1 . Binge-watching (刷剧) is when a person watches more than one episode of a show in a row. With developments in the speed and connectivity of the Internet, increases in technology and the rise of on-demand entertainment companies, people can now have their favorite shows stream (流播) directly to their television at their convenience.
This behavior is nothing new. In fact, binge-watching has been officially listed in dictionaries since 2015. The entertainment companies recognize this behavior and many take steps to encourage it. Often, instead of releasing each episode on a week-by-week basis, an entire series will become available concurrently. Once the episode finishes, many platforms will display pop-ups with “you might like” suggestions, or will automatically play the next episode.
However, recent research suggests that out of the more than half of British adults who watch more than one episode of a show back-to-back (一集接一集地), almost a third have admitted missing sleep or becoming tired as a result; and 25% have neglected their household chores (家务活). Next we’ll be missing work!
Bingeing has other connections — binge eating, binge drinking and binge smoking. All of them are often associated with a lack of control and a possible route to addiction. Lindsey Fussell, consumer group director, said, “The days of waiting a week for the next episode are largely gone, with people finding it hard to resist (抗拒) watching multiple episodes around the house or on the move.” If people find binge-watching hard to resist, are we witnessing the birth of a new type of addiction?
The countless number of information and entertainment that television and online media can bring us is, many would say, a good thing. However, when the activity begins to bleed into other areas, causing us to stop functioning, then it becomes a problem. So, what’s the answer? Moderation! Neither a tiny amount, nor too much. After all, as the old proverb says, “A little of what you fancy does you good.”
1. How did the writer develop the first paragraph?| A．By giving a definition. | B．By telling a story. |
| C．By listing some examples. | D．By analyzing the cause and effect. |
| A．For convenience. | B．At the same time. |
| C．In detail. | D．Free of charge. |
| A．people can’t control their feelings | B．people can’t resist the temptation of Bingeing |
| C．people have no patience to do work | D．people are addicted to waiting for a new episode |
| A．To keep online media from stopping functioning. |
| B．To enjoy entertainment as much as possible. |
| C．To learn life lessons from the episodes. |
| D．To watch episodes in a moderate way. |
2 . Fun facts about Antarctica
At the southernmost point of the world, you find Antarctica a giant mass of ice that’s its own continent. You, may not know much about the continent, so why not read on?
There’ s a lake that runs blood red in Antarctica.
As though someone has cut into the ice, the properly named Blood Falls come out over the Taylor Glacier. The water is extremely high in iron and salt, and when it comes into contact with the air, it shows the special red color against the pure white surroundings. The water here is three times saltier than ocean water, and therefore, too salty to become ice.
Antarctica has its own treaty (条约).
Because the environment of Antarctica is so delicate and unique, there is a treaty saying that only peaceful research can be done there. In 1959, 12 countries signed this treaty, with the number now sitting at 53. This also makes it certain that Antarctica doesn’t end up being caught in an international conflict, and that the continent is only used for scientific purposes and sensible traveling. The treaty prevents army and nuclear activities, and also mineral mining.
There is a unique phenomenon in Antarctica called diamond dust.
While there are low levels of precipitation (降水) in Antarctica, that doesn’t mean the air is clear of nature’s beauty! The air is so cold there that moisture (水汽) can condense while air-borne. This results in ice falling to the ground. The sun’s light will cause the ice to shine, creating a shining shower called diamond dust. It happens when the skies are clear, known as clear-sky precipitation.
If any of these Antarctic facts have increased your interest in visiting this unique continent, be sure to get in touch with the team al Aurora Expeditions today.
Phone：+61 (0)2 9252 1033
1. What do we know about the Blood Falls?| A．The water has been polluted. | B．The water comes from a river. |
| C．The water is rich in iron and salt. | D．The water usually freezes in winter. |
| A．where moisture comes from | B．how diamond dust is formed |
| C．where diamond dust can be found | D．how precipitation can be increased |
| A．A tour report. | B．research plan. |
| C．An advertisement. | D．An exploration guide. |
3 . Learning to read provides foundation for future learning in all areas of study. And experts say students need to have a working knowledge of 10,000 words. Now, a new vocabulary program claims to greatly speed up a child’s understanding of language.
Sofia Fenichell created the system.
Each word in the Mrs. Wordsmith system of teaching has a child-friendly definition.
For example, the word shriveled is defined as “ wrinkled, like hippo skin that’s been in the bath too long. ” Underneath the definition is a drawing of a very wet hippopotamus. There are also exercises to help strengthen the student’s understanding.
Fenichell spoke at a recent education technology show in London.
Mrs. Wordsmith is now set to expand into schools in other countries, including the United States.
| A．Words bring meaning to life |
| B．It is called Mrs. Wordsmith |
| C．Children will search for the right words to use |
| D．And each word has a picture showing how the word is used |
| E．She said the Mrs. Wordsmith system has been popular in schools across Britain |
| F．She worked with researchers from Cambridge University in Britain to develop the list of words |
| G．These words are typically the words they find in the books they read, in newspapers, in adult conversation |
4 . America’s youth is turning its back on tobacco. According to a study recently published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cigarette smoking among US high school students is at an all-time low. One in 5 US high school students in 2016 reported using a tobacco product within the past 30 days, an improvement from 1 in 4 students just one year before.
“These findings show the importance of continuing to implement the evidence-based strategies that we now work to reduce all forms of tobacco product use, including e-cigarettes, among our nation’s youth,” says Brian King, of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health and senior author of the study.
And it’s not just tobacco: Drug use among US teens is down across the board. The National Institute on Drug Abuse has published annual reports on US teens’ drug use since 1996, and the 2016 survey shows the lowest rates of illegal drug and alcohol use. Marijuana (大麻) use remained “mostly steady”. “It is encouraging to see more young people making healthy choices not to use illegal substances,” says former National Drug Control Policy Director Michael Botticelli.
All individual forms of tobacco such as cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars, and smoke-less tobacco saw declines in usage in 2016. Experts are especially encouraged by the decline in cigarettes, the most popular tobacco product among teens. In 2016, 11.3 percent of high school students reported using e-cigarettes, down from 16 percent in 2015.
Dr. King says adaptation is key to the decline of e-cigarettes. “We have over a half-century of science telling students about the harmful effects of tobacco use and what works best to prevent it,” says King. “E-cigarettes are the most commonly used tobacco product among our nation’s youth, and it’s critical that our proven strategies are modernized to keep pace with the changing tobacco product landscape.”
1. What does the underlined word “implement” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．Delay. | B．Perform. | C．Schedule. | D．Control. |
| A．US teens’ drug use has decreased. |
| B．There are many forms of tobacco. |
| C．E-cigarettes are popular among US teens. |
| D．The strategies are put forward by experts. |
| A．Disapproving. | B．Suspicious. | C．Favorable. | D．Ambiguous. |
| A．US teen tobacco use declines. | B．High percent of teen tobacco use. |
| C．The harmful effects of tobacco use. | D．The strategies to reduce tabasco use. |
5 . During my career in the past years, I’ve been fired a few times. The last time was about five years ago.
At the time, I co-owned a literary agency. I agreed to take on a giant project for a major client. I worked my tail off about a year, focusing just on this one client. Meanwhile my partner and associates took care of everyone else. We all thought it was a good bet. But in the end, the client fired me and cooperated with an agency who promised to get him a major book deal with a New York publishing house and an appearance on Oprah. I was left high and dry with nothing to show for my year-long investment.
The worst part was that I did not see it coming. I thought I had done a great job, and we had enjoyed a long-term personal relationship. But my client had his eye on bigger things and decided I couldn’t take him there, so he abandoned me without discussion.
The thing I finally learned from this experience was that clients and customers can be changeable. So never put all your eggs in one basket.
This wasn’t the only mistake I’d made in my career. Some of the mistakes I had made got me fired. That got my attention and furthered my education in the school of hard knocks.
Chances are that you are going to be fired at some point in your career. Last May, 1.7 million workers in America were laid off or fired. And according to the Labor Department, that was during month of generally good economic news. The trick — after being fired — is to try to push bitterness aside and learn from it. Failure can be a great teacher, but we have to listen.
1. Why did the author only focus on one project?| A．His client required him to do so. |
| B．He considered it would be a safe bet. |
| C．It can give him an appearance on Oprah. |
| D．There were no other projects in his agency. |
| A．He caused some trouble for his client. |
| B．His client wanted to teach him a lesson. |
| C．He couldn’t satisfy his client’s demands. |
| D．His client was afraid of destroying their friendship. |
| A．He should have spread his risk. |
| B．He should have tried his best to do better. |
| C．He shouldn’t have worked on giant projects. |
| D．He shouldn’t have made friends with his clients. |
| A．To show the importance of failure |
| B．To tell us how to face getting fired. |
| C．To share a most horrible experience. |
| D．To explain why people easily get fired. |
6 . Think of the last time you disagreed with another person. Maybe you argued with a sibling (兄弟，姊妹) over what to watch on TV. Or perhaps you tried to convince grown-ups that ice cream makes a better dinner than vegetables. How did your disagreement end? Were you able to see the issue from the other person’s viewpoint?
In many situations, disagreements are unavoidable. They’re part of life. After all, everyone has different opinions. We all have past experiences that shape how we see the world. Still, not all disagreements are bad. In fact, many people look at them as opportunities to learn. They do so by trying to understand where both sides are coming from.
How can you understand both sides of an issue? Often, it’s best to start by asking questions. Questions help us learn about the world around us. The right questions can also help us learn about other people. In a disagreement, asking for more information can help you learn about a person’s viewpoint. It can also lead you to gather more facts. This can paint a better picture of the entire issue.
When seeking to understand both sides of an issue, it’s important to know the difference between facts and opinions. Remember, facts are based on true information. Opinions can change from person to person. Paying attention to facts can stop biases (偏见) from taking over in a disagreement. This can help everyone involved see both sides of the issue.
Maybe you’re wondering why it’s important to understand both sides of an issue, anyway. After all, don’t most people just want to prove that their side is right? Often, that’s true. However, understanding the whole issue can lead to both sides working together.
Disagreements may be uncomfortable at first. However, when both sides truly try to understand each other, they often find they have more in common than they thought. The next time you disagree with other people, try asking them questions about their viewpoints. You never know what you might learn.
1. What does the underlined word “so” refer to in Paragraph 2?| A．Ignoring chances to learn. |
| B．Knowing more about themselves. |
| C．Shaping a right way to see the world. |
| D．Making the disagreements a chance to learn. |
| A．By changing the other’s opinion. |
| B．By making both sides comfortable. |
| C．By trying to stand in the other’s shoes. |
| D．By telling facts and opinions apart. |
| A．By reasoning. | B．By making comparison. |
| C．By debating. | D．By giving examples. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Pessimistic. | C．Positive. | D．Skeptical. |
7 . Art and science may seem like opposite things. One means the creative flow of ideas, and the other means cold, hard data-some people believe. In fact, the two have much in common. Now, a study finds art can help students remember better what they have learned in the science class.
Mariale Hardiman, an education specialist at Johns Hopkins University, noticed that students who used art in the classroom listened more carefully. They might ask more questions. They might volunteer more ideas. What’s more, students seemed to remember more of what they had been taught when their science lessons had involved(涉及) art. To prove that, Hardiman teamed up with some researchers and six local schools.
In the experiment, the researchers worked with teachers in 16 fifth-grade classrooms. They provided traditional science lessons and art-focused ones. In a traditional science class, for example, students might read aloud from a book. In the art-focused one, they might sing the information instead.
The team randomly assigned(随机分配) each of the 350 students to either a traditional science classroom or an art-focused one. Students then learned science using that way for the whole unit-about three weeks. When they changed to a new topic, they also changed to the other type of class. This way, each student had both an art-focused class and a traditional one. Every unit was taught in both ways, to different groups of students. This enabled the researchers to see how students did in both types of classes.
The team found that students who started off in a traditional class performed better after they moved into an art-focused class. But those who started off in an art-focused class did well even when they went back to a traditional science class. These students appeared to use some of the art techniques(技巧) after going back to a traditional class. Classroom teachers reported that many students continued to sing the songs that they learned after finishing the unit. “The more we hear something, the more we retain it,” Hardiman says. “It suggests that the arts may help students apply creative ways of learning on their own.”
1. Why did Mariale Hardiman do the study?| A．To prove the importance of art at school. |
| B．To see if art might improve science learning |
| C．To find a way to help her students learn better. |
| D．To know how to encourage students to ask questions. |
| A．Take two types of classes. | B．Learn three units in total. |
| C．Learn two topics for three weeks. | D．Choose what they’d like to learn. |
| A．Finish. | B．Express. | C．Improve. | D．Memorize. |
| A．Art helps students develop creativity. |
| B．Art-focused classes interest students a lot. |
| C．Art can make science easier to remember. |
| D．Art has something in common with science. |
8 . One of my wonderful memories is about a Christmas gift. Unlike other gifts, it came without wrap (包装).
On September 11th, 1958, Mum gave birth to Richard. After she brought him home from hospital, she put him in my lap, saying, “I promised you a gift, and here it is.” What an honour! I turned four a month earlier and none of my friends had such a baby doll of their own. I played with it day and night. I sang to it. I told it stories. I told it over and over how much I loved it!
One morning, however, I found its bed empty. My doll was gone! I cried for it.Mum wept and told me that the poor little thing had been sent to a hospital. It had a fever. For several days, I heard Mum and Dad whispering such words as “hopeless”, “pitiful”, and “dying”, which sounded ominous.
Christmas was coming. “Don’t expect any presents this year,” Dad said, pointing at the socks I hung in the living room.“If your baby brother lives, that’ll be Christmas enough.” As he spoke, his eyes filled with tears. I’d never seen him cry before.
The phone rang early on Christmas morning. Dad jumped out of bed to answer it. From my bedroom I heard him say, “What? He’s all right?” He hung up and shouted upstairs. “The hospital said we can bring Richard home!”
“Thank God!” I heard Mum cry.
From the upstairs window, I watched my parents rush out to the car. I had never seen them so happy. And I was also full of joy. What a wonderful day! My baby doll would be home. I ran downstairs. My socks still hung there flat. But I knew they were not empty; they were filled with love!
1. What happened to the author on September 11th, 1958?| A．He got a baby brother. |
| B．He got a Christmas gift. |
| C．He became four years old. |
| D．He received a doll. |
| A．Impossible. | B．Boring. |
| C．Difficult. | D．Fearful. |
| A．Excitement. | B．Happiness. |
| C．Sadness. | D．Disappointment. |
| A．A sad Christmas day. |
| B．Life with a lovely baby. |
| C．A special Christmas gift. |
| D．Memories of a happy family. |
9 . A major emergency can create hundreds of thousands of refugees (难民) overnight. The most immediate way in which organizations like UNHCR and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) can help these refugees is by setting up refugee camps. Refugee camps are designed to be temporary, but they often remain in place for decades. In some parts of the world, children have grown up and had children of their own without ever leaving their camp.
Critics argue that they force refugees to be entirely dependent on donations. One journalist who visited the Nyadeou camp in the south of the Republic of Guinea A (Africa) in 2001, described how normally peaceful people were reduced to fighting with each other when the food truck arrived.
Refugees camps can easily become dirty, overcrowded and are overrun with disease or crime. In many camps, drug dealers hide themselves among the majority of innocent refugees.
One alternative for refugees is to settle in a town or village, making them become part of the local population. This is known as the “self-settlement”. Several aid agencies argue that the self-settlement is a better option in many cases than refugee camps. They say that self-settled refugees can start to rebuild their lives straight away, and are freer and safer than refugees in camps. Oxfam, the ICRC and many other international aid agencies support programs in which refugees are helped to self-settle.
Representatives of UNHCR argue that refugee camps are the best way of saving the greatest possible numbers of lives. They point out that it is much easier to help people if they are all gathered in one place. This is certainly true of emergency relief, for example the distribution of food, water, shelters and medical supplies. It is also true that long-term aid programs, such as family tracing, orphan support and, perhaps most importantly, education, can all be carried out much more easily when refugees are all living together in one place.
1. Who are responsible for the refugees’ dependence on donations?| A．Critics. | B．Children. | C．Refugee camps. | D．UNHCR and the ICRC. |
| A．More personal aid. | B．More living space. |
| C．Better training programs. | D．A better sense of security. |
| A．It can help save much land. | B．It’s easier for them to get schooling. |
| C．It can reduce the number of orphans. | D．It allows families to better help each other. |
| A．The advantages of refugee camps. | B．The disadvantages of refugee camps. |
| C．The advantages of the self-settlement. | D．The disadvantages of the self-settlement. |
10 . People from East Asia tend to have more difficulties than those from Europe in distinguishing facial expressions and a new report published online in Current Biology explains why.
Rachael Jack, University of Glasgow researcher, said that rather than scanning evenly (均匀的) across a face as Westerners do, Easterners fix their attention on the eyes.
“We show that Easterners and Westerners look at different face features to read facial expressions,” Jack said. “Westerners look at the eyes and the mouth in equal measure, whereas Easterners favor the eyes and overlook the mouth.”
According to Jack and her colleagues, the discovery shows that human communication of emotion is more complex than previously believed. As a result, facial expressions that had been considered universally recognizable cannot be used to reliably convey emotion in cross-cultural situations.
The researchers studied cultural differences in the recognition of facial expressions by recording the eye movements of 13 Western Caucasian and 13 East Asian people while they observed pictures of expressive faces and put them into categories: happy, sad, surprised, fearful, disgusted, angry, or neutral. They compared how accurately participants read those facial expressions using their particular eye movement strategies.
It turned out that Easterners focused much greater attention on the eyes and made significantly more errors than Westerners did. “The cultural difference in eye movements that they show is probably a reflection of cultural difference in facial expressions,” Jack said. “Our data suggest that whereas Westerners use the whole face to convey emotion. Easterners use the eyes more and mouth less.”
In short, the data show that facial expressions are not universal signals of human emotion. From here on, examining how cultural factors have diversified these basic social skills will help our understanding of human emotion. Otherwise, when it comes to communicating emotions across cultures, Easterners and Westerners will find themselves lost in translation.
1. What does the discovery show about Westerners?| A．They pay equal attention to the eyes and the mouth. |
| B．They consider facial expressions universally reliable. |
| C．They observe the eyes and the mouth in different ways. |
| D．They have more difficulty in recognizing facial expressions. |
| A．To get their faces impressive. | B．To make a face at each other. |
| C．To classify some face pictures. | D．To observe the researchers’ faces. |
| A．They do translation more successfully. | B．They study the mouth more frequently. |
| C．They examine the eyes more attentively. | D．They read facial expressions more correctly. |
| A．The Eye as the Window to the Soul | B．Cultural Differences in Reading Emotions |
| C．Effective Methods to Develop Social Skills | D．How to Increase Cross-cultural Understanding |
