1 . There was once a jeweler, known for many virtues. One day, the Jewish elders came to him to buy some diamonds to decorate part of the dress of their high priest (神父，牧师), which the Bible calls an ephod.
They told him what they wanted, and offered him a fair price for the diamonds. He replied that he could not let them see the jewels at that moment, and requested them to call again.
As they wanted them without delay, and thought that the object of the jeweler was only to increase the price of the diamonds, the elders offered him twice, then three times, as much as they were worth. But he still refused, and they went away angrily.
Some hours after, he went to them, and placed before them the diamonds, for which they again offered him the last price they had named, but he said, “I will only accept the first one you offered to me this morning.”
“Why, then, did you not close with us at once?” asked they in surprise. “When you came,” replied he, “my father had the key of the box, in which the diamonds were kept, and as he was asleep, I should have been obliged to wake him to obtain them. At his age, a short hour of sleep does him a great deal of good, and for all the gold in the world, I would not be wanting in respect to my father, or take from him a single comfort.”
The elders, affected by these feeling words, spread their hands upon the jeweler’s head, and said, “Thou shalt be blessed of Him who has said: Honor thy father and thy mother, and thy children shall one day pay thee the same respect and love thou hast shown to thy father.”
1. Why did not the jeweler give two elders the diamonds at first?| A．He wanted a higher price | B．He had to get his father’s permission. |
| C．He didn’t have them in the shop then. | D．He didn’t have the key to the container. |
| A．You will get as many honors as you want. | B．Your children will live a rich and respectable life. |
| C．You and your family are blessed by God. | D．Your father will live a long and healthy life. |
| A．A devoted son | B．An honest businessman |
| C．A reasonable price | D．A luxurious dress |
2 . Simple & Effective Ways to Stop Procrastinating
Do you have a hard time staying on task? Do you constantly leave things on your to-do list till the last minute? If so, you’re likely procrastinating.
Make a record of all the tasks you need to accomplish. Include short-term tasks you need to finish daily and weekly and long-term goals that may take months or years to accomplish. Seeing everything written down can help you plan out what needs to be done to meet your goals.
Tackle your most important task for 15 minutes.
Set a timer and work on a task for a designated amount of time. Instead of thinking about the total number of hours you’re about to work for, just start. Tell yourself you’ve only got to do it for 15 minutes.
Start your day with the hardest tasks.
Make a plan in the morning and pick the hardest task first. You’ll be most energized in the morning once you’ve eaten breakfast and woken up fully.
Stop punishing yourself for procrastinating.
| A．Write a to-do list to set goals |
| B．Prioritize goals with set deadlines. |
| C．This will deal with your inner fear |
| D．Tackle the hardest thing on your list right then |
| E．Procrastination can arise from stress, frustration, or perfectionism |
| F．The more stressed you are, the harder it’ll be to get your work done |
| G．In psychology, it has long been believed that people who procrastinate have a faulty sense of time |
3 . A sudden illness took away most of Rebecca’s hearing when she was only six years old. Afterwards, she says her
read lips, and learned to speak confidently without being able to hear herself.
Today, working at the Qetan Sewing Center, Rebecca rediscovered something she greatly
Better still, Rebecca has also found a professional outlet. “I’ve always been
Rebecca says her
The way that Rebecca lives her life demonstrates this idea that you can achieve your goals
| A．sadness | B．happiness | C．efforts | D．pains |
| A．stopped | B．promised | C．refused | D．struggled |
| A．pity | B．change | C．blame | D．fool |
| A．whether | B．why | C．how | D．where |
| A．Eventually | B．Immediately | C．Naturally | D．Absolutely |
| A．tolerated | B．missed | C．considered | D．regretted |
| A．positive | B．similar | C．limited | D．plain |
| A．different | B．supportive | C．clean | D．safe |
| A．satisfied with | B．aware of | C．interested in | D．careful about |
| A．desire | B．secure | C．understand | D．adore |
| A．task | B．job | C．journey | D．business |
| A．improve | B．express | C．defend | D．reflect |
| A．truth | B．choices | C．process | D．possibilities |
| A．capacity | B．value | C．action | D．freedom |
| A．in case of | B．as long as | C．in spite of | D．as far as |
4 . When 19-year-old Emily Bhatnagar from Maryland, USA, found out her father had stage four thyroid cancer, her
“It was very much an overnight idea,” she explains. “I
“It was
Using
Emily and her older brother spent a whole summer driving around town,
The project has seen huge success, with For Love and Buttercup donating over 15,000 books and won
| A．voice | B．expression | C．response | D．performance |
| A．honour | B．cure | C．comfort | D．please |
| A．buying | B．collecting | C．writing | D．selling |
| A．posted | B．texted | C．shared | D．spread |
| A．new | B．used | C．interesting | D．classic |
| A．favor | B．trial | C．push | D．appeal |
| A．resist | B．inspire | C．reward | D．consume |
| A．barely | B．slightly | C．frequently | D．absolutely |
| A．lose | B．recover | C．forget | D．overcome |
| A．crisis | B．purpose | C．anxiety | D．achievement |
| A．reputations | B．credits | C．tips | D．sweats |
| A．In addition | B．On the contrary | C．By contrast | D．As a result |
| A．integrating | B．throwing | C．removing | D．loading |
| A．donation | B．cause | C．library | D．collection |
| A．preference | B．attention | C．approval | D．recognition |
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The movie also beautifully
6 . Almost all new parents struggle to get enough sleep while caring for their newborns. For some penguin parents, though, periods of sleep are especially short.
Researchers recently found that Chinstrap penguins only sleep for about four seconds at a time in order to protect their eggs and newborn chicks. They do this thousands of times throughout the day.
The short “microsleeps” total around 11 hours each day. The microsleeps appear to be enough to keep the parents going for many weeks.
Niels Rattenborg is a sleep researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence in Germany. He helped write the new study. He said these penguins blink “their eyes open and shut, and they do it 24/7 for several weeks at a time. What’s surprising is that they’re able to function okay and successfully raise their young”.
Chinstrap penguins usually lay their eggs in November in nests made up of small rocks. As with many other kinds of penguins, mated pairs share parenting responsibilities. One parent usually watches the eggs and chicks alone while the other goes off fishing for family meals.
Adult penguins do not face many natural enemies in the mating season. But large birds called brown skuas eat the penguin eggs and small chicks. Other adult penguins may also try to steal the small rocks from nests. So, penguin parents must always be on guard.
For the first time, scientists followed the sleeping behavior of Chinstrap penguins in an Antarctic mating colony. They did this by attaching devices that measure brain waves. They collected data on 14 adults over 11 days on King George Island off the coast of Antarctica.
Won Young Lee is a biologist at the Korean Polar Research Institute. He thought of the idea for the study when he saw mating penguins often blinking their eyes and possibly sleeping during his long days of field observations. But the team needed to record brain waves to confirm the animals were sleeping.
“For these penguins, microsleeps have some restorative functions,” he said. He added that they would not survive without it.
The researchers did not collect sleep data outside the mating season. But they suspect that the penguins may sleep for longer periods at other times of the year.
1. What’s the main idea of the passage?| A．Penguins keep awake for weeks when having chicks. |
| B．Penguins must have at least 11 hours’ sleep every day. |
| C．Penguins don’t have enough sleep because of antarctic climate. |
| D．Penguins can only sleep very short for the sake of their chicks’ safety. |
| A．They keep their eyes open when they are sleeping. |
| B．The short but repetitive sleep habit of theirs works well. |
| C．It does no harm to them when they keep awake for weeks. |
| D．They can function well even if they don’t have enough sleep. |
| A．They paired, compared and collected. | B．They followed, observed and recorded. |
| C．They attached device, filmed and analyzed. | D．They read, researched and concluded. |
| A．They didn’t follow them all the year round. |
| B．Their study didn’t include other species of penguins. |
| C．The number of the penguins they studied was not big enough. |
| D．Their equipment was not advanced and their data was not accurate. |
7 . Health officials in Canada are very busy these days. They are placing chickens at fixed points all along their border with the United States of America. That’s an enormous distance of 2,500 km.
It’s not a practical joke, nor have the Canadians gone mad. They are using these chickens to see if the deadly West Nile virus is lurking around. The virus infects birds, so they think that the chickens have a good chance of catching the virus. Or the virus will catch the chickens.
Countries around the world are realizing something important. That it may just be possible to stop certain kinds of people from entering their land, but it is very difficult to try and stop viruses that travel from one end of the earth to another. When they travel to new places, they adjust very easily to those climates and sometimes start destroying the local plant and animal life. These biological polluters are called smart polluters.
These smart polluters can be carried across borders of countries unknowingly. Just as we humans are travelling across the globe more often than earlier, these biological polluters have also started journeying much more. They slide into aircraft through their wheels. They bore their way into objects that air travelers may be carrying from one country to another.
Suddenly, a lot of things become clearer. Like why the customs officials in many foreign countries prevent you from bringing in a small plant, or a decorative item made of wood that is in its natural form… They tell you that it’s in the rules.
They have these rules because they know that these varieties of plants that are special to specific places have the power to spread new diseases among native plants and animals. They are called biological polluters and they always create problems in places where they do not belong. They could be special varieties of plants, bugs or even animals.
1. Why did the author talk about what Canadian officials’ are doing?| A．To introduce a successful case | B．To arouse readers’ curiosity |
| C．To describe a phenomenon | D．To introduce the topic |
| A．Tiger mosquitoes from Asia are busy biting Americans. |
| B．Pandas from China are wining millions of American’s hearts. |
| C．The small lobsters from Mexico are taking over most of lakes in America. |
| D．Tree snakes from New Guinea are busy eating up bird varieties in the country of Guam. |
| A．A lot of profit can be made from introducing foreign species. |
| B．People want to add more species to their surroundings. |
| C．People nowadays travel overseas more frequently. |
| D．There are more domestic flights than before. |
| A．To convince | B．To warn | C．To inform | D．To entertain |
8 . Why do we feel sleepy in rainy days?
This spring on the east coast of the US, it feels like we’ve lost touch with the sun. In Washington, DC, 14 of the first 17 days of May were rainy.
First, there’s what we see-or rather, what we don’t.
The earthy smell of rain can make you feel calm and comfortable.
The difficulty in waking up, the fresh, earthy scents, and the peace of the rain tapping on windows are enough to make anyone want to go back to bed for the day. Sadly, none of this evidence is enough to justify doing so; but it can at least explain why you may feel a little sleepy on these cloudy days.
| A．Rain sounds are also comforting. |
| B．Plants produce oils during dry periods. |
| C．The others have been cloudy and dull for at least part of the day. |
| D．It makes it easier for us to wake up from our sleep the night before. |
| E．You can listen to an hour of rain on a window, if you intend to test it out. |
| F．Sunlight causes our bodies to stop producing what makes us sleepy at night. |
| G．And you’ll also smell that when you are in your garden turning over your soil. |
9 . Eating too much fat contributes to the risk of stroke (中风) and other heart diseases. However, it’s the type of fat, not the amount, that appears to be more important when it comes to stroke. Eating plant-based fats lowers stroke risk, according to a study presentation given at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2021.
The study, which hasn’t yet been proved by other researchers, found people who ate the most vegetable-based fats were 12% less likely to experience a stroke compared to those who ate the least. On the other hand, people who ate the highest levels of animal-based saturated (饱和的) fats were 16% more likely to experience a stroke than those who ate the least fats of that kind. The findings show the type and different food sources of fat are more important than the total amount of fat in preventing certain diseases, including stroke.
“You need fa t to survive. Fat helps your body absorb vitamins from foods, build cells, give you energy and keep you warm. But it’s the unsaturated fats that come from vegetables, nuts and fatty fish that can lower your cholesterol (胆固醇) level and help keep you healthy. Saturated fats are generally not as healthy, which mainly come from red and processed meat,” said Dr. Frank Hu, one of the authors of the study.
A proper reduction in red and processed meat consumption with a healthy eating pattern can reduce total deathrate by 13%, heart disease death by 14%, cancer death by 11% and Type 2 Diabetes risk by 24%, according to the study.
Interestingly, dairy fat was not associated with a higher risk of stroke, the study found. There has been an ongoing debate among researchers as to the role of dairy. The diet guide-lines for Americans call for three servings of low-and no-fat dairy each day.
1. How does Paragraph 2 mainly develop?| A．By making comparisons. | B．By analyzing causes and effects. |
| C．By providing examples. | D．By following the order of time. |
| A．Corn. | B．Beans. | C．Nuts. | D．Beef. |
| A．The type of fat matters when it comes to stroke. | B．People should eat less red meat to keep healthy. |
| C．Fat plays an important role in people’s life. | D．Americans need three servings of dairy per day. |
| A．Environment. | B．Technology. | C．Health. | D．Travel. |
10 . A mother of nine who started medical school when her youngest child was 4 years old graduated with her degree and planed to be a neurosurgeon.
Sarah Merrill, now 41, said her journey to medical school began at 17. She then met her husband and got married. Merrill first thought about going to school part-time to get a degree, but later she decided to follow her dream of attending medical school. Certainly, it was a challenge. Speaking of her successfully returning to university, Merrill owed it to her family largely. “When I was accepted by Mayo Clinic Ali x School of Medicine, we moved from Pennsylvania to Arizona,” said Merrill, who is moving to Indiana with her family to begin her residency (实习期) in neurosurgery. “In fact, they volunteered these movements. I know it was tough for all of us.”
Merrill and her children often have “homework parties” where they study for their own courses. Merrill’s choice has given a kind of stimulus to her children. Merrill felt touched knowing her 11-year-old daughter wants to become a surgeon and overhearing her son tell his friends his mom’s going to be a cool brain surgeon, though he doesn’t understand that really.
Merrill’s next step into a neurosurgery residency will take her into a male-dominated field where only 5% of board-certified neurosurgeons are women. Dr. Michele Halyard at Mayo Clinic Ali x School of Medicine said Merrill was known as a focused student. Halyard said, “If you can deal with nine children patiently, the residency should be a piece of cake because no amount of stress will make you fail.”
Merrill had considered choosing a more family-friendly career, but, again, she chose to follow her original dream. It’s the same advice she would give to all. “Set the goal which you’re really enthusiastic about, and it helps to think small. If you know what your interest is, focus on the next step. Then you’ll get where you want to go.”
1. Why does Merrill mention their house moving?| A．To stress the support of her family. | B．To show her determination to be a doctor. |
| C．To reflect difficulties in attending college. | D．To describe the process of pursuing her dream. |
| A．Comfort. | B．Development. | C．Choice. | D．Inspiration. |
| A．Merrill can make it in the residency. | B．Merrill will have more stress to handle. |
| C．Being mom ensures Merrill a better doctor. | D．Staying focused and sensible is key to success. |
| A．Starting with small things. | B．Being true to your passion. |
| C．Choosing a family-friendly career. | D．Having the courage to dream big. |
