If you enjoy walking for exercise, there’s a simple way to meet your demand—change your walk into a ruck, and it’s an increasingly popular form of exercise.
Rucking is walking with weight on your back. The term “rucking” comes from ruck marching, a core skill used by the military around the world. One of the tests the army normally gives to soldiers is a 12-mile ruck, which they must complete within three hours while carrying a weight of at least 35 pounds.
The reason why rucking is growing in popularity is that it’s an easy and all-body exercise. One study in 2019 showed that 10 weeks of weighted walking improved physical performance. Since rucking is usually performed outdoors, there is no doubt that it’s also good for your mental health. Lots of studies suggest that the mental health benefits of being in a natural environment are huge.
There are several tips for your rucking when you get started. First, don’t be too eager. As with any new exercise, you’ll need to begin slowly. Start with an empty backpack (背包) and walk a distance you’ve already done. When you start adding weight to your pack, try something low, like 10% of your body weight. Adding weight is going to put more stress on your ankles, knees, hips and back, so do it gradually. Another option is to start with a weighted vest (背心) instead of a backpack. This spreads the weight between your front and back. And of course, don’t forget your feet. Select a comfortable pair of shoes to prevent getting hurt.
1. What is rucking?(不多于六个单词)2. Why is rucking popular?(不多于六个单词)
3. Where is rucking usually performed?(不多于一个单词)
4. What is the last paragraph mainly about?(不多于三个单词)
We live in Bedford, a town near London. My father is a hard-working pilot, so he doesn’t have much time to look after us.
When I was a kid, my mum liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular, when she had made breakfast food after a long, hard day at hospital.
On that evening so long ago, my mum placed a plate of eggs, sausage and terribly burnt biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed. Yet all my dad did was reach for a biscuit, smile at my mum and ask my brother and me how we had been doing at school. I don’t remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him put butter and jelly (果酱) on that biscuit and eat every bite!
When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my mum apologize (道歉) to my dad for burning the biscuits. And I will never forget what he said, “Honey, I love burnt biscuits.”
Later that night, I went to kiss my dad good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burnt. He wrapped me in his arms and said, “Your mum is really tired after a hard day’s work. Besides, a little burnt biscuit could never hurt anyone. We have been married for 17 years. She always cooks for me. Don’t put the key to your happiness in someone else’s pocket but into your own. ”
1. What is the father?2. Where does the mother work?
3. How many people are there in the family?
4. How long have the mother and father been married?
5. Why did the father eat the burnt biscuits?
3 . I sill remember my first day of second grade. I was led to a classroom. No teacher yet. Girls talking and laughing. Boys playing games.
I took some paper and a pencil, picked a desk, and went to work. Minutes later, a girl came over and sat on top of my desk.
“What are you doing?” she said.
“I am doing Fun with Number” I replied. Then I rose from my seat to get my pencil sharpener. I had no idea that when I stood, the desk would fall over and hurt her leg.
Her name was Lucy. From that day on we got to know each other, and she became my best friend. Now we have been close friends for more than 60 years. We often get together and recall the past.
Some TV advertisements try to tell us what children need for school, new shoes, clothes, and schoolbags. But really, children’s needs are simple. Besides the basics—to be fed, cared for, and loved—they need the gift of friendship.
For years, I feared how people saw me. But one day, I finally understood I didn’t need to be smart or pretty or popular, but just needed to be kind.
My grandson William recently finished his preschool and received a prize for “friendship”. Even an Olympic medal wouldn’t make me prouder! I think children need to know that they are loved. They need to know they have all they need and that the best way to win friends is to be kind.
1. When and where did the author meet Lucy for the first time?2. What was the author doing when Lucy came over?
3. How do Lucy and the author keep their friendship growing?
4. Besides the basics, what do children need for a happy school life?
A joke spread online during the epidemic (疫情) that “No one should go out until Zhong Nanshan said you can,” which reflects Chinese people’s trust in him.
The trust has existed for 17 years, going back to when Zhong told the public about the facts on the SARS virus, pointing out that the epidemic was far from being controlled as there was still no clue about the cause of and treatment to the disease.
17 years later, he stood between the epidemic and the public, once again.
As a professional expert in medicine, he once said his words might embarrass his colleagues, but he had to tell the truth. “I think patients’ lives are the most important thing.”
Zhong said his father had told him to speak the truth ever since he was a child.
In the backdrop of great fame and high reputation, he said that “I am nothing but a medical worker.”
Wuhan has gripped the hearts of people throughout the country since the outbreak the virus. Zhong said with a hoarse voice that “with the help of the entire country, Wuhan can survive this difficult time as it is a heroic city.”
He has expressed sympathy to the medical workers fighting on the frontline of epidemic control.
1. What does the joke imply? （no more than 10 words）2. Why do Chinese people trust Zhong?（no more than 15 words）
3. According to the passage, who has a great influence on Zhong Nanshang?（no more than 2 words）
4. What does the underlined sentence mean? （no more than 20 words）
I was sitting in a beginner calligraphy (书法) class when a student asked the teacher, “What do I need to become a professional calligrapher?” The answer, to our surprise, was pen and paper. “The materials are no different from those of a beginner calligrapher,” the teacher explained, “The difference between a beginner and a professional calligrapher is not in the tools they use, but in the time and efforts they put into learning and practising.”
The same goes for any professional at their skill. When we look up to the expert, we think that increasing the quality of materials or having excellent resources is what makes them great. Actually, the time they spend learning something new and achieving their goals is more important. However, we tend to look for a shortcut, a direct way to achieve the goal.
My current goal is to become an independent filmmaker. What would it take? What would I need to make the best movies? I too, wanted the shortcut. After watching online videos about filmmaking, I realized I had all that I needed to achieve my goal. It just took time and efforts to succeed.
We easily get caught in wasting time looking for a shortcut. In the end, we lose energy and motivation (动机). We do things to go fast rather than go far. We focus on the end result instead of allowing ourselves to enjoy the journey. Go for it. Reach farther to become your best self.
1. What tools does one need to become a calligrapher?2. What is the meaning of the underlined word “shortcut”?
3. What is the author’s current goal?
4. What is the passage mainly about?
5. What is your goal in high school? How will you achieve it?
Imagine you live in your green dream home: extremely energy-saving, beautiful, cozy and perfectly satisfatory. Maybe you are picturing such a brand new smart house, but actually you can redecorate your current house with green concept in a simple way.
Wright Rudy, a builder and energy-efficiency expert who has done a number of home designs, says you can save more energy than you might think. He helps homeowners get energy savings of up to 75 percent when he’s able to rework a house perfectly. A series of energy-saving designs in one neighborhood has been done to cut some homes’ energy use in half, resulting in an average cost savings of $100 per month on energy bills.
If you’re doing a major home upgrade, you can go further and add solar design features to improve your home’s natural heating and cooling. Wright suggests you bring both pleasant living space and heat to your home by adding a sunroom. This strategy makes full use of solar energy.
Similarly, cooling issues can be addressed by improving natural ventilation (通风). Instead of using the traditional way—ceiling fans, Wright suggests careful arrangements of windows and skylights as one option. Skylights are terrific because they’re located at a high point in the room, which allows warm air to rise out while cooler outdoor air comes in through an open window.
Wright says green concept for homes is the wave of the future. “I believe that within the next few years we needn’t burn fuels inside our houses any more. Our designs are cost-effective and environmentally safe. In this sense, our designs will surely address the future. Realistically, we need to be planning for that now.”
1. What benefit can Wright’s green house bring?2. What does Wright advise us to do to keep the house cool?
3. Which word can replace “addressed” in the paragraph 4?
4. Why does Wright have the idea of green homes?
The First Kite
Kites have been around for thousands of years. The first kites were created in China. There are three stories about how the first kite was born.
Many people believe that the kite was created when people watched birds fly. They then attempted to make a light object shaped like a bird that could fly high in the wind.
The second story goes like this. The kite was born as Chinese children sat below a catalpa tree (梓树). A catalpa tree is known for large leaves and seed pods (荚), which can be over 10 inches long. The catalpa tree’s seed pods have two “wings” that help the seeds move far from the base of the tree. As the leaves and seed pods sailed on an upward wind, the children became inspired to create their own kites.
There is a Chinese legend (传说) telling a different story. When a farmer was working in his field one morning, the wind blew his hat off many times. He had to stop to run after his hat. When the farmer went in for lunch, he had an idea that he could tie one end of a thin rope to his hat and the other end around his wrist (手腕). That afternoon, he went to work again. A sudden and strong wind swept the hat off his head and carried it high into the sky. But the farmer no longer needed to run after his hat. At that time, he got the idea of making a kite.
The idea for a kite could have been born as people watched birds fly, sat below a catalpa tree or found a way to get back a hat. Like the roots of many inventions, these stories are each inspired by people’s experiences or observations of the natural world.
1. Where were the first kites created? (不多于两个单词)2. In the first story, what inspired people to make kites? (不多于五个单词)
3. What gave the farmer the idea of making kites? (不多于四个单词)
4. How do people get the ideas for inventions? (不多于九个单词)
The population of monarchs passing the winter in Mexico appears to have fallen. Now, the good news for Illinois’ state insects: The Field Museum in Chicago is trying to figure out what makes a successful monarch garden in the city, and it’s proper to start preparing for this summer.
The Field Museum project involves citizens reporting on spaces that researchers can’t walk into every day, like backyards. Participants sent in weekly reports, including the makeup of their garden, and development of eggs and caterpillars. The more successful gardens had more milkweed(乳汁草)and blooming plants，multiple milkweed species， and tended to be larger plots. But Klinger, an expert at the Field Museum,said one participant with a single plant watched eggs transform all the way to chrysalises(蛹). So，she said，“You just need one plant.”
In 2020,during the second season of the study, the number of caterpillars dropped even though the number of participants in the study more than doubled.
Chicago saw a hot, dry summer——its warmest on record, and Klinger said that may have affected the health of the milkweed plants. The reports out of Mexico noted this season’s eastern population drop followed an increase in forest loss, which was 4 times what it was a year ago, primarily from illegal tree cutting, as well as trees hit by wind and drought. But they also said spring and summer weather conditions were tough for milkweed blossoms and egg development in the southern US, which is largely responsible for limiting reproduction.
“But now is the optimum time to start planning to plant some milkweed. The best thing to do is what you can do. One milkweed plant in a pot on your balcony(阳台)is doing something，” Klinger said.
1. What’s the intention of the Field Museum project?2. What’s the main idea of paragraph 2?
3. Why was there an increase in the forest loss?
4. What is the author’s attitude towards the Field Museum project?
Lillian Hanson, a college junior, expects to graduate in about two years. Mrs. Hanson, a rather unusual student, plans to go on to take more courses after she gets her degree. What makes Mrs. Hanson different from most of her classmates?
What sets Lillian Hanson apart from the college crowd is her age-73 years. She has been going to college, a few courses at a time, for 27 years.
When Mrs. Hanson graduated from high school, she went to her local bank and asked for a loan for college tuition and fees. The banker gave her no encouragement. He didn’t think that a country girl should be borrowing money to go to college. He thought she should be home doing work in the house or around the farm. So Mrs. Hanson went home and raised a family of nine children instead of going to college. She still lives with her husband on the farm that has been in the family for five generations.
Mrs. Hanson never forgot her dream of getting a higher education. When her children were grown up, she tried again.
She finds the hardest part of going back to school at her age to be sitting in class for long periods of time. Because she is not able to move as quickly and easily as she used to be, Mrs. Hanson often gets up and walks around between classes to keep from getting rigid. At the beginning of a course in using the computer, the other students all stood up to give Mrs. Hanson big applause when she introduced herself and explained why she was there and what her goals were.
1. What makes Lillian Hanson different from most of her classmates? (不多于2个单词)2. Why did the banker refuse to provide a loan for Lillian Hanson? (不多于16个单词)
3. What is Mrs. Hanson’s dream? (不多于4个单词)
4. What does she find the hardest part of going back to school? (不多于8个单词)
Junior Alvarado, a high school student in the Washington Leadership Academy, often struggled in his math classes and earned poor grades. The teachers at the Washington Leadership Academy used computer programs to identify the areas he was weak in and design a learning plan just for him.
“They explain the problem step by step. It wouldn’t be as fast, but at your speed,” said the 15—year—old, “Now I feel better about my math skills.”
The use of technology in schools is part of a larger idea of personalized learning. This idea has been gaining in popularity in recent years. Personalized learning is away of teaching centering around the interests and needs of individual students instead of entire classes as a whole. It includes flexible learning environments and specially—designed education plans. Students can decide what and how they learn. In that way, they are able to master subjects at their own speed.
Joseph Webb, headmaster of the Washington Leadership Academy, says the digital tools help teachers identify problems students are facing before they become too serious. “We can solve them right then and there; we don’t have to wait for the problems to come to us,” he said.
Still, many researchers say it is too early to tell if personalized learning works better than traditional teaching. A recent study found that personalized learning only led to small improvements. It found only a 3—percent improvement in math and even smaller improvements in reading compared to traditional teaching methods. In addition, experts in children’s health warn that the overuse of technology can damage face—to—face relationships and young people’s interest in physical activity.
Some teachers have their doubts as well. Marla Kilfoyle, a teacher in a public high school, admits that technology can be helpful in the classroom in many ways. But she argues that no computer program should ever replace the personal touch, support and inspiration teachers give their students.
1. How did teachers help Junior Alvarado to improve his math grades? (no more than 15 words)2. According to the passage，what is personalized learning? (no more than 13 words)
3. What does the underlined word “they” in paragraph 4 refer to? (no more than 1 word)
4. Why do Marla Kilfoyle believe computer programs will never replace teachers? (no more than 10 words)
