One afternoon in August, five years after Mom passed away, I was unpacking my groceries(食品杂货) in my kitchen. When I lifted my left hand out of a grocery bag, I suddenly couldn’t breathe. Looking at the ring on my finger, I found the star sapphire (蓝宝石)was gone. Mom had given me the ring on my twenty-first birthday. I had worn it every day for twenty-nine years. It was a reminder of Mom and a symbol of our love.
“No! No! No!” I yelled, hurrying to check the bag and the floor, and then my car, but the star sapphire was nowhere to be found. Feeling helpless, I called my best friend, Marie. “The star sapphire in my ring fell out. I don’t know what to do,” I said, extremely worried.
Marie replied, “Please don’t be anxious. Try to stay calm and positive. You can go back to the places you just visited and take a look.” But how could I keep hope in seemingly impossible situations? Anyway, I started my car and drove to the grocery store again. I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was little chance that I could find my stone.
Back at the grocery store, I pulled into the same parking spot and looked everywhere for my star sapphire. My hands and knees felt the hot ground as I searched crazily around and under my SUV car. Then I rushed inside the store, searching for a familiar face for more help. I spotted Amanda, a staff member whom I had met on previous shopping trips, and urgently tapped her on the shoulder. “I was just here twenty minutes ago and lost the stone of this ring. It’s very special to me. It’s from my late mom. Could you please help me look for it?” I cried, unaware that many other people around also heard my words.
Amanda’s eyes softened and she nodded understandingly. She immediately took a large mop(拖把) and started carefully sweeping it back and forth down the first aisle (过道) of the huge store.
Paragraph 1:In tears, I called after her, “It’s light blue and small.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
Suddenly, a customer near the counter excitedly called out loudly, “Oh, Madam, I’ve found it!”.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . The rubber surgical gloves were created about 135 years ago. Believe it or not, this little tool
Hospital procedures
Whenever I see gloves anywhere, I couldn’t help but think of this
A.seen | B.made | C.tested | D.collected |
A.sympathy | B.love | C.curiosity | D.kindness |
A.Instead | B.Besides | C.Indeed | D.Otherwise |
A.allow | B.cause | C.promise | D.require |
A.developed | B.discovered | C.witnessed | D.cured |
A.succeeding | B.graduating | C.resigning | D.retiring |
A.achievement | B.legs | C.courage | D.hands |
A.called on | B.occurred to | C.came across | D.applied to |
A.check | B.clean | C.trade | D.design |
A.Original | B.New | C.Extra | D.Regular |
A.response | B.attitude | C.sensitivity | D.addition |
A.specifically | B.actually | C.carefully | D.equally |
A.said | B.known | C.reported | D.announced |
A.belief | B.identity | C.purpose | D.quality |
A.story | B.record | C.work | D.memory |
Regular physical activity is one of the most
Being physically active can help manage weight. Both eating
People differ
To lose weight and keep
4 . When I was young, my mother was very much concerned for my happiness and was always there to support me. We had healthy boundaries (界限). When my own turn came for being a mother, I was determined to do so.
But as my daughter and I sat down to choose courses for the seventh grade, I felt the boundaries begin to fall. Students were allowed three electives (选修课) each term. Several of these were year-long courses—band, orchestra, yearbook and Spanish, and the rest were random (随机的) — technology education, drama, leadership and PE. I hated PE in my own school days.
We read the elective options carefully and sweet relief flooded through me. “You can sign up for band, yearbook and Spanish, and you won’t have to take PE ever,” I told her. I settled back into my chair, a weight taken off my chest. My daughter, however, frowned. “But I’m not sure I want to take Spanish. And I want to do the leadership class... and try drama!”
I broke in on her words with more practical wisdom. “You can’t pick the electives you want, though. They’re organized randomly. So you might get drama and leadership..., or you might get gym class or technology education. You might get the classes you want, and you might not. Is it worth risking having to take PE?” Finally, she chose to take the chance and signed up for band, yearbook and one period of the unknown elective. I reminded myself she was not me.
Watching your child walk into the trap of middle school is worse than experiencing it yourself. Motherhood, after all, is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. I am not going into the seventh grade again. It is my daughter’s turn. She is her own person, and while she is delicate and easily hurt, she is also stronger and more confident than I was.
1. What is the function of paragraph 1?A.To present a fact. | B.To provide an example. |
C.To introduce the topic. | D.To make a comparison. |
A.Drama was her daughter’s favorite. | B.Her daughter followed her advice. |
C.There were many year-long courses. | D.PE was optional for her daughter. |
A.It seemed organized. | B.It was uncertain. |
C.It was made at random. | D.It sounded reasonable. |
A.Motherhood is rewarding. | B.Mothers should learn to let go. |
C.Children should ask for help if necessary. | D.Children are too young to make a decision. |
A.On the bus. | B.At school | C.At his friend’s. |
6 . Hey! You have a hairless spot on the back of your head! " Mom’s alarmed cry hit me like a shock.
I tried to shrug it off. “It’ll grow back.” I worked to sound
At first, the loss was minimal.
As days went by, my hair started to fall faster and more.
We went to see a doctor, who diagnosed my condition as alopecia (脱发症) . He recommended an injection to try, which would be
I had to wear a wig to school every day, worried it might slip one day and that everything would
I came to realize that what had happened was not my fault, and not something I should feel
A.mid | B.calm | C.upset | D.relieved |
A.Checking | B.Polishing | C.Clearing | D.Covering |
A.sense | B.chance | C.sign | D.way |
A.wonder | B.panic | C.expand | D.relieve |
A.Reaching | B.Shifting | C.Feeling | D.Running |
A.delay | B.avoid | C.cease | D.keep |
A.attached | B.connected | C.guided | D.applied |
A.After all | B.Worse still | C.In brief | D.By contrast |
A.motion | B.procedure | C.routine | D.mission |
A.break out | B.draw to a close | C.fade away | D.come to light |
A.reveal | B.restrict | C.distribute | D.highlight |
A.Instead | B.Furthermore | C.Anyway | D.Thus |
A.blow | B.credit | C.exception | D.miracle |
A.proud | B.ashamed | C.fond | D.guilty |
A.evaluation | B.introduction | C.acceptance | D.dependence |
7 . When you have to cancel your Thanksgiving plans due to the spread of the COVID-19, you may find yourself craving companionship as much as that pumpkin pie. That’s because parts of the brain respond to loneliness much like they react to hunger, according to a study in Nature Neuroscience.
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology scanned the brains of 40 healthy, social young adults after 10 hours of either fasting (禁食) or social isolation (隔离). They found that after being alone, participants’ neurological responses to social signals were similar to hungry people reacting to food — that is, certain areas of the brain linked to desire were turned on to start working.
For an isolated person, a picture of people laughing together caused the same areas of the brain to light up as when a hungry person looked at a big plate of pasta.
“Just like hunger is an unpleasant sensation that motivates us to seek out food and thirst motivates us to seek out water, loneliness is a biological need that motivates us to reconnect to others,” Holt-Lunstad told Insider.
Researchers were surprised to find that people who were prevented from socializing became much more focused on that need, and less reactive to hunger. As their loneliness increased, they became less responsive to images of food.
These latest findings suggest that the relationship between food and loneliness might be more complicated than we thought, despite the popular opinion of stress-eating to cope with social isolation. More research is needed to understand the complex ways people deal with loneliness.
Studies like this can help scientists understand how the brain processes loneliness, and possibly reduce the negative consequences. However, although loneliness may be similar to hunger, fixing it isn’t as easy as serving someone a hearty dinner because people are unique and they need varying levels of social interactions to meet their needs.
1. The underlined word “craving” in the first paragraph can be replaced by .A.avoiding | B.desiring | C.preferring | D.ignoring |
A.to find their brain responses to both loneliness and hunger |
B.to provide explanations for their feeling lonely and hungry |
C.to find how loneliness can have a negative impact on health |
D.after they have been hungry and socially isolated for 10 hours |
A.Hunger is an unpleasant sensation. |
B.Hunger and thirst motivate us to feed ourselves. |
C.Socializing is supposed to be basic human need as it is. |
D.The effects of loneliness on health are comparable to other factors. |
A.Loneliness may be fixed just as hunger is satisfied. |
B.Situations of loneliness are complicated and hard to cope with. |
C.Scientists have understood how the brain processes loneliness. |
D.Loneliness is such a common and serious problem that we all have to suffer. |