1 . Huang Yang is a native(本地人)of Zibo city in Shandong Province who works outside his hometown. He recently returned home for a visit and wanted to have some barbecue(烧烤). But he failed to find seats in four different restaurants.
“A barbecue restaurant owner told me to come back on Monday, so as to leave the weekends to out-of-town visitors. Another restaurant owner told me that they had run out of meat. I’ve been eating barbecue for over 20 years and this is the first time I’ve heard something like that,”Huang said.
Thanks to social media recommendations, Zibo barbecue has become popular overnight. The small city was crowded with visitors on weekends for a taste of the mouth-watering dishes. Most visitors are young people, who share online their experience of traveling to Zibo to experience the city’s barbecue culture, drawing even more visitors.
Behind Zibo’s sudden fame(名声)are the efforts and services of the local government. To promote Zibo-style barbecue, Zibo has provided two dozen “special barbecue trains,” where local officials would serve tourists themselves. Zibo’s tourism officials have been promoting the city’s food and attractions and sending gifts to tourists on the barbecue-themed trains.
At the city’s train station, volunteers have been working at train stations to offer help. Buses are ready to take visitors from train stations straight to barbecue restaurants.
Another key to the success, according to Peng Han, director of the Center for Strategic Studies at the Ctrip Research Institute, is that before Zibo became popular on the internet, the city had developed mature(成熟的)tourism products and service standards. For example, the barbecue-themed train services, bus services, barbecue map, the youth hostels that offer discounts for college students and the strict requirements for local tourism businesses were not achieved overnight, Peng noted.
Although Zibo is still enjoying the great fame, the local government has begun to make longer-term plans.
As the home of the Shandong businessmen and having origins(源头)in the Silk Road, Zibo will work to develop its historical and cultural resources into cultural brands, noted Wang Shenghua, a senior tourism official in Zibo.
1. Why did the barbecue restaurant owner tell Huang Yang to come back on Monday?| A．Because there would be a barbecue festival on Monday. |
| B．Because the restaurant was open only on Monday. |
| C．Because there were too many visitors on weekends. |
| D．Because the restaurants ran out of meat on weekends. |
| A．Young people share their happy experience in Zibo. |
| B．Zibo offered free barbecue and hotels to the visitors. |
| C．Zibo had already improved their tourism service. |
| D．Zibo spared no effort to provide visitors with a happy experience. |
| A．Zibo will open more barbecue restaurants. | B．Zibo will develop its silk business. |
| C．Zibo will develop its own cultural brands. | D．Zibo will provide better service for businessmen. |
| A．Big on barbecue, Zibo’s star shines | B．Zibo, a historical and cultural city |
| C．Top barbecue restaurants in Zibo | D．Tips for traveling in Zibo |
2 . 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? |
Since Japan began releasing nuclear-contaminated(核污染) wastewater into the Pacific Ocean on last Thursday despite strong opposition and
According to the spokesperson, the actions of the Japanese government are
“The Chinese government will take necessary measures to firmly protect the marine environment
4 . Kindness is seen as a true strength, and the success of civilizations relies on kindness. As parents and teachers, we also teach children from a young age to “be kind to one another” and “treat others the way you want to be treated.”
In addition to being helpful to our interpersonal relationships, research has shown that kindness can even contribute to our well-being. According to the Mayo Clinic, when we perform acts of kindness, the pleasure center in our brain is activated, releasing the stress-reducing hormone (激素). Individuals who volunteer on a regular basis report greater life satisfaction. And what is even greater is that kindness rarely stops with just one person. There can be a positive contagion (扩散) effect, where other people are motivated to be nice if they receive a random act of kindness. The question then arises: Could kindness be harmful to us when it has such clear benefits? Let’s think about this in the workplace or in an organization.
You are the new person on the team and you want to be well-liked and respected by your colleagues. You are a kind person and tell your team, “Let me know how I can help you; I’m always available to help.” Though you may truly mean this, there are unfortunately people in this world who can see your kindness as a weakness. This can lead to you being taken advantage of by others.
Let’s fast forward a year. You have been in your position now for one year, and you are working with the same team. You are noticing that your colleagues continue asking for your help over and over again. In fact, the only time they communicate with you is when they need something. You have been so helpful to your colleagues and there has rarely been any return from them.
In a very broad sense, it is advantageous to be kind to others, and your kind acts will be appreciated and, perhaps, paid forward. However, you need to be willing to say “no”. Recognize when your plate is already too full. When people ask you a favor, assess if you have the time, energy, and attention to give to them. To truly be kind, sometimes you need to be more comfortable saying “no” to others and saying “yes” to yourself.
1. What has the Mayo Clinic found concerning kindness?| A．It does good to our mind. |
| B．It reduces hormone levels. |
| C．It adds years to people’s life. |
| D．It leads to the success of civilizations. |
| A．Grateful. | B．Bored. | C．Disappointed. | D．Energetic. |
| A．When you’re too full to eat anything. |
| B．When your kind acts get appreciated. |
| C．When you should ask others a favor. |
| D．When you’re physically and mentally tired. |
| A．Your kindness counts for your well-being! |
| B．Are we tiring ourselves with kindness? |
| C．Why are random acts of kindness important? |
| D．Never underestimate the power of kindness at work! |
1. What are the two speakers talking about?
| A．Children’s noise. | B．Rubbish. | C．Cinema’s situation. |
| A．The film was very boring. |
| B．Children made them upset. |
| C．Children’s parents were irresponsible. |
6 . Unless you’re blind or know someone who is, you might not know that blind people use the same smartphones as sighted people. In fact, many blind people use touch-screen smartphones every day. The secret is that smartphones have a screen reader, a tool that allows blind people to use a mix of gestures and taps, along with vibrations (震动) or audio feedback, to use their apps.
Screen readers work on desktop computers as well as mobile devices. A well-designed website or app user interface (用户界面) makes the information on the website or app accessible to the screen reader, which makes it accessible to blind users. However, a badly designed website or application will turn out to be invisible to a screen reader.
Many designers find a good way to make technology available to all, which can be explained through an example — the whole touch screen. It was reported that blind users found locating small icons and specific numbers on the on-screen keypad(键盘) difficult. At present, the prevailing solution to this problem is to use the whole touch screen as an input control. Instead of having to touch a particular part of the screen, users can tap anywhere in response to audio instructions. These insights would have been impossible without involving people with different disabilities in the evaluation and design of touch screens.
Yet many technologies are still not accessible to users with disabilities. One way to make apps and websites more accessible is to have people with disabilities designing the technologies. But the design process itself is not very accessible to those very people, because very few tools in user interface designers’ toolbox are accessible. It’s a catch-22.
Our recent research evaluated the existing prototyping software, a tool allowing user interface designers to create temporary models to show clients or to test among users. We found that most popular prototyping software fails to work together with screen readers. Therefore, blind designers cannot use the prototyping software to create models of their own. This is where the problem is in the process of creating accessible technology.
Accessibility is an issue that touches everyone. Providing access to technology is legally required in most cases. While it is useful for designers to be aware of how users with disabilities interact with technologies, the most powerful insights may come from those with disabilities themselves.
1. What’s the major difference between a well-designed app and a badly designed one?| A．The former functions well with a screen reader. |
| B．The former is applicable to most mobile devices. |
| C．The latter fails to interact with desktop computers. |
| D．The latter’s complex mix of information distracts users. |
| A．Evaluating users’ response to on-screen keypads. |
| B．Making input and output controls easy to operate. |
| C．Creating special icons and numbers for blind people. |
| D．Including disabled people in the development process. |
| A．Priority. | B．Prejudice. |
| C．Dilemma. | D．Puzzle. |
| A．To show disabled people’s difficulty in using digital devices. |
| B．To urge people to be concerned about the situation of the disabled. |
| C．To inform us of the specific needs of the disabled in the digital era. |
| D．To stress the importance of engaging the disabled in technology development. |
7 . The widespread sedentary (久坐不动的) lifestyle has become a problem in America, fueling the rising obesity (肥胖) rate.
Now a new study finds that being surrounded by active friends can help a person living a sedentary lifestyle get more exercise each day. Researchers at the US Military Academy found that people in social groups where exercise is valued are more likely to be more active themselves. Lonely people are more likely to live sedentary lifestyles without another person around to give them a boost. The findings highlight the idea that the company a person keeps can be a boost to their overall health and direction in life.
Dr. Diana Thomas, a professor at a military school and study author said that the idea for the research came from real life experiences on the campus. Her team had noticed a trend of people becoming more interested in fitness and other activities once arriving at the school. This is not usually the case at other schools and workplaces, where there is no significant impact on fitness. Thomas believed that this trend could be the result of in-group social conditioning, where people will take part in activities that others around them are doing.
People whose data were gathered for the study were split into three groups based on their physical activity level 一 sedentary, moderately and extremely active. Moderately active folks were the most important for drawing people who are sedentary to become active, and to sustain that activity. Thomas explained that sedentary people would be unlikely to change their behavior when placed in a group of the extremely active, as it would seem unattainable.
1. Why does the author mention the rising obesity rate in the first paragraph?| A．To make comparisons. | B．To introduce the topic. |
| C．To support the argument. | D．To provide examples. |
| A．Volunteering in social groups. |
| B．Working in a caring company. |
| C．Joining sports-loving friends. |
| D．Giving a lonely neighbor a boost. |
| A．Requirements from the school. |
| B．People’s natural addition to sports. |
| C．Social interaction within a group. |
| D．Competition against other schools. |
| A．They have no appeal for sedentary people. |
| B．They are unwilling to involve sedentary people. |
| C．They themselves often fail to sustain exercising. |
| D．They seem like an example beyond sedentary people. |
8 . Kids are begging parents for cell phones at younger and younger ages, leaving families with tough choices to make. It might take some time to teach kids how to use phones as tools, not toys. Here are a few ways to get the message across.
Tell them not to use phones at school. Phones can be a distraction (干扰) from learning when used in the classroom.
Encourage them to contact long-distance relatives.
Lead by example. Setting an example is not only about how you use your phone, but also about how much you use it. When you feel bored and expect to glance over social media, fight it by taking a short walk.
Advise them not to use phones at the dinner table. For many families, the only time they truly get together is breaking bread at tbe end of a long day.
| A．Plan other forms of entertainment. |
| B．Prepare a dinner together with your children. |
| C．Screen time before bed reduces sleep quality. |
| D．They can also prevent students from connecting with one another. |
| E．So it is wise of parents to stress the importance of parent child time. |
| F．Also, instead of reading a headline, why not pull out a book to read? |
| G．Phones aren’t just for texting the best friend who lives two blocks away. |
9 . We lead very busy lives and we too easily forget how hard it was for us to focus on homework when we were in school. Now that we have jobs to do, food to buy and cook and other errands to run, even I sometimes think it would be a welcome change to have to sit down and quietly read and write with no distractions. But, in case you don’t remember — homework is pretty much every child’s least favorite thing to do. In the age of Netflix, Snapchat and wifi, the distractions are almost endless. It can sometimes almost be too hard to even keep up with all the new tech advances our kids are using, so how can we make sure that those advances take a back seat to our children’s education? Here are some ideas.
There’s no point in stopping the reality that young people are going to focus on their phones and tablets instead of other things at times. Your best way is to accept, actually the tech sector continues to be the most profitable and fast-growing industries and that’s unlikely to change fast. There are ways to use technology to help your kid do homework. Ask your teacher and school staff what apps and websites they’re using to teach lessons and supplements them with at-home activities as well.
Even though technology has changed, the basics haven’t. If you want to read, write and think properly, you need to have peace and quiet and the ability to focus, right? Well, your kids are just the same. Try and find a space in your home to enable your kids to do work away from televisions, the Internet or other distractions. Let me be clear: this shouldn’t be a prison. I feel like I’m my most productive working alone in an office or at a busy cafe with my headphones on. Getting lost in other realities helps my creativity grow. Placing kids in isolation can often have a harmful effect and doesn’t always equal being more productive.
I feel like “getting engaged” is always a big part of my advice for parents on just about everything. How can you make sure your children are being successful if you have no idea what they’re doing? How can you be sure they’re doing it right if you don’t know what is the correct answer? What do they need? You should be in touch with their teachers, have a sense of where the lessons are going, what kinds of tasks are being given and what success looks like in the classroom. Knowing all of that is key to your child’s success, especially when matched with some encouraging praise and helpful tips on how he can keep going. Thinking about how your child is best motivated by other things and using those methods here reasonably isn’t a bad idea.
And if by chance you’re having trouble solving that Math problems or understanding a sentence, don’t fear — you’re not alone. Use the school staff, other parents or friends as your support. Better to seek help than do nothing.
We all know that homework isn’t exactly the most entertaining way anyone spends their time. And sometimes we can’t help but feel that since we left school, we’re done with homework forever. But the circle of life plays out in all times and it’s up to us to make sure that we pass on the lessons we’ve picked up and that while homework might seem dull, it’s how we build skills, learn real lessons and get on the road to greatness. That greatness is on the inside, it’s up to us as adults to enable the young people to bring it out. The key to achieving greatness is to take a lifelong learning.
1. What is the author’s attitude towards new tech?| A．It affects parents’ everyday life. | B．It should be kept out of children’s reach. |
| C．It can benefit student’s education. | D．It makes homework easier. |
| A．must be better at all the lessons | B．needn’t make sure that their children are being successful |
| C．can teach their children by themselves | D．should know as much as possible about it |
| A．Children should achieve greatness on their own. |
| B．Parents and their children should learn from each other. |
| C．Children can hardly succeed without parents’ efforts. |
| D．Parents can only obtain skills by helping their children. |
| A．Education | B．Health | C．Technology | D．Science |
10 . More time spent indoors during the COVID-19 pandemic may have caused a significant rise in childhood short-sightedness, according to a new Hong Kong study. The findings were based on the current Hong Kong Children Eye Study, which continually researches the eye conditions of children aged six to eight.
The study found that 19.5 per cent of the 709 six-year-old pupils admitted at the start of the pandemic（between December 2019 to January 2020）developed short-sightedness over the course of eight months.
The overall estimated one-year incidence of short-sightedness for them was 28 per cent — much higher than the 17 per cent found in children studied pre-pandemic.
The researchers note that these changes corresponded with a reduction in the time the children spent outdoors — from around 75 minutes a day pre-pandemic to 24 minutes during the pandemic.
Screen time among the children also dramatically increased during this period, from two and a half hours a day, to seven hours.
The authors highlight that this data relied on questionnaires, which could impact the accuracy of the research. Also, as it was a local study to Hong Kong, the researchers couldn't say whether the same results would be seen in children in other provinces of China.
“Despite all these unavoidable study limitations, our initial results still show an alarming short-sightedness progression that requires appropriate correctional action,” the researchers concluded.
James Huang, professor of optometry (视光学) at Hong Kong University, who did not take part in the research, told CGTN “During the pandemic, lifestyles have changed, such as the amount of time spent viewing digital screens, homeschooling and the duration of time spent outdoors. At least nine peer-reviewed published studies—not including this new Hong Kong study-have identified an increase in short-sightedness progression during the pandemic.”
Fortunately, though, the effect may not be permanent. “One study found this short-sightedness progression was turned back partially after lockdown, suggesting that both eye focus spasm (痉挛) and structural changes contributed to this accelerated rate,” explained Huang.
1. What can we learn from the study?| A．Decreased time outdoors impacted children's overall health. |
| B．A majority of new primary students were already short-sighted |
| C．Children with short-sightedness were rising during the pandemic. |
| D．The eye conditions of Hong Kong teenagers were not affected at all. |
| A．eye conditions | B．six-year-olds surveyed |
| C．children studied pre-pandemic | D．the findings of the study |
| A．Only children aged six to eight are included in the study. |
| B．The exact cause of short-sightedness remains unknown. |
| C．It fails to involve experts from professional organizations. |
| D．It depends on questionnaires collected locally in Hong Kong. |
| A．There is no turning back of short-sightedness progression. |
| B．It will keep worsening until eye focus spasm can be solved. |
| C．Short-sightedness is likely to be relieved after the lockdown. |
| D．The problem will be automatically and completely solved. |
