3 . You want to become a farmer, but you’ve never grown a crop before? Don't worry. This article will set you on the path to realizing your dream of being a farmer.

Decide why you're interested in farming.     1     Farming sometimes also gives you less money for all your hard work. Therefore, you need to be interested and determined enough to be a farmer.

Visit with some experienced farmers. It is highly recommended that you find those who are farming in a similar manner to what you intend to do.     2     Run a web search to find out about some upcoming local agricultural events happening, and attend as many of them as you can. You will find many active farmers you may want to visit at such events.     3    

Offer your services as a farm worker. This is the most important step on your way to becoming a farmer.     4     Like with all jobs, you will be entering at the very bottom. The only way you will work your way up is to work hard and do what is asked of you.

    5     Laughter makes the day go by faster, especially when your muscles are aching, your fingers feel like they are going to fall off, and the weather has ruined your plans once again.

A．Have a good sense of humor.

B．Besides, don't be afraid to learn new things.

C．Any kind of farming requires a lot of hard work.

D．Know when you are ready to begin your own farm.

E．You can ask them to give you a tour of their work.

F．It is because you are working and gaining direct experience.

G．There you can ask questions and learn about their farming experience.

4 . You Need to Start Strength Training Today

The aging process affects the human body in many ways. One thing that happens to all of us as we age is muscle loss.     1     But others say it can start as early as age 30. The Harvard Health Publishing website notes that after age 30, you begin to lose muscle faster during your lifetime.

Experts show that we do know this: Being inactive can speed up the process. Now, the good news! Lost muscle is not gone forever. It is never too late to start strength training. But what exactly is strength training?     2    

Here are a few things to note about this kind of training.

No equipment strength training. You do not have to use special exercise equipment or go to a gym to do strength training.     3     Exercises that use body weight as resistance are usually safer for beginners. They can also be easier on the body, and you can do them anywhere. Push-ups, plank poses, jumping jacks, side jumps and deep knee bends are great exercises for making muscle stronger.

    4     The experts also suggest a short practice before strength training. Cold muscle is more likely to be injured than warm muscle. Walking for five to ten minutes is enough to warm up your muscle. They say it can activate your muscle.

Food.     5     The body breaks down protein into amino acids, which it uses to build muscle. So, experts say eat a little healthy protein with each meal—foods such as chicken, salmon, beans and yogurt.

A．Warm-up.

B．A muscle check.

C．You can just use your own body weight to do it.

D．Some experts say muscle loss begins around age 50.

E．Do not forget that proper diets help you build muscle.

F．Let us talk about the health benefits of strength training.

G．Simply put, it is any activity that makes one’s muscle stronger.

5 . Algorithms (计算程序) are able to do a huge number of tasks, and the number of tasks that they are able to do is expanding practically every day. According to a new study, despite increasing concern over the effect of algorithms in daily life, more and more people nowadays are willing to trust a computer program, especially if a task becomes too challenging. From choosing the next song on your playlist to choosing the right size of pants, people are relying more on the advice of algorithms to help make everyday decisions.

During the study, researchers asked volunteers to count the number of people of a crowd in a photograph and supplied suggestions that were offered by a group of other people and suggestions offered by an algorithm. As the number of people in the photograph expanded, counting became more difficult and people were more likely to follow the suggestions offered by an algorithm rather than count themselves or follow the “wisdom of the crowd”.

One of the common problems with AI is when it is used for awarding credit. While that is a subjective decision, there are lots of numbers there, like income and credit scores. Therefore, people feel like this is a good job for an algorithm. But we know that dependence leads to unfair and incomplete practices in many cases because of social factors that aren’t considered.

Facial recognition and hiring algorithms have come under inspection in recent years because their use has shown cultural prejudice in the way they were built, which can cause inaccuracies when matching faces to identities or screening for qualified job candidates. The prejudice may not be present in a simple task like counting, but their presence in other trusted algorithms is a reason why it is important to understand how people rely on algorithms when making decisions.

“The eventual goal is to look at groups of humans and computers making decisions and find how we can get them to trust each other and how that changes their behaviors,” one of the researchers said. “Because there is very little research in that setting, we’re starting with the fundamentals.”

1. What can we learn about the present people from paragraph 1?

A．They become more dependent on algorithms.

B．They show little concern about algorithms in life.

C．They are addicted to numbers of challenging tasks online.

D．They never rely on computers to make everyday decisions.

2. Which is the disadvantage of algorithms according to paragraph 3?

A．They cannot be used to award credit.

B．They can lead to one-sided decisions.

C．They can give away candidates’ identities.

D．They cannot be applied to difficult calculations.

3. Why does facial recognition get inspected?

A．It leads to cultural differences.

B．It may produce some false results.

C．It takes lots of money and manpower.

D．It rules out most qualified job candidates.

4. What message does the author mainly convey in the text?

A．It is really necessary to stay away from AI.

B．It is very easy to make choices with the help of AI.

C．People need to adapt to the development of computers.

D．People tend to trust computer programs more than themselves.

6 . Kellie Gillespie is in her early 40s. She lives in London. And until a few years ago, she was basically an ordinary person. That was before she took a psychology class with Scott Pious of Wesleyan University. “My life changed after taking Professor Plous’s course,” Kellie says. "And now I’m studying to be a psychologist and counselor.”

Plous’s course was offered online, hosted by the educational platform Coursera. Kellie learned several psychological concepts in the class. One is the rule of mutual benefit: If you’re nice to some people, or you open up to them, they will be likely to do the same with you. She also learned about the power of empathy: When you put yourself in someone else’s shoes, it profoundly changes the relationship you have with him or her.

Now, lots of people learn about ideas in psychology, but Kellie did something unusual. She took in what she had learned in the class, and applied it in her own life.

Kellie was spending a lot of time at the British Library, and she often noticed the same young man on the street nearby. She could tell he was homeless, but he was always smiling and always so pleasant. It started simply, with Kellie giving the man whatever spare change she had. But after several months, she wanted to do more. She learned his name was Simon, and invited him for a cup of coffee. To make him feel comfortable, she told him a bit about her life, and slowly, he opened up about his. He kept mentioning how much he missed his mum. This struck a chord for Kellie—her own mother had passed away a decade before. Kellie helped Simon get in touch with his mother, and finally, put him on a bus heading home.

“Taking the course most definitely opened my eyes to the reasons why people don’t do something to help,” Kellie says. “It’s easy to say ‘I can’t make a difference,’ but everyone can make a difference.”

1. What made Kellie’s life change?

A．Becoming a psychologist.

B．Learning psychology online.

C．Gaining admission to university.

D．Cooperating with Professor Pious.

2. What does the underlined word “empathy” in paragraph 2 mean?

A．The benefit from others.

B．The motivation to go ahead.

C．The platform for helping people in need.

D．The ability to understand others’feelings.

3. What does paragraph 4 mainly tell us?

A．How Kellie helped Simon.

B．How much Kellie missed her mum.

C．Why Kellie gave spare change to Simon.

D．Why Kellie invited the homeless for coffee.

4. What can we conclude from Kellie’s story?

A．Every penny counts.

B．Strike while the iron is hot.

C．A little bit of kindness goes a long way.

D．Healthy mind is the source of happiness.

8 . Winter can usually kill most wildfires. But in the far North，some forest fires just don’t die. They are thought of as “zombie (僵尸) fires”.

“Zombie fires” usually sleep underground in winter. Covered by snow, they smoke through the cold. Fueled by carbon-rich peat (泥炭) and soil in the North, most of these hidden fires spread slowly for less than 500 meters during the winter. When spring comes, the flames (火焰) of the fires appear near sites that they burned in winter, and they turn to burning fresh fuels around. This may happen well before the traditional fire season in the far North.

“Zombie fires” had been known mostly from firefighters’ stories. Few scientists studied them until details in some satellite images attracted one research team. Rebecca Scholten, a member of the team, studies earth systems at Vrije University Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Her team noticed an unusual thing. “New fires have been starting very close to the former years’ fires in recent years，and we wonder how often the fires might survive the winter,” Scholten explains.

These “zombie fires” are rarely seen before, according to a new study from Nature. But in recent years, they are becoming more common, the study warns. It is believed that the “zombie fires” are even on the road of being a threat. Forests in the far North are warming faster than the globe’s average (平均数). Scholten says, “We’re seeing more hot summers and more large fires and strong burning. That could set the stage for the fires to become a bigger problem,” she worries. And the region’s soils hold a lot of carbon—maybe twice as much as earth’s atmosphere. More fires here could give off huge amounts of greenhouse gases. That would drive a cycle of more warming and even higher risk of fires.

1. What do we know about the “zombies fires” in the far North?

A．They will completely die out in winter.

B．Carbon-rich peat helps them burn slowly in winter.

C．They often happen after the traditional fire season.

D．Their flames can only appear in spring.

2. What can we infer from Scholten’s words in paragraph 3?

A．“Zombie fires” appear earlier than the years before.

B．“Zombie fires” happen far from former years’ fires.

C．“Zombie fires” happen more frequently than before.

D．“Zombie fires” appear in different shapes every year.

3. What was a cause of being a threat for the “zombie fires”?

A．The global warming is slowing down.

B．The hot summers are less and less seen.

C．The area’s soils are short of carbon.

D．More greenhouse gases are given off.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．Where Are “Zombie Fires” From?

B．Are “Zombie Fires” Frightening?

C．Pay Attention To “Zombie Fires”!

D．“Zombie Fires” Are Caused By Humans!

9 . Life Outside London: Five Reasons to Visit the North of England!

Most people when visiting England will go to London. In fact most people don't even know much about England outside of London. It makes sense. It's the capital. There are lots to se there. However, as a northern girl, from a place just between Manchester and Liverpool, and a university student in Sheffield. I'd say the north is well worth a visit, and definitely as good if not better than London! Here are five reasons:

Friendliness

Northerners will chat to you on the bus, say hello in the streets and won't think you're crazy if you smile at them when you walk past. Friendly northerners might also call you "duck" or "love" don't worry, they call everyone that.

Gravy

Now although Southerners have gravy (a delicious meaty sauce that goes well with everything), they don't do it properly. You haven't lived until you've tried chip-shop chips swimming in gravy.

Beautiful Countryside

We have the Peak District, and the Lake District. They're both absolutely beautiful and definitely worth a visit. We also have some pretty amazing beaches too.

Excellent Party Cities

We have Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield You can't go wrong if you want to go on a night out here.

Low Cost

The same night won't cost you anywhere near as much up north! In London you can pay over for a pint, which is outrageous! For some reason, everything up North is cheaper, from food to drink to getting around, you can't go wrong when you're spending less money.

There are lots of lovely things to see in the North, so if you can brave the weather being a bit colder and wetter, it's definitely worth a trip.

1. Who might call you "duck" when you are visiting the north of England?

A．A warm passer-by.	B．A rude salesman.
C．A friendly southerner.	D．A cold teenager.

2. What can you do in the north of England according to the passage?

A．Get free beer.	B．Enjoy an all-night party.
C．Try chips in gravy.	D．Enjoy warm and dry weather.

3. Where can the passage be found?

A．In a recipe book.	B．In a science fiction.
C．In a business report.	D．In a travel magazine.