1 . As the pandemic separates us from loved ones, many of us are trying to stay connected through texting, email, and social media, even taking the opportunity to reconnect with long-lost friends.

But if our goal is to feel closer to people and enjoy our conversations more, we’d better pick up the phone, according to a new study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

In the study, participants (参与者)imagined having a conversation with a friend they hadn't been in touch with for at least two years and made predictions (预测) about how it would feel to connect by phone versus(对比)email. "We think it's going to be awkward to talk to somebody, but that just turns out not to be the case," says lead author Amit Kumar. "Instead... people form stronger connection when they're talking on the phone than when communicating over email. ”

The same result held true when the researchers had participants do a conversation exercise with strangers using either video chatting, audio(声音的),only chatting, or text-chatting. People who used media that included the voice had more satisfying exchanges and felt closer to their new friends than the text-chatters.

Why? Likely it's because our voices communicate a variety of emotions, helping others to read us better and to feel like they really know us. Hearing someone's voice helps understand each other better —in some cases, even better than video chatting.

So, while texting can be useful, it's not the best way to get the most out of socializing. If we're looking for greater happiness and connection, we should give someone a call.

1. What do the underlined words “the case” in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A．Stronger connection is possible.

B．Predictions agree with the results.

C．Talking on the phone is awkward.

D．Communication over e-mail is effective.

2. Why do participants communicating with voice feel closer?

A．They can talk more quickly.

B．Voices show more emotions.

C．Voices are easier to understand.

D．They are more familiar with voice.

3. How do researchers get the study result?

A．By quoting experts' words.	B．By telling stories.
C．By making comparisons.	D．By introducing theories.

4. What is considered the best way to connect with someone?

A．Text chatting.	B．Sending emails.
C．Making calls.	D．Writing letters.

2 . Salad seeds（生菜种子）that went on a round trip to outer space and back grew at a slightly slower rate than the ones on earth, scientists have found, thanks to thousands of young people who helped conduct an out-of-this-world experiment.

The project started in 2015, when British astronaut （宇航员）Tim Peake took a million rocket seeds with him on his journey to the International Space Station （ISS）. The seeds spent six months there before they were sent back to Earth in 2016. In a message sent from the ISS, Peake said the science experiment was to find out if the conditions in space affected the seeds' ability to grow.

Around 600,000 pupils at 8,600 schools in the UK were then asked to grow the rocket seeds that had been to space, along with regular seeds that had never left the planet. Peake described the experiment as "one of the largest and most inspirational experiments of its kind".

The results of the study, which have just been published, found that the space seeds grew more slowly than the ones that had stayed on Earth. Researchers on the experiment said this was due to the stresses of space travel, such as the zero-gravity （零重力）atmosphere and high levels of cosmic rays（宇宙射线）,which slowed the growth of the plants.

Now researchers are hopeful that if the seeds are properly protected, it might be possible to grow plants during future space tasks to other planets. Dr Jake Chandler, from University of London, who led the study, said,“ The possibility of eating home-grown salad on Mars may be one small step closer.

1. Why did Tim Peake take seeds to ISS?

A．To explore the secret to gravity.

B．To have astronauts grow salad in ISS.

C．To promote young kids，interest in salad.

D．To test the space's influence on seeds growth.

2. How did Tim Peake feel about the experiment?

A．Encouraged.

B．Disappointed.

C．Confused.

D．Concerned.

3. From which part of a website is the text probably taken?

A．Health.

B．Science.

C．Educatn.

D．Business.

4. What could be the best title of the text?

A．Space study, a hot topic

B．Salad growing, a hit among students

C．Your salad, grown on Mars, may soon be a reality

D．Man's exploration to Mars, a big step forward

3 . My Ph. D. adviser called me into his office, saying I needn't bring my notebook. After 15 minutes of listing my positive things, he looked me in the eye and said,“You are fired from the lab.”

I had moved to Israel from my native India the year before, excited to experience a new culture and study for a Ph. D.   At first things went well in my new lab. Then, 3 months before I was fired, I ran into some problems. I made a few mistakes in the lab that slowed my research, but I wasn't aware that my adviser noticed them, and he never spoke to me about any concerns. I’m still not sure why he fired me, but I guess it was because of those mistakes. He wasn't confident that I could complete my research in time as we'd planned.

The first few days after I was fired were especially difficult. I spent hours staring at my computer screen, unable to get anything done. One day all I could do was sit on a beach, crying. I tried to change his mind with promising results, but he stuck to his decision. I could not break the news to my family in India, as the fear of disappointing them overwhelmed （压垮）me. I soon got into a state of sadness and anxiety. Meanwhile, the date for me to leave the country was drawing near, as my visa required me to be registered as a student. I was lonely and without hope.

Around that time, I watched Dasvidaniya, a Bollywood movie that's about a man who has 3 months to live. One line from the movie stuck out to me :“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade（柠檬水）” .What kind of lemonade could I make out of my present situation? My desire to complete a Ph. D. was never in doubt. After much reflection, I told myself that one failed attempt was not the end of the world, and that I needed to give it another try. With renewed confidence, I emailed expected advisers and applied to other programs. Within 2 months, I landed an offer from a Ph. D. program in Italy. I accepted it and relocated to Europe, happy that my goal of completing a Ph. D. was alive once again.

I’m thankful that I didn't give up on my dream and that I found another professor willing to take me on.

1. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?

A．The personality of the adviser.

B．The author's problems in study.

C．The possible reason for the author's being fired.

D．The author's difficulty in adapting to a new culture.

2. What did the author do after being fired?

A．He applied for a new visa.

B．He got addicted to computer games.

C．He tried to change the adviser's mind.

D．He shared the news with his family in India.

3. What kind of "lemonade” did the author make out of the difficult situation?

A．Persuading the adviser to let him stay.

B．Being responsible for different programs.

C．Holding the belief to get a doctor's degree.

D．Getting accepted by another Ph. D. program.

4. What lesson can we learn from the story?

A．Direction is more important than effort,

B．Turn to movies for comfort when in trouble.

C．A doctor’s degree is important for the future.

D．Difficulties in life can be turned into something positive.

4 . Instead of going on a trip or buying herself new clothes:Xiao Tong from Wuhan, Hubei province,chose to celebrate her senior high school graduation in a different way. She went to a beauty clinic to have plastic surgery on her nose."I want to make a good impression and start my university life with a brand-new look,"the 18-year-old told Changjiang Daily.

Like Xiao Tong,many young Chinese are anxious about their looks, and more and more subject themselves to plastic surgery.Young people do it for different reasons,and improving self-confidence is one of them.

Wang Fang,18,from Beijing, felt that her eyes were too small. In 2019,after she got in university,Wang had a minor operation done on her eyelids."Before I had the surgery, I had a negative view of myself.Therefore,I had no confidence,"Wang told Beijing Youth Daily.

But Jiang Wenxiu of the Department of Psychiatry, Zhongda Hospital, Southeast University in Jiangsu,advised that people should think twice before going under the knife. ＂Medical beauty apps only show how great plastic surgery can be,"Jiang told China Daily. ＂They leave out all the negative things."

Today beauty clinics are well aware that these young students are mostly short of money,so they use summer discounts, installment plans and other ways to attract their attention.

Xiao Zhen,17,from Chengdu,Sichuan province,is one of the victims. She took out a loan(贷款） of about 20,000 yuan to get plastic surgery.But the large sum of money became a big burden. She had to drop out of school and go to work to pay off the loan.

Besides the financial burden, potential health risks of plastic surgery also need to be considered.

＂If you have big problems with your look, you should wait until you are a full adult, and then decide if you want to do something about it,"Jiang said."Then,with a stable(稳定的）mind,you can consider inner and outer beauty,and whether plastic surgery is for you.”

1. Why does the author mention Xiao Tong in the first paragraph?

A．To explain what plastic surgery is.

B．To praise her bravery to live a different life.

C．To show the popularity of plastic surgery.

D．To introduce a new way to start university.

2. What does Xiao Zhen lose for her surgery?

A．Freedom.

B．Education.

C．Health.

D．Confidence.

3. What is Jiang Wenxiu's attitude towards plastic surgery?

A．Admiring.

B．Worried.

C．Cautious(谨慎的）

D．Satisfied.

4. What is the best title of the passage?

A．Popular plastic surgery.

B．Never take plastic surgery.

C．What makes plastic surgery popular?

D．Show your confidence in plastic surgery.

5 . The traditional Chinese lunar calendar(农历）divides the year into 24 solar terms(节气）．Start of Winter, the 19th solar term of the year,begins this year on Nov 7 and ends on Nov 21.

Start of Winter is the first solar term of winter,which means winter is coming and crops harvested in autumn should he stored up.

In ancient times, the Start of Winter was regarded as the beginning of winter, however,due to geographical factors, the actual winter time varies from place to place.

In fact,the Start of Winter is not the beginning of winter in terms of meteorology(气象学）。The weather every year is different, so the beginning of winter could be quite different.And as China is very large, it starts at different times in different areas.

The beginnings of the four seasons were important festivals in ancient times. Before the Start of Winter,the ancient emperor would take a shower and have no more meat.On that day,the emperor would lead his officials to the countryside and"welcome the winter".

People eat dumplings on the beginning of winter. Legend has it that in the late Eastern Han Dynasty,Zhang Zhongjing invented "Jiao Ear"(娇耳）to treat typhoid(伤寒） patients with ear frostbite(冻疮）.He cooked mutton,hot peppers and herbs to drive out the cold and warm up the body.He put these materials into a dough skin and made them into an ear shape.Since then,people have learned to make the food which became known as "dumpling" or jiaozi. Today there is still a saying that goes "Eat dumplings on Start of Winter Day, or your ears will be frostbitten.”

1. Which of the following is right about Start of Winter?

A．It is one of the solar terns in Chinese calendar.

B．People begin to harvest crops on this day.

C．Winter begins on November 7 this year.

D．It begins in different months in different places.

2. What does it in paragraph 4 refer to?

A．the Start of Winter

B．the change of weather

C．the important festival

D．the beginning of winter

3. What do the last two paragraphs mainly talk about?

A．Importance of Start of Winter.

B．Customs of Start of Winter.

C．Origin(起源）of Start of Winter.

D．Food eaten on Start of Winter.

4. Why do people eat dumplings on Start of Winter day?

A．Because dumplings can drive away typhoid.

B．Because they wish for good luck for themselves.

C．Because eating dumplings can warm up their ears.

D．Because they want to prevent the coming of winter.

6 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

One day just before closing time, John rushed into    1     TV store to buy a color TV setwith the money he     2     (save) for three months. The friendly shop assistant was waiting for the day's last and     3     (twenty) customer to reach her sales target for her bonus,     4    she warmly greeted John and showed him the various     5     (model) on display. She asked John to see     6     clear and colorful the image on the screen was. At that moment, a new commercial advertisement came onto the screen,     7     (introduce) a popular brand of camera as well as some beautiful pictures it had taken. The camera     8     (attract) John. He     9     (sudden) changed his mind and told the shop assistant “Thank you for the TV commercial advertisement. Now I have to hurry to the camera store     10     (get) that camera.”

7 . A work of art created by artificial intelligence (AI) has been sold by a major art seller for the first time. The print sold for an unexpectedly large amount of $432, 500. The artwork was bought during an auction (拍卖) Thursday at Christie’s, an art house, in New York City. Officials had predicted it would sell for between $7, 000 and $10, 000.

In a website post, Christie’s said the AI-created work was the first ever sold by a major auction house. It praised the sale as a signal of “the arrival of AI art on the world auction stage.”

The artwork, called “Portrait (肖像) of Edmond Belamy,” was made by a machine learning algorithm (算法). The AI system was created by members of an art group called Obvious in Paris, France. It shows the portrait of a man, looking similar to subjects shown in historical paintings. Christie’s described some differences of the AI-created work compared to other art it sells. For example, it said some parts of the face were not as clearly drawn as those painted by artists. Also some parts of the print were left empty. However, Christie’s sale organizer Richard Lloyd said the piece was very similar to many others sold over many years.

Three creators from the art group Obvious cooperated on the process that made the print. First they put a collection of 15,000 portraits into a machine learning system. The portraits were painted by artists from the time period between the 14th and 20th centuries. Then a tool called the “Generator” made a new image based on the information entered into the system. After that, another tool, called a “Discriminator”, attempted to find differences between the human-made image and the one created by the Generator. Then the image was improved. “The aim is to fool the Discriminator into thinking that the new images are real-life portraits. Then we have a result.” Obvious group member Hugo Caselles-dupre said in a statement.

1. It can be inferred from the text that___________.

A．the AI portrait received much recognition

B．there is little true artistic value in AI artwork

C．technology will one day replace human artists

D．there is no similar AI system for art at present

2. What does the underlined word “subjects” in paragraph 3 refer to?

A．Artists.

B．Machines

C．Figures

D．Techniques.

3. What is the final purpose of a “Discriminator” ?

A．To select useful information from real-life portraits.

B．To help the portrait more like a human-made one.

C．To put human portraits into the machine learning system.

D．To create a portrait based on paintings by human artists

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．The Secret of AI

B．AI Portrait Sold

C．Artwork and AI

D．AI Art at Christie’s

8 . Minh Best, born without arms, loves to paint and she's found a unique way to approach her work. To ____ her paintings, she uses her foot to hold the brush. The girl has not let anything   ____ her back, especially from doing what she loves: painting.

Her paintings have ____ from an artistic hobby into a way for Minh and her parents, Sarah Best and Justin Best, to raise money for her to ____ Camp No Limits. " Camp No Limits is a camp for children with limb (肢体) differences, " Sarah Best said. We are trying to ____ to West next year as there are campers like Minh and we want her to ____ them.”

Online and direct messages with specific requests are ____ ways Minh's paintings have been sold. “Several people have told us, with tears in their eyes, how ____ they are to get to see her do what she loves. “ Sarah Best said.

The family has already raised more than $5,000, helping pay for travel ____ to two camps just this year. “ ____ she attends these camps, she’ll know she’s just one of the crowd, ” Sarah Best remarked.

As her drawings continue to ____ the shelves, Minh's family would love to be able to help other kids attend these camps and offer financial assistance through these _____. “Attending these camps, she’s already ____ others as well,” Best said. “Again, her love for life is just catching and it gives people of all ages ____, even at these camps.”

Minh will continue to paint, cook, dance and do everything that brings her joy ____ limitations.

1.

A．sell

B．enjoy

C．promote

D．make

2.

A．hold

B．call

C．bring

D．give

3.

A．risen

B．grown

C．ranged

D．stayed

4.

A．attend

B．witness

C．experience

D．deliver

5.

A．move

B．walk

C．travel

D．cycle

6.

A．argue with

B．catch up with

C．fit in with

D．agree with

7.

A．normal

B．common

C．original

D．unique

8.

A．blessed

B．annoyed

C．considerate

D．adorable

9.

A．plans

B．books

C．aims

D．expenses

10.

A．Since

B．Though

C．When

D．Because

11.

A．run into

B．pass down

C．apply for

D．fly off

12.

A．lessons

B．classes

C．donations

D．comments

13.

A．hurt

B．inspired

C．prevented

D．offended

14.

A．money

B．hope

C．experiences

D．paintings

15.

A．without

B．despite

C．over

D．through

9 . Be a good tourist

Tourism can be good or bad. Yes, it brings in money for the local economy and creates lots of jobs for locals, but it may also bring some problems.

    1     Tourists have used paint, rocks or even keys to write on the Luxor Temple in Egypt, the Colosseum in Rome, Stonehenge in the UK, memorial stones at the bottom of Qomolangma, and many, many other places. Thousands of tourist sites are being destroyed by tourists who “love them to death”.     2     If you want to leave a mark on the world, do it by changing someone’s life with kindness and love. Pass kindness along to future generations, not destruction.

Another big problem in some places has been tourists disturbing the local people and life.       3     For example, Chang Mai University in Tailand and Yonsei University in South Korea have great numbers of tourists visiting their campuses and walking through their libraries and other public areas, taking pictures of students and disturbing their studies. I have three words for tourists like this: please be considerate.     4    

The number of problems from tourists is endless: walking in large groups without considering others who need to walk by, crossing roads without observing local traffic laws, and many more. The only way to solve the issue of the terrible tourist is to make sure that you not the one!     5    

Remember, whenever you step outside your country’s borders, you are representing your country to the rest of the world.

A．Just think from other aspects.

B．When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

C．Have fun in a way that does not disturb others.

D．Be the best, kindest, most polite tourist possible.

E．I have three words for people like this: please stop it.

F．One growing problem is tourists who want to prove that they have visited someplace.

G．Some tourists wander around and take pictures of local people without asking for their permission.

10 . People have different ways of dealing with a common cold. Some take over the counter medicines such as aspirin while others try popular home remedies(治疗) like herbal tea or chicken soup. Yet here is the tough truth about the common cold: nothing really cures it.

So why do people sometimes believe that their remedies work? According to James Taylor, professor at the University of Washington, colds usually go away on their own in about a week, improving a little each day after symptoms peak, so it's easy to believe it's medicine rather than time that deserves the credit, USA Today reported.

It still seems hard to believe that we can deal with more serious diseases yet are powerless against something so common as a cold. Recently, scientists came closer to figure out why. To understand it, you first need to know how antiviral drugs work. They attack the virus by attaching to and changing the surface structures of the virus. To do that, the drug must fit and lock into the virus like the right piece of a jigsaw(拼图), which means scientists have to identify the virus and build a 3D model to study its surface before they can design an antiviral drug that is effective enough.

The two cold viruses that scientists had long known about were rhinovirus(鼻病毒) A and B. But they didn't find out about the existence of a third virus, rhinovirus C, until 2006. All three of them contribute to the common cold, but drugs that work well against rhinovirus A and B have little effect when used against rhinovirus C.

''This explains most of the previous failures of drug trials against rhinoviruses,'' study leader Professor Ann C. Palmenberg at the University of Wiscons in Madison, US, told Science Daily.

Now, more than 10 years after the discovery of rhinovirus C, scientists have finally built a highly detailed 3D model of the virus, showing that the surface of the virus is, as expected, different from that of other cold viruses.

With the model in hand, hopefully a real cure for a common cold is on its way. Soon, we may no longer have to waste our money on medicines that don't really work.

1. What does the author think of popular remedies for a common cold?

A．They are quite effective.	B．They are slightly helpful.
C．They actually have no effect.	D．They still need to be improved.

2. How do antiviral drugs work?

A．By breaking up cold viruses directly.

B．By changing the surface structures of the cold viruses.

C．By preventing colds from developing into serious diseases.

D．By absorbing different kinds of cold viruses at the same time.

3. What can we infer from the passage?

A．The surface of cold viruses looks quite similar.

B．Scientists have already found a cure for the common cold.

C．Scientists were not aware of the existence of rhinovirus C until recently.

D．Knowing the structure of cold viruses is the key to developing an effective cure.

4. What is the best title for this passage?

A．Drugs against cold viruses	B．Helpful home remedies
C．No current cure for common cold	D．Research on cold viruses