Yoghurt
It was a rough week. The price of oil skyrocketed as the temperature dropped sharply in Maine. We were looking at a high of eight degrees that week, and I had missed three days of work so my paycheck was going to be lower than normal. I was stressed, to say the least. I shopped strategically, looking for every possible way to cut pennies so I could buy groceries and keep the house warm.
My eight-year-old son didn't understand when I told him we were struggling that week. He wanted a special kind of yoghurt, but I didn't have the extra three dollars to buy it for him. It was the kind of yoghurt with a cartoon kid riding a skateboard on the front of the box, and a mere two spoonfuls in each cup. It was the kind of product that wastes a parent's money and makes me hate advertising.
I felt guilty as a parent when those big eyes looked at me with confusion, as if to say, “It's just yoghurt. What's the big deal?” So I found a way. I put something back as single mothers often do. He got his yoghurt.
On the way driving back from the grocery store, I noticed a homeless man holding a sign by the side of the road. My heart hurt, and I tried not to look at him. I watched people stay away from him on the street and walk by without even meeting his eyes. My son didn't seem to care much, either. I looked at the man closely then — bare hands grasping a piece of cardboard, snot frozen to his face, a worn-out jacket. And there I was struggling because I had to buy oil and groceries. But I decided to help. I pulled over to the man and handed him a five-dollar bill.
Paragraph 1:Seeing this, my son became confused and surprised.
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On that day, my son performed an act that most adults wouldn’t have done.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . Face shape lets AI spot rare disorders
People with genetic syndromes sometimes have revealing facial features but using them to make a quick and cheap diagnosis can be
Yaron Gurovich at biotechnology firm FDNA in Boston and his team built neural network to look at the overall impression of faces and
They
Gurovich and his team also
As the system makes its assessments, the facial regions that were most helpful in the determination are
The fact that the diagnosis is based on a simple photograph raises questions about
This technique could bring
| A．convincing | B．tricky | C．reliable | D．feasible |
| A．bring about | B．result from | C．narrow down | D．rule out |
| A．return | B．input | C．top | D．feed |
| A．based | B．imposed | C．focused | D．trained |
| A．identify | B．distinguish | C．shift | D．cure |
| A．tested | B．demonstrated | C．recognized | D．acquired |
| A．acceptable | B．perfect | C．reliable | D．workable |
| A．covered | B．excluded | C．highlighted | D．supervised |
| A．objectivity | B．accuracy | C．credibility | D．privacy |
| A．discriminate | B．fight | C．argue | D．vote |
| A．Furthermore | B．Therefore | C．Otherwise | D．However |
| A．challenges | B．benefits | C．damages | D．concerns |
| A．treatment | B．response | C．remedy | D．process |
| A．replied | B．confirmed | C．eliminated | D．addressed |
| A．by contrast | B．in turn | C．in addition | D．on the contrary |
3 . As Internet users become more dependent on the Internet to store information, are people remember less? If you know your computer will save information, why store it in your own personal memory, your brain? Experts are wondering if the Internet is changing what we remember and how.
In a recent study, Professor Betsy Sparrow conducted some experiments. She and her research team wanted to know the Internet is changing memory. In the first experiment, they gave people 40 unimportant facts to type into a computer. The first group of people understood that the computer would save the information. The second group understood that the computer would not save it. Later, the second group remembered the information better. People in the first group knew they could find the information again, so they did not try to remember it.
In another experiment, the researchers gave people facts to remember, and told them where to find the information on the Internet. The information was in a specific computer folder (文件夹). Surprisingly, people later remember the folder location (位置) better than the facts. When people use the Internet, they do not remember the information. Rather, they remember how to find it. This is called “transactive memory (交互记忆)”
According to Sparrow, we are not becoming people with poor memories as a result of the Internet. Instead, computer users are developing stronger transactive memories; that is, people are learning how to organize huge quantities of information so that they are able to access it at a later date. This doesn’t mean we are becoming either more or less intelligent, but there is no doubt that the way we use memory is changing.
1. The passage begins with two questions to ________.| A．introduce the main topic | B．show the author’s attitude |
| C．describe how to use the Internet | D．explain how to store information |
| A．Sparrow’s team typed the information into a computer. |
| B．The two groups remembered the information equally well. |
| C．The first group did not try to remember the formation. |
| D．The second group did not understand the information. |
| A．keep the information in mind |
| B．change the quantity of information |
| C．organize information like a computer |
| D．remember how to find the information |
| A．We are using memory differently. |
| B．We are becoming more intelligent. |
| C．We have poorer memories than before. |
| D．We need a better way to access information. |
4 . A 293-million-mile journey of the NASA Perseverance rover (探测器)to Mars ended successfully on February 18th, 2021, with a picture-perfect landing inside the Jezero Crater. The car-sized, six-wheeled rover, nicknamed Percy, is the US space agency’s biggest and most advanced explorer to date. Its primary mission is to search for signs of ancient microbial(微生物的)life on Mars.
Landing on Mars is extremely tricky. The Red Planet’s gravitational(引力的) pull causes approaching spacecraft to go faster to high speeds, while its thin atmosphere—just one percent that of Earth’s—does little to help slow it down as it approaches the surface.
The scientists had to reduce Percy’s 12,000 mph speed to a safe landing speed of less than five mph—in just six and a half minutes. The target entry angle also had to be a precise 12 degrees—any steeper, and the spacecraft would burn up; any flatter, and it would get lost in space. It is no wonder that the final approach is often referred to as the “seven minutes of terror”.
Upon attaining a manageable speed, Percy briefly flew over the Martian surface to seek out the perfect landing spot. Its complex map-reading system rapidly scanned the area and matched it with maps in its database to find the best location.
The NASA scientists will spend the next two months testing Percy’s scientific instruments. Once ready, the rover will begin to carry out its mission.
“Perseverance is the smartest robot ever made, but confirming that microbial life once existed carries an unusually large burden of proof,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division.“ While we’ll learn a lot with the great instruments we have aboard the rover, it may very well require the far more well-equipped laboratories and delicate instruments back here on Earth to tell us whether our samples(样本)carry evidence that Mars once harbored life.”
1. What is the extraordinary challenge for the rover to land on Mars?| A．The speed reduction. |
| B．The atmosphere analysis. |
| C．The location search. |
| D．The time management. |
| A．Ways to find the precise entry angle. |
| B．Consequences of wrong entry degree. |
| C．Factors to survive “the seven minutes”. |
| D．Reasons for the necessity of speed reducing. |
| A．The space. | B．The area. |
| C．The system. | D．The surface. |
| A．Instruments aboard the rover are not quite reliable. |
| B．Perseverance is able to collect enough evidence needed. |
| C．Man still has a long way to go to prove there was life on Mars. |
| D．Samples of Mars will be returned soon to the labs on the Earth. |
Almost every childhood memory I have is centred on food. Telling stories around a crowded table at holiday dinners, the smell of roasting vegetables, the sensation (感受) of heat coming from the kitchen, all picture a familiar feeling of love and comfort.
My favourite memory of all is of my grandparents making and baking bread together. To this day, I have never tasted bread that is as delicious as theirs. No other loaf has ever been made with that kind of powerful, unconditional love.
When our son Brian, one of seventh graders, began to refuse usual communication with me, I felt desperate. How I missed those lovely old days when he couldn’t wait to tell me his stories in kindergarten the moment I arrived home without getting changed! And there were also times when he brought loads of storybooks to me and demanded to be told all the stories before going to bed. But I didn’t know since when everything changed. There was hardly any sharing about his daily school life with friends or any trouble about his schoolwork. Most of the time, his bedroom door was closed. The cold silence between us seemed to warn me that love between us began to fade.
At that time, like most mothers, I couldn’t focus on work and couldn’t sleep well. Why did things go off track so much? Was it because my work took away most of my energy that family love was taken for granted? Was it because my only precious spare time went too much to my two-year-old baby daughter that Brian’s need for my company was ignored? The more I reflected, the more I felt myself to blame and it was my responsibility to find a way out.
One day, as my eyes landed onto the bread on the kitchen table, I was reminded of those sweet childhood memories, “Could food help us make a change?” I wondered.
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。
With an uneasy feeling, I decided to try.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________More than that, one weekend evening, Brian offered to help me in the kitchen.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________6 . I never knew I was legally blind until my 17th birthday. I'd been going to
After that day, I never spoke about it.
When I was 26, I got a job. I was always trying to be better in the
At work, I used humor to
Over time, I became worn out trying to
Since then, I've been myself, doing social activities. I've stopped
| A．lawyers | B．doctors | C．chemists | D．professors |
| A．taken back | B．calmed down | C．checked up | D．operated on |
| A．task | B．condition | C．goal | D．response |
| A．cloudy | B．normal | C．sharp | D．broad |
| A．fear | B．event | C．doubt | D．hope |
| A．hide | B．cure | C．explain | D．forget |
| A．comfort | B．delay | C．attract | D．affect |
| A．places | B．details | C．solutions | D．results |
| A．pretend | B．promise | C．discover | D．admit |
| A．safe | B．important | C．quiet | D．awkward |
| A．device | B．satisfaction | C．boredom | D．relationship |
| A．happy | B．anxious | C．responsible | D．grateful |
| A．decided | B．waited | C．hesitated | D．remembered |
| A．protecting | B．distinguishing | C．describing | D．accepting |
| A．joking | B．worrying | C．asking | D．dreaming |
7 . Every year, Time magazine picks out what it calls “The 25 Best Inventions” of the year. Here, Teens has chosen some of the most interesting ones.
Ember Mug
It’s hard to always keep coffee at the right temperature, especially in winter. It’s too hot to drink at first, but before we know it, it gets too cold and loses all its taste. The perfect level of warmth for a cup of coffee only lasts for 37 seconds, which makes the Ember Mug a great invention. It keeps your coffee or tea at a certain temperature, anywhere between 45℃ and 62℃, once you set it through a smartphone app.
Tasty One Top
TV cooking shows make cooking look so easy, but it’s almost impossible to get the recipes to cook the same as how the professionals cook. However, the Tasty One Top DIY cooking companion is here to help. Developed by BuzzFeed, the cooker can be connected to a smartphone app, which has more than 1,700 recipes and videos. You choose a recipe and the app will let the cooker know what to do. For example, it’ll tell you when to turn your steak or when to add certain ingredients.
Jibo
Smart speakers from companies like Amazon and Xiaomi have added a lot of fun to our lives, but they’re still just faceless speakers. However, Jibo, developed by MIT professor Cynthia Breazeal, has brought smart technology to life. Said to be “the world’s first social robot for the home”, Jibo looks like a cartoon character. Inside its “head”, there are various sensors and cameras, which allow it to recognize faces and speech. It can also set alarms, remind you of important things, tell you the weather and read news or messages from your friends and family.
1. How can Tasty One Top help people?| A．By teaching people how to cook. | B．By offering people different recipes. |
| C．By saving energy while cooking. | D．By offering different kinds of cooking apps. |
| A．A cartoon character. | B．A faceless robot. | C．A family assistant. | D．A smart alarm. |
| A．To advertise hightech products. | B．To introduce some new inventions. |
| C．To encourage subscription to Time. | D．To tell about some “tasty” products. |
A Little Boy
A little boy selling magazines for school walked up to a house that people rarely visited. The house was very old and shabby and the owner hardly ever came out. When he did come out, he would not say hello to his neighbors or passers-by but simply just glared at them.
The boy knocked on the door and waited, sweating from fear of the old man. The boy’s parents told him to stay away from the house, and a lot of other neighborhood children were told the same thing from their parents.
Dusk found the boy lingering on and hesitating what to do. As he was ready to walk away, the door slowly opened. “What do you want?” the old man said impatiently. The little boy was very afraid but he had a quota (定额) to meet for school with selling the magazines. So he got up the courage and said, “Uh, Sir, I am selling these magazines and, uh, I was wondering if you would like to buy one from me.”
The old man just stared at the boy without a word. The boy could see inside the old man’s house and saw that he had dog figurines (小雕像) on the fireplace mantle. “Do you collect dogs?” The little boy asked. “Yes, I have many collections in my house. They are my family here and they are all I have.” The boy then felt sorry for the man, as it seemed that he was a very lonely soul.
“Well, I do have a magazine here for collectors. It is perfect for you. I also have one about dogs since you like dogs so much.” The old man was ready to close the door on the boy and said, “No, boy. I don’t need any magazines of any kind, now goodbye.”
The little boy was sad that he was not going to make his quota with the sale. He was also sad for the old man being so alone in the house that he owned. The boy went home and then had an idea. He had a little dog figurine that he got some years ago from an aunt. The figurine did not mean nearly as much to him since he had a real live dog and a large family.
注意:1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式作答。
The little boy headed back down to the old man’s house.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________From that day on something changed inside the old man.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________9 . When you say, “You shouldn’t do that,” to a teenager, your feedback (反馈) is likely to be met with an eye roll. By the time kids turn into teens, they don’t think they need much help from adults — especially their parents.
It’s important for your teens to be able to hear constructive criticism without automatically becoming defensive.
If you’re offering constructive feedback, view your role as a guide. Point out what your teen did well while adding what she/he could do better next time. Besides, point out mistakes in a gentle manner. It can help them see that mistakes aren’t something they should be ashamed of.
It must be noted that after you’ve expressed your concern, ask your teens for their opinion. Showing a willingness to listen to them can go a long way toward encouraging them to listen to you.
| A．Listen to your teens’ opinion. |
| B．It could help them become a better person. |
| C．Instead, they can use it as a learning opportunity. |
| D．Your teens need to know how to improve their social skills. |
| E．For constructive criticism, a healthy relationship is necessary. |
| F．Then, they’ll need to be able to be open to changing their behavior. |
| G．However, constructive criticism can be essential to your teens’ welfare. |
注意：
1. 词数应为80左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
参考词汇：识字literacy
Dear Chris,
How is everything going? I am more than delighted that you are interested in Chinese.
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Yours,
Li Hua
