1 . Every year people retire (退休) to Florida, but there’s one retired couple from Michigan who said they are working harder than ever, and that they’re loving every minute of it. That’s because they’re impacting (影响) the lives of hundreds of children in their new community.
John and Karan Byrd decided to start their own sports camp, Amazing Athletes and Super Soccer Stars.
“We were so excited to keep busy, healthy, keep our energy flowing, and do something instead of just coming down to Florida and playing golf,” said John.
“It’s bringing longevity (长寿) to our lives. I do believe that,” said Karan.
They even brought in a secret weapon (武器), their daughter Lauren. “Growing up with them, I was always doing something with them. We were at the park. We were at the pool. We were outside in the backyard jumping on the trampoline (蹦床),” said Lauren. “I mean you’re looking at two of my best friends here. These are my heroes in life.”
The Byrds visited up to seven Child Development Centers throughout Bradenton and Sarasota, and most recently Discovery Point.
“Once in a while at 6:30 in the morning Karan asks if we’re really teaching again and says, ‘I thought today was a day off,’” joked John.
The camp focuses on the fundamentals (基础) of 10 different sports and continues to build on them each week. “Some of the kids didn’t even feel comfortable with the ball coming toward them and now they want to be the first in line to catch the ball,” said John.
The Byrds hope to inspire other retirees moving to Florida to make an impact in their new community. “We will stay healthier and we hope to live longer while we are doing this and being retired so we really aren’t retired anymore,” said John.
1. What did the Byrds do after they retired?A.They often played golf. | B.They went to Michigan. |
C.They set up a sports camp. | D.They learned to play soccer. |
A.Longevity is connected to exercise. | B.The Byrds are busy with their work. |
C.Lauren agrees to her parents’ decisions. | D.The Byrds are very good with their daughter. |
A.Exercise can make kids healthy. | B.The kids are showing positive changes. |
C.Good habits don’t develop quickly. | D.The camp needs more forms of sports. |
A.They will never really retire. | B.They will get a new job soon. |
C.They will be an example to others. | D.They will not be afraid of getting old. |
2 . Diet can influence a person’s height, but only during childhood-until the age of 2 years. From the age of 2 to 12 years, stunted growth (发育不良) can be modified in some children, but not all of them. There is no scientific data currently available to suggest that an adult’s height can be increased through diet.
Calorie intake (热量摄取) from birth to about 2 years of age will influence the height of children. An article in The Journal of Nutrition monitored diet and socio-economic factors in more than 2,000 children, aged 2 to 12 years of age. The researcher found that each additional 100 calories in the diet was associated with an increased height of 0.13 inches in boys and slightly less in girls. The study concluded that beyond 2years of age, socio-economic status could have an impact on the height of children.
Malnutrition (营养不良) in children younger than 2 years old will cause stunted growth in comparison with their parents and well-fed brothers and sisters, but malnourished (营养不良的) children can “catch up” with proper nutrition (营养). The researcher found that about 63 percent of the children were classified as “stunted” based on height-for-age measurements set by the World Health Organization. With increased calorie and vitamin intake, 30 percent were no longer stunted by the age of 8.5 years, and 32.5 percent were no longer stunted at 12 years old.
Drinking milk has the greatest impact on the cognitive (认知的) and physical development of babies in their first year. A study examined the effects of drinking milk on the height and weight of 6,669 babies from six countries and found that drinking milk contributed to an increase in height of children.
1. What does the underlined word “modified” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?A.Measured. | B.Experienced. | C.Improved. | D.Accepted. |
A.Boys grow at a higher speed than girls on average. |
B.Keeping a balanced diet is important to children’s health. |
C.Economic conditions have decisive effects on a person’s height. |
D.Ensuring children under 2 enough calories is important for their height. |
A.By quoting data from studies. | B.By analyzing possible causes. |
C.By explaining scientific terms. | D.By sharing his personal experiences. |
A.Nutritious diets for children’s health y growth. | B.Instructions on how to raise children properly. |
C.The determining factors in a person’s height. | D.The influence of diet on children’s height. |
3 . With a leather book cover, a golden overhang, made from colored paper and edges of the book painted red, the French version of An Introduction to The Analects of Confucius《论语入门》is a classic from the Age of Enlightenment in France. The book is about the political ideas, ethical thoughts and moral concepts of China more than 2,000 years ago. Francois Bernier, the author of the book, would never have expected that the French version of the Chinese classic translated by him could be brought to China more than 300 years after he finished it.
The French version of An Introduction to The Analects of Confucius is a national gift. 2019 marked the 55th anniversary of the establishment of China-France diplomatic ties. On March 24 of that year, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Nice, France. Before their meeting, Macron presented Xi with the original French version of An Introduction to The Analects of Confucius published in France in 1688.
As a classic of traditional Chinese culture, The Analects of Confucius《论语》was introduced to Europe as early as the 17th century. Commenting on the influence of Chinese culture in France, Macron said the thoughts of Confucius had deeply inspired French thinkers such as Voltaire and had a long-lasting influence on the French Enlightenment (启蒙运动).
After hearing Macron’s introduction, Xi said he would take this precious gift back to China’s National Library. President Xi once said that the rich philosophical ideas, humanistic spirit, edifying thoughts (教化思想) and moral concepts of China’s fine traditional culture can provide useful inspiration for understanding and transforming the world, for governing the country, and for moral construction.
1. What does An Introduction to The Analects of Confucius mainly deal with?A.Music history, ethical thoughts and folk songs. |
B.Political ideas, ethical thoughts and fairy stories. |
C.Moral concepts, classic works and military ideas. |
D.Ethical thoughts, moral concepts and political ideas. |
A.Macron saw them as an inspiration to many French inventors. |
B.Macron saw them as guidelines for the French Enlightenment. |
C.Macron considered them great valuable to French in some ways. |
D.Macron considered them the best way to spread Chinese culture. |
A.Science. | B.Travel. | C.Culture. | D.Technology. |
4 . I had gone into a chief’s office to talk about a couple of issues that needed to be addressed. She, like all of the men and women in her department, had been through the well-known ‘ringer’. The stress was so intense, one could almost taste it.
I had been assisting the department during a crucial period of being very short-handed, and was watching everyone get close to burn-out. When I inquired about her state of mind, she admitted that her home life was almost non-existent, because she was ‘zombieing through the evening’. The next words out of her mouth expressed a frustration of my own: “This work is not my gift from God. My family is!”
I had heard of hanging all of one’s problems from the office on a“Trouble Tree”while driving home, to be picked up on the way back to the office in the morning, and for a brief second thought about suggesting that scenario to the chief.
But what came out was:“Why don’t we do something different? Let’s have a Blessing Tree. On the way home in the evening, we could pull down a blessing to write a character we adore in our spouse, a particular reason we love them, the love they or our children have for us. The list could be endless.”
When I tried it on the way home that night, the stress seemed to melt away. There was a ‘spring in my step’ and when I arrived, a smile of joy was bubbling up from within! For the first time in 2 weeks, I was overjoyed to greet my wife and children!
The Blessing Tree could make a major difference in your evenings, especially after those REALLY tough days.
1. What is paragraph 1 mainly about?A.The stress of the author. | B.The staff’s stress in the department. |
C.The issues requiring addressing. | D.The famous ringer of the chief. |
A.Becoming a zombie in the evening. | B.Being extremely tired in the evening. |
C.Spending the evening in confusion. | D.Feeling like a zombie during the day. |
A.By talking about them in the office. | B.By sharing them with family members. |
C.By making use of a “Trouble Tree”. | D.By making use of a “Blessing Tree”. |
A.To show the pressure in modern life. |
B.To persuade readers to pray for blessings. |
C.To introduce stress — relieving approaches. |
D.To share how to raise suggestions for the chief. |
5 . A volcano is an opening in the Earth’s surface. Through that opening, red-hot rock and hot gases escape. This can be a sudden and thunderous puff of ash and gas, or it can be a continuous flow of lava (岩浆) destroying everything in its path. The danger of a volcano may explain why its importance are often ignored. They exist for hundreds of thousands of years, and the gases they release come from the inside of our planet. They are probably the very gases that created Earth’s atmosphere (大气层) billions of years ago. Both awful and amazing, volcanoes have much more to offer than other geographical events.
Volcanic regions are hotbeds of biodiversity. The lava islands of the Galapagos in the Eastern Pacific are textbook examples in action. As lava hardens and begins to erode (风化) over the course of years or centuries, the nutrients and minerals from the volcanoes create rich soil.Some of the world’s most productive regions for farming, such as in Indonesia and Central build up underground aquifers (含水层). For example, without the Tibesti and its five volcanoes in the north of Chad and in southern Libya, the eastern Sahara would be even drier.
Volcanoes also produce geothermal energy, which makes up significant shares of electricity supply in a growing number of countries, including EI Salvador, Kenya and New Zealand. The most common type of volcanic rock, basalt (玄武岩), is capable of permanently trapping (卡住) carbon dioxide. This will make volcanoes an important player in the game of catching and storing carbon. Long viewed as a fearsome enemy of humankind, volcanoes may yet become a savior.
1. What is the text mainly about?A.The definition of volcanoes. |
B.The value of volcanoes. |
C.The danger of volcanoes. |
D.The type of volcanoes. |
A.They are both made up of gases. |
B.The Earth’s atmosphere comes from volcanoes. |
C.They formed in the same time period. |
D.There might be some connection between them. |
A.The cause of a volcano. |
B.The procedure of a volcanic eruption. |
C.The contribution of volcanoes to rich soil. |
D.The influence of biodiversity on volcanoes. |
A.Carbon dioxide. |
B.The most common type of volcanic rock. |
C.Basalt’s being the most common type of volcanic rock. |
D.Volcanic rocks’ ability to permanently trap carbon dioxide. |
6 . Abel Cruz is an industrial engineer living in Lima, the capital of Peru, which is located in the central coastal part of the country, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. When Abel Cruz was a boy,his weekly routine was to climb down a valley in the foothills of the Peruvian Andes to get the family’s water from a spring.
“It was downhill from the house, far away and steep,” he says.
The Peruvian Andes are under the weather influences coming both from the Pacific Ocean and from the jungle and traditionally there is a “dry” and “rainy” season. Recent climatic changes have made the dry seasons even drier and longer.
Cruz began dreaming up better ways to collect water. He noticed that some plants, for example, capture (捕获) rain and mist with their wide leaves. Eventually, he struck upon the idea of a fog net, a concept that he would go on to share around the world.
Each vertical (垂直的) net is 215 square feet of man-made resin (树脂). Micro-droplets (滴液) of water gather together and then fall down into collection tanks. One net can collect 50 to 100 gallons per day. Locals can carry back the water in small containers like buckets for their small farms.
Working in Lima, Peru, with support from the Creating Water Foundation, Cruz has installed (安装) more than 3,600 nets on the bare hillsides around the city to capture fog coming from the Pacific Ocean. This should help bring relief to the city of more than 9 million, which tends to have little rainfall and suffers from frequent lack of water. “The planet has less and less fresh water,” Cruz points out, “because the glaciers (冰川) that are natural water collection tanks are disappearing. So, we must find a way to store and save water for times of drought.”
1. Which of the following can best describe Abel Cruz’s work of getting water from a spring?A.Tiring. | B.Entertaining. |
C.Unnecessary. | D.Economic. |
A.Capturing rain with wide leaves. |
B.Gathering fog droplets with big nets. |
C.Turning resin into water droplets. |
D.Carrying water into collection tanks. |
A.The net is man-made. |
B.The collection tanks are made of resin. |
C.The net is vertically installed on the hillsides. |
D.Locals must carry water in small containers. |
A.His concerns over world’s lack of water. |
B.His engineering experience. |
C.Support from Creating Water Foundation. |
D.His geographic knowledge on his home country. |
—I hope
deliver instant knowledge lift official otherwise survive |
1. We each should spare no effort to save our planet,
2. The little boy save fifteen trapped tourists with the
3. We are committed to the project. We wouldn’t be here
4. Nowadays the Internet’s advantage is its
5. For the sake of safety, you can choose to pay for goods on
In my forties a number of people suggested that I should benefit
That was over six years ago, and how
Grand Master Eng Chor Khor and my other patient teachers always gave us positive encouragement, although they also stressed
10 . If you struggle to meet new people or join in a conversation at social events, it might be that your body language is sending the message to others to stay away.
Smile. Although it is possible to overdo smiling, generally it is better to smile than frown (皱眉). Try to find things that really make you happy or laugh and your smile will come across as natural rather than forced.
Use eye contact. When you do end up talking with someone, be sure to maintain eye contact. Avoiding eye contact makes you appear untrustworthy or disinterested. If direct eye contact feels hard, try looking at only one eye at a time, or at a part between a person’s eyes.
Avoid nervous habits. Even though you might be nervous, avoid the habits that go with it.
Although it may feel unnatural at first, with time you should start to feel more open and confident as a result of changing your body language.
A.Avoid blocks |
B.Use objects on hand |
C.They won’t be able to tell the difference |
D.Apart from body language, always be positive |
E.Stop touching your face or playing with your hair |
F.How can you read different types of body language properly |
G.How can you improve your body language to appear more approachable |