2 . A trip to the library was like a great journey to a different country. To get there, we had to walk a mile. But our weekly journeys to the library were a piece of perfection. I had around me at one time all the people I loved best-my father and mother and brothers and sister-and all the things I loved best-quiet, space, and books.

I read a lot of books about science: not the spaceships my brothers preferred, but the birds and bees-literally. I brought home a book of birds and searched the trees for anything other than robins (知更鸟). I went through a phase of loving books with practical science experiments and used up a whole bottle of white vinegar by pouring it on the sides of our apartment building to prove that it was constructed of limestone (石灰石).

One Saturday, as I wandered through the young adult section, I saw a title: Little Women, by Lousia May Alcott. I had learned from experience that titles weren’t everything. A book that sounded great on the shelf could be dull once you got it home.

So I sat in a chair near the shelves to skim the first paragraphs. I read and read and read Little Women until it was time to walk home, and, except for a few essential interruptions like sleeping and eating. I did not put it down until the end. Even the freedom to watch weekend television held no appeal for me in the wake of Alcott’s story. It was about girls, for one thing, girls who could almost be like me, especially Jo. I had found someone who thought and felt the way I did.

1. What can we say about the author’s family?

A．They were travel fans.	B．They were bookworms.
C．They were against watching TV	D．They held seminars in the library.

2. What is Paragraph 2 mainly intended to convey?

A．Her different attitudes towards nature.

B．Her experiments of science.

C．Her reason of studying birds and bees.

D．Her reading craze at one time.

3. What is the author’s belief in book reading?

A．Book titles might be misleading.

B．Science books are more interesting than arts books.

C．Repetitive reading is important.

D．All books need to be digested.

4. What effect did Little Women produce on the author?

A．She was totally transformed.	B．It made her sleepless and tasteless.
C．She was heartbroken.	D．It kept her absorbed.

3 . How can you change negative(消极的) thoughts? Many people suggest changing your attitude by thinking of something bright and happy.

However, scientists from Queen’s University in Canada said that there might be another way: by walking like a happy person.

“It is not surprising that our mood and the way we feel affects how we walk, but we want to see whether the way we move also affects how we feel,” explained Nikolaus Troje, the lead scientist, to The Independent.

Scientists believed that the way we remember emotional messages is affected by our mood. Those who suffer from depression (抑郁) remember negative information far more easily than active messages, especially when the information is about them.

In order to prove this, Troje and his team used cameras to observe 47 people walking on the treadmill (跑步机). Half of the people were encouraged to mimic (模仿) a depressive walking style, while the other half moved like a happy person. Walking speed was kept equal for both groups.

During the time on the treadmill, the scientists read out a list of active and negative words, asking people to decide whether or not each word described them well. Afterwards, people were asked to recite as many of the words as they could remember.

As expected, those who had been mimicking a depressed walk remembered more negative words than those that had been walking in a happy manner.

This finding means that our walk influences the way we treat information. And the scientists believe that using a happy walking style could help with treatment for depression.

1. What new way did scientists from Queen’s University possibly find to change negative thoughts?

A．Doing something happy.	B．Thinking of something bright.
C．Walking like a happy person.	D．Thinking about being a happy person.

2. Which of the following is NOT true about Troje’s test?

A．The 47 people walked on the treadmill.

B．Half of the people walked in a depressive walking style.

C．Another half walked in a happy walking style.

D．The two groups walked at different speeds.

3. In the test, those who walked in a happy manner ______.

A．remembered more negative words	B．remembered more positive words
C．lived a happier life	D．lived a harder life

4. According to the story, the finding can help ______.

A．treat patients with depression	B．improve one’s acting skills
C．deal with people’s memory loss	D．change a person’s exercise habit

4 . Plastics remain one of the most - used materials for making many things. Things made of plastics can be very strong and last a long time. Plastics are also much lighter than metal and can easily be formed into different shapes. Plastics can take hundreds of years to break down on their own. And very few kinds are highly recyclable.

A team of researchers working at the US Department of Energy says it has created a kind of plastic that could lead to products that are 100 percent recyclable. It recently reported the discovery in a study in the journal Nature Chemistry.

The researchers say the new material is a plastic polymer (聚合体)called polydiketoenamine, or PDK. The team reports the material can be broken down in parts at the molecular (分子的)level. It can then be built up again to form plastics of different shapes, textures and colors. The researchers say this process can be repeated over and over again—without the plastic material losing any performance or quality.

"Most plastics were never made to be recycled, ” lead researcher Peter Christensen said in a statement. " But we have discovered a new way to assemble plastics that takes recycling into consideration from a molecular perspective. ”

Many plastics have different chemicals added to them to make them more useful and powerful. The problem is that these chemicals attach to the monomers (单体),which remain in plastics even after the material gets processed at a recycling plant. The research team reported that, with the newly discovered PDK material, the monomers could be recovered and separated from any chemical additives.

Next, the researchers plan to develop PDK plastics "with a wide range of thermal and mechanical properties. These plastics could be used for many kinds of cloth, as well as things such as 3D printed materials and foams. In addition, the team is trying to include plant - based materials in the process.

1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?

A．Plastics are never highly recyclable.

B．Plastics are widely used in our lives.

C．Plastics have both advantages and disadvantages.

D．Plastics take hundreds of years to be broken down.

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

A．The new material.	B．The research team.
C．The molecular level.	D．The producing process.

3. Why do many plastics have different chemicals added to them?

A．To make them easy to break down.

B．To make them easy to get processed.

C．To make it possible for them to be recycled.

D．To make them stronger and more widely used.

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．PDK plastics will be soon put to good use.

B．PDK plastics may have a promising prospect.

C．The researchers are busy developing PDK plastics.

D．Plant - based materials have been used in the new plastics.

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。

With the development of the Internet, electronic payment     1    ( become) more popular to pay bills so far.     2    (actual),the probability of paying bills electronically is decreasing with age and increasing with education, and     3    seems that women tend to use electronic payment at a     4    ( high) rate than men. In addition, some consumers may respond negatively to fees when they     5    ( charge ) by banks for electronic deals,     6    may keep some consumers away from electronic payment and let them turn to signature payment. Moreover, consumers, use of electronic payment will vary with financial conditions and expectations of the future. For example, if they have negative expectations of their future financial conditions, consumers are more likely     7    ( pay)electronically.

On     8    whole, businesses which offer electronic payment     9    ( serve) can not only improve customer service, but also cut costs, reduce late payments and provide a greener business solution     10    consumers, improving the company’s competitive advantage.

6 . I recently came in contact with celebrity magazines. My family isn’t one to give money for pictures of skinny, drunk celebrities with paragraphs about their relationships and shopping cart times. Thus, I was excited to finally get a chance to read about other people’s attractive yet troubled lives.

Right away I noticed how each magazine seemed to be a copy of the other. They had headlines and pictures that were almost the same. Still, the pictures of perfectly constructed faces with cute designers outfits going on with their daily lives made me read on.

Wait, celebrities taking their dogs for walk? Spending an afternoon at a park? All of these things seemed so ordinary—things my own family and I do together often. I suddenly realized how unextraordinary the people in these magazines were. They are simply normal people who happen to have a cool job and much money. For some reason, pictures of them doing things like buying milk at the store appeal to millions of readers. Then, when these regular people mess up, their mistakes is painted onto hundreds of newspapers and internet sites.

What if every time we made a mistake, it was made public? Have you ever failed a test? Imagine seeing pictures of you on the front of a newspaper with headlines like, “Regular Schooling Isn’t Enough”. You’d be embarrassed. Now, I’m not necessarily taking the celebrity’s side. I’m more realizing the fact that these people we were crazy about are just ordinary human beings with many photographs following them around. Role models? I’d think not. Personally, I’d rather look up to people in any community who have accomplished a lot instead of an ordinary person walking his dog in Berverly Hills.

1. What do we know about the author’s family?

A．They admire celebrities very much.

B．They often buy celebrity magazines.

C．They are not interested in celebrities.

D．They are curious about the life of celebrities.

2. What does the author think of celebrities?

A．They live happy life.

B．They seldom do usual things.

C．They deserve people’s admiration.

D．They are just ordinary people like us.

3. Who is most likely to be the author’s role model?

A．Celebrities who live ordinary live.

B．Common people who do great things.

C．Extraordinary people who accomplish a lot.

D．People who make great contributions to communities.

4. What is the author’s purpose in writing the text?

A．To describe the actual life of celebrities.

B．To ask us to be realistic about other’s mistakes.

C．To show people’s different attitudes towards celebrities.

D．To advise us to have a right attitude towards celebrities.

7 . Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926. Since Lee’s mother was mentally ill, she was raised by her father. She became very close to her father.

The naughty Lee loved reading, and would make up stories with Truman, her neighbour who was two years older than her. Seeing her daughter’s imagination, Lee’s father gave her a typewriter.

Before her final year in the university of Alabama, Lee dropped out to become a writer. She moved to New York City where her childhood friend Truman was already established as a famous writer. While there, she worked on her first book—To Kill a Mockingbird. It won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was made into an Academy Award winning movie the following year. To Kill a Mockingbird tells the story of six-year-old Scout and her brother who lived in the town of Maycomb Alabama with their single father Attics. Attics is a lawyer who defends the blacks. At a young age, Scout is exposed to the terrors of segregation(宗族隔离). Then, in 2014, the first draft of a new book—Go Set a Watchman was discovered among Lee’s papers. It is the story of 26-year-old Scout who returns to Maycomb to visit her father. She is shocked to find her father a changed man. Attics has turned into a segregationists! The story shows the mixed feelings Scout has for the changes that have taken place in her hometown and father.

A loner for most of her life, Lee stayed unmarried, preferring to lead a small town life. On February 19,2015, Lee passed away at the age of 89.

1. What can we learn about Lee?

A．She became a professional writer at college.

B．She developed a gift for writing in childhood.

C．She was persuaded to become a writer by Truman

D．She got interested in writing after getting a typewriter.

2. What did the characters Lee described show?

A．Her love for writing stories.

B．The effect of having an ill mother

C．Her experience of living in a small town

D．Her childhood relationship with her father

3. What happened to Scout’s father in Go Set a Watchman?

A．He had complex feelings towards the black.

B．He struggled for the equal right of the black

C．He supported segregating the blacks and the whites.

D．He failed to get used to the changes of his hometown

4. What can we infer about Lee?

A．She has no taste for social life.

B．She write only a book in her life.

C．She feels lonely for most of her life.

D．She enjoys the fame for her successful book.

8 . The jobs of the future have not yet been invented.     1     By helping them develop classic skills that will serve them well no matter what the future holds.

1. Curiosity

Your children need to be deeply curious.     2     Ask kids, “What ingredients (配料) can we add to make these pancakes even better next time?” and then try them out. Did those ingredients make the pancakes better? What could we try next time?

2. Creativity

True creativity is the ability to take something existing and create something new from it.     3     There are a dozen different things you can do with them. Experimenting with materials to create something new can go a long way in helping them develop their creativity.

3. Interpersonal Skills

Understanding how others feel can be a challenge for kids. We know what’s going on inside our own head, but what about others? Being able to read people helps kids from misreading a situation and jumping to false conclusions.     4     “Why do you think she’s crying?” “Can you tell how that man is feeling by looking at his face? If someone were to do that to you, how would you feel?”

4. Self-expression

    5     There are many ways to express thoughts and ideas — music, acting, drawing, building, photography. You may find that your child is attracted by one more than another.

A．Encourage kids to cook with you.

B．And we can’t forget science education.

C．We can give kids chances to think about materials in new ways.

D．So how can we help our kids prepare for jobs that don’t yet exist?

E．Gardening is another great activity for helping kids develop this skill.

F．We can do this in real life or ask questions about characters in stories.

G．Being able to communicate ideas in a meaningful way is a valuable skill.