Tionae Thomas couldn’t be prouder of her 14-year-old daughter. Plenty of people overlooked a boy sitting alone under a tree in a shopping center parking lot. But not Tionae’s daughter. The 14-year-old girl stepped in to help the stranded(滞留) boy. And the Internet is applauding this girl for her kindness!
Tionae and her daughter were on the way home. But as they passed a shopping center, Tionae’s daughter begged her to pull over. She’d noticed a boy who looked like he was most likely in elementary school. He sat all alone under a tree in a small island within the parking lot.
“It’s too hot, mama,” the girl told her mom.
So, Tionae pulled over and her daughter got out, asking the stranded boy where his parents were. But the boy didn’t know.
The kind girl let the stranded boy use her cell phone to give his dad a call. Then she suggested he move from his spot under the tree to the front of a nearby Rite Aid. She told him it would be safer. At the same time, the girl left him her phone number and told him that he could call her if necessary.
Getting back into the car with her mom, the girl asked to wait to make sure the stranded boy got picked up. She hated the idea of leaving him alone. And because of the warmer temperatures, she wanted to get him some water.
Plenty of others must have noticed the boy. Maybe they left him alone because they didn’t want to disturb or scare him. Maybe they just thought someone else would do something. But Tionae’s daughter was the only one to step in and help.Para 1: Two days later, the girl received the boy’s call.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Para 2: And Tionae couldn’t help but brag(自夸) on her sweet girl, posting the whole story on Facebook.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . Mui suffers from a very rare and severe skin disorder called harlequin ichthyosis (丑角样鱼鳞). It’s something she could have easily let
Mui’s “never quit” attitude is especially inspiring when you take into account all of the difficulty she has
Tina and Roger never
But when Mui was
They say their decision to adopt Mui made no sense to anyone else. But they knew this little girl
A.confuse | B.astonish | C.stimulate | D.discourage |
A.optimistic | B.sensitive | C.pessimistic | D.negative |
A.dominated | B.avoided | C.tolerated | D.assigned |
A.combined | B.blessed | C.polished | D.attracted |
A.respect | B.shape | C.crush | D.discipline |
A.planned | B.performed | C.reacted | D.corresponded |
A.ideas | B.contracts | C.cues | D.visits |
A.breakthrough | B.promise | C.bond | D.belief |
A.moved | B.invited | C.transported | D.appealed |
A.till | B.though | C.before | D.because |
A.instructed | B.forced | C.upset | D.challenged |
A.hidden | B.carried | C.driven | D.cleared |
A.proposal | B.profit | C.promise | D.decision |
A.dismissed | B.needed | C.urged | D.supported |
A.Besides | B.Somehow | C.Therefore | D.Otherwise |
3 . It’s always heartbreaking to learn about a medical problem that’s largely been addressed in the United States but continues to trouble low-and middle-income countries.
In 2011, he met a like-minded researcher and they began work on a solution. As the article notes: They developed NeoBreathe, a foot-operated resuscitator.
A.It is helping save lives, and people are taking notice. |
B.That’s why it was inspiring to learn about the NeoBreathe. |
C.We have created a new way of performing an age-old procedure. |
D.Additionally, there are plans to introduce it in Peru, Chile and Argentina. |
E.Performing this procedure without assistance can have bad consequences. |
F.In the United States, saving a baby who suffers from birth choke is relatively simple. |
G.It frees one of the operator’s hands, cuts down on air leakage and significantly improves ventilation. |
4 . Several years ago, Joshua Madsen was driving on an Illinois freeway when he saw something strange: an electronic sign displaying the number of traffic deaths in the state. “I just kind of freaked out. I had never seen anything like that before,” Madsen, a behavioral economist at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, says of the incident. It was a troubling experience to have while driving, he says.
In the past decade, at least 28 U. S. states have started to display traffic fatality (死亡) numbers to scare motorists into safer driving. But a new analysis of Texas car crashes co-authored by Madsen suggests such signs may actually be associated with more crashes, not fewer.
“Is this helping?” Madsen wondered. So he teamed up with Jonathan Hall, who studies transportation economics at the University of Toronto, to investigate what effect the signs had on crash numbers. The researchers focused on Texas, which consistently displayed the messages for 1 week every month on 880 signs across the state’s highways. Madsen and Hall gathered data on all traffic crashes that happened on affected roads between 2010 and 2017. They compared crashes that occurred in weeks when fatality statistics were displayed with those that happened during the rest of the month, taking care to compare only the accidents that happened at the same hour and on the same day of the week. They also controlled for weather and for holidays, which can independently affect the number of accidents.
The analysis of 844, 939 accidents showed that in the 10 kilometers down road of the signs, crashes increased by 1. 35% when the numbers were displayed. Madsen and Hall propose that the fatality statistics are so in your face that they grab too much of the driver’s attention, causing a crash. The data support this explanation, they say: Crashes increased when the death numbers displayed on the signs were higher.
1. Which of the following can replace the underlined words “freaked out” in paragraph 1?A.surprised. | B.thrilled. | C.ashamed. | D.frustrated. |
A.The research cost them approximately nine years to complete. |
B.The final research findings seemed to be out of their expectation. |
C.The research’s purpose was to find out if the signs were effective. |
D.The researchers almost paid no attention to the factors of bad weather. |
A.By having them speed. | B.By making them more fear. |
C.By depressing them greatly. | D.By distracting their attention. |
A.Researches studying traffic crashes receive great attention. |
B.New regulations guaranteeing traffic safety need updating. |
C.Highway signs showing traffic deaths cause more crashes. |
D.Traffic deaths happening so frequently should be controlled. |
5 . For anyone over the age of 30 reading this article, here’s some bad news for you: Your brain is already on the decline.
From the brain’s peak performance in our mid-20s, that decline is gradual, said Stanford neurologist Sharon Sha, MD. Despite common knowledge about aging and major mistakes in memory, the effects of healthy aging on cognitive (认知的) functions are actually quite unnoticeable. For example, a young or middle-aged adult can remember a sequence of seven numbers on average, while a person in their 60s without dementia (痴呆) can hold onto six. When asked to list as many animals as they can in a short time frame, adults over 55 can list about 4% fewer than those under 55 years old.
“Around a generation ago, we assumed that when we get older, we dramatically lose our memory,” said Sha. “That’s really not the case.” For all the talk about age, memory and cognitive ability, it seems like a good time to consult memory experts. Sha leads Stanford Medicine’s Memory Disorders Division and divides her time between clinical work with patients who have Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia and leading clinical trials in patients with these conditions. “Conditions like dementia, and specifically Alzheimer’s disease, affect us more when we’re older. The biggest risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease is age. But beyond dementia, we think about a lot of other possible causes for memory mistakes. When someone comes into the clinic and says they’re having memory problems, we ask about medications, other psychiatric problems like anxiety and depression, and their sleep. There are a lot of factors that can affect memory and that are not necessarily expected in aging.” We asked her to discuss the links between aging and memory—and what steps we can take to boost brain health. Her answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
1. What can we learn about the effects of aging on the brain from Paragraph 2?A.They are hard to detect overall. | B.They affect animals and people equally. |
C.They don’t happen to people of all ages. | D.They rely largely on people’s knowledge level. |
A.She concentrates on working with the patients with Alzheimer’s disease only. |
B.She still thinks at present becoming older means losing our memory gradually. |
C.She argues that memory problems necessarily lead to anxiety and depressions. |
D.She thinks age plays an important role in causing Alzheimer’s disease undoubtedly. |
A.How should we better our memory as we age? |
B.What really happens to our memory as we age? |
C.Why should we balance our aging and our memory? |
D.How can we get the peak performance of our brain sooner? |
A.The interview with Sha. | B.The seriousness of aging. |
C.The necessity of clinical trials. | D.The cures of Alzheimer’s disease. |
6 . A woman in Brazil kept awake during brain surgery moved doctors to tears when she began to sing a song she wrote herself. And the moment is unlike anything we’ve seen before!
Doctors diagnosed (诊断) 45-year-old Maria Filomena da Costa with a brain tumor (肿瘤). It needed to be removed, but the location of the mass made things tricky. Removing the tumor without impacting Maria’s speech and cognition wouldn’t be easy. As a result, doctors determined Maria would need to be kept awake during brain surgery! “There was a big risk Maria would lose her speech and it was important that she talked to the team during surgery,” neurosurgeon Carlos Rocha explained.
Brain surgery is scary enough. But needless to say, this particular operation was terrifying. And Maria admits she found the idea of surgeons working on her brain while she was awake was frightening. So, the team delayed the operation until Maria was psychologically prepared for everything involved.
When it came time to operate, doctors used anesthesia to keep Maria “slightly sleepy,” but still able to speak and respond. The team planned to quiz her on colors, names, etc. “We had prearranged to do speech mapping with electrical stimuli (刺激物) to the brain and tests during surgery asking her to name objects and colors, read and talk,” Carlos said. But Maria surprised everyone when she started singing a song written by herself as doctors began removing the tumor!
Maria’s actions completely stunned the doctors. Not only did it provide guarantee for the doctors that Maria’s speech would be just fine, but it moved the team in a powerful way. “There were a number of professionals involved in this procedure and it was an emotional experience. Everyone couldn’t stop talking about her courage,” anesthesiologist Paula Fialho said. The 8-hour surgery went well, and within only 4 days, Maria headed home from the hospital. She’s walking, talking, and is well on her way to a full recovery!
1. What can we learn about the brain tumor in Paragraph 2?A.It put the doctors at risk. | B.It kept the patients awake. |
C.It was diagnosed 45 years ago. | D.It was at a position hard to tackle. |
A.Maria needed enough mental preparation. | B.Maria demanded a better surgery plan. |
C.Maria longed to have more speech practice. | D.Maria was too scared to accept it completely. |
A.They asked her to sing. | B.They gave her a careful test. |
C.They used anesthesia to make her sleep. | D.They helped her react to something by speaking. |
A.Enthusiastic and ambitious. | B.Professional and emotional. |
C.Optimistic and courageous. | D.Cooperative and generous. |
7 . A CLEAN, GREEN ENERGY FUTURE
Nowadays, many countries are making the important change from fossil fuels to clean, green and renewable sources of energy. Fossil fuels produce emissions, but renewable energy sources cause limited damage to the environment.
Here are the main types of renewable energy, with facts and examples from around the world.
Solar
Solar panels turn heat from the sun’s rays into electricity, and solar heaters use that energy to heat water directly. Germany has the highest solar capacity in the world, but China is the world’s largest market and the largest producer of solar technology.
Hydropower
The power of water turns turbines which produce electricity. Since ancient times, watermills have been used a lot. Most of the renewable energy in China comes from hydropower plants, such as the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest power station.
Geothermal
This has been a natural source of energy for thousands of years. Today, heat from below the earth’s surface heats water into steam that turns turbines to generate electricity. The USA has the largest capacity, with over 80% generated in California. The Yangbajing Power Plant is the largest geothermal plant in China.
Wind
Tall turbines are turned by the wind to produce electricity. Wind “farms” are built on land, or offshore, to take advantage of more frequent and powerful winds at sea. The world’s largest wind farm is the London Array. It has 175 wind turbines and is 20 km off the coast of England. Researchers think China could meet all her electricity demands from wind by 2030. Wind farms in provinces such as Gansu have an endless wind supply.
1. Which country is the top in solar capacity worldwide according to the passage?A.China. | B.Germany. | C.The USA. | D.England. |
A.Solar. | B.Hydropower. | C.Wind. | D.Geothermal. |
A.Business. | B.Science. | C.Culture. | D.Travel. |
8 . Waking up at the crack of dawn and going for a run might feel awful when you start trying to make it a habit. Weaving a significant new activity such as this into your regular routine obviously takes determination and time.
One popular idea suggests that it takes 21 days to solidify a habit. People tend to feel extra motivated to start a new habit or kick an old one.
Everyone has a unique habit-building timeline.
The researchers also suggested that habit formation depends on the effort that a person puts into practicing an activity and on the presence of environmental cues that would remind them to carry out the behavior.
A.The type of activity is also a factor. |
B.The strategies of activity impact the way. |
C.People want to form a habit of exercising regularly. |
D.But how much time is really needed to make that habit stick? |
E.It might sound easily reachable to make a resolution on New Year’s Day. |
F.By comparison, it took half a year for people to develop an exercise habit. |
G.However long it is for any individual, repetition is the key to making it work. |
9 . I’ve always wanted to attend a music festival. But as a person with autism (自闭症), the
We arrived at the festival last Thursday afternoon only to be faced with a(n)
The next afternoon, volunteers guided us to a disabled viewing stand. It was a(n)
I was surprised to see how the power of music could
All in all, I
A.warning | B.thought | C.experience | D.embarrassment |
A.excited | B.disappointed | C.frightened | D.inspired |
A.Therefore | B.Nowadays | C.Instead | D.However |
A.relative | B.band | C.parent | D.friend |
A.endless | B.unusual | C.striking | D.horrible |
A.ceremony | B.point | C.atmosphere | D.branch |
A.treated | B.introduced | C.directed | D.arranged |
A.bags | B.performances | C.diseases | D.feelings |
A.continued | B.refused | C.escaped | D.stopped |
A.on hand | B.in charge | C.ready | D.willing |
A.reasonable | B.informal | C.lively | D.hopeful |
A.hosts | B.artists | C.workers | D.volunteers |
A.understand | B.improve | C.control | D.move |
A.Foreigners | B.Enemies | C.Neighbors | D.Strangers |
A.remembered | B.confirmed | C.enjoyed | D.missed |
10 . Bill Bryson’s phenomenally popular books are a great success of amateur enthusiasm over scholarly expertise. In the highly reviewed Shakespeare (2007), he raced us through the playwright’s life and works in 222 pages; A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003) was his 624-page analysis of “everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilisation” — and it remains the best-selling science book of the 21st century so far. Can he make it again with A Really Short Journey Through the Body, which promises us a “head to toe” tour in 138 pages?
In his books for adult readers, Bryson’s success has lain in an ability to turn vast, complex subjects into an easy and pleasant narrative, filled with tiny facts and odd stories. His latest book, which follows his adult title The Body (2020), is aimed at children as young as eight, for whom this proven writing style works well.
“No doubt about it, the human body is a truly remarkable thing,” Bryson writes, and it’s the remarkable facts that interest him the most. Did you know that you bl ink 14,000 times a day? Or that it takes seven billion billion billion atoms to make you? And that if you formed all your DNA into a single line, it would reach 10 billion miles across the solar system?
Fresh doctors might find some of the entries frustratingly brief. The tongue, for example, receives only a paragraph, while, a chapter, entitled ‘Poo and Farts’, is relatively detailed: “In your life, you’ll probably po o the weight of 5 cars but you’ll have eaten the weight of 60. So that’s not a terrible result.”
Biology books can be heavy weather, but Bryson’s skill, as ever, is to turn the story of the human body into a thoroughly digestible read.
1. What do Bryson’s latest book and The Body (2020) have in common?A.They are easy to read. | B.They are both about physics. |
C.They are intended for adults. | D.They are both best-selling books. |
A.To analyze the structure of the book. | B.To illustrate the attraction of the book. |
C.To show the scientific value of the book. | D.To display the main contents of the book. |
A.Packed with facts. | B.Weather-related. |
C.Hard to understand. | D.Popular and readable. |
A.An introduction to a book. | B.An essay on biology. |
C.A news report on science. | D.A biography of a writer. |