1 . A 16-year-old girl from Changsha, Hunan province, successfully reached the top of Qomolangma, known as Mount Everest in the West, on Monday morning, becoming the youngest Chinese female to conquer the world’s highest top from the southern slope (坡).
Xu Zhuoyuan is a first year high school student from Hunan province. On April 15, she left Changsha for Nepal. On April 21, she began her long walk from Lukla. On April 28, she arrived at the base camp and started her altitude adaptation training at once. At 10 pm Beijing time on May 14, Xu Started walking from Camp 4 at an altitude of 7,950 meters on the southern slope of Qomolangma. After a punishing 10-hour climb, she successfully reached the summit.
Xu Zhuoyuan’s father, Xu Jianglei, was the first person from Hunan province to reach the top of Qomolangma. Xu Zhuoyuan has been exploring remote areas with him since she was very young. Despite her young age, Xu Zhuoyuan has already climbed five mountains over 5,000 meters in China. When she was 12 years old, she made a statement on Hunan TV saying, “I will climb Qomolangma.”
Four years later, she achieved her promise. Although Xu Zhuoyuan has rich climbing experience, she has been experiencing high-intensity professional training non-stop to conquer Qomolangma. Last year, she climbed Mount Muztagata, which stands 7,546 meters. “Human beings are small in the face of nature. We should respect nature and get closer to Qomolangma,” said Xu Zhuoyuan.
She brought the gloves her father used when he reached the top with her as a form of inheritance and to bear witness to her own dream coming true. After finishing her university studies, she hopes to continue climbing and achieve the “7+ 2” (7 tops plus the North and South Poles).
1. When did Xu Zhuoyuan arrive at the base camp?| A．On April 15. | B．On April 21. | C．On April 28. | D．On May 14. |
| A．Honest and sincere. | B．Clever and smart |
| C．Caring and devoted. | D．Determined and brave. |
| A．To describe his achievements. | B．To show his impact on his daughter. |
| C．To recognize his support for the girl. | D．To stress girls should be taken good care of. |
| A．A Great Father Shocks the Whole World |
| B．Qomolangma Draws More and More People |
| C．16-year old Girl Tops World’s Highest Mountain |
| D．Father and Daughter Conquer the Highest Mountain |
2 . The incident happened one day in November. A stranger asked Sammy where his mother and father were, and he knew something was off. While the woman was
He was understandably
He whispered to her, “Act like you’re my mom. This lady is
Hannah
Sammy recalled the
When the boy’s father, Sam Green later watched a video of the incident
| A．nice | B．unfamiliar | C．similar | D．polite |
| A．promised | B．decided | C．indicated | D．agreed |
| A．worried about | B．insisted on | C．interested in | D．surprised at |
| A．rejected | B．analyzed | C．caught | D．approached |
| A．grades | B．jokes | C．words | D．hopes |
| A．following | B．challenging | C．testing | D．teaching |
| A．constantly | B．immediately | C．barely | D．finally |
| A．shut | B．open | C．find | D．break |
| A．since | B．after | C．until | D．before |
| A．exciting | B．frightening | C．satisfying | D．disappointing |
| A．car | B．hospital | C．store | D．school |
| A．danger | B．love | C．voice | D．preference |
| A．play | B．respond | C．talk | D．complain |
| A．noted | B．pictured | C．stolen | D．recorded |
| A．invite | B．allow | C．encourage | D．introduce |
Educating boys and girls together has always been an important and stressful issue. Many
On
Apart from all that has been mentioned above, educating boys and girls together
4 . Four Best Apps for Buying and Selling Used Stuff
There are dozens of different apps out there to help you buy cheap used items or sell your stuff. Here are four of the top platforms (平台).
CardCash
It happens to most of us: Friends and family give gift cards on birthdays and holidays for restaurants or stores that we don’t go to often. Rather than let your gift cards go unused, CardCash allows you to sell or exchange your cards for up to 92%of their value.
Chairish
Selling your furniture(家具)is simple on Chairish. Your listings are free(up to nine per month)and you can set a price you think is fair. Best of all, Chairish will help set up shipping for you. which is especially nice for larger or easily broken items.
Decluttr
Decluttr specializes in buying unused technology products, including cellphones, TV game players and DVDs. Decluttr offers immediate valuations on products and pays you as soon as your items are received-or you can choose to donate your earnings to charity on this platform.
eCampus
The average secondary student spends up to $1, 471 every year on books and supplies, according to the Education Data Initiative at EducationData. org. But eCampus enables students to save up to 90% on renting or buying both new and used textbooks. If you’re looking to get back some book costs at the end of the semester, you can sell your old textbooks on the platform. Just keep in mind eCampus will keep 15% of the final sale price.
1. Which app best suits people who want to sell second-hand sofas?| A．CardCash. | B．Chairish. | C．Decluttr. | D．eCampus. |
| A．Check out good restaurants nearby. |
| B．Rent or buy both new and used textbooks. |
| C．Donate the money you earned from selling things. |
| D．Send gift cards to your friends or family members. |
| A．$9. | B．$14. | C．$15. | D．$17. |
5 . The Spring Festival is the most important celebration in China. There are some interesting Spring Festival traditions about Don’ts & Dos. Let’s take a look!
Don’t take out the rubbish
Taking out the rubbish, on that day, is said to stand for sweeping luck and wealth from the house.
Don’t give a watch or clock as a gift
A clock is an unpopular gift at any time of the year in China, as the phrase “giving a clock” sounds exactly like the Chinese words for “song zhong”.
During the festive period, you’ll see amazing decorations all over China, and your house should be no exception.
Popular decorations include red lanterns driving away bad luck, door couplets showing wishes for the coming year, and the character(fu) meaning good fortune.
Give hongbao or fruit
Hongbao, or a red envelope containing money, is a popular gift for adults to give children.
Fruit, especially tangerines or kumquats, are safe for friends.| A．Wear red for luck |
| B．As red is a lucky color |
| C．Make your house attractive |
| D．Spring Festival is a time for delicious food |
| E．A clock also stands for running out of time |
| F．You will often see them on the table during the Lunar New Year |
| G．In fact, cleaning any kind of thing on the first day of the lunar calendar is considered unlucky |
6 . Ritz has been teaching for nearly 10 years in a high school where the early graduation rate of the students was just 17%. He discovered a way to connect and intrigue these students, especially the ones who seemed the hardest to reach.
Once, he received a package of flower bulbs (球茎) which he mistakenly thought were onions. He was afraid that they might become weapons (武器) in a classroom fight, so he hid them behind a radiator (暖气片) and forgot about them.
Six weeks later, an angry girl ran after a boy who always made troubles. As usual, Ritz rushed towards them to break up what he thought was about to become a disaster. He saw the boy reach towards the radiator and thought he might have hidden a weapon there. To his surprise, the boy suddenly pulled out a bunch of yellow flowers and gave them to the girl as a peace offering. The girl decided to take the flowers home to her mother and peace came back.
The forgotten bulbs were actually daffodils (黄水仙). The steam from the radiator had forced them into flowers. From such an experience, Ritz realized that if there was power in plants to stop a classroom fight, there must be power in plants to change students’ lives. He turned the moment of growing plants into a green course, a movement that would change his life and the lives of his students. He designed vegetable gardens into part of the school ground and on top of a building.
Ritz’s students now have near-perfect attendance and graduation rates. His efforts have led him to be a great teacher who uses the power of a plant to give a voice to children.
1. What does the underlined word “intrigue” mean in paragraph 1?| A．Interest. | B．Protect. | C．Punish. | D．Challenge. |
| A．The radiator. | B．A tasty dish. |
| C．Some yellow flowers. | D．The teacher’s words. |
| A．They have low attendance. | B．They become the hardest to reach. |
| C．They know how to make weapons. | D．They fall in love with learning. |
| A．What a Classroom Needs for a Fight |
| B．Why a Plant Has an Effect on Students |
| C．How a Teacher Changes His Students |
| D．How a Teacher Becomes Popular |
7 . It happens in every disaster (灾难): For those in need, people often donate (捐赠) things that turn out to be more of a trouble.
Juanita Rilling remembers it happened in 1988 when she was a disaster expert trying to help people suffering from a hurricane (飓风) in Honduras. “One morning I received a call from one of our logistic operators (物流运营商), and he explained to me that there was a plane carrying medical supplies that needed to land,” says Rilling. “But the ground was full, with lots of donations that no one had required. The plane—full of needed supplies—had to find someplace else to go. And it ended up stopping everyone’s plans by about 48 hours, which is important time in a disaster.”
Rilling now runs the Center for International Disaster Information, which is trying to make sure things like that don’t happen again. So when Superstorm Sandy hit, Rilling’s group started a project to encourage money donation. “Even a small donation can make a big difference and can quickly become exactly what people affected by a disaster need most,” Rilling says. But despite this, donators do that over and over. About 60% of the things donated after a disaster couldn’t be used. Often it’s old clothing or food.
Meghan Hara, who deals with kind donations for the American Red Cross, says she knows that some people are careful with giving money. And she doesn’t think that the need to give something concrete (实物) should be completely stopped.
“Part of what people are doing is that they’re helping, and they’re trying to help. What we need to work out is how to effectively deal with that,” Hara says.
1. What caused needed supplies to be put off after the hurricane in 1988?| A．Workers on the plane. | B．A weather report. |
| C．Useless donations on the ground. | D．The call from the operator. |
| A．Clothing. | B．Money. | C．Medicine. | D．Food. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Doubtful. | C．Uncaring. | D．Worried. |
| A．Studies on natural disasters. |
| B．The benefits of helping others. |
| C．Tips on choosing useful donations. |
| D．The ways of managing people’s donations. |
8 . By the time Joy Ryan, a US grandma, turned 85, she had never seen the ocean or mountains. For Joy, trips to the local fishing area with her husband were about the farthest place she had ever gone, even if she loved watching the Travel Channel.
But one day Joy’s grandson, Brad Ryan, discovered that he and his grandma had a common interest in their love for traveling, when they began to visit the American great outdoors together.
Brad said, “When I learned my grandma had never seen the great wildernesses of America—deserts, mountains and oceans, I thought there was something I needed to do.” It was after taking his grandma out of Ohio on a visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that he came up with the idea of visiting all the 63 US national parks with her to create inspiring memories.
Going to all the 63 US National Parks is a huge achievement even for a much younger adventurer (冒险家). Brad said his grandmother’s physical strength (体力) grew with their trips. For example, his grandma went water rafting (漂流) at 91, with class three rapids and when walking at the New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia, she broke the record by almost a decade!
It wasn’t always like this, however. Joy was so wobbly (不稳的) on her first trip, challenged by her balance. A group of college students clapped their hands when she reached the top of a path they were following.
Joy broke her age limitation (限制) and at the age of 93, she made history as the oldest living person to visit every US National Park. Joy believes it’s the mix of hopefulness, willpower, and the good health that gives her strength.
1. With whom did Joy Ryan visit all the 63 US national parks?| A．Her grandson. | B．Her husband. |
| C．Her daughter. | D．Her student. |
| A．She had a love for traveling. |
| B．Water rafting is dangerous for the old. |
| C．There is no age limitation for water rafting. |
| D．She had developed a strong body from traveling. |
| A．Her memory. | B．Her balance. |
| C．Her physical strength. | D．Her sense of direction. |
| A．Brave and hopeful. | B．Humorous and outgoing. |
| C．Hard-working and helpful. | D．Thoughtful and self-confident. |
If you live in northeastern China, you expect long, cold winters. People
The festival includes several thousand ice sculptures. Some of these works are the recreations of castles, historic landmarks and famous people, lit up at night in bright colors.
The city started
Officially, the festival
10 . Every couple of years the media delivers terrible news: some obviously harmless aspect of everyday life is in fact going to kill you. Several years ago, the culprit was sitting. “Sitting is the new smoking.” New scientific findings warned that sitting at your desk all day caused metabolic (新陈代谢) changes that could make you die young, but the effects of inactivity could likely be prevented by consciously adding more activity into your day.
How much moving around do you need to undo the damage your chair-based lifestyle is doing to your body? Recently a single, useful suggestion arrived. Enough data had piled up over the years for scientists to conduct an analysis of nine studies. They looked at the fitness tracker (追踪者) data of 40,000 participants across four countries. This analysis now offers a clear answer: 30 to 40 minutes of moderate (适度的) activity a day is enough to prevent the negative health effects of sitting all day. If you get your heartrate up for half an hour a day, you have no greater chance of dying than those not glued to their chairs.
Even better news is what is considered as moderate activity. Running or cycling are great, but even chasing your kids around, dancing in your living room, or planting your roses in the garden counts as long as it gets you breathing heavily.
“Every physical activity matters and any amount of it is better than none,” said Emmanuel Stamatakis, a professor of physical activity who co-edited the special issue of the journal announcing the results.
The basics of good physical health are much easier to gain than many people think. Just a little bit of walking or even mere seconds of super vigorous (剧烈的) exercise have been shown to help people live longer and healthier.
Health diet suggestions and exercise trends can be confusing or unattainable (难以达到的). However, this study on preventing the effects of sitting is a great piece of wellness advice. If your goal is just staying healthy and sensible, attainable amounts of everyday activities will have a big effect.
1. What does the underlined word “culprit” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Problem. | B．Change. | C．News. | D．Finding. |
| A．It is offered after detailed scientific analysis. |
| B．It just explains how long we need to exercise. |
| C．It is based on the fitness data from one country. |
| D．It shows only tense exercise makes people healthier. |
| A．John thinks an hour’s exercise per day must be guaranteed. |
| B．Peter believes just 10 minutes’ exercise does nothing good to health. |
| C．Mary feels tidying up her room can’t be counted as a physical activity. |
| D．Tom considers jogging to raise his heartrate for half an hour everyday works. |
| A．Sitting all day long is likely to kill you at a young age. |
| B．Scientists have found that sitting is as harmful as smoking. |
| C．We should follow all the diet suggestions. |
| D．A useful suggestion to prevent the bad effects of sitting has come. |
