1 . The International Federation of Pickleball, with 60 member countries and counties, is working to make sure pickleball will be part of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
“Pickleball comes from tennis, badminton and table tennis,” says Hope Tolley, managing director of USA Pickleball.
Unlike tennis, you can score only when it’s your turn to serve. What you should do is keep the ball in the air, and if your opponent(called the receiver)fails to return the ball over the net, you get the point.
People who are really into the sport can join tournaments at various levels. The first World Pickleball Games will be held next summer in Austin, Texas.
| A．Here’s how the game is played. |
| B．So be sure to hit with enough force. |
| C．Make sure you can’t stand in wrong position. |
| D．Playing pickleball can’t have any negative impact on players. |
| E．It’s played on a badminton-sized court with a slightly lowered tennis net. |
| F．If you haven’t played it yourself, you’ve probably at least heard of pickleball. |
| G．By 2030, pickleball is expected to have as many as 40 million players worldwide. |
2 . Antibiotics, which can destroy or prevent the growth of bacteria and cure infections, are vital to modern medicine. Their ability to kill bacteria without harming the patient has saved billions of lives and made surgical procedures much safer. But after decades of overuse, their powers are fading. Some bacteria have evolved resistance, creating a growing army of superbugs, against which there is little effective treatment. Antimicrobial (抗菌的) resistance, expected to kill 10 million people a year by 2050 up from around 1 million in 2019, has been seen as a crisis by many.
It would be unwise to rely on new antibiotics to solve the problem. The rate at which resistance emerges is increasing. Some new drugs last only two years before bacteria develop resistance. When new antibiotics do arrive, doctors often store them, using them only reluctantly and for short periods when faced with the most persistent infections. That limits sales, making new antibiotics an unappealing idea for most drug firms.
Governments have been trying to fix the problem by channeling cash into research in drug firms. That has produced only limited improvements. But there is a phenomenon worth a look. Microbiologists have known for decades that disease-causing bacteria can suffer from illnesses of their own. They are supersensitive to attacks by phages, specialized viruses that infect bacteria and often kill them. Phages are considered a promising alternative to antibiotics.
Using one disease-causing virus to fight bacteria has several advantages. Like antibiotics, phages only tend to choose particular targets, leaving human cells alone as they infect and destroy bacterial ones. Unlike antibiotics, phages can evolve just as readily as bacteria can, meaning that even if bacteria do develop resistance, phages may be able to evolve around them in turn.
That, at least, is the theory. The trouble with phages is that comparatively little is known about them. After the discovery of penicillin, the first antibiotic, in 1928, they were largely ignored in the West. Given the severity of the antibiotic-resistance problem, it would be a good idea to find out more about them.
The first step is to run more clinical trials. Interest from Western firms is growing. But it is being held back by the fact that phages are an even less appealing investment than antibiotics. Since they are natural living things, there may be trouble patenting them, making it hard to recover any investment.
Governments can help fun d basic research into phage treatment and clarify the law around exactly what is and is not patentable. In time they can set up phage banks so as to make production cheaper. And they can spread awareness of the risks of overusing antibiotics, and the potential benefits of phages.
1. We can learn from paragraphs 1 and 2 that .| A．doctors tend to use new antibiotics when the patients ask for them |
| B．antimicrobial resistance is developing more rapidly than predicted |
| C．new antibiotics fail to attract drug firms due to limited use of them |
| D．previous antibiotics are effective in solving modern health problems |
| A．They can increase human cells when fighting bacteria. |
| B．They are not particular about which cells to infect and kill. |
| C．They can evolve accordingly when bacteria develop resistance. |
| D．They are too sensitive to be infected by disease-causing bacteria. |
| A．there is little chance of patenting phages in the future |
| B．governments provide financial support for other research |
| C．the emergence of superbugs holds back drug firms’ interest |
| D．over-dependence on antibiotics distracts attention from phages |
| A．Governments fail to stop the use of antibiotics. |
| B．Phages could help prevent an antibiotics crisis. |
| C．Development of antibiotics is limited by phages. |
| D．Antimicrobial resistance calls for new antibiotics. |
I spent 15 years trying to make it in the music industry. When I was a teenager, I did any odd job to afford time in a recording studio. I knocked at managers’ doors and sent out demo (录音样带) after demo, but I got nowhere. In 2010, aged 27, I was doing a job in a restaurant when I wrote a song called Dream Goes On. It was a song about never giving up. I just let out all of my frustrations at the keyboard.
Over the next five years, the music career never materialized but I persisted. Then, in 2019, I uploaded Dream Goes On to a music-sharing website. I just wanted someone to notice my music.
Later that year, I received an email out of the blue from Music World from South Korea, requesting a license for the song. They had chosen my song from the millions on the music-sharing website for a theme tune for one of their shows. I was amazed and negotiated a contract for $5,000 for the use of the song and signed up straight away. I was pretty excited, but didn’t think anything more would come of it, so I focused on my job in the restaurant.
This February, Music World organized a musical festival in Seoul and my song Dream Goes On was also chosen as the theme tune for the festival. I watched on YouTube as my song was being played to a huge crowd of people. It was amazing.
After three days of the festival, I was contacted by Music World and they asked if I’d like to go to Seoul to sing Dream Goes On in a concert. They flew me out there the next day. I was welcomed like a celebrity—everyone I met thought I was a big name in England. I had to break the news to them that I wasn’t a pop star.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
I had never performed the song live, and hadn’t been on stage for years.
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After the concert, I had photographers and journalists battling to interview me.
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4 . What is the most shocking about the heatwave affecting the Pacific Northwest is not that it has hit a usually mild area, nor that so many long-standing temperature records are being broken. It is that those records are being broken by such large margins (幅度). In Portland, Oregon, temperature reached 46.6℃(116°F) — making it one of several cities in the region where former records have been beaten by a full 5℃(9°F). At the same time, heatwaves are also hitting central Europe and even Siberia.
Heatwaves may become headlines, but less attention is paid to them. In 2018 about 300,000 people over the age of 65 died as a result of extreme heat, mainly in India, a 54% increase since 2000, according to a report in the Lancet, a medical journal. The report also shows that, unlike storms and floods, heat does not lead to dramatic before-and-after pictures or widespread damage to belongings. It is a silent killer. As many as 70,000 people died due to a heatwave in Europe in 2003.
Heat also kills by worsening health conditions such as heart problems, so not all the deaths it causes may be directly attributed (归因) to it. Climate change will make heatwaves more common and more extreme. Even if greenhouse-gas emissions (排放) are cut to zero by the middle of this century, temperatures will go on rising for decades. So other measures are needed to protect people against extreme heat.
Governments can set up early warning systems to alarm health workers, shut down schools and stop outdoor activities. They can provide the public with forecasts of coming heatwaves, explanations of the dangers and detailed advice on what to do. Improved facilities can also help. This includes providing shaded areas, water parks and “misting stations” to help people cool down, and get to airconditioned “cooling centers” where they can find shelter and sleep if necessary.
The world is, undoubtedly, facing a big health challenge right now. There is no excuse for ignoring heatwaves and their effects.
1. What shocks us most about the heatwave in the Pacific Northwest?| A．It has stricken a usually mild area. |
| B．It hits central Europe except Siberia. |
| C．Many temperature records are being broken. |
| D．Many records are being broken by large margins. |
| A．People have paid much attention to heatwaves. |
| B．Heat doesn’t cause widespread damage to belongings. |
| C．The damage of heat is as obvious as storms and floods. |
| D．About 300,000 middle-aged people died from extreme heat. |
| A．Provide some cool places. | B．Build nursing homes. |
| C．Organize outdoor activities. | D．Shelter the homeless. |
| A．Improving Public Facilities | B．Taking Heatwaves Seriously |
| C．Preventing Natural Disasters | D．Reducing Greenhouse-gas Emission |
This is a story about two teenagers who were direct opposites but were inseparable.
No one could really understand how Mack and Zack could be such good friends. They were direct opposites in every way—from the top of their heads to the tips of their toes. That is to say, they have not the least similarities. They were labeled the inseparable by anyone who knew both of them or their common friends.
They first met when they were in Grade One. It was not one of those dramatic meetings but ordinary and boring. Both were eyeing the second seat in the middle row in the classroom.
Both rushed for the chair but another giant classmate put himself into it. So they looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders indifferently and placed themselves on either side of the giant. However, the class teacher immediately rearranged their seating positions. As fate would have it, Mack and Zack found themselves seated beside each other.
Physically, Mack was thin and long. He looked lack of nutrition (营养)but actually he quite could eat. On the other hand, Zack was fat and strong and ate like a bird.
Mack was a bookworm and a star student whereas Zack was an easy-going student who struggled to go through his schoolwork. Mack enjoyed teaching Zack and Zack found himself responding well to Mack's teaching.
Mack was a dreamer and was quiet and cool, unlike Zack who was talkative and outgoing. Mack listened while Zack chattered. Mack could be seen laughing quietly with Zack playing around and the life and soul of any gathering.
Despite their differences, there was an invisible harmony (和谐)between them. Anyone who saw all this couldn't help but wonder how it happened that between these two teenagers there was a silent unspoken understanding. That's all because of Mack's selfless deed that touched Zack.
注意：
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。
It happened while they were both in a long distance running race.
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What Mack had done touched Zack deeply.
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Earthquake -proof (抗震的) buildings
There are a number of ways
So engineers have looked for other ways. One is to make the building that can swing (摇摆) from side to side.
However,
I hit the back window of a new car with a hammer. In a flash I was in. I started the car, just like my older brother had taught me. I was 12 then. It seems crazy now. Today, everyone knows me as Donald Driver, a famous football player. I've dedicated(致力于) my life after football to helping disadvantaged kids around the country.
Mom would have killed me if she'd known what I was up to. My dad had gone to prison while she was pregnant with me. Mom wanted a better life for me, my two brothers and two sisters. She worked long hours to support us. But she often fell behind on rent and then we'd have to move. Trouble really started when we moved next door to a man named J. R. Mom trusted him to care us while she was at work, and he did. What Mom didn't know was that J.R. and his friends were thieves.
My older brother Moses and I served as look-outs(放哨人).We knew it was wrong, but the money was too good- $ 100 a night. We broke it into smaller bills, and regularly slipped some into Mom's purse. Then Moses discovered we could bring in even more cash by stealing cars. We practiced giving the same smile, hug and kiss for my mom when we came home, no matter what we'd done on the streets.
Now, though, I was about to get caught. The police got closer. I turned into a back alley. Suddenly, up ahead, a car backed out of a driveway. I saw a little old lady sitting in the driver's seat. But it, was too late. I stopped and jumped out to see if the old lady was damaged. The woman, Evelyn Johnson, looked angry, but unhurt. “Go sit in my house right now,” she said. It was the tone of voice that no kid can disobey. The police arrived and began to question the old woman.
“The man who did this ran that way,” she said, pointing down the alley.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
When the police drove off,
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I spent more time studying and football kept me busy too.
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8 . It’s well-known that facial recognition is widely used in shopping, home security, and law enforcement and millions of us use it to open our smartphones. But privacy advocates are raising alarms about the growing use of facial recognition technology.
The American administration recently proposed a rule to use facial recognition to identify and photograph all people entering and leaving the United States, including American citizens. That idea was scrapped after big objections from lawmakers and activists, but the administration is moving ahead with more limited use of the technology in a number of airports and other ports of entry say it makes the public safer and so far, they’ve had very few complaints from travelers.
However, a growing number of, both in and out of the government, say any type of facial recognition is just like illegal surveillance (监视). They say it exchanges too much freedom for too little security. Many note that once the government has a database of Americans with their photographs, there’s no telling what it could be used for. Beyond the privacy concerns, security experts are also worried that a huge government database could be a major target for a data breach (数据泄露). Some say it could give hackers access to data from millions of Americans.
Mike Howell, a former consultant of the Department of Homeland Security, suggests a possible solution: simply erase the information after it used. “The big question for,” says Howell, “is how the government largely will protect the data. We want the data we collect to keep us safe from threats, not to, you know, make unsafe. “Finally, the administration may have the final say on the future of facial recognition, with more regulations being advised to keep it in check.”
1. What does the underlined word “scrapped” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Abandoned. | B．Expressed. |
| C．Considered. | D．Updated. |
| A．Uncaring. | B．Concerned. |
| C．Flexible. | D．Tolerant. |
| A．Exchange much security for some freedom. |
| B．Protect the privacy related to facial recognition. |
| C．Introduce some laws to stop data breaches. |
| D．Stop using facial recognition in shopping. |
| A．Facial recognition is actually a double-edged sword. |
| B．The American administration is advised to use facial recognition. |
| C．It is urgent for the government to stop using facial recognition. |
| D．There are alarms about growing use of facial recognition. |
