1 . On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted that 42% of Americans could be overweight by 2030. Our expanding bodies not only lead to a medical problem, but also endanger personal safety in some situations — in an airplane crash, for example, according to a recent article in The New York Times.
The New York Times’ Christine Negroni reports that engineers and scientists are questioning whether airplane seats are designed to protect overweight travelers. Government standards (标准) for airplane seat strength — first set more than 60 years ago — require that the seats be made for a passenger weighing 170 pounds. Today, the average American man weighs nearly 194 pounds and the average woman 165 pounds.
Negroni reports:
“If a heavier person completely fills a seat, the seat is not likely to behave as designed during a crash,” Robert Salzar, the leading scientist at the Center for Applied Biomechanics at the University of Virginia. “The energy that is built into the aircraft seat is likely to be overpowered and the passengers will not be protected properly” .
“Nor would the injury be limited to that passenger only,” Dr. Salzar said. “If a seat or a seat belt fails,” he said, “those people who are seated nearby could not be safe from ‘the uncontrolled movements of the passenger’.”
Most complaints about airplane seats focus on their lack of comfort and high ticket price, and whether overweight passengers should be made to buy two seats. But The New York Times’ article brings up another reason to feel anxious about flying. Investigators got in touch with the airplane seat and seat belt makers, but they refused to talk about the problem. Experts agreed that crash testing should be done with over-weighted dummies (人体模型). Both airplane seats and seat belts should be tested, they said.
Fortunately, however, according to Nora Marshall, a senior adviser at the National Transportation Safety Board, the board’s investigators have never seen an accident involving a commercial plane in which the weight of a passenger was a problem.
1. What is the article in The New York Times mainly about?| A．The size of airplane seats and seat belts. |
| B．Safety of overweight airplane passengers. |
| C．Airplane crashes. |
| D．A medical problem caused by being overweight. |
| A．overweight passengers should buy two seats |
| B．the government should help produce safer planes |
| C．standards for airplane seat strength should be raised |
| D．passengers should know how to protect themselves |
| A．airplane seat makers have taken action now |
| B．there are few complaints about airplane seats |
| C．those seated near the overweight may suffer, too |
| D．only a small number of airplane accidents result from the overweight |
| A．Why do passengers Feel Anxious about Flying? |
| B．Will 42% of Americans Be Overweight by 2030? |
| C．When Will the Overweight Enjoy Their Flight? |
| D．Are Airplane Seats Safe Enough for the Overweight? |
2 . “Everything happens for the best,” my mother said whenever I faced disappointment. “If you can carry on, one day something good will happen. And you’ll realize that it wouldn’t have happened if not for that previous disappointment.”
Mother was right, as I discovered after graduating from college in 1932. I had decided to try for a job in radio, then work my way up to sports announcer. I hitchhiked (搭便车) to Chicago and knocked on the door of every station-and got turned down every time. In one studio, a kind lady told me that in most cases big stations couldn’t risk hiring inexperienced person. “Go out in the remote areas and find a small station that’ll give you a chance,” she said. I went back home to Dixon, Illinois.
While there was no radio-announcing jobs in Dixon, my father said Montgomery Ward had opened a store and wanted a local athlete to manage its sports department. Since Dixon was where I had played high school football, I applied. The job sounded just right for me.
But I wasn’t hired. My disappointment must have shown. “Everything happens for the best,” Mom reminded me. Dad offered me the car to hunt for jobs. I tried WOC Radio in Davenport, Iowa. The program director, a wonderful Scotsman named Peter MacArthur, told me they had already hired an announcer.
As I left his office, my frustration boiled over (沸溢，发怒). I asked aloud, “How can a fellow get to be a sport announcer if he can’t get a job in a radio station?” I was waiting for the elevator when I heard MacArthur calling, “What was that you said about sports? Do you know anything about football?” Then he stood me before a microphone and asked me to broadcast an imaginary game. The preceding autumn, my team had won a game in the last 20 seconds with a 65-yard run. I did a 15-minute boost to that play, and Peter told me I would be broadcasting Saturday’s game!
On my way home, as I have many times since, I thought of my mother’s words: “If you carry on, one day something good will happen. Something wouldn’t have happened if not for that previous disappointment”.
1. What is concluded from the passage is that ______.| A．the frustration of the author prevented him from performing well at WOC Radio |
| B．both of the author’s parents showed support when he was trying to search for a job |
| C．Peter MacArthur recognize the author’s talent in broadcasting after reading his resume |
| D．the author lost all his hope and courage when he was turned down by Montgomery Ward |
| A．he showed no confidence at the stations | B．there were no job available at the stations |
| C．he had no experience in radio broadcasting | D．there were too many people competing with him |
| A．requirement | B．encouragement | C．enjoyment | D．amazement |
| A．No cross, no crown | B．Prevention is better than cure |
| C．Well begun is half done | D．Rome was not built in a day |
3 . Not everyone needs or can afford the latest, most powerful laptop out there. For simple tasks, such as running web-based apps, browsing the Internet, or sending an email, a low-powered, low-priced laptop fits the bill. That’s where budget laptops come in.
You get what you pay for. Budget laptops often come with small drive space, low memory, and slow processors. You won’t be able to use them to run the latest graphics-heavy computer games, but for giving your kids access to the web, sending a teen off to college with a computer for their studies or for you to stay up-to-date with Facebook, a budget laptop could be an ideal purchase. Our top pick is the HP Envy x360 15z (available at HP), a 2-in-1 laptop with high quality and smart performance that can be found for under $700 and competes with laptops that cost twice as much. Many of our picks are even more affordable, so there’s sure to be a laptop for anybody. These are the best budget laptops we tested, ranked in order:
HP Envy x360 15z
Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5
HP Stream 14
Acer Chromebook Spin 514
Asus Zenbook 14
Acer Aspire 5
Google Pixelbook Go
HP Chromebook x360
Lenovo Ideapad 3
Lenovo Chromebook Duet
Recommendations are independently chosen by Reviewer’s editors and you can complete your purchases through our links.
1. In what case couldn’t a budget laptop be a good choice?| A．Browsing the Internet. | B．Sending Emails. |
| C．Running complicated games. | D．Editing school work. |
| A．High processing performance. | B．High quality with good price. |
| C．Thinner and smart shape. | D．Competitive price with lower power. |
| A．To introduce the functions of laptops. | B．To contrast the prices of some laptops. |
| C．To rank the best budget laptops. | D．To recommend some budget laptops. |
4 . In the animal kingdom, killer whales (虎鲸) are social stars: they travel in varied family groups, care for grandchildren, and even imitate human speech. Now, scientists are adding one more behavior to the list: forming fast friendships. A new study shows killer whales can rival animals such as chimpanzees and macaques (a kind of monkey), and even humans when it comes to the kind of “social touch” that indicates strong bonds.
Some ocean animals maintain social structures — including male dolphins that learn the “names” of their close allies (盟友). But there is little data about wild killer whales. That’s where drone (无人机) technology came in. Michael Weiss, a behavioral ecologist, teamed up with his colleagues to launch drones, flying them 30 to 120 meters above a group of killer whales. That was high enough not to trouble the whales, marking the first time drones have been used to study friendly physical contact in whales.
The researchers recorded over 800 instances of physical contact between individuals. Those included hugs, back-to-back and nose-to-nose touches between pairs of whales. Other whales playfully threw young whales into the air, letting them fall into the water. Besides, the drone images revealed clear preferences among individuals, usually for one “best friend” of the same sex and age. Take J49 and J51 — two distantly related young males aged 9 and 6 — for instance. “Every time you see a group of whales, those two are right there interacting with each other,” Weiss says.
The young led most of these interactions, rather than the older females or males. Older males in particular were less important. “The young individuals really seem to be the glue holding the groups together,” Weiss says. As individuals age, this gradual loss of “centrality” is known in many social mammals, including humans. That finding is “especially appealing” to Stacey Tecot, who wasn’t involved in the study. “Scientists have long observed this social aging trend in animals, but there are still many unanswered questions,” she says. That’s certainly on the researchers’ radar. “We’re already gathering new data, with more advanced equipment,” says Weiss.
1. What does the underlined word “rival” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Benefit from. | B．Be equal to. | C．Depend on. | D．Be fond of. |
| A．The research method. | B．The variety of species. |
| C．The size of the research team. | D．The time spent on the research. |
| A．They have a stable friendship. | B．Their interactions are more complicated. |
| C．Their communicating ways change frequently. | D．They prefer playing with young female whales. |
| A．More researchers will be involved in the study. |
| B．Other scientists take a negative attitude to the research. |
| C．Researchers will collect more data to study killer whales. |
| D．Researchers will uncover the social aging trend in animals soon. |
5 . To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, I called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterloo in Canada. “A lot of people think about being bored as being lazy. And it’s absolutely not that,” he says. “Bored people want to be engaged with their world, eager to do something satisfying and exciting. But any attempt to do so is failing.”
That means boredom is usually very upsetting. And it can have physical consequences. In one of his experiments, Danckert made people extremely bored by showing them a video of two people hanging clothes to dry. He found that when people got bored, their hearts beat faster and their levels of a hormone called cortisol (皮质醇) went up, compared to when they watched another video that made them sad. These physical changes were signs that boredom was stressing them out. “It’s not like having a full-on panic attack,”Danckert says. But it’s certainly enough to make boredom unpleasant.
Let’s come back to if boredom can kill you. Back in the 1980s, scientists asked people who worked for the British government a whole bunch of questions, including how bored they felt in their daily lives. The study tracked the participants over time. When any one of them died, the survey recorded the cause of death. In 2010, two researchers matched up these causes of death with the participants’ level of boredom. It turned out that people who said they were more bored were also more likely to have died of heart disease. “We know that prolonged exposure to stress is bad for your health,” Danckert says. A single boring day can’t kill you. But if you’re always bored, the stress could add up into something dangerous.
“Oh no,” you might be thinking. “School is boring, my friends are boring, everything is boring! What’s going to happen to me?” Don’t worry, Danckert says, “As you get older, you get less bored,” mainly because you gain more independence and have to get busy to achieve your long-term goals. And trust me: that’s anything but boring.
1. According to James Danckert, people feel bored because ______.| A．they are too lazy to do anything | B．they can’t fully understand boredom |
| C．they are too frightened to have a try | D．they can’t gain excitement in life |
| A．Doing housework will make people bored. |
| B．Physical changes can lead to extreme boredom. |
| C．People’s heart rate increases with boredom. |
| D．Watching something sad is a boring experience. |
| A．Continued. | B．Short. | C．Sudden. | D．Active. |
| A．Depending on friends. | B．Setting long-term goals. |
| C．Keeping yourself occupied. | D．Trusting people around you. |
6 . Last month, I came across a time capsule in an old box. Faded (褪色的) and worn, it was a friendship bracelet (手链) , in purple and green floss (丝线)— an important part of my teenage summers. Holding it in my hand made me think about those precious memories of childhood, which my kids will never know firsthand.
The bracelet made by me wasn’t beautiful. But what I remember is the beauty of the offering: slipping something into a friend’s hand and knowing it would always be with them. The experience was intoxicating and impressive. It was a symbol of an unbreakable bond. Those bracelets represented how much we meant to each other, at a time when our friends were becoming the center of our lives. I wore them all summer long at camp. And I acquired new bracelets from friends there— friends who received carefully crafted bracelets from me in return, as we said our tearful end-of-summer goodbyes. I thought having them helped ease the pain of leaving my friends. But now I see that they were really helping me to leave behind childhood.
My kids don’t go to summer camp. They certainly don’t exchange anything as uncool as bracelets with their friends. They hang out on Discord (一种聊天软件) in chats that only pause but never end. Our eldest son endlessly texts on his cellphone as he and his friends make one another talking emojis and TikTok videos.
Their relationships with their phones leave no time or space for writing letters or making bracelets, and their gifts to one another leave no clear and definite traces. There will be no boxes of letters to sort years from now nor any hidden bracelets to find. They will have little to physically hold on to.
1. Why does the author associate (联想) a bracelet with a time capsule?| A．It is faded and worn. | B．It reminds her of her childhood. |
| C．It is shaped like a capsule. | D．It was made by the author herself. |
| A．Professional. | B．Tiresome. |
| C．Exciting. | D．Strange. |
| A．They make more friends at summer camp. |
| B．They spend too much time on their cellphones. |
| C．They are unwilling to give bracelets to parents. |
| D．They often send hand-made gifts to their friends |
| A．They proved the author’s kids had much to physically hold onto. |
| B．They represented both the author and her kids’ unforgettable childhood |
| C．They gave meaning to the author’s childhood in a way her kids will never know |
| D．They recalled the author’s deep sorrow of leaving close friends at summer camp |
7 . In January, 2021, the ice-making work on the ”Ice Ribbon“, a landmark venue for the Beijing Winter Olympics, was completed.
In the Winter Olympics, where races can be won or lost by a small time gap, tiny imperfections in the ice can make all the differences. ”It’s not just a hunk of ice like you’d normally think of, like ice cubes sitting in your freezer,“ told Kenneth Golden, a U. S. mathematician who studies the structures of ice. ”It’s a much more fascinating and complex substance than people would normally think.“
The first step for building any ice rink is to purify the water to remove dissolved solids like salts and minerals. Such impurities don’t fit in the regular hexagonal(六边形的)structure of ice that forms as water freezes. The purer the water, the more consistent the ice surface.
In addition to the need for excellence in the raw materials of ice-making, technology is also very important, As one of the most advanced technologies for winter sports venues, a carbon dioxide cooling technology has been applied on a large scale for the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. CO2 , is not new when it comes to ice-making. However, it has been gradually replaced by the man-made refrigerant, like Freon.
With increasing attention toward climate change, the old refrigerant has come into use again. As an element of the atmosphere, CO2, doesn’t damage the ozone layer. Although CO2 is a greenhouse gas, its greenhouse effect is much lower than that of other synthetic refrigerants. The Winter Olympics venues adopted CO2 instead of Freon as a refrigerant in ice-making, which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions greatly.
”We believe these technological innovations will bring Beijing 2022 to spectators all over the world in a more impressive way.“ told Gao Bo from the Media Operations Department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
1. What is the result of impurities in water for ice-making?| A．The water isn’t able to freeze completely. |
| B．The quality of the ice will be affected. |
| C．The ice surface will be more consistent. |
| D．It’s likely for athletes to fall on the ice. |
| A．It’s the most advanced technology for ice-making. |
| B．CO2 is more efficient than other refrigerants. |
| C．CO2 is more environmentally friendly than Freon. |
| D．CO2 has already existed in the atmosphere. |
| A．Unclear. | B．Opposed. | C．Doubtful. | D．Favorable. |
| A．The Beijing Winter Olympic Games Are Coming |
| B．Beneath Olympic Ice |
| C．The Use of Refrigerants in Olympic Games |
| D．The Structure of Ice |
8 . My mom was an astrophysicist, and Dad was a microelectronics specialist, each dealing with phenomenon bigger or smaller than the eye can see. As a kid, I was often into daydreaming that I won Oscars or Grammys (格莱美奖).
Saturn (土星). The first time I saw it, from an observatory on the hills of Barcelona, it was like what I imagine seeing Leonardo DiCaprio (莱昂纳多·迪卡普里奥， 著名影星) in person might be.
Saturn is considered the master of the universe. Glancing at them has the effect of making you feel insignificant and momentous (重大的) at the same time.
This summer, I traveled home for my mother’s 60-birthday-party, It consisted of a workshop (研讨会) in her honor in a small coastal town, with current and former colleagues of hers. I spent the day alone, swimming in the sea and joined them for meals while they presented papers to one another. All I had to do was sit, chat and quietly observe details.
| A．The infinite (无穷尽的) universe was too much to digest. |
| B．And yet, somehow, I fell in love planets in my teenage years. |
| C．Saturn’s existence has always given me a real sense of possibility. |
| D．This group of people lacked the minimum level of humor to exist in the world. |
| E．I couldn’t help admiring this group of people for their commitment. |
| F．I wanted humor and lightness, even if that meant not always literal or all knowing. |
| G．Something you’ve always seen in two dimensions suddenly presents itself in three. |
9 . World history has seen three ancient dramas: Greek tragedy and comedy, Indian Sanskrit drama and Chinese opera. The first two have become historical and only Chinese opera has survived.
Chinese opera took shape in the 12th century. After developing for more than 800 years, its abundant local styles of opera are still enjoying great popularity, of which Qingiang is one of the most ancient operas.
Qinqiang opera is a thousand-year-old local opera originating in China’s inland northwestern region. It has established a unique tradition as an“opera shouted out”with its high-pitched arias(高音唱腔). LiMei has won a reputation as one of the four greatest Qinqiang actresses. She’s also known for her passionate commitment to exploring the theatrical possibilities offered by Qinqíang.
LiMei and her workmates are halfway through an afternoon rehearsal(排练) and most have broken into a sweat Singing in a near whisper, the forty-year-old opera star performs the stylized movements for the leading role the bitter dead Lady Li Huiniang in Ghost’s Hate.
Little wonder that LiMei is such a powerful presence on stage. She’s the greatest contributory actress who’s able to interpret a character so persuasively and tell a story so convincingly that European audiences warmly hug this unfamiliar art form.
Li Mei said,“We performed this opera in the Netherlands to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the founding of Holland’s National Theater. We enjoyed e fifteen-minute curtain call and the audiences applauded wildly for a long time. The local press entitled me the ‘Nemesis of the Orient’ and ‘the Chinese Venus’, Why is that so?Because they’ve fully understood what the opera implied—the loyalty towards love, and dead as she maybe, her love persists. The reason why this opera was able to touch millions of hearts is that it has a beautiful story presented by a beautiful art form.”
1. What can be inferred about Chinese opera from the passage?| A．It made history with ancient Greek operas. |
| B．It has a history shorter than Indian Sanskrit drama. |
| C．It consists of various dynamic local operas. |
| D．It originated from the most ancient local Qinqiang opera. |
| A．The popular curtain call | B．The northwestern origin. |
| C．The stylized movement. | D．The spirited high tone. |
| A．Because it has a perfect combination of touching plot and attractive form. |
| B．Because its leading role Li Mei is famous as the ‘Chinese Venus’. |
| C．Because it conveys the popular messages of loyalty towards love. |
| D．Because the story is easy to be fully understood by foreigners. |
| A．She won a reputation as one of the four greatest Qinqiang actresses. |
| B．She brought Li Huiniang, the bitter dead Lady in Ghost’s Hate to life. |
| C．She explored many theatrical possibilities offered by Qinqiang opera. |
| D．She spread one of Chinese traditional cultures to the other side of the world. |
10 . What could driving a race car and pointing a camera at the Milky Way have in common? More than you might imagine. Race car driver Bubba Wallace and photographer Batak Tefreshi made a journey together to remote Gooseberry Mesa, for an adventure aimed at taking pictures of the night sky.
Gooseberry Mesa, far from population centers, is protected from the nighttime light pollution, making it perfect for star photographers. Nature night environments such as this are rare.
Camping, hiking, and shooting stars in mountainous Mesa stress the similarity between photography and racing. Bubba notes, “Once you start the engine there’s no turning back—I know I’ll be in that seat for more than three hours.” Batak agrees, “I have the same feeling as soon as I touch the wheel of my camera—I’m ready to continue through the entire night.” For Bubba, developing patience allowed him to become a better driver and it is equally important to his photography.
Seizing the moment is crucial too. “Every minute things are changing—the Earth’s shadow, the moonlight, the rise of stars,” Batak explains. “If you lose the moment, it’s gone forever.” Bubba finds the physical and mental demands of racing as important when travelling in Utah’s rough landscapes under freezing temperatures.
Think incoming clouds, wind, or mist will ruin your chance at a perfect photo? According to Batak. “With wide-angle nightscapes every unexpected weather condition can be an opportunity. Our photos show oranges and blues around the moon you wouldn’t see under a clear sky.”
The team discovered shared interests that go beyond photography. “We are both crazy about bringing cultures together and using our work to break down boundaries(边界),” says Batak. “The night sky has a unifying power. The sky connects the whole world under one umbrella.”
1. Why did Bubba and Batak choose Gooseberry Mesa?| A．It has a small population. | B．It has perfect weather conditions. |
| C．It is free from light pollution. | D．It has beautiful scenery. |
| A．Willpower. | B．Teamwork. | C．Bravery. | D．Creativity. |
| A．Annoying. | B．Disastrous. | C．Positive. | D．Challenging. |
| A．Appreciating the night sky. | B．Connecting various cultures. |
| C．Removing racial boundaries. | D．Protecting the environment. |
