1 . When the cold weather hits, swimming is probably an activity that’s far from your mind.
Work your muscles
Every time you swim, it is like doing a miniresistance workout. Each kick and pull works your muscles more than you might imagine, especially your arms, shoulders and gluteus—the muscles that are inactive all day when you’re sitting at your desk. Swimming also works your abs(腹肌) and will reduce your waistline.
Lift your spirits
Exercise gives off chemicals in your body called endorphins(内啡肽). These cause a positive feeling into your body which makes you happy.
Swimming is one of the best activities you can do all year round which benefits your body and your mind. Swimming has been found to increase blood flow to the brain, which leads to more oxygen. That means you’ll experience improved alertness, better memory and cognitive(认知的) function.
Meet new people
| A．Good for your brain. |
| B．Greatly beneficial to your body. |
| C．These chemicals can control your thought and action. |
| D．Swimming has been shown to reduce stress and tension. |
| E．While swimming is an individual sport, it’s also very social. |
| F．So, along with building fitness, it is a wonderful fullbody exercise. |
| G．But swimming is one of the best activities everyone can undertake in winter. |
1．乐于助人 2．英语流利 3．善于交际
要求:80词左右，开头和结尾已经给出。
参考词汇:冬奥会the Winter Olympics
Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for taking your time to read my letter.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I’m looking forward to your early reply.
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
3 . On paper, hydrogen（H2）looks like a dream fuel. Coal, oil, and natural gas produce carbon dioxide, which warms the earth when burned, Hydrogen produces pure water. Hydrogen packs more energy into less space than a battery（but certainly less than petrol）. Also, empty tanks（燃料箱）can be refilled with hydrogen much faster than refilling empty batteries with electricity.
While in practice, things are trickier. Storing a meaningful amount of hydrogen gas requires pressing it several hundred-fold. Changing it into the liquid form is another option, but it should be cooled to-253C. Both processes require a heavy and strong tank. While a 700 bar tank is acceptable for a city bus or a truck, adapting it for use in small vehicles is very difficult because the pressure during refilling would be too great.
The solution? Powerpaste.
A German team of researchers, led by Marcus Vogt, have come up with an interesting "powerpaste", which can store hydrogen energy at atmospheric pressure, ready for release when needed. It is so named because it comes in tubes and looks like toothpaste（牙膏）, not in its traditional form of gas.
The main ingredient（原料）of the paste is magnesium hydride, a substance that reacts with water to form hydrogen. The escaped hydrogen can then be directed into a fuel cell, where it reacts with oxygen from the air to produce electric power.
Refueling is very simple, as instead of going to a filling station, drivers and riders can simply replace an empty tube with a new one and refill the water tank.
Given that powerpaste only begins to break down at temperatures of around 250℃ it remains safe even when a vehicle stands in the baking sun for hours.
However, we will have to be patient. Just because researchers have succeeded in developing a new fueling way does not mean that we can expect to see such vehicles on the road anytime soon. It will indeed be several years before this concept is turned into reality.
1. As a fuel, what is the advantage of hydrogen over oil?| A．Refilling empty tanks will be more convenient. |
| B．It is less likely to worsen global warming |
| C．More energy can be packed in the same space. |
| D．It will produce pure water for people to drink. |
| A．The practical difficulties to use hydrogen as fuel in small vehicles. |
| B．The detailed processes of adapting a strong tank in small vehicles. |
| C．The differences in fueling between large vehicles and small ones. |
| D．The tricks of building strong tanks in small vehicles. |
| A．inexpensive | B．powerful | C．convenient | D．environment-friendly |
| A．Powerpaste-driven vehicles sometimes move very slowly on the road. |
| B．Practical use of powerpaste-driven vehicles will not come very soon. |
| C．Powerpaste-driven vehicles can only work after being in the sun for hours |
| D．It will be years before the researchers work out the concept of powerpaste. |
Bioprinting is medically and bio — technologically similar to 3D printing. By using the same principles, the aim is to
Australian researchers have used neural cells in a custom-made bioink to create a “desktop brain”
One of the primary goals of bioprinting is to create functioning organs, for example, hearts. By printing compatible(兼容的) organs using a patient's own cells, the donor
Organ printing can improve
I was in the ninth year when I began to suffer depression. My parents noticed but felt that since I’d always been
The examination was approaching, but I simply didn’t care. My parents and teachers were surprised
No one had tried to understand what the real problem was except the headmaster,
6 . What is the best part of a typical relaxing summer day? Nothing is better than sitting in an armchair with a beer and some chips in your hand, enjoying the great comfort.
The much-loved combination of beer and chips is being exploited for the first time to deal with climate change. Chips firm Walkers has adopted a technique it says will cut CO2 emissions (排放) from its production process by 70%.
The technology will use CO2 captured from beer processing in a brewery (啤酒厂), which is then mixed with potato waste and turned into fertilizer. It will then be spread on UK fields to feed the following year’s potato crop. Creating fertilizer normally produces high CO2 emissions, but the technology adopted by Walkers makes fertilizer without generating CO2. So, the beer-and-chips combination performs a double function. It stops the emission of brewery CO2 into the atmosphere — and it saves on the CO2 normally generated by fertilizer production.
This Creative win-win solution was developed with an approval from the UK government by a 14-employee start-up called CCm. The fertilizer was experimented on potato seed beds this year, and next year Walkers will install CCm equipment at its Leicester factory to prepare for its 2022 crop.
A decision has not yet been made on which brewery Walkers will work with on this. The new technology adds to carbon-saving techniques already under way. The firm has installed an anaerobic digester (厌氧消化池), which feeds potato waste to bacteria to produce a useful gas. The gas is burned to make electricity for the chip-frying process — so this saves on burning gas or coal.
The new system will go a step further by taking away potato “cake” left after digestion — and mixing the brewery CO2 into it to make an enriched fertilizer which will help put carbon back into the soil as well as encouraging plant growth.
It’s an example of scientists finding ways to use CO2 emissions which otherwise would increase the over-heating of the planet.
1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To draw readers’ attention. |
| B．To entertain readers. |
| C．To show how useful beer and chips are to our life. |
| D．To introduce a way of life. |
| A．It will be totally cost-free. |
| B．It doesn’t consume any energy. |
| C．It will be a perfect solution to climate change. |
| D．It is environmentally-friendly. |
| A．How CO2 is turned into fertilizer. |
| B．How the technology stops CO2 emissions. |
| C．How an energy-saving green technology works. |
| D．The advantages of a new technology. |
| A．The technology will fix the problem of global warming. |
| B．Walkers has a wide range of partner choices.? |
| C．This technology will be adopted by many chips firms soon. |
| D．Scientists are seeking solutions to climate change. |
I love parties. I love planning for them, making the invitations, planning the games and decorating my own cake. The only thing that I don't like is deciding on the guest list. When 1 was in grade school my mom would tell me the maximum number of friends that I could invite and it was always a number too small for my list.
I also liked all different kinds of people. I never quite fit into one of the many little groups at my school, so I just kind of floated around, accumulating friends from various backgrounds. There was an “in" crowd made up of the cool kids who had the power to rule the school-if a cool kid wore two different colored socks to school one day, everyone thought it was great. But if an uncool kid did the same thing, the other kids would turn away in disgust （厌恶）.It made getting dressed in the morning a very scary thing.
Shannon was one of my friends who seemed to unknowingly break the rules of uncoolness" all the time. I don't know why she was targeted, but people found it acceptable to make fun of her. Shannon was a nice girl and wore pretty clothes, but was somewhat overweight and didn't talk much. She was picked on a lot. Whenever there was an strange noise or smell in the classroom the kids would giggle （咯咯笑）and point at her. Shannon never said anything, but it made me feel sick inside. Shannon was innocent, I thought.
One year, to celebrate my birthday, my mom told me I could have a party at our house. I struggled for days deciding on which girls to invite. Once I had chosen all the names, I made the invitations and handed them out to my friends at school.
“Why did you invite her?” asked one of my cool friends when it was discovered that I had invited Shannon. She pressured me to tell her not to come. There were other people I could add in her place who would be more acceptable.
注意:1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1 ：
Unsure what to do, I was put in a, difficult situation.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2 ：
Weeks later, Shannon suddenly called to thank me for inviting her to the party.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
8 . Selective breeding, also known as artificial selection, is a process used by humans to develop new organisms with desirable traits. It can be used to produce tastier fruits and vegetables, crops with greater resistance to pests, and larger animals that can be used for meat.
Perhaps the earliest example of selective breeding is the domestic dog. Scientists believe that the domestic dog evolved from the wild gray wolf, and through artificial selection, humans were able to create hundreds of different dog breeds. As people domesticated and bred dogs, they favored specific traits, like size or intelligence, for certain tasks, such as hunting, shepherding, or companionship. As a result, many dog breeds vastly differ in appearance, a unique phenomenon in the animal world, as different breeds of a single species generally look like each other. The Chihuahua and the Dalmatian, for instance, are both dogs, yet they share few physical features.
Selective breeding has also been practiced in agriculture for thousands of years. Almost every fruit and vegetable eaten today is a product of artificial selection. By picking out wild cabbage plants with specific characteristics, farmers were able to create a variety of vegetables from a single source, each with differing flavors. Broccoli, for example, was developed from wild cabbage plants that hadn't enough flower development while kale came from Brassica oleracea with larger leaves.
Corn is an unusual product of selective breeding. Unlike rice, wheat, and cabbage, which have clear ancestors, there is no wild plant that looks like corn. The earliest records of corn indicate that the plant was developed in southern Mexico 6,000—10,000 years ago from a grass called teosinte. Scientists believe that early Mexican farmers selected only the largest and tastiest seeds of teosinte for planting. This process allowed Mexicans to develop corn very quickly, as small changes in the plant's genetic makeup had dramatic effects on the grain's taste and size.
Without selective breeding, many of the plants and animals on earth today would not exist. However, every coin has two sides.
1. What does the author intend to do in Paragraph 1 ?| A．Introduce a new topic for discussion. | B．Add some background information. |
| C．Provide scientific data for readers. | D．Explain a scientific study method. |
| A．selective breeding is very successful |
| B．selective breeding leads to biodiversity |
| C．selective breeding brings difference in appearance |
| D．selective breeding might bring about new species |
| A．It has genetic makeup opposite to teosinte. | B．It is the earliest plant developed by Mexicans. |
| C．It hasn't an ancestor in Mother Nature. | D．It shares few physical similarities with its ancestors. |
| A．More examples of selective breeding. | B．Disadvantages of selective breeding. |
| C．Influence of selective breeding on species. | D．Comparison between natural and selective breeding. |
9 . Few people realize that it takes the army of volunteers for one young child to have a half-hour riding lesson. I volunteer at Valley Therapeutic Equestrian Association (VTEA) in Alder grove. B. C. , close to the Washington State border. It takes a few paid staff and an army of volunteers-approximately eighty-to take care of a dozen horses and help with eighty or more children during the week. There is a large barn to clean, and hay nets and water buckets to brush and fill. Specific feeds for each horse must be prepared twice daily…. The list is endless.
To prepare a horse for a ride, someone has to bring it in from outside, at times sinking into inches of black, sticky mud during the winter months. Usually, two volunteers groom (刷洗梳毛) the horse and put on the special saddle. Then they lead the horse to where the lesson takes place. There, one volunteer leads the horse, and usually two walk alongside for safety, one on each side. Then the horse must be returned to the barn, unsaddled, cleaned and fed.
Yet so many people willingly give their time-because the children need us. Ranging in age from two upwards, the children have varying degrees of mental disabilities. Some have severe physical handicaps (残疾). Riding strengthens their muscles and bones, enabling them to enjoy a more fruitful life.
Throughout my past life as an accountant, business author and speaker, I volunteered on many levels and in many organizations. However, a terrible motor-vehicle accident changed my life in a split second when my car was hit—as was my head——causing severe brain injury. It was hard to accept a new "me" and her often-frustrating limitations, until I discovered that I needed to do something that I have a passion for. I’d loved horses from childhood, and working with them and with the children has helped turn my life around, making me warm from the inside out. The journey back has been painful but worthwhile. Now, fourteen years later, I am a different, more simplified person.
1. What is the main idea of Paragraph 2?| A．Horses for riding lessons are cared for carefully. |
| B．Horse-riding lessons bring children many benefits. |
| C．Volunteers have much to do for a horse-riding lesson. |
| D．Disabled children are taught horse-riding in a different way. |
| A．Risky and thrilling. | B．Tiring but worthwhile. |
| C．Funny and enjoyable. | D．Demanding but fruitless. |
| A．The accident transformed her thoroughly. |
| B．Volunteering has brought her a win-win result. |
| C．She's never recovered from the injury. |
| D．She wasn't interested in voluntary work before. |
| A．Helping Children in Need | B．Surviving the Brain Injury |
| C．Volunteering: A Journey Back | D．Horse-riding: Toughest Lessons |
10 . Men hunted. Women gathered. That has long been the common view of our prehistoric ancestors. But the discovery of a woman buried 9000 years ago in the Andes Mountains with weapons and hunting tools, and an analysis of other burial sites in the Americas challenges this widely accepted division of labor in hunter-gatherer society.
“Labor practices among recent hunter-gatherer societies are highly gendered, which might lead some to believe that sexist inequalities in things like pay or rank are somehow 'natural' , ”said lead study author Randy Haas, an assistant professor of anthropology (人类学) at University of California, Davis, in a news release. "But it's now clear that sexual division of labor was fundamentally different-likely more equal and reasonable-in our species deep hunter-gatherer past."
The burial site was discovered in 2018 during excavations (发掘) at a high-altitude site called Wilamaya Patjxa in what is now Peru. The woman, thought to be between 17 and 19 years old when she died, was buried with items that suggested she hunted big-game animals.
Although some scholars have suggested a role for women in ancient hunting, others have dismissed this idea even when hunting tools were uncovered in female burials. To examine whether this woman found at this site was an outlier, the researchers examined 429 skeletons (骷髅) at 107 burials sites in North and South America around 8000 to 14000 years ago. Of those, 27 individuals were buried with hunting tools—11 were female and 15 were male. The sample was sufficient to "support the conclusion that female participation in early big-game hunting was likely not unusual".
The findings add to doubts about man — the hunter assumption that informed much thinking about early humans since the mid-20th century. “They suggest hunting was very much a community-based activity, needing the participation of all able-bodied individuals to drive large animals”, the paper said. The weapon of choice at that time had low accuracy, encouraging broad participation, and using it was a skill learned from childhood.
1. What does the recent burial site at Andes Mountains show?| A．The origin of sexual inequality. |
| B．Hunting skills of ancient times. |
| C．The social system of prehistoric hunters. |
| D．Job division of hunter-gatherer society. |
| A．Gender plays no part in recent hunter-gatherer society. |
| B．Sexist inequality is a natural result of prehistoric society. |
| C．Ancient division of labor might be fairer than we'd thought. |
| D．Public ideas of women's role will be changed abruptly. |
| A．Exception. | B．Failure. |
| C．Role model. | D．Easy target. |
| A．Lack of able-bodied individuals. |
| B．Imperfection in hunting weapons. |
| C．Better accuracy of females in hunting. |
| D．Need for large animals as food source. |
