My cousin Allen, 19 years old, was the coolest star football player at the University of Minnesota. I wanted to be just like him. So when Allen asked me to join him on a spring fishing trip in northern Minnesota, I said yes!
After planning the trip, we gathered clothes and supplies and then set off on our adventure. We reached the Superior National Forest by early evening. On the way to our campsite, Allen pointed to a small house faraway in one of the mountains, saying that it was the ranger station (护林站) where the foresters worked. A jeep stopped beside the small ranger station. Allen told me that our campsite was in the deep of the forest, really far away from the highway.
Only when we made it to our campsite, did I realize that we were really in the middle of nowhere. Somehow I was a bit worried. Luckily, Allen appeared to know all the tricks of an experienced camper. Soon after we gathered enough wood from the forest floor, he started the campfire using only stone and steel, no matches. After a day of travelling, we were very hungry. We ate beef and rice and some soup as well.
Exhausted, we crawled into our sleeping bags early. Allen was still talking about his past camping adventures when a sudden wind picked up from the north. The temperature dropped and it began to snow. Allen knew of a way to increase the temperature inside the tent. He dragged a log from the woods, wrapped aluminum foil (铝箔) around the log and then placed it near the campfire. The heat from the fire reflected into the tent. Soon the tent was warm again and thoughts of lake fish filled my dreams.
续写要求：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。Para 1:
“Wake up! Jim! Our tent is on fire!” Allen awoke me in panic.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Para 2:
A jeep appeared.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________(1) 分析可能的原因；
(2) 给出你的观点；
(3) 期待回信。
注意：1. 写作词数80左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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3 . You’ll boost your brainpower if you brave the unknown, says our memory expert, Jonathan Hancock.
There’s a lot to cope with when you go off to university, and the academic work is just the start. There are new friends to meet, new opportunities to choose between, new responsibilities to accept... and, for most students, a completely new city to explore.
We recently drove our daughter Evie 150 miles to start life as a fresher. It was a struggle to find the car park, let alone navigate the maze of corridors that led to her room. Before we left that evening, we’d taken her to the local supermarket, and we knew that she had flatmates and phone apps to get her orientated. But the scale of the challenge ahead was clear — to find her way in an unfamiliar world.
The good news for Evie — and learners everywhere is that exploring new habitats is hugely beneficial to memory. In a recent study, volunteers walked around a simulated forest environment. Then some of them took the same walk again, while others explored a different forest. And that second group performed significantly better in memory tests straight after. According to the researchers, that was because navigating the new environment stimulated their dopamine (多巴胺) systems-setting up their brains for learning.
So leaving home to study for a degree makes perfect sense. What’s more, young minds seem to gain most from being in strange surroundings. But we may all be able to gain some of the benefits, even if it’s just by stimulating our senses and challenging our thinking skills. Here are three things to try:
(1) Go somewhere new to tackle an upcoming learning task—like memorizing a speech in the library or revising for an exam on a park bench — and take an unfamiliar route to get there.
(2) Play video games that get you moving through new landscapes. Then see whether it improves your success with other learning tasks, like practising a dance or mastering phrases for a foreign trip.
(3) Get lost in your imagination! To warm yourself up for learning, picture a city you know well, but imagine you’re stranded in a part of it that you’ve never visited. Then try to fancy exactly how you’ll get out.
1. What happened when they sent their daughter to her school according to Paragraph 3?| A．They found a park for all their efforts. | B．They were new to the surroundings. |
| C．They got lost in the maze of corridors. | D．They had no phone apps to rely on. |
| A．Taking an unfamiliar route to go home. |
| B．Playing some video games that help you explore new surroundings. |
| C．Getting addicted to playing video games before revising for the exam. |
| D．Imagining yourself getting out of a new city before memorizing a speech. |
| A．Because their dopamine systems were activated. |
| B．Because they entered the same environment twice. |
| C．Because they had flatmates and phone apps to help them. |
| D．Because they walked around a simulated forest environment. |
| A．The need for finding parking spaces in unfamiliar cities. |
| B．The impact of exploring a new environment on our minds. |
| C．The benefits of playing video games for improving learning tasks. |
| D．The significance of picturing familiar cities for memory enhancement. |
4 . The traditional Chinese solar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms. Grain Buds (小满), the 8th solar term of a year, begins on May 21 this year, and ends on June 5. It means that the seeds from the grain are becoming full but are not ripe. Let’s see what we can do during the “Grain Buds” period.
Eating herb of common sow thistle
Grain Buds is a season for eating the herb of the common sow thistle, which is one of the earliest edible potherbs in China. It tastes a little bitter, but also sweet. People in Ningxia Hui autonomous region like to eat it mixed with salt, vinegar, peppers or garlic. It tastes delicious and helps people feel refreshed. Some people boil the herb with water and then squeeze out the juice, which can be used to make soup.
Key period for flower management
This time is a good period of the quick growth of flowers. It is also a season when plant diseases and pests are at an all-time high, which makes caring for your garden even more critical. Flowers need a lot of water and extra care to stay healthy. Weeding should be done as they grow quickly and have to be extirpated in order to keep the soil loose and from competing with the flowers for nutrients.
Celebrating silkworm deity birthday
Silkworm rearing is a traditional byproduct for people in regions south of the Yangtze River. People in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces regard this season as the birthday of the silkworm deity. Those who engage in the silk industry thank the deity by offering sacrifices and staging performances. They pray to the deity for blessings and a boom season for the silk business.
1. Which of the following is true about Grain Buds?| A．It is seen as the birthday of the flower deity. |
| B．It is an essential period to tend to the garden. |
| C．It means that the seeds from the grain are mature. |
| D．It begins on May 21 this year, and ends on July 5. |
| A．offer sacrifices to ancestors | B．pray for a close season |
| C．learn to count their blessings | D．give shows to thank the deity |
| A．Entertainment. | B．Economics. | C．Politics. | D．Culture. |
5 . Nick was troubled and aimless. Then one night, everything changed.
At first, it was just faint light as Nick drove past a two-story house. Then he realized the house was on fire. He immediately pulled up to investigate.
He ran to the back door, sure it would be
“Anybody else in there?” Nick asked. When told a 6-year-old was still in, he ran back. By now, thewhole house was in flames. The smell was
Nick’s burns have mostly healed, but other changes have been far greater. As news about his
| A．Air | B．Water | C．Mist | D．Smoke |
| A．vehicle | B．house | C．bay | D．fire |
| A．signal | B．put | C．break | D．take |
| A．frozen | B．locked | C．wrapped | D．melted |
| A．delay | B．interruption | C．motion | D．sympathy |
| A．looked up | B．got up | C．looked down | D．got down |
| A．dizzy | B．pleasant | C．intense | D．bitter |
| A．desperately | B．patiently | C．tightly | D．precisely |
| A．hesitating | B．spraining | C．collapsing | D．choking |
| A．ankles | B．throats | C．ears | D．fists |
| A．inching | B．skipping | C．sinking | D．fading |
| A．forward | B．downward | C．upward | D．backward |
| A．due to | B．instead of | C．as for | D．apart from |
| A．realism | B．heroism | C．criticism | D．pessimism |
| A．recovery | B．reputation | C．rebirth | D．reform |
6 . In a world where nearly 6 million fingerprint records of government employees are stolen in one computer hack, and where millions of people are victims of identity theft every year, the next step in cyber-security may well be mapping your brain.
Researchers at Binghamton University are working on a biometric (生物特征的) system that records how your brain reacts to certain images. With a little more polishing, the scientists’ brainchild could become the way you get into a safe deposit box, your office or past scanners at the airport. It could replace the password for your online banking, your e-mail or your social media accounts.
They started their project by measuring the brain waves of 30 subjects. The subjects were fitted with a cap that had 30 electrodes attached to it, and then shown various images and symbols — celebrity faces, words, pictures of food — on a computer screen in 200-millisecond bursts. The brain’s reaction was recorded.
The idea is that every time a person needs to use a “password”, he or she goes through the same procedure, and the results are matched to their first-time reaction. If the “brainprint” is cracked — like what happened to the fingerprint records — then the system is merely reset by running another set of images and collecting a different set of brain waves.“Even if that was stolen, you could just cancel it and record one to something else”, says professor Laszlo.
Laszlo and her team have shown that their system can be 100 per cent accurate. So one of the most difficult parts of making the system practical already has been overcome. Now, they’re spending much time recording accurate brainprints with as few as three electrodes, which could make recording in the future as easy as wearing a pair of special glasses. They’re also working with cheaper materials and different methods to see if they can bring the cost down.
1. What does the underlined word “brainchild” in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．The brain function. | B．The biometric system. |
| C．The fingerprint record. | D．The online password. |
| A．To match brainprints with pictures. | B．To check the brain’s reaction. |
| C．To create their brainprints. | D．To connect brain waves to electrodes. |
| A．A new one will be set again. | B．A spare one will be ready beforehand. |
| C．The users’ security will be threatened. | D．The fingerprint record will replace it. |
| A．Improving its accuracy. | B．Making it user-friendly. |
| C．Recording more brainprints. | D．Increasing the number of electrodes. |
8 . Students at an elementary school in California, with the help of their art teacher, created a telephone hotline that people can call to get cheerful advice from kids during difficult times. In just days, the hotline began getting thousands of calls an hour.
Jessica Martin, who teaches art at West Side School in Healdsburg, California, thought her students just might have the magic words needed to bring calmness to people in these difficult times. “To hear the pure joy from kids is extremely comforting,” she says.
Ms. Martin, along with artist Asherah Weiss, worked with students at West Side on a project they called “PepToc”. Actually, they called it “Pep Talk” first. But when Ms. Martin’s 6-year-old son drew an advertisement for the hotline and spelled it “PepToc”, they decided they liked that even better.
The project had two parts — one was the hotline, and the other was creating encouraging posters.
The hotline is available in English and Spanish. It offers the happy voices of children of different ages sharing positive messages. For example, by pressing 3, you can hear a group of kindergartners saying together, “You can do it! Keep trying and don’t give up!” Pressing 4 triggers the sounds of children giggling and laughing — a sound certain to bring a smile to anyone’s face. Pressing 1 brings up ideas for people who are “feeling mad, frustrated, or nervous”. Helpful suggestions include: “punch your pillow”, or “go get a cookie”. Pressing 2 results in “words of encouragement and life advice”. This includes messages like: “The world is a better place with you in it.” And “You are okay!”
Other students took part in making encouraging posters, which were hung up around the town. Many posters had strips of paper that people passing by could tear off and take with them. For example, one poster said “If you are mad, think of positive thoughts”, and had tear-off strips reminding people to “Be happy”.
1. What do we know about the PepToc project?| A．The project has not started yet. | B．It got its present name by accident. |
| C．Its hotline only provides English service. | D．Jessica Martin will answer the hotline calls. |
| A．1 | B．2 | C．3 | D．4 |
| A．They can add their comments to the posters. | B．They can take away the poster’s strips. |
| C．They can take photos for posters for free. | D．They can redesign the posters. |
| A．Newborn babies. | B．Relaxed vacationer. |
| C．Experienced advice providers. | D．Mentally stressed adults. |
International Left-Handers Day is celebrated every year on August 13 in an effort
International Left-Handers Day
10 . Homeless animals are usually left without a permanent home when their owners give them up or they’re found on the street. With millions of animals living in shelters every year, there aren’t enough people to take them in.
When you adopt an animal from a shelter or rescue group, you save two lives.
Whether you like rolling up your sleeves and cleaning cages, socializing with a few of your kitten friends or working with numbers, your skills and interests can make a huge impact on the lives of homeless pets in your community.
| A．Volunteer with animals |
| B．So, many animals don’t get the love and care that they need |
| C．Host an animal shelter talk at your school or workplace |
| D．Fostering is a fun way to get lots of helpful hands-on time |
| E．Not only can you feel good about saving the pet you adopted |
| F．You’ll find rescue groups for just about any type of pet |
| G．Whenever you give something to a shelter or a rescue group in your community, you’re helping to save lives |
