1 . Very few people can say that they have achieved all that they are capable of. But what is it that is preventing you from fulfilling your potential (潜能)?
It is easy and natural to settle into a rut (墨守成规). Why try something new when you are already doing that you are good at?
Let’s face it — your friends and family are really nice people but they are not challenging you to achieve more. Spend more time with high flyers and positive thinkers who understand ambition and achievement. Share some of your thoughts, dreams and challenges with them.
| A．High achievers go further. |
| B．This means that they run the risk of failure. |
| C．All successful people have strong self-belief. |
| D．They can take comfort in modest achievements. |
| E．You waste a lot of time every day on low value activities. |
| F．They will encourage you and give you the direct advice you need. |
| G．It is really very hard to make progress if you have no ambition for your life. |
2 . Despite an ever-higher bar to grab the attention of students in large lecture hall, Tatiana Erukhimova, who teaches physics at Texas A&M University, has managed to get her students, as well as future generations, excited about the science.
Known as “Dr. Tatiana”, the professor performs physics tricks with boundless energy and enthusiasm in her videos. A range of everyday objects are used in her experiments, from pingpong balls and toilet paper to marshmallows, bicycle wheels and hair dryers. Videos of her dramatic demonstrations have received hundreds of millions of views across social media platforms.
However, things aren’t always easy. When she first started teaching college freshman classes two decades ago, she also struggled to grab the attention of her students. “I did not grab their attention on the first day-that was my mistake.” she says. “I missed this opportunity to bond with them from the very beginning, and then it took me a while to find my voice.”
By the second semester, she found her footing, adjusting her approach to get her students engaged. The key, she says, has been to make herself approachable and her instruction personal. And, of course, add showy demonstrations. “These demonstrations often help students to connect these abstract concepts with real life.” she says.
Physics department head Grigory Rogachev says Erukhimova’s work has helped bring visibility to the department, with about 2. 5 million subscribers on its department’s YouTube page, which has translated to a boost in research funds and physics major applicants.
As a leader in a STEM field in which women are underrepresented, she’s become a role model for some. Afiya Dhanani attended Texas A&M University after seeing Erukhimova’s videos online. “Watching Dr. Tatiana do the experiments online, especially since she was a female leader. Was more inspiring for me to even go into physics.” Dhanani said in an interview with CBS Mornings. That’s all Erakhimova says she can hope for -making physics less forbidding and more exciting.
1. What does Erukhimova’s online videos feature?| A．Rare materials. | B．Energetic presentation. |
| C．Plain demonstration. | D．Professional explanation. |
| A．All that glitters is not gold. |
| B．Sharp tools make good work. |
| C．First impressions are make or break. |
| D．A fall into the pit, a gain in your wit. |
| A．It leads more students to change their majors. |
| B．It makes more people to know about the department. |
| C．It helps the department translate more research papers. |
| D．It attracts more physics professors to join the department. |
| A．Inspirational. | B．Underestimated. | C．Cooperative. | D．Ambitious. |
3 . In recent years, studies have suggested how the bisphenol A (BPA) in some food-packaging plastics has been linked to various health problems including heart disease and developmental difficulties in children. Scientists are thus developing a more harmless alternative, and it’s made from tomato waste which would otherwise be got rid of.
However, BPA is still widely used in the plastic coatings which are applied to the inside of metal food packaging such as cans. These smooth waterproof coatings help protect the metal from corrosion (腐蚀), plus they keep the food from sticking to the inside of the container.
Building on previous studies, an international team has researched a type of agricultural waste known as tomato pomace. This material typically consists of tomato skins, seeds and stems, which are left over after the fruits have been processed for use in foods such as sauces or juices. Ordinarily, the pomace is simply dumped in a landfill, burned, or at best composted. It may also be used in animal feed, although it doesn’t have much nutritional value.
The scientists started by drying tomato pomace — first in the sun for three days, then in a 60℃ oven for 16 hours — after which they grounded it into a powder. That powder was subsequently mixed with a sodium hydroxide solution (溶液), which was then heated at 100℃ for four hours. After repeatedly filtering that solution to remove the sodium hydroxide, the researchers were left a lipid. That lipid was then mixed into an ethyl alcohol solution which was sprayed onto samples of some metal. Once the spray had dried and the samples had been heated in a 200℃ oven for 10 to 60 minutes, the result was a polymerized lacquer coating which proved to be very effective at protecting the metal.
The scientists now plan on testing the coating on actual cans. “We would take tomato sauce, and other foods that are usually sold in cans, and we would sterilize them, put them in tins and check if they withstand real conditions,” said a scientist.
1. Which of the following is the most likely to use the plastic coating?| A．A pot full of water. |
| B．A cup filled with coffee. |
| C．A tin containing apple juice. |
| D．An iron box stuffed with packaged food. |
| A．It’s used as animal’s food with rich nutrition. |
| B．It has been used in the plastic coatings. |
| C．People use it to make sauce or juice. |
| D．People usually treat it in many ways. |
| A．How the new coating is created. | B．Why heating is important. |
| C．Why high temperature is needed. | D．What other materials are included. |
| A．To present a scientific study. | B．To introduce a new material. |
| C．To show a complex process. | D．To teach an actual test. |
4 . A new study by researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the University of Victoria has shown that common levels of traffic pollution can damage human brain function in only a matter of hours.
“For many decades, scientists thought the brain may be protected from the harmful effects of air pollution,” said senior study author Dr. Chris Carlsten. “This study, which is the first of its kind in the world, provides fresh evidence supporting a connection between air pollution and cognition.”
For the study, the researchers briefly exposed 25 healthy adults to diesel exhaust (柴油废气) and filtered air at different times in a laboratory setting. Brain activity was measured before and after each exposure using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
The researchers analyzed changes in the brain’s default mode network (DMN), a set of inter-connected brain regions that play an important role in memory and internal thought. The fMRI revealed that participants had decreased functional connectivity in widespread regions of the DMN after exposure to diesel exhaust, compared to filtered air.
“We know that altered functional connectivity in the DMN has been associated with reduced cognitive performance and symptoms of depression, so it’s concerning to see traffic pollution interrupting these same networks,” said Dr. Jodie Gawryluk, a psychology professor at the University of Victoria and the study’s first author. “While more research is needed to fully understand the functional impacts of these changes, it’s possible that they may impair (损害) people’s thinking or ability to work.”
Notably, the changes in the brain were temporary and participants’ connectivity returned to normal after the exposure. Dr. Carlsten assumed that the effects could be long lasting where exposure is continuous. He said that people should be mindful of the air they’re breathing and take appropriate steps to minimize their exposure to potentially harmful air pollutants like car exhaust.
1. How does traffic pollution affect people according to the study?| A．Exhausting their body. | B．Decreasing their income. |
| C．Endangering their safety. | D．Harming their brain function. |
| A．Growth. | B．Sport. | C．Memory. | D．Behaviour. |
| A．Avoid being exposed to the polluted air constantly. |
| B．Be mindful of the air quality in a new city. |
| C．Measure the brain activity in laboratories. |
| D．Stay inside a house as often as possible. |
| A．A Role Of Brain Will Be Ruined |
| B．Traffic Pollution May Impair Brain Function |
| C．A Famous UK University Did A Vital Study |
| D．A Source Of Pollution Has Drawn People’s Attention |
We moved here a few days ago, and I don’t know anyone, not one person, at the new place. Dad says things will get better. He says I’ll take to city living just like I took to climbing trees and playing ball. I look out the window of our new apartment.
“This was a good move for us, Sonny,” Dad says, “You’ll see.”
“I miss the guys,” I say. “I miss Michigan. I miss” — I gaze up and down the street — “trees.”
“Los Angeles isn’t a bad place,” he says. Then he tells me about a park he saw down the street. “It has a couple of basketball courts. Get out there and sweat today. You’ve kept yourself inside too long.” I nod.
That afternoon, I grab my basketball and head down the street to find the courts. Dad was right about being kept inside too long. It’s about time to shake the cobwebs(蜘蛛网)off my basketball legs, see if I can still dribble(运球)with both hands, and remain a good shooter. I walk past all the shops with bars on their windows. This is home?
When I get to the courts, I see three guys shooting around. They’re playing some kind of one-on-one, taking turns with the third guy in. Two of them are taller than me, but one is about my size. I can tell that the short kid knows how to play by the way he handles the ball, dribbling well with either hand. But the other guys are too tall for him. One-on-one isn’t his game. He needs someone to pass to.
I go down to the other basket to shoot around. I’m pretty cold at first. But after I warm up, the old feelings come back — the proper knee bend, the feel of releasing the ball just right.
“Hi, there.”
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。
I stop and turn around, catching sight of the short kid.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Without hesitation I accept his invitation to play in the upcoming League Cup.
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6 . Templer was a tour guide in Zimbabwe, leading a canoe (皮划艇) safari down the Zambezi River. During the expedition, Templer’s canoe
Things were going the way they were supposed to go. Everyone was having a pretty good time. Eventually, they
Templer tried to steer (率领) the group safely around them. However, the third canoe was off the planned
Despite the unpleasant experience, Templer
| A．made | B．found | C．led | D．wound |
| A．encountered | B．interrupted | C．saved | D．killed |
| A．unfortunate | B．unexpected | C．uncertain | D．unnecessary |
| A．speed | B．angle | C．vision | D．distance |
| A．line | B．control | C．course | D．duty |
| A．watch | B．comfort | C．stop | D．rescue |
| A．leaning over | B．turning away | C．looking up | D．calming down |
| A．hearts | B．fingers | C．heads | D．thoughts |
| A．appeared | B．flowed | C．froze | D．erupted |
| A．free | B．empty | C．hurt | D．skinny |
| A．risk | B．avoid | C．permit | D．finish |
| A．surface | B．bottom | C．bank | D．sky |
| A．hoped | B．continued | C．refused | D．hesitated |
| A．habitat | B．safety | C．conservation | D．suffering |
| A．readily | B．finally | C．casually | D．simply |
7 . The secret to stress relief: Why rest isn’t a waste of time
Stress is a modern epidemic, but among all the stress management strategies we are forgetting one essential remedy (疗法) — taking time for rest. For a long time, psychologists focused almost exclusively on what went on between our ears.
The most recent insights have revealed that our mental health is determined to a large extent by our physical condition. Studies have shown that our brain processes “psychological” pain — such as the kind that arises out of social exclusion — the same way it does physical pain.
It’s apparent that there is no clear division between body and mind in the case of stress. You suffer more from stress when you are suffering from a flu. If you have a bad night’s sleep, everything is more stressful the next day. But good news is that you can combat it by looking after your body.
When you decide to do something about your stress levels, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to turn your whole life upside down — quit your job, move to another country and so forth.
| A．The body was not their responsibility. |
| B．The first step is to take better care of your body, instead. |
| C．In fact, you can even take an aspirin for that kind of pain. |
| D．For example, physical exercise helps to relieve depression. |
| E．You should ask if the health problems are caused by stress. |
| F．They all concentrate only on anxiety, depression and as such. |
| G．Getting enough rest is not just something we should do when we are exhausted. |
8 . Vitamin C for a cold? A good dose of Vitamin D on a sunny day? We all know that vitamins are critical for our health, but how did they get their names and when were they discovered in the first place?
American nutrition scientist Elmer McCullum conducted a variety of feed experiments with different animal populations and discovered that an “accessory” substance contained in some fats was essential to growth. That fat-soluble (脂溶的) substance became known as Vitamin “A” for “accessory.”
McCollum and others also conducted further experiments with rice-bran-derived nutrient, naming it Vitamin “B” after beriberi, which can cause heart failure and a loss of sensation in the legs and feet. Eventually, it turned out that the substance known as Vitamin B was a complex of eight water-soluble vitamins, which were each given individual names and numbered in order of discovery.
The custom of naming vitamins alphabetically in order of discovery continued. Today, four fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) and nine water-soluble vitamins (Vitamin C and the eight B vitamins) are considered essential to human growth and health. Only one vitamin bucked the oh-so-logical naming system: Vitamin K, discovered by Danish researcher Carl Peter Henrik Dam in 1929. The substance should have been in line to be called Vitamin F given its discovery date. But Dam’s research revealed that the vitamin is essential for blood coagulation (凝固) — known as Koagulation in the German journal that published his research — and his abbreviation for the vitamin somehow stuck.
It’s been decades since the last essential vitamin — Vitamin B12 — was discovered in 1948. It now appears unlikely that scientists will ever discover a new essential vitamin. But even if there’s no Vitamin F or G in our future, that doesn’t mean nutritional discovery has stopped completely. If the golden age of vitamin discovery was an appetizer (开胃菜) of sorts, scientists are devoted to the main course — a rapidly evolving understanding of the ways food shapes our lives, one microscopic substance at a time.
1. What can we learn from paragraph 2 and paragraph 3?| A．Vitamin A is a water-soluble substance. |
| B．Vitamin B was named after a kind of disease. |
| C．The eight B vitamins got names from their functions. |
| D．The subjects of McCullum’s experiments are home. |
| A．Created. | B．Destroyed. | C．Broke. | D．Followed. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Unclear. | C．Doubtful. | D．Confident. |
| A．How Do Vitamins Influence Our Health? |
| B．Who Discovered Various Vitamins for Us? |
| C．Why Is There a Vitamin K but No Vitamin F? |
| D．How Many Vitamins Are Still Left to Be Discovered? |
9 . One night two millennia ago, a Han Dynasty general sent a square-shaped collection of bamboo and cloth into the air above enemy territory in central China. He was trying to measure how much earth his men would need to tunnel through to tear their enemies’ defense line.
It is one of the most famous early stories of kite-flying. Similar devices were later used by other Chinese armies; they launched them after dark in whipping winds in hopes that the noise would scare off enemies, and used them to deliver threats via missives (信函) tied to the kites’ tails.
Today, of course, these delicate aircraft — built from light wood or plastic frames shaped to create lift, covered in a thin material such as paper or silk, and piloted via long strings — are considered as toys. In the 1990s and early 2000s, kite-flying experienced a boom in the American West and parts of Europe, due in part to the popularization of kites surfing. Groups of kiters began to take interest in its lore (知识).
Thus a wave of younger artists have been inspired to pioneer new forms. In Austria, Anna Rubin, often employs ancient methods for her art, including hand-splitting the bamboo for the frames and using hand-pressed natural fibres to cover them. She wants to carry on traditions she fears may be lost by a culture fixated on the future, but she’s equally inspired by the joy of work. “Everyone should, once in their life, make a kite and fly it,” she says.
And in New York, visual artists Jacob Hashimoto, assembles massive installations from dozens of palm-size kites to hang from the ceiling of his studio or gallery. He inherited (继承) his interest in kite-making from his father. “The kite-making is a pan-cultural practice that makes it a beautiful, democratic thing,” he says. “In many ways, it’s a global property — we all own the relationship between us and the sky.”
Their work is a reminder that kites offer us a means to defy gravity. In the hands a willing flier, they give us a way up and out.
1. What was the kite used for in ancient China?| A．A tool of warfare. | B．A kind of recreation. |
| C．A sign of good luck. | D．A way of communication. |
| A．They are lightly structured. | B．They are widely used in Europe. |
| C．They are less popular in China. | D．They are considered as a science. |
| A．The popularity of kites in Austria. |
| B．Her enthusiasm in Chinese culture. |
| C．Her father’s encouragement and support. |
| D．Its pleasure and her sense of responsibility. |
| A．To remind us that kites will lose their cultural value in the future. |
| B．To tell us some young artists are taking kite-making to new heights. |
| C．To list some examples of the difficulties promoting kites in the world. |
| D．To show that only a few people consider kites worthy of preservation. |
10 . Cycling has become more than a habit for “Granny Mave,” as Mavis Paterson is known. It has become essential for her very being, her very reason for living after all three of her adult children passed away within four years of each other — Sandy in 2012, Katie in 2013 and Bob in 2016.
It was in memory of her children that the 85-year-old grandmother set out on her latest endurance challenge in May, cycling 1,000 miles around Scotland, beginning from the Mull of Galloway, before heading north, tracing the outline of the country until she reached the Mull of Galloway again.
“If I didn’t have my bicycle, and this is terrible to say, I don’t think I would want to live,” she told CNN Sport.
Paterson cycled every day for a month around Scotland, navigating its undulating (起伏的) landscape, exposed roads and unpredictable weather. Every day, she woke up early and set out riding — covering up to 50 miles a day — and raising money for British-based charity Macmillan Cancer Support.
Cycling has provided some comfort, some way for her to cope with unimaginable loss. All along the route, Paterson recalled other cyclists coming out to keep her company, offering “terrific support,” some of them riding with her for several days at a time. Such support was a constant throughout Paterson’s odyssey (跋涉) across Scotland, ending in a crowd at the finish line who had gathered to cheer her on.
“I know people have got on their bikes and thought, ‘If that old lady can do it, I can do it.’ And also people who have been a bit depressed and thought, ‘Oh gosh, I shouldn’t be like this. Look at poor Mave, she’s lost all her children.’ So a lot of people have taken up cycling because of my cycle rides and just inspired people apparently,” she said.
1. Why did Paterson start her cycling around Scotland?| A．To keep exercise and improve her health. |
| B．To take up the hobby of her three children. |
| C．To recover from the death of her children. |
| D．To be the oldest lady to ride around Scotland. |
| A．It is highly profitable and well-received. |
| B．It requires great effort and determination. |
| C．It needs professional training and equipment. |
| D．It aims to raise money for the disabled people. |
| A．The support Paterson asked others for. |
| B．Some achievements Paterson achieved. |
| C．The challenges Paterson set for herself. |
| D．The friendship Paterson got along the way. |
| A．A cyclist. | B．A sponsor. | C．A hopeless mother. | D．An inspiration. |
