1 . “What’s the story of your piano?” a friend asked over dinner. My piano just _________ in the corner of my living room. “It has a story?” I doubted.

“All pianos have stories,” she replied. Suddenly my piano’s story came _________ out of me as if I’d always had this tale to tell.

I’ve loved _________ since childhood. I started with the recorder and moved on to the violin and guitar. Playing the piano had always been my _________ which my family couldn’t afford. I grew up in a poor immigrant family in Toronto. My father _________ tables in a restaurant and my mother worked in a laundry. Though our childhood was _________, my brothers and I were always fed with     _________. I can’t remember which birthday it was when my mother _________ some money to buy me a doll. By then I’d outgrown wanting dolls but she worked too hard to know that and I never told her. I _________ accepted it.

So it was finally with my ____________. It was in my last year of high school. I took piano lessons for about a year before university forced me to ____________. I had to make a decision: to pursue（追求） a more ____________ goal of medical school or my love for music. The realist in me ____________ and I had to give up piano lessons ____________ as with my doll it was too late to learn to play the way I wanted. I ____________ the piano around with me over the next decade until my son was born. He showed an early ____________ in music so I put him in piano lessons. I played that piano through my son although guitar ____________ became his choice.

I gradually realized that I’d let all my pleasures ____________ for my job. I figured I’d get back to playing the piano when I retire. Maybe it’s time to get that piano tuned again before it’s too late to     ____________. Maybe that’s something we should do right now.

Sometimes a ____________ question can open a path of thinking and discovery. So what’s the story of your piano?

1.

A．hides

B．sits

C．rises

D．appears

2.

A．flooding

B．jumping

C．spreading

D．breaking

3.

A．dolls

B．medicine

C．performances

D．music

4.

A．life

B．goal

C．dream

D．choice

5.

A．reserved

B．decorated

C．waited

D．made

6.

A．difficult

B．lonely

C．fantastic

D．happy

7.

A．food

B．love

C．confidence

D．hardship

8.

A．collected

B．changed

C．borrowed

D．spared

9.

A．gratefully

B．quietly

C．eagerly

D．actively

10.

A．decision

B．belief

C．piano

D．opinion

11.

A．consider

B．continue

C．refuse

D．stop

12.

A．perfect

B．practical

C．successful

D．necessary

13.

A．compromised

B．failed

C．agreed

D．won

14.

A．unless

B．till

C．because

D．before

15.

A．found

B．played

C．abandoned

D．moved

16.

A．desire

B．interest

C．ambition

D．plan

17.

A．eventually

B．gradually

C．unexpectedly

D．obviously

18.

A．fall away

B．light up

C．give out

D．show off

19.

A．experience

B．enjoy

C．learn

D．fix

20.

A．serious

B．doubtful

C．single

D．private

2 . 语法填空

Everyone is familiar with a to-do list, but most people don’t really understand the     1     (important) of having a list of the things they want to accomplish. Creating a to-do list is creating a list of goals. The list tells you what you need to do     2     (achieve) some larger outcome in your life.

A list is a way to break down your life goals into manageable     3     (step) you can complete in a specific amount of time. In this sense, your list becomes a guide     4     (show) you how to succeed in life.

The way most people start off creating to-do lists isn’t     5     (particular) effective. It is easy to end up with many items     6     aren’t important. Developing a talent in creating your lists     7     (be) very beneficial. First, you need to see your list as     8     sacred (神圣的) place. It is there to help you achieve your life goals. It represents items on which you plan to spend part of your valuable and limited time. This doesn’t mean you can’t put     9     (small) items on the list — like getting groceries. It does mean that you need to make sure you only use your list     10     things that are actually valuable to you.

3 . It is a question people have been asking for ages. Is there a way to turn back the aging process?

For centuries, people have been looking for a “fountain of youth”. The idea is that if you find a magical fountain, and drink from its waters, you will not age.

Researchers in New York did not find an actual fountain of youth, but they may have found a way to turn back the aging process. It appears the answer may be hidden right between your eyes, in an area called the hypothalamus (下丘脑). The hypothalamus is part of your brain. It controls important activities within the body.

Researchers at New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine found that hypothalamus neural (神经的) stem cells also influence how fast aging takes place in the body.

What are stem cells(干细胞)? They are simple cells that can develop into specialized cells, like blood or skin cells. Stem cells can also repair damaged tissues and organs.

Dongsheng Cai is a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He was the lead researcher in a study on aging in mice. He and his team reported their findings in the journal Nature, Cai explained when hypothalamus function is in decline, particularly the loss of hypothalamus stem cells, and this protection against the aging development is lost. it eventually leads to aging.

Using this information, the researchers began trying to activate, or energize, the hypothalamus laboratory mice. They did this by injecting the animals with stem cells, Later, the researchers examined tissues and tested for changes in behavior. They looked for changes in the strength and coordination (协调) of the animals muscles. They also studied the social behavior and cognitive ability of the mice. The researchers say the results show that the treatment slowed aging in the animals, Cai says injecting middle-aged mice with stem cells from younger mice helped the older animals live longer.

But these results were just from studying mice in a laboratory. If the mice can live longer, does that mean people could have longer lives? The next step is to see if the anti-aging effects also work in.

1. In Paragraph 2 a “fountain of youth” is mentioned to ________.

A．introduce the main topic

B．show a hidden secret.

C．describe scientists research

D．recommend a way to stay young

2. Aging takes place in the body when _______.

A．stem cells develop into specialized cells

B．there are important activities within the body

C．hypothalamus neural stem cells fail to protect against aging

D．the hypothalamus fails to repair damaged tissues and organs

3. What do we know about the researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine from the text?

A．They did experiments to see how stem cells work.

B．They studied mice to find their connection with humans.

C．They have found a possible way to slow the aging progress.

D．They have found no changes in mice s behavior during the experiment

4. What will the researchers probably do next?

A．They will help some animals live longer.

B．They will announce the fountain of youth doesn’t exist

C．They will develop products to help people live a longer life immediately

D．They will do research to see if what they have found in mice will apply to humans.

4 . Kyle Cassidy and three other members of the Annenberg Running Group were stretching on the grounds of the University of Pennsylvania, waiting for a few slow members to start. The Penn colleagues and other community members meet three days a week for a roughly 30-minute jog and an occasional lecture. It's not your normal exercise chatter—during some runs, one of them delivers a talk; the topics range from the brain to Bitcoin（比特币）.

But on this day last January, it would not be their normal run. The first sign was the man who ran past them very fast. "Probably running a 7:15 pace（per mile）," Cassidy thought admiringly.

Cassidy discovered why the man was so fast at running when another man ran by, yelling "Help! He took my phone!"

Hearing that, the group did what running clubs do: They ran, chasing the suspect down the streets until he quickly hid in a construction site. The runners split up. Cassidy ran around to the far side of the site to cut the thief off while the others wandered the neighborhood hoping he had abandoned the stolen phone in a backyard.

No luck. Then they asked the residents whether they'd seen the guy. When they knocked on the door of one house, they were in for a surprise. They didn't know the thief had already come out of the construction site and was hiding behind a bush by that very house. As the owner opened the door, the suspect suddenly rushed out from behind the bush and right into the arms of the campus police, who had joined the chase shortly behind the runners.

The members of this running group are not passionate（狂热的）runners. But they do understand the benefit of a little exercise. "Running is typically a useless sport where you turn fat cells into heat," Cassidy said. "But occasionally it can be useful, and here was one of those opportunities."

1. What does the running group do at times while exercising?

A．Share ideas.	B．Talk nonsense.
C．Help search for lost things.	D．Play with their smartphones.

2. How did Cassidy feel right after the thief ran past him?

A．Confused

B．Frightened

C．Motivated

D．Impressed

3. What does the underlined phrase "split up" refer to?

A．gave up.

B．stayed up.

C．got separated

D．ran away.

4. What message can we get from the story?

A．It's very important to keep fit.

B．Exercising can be socially beneficial.

C．Whatever you do, you should do your best.

D．Teamwork is more important than individual skills.

5 . Growing Pains

The term "adulting started as a sort of joke 一一 whenever a millennial（千禧一代）would do something age-appropriate, this was an act of "adulting." Now, though, millennials obviously require training in being an adult.

Rachel Flehinger has co-founded an Adulting School, which includes online courses on simple sewing, conflict resolution and cooking. The cause for such classes is that many millennials "haven’t left childhood homes" 一一 in America 34 percent of adults aged 18 to 34 still lived with their parents as of 2015, up from 26 percent a decade before.

There's a good deal of truth to this. If you're living at home, with Mom and Dad doing their best to spoil（(溺爱）you, you're less likely to know how to do laundry, cook or balance a checkbook. Dependency breeds enervation.

But here's the catch: Living at home doesn't necessarily lead to dependency. As of 1940, more than 30 percent of 25- to 29-year-olds lived at home with parents or grandparents. They were adulting, even while living at home. Parents expected their kids to do chores, to prepare for life. Instead of blaming living at home, then, we have to blame our style of parenting. The truth is that we've simply become lazier as parents.

So what's the real problem?

We're more likely to let our kids crash on our couches（长沙发）than tell them to get a job and pay rent. We don't push our kids to build families of their own, as life expectancy has increased, so has adolescence. Americans aren't expected to start building a life, particularly middle- and upper-class Americans, until they're nearing their 30s. Then the question is how we can encourage young people to "'adult" in non-circumstance-driven fashion.

1. What does the last sentence in the third paragraph "Dependency breeds enervation." mean?

A．Parents would like to do housework by themselves

B．Present kids are too lazy to do housework.

C．Dependency makes kids unable.

D．Kids depend on their parents.

2. Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A．Millennials would like to be trained in being an adult.

B．Parents are too lazy to do chores.

C．Millennials don't adult because they still live in their childhood homes.

D．In the 1940s kids were adulting even when they were living at home.

3. Which of the following statements is the main idea of the passage?

A．"Adulting" is hard, but only because parents are too lazy to teach their kids.

B．Millennials should leave home early to adult.

C．Americans aren't expected to start building a life until they're nearing their 30s.

D．Adulting schools with online courses are popular.

4. According to the passage, what will be written about next?

A．The government should push off the age of adulthood.

B．Parents should leave kids in charge of society.

C．Parents should put responsibility on young people.

D．Pushing kids to adult is painful for parents.

6 . An ageless question: When is someone “old”?

What does “old” really mean these days? This isn’t a meaningless question — not only does the definition of “old” have an outsized impact on how we feel about ourselves (not to mention how others view us), it also matters to policymakers determining how to plan for aging populations.

The United Nations historically has defined older persons as people 60 years or over (sometimes 65). It didn’t matter whether you lived in the United States, China or Senegal, even though life expectancy is quite different in each of those countries. Everyone became old at 60.

Researchers Sergei Scherbov and Warren Sanderson, who study aging, are suggesting overturning the one-size-fits-all-across-the-globe definition of old. Instead, they talk about “prospective age”, which looks to the future. Everyone with the same prospective age has the same expected remaining years of life.

Scherbov explained that young and old are relative concepts, and their common reference point is life expectancy. It makes sense that “old” would vary between nations, especially between more-and less-developed countries, with differences in education, death rates, access to health care and life expectancy.

But who is “old” also varies-widely-between individuals. The point, says Scherbov, is that personal age is dependent on our “characteristics” — understanding abilities, disability, health history and even education levels. Those with more education tend not to smoke, exercise more frequently, have better diets and have regular checkups — and, therefore, live longer, meaning the beginning of their old age comes later, says Scherbov.

1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?

A．How do we feel about ourselves?

B．How do others view us?

C．The importance of the definition of “old”.

D．The plan for aging populations.

2. What does the underlined phrase “prospective age” in paragraph 3 refer to according to the text?

A．The expected remaining years of one’s life.

B．The beginning of one’s old age.

C．The differences of our “characteristics”.

D．The age when one becomes old.

3. What similarity does Scherbov think young and old have?

A．Understanding abilities.	B．Nations.
C．Education.	D．The reference point.

4. Which of the following helps one to live longer?

A．As much exercise as possible.	B．Losing weight.
C．Studying history.	D．Improving the education level.

7 . Could bike share programs lead to greater cycling safety?

In April 2015, Philadelphia introduced a bike share program. By 2019, there were more than 1,300 bikes and 400 pedal-assisted electric bicycles available. People used them for about 50,000 trips a month.

Before the introduction of the bike share program, the rate of bicycle-car accidents had been gradually increasing. By May 2015, the month after the introduction of the program, the rate was twice that of January 2010.

But the researchers, writing in the American Journal of Public Health, found that from that time through the end of 2018, the rate decreased by an average of 13 percent a year, despite the increases over those years in the number of bicycles on city streets, and even though Philadelphia made no major basic construction changes, like adding many protected bike lanes (自行车道).

The lead author, Ghassan B. Hamra, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said it appeared that there is safety in numbers: the more bikes on the road, the more car drivers adapt to their presence, and the safer cyclists may be.

“We all know that bike riding is a healthy activity, physically and mentally,” he said, “but there might be concerns that if you introduce a bike share program there will be negative consequences. We saw no evidence of that in Philadelphia.”

1. What has happened to the number of bicycle-car accidents with the introduction of the bike share program?

A．It has increased.	B．It has reduced.
C．It remains the same.	D．It is unknown.

2. What is the result of more bikes on the road?

A．Many protected bike lanes have been added.

B．Car drivers are more used to their presence.

C．More people take up bike riding as a healthy activity.

D．Negative consequences have appeared.

3. What happens between Ghassan B. Hamra and the bike share program in Philadelphia?

A．He is in favor of it.	B．He disapproves of it.
C．He brought it in.	D．He is concerned about it.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．Sharing bikes, cutting accidents	B．Problems with sharing bikes
C．Basic construction changes	D．Share program in Philadelphia

8 . How to Improve Your English

Learning English is a continuous process. For tips on how to improve your English, read on.

Read English newspapers, books, and magazines. Reading is an active process that requires your brain to work. When learning a language, much is achieved by speaking, listening and writing.     1     When you read, you learn new words and will be able to use them.

    2     After reading the daily papers, choose one or two articles that stood out among all those that you read, and write down your reactions to them. Read what you wrote afterwards, and check if you made any grammatical errors or would like to improve your work.

Read the book version of a movie that you have already seen.     3     Reading the book version means you will find it easier to understand and guess vocabulary, and you can remember it easily since the story is already familiar to you.

Teach English to children or friends.     4     This also holds true for the English language. When you share and teach English to others, you are able to practice. At the same time, you become more aware of your weak areas.

Use English every day. Whatever you are doing, from washing the dishes or taking out the garbage to going to work or to the gym, use English. Take out those new words that you learned and use them. Bring out those new idioms you came across and use them.     5     Learn how to use it in your daily life.

As you try to improve your English day by day, you will surely see improvements that are going to “make your day”.

A．Open your mouth.

B．Keep a news diary.

C．But reading is also a great help.

D．Listening to songs can help you improve your English.

E．The best way to improve something is by teaching it to others.

F．If the new knowledge stays inside your head and in your notebooks, it won’t come to life.

G．If you are not a serious book reader, reading a story that you are already familiar with will help you move along page by page.

9 . 假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（/）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：
1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2. 只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。

My best friend is big football fan. In order to let me fall in love with football, he invited me to watch a football match third months ago. At first, I didn’t know the rules, that made me not understand the match. My friend explained them to me patient, and helped me follow the match. The two team tried to control the football. When the ball got close to the gate, I felt very nervous and couldn’t help yell out. I was surprising by the teamwork. It was in the same with the basketball match. After watching the match, he started to love football. Now I often play football with my friend and felt extremely happy.

10 . Overview

Discover the best of Barcelona on this convenient City Sightseeing hop-on hop-off (随上随下) tour. Choose from a l-day or 2-day pass, relax on the open-top, double-decker bus, and enjoy your own sightseeing route as you travel along the three routes and learn about the landmarks via the onboard comments. Stay aboard to enjoy 360-degree views of the sights, and hop on and off at any of the 44 stops at leisure to explore top Barcelona attractions such as La Sagrada Familia, the medieval Gothic Quarter, the colorful Las Ramblas and more.

What’s Included

●1-day or 2-day hop-on hop-off bus pass

●Access to 3 bus routes in the summer, 2 routes in the winter

● A coupon (优惠券) and booklet with over 200 Euros in discounts at Barcelona’s top attractions.

Additional Information

●Confirmation will be received at the time of booking

●Wheelchair accessible.

●The Red and Blue routes operate all year round (except 1st January and 25th December), from8:00 am — 8:00 pm. Duration — 120 minutes for full loop. Frequency — every 20 minutes. Tour start — Placa de Catalunya.

●The Green route operates 12th April — 3rd November only. Runs from 9:00 am — 7:00 pm. Duration — 40 minutes for full loop. Frequency — every 20 minutes. Tour start — Port Olimpic.

●Strollers (婴儿车) accessible

●Near public transportation

●Most travelers can participate

1. What can tourists do during the hop-on hop-off tour of Barcelona?

A．They can change routes freely.

B．They can comment on the tour via the board.

C．They can buy models of the landmarks on the bus.

D．They can get on and off the bus at any one of the 44 stops.

2. What can tourists get if they book the tour?

A．Booklets.	B．Free strollers.
C．Free wheelchairs.	D．A week’s bus pass.

3. What do the Red route and Green route have in common?

A．The both start at the same time.

B．They both run every 20 minutes.

C．They both start from Port Olimpic.

D．The destinations are both Placa de Catalunya.