1 . A teenager needs to have a sense of independence in their life to feel secure (安全的). To some teenagers independence means a lot to them, and I think that some parents don’t allow their teenagers enough independence.
Independence has something to do with freedom. Some kids are not allowed to go anywhere alone, and the only thing their schedule includes is going to school, coming home, going to sleep, and repeating the process the next day. Parents tend to be afraid that their kids can get hurt if they go outside into the world. But if parents control their kids too much, they may never learn to live on their own. The best way for a teenager to learn lesson is through experience. I think it is beneficial for teenagers to have freedom.
Teenagers’ lack of freedom can also stop them from having good friendship at school. Some might say this is a good thing, because it helps them focus more on their school work. I argue that this can only discourage them not to do their school work. Some parents do not allow their children to be around their friends outside the school, thinking that this will get them into trouble. But I don’t think so. Instead, isn’t this a good reason for parents to get their children a cellphone? Cellphones allow teenagers to stay in touch with their parents, and communicate with friends.
Privacy is another issue between parents and their teenagers. Teenagers tend to enjoy relaxation by themselves in their own room. This also gives them a sense of independence. It often annoys teenagers when their parents enter their room when they are not home. I know that my mom always goes in my room when I’m not home, and this has brought me to the point where I have asked many times to get a lock on my door.
1. What is the main idea of the second paragraph?| A．It benefits teenagers to have freedom. | B．Some parents allow their kids no freedom. |
| C．Kids know how to live independently. | D．Kids have a dull routine every day |
| A．it is unnecessary for a kid to have a cellphone |
| B．kids should focus on the school work |
| C．parents should make it easy for kids to communicate with their friends |
| D．good friendships between kids harm their school work |
| A．Angry | B．Lucky | C．Disappointed | D．Calm |
| A．keep her father from reading her dairy | B．stop thieves from going in |
| C．protect herself from any harm | D．prevent her mother entering her room |
2 . A new interactive (互动的)map shows which parts of the world have been hit hardest by climate change. The map, called ClimateEX, allows users to see how global warming (全球 变暖)influences temperature and rainfall across the Earth.
The map shows, in the UK, areas of eastern Scotland have been most influenced by climate change. In the US, the west coast has seen a rise in temperature and loss of rainfall. The map also shows that over the next 50 years parts of Wales and northeast England will see big changes to their climate.
Developed by a scientist at the University of Cincinnati, the map uses 50 years of public climate data from 50, 000 international weather stations around the Earth. It shows not only how the climate has changed, But also what will possibly happen by the year 2070.
According to the map, over the next 50 years Central America will be subject to terrible heat and rainfall. Papua New Guinea, southeastern China, the west coast of the US, Greenland and the Arctic are also easily influenced, most importantly for sea level change.
ClimateEX can also help users search for places where climate change may lead to extreme phenomena (现象)in the future. The user simply touches the place where storms are frequent at present on the map and then ClimateEX will show all the places where storms are likely to happen in 50 years.
1. A rise in temperature and loss of rainfall have happened in ____.| A．the US | B．China | C．Papua New Guinea | D．the UK |
| A．setting up weather stations | B．recording rainfall |
| C．measuring the sea levels | D．using past climate data |
| A．cause | B．suffer | C．avoid | D．change |
| A．reduce the influences of climate change |
| B．change the climates of different countries |
| C．show where extreme climates will happen |
| D．suggest how people deal with climate change |
| A．Increasing Rainfall | B．An Amazing Map |
| C．A Map of the World | D．Changeable Climate |
Yoghurt
It was a rough week. The price of oil skyrocketed as the temperature dropped sharply in Maine. We were looking at a high of eight degrees that week, and I had missed three days of work so my paycheck was going to be lower than normal. I was stressed, to say the least. I shopped strategically, looking for every possible way to cut pennies so I could buy groceries and keep the house warm.
My eight-year-old son didn't understand when I told him we were struggling that week. He wanted a special kind of yoghurt, but I didn't have the extra three dollars to buy it for him. It was the kind of yoghurt with a cartoon kid riding a skateboard on the front of the box, and a mere two spoonfuls in each cup. It was the kind of product that wastes a parent's money and makes me hate advertising.
I felt guilty as a parent when those big eyes looked at me with confusion, as if to say, “It's just yoghurt. What's the big deal?” So I found a way. I put something back as single mothers often do. He got his yoghurt.
On the way driving back from the grocery store, I noticed a homeless man holding a sign by the side of the road. My heart hurt, and I tried not to look at him. I watched people stay away from him on the street and walk by without even meeting his eyes. My son didn't seem to care much, either. I looked at the man closely then — bare hands grasping a piece of cardboard, snot frozen to his face, a worn-out jacket. And there I was struggling because I had to buy oil and groceries. But I decided to help. I pulled over to the man and handed him a five-dollar bill.
Paragraph 1:Seeing this, my son became confused and surprised.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
On that day, my son performed an act that most adults wouldn’t have done.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| A．satisfying | B．energetic | C．absorbed | D．incredible |
5 . City life is cool: but is country life cooler? The answer is yes. As cities grow ever bigger, lots of people would like to leave their city and live in the countryside.
The English countryside has a classic image. People imagine that life in the countryside is slow and calm; that people have more space and most houses have gardens; that there are no traffic jams, no pollution, and no crime.
People in Britain want to live in the countryside. It is causing problems in some rural areas. People live in the countryside and work in the city.
| A．Where are the people going? |
| B．In some places, this is true; but in others it is not. |
| C．So they travel long distances each day to go to work. |
| D．The population of British cities has been falling for years. |
| E．Besides, lots of young people say that life in the countryside is boring. |
| A．What is required | B．It is required |
| C．What requires | D．It requires |
| A．Invite | B．Inviting | C．Invited | D．To invite |
8 . You start by running around the school track three times to warm up. This is followed by exercises or long jump for the girls and football or basketball for the boys. That is an average 45 -minute PE class— but do you really enjoy it?
For students at the Second High School Attached to Beijing Normal University, sports classes have experienced a welcome change. Senior 2 students now learn the traditional Chinese martial art of sword-fighting (中国剑术), making PE the most popular lesson on the timetable. “The classes used to be boring as we just did the same things again and again,” said Xiao Tong. “But now PE classes are such fun. Sword-fighting is so cool.” His classmate Wei Jie agrees. “As well as being fun, we learn about traditional Chinese culture,” she said. The usual morning exercises performed to music on the school playground have been replaced by kicking and punching practice (搏击操) to a pop music by Zheng Xiuwen. “We didn't pay much attention when we heard the old music,” Xiao explained, “But when Zheng's music is played, we get excited.” Mao Min, the PE teacher who introduced the changes, is pleased that the students now enjoy sports lessons more. “The classes encourage healthy lifestyles and I am always looking for creative ways to keep the students active,” he said. Schools offer activities according to what sports facilities (设备) they have. For example, students at the Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University can choose to learn swimming, taekwondo (跆拳道) or volleyball. “I take my volleyball very seriously so I keep fit by playing it,” said Senior 2 student Zhang Zheng. “Students only try hard in sports that interest them.”
1. Why was Xiao Tong not interested in PE classes in the past?| A．Because he didn't do well in sports. |
| B．Because he disliked the same activities. |
| C．Because he thought the classes too long- |
| D．Because he was tired of the PE teacher. |
| A．Sword-fighting. | B．Volleyball. | C．Skating. | D．Punching practice. |
| A．Sword-fighting appears in PE classes. |
| B．Students try hard in all sports at school. |
| C．Schools offer necessary sports facilities. |
| D．PE classes are welcoming new changes. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Negative. | C．Uncaring. | D．Doubtful. |
9 . For decades, I was a hard drinker who could drink anyone under the table. This lasted from the age of 27 until after 50, a golden time during which I felt very sorry for ex-drinkers and people who couldn’t or wouldn’t drink. How did they make it through social situations, especially parties? What did they do at the end of a workday to celebrate and relax?
When I first tried to quit drinking myself in my early 50s, I wasn’t sure at first how it would work for me. But I did it anyway.
During these years, I didn’t love not drinking. But I had to admit that when I was off booze, I looked and felt better physically: I slept more deeply, had more energy, exercised more. My mind was clearer. My moods were brighter. Parties were hard, and so was cooking at the end of a day of writing without a glass of wine at my elbow.
I finally quit drinking for real almost four years ago, on 12 July 2019, when a writer friend stayed with my husband and me after his wife kicked him out. After my husband had gone upstairs to bed, my friend sat on our sofa drinking an entire bottle of gin, complaining about his fate, until he passed out next to our dog, whose bed that sofa was.
I’m not going to lie: being sober is not a hot-air balloon ride.
| A．My body demanded it. |
| B．My health started improving rapidly. |
| C．It’s more like a hike in the mountains. |
| D．How did they quit drinking? |
| E．It was a wake-up call. |
| F．But the pluses seemed to outweigh the minuses. |
| G．How did they get through life? |
10 . It may not be rocket science, but researchers have found aerospace engineers and neurosurgeons (神经外科医生) are not necessarily brighter than the general population.
Researchers examined data from an international group of 329 aerospace engineers and 72 brain surgeons who completed 12 tasks online using the Great British Intelligence Test.
The tasks examined various aspects of cognition (认知), including planning and reasoning, working memory, attention, and emotion processing abilities. The researchers then compared the results against those previously gathered from more than 18,000 members of the British public.
The findings, which were recently published, reveal that only neurosurgeons showed a significant difference, with quicker problem-solving speed but slower memory recall compared with the general population. “The difference in problem-solving speed exhibited by neurosurgeons might arise from the fast-paced nature of neurosurgery, which attracts those with a pre-existing talent for rapid processing, or it could be, though less likely, a product of training for rapid decision-making in time-critical situations,” the researchers noted.
The researchers said the study was, in part, carried out to lay to rest the question of whether one of the professions had the intellectual upper hand-a tension made famous by a comedy show in which a confident neurosurgeon is slapped down by an aerospace expert who says, “Brain surgery... it’s not exactly rocket science, is it?”
However, the team found few differences between the cognitive abilities of aerospace engineers and neuroscientists, although the results suggest the former had higher scores for attention and mental control—such as turning objects in one’s head—while neurosurgeons showed higher scores in semantic (语义的) problem solving—such as definitions of rare words.
“Essentially what we think it shows is that everyone has a range of skills, some people are better at some things and other people are better at other things, and it is very difficult to be better in everything across the board,” said Aswin Chari, an author of the study.
1. What is paragraph 3 mainly about?| A．The research subjects. | B．The research method. |
| C．The research aspects. | D．The research background. |
| A．Fast development of neurosurgery. | B．Talent of neurosurgeons. |
| C．Training for rapid decision-making. | D．Nature of problem solving. |
| A．attempted to answer the question asked by the aerospace expert in the show |
| B．were eager to solve the conflicts between neurosurgeons and aerospace engineers |
| C．intended to settle the argument over the intellectual superiority of the two professions |
| D．wanted to find out which of the two professions was more intellectually demanding |
| A．To inform people of the results of a cognitive study. |
| B．To encourage people to be confident in themselves. |
| C．To reduce prejudice against certain professions. |
| D．To correct misunderstandings about intelligence. |
