1 . Gifted students in the Wichita Falls Independent School District in Texas had the opportunity to travel to STEM facilities and learn coding and other technical skills, but the transportation is not convenient. “We just started talking about, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we were able to design a mobile STEM lab? ’ ”says Dr. Peter E. Griffiths, the district’s associate superintendent. Educators soon realized that they could retrofit an old bus into a mobile STEM lab, which would provide increased access to career and technical education (CTE) experiences for students.
Districts sold off buses when the vehicles became too old. Griffiths and his colleagues decided to retrofit one of those old vehicles. “Give me your ‘best worst’ bus,” Griffiths said to the transportation department. Soon the process of transforming began. Griffiths reached out to Reuben Rodriguez, the owner of a local car company, and explained what they wanted to do. Rodriguez agreed to work with the district on the price on condition that they could send CTE students to lend a hand with some of the building work. And bringing the bus from the dream stage to fruition has taken a lot of joint efforts of educators and the community.
Called STEAM Machine, the bus looks like a device from a video game or a real-life Lego truck, and rides as a mobile maker space. “It has two touch screen TVs outside. It comes complete with drones and drone obstacle courses that will help students learn about coding in an enjoyable way,” Griffiths says. “Those are things that a lot of these kids have never experienced before.”
To drive the bus, the district has hired a retiring teacher who will take the bus to various schools and engage in different lessons with students and educators. “We were so concerned about kids losing out on experiences before, and this is a solution. We aren’t going to let this go. The STEAM Machine will be equipped with all the necessary materials and resources, and it may change the way students learn and engage with their education,” Griffiths said.
1. What is the main purpose of the mobile STEM lab?| A．To develop students’ interest in STEM research. |
| B．To replace traditional school buses with electric ones. |
| C．To provide fun activities for students during long trips |
| D．To enable students to get more learning chances. |
| A．Educators needed to pay him in advance. |
| B．Some students could help with the building work. |
| C．The old bus should be equipped with high technology. |
| D．The district must provide him with necessary materials. |
| A．It brings students fun learning experiences. |
| B．It awakens students’ curiosity about bus driving. |
| C．It protects students’ health with its special design. |
| D．It saves students’ time by reducing traffic on the road. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Worried. | C．Hopeful. | D．Unclear. |
| A．Safe and long-lasting. | B．Fashionable and comfortable. |
| C．Creative and educational. | D．Cheap and eco-friendly. |
2 . Global Essay Competition
The John Locke Institute encourages young people to develop the characteristics that turn good students into great writers. Our Essay Competition invites students to explore a wide range of challenging and interesting questions beyond the limits of the school curriculum (课程).
All of our essay prizes are judged by senior academics from the University of Oxford. The judges will choose their favourite essay from each subject category and an overall “best essay” across six subjects: Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology and Law.
Entry Requirements
Entry is open to students from any country. Candidates must be eighteen years old, or younger, on the date of the submission deadline, 30 June. Candidates for the Junior Prize must be fourteen years old, or younger, on the date of the submission deadline. Each essay should address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, and must not exceed (超过) 2, 000 words.
Key Dates
30 June: Submission deadline
14 July: Short-listed candidates informed
26 August: Awards Dinner for the Junior Prize
2. September: Awards Dinner for the Economics Prize and other prizes
Prizes
There is a prize for the best essay in each category. The prize for each winner of a subject category, and the winner of the Junior category, is a scholarship worth US $2,000 towards the cost of attending any John Locke Institute programme, and the essays will be published on the Institute’s website. The prize-giving ceremony will take place in Oxford.
The candidate who submits the best essay overall will be awarded an honorary John Locke Institute Junior, Fellowship, which comes with a US $10, 000 scholarship to attend one or more of our summer schools.
1. What should the entry be about?| A．The limits of school courses. | B．The characteristics of great writers. |
| C．One of the given questions. | D．Anything in the chosen fields. |
| A．It sets a word limit on essays. |
| B．It has six subject categories. |
| C．Its prizes are judged by voting online. |
| D．It is open to any student regardless of his or her nationality. |
| A．10 | B．14 | C．18 | D．20 |
| A．On 30 June. | B．On 14 July. |
| C．On 26 August. | D．On 2 September. |
| A．A fellowship at Oxford University. | B．A summer school scholarship. |
| C．A chance to get published. | D．A US $1, 000 award. |
3 . What’s On?
Electric Underground
7.30pm－1.00am Free at the Cyclops Theatre
Do you know who’s playing in your area? We’re bringing you an evening of live rock and pop music from the best local bands. Are you interested in becoming a musician and getting a recording contract? If so, come early to the talk at 7.30 pm by Jules Skye, a successful record producer. He’s going to talk about how you can find the right person to produce your music.
Gee Whizz
8.30pm-10.30pm Comedy (喜剧)at Kaleidoscope
Come and see Gee Whizz perform. He’s the funniest stand-up comedian on the comedy scene. This joyful show will please everyone, from the youngest to the oldest. Gee Whizz really knows how to make you laugh! Our bar is open from 7.00pm for drinks and snacks(快餐).
Simon’s Workshop
5.00pm-7.30pm Wednesdays at Victoria Stage
This is a good chance for anyone who wants to learn how to do comedy. The workshop looks at every kind of comedy, and practices many different ways of making people laugh. Simon is a comedian and actor who has 10 years’ experience of teaching comedy. His workshops are exciting and fun. An evening with Simon will give you the confidence to be funny.
Charlotte Stone
8.00pm-11.00pm Pizza World
Fine food with beautiful jazz music; this is a great evening out. Charlotte Stone will perform songs from her new best-selling CD, with James Pickering on the piano. The menu is Italian, with excellent meat and fresh fish, pizzas and pasta(面食). Book early to get a table. Our bar is open all day, and serves cocktails, coffee, beer, and white wine.
1. Who can help you if you want to have your music produced?| A．Jules Skye. | B．Gee Whizz. | C．Charlotte Stone. | D．James Pickering. |
| A．The Cyclops Theatre | B．Kaleidoscope | C．Victoria Stage | D．Pizza World |
| A．It requires membership card. | B．It lasts three hours each time. |
| C．It is run by a comedy club. | D．It is held every Wednesday. |
| A．5.00pm-7.30pm. | B．7.30pm－1.00am. | C．8.00pm-11.00pm. | D．8.30pm-10.30pm. |
4 . Returning to nature
Imagine getting the chance to go camping for five days. It would be an adventure (冒险) in the wild. You could row on a lake every day and leave your smartphone at home. Would you want to try this?
In June, four teenage girls from Minnesota, US, went camping in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (边界水域泛舟区). They had a great time——even without their smartphones.
Julia Ruelle, 16, put the group together. Earlier this year, she won an essay contest sponsored (赞助) by a company. The award was a five-day canoe and camping adventure with up to three friends. No parents or guides would be there. This award was supposed to encourage kids to be less dependent on technology.
Ruelle had been to the area before, but she had always gone with her parents. Sharing the experience with friends would be very different. She invited three friends: Anna Wander, Madeline Wilson, and Julianna Torelli.
They came up with a daily plan. “We would wake up early every day. We were done paddling (划桨) by noon. We ate lunch at the campsite. Then it was time for hammocks (吊床), reading, writing, making friendship bracelets (手链), talking and napping,” Ruelle said.
“I’m a lot less worried about things,” Wander said when asked how she felt without her cellphone. Her favorite thing to do was lie in her hammock and look at the lake. Torelli enjoyed cooking. She made blueberry pancakes and sandwiches.
No one felt hungry or homesick. “Mental (心理的) health can be improved so much. It really helps to get away and reconnect with yourself,” Ruelle said.
1. The camping trip was unique because the girls _____.| A．had to live on a boat for several days |
| B．needed to finish many tasks |
| C．had to live without their smartphones |
| D．needed to find a guide on their own |
| A．not using her smartphone at school |
| B．asking her parents for help |
| C．working in a company |
| D．winning an essay contest |
| A．Worried. | B．Happy. |
| C．Hungry. | D．Homesick. |
| A．It is easy to get lost without our phones. |
| B．The girls didn’t make any camping plans. |
| C．Wilson enjoyed making pancakes and sandwiches. |
| D．Using smartphones less can improve our mental health. |
5 . In the UK, the government showed throwaway cups should be forbidden altogether by 2023 if they are not all being recycled. As a result, Starbucks said it would try out a 5p (5 pence) cup charge in 20 to 25 central London shops. “We will begin it next month and at first it will last for three months,” the company said, adding that it continued to offer a 25p (25 pence) discount to customers who brought their own reusable cups.
The government agrees plastic waste is a problem and will consider taxing disposable (一次性的) plastics. The committee’s chair, Mary Creagh, said, “The UK throws away 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year. Almost none are recycled. Coffee cup producers and shops haven’t taken action to change this. So we need to kick-start a change in recycling.”
The Liberal Democrats said they had been suggesting a charge on coffee cups since September 2016. The party’s spokesman, Tim Farron, said, “The result is clear that the tax works. The 5p charge on plastic bags has largely cut down the usage and helped protect our environment.”
The 5p tax is being against by the makers of paper cups. Mike Tuner, of the Paper Cup Alliance, said paper cups were the safest solution for drinks. “The paper cups we produce in the UK can be recycled, and are being recycled. We are trying to increase recycling rates. Taxing the morning coffee run won’t solve the problem, but it will hurt consumers,” he said.
Disposable coffee cups are technically recyclable, but most are not because the UK has just three machines that can split the paper and plastic parts for recycling. The committee has called on the government to require coffee cups from cafes without in-store recycling systems to carry “not recycled” marks to remind customers. Cafes with in-store recycling systems should print their cups with “recyclable in store only”.
1. About the throwaway cups, Starbucks will ________.| A．offer a half-price discount to customers with their own cups |
| B．support the idea of forbidding throwaway cups till 2023 |
| C．charge customers 5p per throwaway cup in some shops |
| D．stop to offer throwaway cups in its shops right now |
| A．Coffee cup makers will take action to recycle the water. |
| B．The use of the disposable plastics is a nationwide problem. |
| C．Coffee cup users pay much attention to the plastic problem. |
| D．The UK government will ban all disposable coffee cups by 2023. |
| A．More people will fight against the charge. |
| B．There will be little change in our environment. |
| C．Fewer people will use the disposable coffee cups. |
| D．There will be a competition between coffee shops. |
| A．will be supported by the makers of the paper cups |
| B．will affect the consumers instead of solving the problem |
| C．can give a hand to increasing recycling rates of the makers |
| D．can be the best solution for the government to cut down waste |
| A．There are not enough professionals in this area. |
| B．There is not enough professional equipment. |
| C．Consumers don’t have recycling knowledge. |
| D．Cafes don’t have recycling systems at all. |
6 . You can relax if remembering everything is not your strong suit. Recent research makes the case that being forgetful can be a strength — in fact, selective memory can even be a sign of stronger intelligence.
Traditional research on memory has focused on the advantages of remembering everything. But looking through years of recent memory data, researchers Paul Frankland and Blake Richards of the University of Toronto found that forgetting can be just as important to our decision-making as what our minds choose to remember.
Making intelligent decisions does not mean you need to have all the information at hand, it just means you need to hold onto the most valuable information. And that means clearing up space in your memory palace for the most up-to-date information on clients(客户) and situations. Our brains do this by generating new neurons(神经元) in our hippo-campus(海马体), which have the power to overwrite existing memories that are influencing our decision-making.
When we forget the names of certain clients and details about old jobs, our brain is making a choice that these details do not matter. Although too much forgetfulness can be a cause for concern, the occasional lost detail can be a sign of a perfectly healthy memory system. The researchers found that our brains further decision-making by stopping us from focusing too much on minor past details.
If you’re an analyst who meets with a client weekly, your brain will recognize that this is a client whose name and story you need to remember. If this is someone you may never meet again, your brain will weigh that information accordingly.
We can get blamed for being absent-minded when we forget past events in perfect detail. These findings show us that our brains are working smarter when they aim to remember the right stories, not every story.
1. Researchers of the University of Toronto found that forgetting could __________.| A．help make intelligent decisions |
| B．do harm to the brain |
| C．indicate people’s low intelligence |
| D．make people focus on everything |
| A．Make an intelligent decision. |
| B．Influence our decision-making. |
| C．Provide room in your memory. |
| D．Remember clients and situations. |
| A．People needn’t worry about forgetfulness at all. |
| B．Our brain is smart enough to select useful details. |
| C．Forgetting details is a sign of an unhealthy memory. |
| D．Focusing on all details contributes to decision-making. |
| A．the memory | B．the relationship | C．the frequency | D．the detail |
| A．To show how to remember the right stories. |
| B．To introduce the necessity of forgetting. |
| C．To help people make smart decisions. |
| D．To explain how the brain actually works. |
7 . Readers have never had it so good. But publishers need to adapt better to the digital world.
During the next few weeks publishers will release a great number of books, pile them onto delivery lorries and fight to get them on the display tables of bookshops in the run-up to Christmas. It is an impressive display of competitive commercial activity. It is also increasingly pointless.
More quickly than almost anyone predicted, e-books are becoming popular quickly. Amazon, the biggest e-book retailer( 零售商), has lowered the price of its Kindle — e-readers to the point where people do not fear to take them to the beach. In America, the most advanced market, about one-fifth of the largest publishers’ sales are of e-books.
For readers, this is excellent. Amazon has successfully shortened distance by bringing a huge range of books to out-of-the-way places, and it is now fighting against time, by enabling readers to download books instantly. Moreover, huge choice and low prices are helping books hold their own on digital devices. For publishers, though, it is a dangerous time. Some of the publishers’ functions—packaging books and promoting them to shops—are becoming out of date.
Yet there are still important jobs for publishers.
The music and film industries have started to pack electronic with physical versions of their products—by, for instance, providing those who buy a DVD of a movie with a code to download it from the Internet. Publishers, similarly, should combine e-books with paper books.
They also need to become more efficient. In the digital age it is stupid to take months or even years to get a book to market. And if they are to distinguish their products from self-published dross( 糟粕), they must get better at choosing books, sharpening ideas and polishing copy. If publishers are to hold readers’ attention, they must tell a better story—and edit out all the spelling mistakes as well.
1. According to the author, what publishers do before Christmas is becoming __________.| A．efficient | B．satisfying | C．meaningless | D．worthwhile |
| A．By analyzing. | B．By giving examples. |
| C．By comparing. | D．By listing numbers. |
| A．Readers will have a wider choice than before. |
| B．The price of books will become much higher. |
| C．Traditional publishers will be out of work. |
| D．Traditional bookstores will completely disappear. |
| A．Spend more time editing a good book. |
| B．Change work to music and film industry. |
| C．Get rid of self-published dross completely. |
| D．Learn from what music and film industry did. |
| A．The Disappearing Ink. |
| B．The Book and Music Industry. |
| C．Golden Times for Publishers. |
| D．The Coming of the Digital Age. |
8 . I am traveling home. It is bitterly cold and snowy, but the warm train is right on time. I feel pleasantly satisfied as I look out at the rush hour traffic on the motorway. I feel more satisfied as the smell of fresh coffee announces the arrival of the drinks service. Swiss friends often tell me, proudly, that their rail service is the best in the world, but recently, one experience has proved that the great Swiss love affair with their railway has turned a little sour.
It all began with the decision to end ticket sales on trains. One cold morning I arrived at my local station only to find that the ticket machine was broken. No matter, I thought, I have got a smart phone, and I hurriedly set about buying my ticket that way. This was not as easy as I had expected, busying myself between credit card and phone with freezing cold fingers, but, by the time I got on the train to Geneva, I had an e-ticket and I proudly showed it to the conductor. Unfortunately she told me that my ticket was not valid. Several weeks later a letter arrived from Swiss railways together with a fine for 190 francs ($ 210).
The good people there tell me the formal payment for my ticket from my credit card company arrived four minutes after my train left the station. That means, they say, that I bought my ticket on the train—and that is strictly prohibited.
Swiss railways say their policy is designed to protect honest ticket-paying passengers, but a quick look at their balance sheet suggests something else. The company is making about $ 2 million a month from fines.
Although train travel is still popular, those seats do not feel as comfortable; the coffee does not smell quite so good—because Swiss railways have lost, for now anyway, something far more precious than $ 2 million a month: good relations with their customers.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 1?| A．The Swiss trains usually come late. |
| B．Traffic on the motorway goes smoothly. |
| C．The author regrets traveling on the Swiss train. |
| D．Swiss people think highly of their train service. |
| A．the decision to end ticket sales on trains |
| B．the experience of buying a train ticket |
| C．the difficulty of buying an e-ticket |
| D．the fine for escaping a train ticket |
| A．It was purchased online. |
| B．It was purchased on a ticket machine. |
| C．It was paid for on a smart phone. |
| D．It was paid for after the train’s departure. |
| A．To show the fine was unfair. |
| B．To show the conductor was impolite. |
| C．To show e-tickets are getting popular. |
| D．To show credit cards can be inconvenient. |
| A．It attracts more people to travel by train. |
| B．It makes the company lose a lot of money. |
| C．It damages company-customer relations. |
| D．It protects honest ticket-paying passengers. |
9 . Welcome to Olympic National Park!
The park is located in the western state of Washington and it is on the Olympic Peninsula, in the northwest part of the state. It covers more than 400,000 hectares. Each area of the park offers visitors something special. Here are some places to go.
★ Elwha Valley
The Elwha Valley is in the central part of the park. It is the Olympic Peninsula’s largest watershed(分水岭). Long ago, the rivers in this area held the most salmon(鲑鱼) outside of Alaska. In the 1920s, a growing community of settlers built two hydroelectric(水力发电) dams to provide energy for the local economy. The dams created many problems for the river. They decreased the water in the rivers, which caused the fish population in the area to decrease. This affected the other animals that depended on fish for food.
The community later decided to fix these problems. In 1992, Congress passed the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act. Both dams have been removed. Today, the Elwha River is the site of one of the largest ecosystem restoration projects in National Park Service history.
★ Hoh River Valley
The Hoh River is on the west side of the park. The river is formed from melted glacial ice on top of Mount Olympus. The river is 80 kilometers long. It empties into the Pacific Ocean.
The area receives about 400 centimeters of rain each year. Because of the amount of rain, many different types of plants grow in the Hoh rainforest.
The Hoh River Valley is protected from any logging or development.
★ Hurricane Ridge
Hurricane Ridge is a mountain area in the northern part of the park. It is easy to enter, and provides incredible views of the Olympic Mountains.
The ridge has many hiking paths. In winter, people come here to ski. They also come here to take part in other fun winter activities, like sledding and snowboarding.
Hurricane Ridge usually has snow from December through the end of March. Visitors must be prepared for icy roads and severe weather.
1. What’s the purpose of the passage?| A．To attract visitors to the park. |
| B．To tell about the park’s history. |
| C．To show the variety of the park. |
| D．To stress the importance of ecosystem. |
| A．Local settlers had enough energy. |
| B．The Elwha Valley was formed. |
| C．The ecosystem was greatly affected. |
| D．Animals’ living conditions became better. |
| A．Through earthquake. | B．From sea water. |
| C．From rain water. | D．From melted glacial ice. |
| A．You will easily get lost. |
| B．You will have no fun. |
| C．You will slip over on the icy road. |
| D．You will enjoy fine sunshine. |
| A．Elwha Valley | B．Hurricane Ridge |
| C．Hoh River Valley | D．The Hoh rainforest |
Never give up on hope
Oct 31, 2013 wasn’t just another Halloween for me. While I was driving home, a vehicle struck my car from behind, sending me into the busy road. I fought hard to open my eyes for a second, but I lost my consciousness.
After I was taken to hospital, the doctor told me I wouldn’t be able to move anything from my neck down. I had lost the use of almost every muscle and was very weak. I then realized that I had to say goodbye to my dream of entering NBA.
But at the rehab center (康复中心), I saw a glimpse of hope and was inspired by other patients with injuries like mine. The first year was slow and I didn’t see much progress. My head felt like a heavy ball, and I couldn’t hold it up, and my blood pressure would drop all the time. And while I didn’t have a ghost of a chance to walk or even stand, I did try. Six month later, I finally returned home.
However, that’s when the reality of the situation became clear to me. I realized that my life was so different. I was unable to use a phone, and unable to feed or wash myself. I couldn’t hold on to anything; a fork or spoon was too heavy to pick up. I had to learn to be patient with myself, and to enjoy every moment going forward.
I was determined to walk again, so giving up was no longer a choice. I fought hard on my recovery and still do to this day. I’m now moving my legs and arms on my own, doing things like working out, swimming and yoga. All of this is proving my doctors wrong, and is turning the page from the impossible to the possible. My supportive family, friends and team encourage me to continue to work harder.
I believe that this difficulty is an opportunity to grow, become stronger and keep on fighting to hopefully inspire myself not to give up.
1. Why was the author sent to hospital?(no more than 10 words)2. What was the author’s dream before the accident? (no more than 5 words)
3. What does the underlined part in Paragraph 3 mean? (no more than 10 words)
4. Who helped the author continue to work harder on his recovery? (no more than 10 words)
5. How does the author’s story inspire you? (no more than 20 words)
