1 . Facebook Is a Big Waster
During the first decade of the 21st century, a popular and new word has come into our vocabulary—Facebook. This is the most popular social networking website on the Internet. The main idea of Facebook is that you can keep in touch with all your friends around the world who have Facebook. You can send messages to your friend’s electronic wall, put up a status saying something like “Going to the mall, I need to get a new pair of shoes” or “it’s finally the weekend!”
In spite of the benefit it does on common people, it is true that this social network is a big waster. There are about 350 million active users on this website and 67% of them are between the ages of 13-25. More than 35 million users update their status every day.
The highest age group who use Facebook are teenagers. Most of them keep the website running whenever they are using the computer. if they aren’t in school or when they aren’t asleep. Facebook is just changing the new generation of youngsters unconsciously. The teenage life is one of the most important stages of life.
Facebook is also where people can see the gossip among their friends, virtual arguments, relationship status and updates, who is in whose “top friends”, you can become fan of anything, join groups, post pictures and videos, play childish games, invite friends to parties or events and a lot more. Generally, all these would just disturb (扰乱；妨碍) people into living life to the fullest. It’s not just teens who become addicted, even grown-ups do. An average person spends about 55 minutes on Facebook.
| A．And 2.5 billion photos are added each month. |
| B．Wasting it on Facebook is not encouraging in any way. |
| C．As a result, the average Facebook users have 130 friends who they share links with. |
| D．This statistic isn’t that bad but some people spend about 3-5 hours. |
| E．It is time people should take a break from Facebook once in a while. |
2 . Alice Moore is a teenager entrepreneur (创业者), who in May 2015 set up her business AilieCandy. By the time she was 13, her company was worth millions of dollars with the invention of a super-sweet treat that could save kids’ teeth, instead of destroying them.
It all began when Moore visited a bank with her dad. On the outing, she was offered a candy bar. However, her dad reminded her that sugary treats were bad for her teeth. But Moore was sick of missing out on candies. So she desired to get round the warning, “Why can’t I make a healthy candy that’s good for my teeth so that my parents can’t say no to it?” With that in mind, Moore asked her dad if she could start her own candy company. He recommended that she do some research and talk to dentists about what a healthier candy would contain.
With her dad’s permission, she spent the next two years researching online and conducting trials to get a recipe that was both tasty and tooth-friendly. She also approached dentists to learn more about teeth cleaning. Consequently, she succeeded in making a kind of candy only using natural sweeteners, which can reduce oral bacteria.
Moore then used her savings to get her business off the ground. Afterwards, she and her father secured their first business meeting with a supermarket owner, who finally agreed to sell Moore’s product — CanCandy.
As CanCandy’s success grows, so does Moore’s credibility as a young entrepreneur. Moore is enthusiastic about the candy she created, and she’s also positive about what the future might bring. She hopes that every kid can have a clean mouth and a broad smile.
Meanwhile, with her parents’ help, Moore is generally able to live a normal teenage life. Although she founded her company early on in life, she wasn’t driven primarily by profit. Moore wants to use her unique talent to help others find their smiles. She donates 10% of AilicCandy’s profits to Big Smiles. With her talent and determination, it appears that the sky could be the limit for Alice Moore.
What is special about CanCandy?
| A．It is beneficial to dental health. |
| B．It is free of sweeteners. |
| C．It is sweeter than other candies. |
| D．It is produced to a dentists’ recipe. |
3 . Want to explore new cultures, meet new people and do something worthwhile at the same time? You can do all the three with Global Development Association (GDA). Whatever stage of life you’re at, wherever you go and whatever project you do in GDA, you’ll create positive changes in a poor and remote community (社区).
We work with volunteers of all ages and backgrounds. Most of our volunteers are aged 17-24. Now we need volunteer managers aged 25-75. They are extremely important in the safe and effective running of our programmes. We have such roles as project managers, mountain leaders, and communication officers.
Depending on which role you choose, you could help to increase a community’s access to safe drinking water, or help to protect valuable local cultures. You might also design an adventure challenge to train young volunteers.
Not only will you help our young volunteers to develop personally, you’ll also learn new skills and increase your cultural awareness. You may have chances to meet new people who’ll become your lifelong friends.
This summer we have both 4-week and 7-week programmes:
Country | Schedule | |
4-week programmes | 7-week programmes | |
Algeria | 5 Jul. — 1 Aug. | 20 Jun. — 7 Aug. |
Egypt | 24 Jul. — 20 Aug. | 19 Jun. — 6 Aug. |
Kenya | 20 Jul. — 16 Aug. | 18 Jun. — 5 Aug. |
South Africa | 2 Aug. — 29 Aug. | 15 Jun. — 2 Aug. |
GDA ensures that volunteers work with community members and local project partners where our help is needed. All our projects aim to promote the development of poor and remote communities.
There is no other chance like a GDA programme. Join us as a volunteer manager to develop your own skills while bringing benefits to the communities.
Find out more about joining a GDA programme:
Website:www.glodeve.org
Email:humanresources@glodeve.org
1. What is the main responsibility of volunteer managers?| A．To seek local partners. |
| B．To take in young volunteers. |
| C．To carry out programmes. |
| D．To foster cultural awareness. |
| A．explore new cultures |
| B．protect the environment |
| C．gain corporate benefit |
| D．help communities in need |
4 . Alice Moore is a teenager entrepreneur (创业者), who in May 2015 set up her business AilieCandy. By the time she was 13, her company was worth millions of dollars with the invention of a super-sweet treat that could save kids’ teeth, instead of destroying them.
It all began when Moore visited a bank with her dad. On the outing, she was offered a candy bar. However, her dad reminded her that sugary treats were bad for her teeth. But Moore was sick of missing out on candies. So she desired to get round the warning, “Why can’t I make a healthy candy that’s good for my teeth so that my parents can’t say no to it?” With that in mind, Moore asked her dad if she could start her own candy company. He recommended that she do some research and talk to dentists about what a healthier candy would contain.
With her dad’s permission, she spent the next two years researching online and conducting trials to get a recipe that was both tasty and tooth-friendly. She also approached dentists to learn more about teeth cleaning. Consequently, she succeeded in making a kind of candy only using natural sweeteners, which can reduce oral bacteria.
Moore then used her savings to get her business off the ground. Afterwards, she and her father secured their first business meeting with a supermarket owner, who finally agreed to sell Moore’s product—CanCandy.
As CanCandy’s success grows, so does Moore’s credibility as a young entrepreneur. Moore is enthusiastic about the candy she created, and she’s also positive about what the future might bring. She hopes that every kid can have a clean mouth and a broad smile.
Meanwhile, with her parents’ help, Moore is generally able to live a normal teenage life. Although she founded her company early on in life, she wasn’t driven primarily by profit. Moore wants to use her unique talent to help others find their smiles. She donates 10% of AilicCandy’s profits to Big Smiles. With her talent and determination, it appears that the sky could be the limit for Alice Moore.
What does Moore expect from her business?
| A．To earn more money. |
| B．To help others find smiles. |
| C．To make herself stand out. |
| D．To beat other candy companies. |
5 . Want to explore new cultures, meet new people and do something worthwhile at the same time? You can do all the three with Global Development Association(GDA). Whatever stage of life you’re at, wherever you go and whatever project you do in GDA, you’ll create positive changes in a poor and remote community(社区).
We work with volunteers of all ages and backgrounds. Most of our volunteers are aged 17-24. Now we need volunteer managers aged 25-75. They are extremely important in the safe and effective running of our programmes. We have such roles as project managers, mountain leaders, and communication officers.
Depending on which role you choose, you could help to increase a community’s access to safe drinking water, or help to protect valuable local cultures. You might also design an adventure challenge to train young volunteers.
Not only will you help our young volunteers to develop personally, you’ll also learn new skills and increase your cultural awareness. You may have chances to meet new people who’ll become your lifelong friends.
This summer we have both 4-week and 7-week programmes:
Country | Schedule | |
4-week programmes | 7-week programmes | |
Algeria | 5 Jul. — 1 Aug. | 20 Jun. — 7 Aug. |
Egypt | 24 Jul. — 20 Aug. | 19 Jun. — 6 Aug. |
Kenya | 20 Jul. — 16 Aug. | 18 Jun. — 5 Aug. |
South Africa | 2 Aug. — 29 Aug. | 15 Jun. — 2 Aug. |
GDA ensures that volunteers work with community members and local project partners where our help is needed. All our projects aim to promote the development of poor and remote communities.
There is no other chance like a GDA programme. Join us as a volunteer manager to develop your own skills while bringing benefits to the communities.
Find out more about joining a GDA programme:
Website:www.glodeve.org
Email:humanresources@glodeve.org
The programme beginning in August will operate in ________.
| A．Egypt |
| B．Algeria |
| C．Kenya |
| D．South Africa |
6 . Give a little sunshine!
The Council on Aging (COA) runs a telephone friendship project called the Sunshine Call Program, matching over—60s with a friendly volunteer for a daily chat over the phone. The aim is simple-to help ease the loneliness and repair social networks.
Sheila, 77, a retired teacher, lived alone. She has been receiving calls from Rianne, a volunteer, for over two months. “Talking to Rianne is something I really look forward to—a breath of fresh air. We talk about everything—theatre, her work, books we’ve read…Listening to someone else’s life enriches you and gives you something positive to focus on.” “At the beginning, I had no expectation of how the phone calls would go, but it’s wonderful that it’s led to a genuine friendship. Rianne helps me a lot …” |
Are you ready to add a little sunshine to a senior’s life?
The Sunshine Call Program initially links a volunteer with an isolated (独居的) senior for a daily call. When comfortable, the volunteer introduces a second senior to the call. Then another, until there are four seniors to one volunteer on what is essentially a conference call. Without having to leave the house, you will help the seniors meet and make new friends. They will then exchange phone numbers to chat on their own and reduce their isolation.
What are the volunteer qualifications?
Volunteers must have access to the Internet and be willing to be trained on the use of a chat app. COA will provide all supplies required to make the calls. Besides, volunteers must agree to participate in monthly meetings with other volunteers and guest speakers. All volunteers must be willing to provide a recent Criminal Record Check, the cost of which will be borne by COA. And the most important volunteer qualification is a sense of caring and a desire to help seniors in the community!
If you wish to volunteer with our Sunshine Call program, never hesitate! Just CLICK HERE to fill out the application form.
1. One of the responsibilities of volunteers is________.| A．making weekly calls to seniors |
| B．visiting seniors during holidays |
| C．introducing new friends to seniors |
| D．teaching seniors to use smart phones |
| A．Learn the use of a chat app. | B．Prepare a computer by yourself. |
| C．Offer a letter of recommendation. | D．Have relevant working experience. |
7 . My name is Alice. Early last year, I was troubled by an anxiety that crippled ( 削弱 ) my ability to do anything. I felt like a storm cloud hung over me. For almost a year I struggled on, constantly staring at this wall that faced me. My perfectionist tendencies were the main root of this: I wanted to be perfect at whatever I did, which obviously in life is not possible, but it consumed me.
One day, I attended a presentation by wildlife conservationist Grant Brown at my high school. His presentation not only awed and inspired me, but also helped emerge an inner desire to make a difference in the world. I joined a pre-presentation dinner with him and that smaller setting allowed me to slowly build up my courage to speak one-on-one with him—an idea that had seemed completely impossible. This first contact was where my story began.
A month later, Brown invited me to attend the World Youth Wildlife Conference. Looking back, I now see that this would be the first in a series of timely opportunities that my old self would have let pass, but that this new and more confident Alice enthusiastically seized. Shortly after I received his invitation, applications to join the Youth for Nature and the Youth for Planet groups were sent around through my high school. I decided to commit to completing the applications, and soon I was a part of a growing global team of young people working to protect nature. Each of these new steps continued to grow my confidence.
I am writing this just six months since my journey began and I’ve realised that my biggest obstacle ( 障碍 ) this whole time was myself. It was that voice in the back of my head telling me that one phrase that has stopped so many people from reaching their potential: I can’t. They say good things come to those who wait; I say: grab every opportunity with everything you have and be impatient. After all, nature does not require our patience, but our action.
The activities Alice joined in helped her to become more ________.
| A．intelligent | B．confident | C．innovative | D．critical |
8 . 1. The US scientists who created the first living robots say the life forms, known as xenobots, can now reproduce—and in a way not seen in plants and animals. Xenobots are formed from the stem cells of the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis), from which it takes its name.
“Frogs have a way of reproducing that they normally use, but when you liberate the stem cells from the embryo(胚胎) and you give them a chance to figure out how to be in a new environment, not only do they figure out a new way to move, but they also figure out apparently a new way to reproduce,” said Michael Levin, a professor of biology at Tufts University, who was co-lead author of the new research.
Stem cells are unspecialized cells that have the ability to develop into different cell types. To make the xenobots, the researchers removed living stem cells from frog embryos and left them to develop.
“Most people think of robots as being made of metal, but it’s not so much what a robot is made from but what it does, which is act on its own on behalf of people,” said Josh Bongard, a computer science professor and robotics expert at the University of Vermont and lead author of the study. “In that way, it’s a robot, but it’s also clearly an organism made from frog cells.”
The researchers found that the xenobots could replicate(自我复制). But it happened rarely and only in specific circumstances. The xenobots used “kinetic replication”—a process that is known to occur at the molecular(分子) level.
With the help of artificial intelligence, the researchers then tested billions of body shapes to make the xenobots more effective at this type of replication. The supercomputer came up with a C-shape that looked like Pac-Man, the 1980s video game. They found it was able to find tiny stem cells, gather hundreds of them inside its mouth, and a few days later the pack of cells became new xenobots.
“The AI didn’t program these machines in the way we usually think about writing code. It shaped and sculpted and came up with this Pac-Man shape,” Bongard said. “The shape is, in essence, the program. The shape influences how the xenobots behave to speed up this incredibly surprising process.”
The xenobots are very early technology-think of a 1940s computer—and don’t yet have any practical applications. However, this combination of molecular biology and artificial intelligence could potentially be used in many tasks in the body and the environment. This may include things like collecting microplastics in the oceans, inspecting root systems and regenerative medicine. “There are many things that are possible if we take advantage of this kind of plasticity and ability of cells to solve problems,” Bongard said.
What is the author’s attitude towards future applications of xenobots?
| A．Disapproving. |
| B．Optimistic. |
| C．Unconcerned. |
| D．Objective. |
9 . The US scientists who created the first living robots say the life forms, known as xenobots, can now reproduce—and in a way not seen in plants and animals. Xenobots are formed from the stem cells of the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis), from which it takes its name.
“Frogs have a way of reproducing that they normally use, but when you liberate the stem cells from the embryo(胚胎) and you give them a chance to figure out how to be in a new environment, not only do they figure out a new way to move, but they also figure out apparently a new way to reproduce,” said Michael Levin, a professor of biology at Tufts University, who was co-lead author of the new research.
Stem cells are unspecialized cells that have the ability to develop into different cell types. To make the xenobots, the researchers removed living stem cells from frog embryos and left them to develop.
“Most people think of robots as being made of metal, but it’s not so much what a robot is made from but what it does, which is act on its own on behalf of people,” said Josh Bongard, a computer science professor and robotics expert at the University of Vermont and lead author of the study. “In that way, it’s a robot, but it’s also clearly an organism made from frog cells.”
The researchers found that the xenobots could replicate(自我复制). But it happened rarely and only in specific circumstances. The xenobots used “kinetic replication”—a process that is known to occur at the molecular(分子) level.
With the help of artificial intelligence, the researchers then tested billions of body shapes to make the xenobots more effective at this type of replication. The supercomputer came up with a C-shape that looked like Pac-Man, the 1980s video game. They found it was able to find tiny stem cells, gather hundreds of them inside its mouth, and a few days later the pack of cells became new xenobots.
“The AI didn’t program these machines in the way we usually think about writing code. It shaped and sculpted and came up with this Pac-Man shape,” Bongard said. “The shape is, in essence, the program. The shape influences how the xenobots behave to speed up this incredibly surprising process.”
The xenobots are very early technology-think of a 1940s computer—and don’t yet have any practical applications. However, this combination of molecular biology and artificial intelligence could potentially be used in many tasks in the body and the environment. This may include things like collecting microplastics in the oceans, inspecting root systems and regenerative medicine. “There are many things that are possible if we take advantage of this kind of plasticity and ability of cells to solve problems,” Bongard said.
1. According to Josh Bongard, a robot should be defined in terms of ________.| A．its function |
| B．its reliability |
| C．its appearance |
| D．its material |
| A．Xenobots have copied stem cells using computer programs. |
| B．Specialized cells play a key role in the replication of xenobots. |
| C．AI makes it possible for xenobots to replicate more effectively. |
| D．The shape of xenobots was inspired from a video game in the 1980s. |
10 . We’ve heard for years that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But, it actually might be even more important than previously thought, according to a study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, which examined the effects of skipping meals and meal frequency as related to mortality (死亡率) and heart health.
The study, which was published in August of last year, sought to find out if eating behaviors like meal frequency, meal skipping, and time between meals were associated with all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality.
The study consisted of 24,011 adults 40 years or older who participated from 1999 to 2014. Researchers looked at various eating behaviors of participants who self-reported their eating habits every 24 hours. Causes of death were tracked via death records through December 31, 2015.
After examining participants throughout the years, researchers found that certain eating behaviors were in fact linked to higher rates of premature death. Eating only one meal per day was associated with an increased risk of all-cause and CVD mortality while skipping breakfast was linked to an increased risk of CVD mortality, and skipping lunch or dinner was linked to an increased risk of all-cause mortality. Lastly, the study found that having meals too closely together (less than four and half hours apart) was also linked to all-cause premature death.
So, what does this mean for the average person? “At the end of the day what matters is that an individual can meet their nutritional needs for optimal (最佳) health,” explains Keri Gans, author of The Small Change Diet, “and breakfast typically is a good vehicle for nutrients associated with a decrease in cardiovascular risk, such as fiber and vitamins”. “If by eliminating meals they are missing out on important nutrients their body needs, then long term that can be harmful to their health,” leads to a “higher risk for certain cancers and heart disease,” she says.
While this study was large and comprehensive in many ways, there are also many limitations. It was mostly based on a 24-hour, self-reported dietary recall, “which may not always be the best method for dietary assessment,” explains Gans. “The participants may not accurately recall what they ate or honestly report it leading to the potential of misinformation.” Researchers noted that it was impossible to consider the role of sleep in the relationship between food and mortality, as well as a host of other unmeasured factors.
The bottom line is that while these findings about the relationships between meal skipping and mortality are important, there are a lot more factors that go into premature death.
What are mainly discussed in Paragraphs 3 and 4?
| A．Research process and findings |
| B．The cause and findings |
| C．Research subjects and purpose |
| D．The topic and significance |
