1 . Playing sports at school makes people “grittier” and harder working, boosts the chances of achieving long-term goals, and having successful careers, say scientists. The Ohio State University team analyzed National Sports and Society Survey data on almost 4, 000 men and women across the US and asked study participants to rate themselves on a scale of 1-5 on eight statements. They included “I am diligent. I never give up.” And “I am a hard worker”. None of the statements was directly related to sports. 34% of those who did sports as a youngster scored high on the grit scale, compared to 23% of peers who gave up. One in four of those who never played sports ranked low, compared to just 17% of those who did. Lead author Dr. Emily Nothnagle said practicing drills on the field can improve pupils’ lives for decades, adding “The grit they develop from playing sports can help them for the rest of their lives”.

The findings, published in the journal Leisure Sciences, were supported by more sophisticated (复杂的) statistical analyses that accounted for respondents’ demographic (人口的) characteristics. But it appears only children who keep at it-and play continually—get the benefit, say the researchers. Some may just be born with the grit to help them succeed at sports as a young person and then continue to benefit from that trait as an adult. “Quitting could reflect a lack of perseverance, which is a crucial component of grit,” said a researcher. “It could also make quitting an activity, and not persevering, easier the next time.”

Adults who played sports as kids generally perceived the experience helped improve their work ethic, and that perception was linked to their grit scores as adults even though the researchers said people can gain or lose grit throughout life.

1. What does the underlined word “grittier” mean in the 1st paragraph?

A．More hopeful.	B．More pessimistic.
C．More aggressive.	D．More determined.

2. What can we learn from Paragraph 2?

A．The survey included a total of 15 statements.

B．The survey centered on sports and lifestyle.

C．People who did sports at a young age tended to score high on the grit scale.

D．The survey was conducted and analyzed by Dr. Emily alone.

3. How were the findings presented in the journal Leisure Sciences?

A．By providing experiments.

B．By offering some examples.

C．By showing differences.

D．By analyzing characteristics.

4. Where is the passage most likely to be taken from?

A．A biological textbook.	B．A science magazine.
C．A travel brochure.	D．An economic paper.

2 . Some of the classrooms at Taft Elementary in Santa Clara, California, have one flaw in common. They don’t have ________. Former school psychologist Ernesto Rodriguez thought the lack of windows does ________ kids, because research shows being in and around nature ________ anxiety and has benefits for students.

Rodriguez, who is now a park ranger (护林员) on Southern California’s Catalina Island ________ knows the impact nature has on mental health, and began ________ on his passion — landscape photography. It was during his training to become a park ranger that he learned a fact that ________ with him. “Kids who have views out windows to trees do ________ academically, emotionally and creatively. And more kids ________ and go to college,” he said. “I thought, why isn’t this being used?”

Rodriguez uses his photography skills to take 360 degree ________ of tree canopies (树冠), then he prints them and ________ them onto ceiling tiles. “So when you ________ it feels like you’re sitting under a tree. And it has all those ________ of the science that helps calm you down, focus and communicate,” he said.

A student named Octavio thinks trees bring him ________. “It is surprising to see because any time you’re inside of a school, you mostly don’t see ________ or trees. But now it’s ________ to see that there are trees here,” Octavio said. “I would say that it’s pretty great and ________.”

Rodriguez says if you still don’t believe in the science behind the art, you can ________ it yourself by going outside and looking up at the trees. “This is a(n) ________ of both my careers as a school psychologist and a photographer,” Rodriguez said. “And to be ________ to create imagery — and spend time out in nature creating imagery that I know is going to help people — is really a ________”.

1.

A．desks

B．windows

C．curtains

D．blackboards

2.

A．spoil

B．attract

C．affect

D．frighten

3.

A．shares

B．kills

C．arouses

D．eases

4.

A．deeply

B．rarely

C．simply

D．curiously

5.

A．depending

B．calling

C．focusing

D．counting

6.

A．stuck

B．fought

C．filled

D．concerned

7.

A．quicker

B．better

C．earlier

D．worse

8.

A．register

B．revise

C．skip

D．graduate

9.

A．ways

B．views

C．shots

D．angles

10.

A．takes

B．moves

C．throws

D．fits

11.

A．look up

B．get in

C．come out

D．sit down

12.

A．contents

B．elements

C．types

D．powers

13.

A．credit

B．trouble

C．peace

D．fun

14.

A．changes

B．signs

C．books

D．plants

15.

A．amazing

B．normal

C．common

D．scarce

16.

A．convenient

B．sacred

C．practical

D．beautiful

17.

A．draw

B．try

C．take

D．study

18.

A．design

B．marriage

C．honor

D．image

19.

A．confident

B．likely

C．able

D．happy

20.

A．motivator

B．privacy

C．matter

D．question

3 . Finding the words to explain how you feel isn’t always easy. This is why young people’s mental health charity has made “My Voice Matters” the theme of this year’s Children’s Mental Health Week.

    1    

Do you have trouble sharing your thoughts or worry no one will listen if you do? Making your voice heard means understanding that your words matter and your opinions count. Dr Julia Clements, a psychologist, says that it means expressing your views, thoughts and feelings, not bottling them all up, and being open to hearing the thoughts, feelings and views of others too.     2     In fact you don’t have to use your voice at all. “You can express what you like and don’t like or what you want for the future by writing or drawing instead,” says Clements. “It’s about finding ways to share what matters to you,” she explains.

Why is it important?

    3     Scientists have discovered that sharing your feelings produces a feel-good chemical in your brain that makes you feel relaxed and calm. Your voice can make a big difference to other people too, including friends and families. Clements says, “You can spread kindness and happiness simply by speaking. With a few kind words, you could help someone feel good about themselves or let them know they are supported.”     4    

How can you find your voice?

Clements suggests practising conversations with friends, parents or carers on the way home from school and seeing if you have different opinions about something. If you’re struggling to explain your feelings, find a way that feels right for you, whether it’s talking face-to-face or writing it down.     5     When you’re ready, “Take a deep breath and believe in yourself,” says Clements. “Know that your opinion matters.”

A．What does speaking up mean?

B．What are the benefits of speaking up?

C．Making yourself heard isn’t about shouting the loudest.

D．Don’t be afraid to ask questions if you are confused about something.

E．Everyone has their own unique way of processing and sharing their feelings.

F．Sharing your feelings with a person you trust will help you make sense of them.

G．Words have the power to uplift someone’s spirits and make a positive impact on their day.

4 . For Caribbean box jellyfish (水母), learning is literally a no-brainer.

In a new experiment, these animals learned to spot and avoid obstacles (障碍物) despite having no central brain, researchers report in Current Biology. This is the first evidence that jellyfish can make mental connections between events and change their behavior accordingly. “Maybe learning doesn’t need a very complex nervous system, but rather, learning is an essential part of nerve cells,” says Jan Bielecki, a neuroethologist at Kiel University in Germany. If so, the new finding could help trace how learning evolved in animals.

Bielecki and his colleagues wondered if Caribbean box jellyfish could learn that low-contrast objects, which might at first seem distant, were actually close by. The team put 12 jellyfish into a round tank surrounded by low-contrast, gray and white stripes. A camera filmed the animals’ behavior for about seven minutes.

At first, the jellyfish seemed to interpret the gray stripes as distant roots and swam into the tank wall. But those collisions (碰撞) seemed to lead the jellyfish to treat the gray stripes more like close roots in dirty water, and the animals started avoiding them. The jellies’ average distance from the tank wall increased from about 2.5 centimeters in the first couple of minutes to about 3.6 centimeters in the final couple of minutes. Their average collisions into the wall dropped from 1.8 per minute to 0.78 per minute.

“I found that really amazing,” says Nagayasu Nakanishi, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, who has studied jellyfish nervous systems but was not involved in the new work. “I never thought jellyfish could really learn.”

Neurobiologist Björn Brembs views the results more cautiously, noting the small number of jellyfish tested and the variability in their performance. “I want this to be true, as it would be very cool,” says Brembs. Experiments with more jellyfish could convince him that the animals really do learn.

1. What can we know about the jellyfish in paragraph 2?

A．They can avoid obstacles with a central brain.

B．They can change their behaviour after evolution.

C．They may have learning abilities with nerve cells.

D．They may develop a very complex nervous system.

2. What change in behavior did the jellyfish show in the experiment?

A．They completely ignored the gray stripes.

B．They gradually started avoiding the gray stripes.

C．They could avoid collisions if given enough time.

D．They increased their collisions with the tank wall.

3. What conclusion can be drawn from the experiment?

A．Jellyfish preferred the gray stripes over other things.

B．Jellyfish were unable to learn from their environment.

C．Jellyfish relied on the distant objects to change their behavior.

D．Jellyfish showed a learning process and adjusted their behavior.

4. What does Brembs imply in the last paragraph?

A．He believes more testing is needed to confirm the results.

B．He is excited by the potential implications of the findings.

C．He dismisses the findings as irrelevant to jellyfish behavior.

D．He is doubtful due to the consistent performance of the jellyfish.

5 . Taking a vacation may be the last thing on the mind of a cancer patient. ________ can be expensive, time-consuming and sometimes hard work. While people facing illness may be ________ of resources for vacation, they are ________ a stress-free time away. I’m one such ________.

I’m suffering from lung cancer. Diagnosed in March 2017, I was ________ beyond belief. At that time, I was ________ 60 hours a week as a billing clerk. Due to my medications’ side effects, I ________ my career and what I thought made me who I was, though I now discover that ________ is what matters.

Through the Internet, I ________ Little Pink Houses of Hope, a nonprofit that provided a free week-long ________ to cancer patients and their families. After applying and being ________, we drove from Houston all the way to Hatteras Island in North Carolina. It rained most of the time, so I ________ the beauty along the way. I had no idea what to expect and was ________.

Looking back, I am so glad I went. I hadn’t felt such ________ love and such a sense of family. We went to the beach, had wonderful meals and went surfing which I had never thought I would get the chance to do. We ________ in a way that I thought was impossible, not only with the other ________ but also with the volunteers. It was nice to see my husband get along with the other husbands. Being a(n) ________ and the breadwinner,” he had a lot on his plate.

I’ve suffered from the cancer for many years and I undergo ________ every year. I want people to know that though I am living with a serious disease, I am still living ________. So don’t feel sorry for me, but make the ________ of life with me.

1.

A．Writing

B．Driving

C．Traveling

D．Shopping

2.

A．sure

B．short

C．careful

D．capable

3.

A．in need of

B．in front of

C．by means of

D．on top of

4.

A．guide

B．volunteer

C．consultant

D．patient

5.

A．confident

B．relieved

C．scared

D．cautious

6.

A．working

B．sleeping

C．playing

D．wandering

7.

A．found

B．remembered

C．lost

D．chose

8.

A．work

B．love

C．friendship

D．luck

9.

A．complained about

B．worried about

C．talked about

D．learned about

10.

A．arrangement

B．treatment

C．vacation

D．conference

11.

A．proved

B．approved

C．ignored

D．doubted

12.

A．designed

B．exposed

C．grasped

D．missed

13.

A．concerned

B．efficient

C．beneficial

D．embarrassed

14.

A．weak

B．potential

C．uncomfortable

D．unconditional

15.

A．bonded

B．succeeded

C．chatted

D．competed

16.

A．doctors

B．colleagues

C．participants

D．employees

17.

A．assistant

B．carer

C．organizer

D．specialist

18.

A．education

B．surgery

C．development

D．punishment

19.

A．curiously

B．patiently

C．independently

D．wonderfully

20.

A．memories

B．judgements

C．preparations

D．promises

6 . The 40th birthday is often treated as a milestone birthday. For men, especially, the birthday may symbolically signify the start of middle age.     1    . Give the man turning 40 in your life a gift that he will treasure or one that will make him laugh.

Gag (恶作剧) gifts

Many 40th birthday parties are roasts. They are meant to be funny. If this is the case and the man has a good sense of humor, consider giving him a gag gift. Wrap up a magazine printed in large print or set a cane or walker by his chair.     2    .

Adventure gifts

Recapture the man’s feeling of youth by giving him the gift of adventure.     3    . For example, if he has always wanted to go paragliding (滑翔伞运动), pay for the lesson, pick him up in the car and don’t give him a chance to back out of it.

Something expensive

Most men don’t outgrow their love of expensive toys. Get together with some friends and chip in for a 40th birthday gift he will truly treasure.     4    . Giving him something expensive that he would never purchase for himself is a great way to stave off that middle-age crisis.

    5    

Give the man the gift of words. Write a list of 40 things that you love about him and then read it aloud to him while dining on his favorite meal. Alternately, ask everyone in the family to write one admiring thing about him. Once you have 40 sentences, give them to the man. It will be treasure he will remember for a long time.

A．A loving list

B．Reading an article aloud

C．Talk with him about his adventures

D．You can also choose other items like false teeth

E．The gift you give to the man may depend on his preference

F．Perhaps the man has been eyeing his friend’s brand-new laptop

G．Think of something he has always wanted to do and arrange for it to happen

7 . 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。

Are you ready to celebrate World Letter Writing Day on September1? Writing something down may seem like     1     out-of-date idea in this day and age, but it can be one of the most interesting things for you to do. The letter can be a love letter, or even one     2     (simple) written to create memories.

The day     3     (found) by Australian author and photographer Richard Simpkin,     4     loves writing letters. It all started when he began writing to individuals     5     (consider) to be Australian legends, and he also received their    6     (reply). Later, his experience of exchanging ideas with these celebrities (名人) by letter made     7     possible for him to print the book Australian Legends.     8     (honor) handwritten letters, he created World Letter Writing Day in 2014.

Letter-writing itself     9     (be) present for centuries. In ancient times, letters were written on special objects, such as wood and even metal. In the 17^th and 18^th   centuries, letters were a     10     (power) tool for people to communicate. This is why a few letters gathered from the past can serve as documents of personal or diplomatic (外交的) communication for historians.

8 . You know you really want to get good grades.Your parents have put the pressure on you, or you’ve promised that you’ll do better.    1     If you work to find a focused mindset and establish a study schedule, you can cut out the distractions you have control over and minimize the ones you can’t stop completely.

Tune out specific distractions as you notice them. Say you’re trying to study in the library and you keep getting distracted by someone texting. Take note of this specific distraction and then tell yourself you’re going to overcome it.    2     And eventually you’ll no longer notice it.

Give yourself a break.    3     So it’s no surprise if you find yourself distracted from studying by thoughts about a lot of other things. Rather than acting like all of those other needs don’t exist, give yourself an outlet.Spend five minutes thinking about everything that is on your plate, but then tell yourself that it’s time to focus on the main task — studying.

Prioritize your studying by setting a main goal.When you’ve got an exam coming up, it’s easy to think you need to study everything. If you want to make things more manageable and be less prone to becoming distracted, do as follows:     4    

    5     Some people imagine that knocking out several things at once means you can work faster.However, doing your homework while watching TV or shopping online will cause you to lose your focus. So concentrate on a piece of work at a time instead.

If you follow the above consistently, you’ll find that you gradually spend less and less time being distracted.

A．Life can get really busy.

B．Don’t attempt to multitask.

C．Put off the easier tasks instead.

D．But you are likely unable to concentrate.

E．Break things down and establish just one primary goal.

F．Sometimes stepping away from studies can be more beneficial.

G．Keep doing this every time something taking your attention away comes up.

9 . Discover the Huge Health Benefits of Strength Training

One of the best ways to stay fit and healthy as you age is to do strength and power training exercises. It is known that when you are in your thirties, you will begin to lose muscle mass. This loss actually contributes to achy joints, the increased risk of injury, and the “middle-age spread” we all fear. What’s more, the older you get, the faster muscle mass loses. It means that eventually, simple tasks like getting out of a chair and climbing stairs can become more difficult.

Strength training can help you build muscles, make you strong, increase your staying power and make everyday activities easier. By combining strength and power training exercises, you’ll not only get stronger, but also improve your reaction speed. As you grow older, that’s critical because it can help prevent falls. Here is a book, Strength and Power Training for All Ages, for your reference.

Common sense about fitness in the book:

·The key muscles to work for an injury-free body

·How to tell how much weight is suitable for you

·How to strengthen the bones most likely to break

·How to take pressure off your knees when walking or running

·Why you’ll want to apply heat to sore joints before you exercise

Four total body workouts in the book:

·Build bones

·Fight diseases

·Improve balance

·Strengthen muscles &Increase muscle power

Get a copy, start training, and then you’ll discover a whole new self.

1. What will happen as people age according to paragraph 1?

A．They will need less exercise.

B．They will improve reaction speed.

C．They will experience muscle loss.

D．They will have better staying power.

2. What does Strength and Power Training for All Ages mainly teach people to do?

A．Train their brains.	B．Build a sound body.
C．Treat bone diseases.	D．Cut down their weight.

3. What is the text?

A．A notice.	B．An oral folktale.
C．A scientific paper.	D．An advertisement.

10 . 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。

The concept of “gap days”     1     (appear) on a variety of social media platforms recently. Unlike a gap year, a gap day means an     2     (extreme) brief period of relaxation and escape from everyday routine. After resting, people will continue to devote     3     (they) to the busy pace of normal life.

Apart from “gap days”, other similar expressions have made     4     hit on the Internet, such as “city walk”, “da zi (activity partner)” and so on. This growing trend of creating new phrases or euphemisms (委婉语) for something otherwise ordinary and common has caused     5     (heat) discussion.

Some people think that these kinds of new phrases better cater to (迎合) people’s mindsets,     6     (show) their optimism. For example, the common expression “taking a walk” is neutral (中性的). But “city walk”     7     (be) the positive version of it, meaning “to explore the city with a curious mind”.

Others disagree, however, and think that it’s simply just a kind of “sugaring up”, satisfying one’s need for showing off. For example, “city walk” is the same as “taking a walk”     8     general. But by calling it a “city walk”, people feel like they are doing something fancier than it actually is.

But no matter how we think of these phrases, they have taken root in our daily lives and have already gained wide     9     (recognize) among the younger generation. So     10     we need to do is not make them out to be bigger than they actually are.