1 . Hem an Bekele is not your typical high school student．Rather than spending his free time playing video games or staring at his phone, this 14 year-old from Fairfax, Virginia was calling professors and conducting experiments, all to create a soap that could treat skin cancer, and to make it affordable for everyone who needs it．His work won him the grand prize in this year’s 3M Young Scientist’s Challenge, a competition that encourages kids to think of unique ways to solve everyday problems.
Growing up in Ethiopia, Bekele found in pity that people working outside were likely to end up getting skin cancer．Skin cancer did have cures and was treatable in most cases．However, the average price of skin cancer treatment globally was almost $40,000．Those shocking statistics really inspired him to create a more accessible solution．He started doing experiments and working on different things, and that turned into his bar of soap as a project.
A lot of his research and development started in his family’s kitchen and in his basement．But as he reached the final of the competition, he realized that he did need to do a little bit more outside of just his house．So he reached out to people at University of Virginia and people at Georgetown, and he got a lot of assistance．The number one person would be Deborah Isabelle, who helped him organize and structure his ideas during the finalist competition．Bekele said that he definitely couldn’t have done that all by himself.
Bekele’s award-winning soap is a compound based bar of soap and it’s charged with different cancer fighting chemicals．The color of the soap is a bit of a dark type of white and it has a rough surface, which could be a good exfoliant（去角质剂）．It does have a strong medicine smell and feel a bit stickier．The whole point of it is that even once you wash off the soaps, the medicinal parts will stay on your skin．It can activate the body’s immune cells to defend cancer.
Bekele won 25,000 prize money and he was going to use it to continue research．He said, “I still need a lot of resources to be able to conduct this research, so this money will definitely help me achieve it.”
1. Why did Heman Bekele start working on creating the soap?| A．Because he thought it was a fun project. |
| B．Because he wanted to win a science competition. |
| C．Because he found skin cancer treatment unaffordable. |
| D．Because he wanted to create a unique soap for everyone. |
| A．Well begun is half done. | B．Learn humbly, ask willingly. |
| C．Actions speak louder than words. | D．Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. |
| A．What features the soap has. | B．How the soap is used. |
| C．What chemicals the soap contains. | D．How the soap is produced. |
| A．Patient and talented. | B．Friendly and ambitious. |
| C．Cautious and generous. | D．Caring and devoted. |
2 . Amid rolling farms and green pasture 150 miles northwest of Sao Paulo, Brazil, two tropical forests bloom as one. The first consists of a single species, row after row of non-native eucalyptus (桉树), planted in perfect lines like carrots. The other is haphazard, an assortment of dozens of varieties of native saplings.
There’s no denying it: This forest looks ridiculous. The gangly (修长的) eucalyptuses shoot like witch fingers high above patches of stubby fig (矮壮的无花果树) and evergreen trees. Yet these jumbled 2.5-acre stands of native trees, ringed by fast-growing exotics, are among many promising efforts to resurrect the planet’s forests.
The eucalyptuses, says Pedro Brancalion, the University of Sao Paulo agronomist who designed this experiment, get big so quickly they can be cut after five years and sold to make paper or fence posts. That covers nearly half or more of the cost of planting the slow-growing native trees, which then naturally reseed ground that has been laid bare by the harvest. And this process doesn’t hamper natural regeneration.
You needn’t look far these days to find organizations trying to save the world by growing trees. Too often, tree-planting groups are so focused on getting credit for each seedling planted that they ignore what matters most: What kind of woodland is created? At what cost? And most importantly: How long will it last? Using the numbers of trees planted as a magic “proxy for everything,” Brancalion says, you “spend more money and get lower levels of benefits.” You can literally miss the forest for the trees.
Tree planting seems like a simple, natural way to counter the overwhelming crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. Trees provide wildlife habitats and slurp carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. No wonder trees are hailed as the ideal weapon. Yet for every high-profile planting operation, devastating failures have occurred. In Turkey, Sri Lanka, and Mexico, mass plantings have resulted in millions of dead seedlings or have driven farmers to clear more intact forest elsewhere. Trees that have been planted in the wrong places have reduced water yields for farmers, destroyed highly diverse carbon-sucking grassland soils, and allowed for invasive vegetation to spread. Simply reforesting the planet isn’t going to do much if we don’t also start cutting down on our emissions from the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas. Tree planting also can’t replace old-growth forests. Saving them is even more important than growing new forests.
So, what should we do?
To Brancalion, the answer is obvious: Restore native forests, mostly in the tropics, where trees grow fast and land is cheap. While that may require planting, it may also call for the clearing out of invasive grasses, the rejuvenation (使有活力) of soils, and crop yield improvements so that farmers will need less land for agriculture and more can be allowed to revert back to forests.
The combining of eucalyptus harvests with native plantings is just one more reminder that successful restoration must provide value to local communities. In many cases, if we let nature do the heavy lifting, Brancalion says, “the forest can regrow quite effectively.”
1. What can we learn from the first three paragraphs?| A．The non-native eucalyptuses bring profits that can pay for planting native saplings. |
| B．The non-native eucalyptuses compete with native saplings for water, nutrients, and light. |
| C．The variety of trees being planted determines whether or not the restoration will succeed. |
| D．Planting fast-growing exotics together with local trees does harm to the natural environment. |
| A．emphasize the significance of protecting existing forests |
| B．explain why tree planting is regarded as the ideal solution |
| C．illustrate the serious problems planting campaigns can cause |
| D．indicate the most important point tree-planting groups ignore |
| A．clear more forest to improve crop yields for farmers |
| B．combine harvests of fast-growing exotics with native plantings |
| C．restore native forests in the tropics and clear out invasive grasses |
| D．take into consideration the benefits of reforestation to local communities |
| A．Plant trees—and time will tell. | B．Plant trees—but don’t overdo it. |
| C．Plant trees—and save the world. | D．Plant trees—but mind the variety. |
3 . Scientists in Canada are really worried about a serious problem affecting an important animal: the bat. This problem is called white-nose syndrome (症状), and it comes from a harmful fungus (真菌) that attacks the nose, wings, and skin of bats when they sleep together in caves. It started in a cave in Russia in 2006 and has quickly spread to 19 countries, including Canada.
Researchers found that the fungus usually exists in very cold places like the poles. Even though they’re not totally sure exactly how it hurts the bats, one of the most accepted views is that it makes them uncomfortable. This makes the bats stay awake a little bit more and uses up their stored fat, leading to them not having enough food, which causes them to die. More than 5.5 million bats of nine types in Canada have already died from this sickness. If it reaches more bat groups in the Southeast and Midwest provinces, endangered bat s like the Tiger bat and Figgie big-eared bat might disappear forever.
Losing these animals is a big deal for Canadians, even for the whole world, because, in warm months, bats fly at night and eat a lot of insects. They help control the number of bugs that harm forests and spread diseases which can cause a whole bunch of problems. It’s quite an alarming thing, given that the reduction in the number of bats will almost certainly disrupt (扰乱) the harmony in the ecosystem and lead to disasters. The Canadian government is taking this seriously and is thinking about giving money for detailed research on the disease because the possible results could be really bad, like what one lawmaker called “an ecological and economic disaster.” Experts are hired to watch bat colonies (群) more closely, working with other countries and organizations, and making strict rules to limit the movement of things that might have the fungus.
Additionally, public awareness campaigns are being conducted to gain support for bat conservation efforts and promote responsible cave exploration practices to minimize the risk of disease transmission. The Canadian government remains committed to preserving its bat populations and the crucial ecological balance they bring to the environment.
1. What might be the reason of the bats’ death?| A．Their sleeping together | B．Lack of sleep |
| C．Starvation | D．Not feeling comfortable |
| A．The spread of the disease. |
| B．The destruction of the forests. |
| C．The imbalance of the ecosystem. |
| D．The increase of the insect population. |
| A．Engaging specialists to monitor bat colonies |
| B．Carrying out activities to enhance people’s consciousness |
| C．Collaborating with other nations |
| D．Prohibiting the movement of bats |
| A．objective | B．positive |
| C．indifferent | D．pessimistic |
4 . Libraries. They have that reassuring smell of well-read pages, are peaceful, have free Internet and, of course, abundant books.
But guess what? There’s a new kind of library sweeping the nation — a tool library — and it’s just as cool, but in all sorts of different ways.
It’s often said that the average electric drill is only used for 11 minutes in its entire lifetime. Granted, it doesn’t take that long to drill a hole, but still — that’s crazy. Yet the majority of households have one, even though DIY is actually a really infrequent activity for most people.
What if you could just borrow tools when you need them, and drop them back so that they can be used by someone else all the time you’re not DIY-ing? Well, in some parts of Scotland, you now can. Membership-based tool sharing services are popping up in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, Linlithgow and Cumbernauld. They work just like a normal library but instead of books, you can borrow a massive range of tools and equipment when you need them, then drop them back when you’re done.
Zero Waste Scotland’s Andrew Pankhurst recently renovated (翻新) his house using the Stirling Tool Library. He said, “It’s amazing. It had all the tools I was looking for, and some I didn’t even realize I needed.”
And that’s the beauty of a tool library. Borrow a tool, use it for one afternoon at a small amount of cost of buying it and instead of it cluttering up your house gathering dust, it’s back off to a busy life all across town, week in and week out.
The tools available to borrow are mainly received as donations. The tool library will then repair them if needed and PAT test for safety ready to be borrowed and saved from going to landfill.
So next time you have a job to do around the house, why not borrow rather than buy?
1. What can we learn from paragraph 3?| A．The electric drill is worth buying. |
| B．People dislike to use out-of-date tools. |
| C．Most of the tools aren’t often used at home. |
| D．DIY is a really frequent activity for most people. |
| A．Familiar. | B．Practical. |
| C．Essential. | D．Disappointing. |
| A．Clearing up. | B．Piling up. | C．Throwing out. | D．Breaking up. |
| A．Borrowing Is the New Buying |
| B．Please Make a Donation Today |
| C．When in Doubt, Go to the Library |
| D．Today a Reader, Tomorrow a Leader |
How can we gain benefits from feedback practices while reducing their disadvantages? There are some ways to help you.
Feedback works best for the people whose main goal is self-improvement. It should be given in a developmental approach and future-focused, highlighting areas in which the recipient (接收者) can improve, and offering clear, actionable strategies.
First, we should consider using terms besides “feedback”. Some studies have suggested replacing “feedback” with terms such as “advice”, which often contain more practical information. Offering feedback as advice encourages recipients to focus on improving their future performance.
Next, focus on the advantages. Excellence in teaching is often influenced by our own feelings, with lots of effective approaches for any given topic. Research suggests we improve ourselves when others focus on our advantages. A key to effective feedback is highlighting existing patterns of excellence.
Then, we must learn how to give feedback. Delivering feedback can be challenging, especially if the person receiving the feedback is the person who has the same social position as you or the information could be sensed as critical (批评的). To avoid such situations, reducing unpleasant messages may help.
Receiving feedback, as well as giving it, is a skill. Therefore, helping teachers build skills around receiving practice-based information, feedback, or advice, such as listening with an open mind, thinking critically about the information, asking for specific advice and “making a thoughtful choice” about the quality and effectiveness of the feedback, can improve the whole process.
Finally, focus on the “what” of feedback. While much attention is given to the “how” of feedback delivery, the real value lies in the “what” of feedback, that is the richness of its information. “High information” feedback should include two important points: checking the correctness of the teacher’s approach when there is only one correct method and offering information to fill gaps in understanding and guide the recipient towards a desired approach.
We know that feedback is quite important for teachers’ professional development. After reading the information above, with established effective feedback methods, we can make the feedback process more effective and useful for more teachers in ways that finally improve students’ learning.
1. Whom does the feedback work best for? (不多于10个单词)2. How can we encourage recipients to focus on improving their future performance? (不多于7个单词)
3. What is a key to effective feedback? (不多于7个单词)
4. How can we avoid challenging situations when giving feedback? (不多于6个单词)
5. What does this passage mainly talk about? (不多于8个单词)
6 . TikTok has many clever tips and tricks to make life a little easier. From creative advice to practical skills, there is something for everyone on the video sharing App. Many of these methods have left viewers open-mouthed at their simplicity or scratching their heads as why they hadn’t thought of them first. But to save you some boring scrolling (滚屏), we have made a list of the best TikTok life tips in 2021. Ready to be impressed?
Chop onions
Chopping onions is an emotional experience or, at least, it looks it. The vegetable can make us tear up, and salty liquid flowing down your cheeks is never a stylish look. However, a woman created a makeshift protective gear out of a hooded sweatshirt (连帽运动衫) and a pan cover. Next step, New York Fashion Week.
Clean car headlights
It is vital that your cars headlights stay in good working order so as to keep you safe. If yours are fogged up, just use a lemon and some baking soda. Many netizens have claimed that this method can save them some serious cash.
Bathe your dog
If your dog hates having a bath, why not try peanut butter? While this one may seem ridiculous, one TikTok video has shown it is effective. In the clip the pet can be seen licking it off the side of the tub, as the owner cleans his fur. “I don’t even know I am having a bath. All I know is peanut butter,” the caption (字幕) reads.
1. What can we infer from the first TikTok life tip?| A．Chopping onions can make you upset. |
| B．You can find the protective gear in New York. |
| C．The makeshift protective gear is creative. |
| D．It’s stylish to have tears flowing down your cheeks. |
| A．The tips and tricks sound easy but are difficult to apply. |
| B．You can use a lemon and some baking soda to bathe your dog. |
| C．Cleaning car headlights with a lemon and some baking soda is economical. |
| D．The author finds bathing a dog with the help of peanut butter ridiculous. |
| A．To analyze the reasons why people like TikTok. |
| B．To share some clever tips and tricks found on TikTok. |
| C．To come up with some practical suggestions on TikTok. |
| D．To call on people to share more tips and tricks on TikTok. |
Millions of people over the age of 65 have been diagnosed with depression, and many more could be suffering. There are varied factors. Older people are much more likely to be alone, socially isolated or feel a general lack of purpose. Sometimes older people have a much more difficult time admitting mental health issues.
Early memory loss often causes depression, which can in turn make memory loss worse. A patient with early memory loss and depression really needs to be treated for the depression to slow the memory loss. A mood change also can be a sign of depression. If a previously calm person becomes increasingly bad-tempered, or a previously clean person no longer bothers to shower, that person should be judged again.
Older adults see depression as a weakness and tend to be annoyed by a diagnosis of depression. Therefore, don’t tell people of an older generation that you think they may be depressed. Tell them you’re worried about their health. Tell them they seem to be out of sorts, or seem tired, or unhappy. Say you just want to check with the doctor to see what’s going on. Once you’ve used physical symptoms to get that person to agree to a check-up, mention your fears to the doctor and allow the doctor to approach the subject of depression with the patient.
If a parent or an older loved one has been diagnosed with depression, the first thing people should do is be aware that diagnosis is not easily treated. The initial treatment may not be effective. Therefore, patients and family members should be prepared to try different ways of dealing with the depression. It’s also important to encourage patients to stick with treatment — even if they start to feel better.
1. What factors might lead to older people’s depression besides early memory loss?2. Why do patients with early memory loss and depression really need to be treated?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
People diagnosed with depression can reduce their treatment once they start to feel better.
4. What will you do if you notice that one beloved elderly uncle of yours is obviously depressed? Why?
8 . Customer service refers to the way that companies behave towards their customers.
First of all, you need to realize the great value of the customers. It’s they who are the boss, and it, s because of them that you get your pay checks. So do take your customers seriously.
Making customers feel they are important is an excellent way to serve them better.
In addition, there are some other skills which will help you in serving your customers better. For example, once you finish solving the problem for the customers, before ending the call, always remember to ask if there is anything else you can do for them. End the call with a “thank you”. If the customers are angry, let them express their anger completely.
In a word, always remember that if the customers remain happy, you’ll be in business.
| A．Treat customers as individuals. |
| B．Never interrupt or start speaking until they’ve finished. |
| C．You can bring in as many new customers as you want. |
| D．So customer service is important and you should know how to improve it. |
| E．Finding out the needs of the customers is another important customer service tip. |
| F．More companies are finding that their customer service should not be limited to stores. |
| G．It’s the quality of service that determines whether the customer remains with the company. |
9 . Supermarkets have long been suffering as one of the thinnest-margined businesses in existence and one of the least-looked-forward-to places to work or visit. For more than a decade, they have been under attack from e-commerce giants, blamed for making Americans fat, and accused of contributing to climate change.
Supermarkets can technically be defined as giants housing 15,000 to 60,000 different products. The revolutionary idea of a self-service grocery, where people could hunt and gather food from aisles rather than asking a clerk to fetch items from behind a counter, first came about in America. There is some debate about which was the very first, but over the years a consensus has built around King Kullen Supermarket, founded in New York in 1930.
For some 300 years, Americans had fed themselves from small stores and public markets. Shopping for food involved mud, noisy chickens, clouds of flies, nasty smells, bargaining, and getting short-changed. The supermarket imitated the Fordist factory, with its emphasis on efficiency and standardization, and reimagined it as a place to buy food. Supermarkets may not feel cutting-edge now, but they were a revolution in distribution at the time. They were such strange marvels that, on her first official state visit to the United States in 1957, Queen Elizabeth Ⅱ insisted on an impromptu (即兴的) tour of a suburban-Maryland Giant Food.
The typical supermarket layout has barely changed over the past 90 years. Most stores open with flowers, fruit and vegetables at the front as a breath of freshness to arouse our appetite. Meanwhile, they keep the milk, eggs, and other daily basics all the way back so you’ll travel through as much of the store as possible, and be tempted along the way.
In the early days, as the supermarket multiplied, so did our suspicion of it. We have long feared that this “revolution in distribution” uses corporate black magic on our appetite. The book The Hidden Persuaders, published in 1957, warned that supermarkets were putting women in a “hypnoidal trance (催眠恍惚状态),” causing them to wander aisles, bumping into boxes and “picking things off shelves at random.”
1. What problem have supermarkets been facing?| A．They are actually on the way to shutdown. |
| B．They have been losing customers and profits. |
| C．They are forced to use e-commerce strategies. |
| D．They have difficulty adapting to climate change. |
| A．It was put forward by King Kullen. |
| B．It originated in the United States. |
| C．It has been under constant debate. |
| D．It proves revolutionary even today. |
| A．They use tricky strategies to promote their business. |
| B．They are going to replace the local groceries entirely. |
| C．They apply corporate black magic to the goods on display. |
| D．They take advantage of the weaknesses of women shoppers. |
10 . About a dozen women have gathered as their instructor guides them through the moves. “Backstroke!” Jean Bailey directs from her chair, raising her arms high, as the women of Elk Ridge quickly begin arm rotations. Everyone puts in top effort.
Bailey, who is 102, has been teaching them four times a week in the hallway of the second floor for about three years. “When I get old, I’ll quit,” said Bailey. Some of her regulars have arthritis (关节炎) that limits their movements, but they can do the stretching exercises comfortably and benefit from them, said Bailey, who herself often uses a walker.
“After attending the class, we’ve gotten pretty close up there on our floor. One of us would do something for anybody. We really keep track of each other,” Phyllis Black, 87, said. She lives down the hall from Bailey; if she skips them, she feels stiff. “She’s a very nice neighbor, and she’s a good friend also. She’s very talented.”
When her children were young, Bailey became a florist (花匠) — a practice she still enjoys as a hobby. She buys artificial flowers and makes bouquets (花束) for the clubhouse and some residents. Laura Stuart calls her the “queen bee”. “She brings her expertise in floral arrangements and is always doing beautiful arrangements,” Stuart said. “She brings that to us, and it’s just a blessing that she’s still here with us to even do such a complex type of floral arrangement.”
At Elk Ridge, residents can participate in fitness activities like a walking club, tai chi and working out in a fitness room. But Bailey’s ladies seem to prefer her class because of her warm and fun personality, and the gentleness of the stretches for people who have mobility challenges, says Sean Tran, operations director at Elk Ridge. “More than anything, her general outlook on life…is just remarkable,” he said about Bailey. “She’s the nicest, most thoughtful, caring person that I probably ever met. Nothing is going to stop her,” Tran said. “She’s going to keep going, no matter what. And others look at her and think: ‘If she can do this at 102, I can do this at my age, whatever it is.’”
1. What scene does the first paragraph describe?| A．A game practice. | B．A dancing session. |
| C．A swimming training. | D．A fitness class. |
| A．They have deepened the women’s friendship. |
| B．Some women often skip the exercise classes. |
| C．Old women are gifted in exercise. |
| D．Some attendees feel stiff after the classes. |
| A．She has a hobby of growing flowers. |
| B．She is expert at arranging flowers. |
| C．She is a good florist. |
| D．She sells man-made flowers to others. |
| A．Bailey organizes various activities, |
| B．Bailey makes her attendees stretch gently. |
| C．Bailey inspires other people to exercise. |
| D．Bailey remarks on the life of others. |
