1 . There was an old woman who liked to bake(烘焙) cookies. She didn’t have anyone to share them with, so she just gave them away to the children in the neighborhood. This went on for several years and the cookies became quite popular, especially at Christmas time. The parents began to like the cookies as much as the children did, and the old woman’s kitchen became very busy, so the children came to help.
Then one Christmas the old woman became ill. There were no cookies, and there was no money to pay the doctor. The children were very sad. Later they had a bright idea, that is, to bake cookies from the old woman’s recipe (食谱). So the children started a cookie store. Soon they had a very good cookie business, with money to pay the doctor as well as to put in the bank.
After the old woman got well, she was asked to be the manager of the store, selling special cookies for all the holidays of the year. After the old woman died, the children, now grown up, kept the cookie business alive in her name. Maybe life is like a Christmas cookie. The more you share it with your friends, the more you are likely to enjoy it.
1. What did the old woman like to do?
| A．Buy cookies | B．Bake cookies. |
| C．Sell cookies. | D．Eat cookies. |
| A．in summer | B．at weekends |
| C．at Christmas time | D．on Children’s Day |
| A．their parents wanted them to do so | B．they wanted to start a cookie store |
| C．they didn’t like to go to school | D．the old woman’s kitchen became very busy |
| A．left her alone | B．baked cookies for her to eat |
| C．took turns to look after her | D．baked and sold the cookies to pay the doctor |
| A．be the manager of the cookie store | B．give the cookies away to the poor |
| C．share the cookies with others | D．sell the recipe of making cookies |
2 . I’ve been happily married to my wife for 25 years. We have gone through a lot together, but I have never seen anyone that has remained so calm and cool through it all. We have three wonderful children together and she just recently went back to finish her education degree to become a teacher in Louisiana, which is more about pride than a prize.
A couple of years ago, my wife was in a rather bad accident. We were shopping together in a Dollar General and when we were at the checkout she sent me back to pick up a fan for her mother. While I was back there, I heard a horrific noise, and she screamed my name. When I got to the front of the store, I realized that an elderly driver had hit the gas instead of the brake, hitting my wife.
I was able to get a cooler that had fallen on her and decided to go with her to the hospital. She had to have work done on her knee by herself from all the glass that had gotten impaled into it, but it was nothing short of a miracle that she wasn’t hurt further.
That’s when we learned of another miracle. During an ultrasound and X-ray to make sure that my wife’s back was okay, we discovered that not only did she lack one of her kidneys, but she also had a birth defect. This wonderful woman has given me so much that I can never thank her enough. I was medically dismissed from the military and went on disability. She has held a job and helped to take care of me and our three children, 20, 17, and 13, through some of the craziest stuff I can imagine.
She is a strong and resolute woman that takes pleasure in teaching her children in the classroom. And I could not ask for a better woman to love and live with.
1. What was to blame for the accident of the author’s wife?| A．Her birth defect. | B．A horrible noise. |
| C．The author’s indifference. | D．A driver’s mistake. |
| A．She called the police. |
| B．She went to hospital alone. |
| C．She fell unconscious on the ground. |
| D．She dealt with the wound by herself. |
| A．Through a routine medical test. |
| B．By examining her wounded back. |
| C．By checking her birth defect. |
| D．Through clearing all the glass. |
| A．To share his life experience. |
| B．To show his love for his family. |
| C．To express his thanks to his wife. |
| D．To honor his wonderful marriage. |
Eating ultraprocessed foods (超加工食品) for more than 20% of your daily calorie intake every day could lead to cognitive decline, a new study revealed. Studies have found these foods can raise our risk
The key problem with ultraprocessed foods is that they are usually very high in sugar, salt and fat, all of
4 . Three years ago, I spotted a video of someone making resin (树脂) art. He
When I was a kid, my artist grandmother taught me to
But it’s more
After I first
As long as there are people who’d like to buy my work, I’d like to make it. I pour colors from memories of beautiful places into my art, and I hope my grandmother would be
| A．abnormally | B．unwillingly | C．expertly | D．doubtfully |
| A．risk | B．help | C．suggest | D．allow |
| A．identify | B．assess | C．design | D．start |
| A．paint | B．sing | C．dance | D．swim |
| A．comparative | B．sensitive | C．creative | D．passive |
| A．warned | B．inspired | C．ordered | D．begged |
| A．helpful | B．worthwhile | C．necessary | D．complex |
| A．understood | B．remembered | C．supported | D．ignored' |
| A．way | B．picture | C．deal | D．problem |
| A．recorded | B．observed | C．found | D．posted' |
| A．appealing to | B．answering to | C．objecting to | D．apologizing to |
| A．clarifying | B．adopting | C．buying | D．uploading |
| A．sales | B．services | C．tasks | D．blogs |
| A．theory | B．benefit | C．career | D．tendency |
| A．curious | B．proud | C．patient | D．surprised |
5 . A recent research study suggests that learning music doesn’t make you smarter.
For a while, there was an idea found on the Internet and in various magazines that suggested that babies could become smarter if they listened to Mozart, or to other classical music. Inspired, some parents bought classical CDs for their babies in the hope that this would boost their intelligence. But this so-called “Mozart Effect” has been challenged repeatedly.
But is taking music lessons surely different from just listening to music? Wouldn’t taking music lessons make kids smarter? That’s exactly the question that many researchers over the years have tried to answer. Some of their studies concluded that it does, and some found that it doesn’t. For example, one study showed that music education did not improve reading skills, while another one found a small effect of music on young children’s ability to learn words.
The researchers of the new study, Giovanni Sala (Fujita Health University) and Fernand Gobet (London School of Economics), looked at the data behind 54 carefully selected studies, and after carefully comparing the data from different papers, they concluded that children who took music lessons did not score higher on tests that measure their intelligence or academic ability than kids that didn’t learn music.
If music doesn’t make you smarter, how does that explain other research that shows that music lessons help students’ school performance? It seems like there is something about music lessons that makes students able to perform better in their other classes. That doesn’t have to be intelligence, and it’s likely not. Music lessons could have helped in different ways: They could have led to a change in homework habits, they could have increased confidence, or they could have improved social skills. And finally, they also mention that music education could still be very beneficial to students’ performance in non-music subjects if the music is combined with these classes. So feel free to keep making music, and keep encouraging children to learn music.
1. What can we learn about the “Mozart Effect”?| A．It is most likely to be ineffective. |
| B．It was first presented by Mozart. |
| C．It helps parents take good care of their children. |
| D．It will draw more and more researchers’ attention. |
| A．Listening to music benefits kids a lot. |
| B．Whether music education suits all kids remains unknown, |
| C．Listening to music fails to help kids in language learning. |
| D．Whether taking music lessons makes kids smarter is controversial. |
| A．They did 54 small studies in all. |
| B．They observed children in music classes. |
| C．They examined plenty of previous research. |
| D．They did a long-term survey of musical students. |
| A．Intelligence determines one’s school performance. |
| B．Music lessons should be encouraged for children. |
| C．A student’s intelligence can be increased with effort. |
| D．Students should avoid listening to music while studying. |
6 . When I was a teenager growing up in Russia, I felt studying very boring. I wanted to leave school and have my own life. There were only two ways for me to do this-working in the toy factory in my town, or getting married. I chose the first one. I was nervous when I told my father that I wanted to leave school. I thought he would say, “No! You are going to college.” Instead, he took me by surprise when he said, “OK. We'll go to the toy factory.”
Two days later, he took me to the factory. I had a very romantic idea of working in a factory. I had imagined everyone to be friendly working together and having fun. I even imagined there would be music and singing. I guess I had watched too many movies as a teenager.
When we arrived at the factory gates, my father spoke to the guard and one minute later we went inside. My father said, “Take your time. Look around. ” I walked around the factory, looking at the buildings, the workers, and listening to the noise. It was terrible. I ran back to my father and said, “I want to go home. ”
He asked me, “What do you think of the factory?”
“It's terrible, ”I replied.
“And you have another choice, but I think getting married is even worse!” he said.
I went back to school the next day. From then on, I studied as hard as I could. Finally I got into a good college. I enjoyed studying English so I decided to major in languages at college. Thanks to my father and our trip to the factory, I now work at the United Nations and my father is very proud of me. I married a very good man and my life is much better than it would have been working in the factory!
1. The writer lived in __________ when she was a teenager.| A．Japan | B．Russia | C．China | D．England |
| A．more terrible | B．more colorful | C．busier | D．more boring |
| A．decided to work there | B．wanted to get married |
| C．changed her romantic idea | D．argued with her father |
| A．The writer studied languages after she went into the college. |
| B．The writer now works at the United Nations. |
| C．The writer's father used a special way to let his daughter go back to school. |
| D．The writer's father is proud because his daughter married a good man. |
7 . Plant a tree!
What’s causing global warming? Is it man-made? Or are temperatures simply changing naturally? Whatever the case, we can at least try to slow things down. But how?
The Wilderness Project has an idea.
Now, lots of people all over the world have already been planting more trees. In fact, if everyone plants one tree, just one, it will do great good to our environment.
So, what can you do to help?
So, go on, plant a tree…and save the earth!
| A．Maybe you can buy a young tree to grow |
| B．They suggest that we should plant more trees |
| C．Another question is how quickly the sea level will rise |
| D．Many countries are calling on people to plant more trees |
| E．What’s more, they improve human health by producing oxygen (氧气) |
| F．He was nine when he came up with the idea of planting trees around the world |
| G．Farmers don’t want to go and help them plant more trees |
8 . David Braben is a very wellknown game developer who runs the UK development studio, Frontier Developments, but is just as wellknown for being the developer of “Elite”. Over his career his studio has brought us the “Rollercoaster Tycoon” series and most recently “Kinectimals”.
In the background, however, Braben has been trying to solve another problem: getting programming and general learning of how computers work back into schools.
Braben says that education since we entered the 2000s has turned towards teaching useful skills such as writing on computer, how to get information, and learning basic computer use skills. And those have supplanted more computer sciencelike skills such as basic programming and understanding the hardware (硬件) contained in a computer.
His solution is not to create his own course, but instead to make a lowcost PC that can be given to kids for free and his courses are built up around their use. A personal computer is important for each student to have in class. When we say “low cost”, we mean the cost is so low that even “One Laptop per Child” would be realized. Braben has developed a tiny PC. How much is the cost? $25. This is the answer to anyone that says he/she can’t afford a computer. The hardware being offered is good, too.The new tiny PC will let the user look through the Internet and give the user a fully functional (功能) computer to play with.And it can be carried in your pocket or on a key chain.
This tiny cheap PC is going to be given to schools through a new charitable foundation (慈善机构) called the Raspberry Pi Foundation. It will help computer science studies in schools. Braben says he hopes that they will be given within the next 12 months.
1. What does the underlined word “supplanted” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?| A．Used. | B．Changed. |
| C．Designed. | D．Replaced. |
| A．It is small and very cheap. |
| B．Its hardware isn’t very good. |
| C．It isn’t a fully functional one. |
| D．It is cheap and not special. |
| A．He is mean, rich and famous. |
| B．He is able, wise and mean. |
| C．He is rich, selfish and successful. |
| D．He is able, famous and warmhearted. |
| A．running the UK development studio |
| B．letting children learn sciencelike skills |
| C．creating more advanced computers |
| D．creating more computer games |
9 . For Jaskirat Batra, the desire to take teaching as his career began in his childhood. As a child of teachers, he was often immersed (沉浸在) in the world of classrooms, chalkboards and textbooks. While deeply inspired by his parents, Batra’s desire was always to go beyond traditional teaching methods. As a graduate student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, he has established a unique style of teaching that might affect how engineering courses are taught in classrooms.
During his time at Texas A&M University, Batra joined the materials science program there. “I thought that it was the perfect place for me to combine my academic training in engineering science and electrical engineering with my research interest,” Batra said. “I couldn’t wait to jump in and begin my own research project.”
Batra began working on his research project, attending classes and taking exams. However, the turning point came when he was hired to teach an introductory engineering course to undergraduate students. During this time, he grew increasingly dissatisfied with the standard slides (幻灯具) based method, particularly because slides, which are 2D surfaces, were used to display complex 3D concepts.
“I knew there has to be a better way to help students visualize in 3D,” Batra said. “I want to develop an instructional strategy that would really help my students to learn and enjoy the process while they are in it.” He started to use 3D cardboard goggles (a kind of glasses) to study students’ motivation when materials science concepts were being taught: He found that when a slides-based lecture was combined with virtual reality, the students’ motivation increased by 77%.
“I always remember what my parents taught me about the power of a pen in shaping society, and the influence of a teacher on the future generations of teachers, scientists, engineers, etc.,” Batra said. “In addition to being an educator, in the future I would love to have my own research lab where I can work with future generations of scientists to make discoveries and solve problems.”
1. What can we know about Jaskirat Batra?| A．He felt bored with school life as a child. |
| B．He set a goal of being a teacher in college. |
| C．He taught 3D technology at Texas A&M University. |
| D．He devoted himself to improving traditional teaching methods. |
| A．It was boring. | B．It was creative. |
| C．It was attractive. | D．It was promising. |
| A．To meet practical needs in his teaching. |
| B．To respond to his students’ advice. |
| C．To collect data for his research. |
| D．To improve his teaching skills. |
| A．His students’ academic performances were improved. |
| B．He no longer needed the standard slides-based method. |
| C．His students’ enthusiasm for his class was increased. |
| D．He popularized his teaching methods among his colleagues. |
10 . Naturalist Enzo Suma, who is now 40, lives in Puglia, a region in southern Italy whose long coastline faces the Adriatic Sea. Floating waste accumulates in this relatively enclosed part of the Mediterranean, unlike the open ocean, where the waste tends to be spread over a vast area. Feeling concerned about that, Suma makes it a habit to pick up the washed-up waste along the shore, especially after big winter storms.
One day, Suma was walking along the beach near his home when he discovered a bottle of Coke. Suma noticed on the bottle that the price, clearly printed on the bottom, was in lire, a currency (货币) that hadn’t been used in Italy since it was replaced by the euro in 2002. Could a plastic container have well survived in the Mediterranean, he wondered, for about two decades?
That led him to founding the Archeoplastica museum. It has a collection of about 500 unique pieces recovered from Italian shores and the Coke bottle is the first one of them. All collection demonstrates the unsettling life force of plastic waste in the environment. “Seeing that a product people may have used 30, 40, or 50 years ago remains still unchanged, you’ll feel different. It’s a great shock,” Suma said to a reporter. So Suma often exhibits selected pieces from the Archeoplastica collection at local schools around his hometown of Ostuni.
“The playful side of the work allows you to arrive at the less beautiful side of things,” Suma acknowledged. “Plastic is a kind of useful substance. But it’s unthinkable that a water bottle, made from a material designed to last so long, can be used for just a few days—or even minutes—before becoming garbage. Clean the beaches. Clean the oceans. Recycle. But if we are still throwing out plastics, none of those are going to be long-term solutions.”
1. What’s Suma’s concern about his living place?| A．Its long coastline is disappearing. | B．Big storms frequently hit the area. |
| C．Floating waste spreads over a vast area. | D．The waste pollution on shore is worsening. |
| A．They have a history of more than half a century. |
| B．They were quite valuable before turning into waste. |
| C．They’re more like educational exhibits than garbage. |
| D．They have stronger life force than ordinary plastic products. |
| A．Creative, devoted and socially responsible. | B．Enthusiastic, ambitious and adventurous. |
| C．Generous, cautious and humorous. | D．Curious, efficient and playful. |
| A．The birth of plastics has greatly served humans. |
| B．The key to tackling the plastic pollution is to stop littering. |
| C．The plastic problem can be solved by cleaning and recycling. |
| D．People should be more aware of the powerful functions of plastics. |
