1 . Everyone wants to perform well at school. Add these tips to your life and you should be on your way to being a top student!
Taking notes is important. You don’t need to write down every single word your teacher says but write down what he or she writes on the blackboard, or any special fact you think you might need for a test.
Don’t skip school. You will be missing courses.
Keep a good attitude (态度) towards things. If you have an “ I don’t care about school or this class” attitude, then teachers will be less willing to help you with problems. The same goes for lazy attitude. Have a respectful attitude to the teacher and other students.
Always ask questions.
| A．Be prepared. |
| B．Write in your own words. |
| C．Staying organized will be helpful. |
| D．Pay attention to what the teacher says. |
| E．It is true that you could make up the work. |
| F．There is no shame (羞愧)in needing some help. |
| G．Try not to laugh when other students make mistakes. |
2 . When water is cold, people will find it uncomfortable to swim. Wetsuits(潜水服）can help keep people warm.
The wetsuit doesn't have a long history. According to studies, the wetsuit only began during WWII when Italians started wearing wetsuits that were made of rubber. And it was widely believed in 1951, Hugh Bradner began working to improve the equipment.
Now there are many kinds of wetsuits. Contrary to what some may think, wetsuits do not work by keeping the diver(潜水员）dry; they are designed to let water into the suit. This thin layer of water is trapped（保存）between the diver and the suit. And it's allowed to move between the skin of the diver and the inside layer.
Wetsuits can also differ in thickness. They range from about 0. 5mm to 8mm in thickness. It's true that thicker wetsuits are more likely to affect your movement.
| A．But they're much better at giving you warmth. |
| B．As for the difference, wetsuits can differ in size. |
| C．The history of the wetsuit is an interesting story. |
| D．This led to the development of a kind of new wetsuit. |
| E．Many wetsuits are very light and easy to wear and take off. |
| F．As a result, the water gradually warms up to body temperature. |
| G．And they can provide protection from the sun and cuts from rocks. |
3 . Banff National Park is home to an amazing wildlife population. But the busy Trans Canada Highway that cuts through the park is a hazard to the lovely animals. To address the problem, Banff first put-up wildlife fencing on either side of the highway to discourage animals from entering the busy road. Then, since 1996, they’ve opened six wildlife overpasses and 38 underpasses to help the animals cross the highway in safety. I was fortunate to visit Banff’s Red Earth Overpass with Trevor Kinley, the project manager with Parks Canada. He told me that so far, they have documented 10, 000 safe animal crossings on this overpass alone. “ Some animals have learned how to use the crossings much more quickly than others. Black bears are the fastest learners, followed by deer. Wolves and lions take the longest to work out how to use them, ” Kinley said, laughing. “ But those animals that are slower to adapt are usually more capable and determined at figuring out the safest way to cross those overpasses and underpasses. ”
There is some criticism (批评) that channeling so much wildlife into a few bridges and tunnels is like making a trap for the animals, offering big animals an easy meal on either side. “ But research has shown that this is not the case, ” Kinley assured me. “ There are no more killings around the crossings than there are anywhere else in the park. ”
Walking over the Trans Canada and then walking underneath through one of the tunnels, I was amazed to see the fresh tracks of black bears, wolves, deer and many kinds of smaller animals. Somehow, all these animal footprints made me so happy, knowing that all this wildlife was passing safely under and over the longest road in Canada.
Hopefully, the success of the wildlife crossings in Banff will continue to inspire similar solutions around the world, where human pressure on wildlife continues to grow.
1. Which of the following best explains “ hazard ” underlined in paragraph 1?| A．Shelter. | B．Message. | C．Answer. | D．Danger. |
| A．They are stupid animals. | B．They are cautious learners. |
| C．They are very dangerous. | D．They are good at adapting. |
| A．There are too many bridges and tunnels. | B．Many animals will not use the crossings. |
| C．More killings might happen at the crossings. | D．Illegal hunting might be encouraged in the park. |
| A．Concerned. | B．Disappointed. | C．Shocked. | D．Delighted. |
4 . Important Things to Know When Dining Out
Cultural dining etiquette (礼节) might surprise you with some of its important rules.
The way you handle chopsticks is important to avoid annoying your companions. When you put them down between bites, always put them down together so they are parallel with the edge of the table in front of you.
In India and the Middle East, it’s considered very rude to eat with your left hand. People in France expect you to eat with a utensil in each hand.
Some of these cultural dining etiquette rules may seem random and strange, but they are important in various countries.
| A．The more friends you make in your lifetime |
| B．The more time you spend in any given country |
| C．Mexicans consider it inappropriate to eat with utensils |
| D．Don’t get caught making an embarrassing mistake at a restaurant |
| E．It’s a good sign for the chef if you make a mess around your plate |
| F．Never stick them upright in your food or cross them as you use them |
| G．It may seem like a simple request to ask for salt and pepper at a meal |
5 . You can tell a lot about people’s general state of mind based on their social media feeds. Are they always tweeting（发微博）about their biggest annoyances or posting pictures of particularly cute kitties? In a similar fashion, researchers are turning to Twitter for clues about the overall happiness of entire geographic communities.
What they’re finding is that regional variation in the use of common phrases produces predictions that don’t always reflect the local state of well being. But removing from their analyses just three specific terms -- good, love and LOL - greatly improves the accuracy of the methods.
“We’re living in a crazy COVID-19 era. And now more than ever, we’re using social media to adapt to a new normal and reach out to the friends and family that we can’t meet face-to-face.” Kokil Jaidka studies computational linguistics at the National University of Singapore. “But our words aren’t useful just to understand what we, as individuals, think and feel. They’re also useful clues about the community we live in.”
One of the simpler methods that many scientists use to analyze the data involves correlating words with positive or negative emotions. But when those records are compared with phone surveys that assess regional well-being, Jaidka says, they don’t paint an accurate picture of the local zeitgeist（时代精神）.
Being able to get an accurate read on the mood of the population is no laughing matter. “That’s particularly important now, in the time of COVID, where we’re expecting a mental health crisis and we’re already seeing in survey data the largest decrease in subjective well-being in 10 years at least, if not ever.”
To find out why , Jaidka and her team analyzed billions of tweets from around the United States. And they found that among the most frequently used terms on Twitter are LOL, love and good. And they actually throw the analysis off. Why the disconnect?
“Internet language is really a different beast than regular spoken language. We’ve adapted words from the English vocabulary to mean different things in different situations.” says Jaidka. “Take, for example, LOL. I’ve tweeted the word LOL to express irony, annoyance and sometimes just pure surprise. When the methods for measuring LOL as a marker of happiness were created in the 1990s, it still meant laughing out loud.”
“There are plenty of terms that are less misleading,” says Jaidka. “Our models tell us that words like excited, fun, great, opportunity, interesting, fantastic and those are better words for measuring subjective well-being.”
1. The researchers turn to social media feeds to ________.| A．help with the analysis of people’s subjective well-being |
| B．integrate into a mainstreamed lifestyle more quickly |
| C．prove the disconnect between language and emotions |
| D．collect specific terms associated with specific zeitgeist. |
| A．It didn’t reflect the mood of the entire geographic community |
| B．It didn’t match the assessment result of the phone surveys. |
| C．It didn’t consider the features of Internet language. |
| D．It didn’t take the regional variations into account. |
| A．Face-to-face communication is never replaced to ensure happiness. |
| B．Internet use is to blame for the decrease in subjective well-being. |
| C．Internet language should be originally used as a source of scientific analysis. |
| D．Less misleading words should be used in assessing subjective well-being. |
| A．Internet Shock Need A Break | B．Underlying LOL Never Fade Away |
| C．Virtual Mirror Of Era Being | D．Gulf Between Old And New |
6 . The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was invented by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers. It is a self-report questionnaire indicating differing psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. The MBTI personality inventory (量表) sorts people into 16 type categories, each of which is represented by four-letter codes such as INFP and ESTJ. Every year, about 1.5 million people have enjoyed discovering their personality type by completing the MBTI. Many companies, as well as hundreds of universities, use it in hiring and training.
Nevertheless, the MBTI has received a noticeable criticism from the academic community. Some research suggests the MBTI is unreliable because the same person can get different results when retaking the test. Other studies have questioned the validity of the MBTI, which is the ability of the test to accurately link the “types” to outcomes in the real world -for example, how well people classified as a certain type will perform in a given job.
Merve Emre, a professor a Oxford University, points out that it would be more scientifically advisable to score the MBTI scales continuously to show people the degree to which they resemble the types. Even when the MBTI’s results don’t quite match your intuition (直觉) about yourself or are just wrong, they can still provide self-insight and insight into differences and similarities between people.
Scoring and interpreting the MBTI the way other personality inventories are scored and interpreted might be less fun than finding. All of the folklore (民间看法) about INFPs, ESTJs, etc. would have to be dismissed. But, in the end the MBTI is sufficiently reliable and valid enough to be useful in a number of real-world contexts.
1. What do we know about the MBTI from the first paragraph?| A．It is a personality-testing tool. | B．It is divided into 16 categories. |
| C．It is a study of personal preference. | D．It is a questionnaire on four-letter codes. |
| A．It performs badly in job interviews | B．Its reliability has been questioned. |
| C．It requires people to retake the test | D．Its advantages are not fully shown. |
| A．It is beyond criticism. | B．It is a more scientific test. |
| C．It is less fun than other tests. | D．It is useful for self-exploration. |
| A．How Can We Use the MBTI? | B．Why do We Criticise the MBTI? |
| C．Is the MBTI Totally Meaningless? | D．Is Scoring the MBTI Really Necessary? |
7 . Walking or running outdoors, people usually see rubbish all over the ground. Well, some people are doing something about it.
A Swedish man named Erik Ahlström, started the movement in 2016. He moved to Stockholm from a small community(社区) in northern Sweden. Each day he would ride his bike to work. He became worried about the amount of rubbish and litter he saw each day on his way to work. So, he took matters into his own hands. He began picking up the rubbish.
Today, plogging is an official activity, which is becoming more and more popular. People of all ages are welcome to plog. Exercise while helping your community.
Along with cleaning up the environment, there may be another reason to choose plogging instead of just jogging. You may get a better workout. One fitness app, Lifesum, records one hour of plogging as burning 288 calories.
As can be seen, cities around the world now hold plogging events. The goal is to spread the idea that littering is not acceptable. People would think twice before dropping a garbage on the ground.
| A．And that is how plogging was born! |
| B．In other words, plogging is equal parts of exercise and community service. |
| C．There are people all around the world doing this. |
| D．They are plogging! |
| E．You get to know your neighbors. |
| F．And plogging does good to your mental health. |
| G．Usual jogging burns about 235 calories. |
8 . Parks around the world
Hyde Park, London, England
There are many parks in London. Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, which covers over 350 acres. There are paths for people on bicycles and there are often open - air concerts held in the park.
Park Güell, Barcelona, Spain
In this park, designed by Antony Gaudi, there are different houses in different colours. There are also things like a colourful dragon. At the top of the park is a terraced area where you can get a wonderful view of the city of Barcelona and the sea.
Stanley Park, Vancouver, Canada
Vancouver is a city near the sea and mountains. There is beautiful Stanley Park in the city centre, covering an area of one thousand acres. It is the largest park in North America. There are First Nations totem poles (图腾柱) in the park.
Ueno Park, Tokyo, Japan
Ueno Park is an old park in the city of Tokyo and there are hundreds of beautiful cherry trees. In April and May every year, the trees are pink or white.
Chapultepec Park, Mexico City, Mexico
This is the largest urban park in Latin America. It's a very important green space in this big city. Containing nine museums, a zoo, an amusement park, and a variety of green recreational spaces, Chapultepec Park is an invaluable place for the city residents and its visitors.
1. What can visitors do in Park Güell ?| A．Enjoy cherry trees. | B．Feed animals. | C．See the sea. | D．Ride bicycles. |
| A．London. | B．Barcelona. | C．Vancouver. | D．Mexico. |
| A．Chapultepec Park. | B．Ueno Park. | C．Stanley Park. | D．Hyde Park. |
9 . Terrie Mitchell, 34, from Sheffield, received an unexpected present when she was finally reunited with her beloved cat — 11 years after she first went missing. Chloe, who only has one eye, was discovered living in an overturned wheelie bin just a few streets away from where she was last seen.
Chloe was first brought into her family home as a kitten, when Ms. Mitchell was aged 21 and still living at home with her mum, Jean. When she moved out with her partner, she let the longhaired black cat stay in the house she was used to. But when Ms. Mitchell’s mother died unexpectedly at the age of 60, Chloe disappeared and could not be found anywhere.
Despite searching for her, she all but gave up hope of ever seeing her cat again until she spotted a Facebook post featuring the longhaired cat. Postwoman Andrea Hurst had been delivering a parcel to an elderly lady, when she spotted the cat living in the wheelie bin. On her next round, she asked about the cat and was told she had been staying there for more than six years as the woman had been feeding her. The kindly woman asked a local cat shelter to collect Chloe, before using the social media site to locate the original owners. She wrote, “This is probably a long shot,but does anyone recognize this beautiful cat?”
Ms. Mitchell noticed the post by chance and commented, “Omg, this is my cat!!!!! I can’t stop shaking!!!!! Her name is Chloe!!! Please whoever knows contact me...”
The vet, who confirmed Chloe was more than 10 years old, told her owner it was nothing short of a miracle. Today Chloe is settling in well at her new home and even responds to her original name. Her delighted owner added, “Now I feel guilty that I didn’t search for her better, because she was obviously around. It could give hope to people who haven’t seen their pets for years.”
1. What do we know about Chloe from the first two paragraphs?| A．She is a shorthaired cat with only one eye. |
| B．She disappeared before Mitchell’s mother died. |
| C．She stayed in Jean’s house before she disappeared. |
| D．She was discovered in a wheelie bin far from Mitchell's house. |
| A．Jean. | B．An unknown person. | C．The vet. | D．Andrea Hurst. |
| A．Amazed. | B．Worried. | C．Hopeless. | D．Guilty. |
| A．The Best Gift | B．A Kind Woman |
| C．An Unexpected Reunion | D．A Missing Cat |
10 . Nostalgia (怀旧) has become increasingly common in our current climate of unexpected, fast-paced change. More and more people are turning back with longing for what feels like simpler, sweeter times. They collect cassette tapes, manual typewriters even decades-old video games.
Is it a mistake to get too obsessed with the past? Some psychologists warn that too much devotion to the so-called good old days is an escape from reality; it can indicate loneliness or that a person is having a difficult time coping in the present. Psychologist Stephanie Coontz argues that nostalgia distracts us from addressing the problems of modern life and contributes to anxiety, depression, insomnia etc.
But new studies suggest that a modest dose of nostalgia is not only harmless, but actually beneficial. They suggest it helps strengthen our sense of identity and makes us feel more optimistic and inspired. It is also a tool for self-discovery and memories are a psychological immune response that is triggered when you want to take a break from negativity. Interestingly, those happy memories can be particularly beneficial both to kids in their teens and to society’s elders. Recalling our childhood reminds us of “the times when we were accented and loved unconditionally,” says Krystine Batcho, a psychologist. “That is such a powerfully comforting phenomenon, knowing that there was a time in life when we didn’t have to earn our love.” Nostalgia can transform even the most ordinary past into legends which warms the heart and the body. Let’s not forget that nostalgia has been a source of inspiration to innumerable American writers. Mark Twain recalled his boyhood, writing, “after all these years, I can picture that old time to myself now, just as it was then: The white town drowsing in the sunshine of a summer’s morning.”
So go ahead, daydream a little about your best childhood friend, your first car, a long-gone family pet. As Dr. Sedikidessays, “Nostalgia is absolutely central to human experience.” But at the same time, keep these words of wisdom from the great inventor Charles Kettering in mind as well: “You can’t have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time.”
1. What did some psychologists in paragraph 2 probably agree?| A．Nostalgia can cause some mental problems. |
| B．Nostalgia makes us devoted to the present life. |
| C．Nostalgia shows you are trying to get rid of loneliness. |
| D．Nostalgia helps us cope with the difficult time we are going through. |
| A．It can enable us to know ourselves better |
| B．It can bring us some comfort when we recall |
| C．We are likely to gain attention if we recall the happy childhood |
| D．We can sometimes break away from negativity with happy memories |
| A．The reasons why we should avoid nostalgia. |
| B．The great changes nostalgia will bring to you. |
| C．The bad memories that always stick around you. |
| D．The bad influence of too much devotion to nostalgia. |
| A．People tend to be lost in nostalgia. |
| B．People actually benefit from nostalgia. |
| C．Childhood memories influence present life. |
| D．There are some periods when people look back. |
