1 . Teenagers who take part in arts and cultural activities, such as dance, drama, reading and going to concerts, are less likely to engage in antisocial and criminalized behavior up to two years later, according to a new study by researchers from UCL (University College London) and University of Florida.

For the peer-reviewed study, published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, researchers looked at data from more than 25,000 teenagers in the United States who had filled out questionnaires over several years.

They measured the teenagers’ overall engagement with arts activities based on a wide range of factors, from involvement in school clubs, orchestras, choirs, and arts classes outside school, to whether they had visited museums or been to concerts, or read on their own. Researchers looked at data from two US-based studies of 1988, whose participants were nationally representative. The research team analyzed questionnaires filled in by teenagers and their parents between 1988 and 2002. The average age of participants at the start of these studies was 14 to 15.

In one of the groups, about half of adolescents reported engaging in antisocial and criminalized behaviors in the last 12 months. The average number of times participants engaged in these behaviors over the year was 1.6. Although the researchers found that arts engagement was linked to fewer positive perceptions of antisocial behavior and better self-control scores, they could not conclude that these factors were causally responsible for the association between arts engagement and antisocial behavior as the study was observational. Nonetheless, in considering mechanisms through which the arts could reduce antisocial behavior, the researchers cited previous studies showing improvements from arts engagement including increased empathy, more prosocial (亲社会的) behavior, reduced boredom and improved self-esteem, as well as better emotion regulation.

1. Where did the public first know the peer-reviewed study?

A．In a magazine.

B．On the radio.

C．On TV.

D．In a newspaper.

2. Why did researchers check data from two US studies?

A．Both analyses are appropriate.	B．Participants were fairly typical.
C．There were numerous participants.	D．They were based on questionnaires.

3. What do we know about previous studies from the last paragraph?

A．They showed the benefits of arts engagement.

B．Few adolescents had criminalized behaviours.

C．Adolescents tend to have a better self-control ability.

D．The researchers were optimistic about the conclusion.

4. In which column might the text appear in a newspaper?

A．Science.

B．Education.

C．Technology.

D．Environment.

2 . There is nothing like a coast redwood. It is the planet’s tallest tree, soaring to heights of more than 320 feet into the sky. They have trunks that are more than 27 feet wide and can live for over 2,000 years. Some of the gentle giants living today were alive during the time of the Roman Empire.

Before the mid-19th century, coast redwoods spread throughout a range of some 2 million acres along the California coast. People had been peacefully co-existing with the forests forever. But with the gold rush came the logging (伐木作业); and today only 5 percent of the original old-growth coast redwood forest remains along a 450-mile strip of coast. And as the planet warms up, the specific conditions required by the redwoods change; their future doesn’t look so great. Animals can migrate north to escape the south’s warming temperatures; trees, not so much.

But with David Milarch on the case, maybe they can. In 1991, Milarch literally died from a life-threatening illness, before being revived and springing back to life. There’s nothing like a near-death experience to inspire a new course in life, as was the case with Milarch. His new quest? To harvest the genes of the coast redwoods and give them an assist in migration.

“I feel sorrow that 95 percent of them were killed and we didn’t even know what they do to strengthen our ability as human beings to live on this planet,” says Milarch. “We killed them. That’s the bad news. To put back every single tree that was cut down and killed. And I’m going to do it. ” By cloning and replanting them in places where they once thrived (繁荣) but were lost, he is not only increasing their numbers but planting them in locations where they have a better chance of longevity. And the result is two-fold: Save the trees and save the planet for humankind. Redwood trees are among the most effective carbon sequestration (碳封存) tools in the world.

1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?

A．A brief introduction of redwoods.	B．The information about our planet.
C．The history of the Roman Empire.	D．The special height of the redwood.

2. What destroyed the redwoods along the California coast?

A．The warming climate.	B．The overcutting.
C．The ocean disaster.	D．The worsening soil condition.

3. What inspired Milarch to revive the redwood?

A．His love for plants.	B．His concern on global warming.
C．His surviving experience.	D．His study on the genetics of the redwood.

4. What did Milarch focus on when cloning the redwood?

A．The animals which live nearby.	B．The effective tool used to plant trees.
C．The places where the trees grow.	D．The amounts of water trees need.

3 . Accidents happen, especially when kids are in the house, and being prepared with a first-aid kit is always a great idea.     1     Having a first-aid kit on hand for your child will help put your mind at ease and let you and your family worry less when injuries occur. Making your own first-aid kit ensures your kit has everything your child could need in an emergency.

 Decide on the right size for the kit. 

Consider how and when the kit will most likely be used and where it will be stored.     2     A manageable size for a container that would still be able to contain the necessary items for your kid is a case the size of a shoebox.

    3    

First-aid kits can come in a variety of sizes and are built from a variety of materials. Choosing the right material for your first-aid kit should again be based on how the kit will be used by your child.

 Make sure the container can be locked. 

When the kit is not in use, you want to make sure that the contents of the first-aid kit are unable to be changed by any younger children in the house who aren’t mature enough to use the kit.     4    

 Label the box as a children’s first-aid kit. 

The kit should be labeled clearly as a first-aid kit for kids.     5     You should also paint or attach a symbol to show that it should be used for first aid.

A．Choose the appropriate container material.

B．Also, consider the age of your child and what they can carry.

C．A lock will ensure that the kit does not open easily when not used.

D．Look for a waterproof container so that none of the items inside get damaged.

E．Using a bright label will make the kit stand out within a crowded locker or cabinet.

F．Don’t teach your child to use the kit until you think they’re ready to use it responsibly.

G．Teaching your children how to use the kit will help enable them to care for themselves.

4 . Sweating may not be your favorite thing to do, but it is necessary.     1    . Here are four research-backed reasons why this salt-based fluid can benefit you.

·Sweating is good for your skin.

Sweat is known to cool the skin, bringing toxins (毒素) to the surface and giving the skin a healthy glow. Research shows that sweating can increase and maintain skin hydration. However, leaving sweat on the skin for too long can cause skin diseases such as acne.     2    .

·Sweating makes you happy.

When you’re hot, your heart beats faster to cool the body, releasing endorphins that cause feelings of joy.     3    . In a 2015 study, people who smelled “happy sweat” displayed tendencies associated with happiness. However, those exposed to fear-induced sweat showed characteristics of terror.

·    4    

When sitting in a sauna (桑拿浴室), your body temperature rises, so your body works overtime to cool itself down by sweating. And you’ll be better off for it. A 20-year Finnish study found that people who sweated it out regularly in a sauna had a lower rate of sudden cardiac (心脏的) deaths.

·    5    

If you sweat heavily during exercise, that’s usually a positive sign. Athletes tend to sweat sooner and more than inactive people. Their bodies have learned to cool down more efficiently during physical activity. A PLOSONE study supports this, showing that long-distance runners not only got sweatier sooner, but also activated more sweat glands, resulting in more sweat than their non-active counterparts.

A．Sweating supports your heart

B．Sweating a lot means that you’re fit

C．Sweat is the stuff that floods out when our body temperature rises

D．Your sweaty self can also make those around you feel happier too

E．Sweating contributes to a decrease in blood pressure to some extent

F．So, it’s essential to wash your face and body after sweating

G．It’s a natural bodily function that helps to regulate body temperature and prevent overheating

5 . Alexis was a student, the only son of his wealthy parents, and felt entitled to the luxuries he had in his life. On a class field trip, Alexis met the forester, Justin, who had been living in a wooden house in the forest over ten years. When learning Justin’s life, Alexis laughed at him with his friends.

During the field trip, Alexis and his classmates passed by an entrance to a cave. “This looks so cool!” Alexis exclaimed. He wanted to go inside the cave, but his teacher stopped him.

The next day, Alexis reached the cave with his four friends, only to find they couldn’t take their schoolbags through the entrance. One by one, the teenagers entered the cave and were amazed to see how wide it was from the inside. Albert picked a large stone up and hit one of the walls with it. “This place is so cool!” he laughed quietly before the rocks from the wall came falling.

“Watch out, Albert!” Alexis said and pulled Albert towards himself. The teenagers screamed in fear when they saw the rocks fall. They couldn’t see anything because of the dust floating in the air.

The friends were scared when they realized they were trapped in the cave. “HELP! WE ARE STUCK!” the teenagers started screaming for help, hoping someone would hear them.

Fate sent Justin to the cave. The forester picked berries every day from the trees near the cave. While he was walking back to his house, five bright-colored schoolbags caught his attention. Then he approached the cave and shouted, “Hey! Who’s in there?”

“I’m Alexis ! I came here yesterday with my teacher! Help us, please! We are stuck!”

“Okay, calm down, children! I’ll help you out!” Justin said.

Justin quickly called 911 and informed them about the kids in the cave. Thinking the paramedics (护理人员) would take at least twenty minutes to arrive, he decided to help the kids himself before it was too late. Justin quickly grabbed a shovel and a flashlight and rushed back to the cave’s entrance. Meanwhile, Alexis and his friends tried to stay calm. A few minutes later, Alexis and his friends could see the flashlight shine through the cave’s entrance. Seconds later, they rushed outside the cave and took a deep breath in the fresh air.

Just then, the paramedics arrived.

1. What may lead to Alexis looking down on Justin?

A．His lower education.	B．His poor family.
C．His bad reputation.	D．His living condition.

2. How did Alexis feel about the cave at first?

A．Doubtful.

B．Curious.

C．astonished.

D．Scared.

3. Why did Justin appear near the cave?

A．It was his daily routine.	B．He saw five colorful schoolbags.
C．He came to look for the children.	D．He heard the screaming for help.

4. What lesson can we learn from the story ?

A．Lucky or unlucky.	B．Don’t judge a person by his looks.
C．Curiosity kills the cat.	D．Once in a blue moon.

6 . How many calories should you eat in a day? Many factors go into determining your calorie needs. Your age, weight, gender/sex, height and activity level and if you want to maintain, lose or gain weight and so on all play a role. So, how many average calories per day should you aim for?

Everybody’s daily calorie needs are different, which can make it hard to figure out the magic number. In general, men and people assigned male at birth (AMAB) need more calories than women and people assigned female at birth (AFAB). Active people need more than those who have desk jobs. And younger people need more than older people, whose metabolisms (新陈代谢) slow down as they age.

Calories per day for women and people AFAB

Age	Calories: inactive	Calories: moderately active	Calories: active
21–25	2,000	2,200	2,400
26–30	1,800	2,000	2,400
31–50	1,800	2,000	2,200
51–60	1,600	1,800	2,200
61+	1,600	1,800	2,000

Source: Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion).

Calories per day for men and people AMAB

Age	Calories: inactive	Calories: moderately active	Calories: active
21–25	2,400	2,800	3,000
26–35	2,400	2,600	3,000
36–40	2,400	2,600	2,800
41–45	2,200	2,600	2,800
46-55	2,200	2,400	2,800
56–60	2,200	2,400	2,600
61–65	2,000	2,400	2,600

Source: Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion).

Keep in mind, these calorie recommendations are for people who are at a normal weight. If your weight is above the normal range for your height and your goal is weight loss, you need to consume less. A shortage of 500 calories can provide a weight loss of 1 pound per week.

1. If you are a male of 24,always sitting in the office, daily calorie you need is .

A．2400

B．2000

C．2800

D．2200

2. Which of the statement is true according to the passage?

A．People of same age consume the same calories per day.

B．At age 61, men moderately active need more calories than women active .

C．If you are losing weight, you need to consume calories as the recommendations.

D．As metabolisms slow down, the elderly need more calories than younger people.

3. What is the author’s purpose of writing the passage?

A．To persuade us to lose weight .

B．To tell us how many calories we should eat every day.

C．To remind us to eat according to calories recommendations.

D．To tell us age weight, gender, height and activity level etc. determine daily calories need.

7 . Have you ever wondered why it feels so satisfying to sing in the shower? You are alone. You are warm. The air is moist, making your throat feel wet.     1     You’re at once relaxed and pleasantly energized by the water. Little can take you away from the simple tasks at hand. You control the speed and pitch. And the bathroom provides wonderful resonance (共鸣).

Now imagine singing while driving. You are sitting, stuck by a tight seat belt that limits airflow. Without any warm-up, you probably start right in with the first song you hear. The air is drier. And to stay awake, you may be drinking coffee, which can make you thirsty.     2     While singing along to the radio, your voice may get lost in the noise of the song and the car.

From my personal experience, I realize the importance of not only focusing but also setting the right conditions during practice.     3     This is why some argue against baseball players practising hitting before a game. They try hitting different types of throws, even slower ones that they wouldn’t see in a real game.

    4     To warm up, I practise deep breathing exercises and relax my tongue with “blah blah blahs.” Brightening my face helps make my sound more energetic. My voice becomes richer and stronger when I practise opening up my mouth by yawning, imagining the back of my mouth expanding like a frog’s. I also adjust the way I stand.     5    

A．Practice makes perfect.

B．You are standing up straight.

C．You are loudly clearing your throat.

D．Poor training may lead to poor results.

E．The stress of driving and staying safe keeps you tense.

F．After all, an upright guitar wouldn’t sound right if it was bent.

G．I always try to recreate the great feeling of singing in the shower wherever I am.

8 . Imagine if your clothes could pick up the sounds of everything going on around you. Scientists have created a fibre (纤维) which can pick up sounds and could be used as a hearing aid, to monitor heartbeats or even in spacecraft.

The new fibre works like a microphone. It picks up sounds and turns them into vibrations (震动) and then electrical signals, in a similar way to how ears work. When woven (编织) into a shirt, the researchers say the fibre can even detect a wearer’s heartbeat. The fibre can hear sounds as low as those in a quiet library to louder sounds like heavy road traffic. It can even accurately tell the direction of sudden sounds like handclaps.

The fibre was created by engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and researchers at Rhode Island School of Design. “Wearing a piece of clothing that can hear, you might talk through it to answer phone calls and communicate with others,” said lead author Yet Wan, who created the technology at MIT.

Once they had created the fibre, the team wove it into a more traditional piece of clothing which was much more flexible. When it was woven into the back of a shirt it was able to pick up the sound of people clapping, even picking up the direction the clapping was coming from. When woven into the shirt’s inner lining (内衬) it could pick up the person’s heartbeat, which the researchers think could be used in a pregnant woman’s clothes to monitor a baby’s heartbeat.

As well as wearable hearing aids, and clothes that track your heartbeat, the team says there are possibilities beyond clothing. “It can be integrated with spacecraft skin to listen to space dust, or embedded into (嵌入) buildings to detect cracks or strains,” Yet suggests. “It can even be woven into a smart net to monitor fish in the ocean.”

1. What is the scientists’ new invention?

A．A lightweight fibre.	B．A new spacecraft skin.
C．A fibre that can hear.	D．A microphone that can talk.

2. What can we learn about the new material?

A．It is easily distracted by loud sounds.

B．It can even pick up faint sounds.

C．It works more accurately than human ears.

D．It fails to recognise the direction of sounds.

3. What did the team do after creating the new material?

A．They wove it into babies’ clothes.	B．They turned it into a fishnet.
C．They put it into mass production.	D．They tested its performance.

4. What do Yet’s words in the last paragraph suggest?

A．The fibre has a wide range of applications.	B．The fibre can bring in a big profit.
C．The fibre needs to be improved.	D．The fibre is less flexible than traditional clothes.

9 . The process of sorting through my childhood stuff started out easy. At first, I was excited to toss everything out. But as the bedroom emptied out, I felt a creeping sense of sadness. My childhood was over, and I entered full-fledged (成熟的) adulthood. And I wondered:     1     In short, yes.

    2     That’s because going through your old stuff can possibly stir up difficult emotions or sweet memories. Whatever emotions pop up, accept them, and it will help you process it faster.

Before you start sorting, determine how much storage space you’re willing to devote to your childhood items.    3     You may have limited space for old stuff. But listen to your heart. If you’re sentimental and you want to hold on to stuff, hold on to it. You canal ways get rid of it later.

During this process, it can be useful to have someone you trust by your side. They can help you honor the memories associated with each object and let go.     4     They know which life experiences mean the most to you.

And you don’t have to pile your childhood stuff in the attic (阁楼).     5     You can take photos, which you can revisit any time on your phone or computer. Or you can turn them into an art project and display it in a shadow box.

Remember, there is someone who care enough to hold on all old stuff for you. This is a value of all of the time and effort and money your parents have poured into you. This has been saved in love.

A．Get creative and think outside the box.

B．Could my childhood memories be regained?

C．You can find meaning in your life experiences.

D．Loved ones can also help you decide what to save.

E．But it will probably still be a bittersweet experience.

F．That will help you figure out how much stuff you can keep.

G．Was there a less heartbreaking, more strategic way to do this?

10 . One of the best parts of travel is always the food. Or, more specifically, the junk food. It’s a delight people are unlikely to get to experience during the pandemic. But in one corner of the Internet, hungry people are keeping the joy of international snacks alive.

On r/SnackExchange, users trade the delights of their homeland by mail. First, you find someone on the board to swap (交换) with. You and your partner then post each other a box full of local finest processed foods, eventually uploading photos of your haul (收获) on the board for others to see.

First created in 2010, r/SnackExchange’s membership now totals 102,000. Most come to experience snacks they can’t find at home.

For the users who take part in snack exchanges, it’s a way to learn more about the world. For Meghan Quallick, a snack swapper from California, part of the motivation for swapping with an Australian was to get her hands on a specific item: Cadbury Black Forest bars. A colleague of hers had eaten the chocolate bars on a trip to Australia in years past and fallen in love with them, but was then unable to source them at home. Quallick’s snack partner included 10 bars of the chocolate in her package. “To get some and bring them to her was pretty exciting,” Quallick said. “My colleague had tears in her eyes.”

Snack exchanges do come with obvious financial disadvantages. Part of the process is to agree on a budget before you swap — on average that’s around the US$40-50 mark. But you should be prepared to spend twice as much on shipping as the actual snacks. Occasionally swappers get scammed (欺骗) by partners who don’t deliver on their end of the deal.

Often, the snack exchanges are about more than just the food. Heather Clarke, a snack swapper from Melbourne says, “They’re often cultural exchanges as well. You get people going, ‘Can you tell me what this is?’” Often, users enclose (随信附上) instructions on how to best consume the snacks. Going the extra mile is in the spirit of the community.

1. What is paragraph 2 mainly about?

A．The history of snack exchanges.	B．How users exchange snacks on r/ SnackExchange.
C．Why people love to exchange snacks.	D．The influence the pandemic has on snack exchanges.

2. Why did Quallick’s colleague cry?

A．She got what she desired to eat from Quallick.	B．She failed to find a swapper online.
C．She found the snack she ate before online.	D．She quarreled with Quallick.

3. What is a disadvantage of snack exchanges?

A．Swappers easily get scammed.

B．Swappers seldom find exactly what they want.

C．Swappers may spend more time than usual shopping.

D．Swappers have to spend more on shipping.

4. What does Clarke say about snack exchanges?

A．They should be improved.	B．They are lacking in community spirit.
C．They promote cultural exchanges.	D．They should have detailed guides from swappers.