I was only four when my parents passed away and after that, I had to be sent to Gran Lola’s house. Grandmothers should know how to bake cookies and cook some delicious dishes. Grandmothers should have gentle and soft hearts. But Gran Lola was none of those things. Gran Lola cooked the most usual meals but fed me with love. Although she pretended to be this rough (粗野的), strict and fashion granny, she had a loving heart that knew how to love everyone around her. What a fool I was not to realize that at that time!
I was afraid of Gran Lola until I was ten years old. I spent six years with her. That’s how long it took me to be used to her cooking, laughs and bad jokes. But by then, I couldn’t imagine my life without her. She protected me from all the bad like a mother protects her child. She saw the wrong things that were happening to me and she stood up for me. All in all, she would do anything for me that was good for me.
Gran Lola lived a simple life but had been always taking care of Mr Tammy, a lonely old neighbor, for free until he died. Later, Gran Lola became ill and was forced to stay in bed. I was 15 then and I could look after her.
“You are a loving boy, Morris!” Gran Lola said one day. “You see, honey, all of your love and care will come back to you one day. Kindness is priceless, and it can also bring unexpected rewards (回报).”
When Gran Lola died, I discovered that she had divided what she had equally among her grandchildren. But she had left me one more thing: her old piggy bank, which was placed on my bedroom shelf. One day, thirty-two years later, I was cleaning the shelf when I accidentally dropped it. As it broke into pieces, I was shocked. Along with the broken pieces on the floor lay stones, sparkling and shiny like diamonds (钻石)!
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。
Seeing these, I recalled (回忆) that Gran Lola had been living a rather simple life.
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I was cleaning up the confusing stones when I found Gran Lola’s note.
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2 . Restricting meals to early in the day did not affect weight among overweight adults with prediabetes or diabetes(糖尿病), according to a research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2020.
“We have wondered for a long time if when one eats during the day affects the way the body uses and stores energy,” said study author Nisa M. Maruthur, associate professor of medicine in Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. “Most previous studies have not controlled the number of calories, so it wasn't clear if people who ate earlier just ate fewer calories. In this study, the only thing we changed was the time of eating in the day.”
Maruthur and colleagues followed 41 overweight adults in a 12-week study. Most participants(参与者)（90%）were African American women with prediabetes or diabetes, and average age of 59 years. Twenty-one of the adults followed a time-restricted eating pattern, limiting eating to specific hours of the day and ate 80% of their calories before 1 pm. The remaining 20 participants ate at usual times during a 12-hour window, consuming half of their daily calories after 5 pm for the entire 12 weeks. All participants consumed the same pre-prepared, healthy meals provided for the study. Weight and blood pressure were measured at the beginning of the study；then at 4 weeks, 8 weeks and 12 weeks.
The analysis found that people in both groups lost weight and had decreased blood pressure no matter when they ate. "We thought that the time-restricted group would lose more weight,” Maruthur said. “Yet that didn't happen. We did not see any difference in weight loss for those who ate most of their calories earlier versus later in the day. We did not see any effects on blood pressure either.”
The researchers are now collecting more detailed information on blood pressure recorded over 24 hours, and they will bring this information together with the results of a study on the effects of time-restricted feeding on blood sugar, insulin(胰岛素)and other hormones and making analyses on the data. "Together, these findings will help us to more fully understand the effects of time-restricted eating on cardiometabolic(心血管代谢)health," Maruthur said.
1. What made this study different from earlier ones?| A．Participants' age. | B．Participants' daily eating time |
| C．The number of participants. | D．Research members. |
| A．Research procedure. | B．Research result. |
| C．Research purpose. | D．Research institution. |
| A．Blood pressure is connected with eating time. |
| B．Taking in less calories earlier makes for weight loss. |
| C．Eat calories earlier doesn't affect weight loss. |
| D．Eating time determines your effect of losing weight. |
| A．Stop research. | B．Announce findings. |
| C．Write essays. | D．Analyze data. |
3 . At a time like the pandemic, not only do we miss hugs, but we need them. Touching someone reduces our own stress.
During a hug, the position of the faces matters most. The two of you should point your faces in opposite directions. Quickly approach each other and briefly embrace.
Don’t hug face to face. This position is a higher risk because the faces are so close. When the shorter person looks up, their breath travels up into the taller person’s breathing zone.
Do let your child hug you around the waist or knees. Hugging at the knee or waist level lowers risk for direct exposure because faces are far apart. However, there is potential for the child’s face to pollute the adult’s clothing. You might change clothes and should wash your hands after a visit that includes hugs with a child.
“Most hugs last less than 10 seconds. Back away at least six feet before talking again. Holding your breath stops you from exhaling any virus into their breathing zone,” an expert said.
| A．It calms our nervous system |
| B．The huggers’ breaths can be mixed |
| C．The shorter person will feel pressed |
| D．Children are those who need hugs most |
| E．Do not talk or cough while you are hugging |
| F．However，some hugs are riskier than others |
| G．The adult also should not breathe down on the child |
4 . If you live in certain parts of the world, you will see something magical happen each fall. It is the changing of the color of the leaves on many different trees. Each year deciduous (落叶的) trees go through a process in which their green leaves become bright yellow, gold, orange and red before turning brown and falling onto the ground.
Photosynthesis (光合作用) is the process for trees to make their food taking energy from the sun, water from the ground, and carbon dioxide from the air, they make sugar to “eat” so they can grow into strong, healthy trees. The leaves of a tree are where photosynthesis happens because the chlorophyll (叶绿素) in the leaves is what makes photosynthesis possible. Chlorophyll also has another job—it is what makes leaves green. When the seasons change in places where deciduous trees grow and the days get shorter and the weather gets colder, it is harder for the chlorophyll in the leaves to make the food needed to stay green. So instead of making more food, the leaves start using food they have stored away for this time of year.
As the leaves use the food that has been stored away, cells form at the bottom of each leaf. These cells act like a door between the leaf and the rest of the tree—a door that closes very slowly and doesn’t shut until all the leaf’s food is gone. While this is happening, the colors in the leaves of the trees are able to show through. In fact, the red, yellow, gold and orange colors are hiding in the leaves all summer long. The colors just can’t be seen in the summer because of all the chlorophyll in the leaves.
You might be wondering how the rest of the tree keeps growing when the weather turns cold and the leaves die and fall. Doesn’t the rest of the tree need the food made by the tree’s leaves?
Not really. The tree trunk and branches get food from the roots of the tree. The roots supply water, vitamins and minerals they get from the ground. Trees need sunshine and warm weather to grow, but they also need time to rest like bears that sleep during the winter.
1. Why do leaves change colors?| A．They save some energy to stay alive. |
| B．The chlorophyll stores some food away. |
| C．They have to get used to the cold weather. |
| D．They can’t get enough energy from the sun. |
| A．When there is no sunlight any longer . |
| B．When the food stored away in the leaves is use up. |
| C．When the chlorophyll in the leaves stops working. |
| D．When cells start to form at the bottom of each leaf . |
| A．By getting food from the ground. |
| B．By storing food in their branches. |
| C．By storing food in their roots. |
| D．By making the most use of the dead leaves. |
| A．To study how trees survive in winter. |
| B．To tell about the importance of photosynthesis. |
| C．To explain why leaves change colors. |
| D．To show the changes of trees in the whole year. |
5 . Plastic-Eating Worms
Humans produce more than 300 million tons of plastic every year. Almost half of that winds up in landfills(垃圾填埋场), and up to 12 million tons pollute the oceans. So far there is no effective way to get rid of it, but a new study suggests an answer may lie in the stomachs of some hungry worms.
Researchers in Spain and England recently found that the worms of the greater wax moth can break down polyethylene, which accounts for 40% of plastics. The team left 100 wax worms on a commercial polyethylene shopping bag for 12 hours, and the worms consumed and broke down about 92 milligrams, or almost 3% of it. To confirm that the worms’ chewing alone was not responsible for the polyethylene breakdown, the researchers made some worms into paste(糊状物) and applied it to plastic films. 14 hours later the films had lost 13% of their mass — apparently broken down by enzymes (酶) from the worms’ stomachs. Their findings were published in Current Biology in 2017.
Federica Bertocchini, co-author of the study, says the worms’ ability to break down their everyday food — beeswax — also allows them to break down plastic. ＂Wax is a complex mixture, but the basic bond in polyethylene, the carbon-carbon bond, is there as well, ＂she explains, ＂The wax worm evolved a method or system to break this bond. ＂
Jennifer DeBruyn, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee, who was not involved in the study, says it is not surprising that such worms can break down polyethylene. But compared with previous studies, she finds the speed of breaking down in this one exciting. The next step, DeBruyn says, will be to identify the cause of the breakdown. Is it an enzyme produced by the worm itself or by its gut microbes(肠道微生物)?
Bertocchini agrees and hopes her team’s findings might one day help employ the enzyme to break down plastics in landfills. But she expects using the chemical in some kind of industrial process — not simply ＂millions of worms thrown on top of the plastic.＂
1. What can we learn about the worms in the study?| A．They take plastics as their everyday food. |
| B．They are newly evolved creatures. |
| C．They can consume plastics. |
| D．They wind up in landfills. |
| A．identify other means of the breakdown |
| B．find out the source of the enzyme |
| C．confirm the research findings |
| D．increase the breakdown speed |
| A．help to raise worms |
| B．help make plastic bags |
| C．be used to clean the oceans |
| D．be produced in factories in future |
| A．To explain a study method on worms. |
| B．To introduce the diet of a special worm. |
| C．To present a way to break down plastics. |
| D．To propose new means to keep eco-balance. |
| A．how will it learn | B．will it learn how | C．it will learn how | D．and it learns how |
Several yards away, Frank, 43, and his girlfriend, Jennifer, found a spot close to where the front of the train would stop．They were deep in discussion about a house they were thinking of buying．
But when he heard the scream, followed by someone yelling, "Oh, my God, she fell in!" Frank didn't hesitate．He jumped down to the tracks and ran some 40 feet toward the body lying on the rails．"No! Not you! his girlfriend screamed after him．
She was right to be alarmed．By the time Frank reached Lisa, he could feel the tracks shaking and see the light coming．The train was about 20 seconds from the station．
It was hard to lift her．She was just out．But he managed to raise her four feet to the platform so that bystanders could hold her by the arms and drag her away from the edge．That was where Lisa briefly re-gained consciousness, felt herself being pulled along the ground, and saw someone else holding her purse．
Lisa thought she' d been robbed．A woman held her hand and a man gave his shirt to help stop the blood pouring from her head．And she tried to talk but she couldn't, and that was when she realized how much pain she was in．
Police and fire officials soon arrived, and Frank told the story to an officer．Jennifer said her boyfriend was calm on their 40 - minute train ride downtown - just as he had been seconds after the rescue, which made her think about her reaction at the time．"I saw the train coming and I was thinking he was going to die．"she explained．
1. What was the most probable cause for Lisa' s weakness?
| A．She had run a long way． |
| B．She felt hot in the subway． |
| C．She had done a lot of work． |
| D．She had donated blood the night before． |
| A．Because they would miss their train． |
| B．Because he didn't see the train coming． |
| C．Because she was sure Lisa was hard to lift． |
| D．Because she was afraid the train would kill him． |
| A．By lifting her to the platform． |
| B．By helping her rise to her feet． |
| C．By pulling her along the ground． |
| D．By dragging her away from the edge． |
| A．warn us of the danger in the subway |
| B．show us how to save people in the subway |
| C．tell us about a subway rescue |
| D．report a traffic accident |
— _______ to the sunlight for a long time.
| A．Because it was exposed | B．After being exposed | C．Being exposed | D．Exposed |
The other sailors were very
| A．on | B．for | C．at | D．in |
| A．fetched | B．took | C．had | D．got |
| A．be | B．was | C．to be | D．being |
| A．will be | B．were | C．is | D．should be |
| A．look for | B．look in | C．look back | D．look after |
| A．got | B．took | C．sent | D．made |
| A．other | B．the other | C．another | D．other's |
| A．something wrong | B．wrong something | C．anything wrong | D．wrong anything |
| A．Before long | B．Once more | C．Suddenly | D．Certainly |
| A．to drink some water | B．to eat something | C．to have a rest | D．to do more work |
| A．pleased | B．sorry | C．angry | D．surprised |
| A．more | B．much | C．lots of | D．little |
| A．out | B．at home | C．present | D．appear |
| A．At first | B．At the beginning | C．At last | D．At the end |
| A．agreement | B．permission | C．permit | D．promise |
| A．very | B．much | C．so | D．quite |
| A．highest | B．high | C．higher | D．very high |
| A．heard | B．heard of | C．realized | D．guessed |
| A．cheating | B．cheat | C．cheated | D．to cheat |
| A．worked | B．to work | C．work | D．works |
