm every day. You can buy your ticket in a MacBike shop or book online.
1. What is an advantage of MacBike?| A．It gives children a discount. | B．It offers many types of bikes. |
| C．It organizes free cycle tours. | D．It has over 2,500 rental shops. |
| A．€15.75. | B．€19.50. | C．€22.75. | D．€29.50. |
| A．The Gooyer, Windmill. | B．The Skinny Bridge. |
| C．Heineken Brewery. | D．Dam Square. |
8 . Returning home from the grocery store (杂货店), 25-year-old Policano felt it necessary to help the elderly in her neighborhood to practice safer social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic. Her friend Elkind joined her. They decided to start an organization called Invisible Hands Deliver (IHD).
They had a website up and running. The site allowed the elderly and other at-risk individuals to make requests for groceries and medicines to be delivered to them. The webpage also included a call for volunteers, which acquired more than 2,000 sign-ups.
The beauty of the IHD lies in its ability to meet the needs of those who are at higher risk of being attacked by the pandemic. When a request is submitted, it is forwarded to all volunteers within the community, so that anyone who is available can come forward to help. The delivery itself is contactless. Despite the physical distances, volunteers make an effort to connect with their beneficiaries, chatting with them from the other side of the door.
The efforts of the IHD would not have been effective without the help of modern scientific techniques and equipment. From the beginning, social media made it possible to spread the word and gather support within a short time. Digital inventions like web hosting servers and cloud platforms have also helped the IHD to meet the needs of their community.
Following its success in New York, the organization has spread its work to other areas of the United States. Their acts of kindness have also inspired similar networks to spring up in the world. The IHD is also supported by other organizations. “Armed with these resources, we can grow our efforts and further reduce the terrible impact of Covid-19,” said co-founder Policano.
Managed by a team of college students, the IHD has shown that one is never too young to make a difference. In a time when the pandemic has forced people apart, young people are in a main position to take advantage of technology and bridge the gap, bringing communities together. Elkind said, “We’re able to come together when the world feels like it’s pulling us apart. That’s the only way we pull through this, by pulling together.”
1. Why did Policano and Elkind create the IHD?| A．To offer necessary help to the aged. | B．To raise money for the local charity. |
| C．To maintain the safety of the community. | D．To provide part-time jobs for young people. |
| A．Government support. | B．High-quality service. |
| C．Advanced technology. | D．Special management. |
| A．Uncaring. | B．Confident. | C．Doubtful. | D．Confused. |
| A．Face-to-face communication matters. |
| B．Generation gap among people is unsolvable. |
| C．The pandemic is a serious danger to humans. |
| D．The young play a great role in rebuilding social ties. |
9 . A lot of people like movies and films. They can add thrill and imaginations to our lives. Find the latest movie reviews here.
Family Romance
Love is a business at Family Romance-a company that offers the rental service. Founder Yuichi Ishii helps fulfill the dreams of his clients. Mahiro’s mother will hire Ishii to play as her missing father. And reality will begin to be unclear.
Critics Consensus (共识): It is a fascinating exploration of human connection and follows an unconventional path.
Mulan
The fearless and spirited eldest daughter of an honoured warrior, Mulan is the apple of her father’s eye. To save her aging father from serving in the Imperial Army, clever Mulan disguises (乔装) herself as a man soldier named “Ping” to bravely take her father’s place in the Imperial Army to battle northern invaders in China.
Critics Consensus: It could have told its classic story with greater depth, but the live-action Mulan is a visual improvement.
Greenland
A family fights for survival as a planet-killing comet (彗星) races to Earth. John Garrity (Gerard Butler), his wife Allison and young son Nathan make a dangerous journey to their only hope for refuge (避难). Among terrifying news, the Garritys experience the best and worst in humanity while they battle the increasing panic and lawlessness surrounding them.
Critics Consensus: Beware, comets of Greenland: Gerard Butler, is here to protect Earth and show audiences an improbably entertaining time.
Black Box
Having lost his wife and his memory in a tragic car accident, the news photographer Nolan Wright is desperate. After losing his wife and memory, Nolan Wright, a single father undergoes an experimental treatment that causes him to question who he really is.
Critics Consensus: An interesting work of writer-director Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour, Black Box makes up for a lack of surprises with strong performances and an emotionally rewarding story.
1. Which movie should have presented a better story according to critics?| A．Family Romance. | B．Mulan. | C．Greenland. | D．Black Box. |
| A．Family Romance. | B．Mulan. | C．Greenland. | D．Black Box. |
| A．Advertisement. | B．Science. | C．News Report. | D．Entertainment. |
10 . Close friends have many benefits, but research shows that having “weak-tie” friendships is as valuable — or even more — as strong ones. Sociology professor Mark Granovetter published a study called “The Strength of Weak Ties” in 1973.
There are two types of “circles” when it comes to a person’s social world: the inner and outer circles.
Some companies design their buildings with the intention of letting people meet by chance in a specific area. For example, Pixar has a large, central hall where employees come across each other and start small talks. Scientists have also found that weak ties create a better, happier atmosphere.
As stated in Granovetter’s work, we get more information from weak ties. Take advantage of the pandemic by asking your friends how they are.
| A．That is the secret behind “weak-tie” friendships. |
| B．The study makes people value close friends in another way. |
| C．And then ask how they’re dealing with the current situation. |
| D．Social interactions nowadays are limited due to the COVID-19. |
| E．Close friends we feel comfortable with belong to the inner circle. |
| F．There, he explains that weak ties are important in friendship as well. |
| G．Because of the COVID-19, the world has seen a change in behaviors. |
