3 . Heman Bekele, a 14-year-old student from Annandale, Virginia, has created a bar soap (肥皂) to treat melanoma, the most common kind of skin cancer, which earned him the title of America’s Top Young Scientist and a $25,000 cash prize after his innovation won first place in the 3M Young Scientist Challenge.

“I made this soap by mixing regular medicinal soap with different cancer fighting chemicals.” Bekele said in an interview. Rather than a cure, Bekele’s soap aims to help the patient’s immune cells stay active while fighting melanoma.

While similar methods are available for skin cancer treatments, his solution is a more affordable alternative, especially for those in developing countries. Though the product is very promising on paper, studies would have to be carried out to test its efficiency in the real world.

For now, the young scientist said he has a five-year plan: At the end of it, he hopes to have created a nonprofit organization where he can provide fair and accessible skin cancer treatment to as many people as possible. But to accomplish his goal, he would have to get his treatment through clinical trials, obtain a temporary patent and have it licensed by the Food and Drug Administration, he said.

“I applied for the 3M Young Scientist Challenge because I believe that young minds can make a positive impact on the world,” Bekele said. “I have always been interested in biology and technology, and this challenge gave me the perfect platform to showcase my ideas. The opportunity to work with 3M mentors and show my project to judges was an exciting prospect. I am passionate about finding sustainable solutions to global problems, and I hope to inspire others to do the same.”

1. Why does Bekele invent the bar soap?

A．To deal with a kind of skin cancer.

B．To reduce the cost of making soap.

C．To change people’s immune system.

D．To complete the task for 3M challenge.

2. What aspect of the soap does Paragraph 3 mainly talk about?

A．Its making process.	B．Its working method.
C．Its advantage.	D．Its development.

3. What is Bekele’s next plan for his invention?

A．To create a company.

B．To get approval by the authority.

C．To promote the soap in the market.

D．To work with a nonprofit organization.

4. Which of the following can best describe Bekele?

A．Innovative and ambitious.	B．Inspiring and tolerant.
C．Honest and accessible.	D．Energetic and thoughtful.

4 . The rate of childhood obesity in the U. S. has tripled over the past 50 years. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) made waves this year by recommending that doctors put obese kids as young as two years old on intensive, family-oriented lifestyle and behavior plans. It also suggested prescribing weight-loss drugs to children l2 and older and surgery to teens 13 and older. This advice reflects the organization’s adoption of a more active position on childhood obesity.

Yet the lifestyle programs the AAP recommends are expensive, inaccessible to most children and hard to maintain. Few weight-loss drugs have been approved for children. And surgery has potential risks and few long-term safety data. Furthermore, it’s not clear whether interventions in youngsters help to improve health or merely add to the psychological burden overweight kids face from the society.

Rather than paying close attention to numbers on a scale, the U. S. and countries with similar trends should focus on an underlying truth: we need to invest in more and safer places for children to play where they can move and run around, climb and jump, ride and skate.

Why is it so hard to get kids moving? Experts blame the problem on the privatization of sports — as public investment in school-based athletics dwindles, expensive private leagues have grown, leaving many kids out. In addition to fewer opportunities at school, researchers cite increased screen time and a lack of safe places for them to play outside the home. New York City, for example, had 2,067 public playgrounds as of 2019 — a very small amount for its large population. In Los Angeles in 2015, only 33 percent of youths lived within walking distance of a park.

Kids everywhere need more places to play. Public funding to build and keep up these areas is crucial, but other options such as shared-use agreements can make unused spaces available to the public. These opportunities aren’t primarily about changing children’s waistlines — they’re how we keep childhood healthy and fun.

1. What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?

A．Childhood obesity is well under control in recent years.

B．Weight-loss surgery are recommended to children 12 and older.

C．AAP plays a more active role in fighting against childhood obesity.

D．Expensive as it is, lifestyle programs are practical for most children.

2. The underlined word “dwindle” is closest in meaning to ______.

A．decline

B．quit

C．increase

D．develop

3. In the author’s opinion, what measures should be taken to create more safe areas?

A．Prepare fitness equipment at home.

B．Live within walking distance of a park.

C．Promote investment in private athletics.

D．Open up playgrounds when school’s out.

4. What’s the main idea of the text?

A．Sports play an important role in children’s growth.

B．More safe areas for outdoor fun are in urgent need.

C．Family-oriented lifestyles are crucial to children’s health.

D．Medical intervention is important to ease psychological burden.

5 . 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。

The audience and viewership for this year’s Spring Festival TV gala, which was aired on Feb 9, Lunar New Year’s Eve or Chinese Lunar New Year, both reached record     1    (high), according to ratings statistics.

    2    (support) by ultra-high-definition production, the gala was telecast on TV screens, public large screens, and mobile devices. A total of 250 million people watched the live streaming of the show via     3    (they) mobile phones with the total views reaching 420 million, up by 37.97 percent and 57.58 percent,     4     (respective), compared with 2023. The China Global Television Network (CGTN) worked with over 2,100 media organizations in about 200 countries and regions to live broadcast or report the show in 68 languages,     5    (result) in over 1.5 billion instances of viewing,    6     increase of 12.69 percent year on year.

This year, the gala, in addition     7    Beijing, had four branch venues. Audience enjoyed a diversity of local cultural elements from those places, such as folk     8     (music) instruments and folk dances.

Since its broadcast in 1983, the annual CCTV Spring Festival Gala     9     (become) an essential part of celebrations in the country to greet the Chinese New Year. As a major entertainment during Lunar New Year’s Eve, the gala marks the joyous moment     10     families gather together to celebrate.

6 . Discover the Huge Health Benefits of Strength Training

One of the best ways to stay fit and healthy as you age is to do strength and power training exercises. It is known that when you are in your thirties, you will begin to lose muscle mass. This loss actually contributes to achy joints, the increased risk of injury, and the “middle-age spread” we all fear. What’s more, the older you get, the faster muscle mass loses. It means that eventually, simple tasks like getting out of a chair and climbing stairs can become more difficult.

Strength training can help you build muscles, make you strong, increase your staying power and make everyday activities easier. By combining strength and power training exercises, you’ll not only get stronger, but also improve your reaction speed. As you grow older, that’s critical because it can help prevent falls. Here is a book, Strength and Power Training for All Ages, for your reference.

Common sense about fitness in the book:

·The key muscles to work for an injury-free body

·How to tell how much weight is suitable for you

·How to strengthen the bones most likely to break

·How to take pressure off your knees when walking or running

·Why you’ll want to apply heat to sore joints before you exercise

Four total body workouts in the book:

·Build bones

·Fight diseases

·Improve balance

·Strengthen muscles &Increase muscle power

Get a copy, start training, and then you’ll discover a whole new self.

1. What will happen as people age according to paragraph 1?

A．They will need less exercise.

B．They will improve reaction speed.

C．They will experience muscle loss.

D．They will have better staying power.

2. What does Strength and Power Training for All Ages mainly teach people to do?

A．Train their brains.	B．Build a sound body.
C．Treat bone diseases.	D．Cut down their weight.

3. What is the text?

A．A notice.	B．An oral folktale.
C．A scientific paper.	D．An advertisement.

7 . LastPass

In this day and age, we need a password for everything — to access our computer, our phone, our bank account, all of our favorite websites and email... the list goes on. Sometimes, it can be troublesome just to remember them all or keep track of them securely.

Luckily, there’s LastPass! As the name implies, LastPass is the last password manager app you will ever need. Through the app, all you need is one password to have secure access to all of your passwords and private information. By using the LastPass Authenticator, you can use biometrics (生物识别技术) to log on with your face or fingerprint. It’s that easy!

Calm

Calm is packed with dozens of features and hundreds of recordings designed to improve your mindfulness, reduce stress and improve sleep. The free version includes select features such as daily meditations (冥想), breathing exercises, a mood tracker, as well as demo sleep stories, relaxation music tracks and guided meditations. Through a paid subscription, the app tailors itself to your needs.

Pocket

When browsing the web, we often come across interesting articles that we’d love to read through more, but just don’t have the time right there and then. But later when we have free time, we completely forget about the articles we wanted to read!

This is where Pocket can help. The main appeal of Pocket is to add a handy save function to your favorite browser ready to click whenever you want to save something for later.

Mint

With digital payment methods, it is easy to get overwhelmed (不堪重负的) when one keeps financial records due to how fast and convenient it is to make purchases on a variety of platforms.

Thankfully, Mint is here to help! This free app can automatically track and organize all of the purchases you make, whether it is through digital payment, cash, credit or debit cards. You can also link and keep track of your debit and savings accounts, investments and properties, and even your digital subscriptions so you’ll know if there’s been a cost increase.

1. If people want to better manage their budgets, they can turn to ________.

A．LastPass	B．Calm
C．Pocket	D．Mint

2. Which of the following statements is true?

A．LastPass is the newest password manager app in the market.

B．Calm meets all kind of requirements from every user.

C．Most users can choose Pocket to save something they want to read later.

D．Mint doesn’t charge but it only keeps financial records through digital payment.

3. Which of the following words can be used to describe the four apps?

A．Energy-saving.	B．Money-consuming.
C．Mind-blowing.	D．Peace-keeping.

8 . 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。

Actress Jia Ling topped the social media topics on the second consecutive day of the Chinese Lunar New Year as her great weight     1     (lose) of 50 kilograms during the shooting of her movie Yolo triggered heated discussions over healthy lifestyle and allowed some viewers     2     (draw) aspirations from her arduous weight-loss journey.

The     3     (high) anticipated comedy Yolo hit theaters across China on Feb 10, the first day of the Lunar New Year. It is now leading the domestic movie box office. According to Douban, “YOLO”     4     (adapt) from the 2014 Japanese movie “100 Yen Love”. This movie is comedian-actress-director Jia Ling’s sophomore feature, three years after her 2021 directorial debut box-office blockbuster “Hi, Mom” for which she holds the record as the world’s highest grossing female movie director.

Topics related     5     Jia’s stunning weight loss were dominating Weibo such as “full record of Jia’s losing weight journey” and “Jia Ling totally shocked me,” as netizens discuss     6     it is time to develop a more balanced habit starting from the Spring Festival.

“Her achievement is quite     7     (inspire) and     8     deserves a movie ticket,” moviegoer Li Qiaoya,     9       regularly visits the gym to lose weight, told the Global Times on Sunday. “I feel     10     (guilt) for eating too much during the Spring Festival already.”