1 . Fast walkers may live longer than dawdlers (缓慢的人)— regardless of their weight, a new study suggests.
Researchers at Leicester University analyzed data on 474, 919 people with an average age of 52 in the UK Biobank between 2006 and 2016. They found women who walked briskly had a life expectancy of 86.7 to 87.8 years old, and men who kept up the pace had a life expectancy of 85.2 to 86.8. Slow walkers hadn’t much encouraging prospects (前景): women had a life expectancy of 72.4, and men of 64.8 years old, if they were more leisurely in their movements. According to the paper, published last week, that ratio held true even if the fast walkers were severely overweight. It does not necessarily mean fast walkers will live longer. Experts say it suggests walking speed could be a simple way for doctors to judge their patients’ general health alongside other tests.
It is hardly the first study holding up walking speed as a powerful evidence that appears to improve and determine our health.
In 2011, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a study by Stephanie Studenski, who found the same: walking speed was a reliable predictor of life expectancy.
In 2013, US researchers found walking pace was linked to lower heart disease risk and longer life expectancy. In 2018, a study from the University of Sydney found picking up your walking pace to even an “average speed” could cut your risk of premature death by a fifth.
And Tom Yates, the physical activity professor at Leicester who's behind the latest study, has been publishing findings on this connection for years.
In 2017, he analyzed the same UK Biobank data and found walking speed appeared to affect the risk of dying from heart disease — concluding that the slowest walkers were twice as likely to suffer a heart-related death compared to quick walkers.
1. What does the underlined word “briskly” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Casually. | B．Quickly. | C．Actively. | D．Energetically. |
| A．Most fast walkers are overweight. |
| B．Fast walkers have a simple way of living. |
| C．Walking speed can help doctors know about their patients’ general health. |
| D．Doctors will surely have better ways to cure their patients of their illness. |
| A．Walking slowly is bad for people's health. |
| B．Walking speed can predict a person’s life expectancy. |
| C．People won't die early by increasing their walking pace. |
| D．Lower heart disease risk is determined partly by walking pace. |
| A．Fast Walkers May Have a Long Life Expectancy |
| B．Life Expectancy Is Determined by Exercise |
| C．Researchers Try to Improve Life Expectancy |
| D．The Public Doubt Researches on Walking Speed |
2 . Recent research discovered that a low-cost computer training program can help older persons drive less dangerously.
“We developed a training program, called Drive Aware, which could be used by anyone who has a computer,” says Jing Feng, co-author of the study and a professor of psychology at NC State. “Drive Aware is a cognitive (认知的) training program for older persons that helps them notice traffic risks more effectively. The purpose of our recent study was to see how much Drive Aware changes trainees’ driving behaviors once they get behind the wheel.”
The researchers found 27 persons aged 65 and up to test Drive Aware. In a driving simulator (模拟器), all of the study participants (参与者) experienced a basic driving exam. The “active training” group was made up of nine of the study participants. Every two weeks, the active training group had two Drive Aware trainings. A group of nine additional study participants was asked to take “passive training”. This group watched videos of others receiving the Drive Aware instruction. This happened twice, with each lasting about a week. The control group, which was made up of the remaining nine study participants, received no training. After that, all 27 study participants performed a second driving exam in the simulator.
The study participants in the active training group experienced 25% fewer “unsafe incidents (事件)” following the training, according to the researchers. There was no obvious change in the number of dangerous incidents among study participants in the passive training and control groups.
“This testing was done with a fairly limited number of study participants,” Feng says. “If we can succeed in getting the fund, we’d like to further our testing with more people to clearly prove how effective this training is at reducing accidents among older drivers.”
1. What does the underlined phrase “get behind the wheel” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Take a risk. | B．Start a program. |
| C．Drive a car. | D．Use a computer. |
| A．Experience no training. | B．Receive two Drive Aware trainings. |
| C．Take three driving tests. | D．Observe videos of Drive Aware trainings. |
| A．By quoting former figures. | B．By investigating car accidents. |
| C．By operating the driving simulator. | D．By comparing participants’ performances. |
| A．Unclear. | B．Worried. | C．Positive. | D．Doubtful. |
3 . There are a lot of reasons why we may have to get up early. Maybe it’s for work, or maybe it’s to get your kids ready for school.
Light.
The most powerful way to get your body feeling awake is to expose yourself to light. When you’re exposed to bright sunlight, your hormone (激素) tells the body, “Hey, it’s time to be awake.”
Naps.
Create an encouragement to get out of bed in the morning. Maybe that’s a mindfulness exercise to remind yourself of who or what you’re waking up early for. Something as simple as promising yourself a nice breakfast as soon as you get out of bed can do the trick.
| A．Reward yourself. |
| B．Be strict with yourself. |
| C．For some people, waking up early just feels natural. |
| D．So don’t expose your eyes to bright lights at night. |
| E．Try waking up even a few minutes earlier than you need to. |
| F．Waking up early often means that we wake up sleep deprived (被剥夺). |
| G．Try to keep naps under an hour and toward the middle of the day or earlier in the afternoon. |
4 . Fleanor Love knows that weddings create a lot of leftover flowers. That means more opportunities for her to collect after-wedding bouquets (花束) and give them to her lonely hospital
The flowers are still in good shape, and the patients are pleased to have them. “I was so
Love worked at the Virginia Commonwealth University Hospital as a(n)
“One of the
In 2019, she started The Simple Sunflower in Richmond, and so far has
When Love began the project, she called businesses such as wedding venues (场馆) and florists and asked them what events were scheduled. She then reached out to brides and grooms to ask them if they had
For each wedding, she organized a team of eight people who helped
People beyond the VCU community have heard about Love’s project and become part of it. “Once the word got out, people around the city started
“I feel
| A．patients | B．cleaners | C．doctors | D．nurses |
| A．cards | B．fruits | C．flowers | D．cakes |
| A．tired | B．moved | C．worried | D．bored |
| A．art | B．law | C．engineering | D．medical |
| A．change | B．accept | C．improve | D．reduce |
| A．dreams | B．skills | C．challenges | D．exams |
| A．listen | B．contribute | C．respond | D．adapt |
| A．help | B．check | C．study | D．guide |
| A．difference | B．choice | C．impression | D．decision |
| A．divided | B．thrown | C．delivered | D．applied |
| A．customers | B．volunteers | C．managers | D．teachers |
| A．means | B．goals | C．efforts | D．plans |
| A．pick up | B．hold up | C．make up | D．give up |
| A．greeting | B．contacting | C．trusting | D．considering |
| A．stressed | B．confident | C．relaxed | D．satisfied |
5 . Say “Sit” to your dog, and he’ll likely sit on the floor. But would he respond correctly if the word were spoken by a stranger, or someone with a thick accent? A new study shows he will, suggesting dogs understand spoken words in a clever and complicated way long thought unique to humans.
Holly Root-Gutteridge, a biologist, and her colleagues ran a test. The researchers filmed 42 dogs of different breeds as they sat with their owners near an audio speaker that played noncommand words with similar sounds, such as “had”, “hid”, and “who’d”. The words were spoken-not by the dog’s owner-but by several strangers, men and women of different ages and with different accents.
In the video above, the dog Max turns quickly and listens seriously when he hears a woman say “had” for the first time. But as other women with different accents repeat the word, he loses interest, indicating he knows they are all saying the same word. When a speaker says a new word, like “who’d”, Max cheers up again, but his attention flags when a new voice returns to saying “had”. Together, these reactions suggest dogs recognize words regardless of the speaker-and that they don’t need any training to do it, the team reports today in Biology Letters.
“It’s wonderful—and novel—to see research looking at dogs’ reactions to words that are not commands or requests,” says Alexandra Horowitz, a researcher at Barnard College in New York City. Because of the nature of the test, however, the scientists cannot show that the dogs “understood” what the words meant, Horowitz points out. “But the work clearly demonstrates that dogs are listening to us,” she says, even when our speech is not about them.
1. What can we learn from this study?| A．Dogs can hear some simple words. | B．Dogs can hear words like humans. |
| C．Dogs cannot understand a stranger. | D．Dogs know their owners’ meaning. |
| A．Record their sounds. | B．Record their reactions. |
| C．Train their hearing ability. | D．Train their learning ability. |
| A．The result of the study. | B．A dog filmed in the study. |
| C．An example of the research. | D．Different reactions of the dogs. |
| A．Objective. | B．Favorable. |
| C．Opposed. | D．Unclear. |
The Xi’an City Wall is the most complete city wall that has survived China’s long history. It
We accessed the wall through the South Gate. The wall is 12 meters high and from here you can see streams of people moving inside and outside the City Wall.
After
We
A MOTHER’S DAY SURPRISE
The twins were filled with excitement as they thought of the surprise they were planning for Mother’s Day. How pleased and proud Mother would be when they brought her breakfast in bed. They planned to make French toast and chicken porridge. They had watched their mother in the kitchen. There was nothing to it. Jenna and Jeff knew exactly what to do.
The big day came at last. The alarm rang at 6 a.m. The pair went down the stairs quietly to the kitchen. They decided to boil the porridge first. They put some rice into a pot of water and left it to boil while they made the French toast. Jeff broke two eggs into a plate and added in some milk. Jenna found the bread and put two slices into the egg mixture. Next, Jeff turned on the second stove burner to heat up the frying pan. Everything was going smoothly until Jeff started frying the bread. The pan was too hot and the bread turned black within seconds. Jenna threw the burnt piece into the sink and put in the other slice of bread. This time, she turned down the fire so it cooked nicely.
Then Jeff noticed steam shooting out of the pot and the lid starting to shake. The next minute, the porridge boiled over and put out the fire. Jenna panicked. Thankfully, Jeff stayed calm and turned off the gas quickly. But the stove was a mess now. Jenna told Jeff to clean it up so they could continue to cook the rest of the porridge. But Jeff’s hand touched the hot burner and he gave a cry of pain. Jenna made him put his hand in cold water. Then she caught the smell of burning. Oh dear! The piece of bread in the pan had turned black as well.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右。2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
As the twins looked around them in disappointment, their father appeared.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The twins carried the breakfast upstairs and woke their mother up.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________8 . Of the 20,000 people we surveyed for our recent sleep snapshot, just 12 per cent said they woke up feeling refreshed and 75 per cent said they had trouble falling asleep at least some of the time. Since you’re going to spend a third of your life sleeping, it’s worth developing some healthy habits.
It’s important to set aside enough time to get adequate sleep each night. On average, adults need eight hours to feel properly rested. Some require slightly less while others require a little more—it’s best to listen to your own body. Unless you have long sleep requirements, you should limit your time in bed to no more than 8.5 hours.
Going to bed and getting up at about the same time each day is one of the best ways to set your internal body clock’s sleep-wake rhythm. Choose a wake-up time that works for you and aim to get up within 30 minutes of that time, seven days a week. According to sleep experts, you should avoid sleeping in, even if you have had a poor night’s sleep. The extra sleep drive will help you sleep better the following night, and sleeping in late can actually disturb your body clock.
Ease the process from wake-up time to sleep time by gently winding down with a period of relaxing a activities an hour or so before bed. Keep away from blue screens, vigorous exercise, doing work or discussing emotional problems. Instead, try to listen to music, read a book or take a bath. This can help you avoid stressful thoughts when your head hits the pillow.
Your bedroom should be quiet, dark, comfortable and slightly cool. Avoid using computers, mobile phones or watching television in bed, and remove any physical reminders of work that might increase stressful thoughts. To strengthen the association your brain makes between being in bed and being asleep, limit your bedroom activities to sleep.
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?| A．The right amount of sleep. | B．The quality of sleep. |
| C．Different sleep requirements. | D．Good sleep habits. |
| A．Going to bed late. | B．Getting up late. |
| C．Having no sleep. | D．Having a poor sleep. |
| A．Exercising hard. | B．Enjoying music. |
| C．Doing some reading. | D．Taking a bath. |
| A．Most people can sleep well at night. |
| B．The earlier you wake up, the better. |
| C．Stressful thoughts help you fall asleep. |
| D．A right sleep environment is helpful. |
Skiing
Skiing is an extremely popular sport that is enjoyed worldwide. The oldest and most accurately documented evidence of skiing origin is found in modern day Norway and Sweden.
Skiing has evolved into two major different types: Alpine skiing and Nordic skiing. Alpine skiing, also
Nordic skiing, also known as “cross country” skiing,
10 . Tears well up in people's eyes for a lot of reasons. A teardrop running down the cheek is the ultimate symbol of sadness, but people may also cry because they just cut an onion, or maybe they're trying to blink out an eyelash.
For the most part, tears help maintain healthy eyes. When you blink, basal (基底的) tears clean and smooth the eyes, which helps you to see clearly, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Moreover, reflex (反射性的) tears, or those that happen unconsciously, help clear the eyes of irritants (刺激物), including dust and the gas that's produced when a knife slices a raw onion, said Andre Silva, a doctoral student of psychology at the University of Minho in Portugal.
Emotions can also bring about tears in humans. These emotional tears can serve as a means of nonverbal communication. Silva said, “Babies cry to signal to their mothers that something's up. It's a pure attention call. Some people think that babies are capable of controlling adults by crying, but that idea is false and misleading, as a baby is not conscious of being tricky: In a way, we can consider these tears as being somewhere between basal tears and emotional tears.”
As people grow older, they begin to use their tears to express emotions, such as happiness or sadness. These tears may promote compassion and empathy in others. But beware of people who may use their tears to control others. “Some sensitive people may be easily controlled through the crying of others, and may easily shed tears that can also be used by others to control them,” he said.
So, emotional tears have both advantages and disadvantages. “They are a powerful communication device and a powerful manipulative (操纵别人的) device,” Silva said. Crying also makes it hard for some people to mask their feelings when they're in the middle of an extreme emotional state.
1. What's the function of reflex tears?| A．Reflecting our feelings. |
| B．Being used to affect others. |
| C．Serving as a means of interaction. |
| D．Clearing away harmful matters in the eyes. |
| A．Tears are usually used to pity others. |
| B．Babies burst into tears without tricks. |
| C．People mask their feelings when crying. |
| D．Blinking out an eyelash makes it easy to cry. |
| A．We ought to identify tears. |
| B．We should control babies, crying. |
| C．We need to smooth our eyes by emotional tears. |
| D．We can hardly fan others' sympathy by tears. |
| A．Why do people cry? |
| B．Why can tears control others? |
| C．How do people express emotions? |
| D．How can people make use of tears? |
