1 . I left England for Sydney in September. It was a career move for my husband, and our 20-year-old daughter was feeling adventurous and decided to come, too. However, just before leaving England, my 79-year-old mother suffered a stroke(中风).Being strong and independent, she continued to live at home with the help of social services. But she couldn’t look after the garden. I thought how wonderful it would be if there was an organization offering volunteer help. Friends asked me what I planned to do in Australia, and I told them I would be looking for a volunteer position with a gardening charitable organization. Imagine my surprise when I found just the organization I had been looking for——Easy Care Gardening (ECG)!
There are several reasons why I volunteer for ECG. Firstly, as a newcomer to Australia I meet many great people who, like me, volunteer some of their time. We cover a large age range, but all love gardens and helping others.
Secondly,through working with ECG I have been lucky enough to explore Sydney’s North Shore that I might not have had the chance to visit otherwise.
Finally, there are all those wonderful people we call “clients (客户) ”,but are more like friends when we visit them often and tend their gardens. What great people I have met, and the stories they have to tell—the family histories, where they come from and the reasons for immigrating to Australia! I find it a privilege to have access to private gardens which, in many cases, have been the joy of their owners for many years. Each one is individual and reflects the character, needs and the history of each family. Indeed, the gardens reflect the multicultural and historical background of Sydney.
1. Why did the author move to Sydney?| A．Her husband would work there. | B．She planned to volunteer there. |
| C．She was very keen on adventures. | D．She had to look after her sick mother. |
| A．The popularity of ECG . | B．The tips of her friends. |
| C．Her own experience. | D．Her gardening skills. |
| A．They make friends with their clients. |
| B．They like to explore Sydney’s North Shore. |
| C．They are of similar ages and back grounds. |
| D．They are kind-hearted with the same interest. |
With such strong support from the general public, the festival is surely a great event for people of all ages. This free family weekend event brings together people from all over the globe mixing culture, food and music in a great setting at Hampden Park. Time:Sat.24-Mon.26 Aug.
Eastbourne International Airshow
The world's biggest free seafront airshow returns in August with 4 days of perfect flying. The event also includes children's entertainment areas, evening concerts, helicopter rides. A fireworks show marks the end of the event. Ground displays open 10:00 am-6:00 pm daily, with flying from lunchtime until about 5 pm. Time:Thur.15-Sun.18 Aug.
A Celebration of Land and Sea
Sovereign Harbour Yacht Club at the Waterfront is, once again, pleased to be able to present their third annual Celebration of Land and Sea event. The event is free for all visitors with plenty of on-site free parking, and no live music performances will need to be canceled due to the summer weather. This year you'll be lucky to enjoy the fireworks display during the celebration.
A Celebration of Land and Sea starts on 23rd August and runs until Monday 26th August. The event opens at 10:00 am daily. Please see website for more information.
Punch and Judy
Returning for his 26th year Eastboume's Punch and Judy, Ray Sparks will be providing his free Punch and Judy shows on the Wish Tower Slopes every Tuesday and Thursday throughout the school holidays at the usual time of 12:30 and 2:00 pm.
1. Which event ends up with a fireworks show?| A．Punch and Judy. | B．Eastbourne Festival. |
| C．A Celebration of Land and Sea. | D．Eastbourne International Airshow. |
| A．On Monday. | B．On Friday. | C．On Saturday. | D．On Sunday. |
| A．They're open to the public for free. | B．They're sponsored by the public. |
| C．They are related to traditions . | D．They are international affairs. |
3 . You’re never too young to make an impact on your community.
Members of Gen Z are exceptionally creative, cause-oriented, and hyper-aware of the world around them, making them perfectly ready to help handle the world’s problems through volunteering.
If you want to make a difference in your community, be a part of something bigger than yourself, or just need to earn some required volunteer hours, then this is the place to start. Here are a few organizations of Gen Z with volunteer opportunities for teens!
Habitat for Humanity
Everyone deserves to have a place they call home. By volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, you can play a role in biding up your community. Their Habitat Youth Programs accept volunteers between the ages of 5 and 40 for everything from home construction to affordable housing advocacy.
Meals on Wheels
For those tens who just got their licenses and love any reason to get behind the wheel, here’s a volunteer opportunity that ‘ll make driving worthwhile. Meals on Wheels is on a mission to meet the nutritional and social needs of seniors. 225 million meals have been delivered so far-connect with your local provider to find out how you can get involved.
Key Club
As the oldest service program for high schoolers, the Key Club has quite a history of helping tens get involved in volunteering. Because clubs are student-led, you get a direct say in the kinds of service projects you want to do. Chances are, there’s already a chapter in your school, but if not, you can try taking the lead in one.
Best Buddies
Volunteer with Best Buddies to help end the social, physical, and economic isolation of 200 million people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and you’ll make some new pals in the process! Join a school chapter (or start your own) to use friendship as a tool for inclusivity in your community.
And don’t worry. Even if you can’t volunteer physically, there are also tons of online volunteer Opportunities available! Find out more about joining a worthwhile volunteer organizations at www. Gen Z.org.
1. If you want to help people with disabilities, you can join ____________| A．Habitat for Humanity | B．Meals on Wheels |
| C．Key Club | D．Best Buddies |
| A．send meals to the elderly | B．make nutritional meals |
| C．drive the seniors around | D．teach the seniors to drive |
| A．get more people to volunteer | B．teach teens to he more creative |
| C．promote awareness of world affairs | D．instruct teens to earn volunteer hours |
4 . Every day since early July, Tiffany Wong has been painting a small watercolor of one woman and then sharing the printing on the Internet, providing background information about each woman. Wong started the project to give more people a chance to learn about the different roles of famous women in history, “We don’t really get to learn about them in our school as much,” Wong said. “I wanted to make the women’s history more available for people so that they wouldn’t have to do the research and they wouldn’t forget their achievements.”
Wong’ s interest in the women’s history started young. As a child in California, she read books about women, including scientist Barbara McClintock, doctor Elizabeth Blackwell and other outstanding women.
The idea to develop her own women’s history project was inspired in part by a free course through HarvardX, Harvard University’s developer of online courses. Wong has worked there for the past five years after learning international education policy from the university. The Schlesinger Library provided another inspiration for Wong. In 2018. she visited the library’s 75th anniversary exhibit, which told the stories of women through 75 documents and objects.
As an artist since childhood, Wong decided her project would include both paintings and research about the women. “The written part of the post consumes energy and brain and often takes longer than the painting,” Wong said. Whenever possible, she used original sources and quotes, often referring to papers and other documents.
None of the paintings includes the facial features of the women, which is a painting style that makes the paintings easier to do, while giving people an opportunity to see themselves in the image. “I wanted something open,” Wong said. “I wanted people to feel like they could also be these people.”
Her subjects occasionally notice her posts. In February, Wong wrote about the career of Merritt Moore, a physicist and dancer with an undergraduate degree from Harvard. Moore share the post with her own followers and left a comment for Wong. “Wong! I’m so touched — thank you! Love this!” Moore wrote.
1. What has Wong begun to do since early July?| A．Paint well-known women in history. |
| B．Learn to draw with a watercolor brush. |
| C．Share a painting of herself on the Internet. |
| D．Collect information about each woman she knows. |
| A．The sources of motivation Wong got for her project. |
| B．The cause of Wong’s making up the women’s stories. |
| C．The aim of Wong’ s learning HarvardX’s online courses. |
| D．The reasons for Wong s studying international education, |
| A．Drawing the women’s facial features. |
| B．Selling her paintings on social websites. |
| C．Doing a questionnaire about famous women. |
| D．Writing background information for the women. |
| A．Fight for Equal Rights for Women |
| B．Learn from Wong’s Artistic Career |
| C．Draw Historical Famous Women to Remember Their Contributions |
| D．Give Famous Women in History an Opportunity to Draw Themselves |
5 . The fitness center offers a variety of activities for members of all ages throughout the week.
Activities for Monday 12 July, 2017:
Learn to swim. Classes for preschool children aged five and under start at 10 am. Classes last 30 minutes and parents must attend with their children. Don't forget to book in advance, as places are limited, and to pack some warm clothes for after the lesson.
Woman's aerobics（有氧运动）. Sessions are for one hour and begin at 10:45 am, led by Melissa. Come along and join us every Monday for an exhilarating hour of exercise and fun. Leave your kids at the nursery and take time out for yourself. Wear a tracksuit or something similar.
Lunch time yoga. Take a break at lunchtime （1:00-2:00 pm） for an hour of meditation and yoga. Enjoy the peace and quiet of our meditation room, and relaxing sessions designed for active people with busy lives. Use your own mat（垫子）for floor work or huy one from us with some money.
Family Shootaround. 10:00-5:30 pm. Family Shootaround is open for members and guests to bring the family out for basketball. Half court games are only during this time. There are no full court games during Family Shootaround hours. All participants must sign in at the front desk and wear a wistband during the play.
1. When will Melissa be working?| A．From 10:00 am to 10:30 am |
| B．From 10:45 am to 11:45 am. |
| C．From 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm. |
| D．From 10:00 am to 5:30 pm. |
| A．Lunchtime yoga. | B．Women's aerobics. |
| C．Learn to swim | D．Family Shootaround. |
| A．The need to sign in |
| B．The need to book in advance. |
| C．The need to bring something. |
| D．The need to become a member. |
6 . People with COVID-19 who are asymptomatic can spread the disease without any outward signs that they're sick. But a newly developed AI, with a keen algorithmic ear, might be able to detect asymptomatic cases from the sounds of people's coughs, according to a new study.
A group of researchers at MIT recently developed an artificial intelligence model that can detect asymptomatic COVID-19 cases by listening to subtle differences in coughs between healthy people and infected people.
Indeed, it is the Alzheimer's model that the researchers adapted in an effort to detect COVID-19.“The sounds of talking and coughing are both influenced by the vocal cords and surrounding organs.” co-author Brian Subirana, a research scientist in MIT's Auto-ID Laboratory said in a statement. “AI can pick up simply from coughs, including things like the person's gender, mother tongue or even emotional state. There's in fact sentiment strongly fixed in how you cough.”
First, they created a website where volunteers-both healthy and those with COVID-19-could record coughs using their cellphones or computers; they also filled out a survey with questions about their diagnosis and any symptoms they were experiencing. People were asked to record “forced coughs,” such as the cough you let out when your doctor tells you to cough while listening to your chest with a stethoscope.
Through this website, the researchers gathered more than 70,000 individual recordings of forced-cough samples, according to the statement, Of those,2,660 were from patients who had COVID-19,with or without symptoms. They then used 4,256 of the samples to train their AI model and 1,064 of the samples to test their model to see whether or not it could detect the difference in coughs between COVID-19 patients and healthy people.
The AI model correctly identified 98.5% of people with COVID-19, and correctly ruled out COVID-19 in 94.2% of people without the disease. For asymptomatic people, the model correctly identified 100% of people with COVID-19, and correctly ruled out COVID-19 in 83.2% of people without the disease.
But "whether or not this performs well enough in a real-world setting to recommend its use as a screening tool would need further study,"Lubinsky told Live Science."What's more,further research is needed to ensure the AI would accurately evaluate coughs from people of all ages,’’ he said.
1. How does the AI recognize people infected with COVID-19?| A．By observing outward sick signs. | B．By identifying sounds of coughs. |
| C．By copying the Alzheimer's model. | D．By talking to the healthy and the infected. |
| A．How people catch coughs. | B．How people perceive coughs. |
| C．How people make vocal sounds. | D．How people release their emotions. |
| A．Volunteers record coughs. | B．Volunteers fill out a survey. |
| C．Doctors ask for forced coughs. | D．Researchers train the AI model. |
| A．The limited age range. | B．Failure to evaluate coughs. |
| C．Inaccuracy of the statistics. | D．Low rate of identifying cases. |
7 . There is nothing like travel when it comes to gaining perspectives and exposing yourself to other cultures. Here is a list of books that transport readers to another time and place.
ITALY: Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
This book is written by the popular author Jess Walter. It is a love story that begins on the Italian Coast in the early 60s and eventually appears on the screen in Hollywood. As the settings shift from Italy to Edinburgh to Los Angeles, you will find yourself longing to go as well.
SEATTLE: Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
Maria Semple’s first novel is not exactly a love story to Seattle, but if you read it, you just might want to come here to see if people are really as self-involved as the characters in her book. What really shines through is the strange storytelling and the laugh.
ENGLAND: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
You can’t travel to Thomas Cromwell’s England without a time machine, but reading Mantel’s prize-winning novel is the next best thing. It will make you long to see the ancient buildings and green grass of the English countryside, much of which is still there.
NANTUCKER: Here’s to Us Elin Hildebrand
Elin Hilderbrand has built a writing career about her hometown island of Nantucker. Her latest is Here’s to Us, which, perhaps not surprisingly, is a great beach read that will spice up your vacation. You won’t be able to put the page down and desire to get there.
1. Which book has been adapted for a film？| A．Here’s to Us. |
| B．Wolf Hall. |
| C．Beautiful Ruins. |
| D．Where’d You Go, Bernadette. |
| A．Its low price. |
| B．Its interesting characters. |
| C．Its content about love. |
| D．Its way of telling stories. |
| A．They inspire you to travel. |
| B．They are all about love stories. |
| C．They show the joy and sadness |
| D．They help you to be self-involved. |
8 . It's a pity that deaf people, or those who have hearing problems can't enjoy music. But now a vibrating（振动的） suit brings them hope — it can allow them to feel music through their skin, rather than hear it.
Designed by the US technology company, Not Impossible Labs, the suit consists of a body harness（全身式安全带） and wrist straps（腕带）.
Music is sent to the suit wirelessly. Then the suit is able to translate it into a range of vibrating pulses, which can be felt at a total of 24 contact points all over the body. The users can adjust the intensity of the vibrations.
Chase Burton, 33, a deaf filmmaker from Texas, US, has been testing out the suit for four years. He understands that a deaf person's experience with music is very different. "When I was a kid, I'd lie on the floor above our garage so I could feel the vibrations from my brother's band rocking out below my body," Burton told CNN.
Now when he wears the vibrating suit, he says the sound hits different parts of his body. “Maybe it will strike me down in my ankles first. And then I will start to feel the vibrations in my back and then I will feel some pulsations in my wrist,” Burton said.
The designers have been working on extending the tactile(触觉的) musical experience to a large deaf community. In 2016, a dozen prototype(样品) suits were tested at a Lady Gaga concert in the US.
The suit was also tested at a different concert in Las Vegas in 2018. It was given to 150 audience members at the concert where half the audience members were deaf and a half could hear.
At the same time, the company has been improving the technology, saying it’s ready to go to market soon. The suit may be used in live sports broadcasts video games or theme parks. The ultimate goal is to make the technology available to all.
“We truly think that anything that has no audio element can also have a vibrational experience associated with it as well,” the company’s talent and business development director, Jordan Richardson, told CNN.
1. How does the vibrating suit help people with hearing problems?| A．It sends sounds to their ears through a wire. |
| B．It improves their contact points all over the body. |
| C．It turns music into vibrating pulses that can be felt. |
| D．It changes the intensity of sounds based on the users. |
| A．To show how difficult it is for a deaf person to enjoy music. |
| B．To tell readers different ways that people enjoy music. |
| C．To express regret for not having a technology earlier. |
| D．To ask designers to make user-friendly products for deaf people. |
| A．It is widely used at concerts. |
| B．It is well received by the market. |
| C．It is being improved to further its use. |
| D．It works better with people who can hear. |
| A．It has a bright future. |
| B．It costs too much. |
| C．It is the most advanced. |
| D．It is of little practical use. |
9 . There is a lot of losing in sports. Only one team can win at a time, and only one champion escapes the season without tears. But that doesn’t stop Americans from spending nearly $56 billion a year on sporting events. Is fandom(运动迷) worth it?
At first glance, the evidence isn’t encouraging. Following a loss, fans are more likely than usual to eat unhealthy food, be unproductive at work, and –in the case of the Super Bowl-die from heart disease. What about fans of the winning team? Well, they are more likely than other fans to suffer a postgame traffic fatality(死亡) if the score is close.
Rival(竞争的) fans’treatment of one another is hardly more encouraging. A recent study found that fans experienced greater pleasure when watching a rival team fail. Fans in another study reported schadenfreude, a feeling of satisfaction, when reading about the injury of a rival team’s player, and gluckschmerz or unhappiness when later reading about the player’s unexpectedly speedy recovery.
Yet a great deal of research shows that being a fan can also have positive effects. It can prevent depression and build a sense of belonging and self-worth---in case that the object of one’s devotion is a local team. Much of this is due to social bonds among fans, but not all--- sports worship also provides fans with a number of skills at dealing with life’s emotional challenges. A landmark 1976 study found that after a win,fans were more likely than usual to wear clothes connected with the winning teams, and to claim credit for the team’s success by describing the team as “we” instead of “they” in conversation.
Along with schadenfreude and gluckschmerz, being a fan seems more than anything else to be a matter of managing responses to things that cannot control. Sports fans tend to respond to reminders of death with optimism, and to remember victories much more clearly than defeats.
1. Which of the following statement is especially true as for the winning side’s fans?| A．They might die from heart disease. |
| B．They tend to live an unhealthy life. |
| C．They can have good work efficiency. |
| D．They might have a traffic accident. |
| A．Rival fans usually hold bad or even extreme attitude to each other. |
| B．Rival fans often fight with each other. |
| C．Fans can face their rival team bravely. |
| D．Fans never lose heart when facing their rival team. |
| A．Being a fan could show great devotion to study. |
| B．Being a fan could create a sense of belonging. |
| C．Being a fan could develop a spirit of optimism. |
| D．Being a fan could test social bonds. |
| A．How to be a fan |
| B．What it’s like to be fan |
| C．Being a fan can be good for you |
| D．A fan’s emotional challenges |
10 . Airports will soon add a new layer to their security procedures. Several airports in Europe will start giving lie detector tests to passengers. Special lie detector machines will use artificial intelligence to test travellers.
The lie detector machines are backed by a European Union project called iBorderCtrl. The first machines will be at border checkpoints in Hungary, Greece and Latvia. Airports in these countries will carry out tests on the lie detector machines this month.
Travelers from outside the EU countries will have to take the test. They will look into a webcam and answer questions from a computer-animated immigration official. The computer- produced animation will change to match the race and language of the traveler.
A European Union spokesperson said the virtual border guard will scan passengers' faces and analyze their micro expressions. They will use these expressions to find out if the passenger might be lying.
A human security guard will take over if the lie-detecting software detects a security risk. The procedure will firstly divide passengers into two types. Low-risk travelers will be asked basic information in the lie-detection process while high-risk passengers will get more detailed questions. A psychology expert doubted if the system would work. He said, “If you ask people to lie, they will do it differently and show very different behavioral cues than if they truly lie...This is a known problem in psychology.”
1. Where will you see this special lie detector machine?| A．At a border checkpoint in Italy | B．At Greece airports |
| C．In iBorderCtrl offices. | D．In Hungary security department |
| A．supported | B．produced | C．Tested | D．sold |
| A．By scanning passengers’ brain. | B．By looking into a webcam |
| C．By analyzing facial expressions. | D．By distinguishing abnormal mood. |
| A．indifferent | B．supportive | C．opposed | D．skeptical |
