1 . All you need to know about German Tutor

Do you call yourselves language novices or beginners? Whatever you like to call yourselves, we can enable you to speak a new language.

In order to put our money where our mouth is, we commissioned researchers from two universities in America to conduct a study that tested the effectiveness of our German Tutor app for German beginners in just two months. Then we challenged 15 employees to learn as much German as possible by using the app in just three weeks.

Here are three reasons why you should use German Tutor to learn a new language.

1. You will make great progress.

The study’s findings: 85% of our participants were complete beginners to German.However, they learned the language faster than more advanced learners.

German Tutor challenge’s findings: Although our employees were complete beginners, they made satisfactory progress. Before taking the challenge, they struggled to even comprehend German sentences, but after only three weeks, they could successfully talk with a native.

2. You don’t need to spend a lot of time.

The study’s findings: Our study drew a conclusion that participants only needed to study by using the German Tutor app for about two hours per week to improve their German by at least one college semester level, while the complete German beginners only needed a total time of 15 hours over two months to improve by one college semester level.

German Tutor challenge’s findings: Our employees spent about 15 minutes a day on German Tutor during their three-week challenges.

3.You will enjoy learning with German Tutor.

The study’s findings: An amazing 99% of the participants said that they wouldn’t stop using German Tutor after the study, as it is easy to use and the sense of success can greatly motivate them to continue their learning.

German Tutor challenge’s findings: Most of our employees fell in love with German and many of them promised to continue learning it.

1. Why did German Tutor carry out the study?

A．To show how the app works	B．To see how popular the app is
C．To find how often the app is used	D．To prove how effective the app is

2. How long did the study last?

A．15 hours

B．Three weeks

C．Two months

D．Over two months

3. What could German Tutor’s employees achieve after their challenge?

A．They could teach complete beginners.

B．They could talk with native German speakers

C．They could only comprehend German sentences.

D．They could reach the same level as more advanced learners.

4. What makes the participants of the study continue to use German Tutor?

A．Personal preference	B．Low cost
C．Innovative design	D．The sense of success

5. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?

A．You will make great progress after using German Tutor.

B．German Tutor challenge found that 99% of the participants would stop using German Tutor after the study.

C．Using German Tutor may save your time in learning German.

D．German Tutor is an app for language novice.

2 . If you're planning on hitting up a festival this summer, make sure you check out the latest packing guide to camping music festivals.

Quebec City Summer Festival

When: July 4-14

Where: Toronto, Quebec

300 shows, 10 places and 11 days of music make this festival one of Canada's biggest music festivals. Every year, this festival attracts over one million festivalgoers to Quebec City's historic district for concerts by international superstars and top new talents.

Center of Gravity

When: July 28-30

Where: Kelowna, British Columbia

Canada's hottest beach festival is back! Now in its 10th year, the biggest and exciting festival to hit the Okanagan includes three days packed with extreme sports, sandy beaches, and some of the biggest DJ names in the world.

Future Forest

When: August 5-7

Where: Fredericton, New Brunswick

Future Forest is an outdoor camping festival with a focus on electronic music. The festival originated in 2012 as a fundraiser for a brilliant DJ, Jay Hamilton, who was diagnosed with cancer. Future Forest proudly shows the idea that there are no audience at the event but rather participants who in some way contribute to the overall experience.

Shambhala Music Festival

When: August 9-10

Where: Salmo River Ranch, British Columbia

This is Canada's earliest electronic music festival. Cutting edge talent, lights and sound come together to give life to this event. Seeing it for yourself is the only way to understand exactly what is Shambhala.

1. What can people do in the Quebec City Summer Festival?

A．Enjoy the performances of superstars.	B．Learn about Quebec City's history.
C．Do some extreme sports.	D．Play on the sandy beaches.

2. What was Future Forest set up for at first?

A．To honor brilliant Jay Hamilton.	B．To raise money for a cancer patient.
C．To provide outdoor camping activities.	D．To promote electronic music.

3. Which festival is Canada's earliest electronic music festival?

A．Quebec City Summer Festival.	B．Center of Gravity.
C．Future Forest.	D．Shambhala Music Festival.

3 . How much sleep do we need? It’s a fundamental question about a basic human function we’ve been practicing for long, but there’s still no simple answer. But whether you’re a morning or evening person could be guided by your genes. That said, your sleeping pattern will change naturally with age, which is also reflected in the National Sleep Foundation recommendations: it suggests 14-17 hours of shuteye a day for newborn babies and only 7-8 hours for over-65s.

But scientists said it’s about more than simple duration. Teens and people in their early 20s do want to go to bed later and get up later too, something researchers suggest might be to do with changing hormones(荷尔蒙). “On average, there’s about a two-hour difference in preferred sleep times of somebody in their late teens or early twenties to somebody in their late 50s or early 60s,” he said. “So asking a teenager to get up at 7 o’ clock in the morning is the equivalent of asking a 55-year-old to get up at five in the morning.”

At the end of the day, the best way to measure how much sleep you each need is to listen to your own body. Do you rely on an alarm clock to wake up? Do you take a long time to feel awake? Are you dependent on coffee drinks to keep you focused during the day? Are you overly impulsive(冲动的) or do you find yourself running a lot of traffic lights, for instance? All these could be signs that you’re not getting enough sleep.

And that, we know today, is bad. The environment can affect your sleep preferences but your genes stay. Scientists said that the understanding of the importance of sleep was “one of the great achievements of modern neuroscience(神经科学),” and that society was moving away from the all-nighter culture to respect the need for sleep.

1. What’s the writer’s intention of writing the passage?

A．To report his research results.	B．To express the importance of sleep.
C．To list some sleeping patterns.	D．To persuade people to have enough sleep.

2. What would not change according to the passage?

A．Age.	B．Genes.
C．Hormones.	D．Sleeping pattern.

3. What does the underlined word “that’ in the last paragraph refer to?

A．Not getting enough sleep.	B．Listening to your own body.
C．Running a lot of traffic lights.	D．Not understanding of the importance of sleep.

4. Which is the best title for the passage?

A．Sleeping Patterns

B．The Importance of Sleep

C．A Great Achievement of Neuroscience

D．Different People Need Different Amounts of Sleep

4 . People made wings and strapped them to their arms. They flapped their arms but couldn’t fly. They built gliders(滑翔机), light aircraft with wings. Some didn’t work, but some did.

The gliders that worked had special wings. These wings were arched on both the top and the bottom. The air pulled the wings from above and pushed the wings from below. When the wings went up, so did the glider! Arched wings help create a force called lift. Lift is the force that keeps the gliders in the air.

Most gliders have long, thin wings. The wings create enough lift to carry the aircraft and its passengers. Gliders usually ride currents of air the same way a hawk soars(飞翔).

Gliders are very light, and long wings and air currents can give them enough lift to fly. But to carry more than just a passenger or two, an aircraft needs a lot more lift. The question is: How do you create more lift?

The engine is the answer!

The engine is a machine that changes energy into movement. The forward movement that an airplane needs to fly is called thrust. More thrust makes an airplane move forward faster. Moving faster creates more lift. And with more lift, an airplane can carry more weight so an aircraft with an engine can carry passengers or cargo.

In 1903 the Wright brothers figured out how to get wings and an engine to work together in order to give an airplane enough thrust to fly. They made the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Since then people have made airplanes that can fly faster than sound can travel. They have made airplanes that can fly all the way around the world without stopping.

Today, thousands of people travel in airplanes every day. People really have learned how to fly!

1. If a flyer wants to stay in the air, it needs enough ________.

A．lift	B．thrust
C．wings	D．engines

2. What made the flyers moving forward in the sky?

A．The air.	B．The lift.
C．The thrust.	D．The wind.

3. An airplane can carry heavy weight and fly very fast mostly because of ________.

A．the lift	B．the thrust
C．the sound	D．the engine

4. The whole passage mainly tells us ________.

A．how gliders were built	B．how important the engine was
C．how people learned to fly	D．how the first airplane was made

5 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。

A terrible fire began to burn at France’s world-famous Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral (巴黎圣母院)    1    the evening of April 15. Flames could be seen rising through the top of the monument.     2    (it) tall, narrow top later fell down. It took 15 hours for 400 French firefighters     3    (put) out the fire.     4    (fortunate), the main stone structure, including the two bell towers, has been saved, but there is little information on the condition of the cathedral’s glass windows and paintings.

Notre-Dame     5    (date) back to the 12th century. French writer Victor Hugo used it as the setting of his famous story, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame,    6    was first published in 1831. Sitting in the center of Paris, along the Seine River, Notre-Dame is one of the world’s most famous tourist     7    (site). About 12 million people visit it each year.

One man said, “Notre-Dame     8    (destroy) but the soul of France was not.” French President Emmanuel Macron promised that Notre-Dame would be rebuilt and asked for worldwide help repairing it. Many countries offered assistance, because Notre-Dame is part of the     9     (culture) heritage of mankind and     10    symbol for Europe.

6 . In 1949, I just returned home from the war. On every American highway you could see soldiers in uniform hitchhiking (搭便车) home to their families, as was the ___at that time in America.

___, the excitement of this reunion with my family soon disappeared. My mother became very ill and had to be in hospital. The doctors told me she ___a blood transfusion (输血)   ___or she wouldn’t live through the night. The problem was that Mother’s blood type was AB-, a very ___type even today, but even harder to get then because there were no blood ___ or air flights to ship blood. All the family members had their ___tested, but none was a   ___. So the doctors gave the family no hope. My mother was ___.

I left the hospital ___to gather up all the family members, ___everyone would get a chance to tell Mother good-bye. ___down the highway, I passed a soldier in uniform hitch-hiking home to his family. Deep in sadness, I had no willingness at that moment to do a good deed. Yet it was almost as if something outside myself pulled me to a ___, and I waited as the stranger climbed into the car.

I was too upset to ___ask the soldier his name, but he noticed my tears right away and asked why. I told this total stranger ___.

It got very ___in the car. Then this soldier reached his hand out to me, in which rested the dog tags (身份识别证) from around his neck. The blood type on the tags was AB-. The soldier   ___me to turn the car ___and get him to the hospital.

My mother ___until 1996, and to this day no one in our family knows the soldier’s name. But I have often wondered, was he a soldier or a(n) ___in uniform?

1.

A．concern

B．custom

C．view

D．disadvantage

2.

A．Surprisingly

B．Obviously

C．Sadly

D．Disappointedly

3.

A．wanted

B．asked

C．needed

D．desired

4.

A．immediately

B．gradually

C．frequently

D．actually

5.

A．valuable

B．common

C．magical

D．rare

6.

A．banks

B．shops

C．hospitals

D．factories

7.

A．body

B．blood

C．health

D．identity

8.

A．success

B．perfection

C．possibility

D．match

9.

A．crying

B．dying

C．suffering

D．bursting

10.

A．on purpose

B．in peace

C．in relief

D．in tears

11.

A．so that

B．in case

C．as though

D．if only

12.

A．Driving

B．Walking

C．Removing

D．Wondering

13.

A．road

B．stop

C．place

D．route

14.

A．ever

B．even

C．never

D．already

15.

A．anything

B．something

C．everything

D．nothing

16.

A．peaceful

B．calm

C．active

D．quiet

17.

A．commanded

B．allowed

C．told

D．persuaded

18.

A．away

B．in

C．around

D．down

19.

A．lived

B．died

C．recovered

D．disappeared

20.

A．stranger

B．rescuer

C．lover

D．angel

7 .

Science for Kids This month’s most popular books.
1. Women in Science by Rachel Ignotofsky Price $25 We all know the story of Marie Curie and her many scientific achievements. But many other brilliant female scientists are far less well known. This book is a great introduction to the lives and works of some of the most important and up-to-now unknown women in science. Recommended for Ages: 12-15 【Order Now »】	Special Offer For this month only, all Besthooks Book Club members will pay 20% less for every book ordered. Join our club for free and save big money! Delivery We bring every book you order right to your door within three days. For Bestbooks Book Club members, this is free. Non-members must pay an extra $2 per book.
2. First Big Book of How by Jill Esbaum Price $15 An excellent book about sea life for young children. The book is divided into 4 parts, one for each of the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian and Arctic oceans. It focuses on the different animals found in each of these seas, along with interesting facts and amazing pictures. Ages: 5-10 【Order Now »】
3. A Really Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson Price $15 Bill Bryson takes readers on a very funny and educational trip through the history of modern science-from its unexpected successes to its great failures and everything in between. Ages: 14 and over 【Order Now »】
4. National Geographic’s First Big Book of the World by Jan Carn. Price $20 This book is the perfect introduction to the seven continents. It tells young readers about the different animals that live on each of these lands and gives a simple descnption of the people’s history and culture. Ages: 5-12 【Order Now »】

1. How are the books on this webpage listed?

A．By price.	B．By popularity.
C．By reader’s age.	D．By writer’s name.

2. How much will a Bestbooks Book Club member pay in total if he orders First Big Book of How and A Really Short History of Nearly Everything today?

A．$24.	B．$26.
C．$30.	D．$34.

3. A primary school student who needs to write a science report about African elephants should choose ________.

A．Women In Science

B．First Big Book of How

C．A Really Short History of Nearly Everything

D．National Geo-graphic’s First Big Book of the World

4. What is the main purpose of this web page?

A．To sell books to young readers.

B．To attract new book club members.

C．To encourage students’ interest in science.

D．To review books young readers might like.

8 . What does the woman want to do?

A．Mail a letter.

B．Use the restroom.

C．Find the police station.

9 . A couple from Miami, Bill and Simone Butler, spent sixty-six days in a life raft (救生艇)in the seas of Central America after their boat sank.

Twenty-one days after they left Panama in their boat, in Simony, they met some whales (鲸).“ They started to hit the side of the boat,” said Bill,“ and then suddenly we heard water. ” Two minutes later, the boat was sinking. They jumped into the life raft and watched the boat go under the water.

For twenty days they had tins of food, biscuits, and bottles of water. They also had a fishing line and a machine to make salt water into drinking water—two things which saved their lives. They caught eight to ten fish a day and ate them raw(生的).Then the line broke. “So we had no more fish until something very strange happened. Some sharks(鲨鱼) came to feed, and the fish under the raft were afraid and came to the surface. I caught them with my hands.”

About twenty ships passed them, but no one saw them. After fifty days at sea their life raft was beginning to break up. Then suddenly it was all over. A fishing boat saw them and picked them up. They couldn’t stand up. So the captain carried them onto his boat and took them to Costa Rica. Their two months at sea was over.

1. Bill and Simone were traveling _______ when they met some whales.

A．in a lake	B．in a river
C．in a sea	D．in a desert

2. After their boat sank, the couple _______.

A．jumped into the sea	B．heard water
C．watched the boat sail away	D．stayed in the life raft

3. When the fishing boat picked them up, _______ .

A．they stood up as quickly as possible

B．they climbed onto the boat easily

C．their life raft was in good condition

D．their two months at sea was over

10 . A characteristic of American culture that has become almost a tradition is to respect the self-made man — the man who has risen to the top through his own efforts, usually beginning by working with his hands. While the leader in business or industry or the college professor occupies a higher social position and commands greater respect in the community than the common laborer or even the skilled factory worker, he may take pains to point out that his father started life in America as farmer or laborer of some sort.

This attitude toward manual (体力的) labor is now still seen in many aspects of American life. One is invited to dinner at a home that is not only comfortably but even luxuriously (豪华地) furnished and in which there is every evidence of the fact that the family has been able to afford foreign travel, expensive hobbies, and college education for the children; yet the hostess probably will cook the dinner herself, will serve it herself and will wash dishes afterward; furthermore the dinner will not consist merely of something quickly and easily got from contents of various cans and a cake or a pie bought at the nearby bakery. On the contrary, the hostess usually takes pride in careful preparation of special dishes. A professional man may talk about washing the car, digging in his flowerbeds, painting the house. His wife may even help with these things, just as he often helps her with the dishwashing. The son who is away at college may wait on table and wash dishes for his living, or during the summer he may work with a construction gang on a highway in order to pay for his education.

1. What can we infer from Paragraph 1?

A．In America, people tend to have a high opinion of the self-made man.

B．In America, people can always rise to the top through their own efforts.

C．In America, college professors win great respect from common workers.

D．In America, people feel painful to mention their fathers as labors.

2. Why does the hostess mentioned in the passage cook dinner herself?

A．Because servants in America are hard to get.

B．Because she takes pride in what she can do herself.

C．Because she can hardly afford servants.

D．Because it is easy to prepare a meal with canned food.

3. What does the underlined phrase “wait on table” in the second paragraph mean?

A．Work in a furniture shop.	B．Keep accounts for a bar.
C．Wait to lay the table.	D．Serve customers in a restaurant.

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A．A respectable self-made family.

B．American attitude toward manual labor.

C．Characteristics of American culture

D．The development of manual labor.