1 . Libraries
Britain’s First Public Library
The first public library in Britain opened in Manchester in 1852. Its first librarian was a man called Edward Edwards. Edwards attended the library’s opening ceremony and two famous writers called Charles Dickens and William Thackeray were there too.
How to Join a Library
To join a library, go to your local library and fill in a form. You’ll receive a library card which is needed when using library services.
Library Services
Modern public libraries have something for everyone. Most of them have audio books, CDs, newspapers and DVDs as well as books to borrow.
All Aboard the Library!
A school in London didn’t have space for a library inside the building. However, everybody agreed that it was still important to have a school library. So, the head of the school, Graham Blake, decided to park an old bus in the school parking area and change it into a library. Pupils helped to paint the bus, and after eight months, the new library was ready.
1. Who was the first librarian of the first public library in Britain?| A．Charles Dickens. | B．William Thackeray. |
| C．Edward Edwards. | D．Graham Blake. |
| A．Playing DVDs. | B．Listening to audio books. |
| C．Borrowing books. | D．Selling books. |
| A．Because parents offered the school an old bus. |
| B．Because pupils thought it was fun to read on a bus. |
| C．Because the school didn’t have enough money to buy books. |
| D．Because the school didn’t have enough space inside the building. |
2 . How coming to China has changed my life and career
Hello, everyone. My name is Jonathan Lopez, and I am a dual(双重的) citizen from Colombia and Canada.
When I was 18 years old, I had the opportunity to leave Columbia for the first time to go to see my father in Canada. I studied in a university in Canada, during which I had a chance to go study abroad in universities in Netherlands and Australia, travelling to many countries.
When it came to China, I had so many ideas about what China was supposed to be about. The surprise is that it was nothing like I imagined in a more positive way than expected. When I come here,
It's been only three years in China and it's just the beginning. There is so much more that I can continue to learn in this place, and it's just an open invitation for people that are thinking to study abroad, work abroad or do things anywhere in the world, to also consider China. Hence, this is a place to be, and this is a place where you can learn and grow a lot.
| A．So I decided to stay |
| B．And then I was ready to come to China |
| C．Today I want to share why coming to China changed my life |
| D．And this is something that really can change your life as well |
| E．mobile payment was one of the things that struck me the most |
| F．By the time I graduated from university I had already traveled to 61 countries |
| G．I realize all the potential that this place has and all the things that I could learn about China |
3 . Public security authorities nationwide have found 2,609 missing and abducted children since January, one of whom had been missing for 61 years, said an official with the Ministry of Public Security on Tuesday.
They have also resolved 147 cases of child abduction and trafficking and arrested 372 suspects, said Tong Bishan, deputy head of the ministry’s Criminal Investigation Bureau.
On June 1, the ministry released the addresses and telephone numbers of more than 3,000 free blood testing sites part of the Tuanyuan operation, which was launched in January to find the missing children. Tuanyuan means “reunion” in English.
Nearly 10,000 people volunteered to have their blood tested at the sites, and so far 306 families have been reunited, Tong said.
After searching for over 24 years, 51-year-old Guo Gangtang was recently reunited with his missing son, Guo Xinzhen, thanks to the help of the police. His now 26-year-old son was abducted in 1997 at the age of two and in 2015, Guo’s story was made into the movie Lost and Love starring Hong Kong actor, Andy Lau.
In June, public security experts used the latest testing and matching methods to successfully trace the son to Henan province. After the DNA was retested, the police finally confirmed his identity. Later, two suspects involved in the case were captured.
1. Why does the author mention the story of Guo Xinzhen’s reunion ?| A．To indicate that Guo Gangtang should be responsible for his son’s abduction. |
| B．To tell the readers that the movie Lost and Love helped Guo Gangtang find his son. |
| C．To show that the latest blood testing and matching methods are useful ways to search for abducted children. |
| D．To emphasize that the police confirmed two suspects’ identity by testing their DNA. |
| A．Abducted Children | B．Father Searching for Son |
| C．Government Action | D．Missing Children Found |
| A．a newspaper | B．a textbook | C．a leaflet | D．a poster |
4 . Seeking a suitable university for you? The University of Waikato is the right one. It is internationally recognized for its excellence and achievements. It will help you develop advanced research skills. As a university student you can get first-class research facilities with trained teachers to help, support and advise you in your study. We pride ourselves on our high standards, our research success and our international recognition. For further information: inf@waikato.ac.nz
●Degree
We offer a wide choice of bachelor’s degrees for international students, which include: Arts, Communication Studies, Social Sciences, etc. Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Education are only for New Zealand citizens. For further information: deg@waikato.ac.nz
●Tuition Fees
Tuition fees are different from department to department, generally from $5,000 to $6,000 a year. For further information: tui@waikato.ac.nz
●Accommodation
You can have a room in a 4-bedroom flat, which will cost about $100 a month with other regular living costs of about $150 a month for one person. For further information: ave@waikato.ac.nz
●Health
The Student Health Service provides excellent medical services for students. The Medical centre is open five days a week, including student holidays with four doctors and nurses to meet your medical needs. For further information: heal@waikato.ac.nz
●Sports
The Centre is a great place to have sports activities. Trained exercise teachers can help you work out a training plan and keep you active. The sports hall has volleyball, basketball and indoor football courts and a swimming pool as well. There are also a large number of sports clubs at Waikato. For further information: sport@waikcato.ac.nz
1. You have to pay at least a year if you study at the University of Waikato.| A．$5,250 | B．$8,000 | C．$9,000 | D．$11,000 |
| A．Go to a hospital nearby. | B．Buy some medicine in a drug store. |
| C．See a doctor at the school medical centre. | D．Try to get help from your classmates. |
| A．introduce the University of Waikato to readers |
| B．instruct readers to choose a right university |
| C．persuade readers to choose the University of Waikato |
| D．show how proud the author is of the university |
5 . There is a popular saying in the English language: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Well, that is not true. Unkind words, name-calling or even the so-called “the silent treatment” can hurt children as much as being physically hit, sometimes even more so. A recent study of middle school children showed that verbal (言语的) abuse by other children can harm, the development in the brain. The study was a project of researchers at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts. Researcher Martin Teicher and his team studied young adults, aged 18 to 25. These young men and women had not ever been treated in a cruel or violent way by their parents. The researchers asked the young people to rate their childhood exposure to verbal abuse from both parents and other children. Then the researchers performed imaging tests on the brains of the subjects.
The images showed that the people who reported suffering verbal abuse from peers in middle school had underdeveloped connections between the left and right side of the brain. The two sides of the brain are connected by a large bundle of connecting fibers called the corpus callosum. This was the area that was underdeveloped.
The middle school years are a time when these brain connections are developing. So, unkind, hurtful comments from children or adults during this period have the greatest effect. The researchers tested the mental and emotional condition of all the young people in the study. The tests showed that this same group of people had higher levels of fear, depression, anger and drug abuse than others in the study.
The researchers published their findings online on the American Journal of Psychiatry's website.
Parents cannot control what other people say to their children, but they can prepare their children.
1. Why does the author use the popular saying at the beginning?| A．To show the power of words. |
| B．To introduce an opposite view. |
| C．To prove the author's argument. |
| D．To show ancient people's wisdom. |
| A．They were hurt by unkind words. |
| B．They performed poorly in imaging tests. |
| C．They had their brain slightly damaged. |
| D．They experienced no physical abuse at home. |
| A．Comments on the findings. |
| B．Approaches to further studies. |
| C．Suggestions to parents. |
| D．Different opinions on the matter. |
| A．Unkind words hurt the brain. |
| B．Verbal violence should be stopped. |
| C．The way we speak matters. |
| D．Words are worse than sticks and stones. |
6 . Bullying (欺凌)can happen to anyone. A great many children around the world are bullied every year, but there are things that can be done to help.
What is bullying?
Bullying is when someone makes you feel bad of hurts you again and again. Bullying can happen at school, out of school and online. Bullying includes:
·calling people mean (恶意的)names
·laughing at people
·telling lies about people
·taking someone’s things without permission
·not telling someone play in a group
·hitting people
What is cyberbullying?
Cyberbullying includes:
·sending bad messages online
·sharing photos online without permission
·not letting someone be part of an online group
·spreading lies online
What can you do?
If someone is not kind to you, tell an adult that you know and like. For example, talk to a parent or a teacher.
If you get bad messages, don’t reply. You should save them and give them to your teacher, your family, or the police. Ask an adult for help. Don’t share something before you make sure it is true. That will help stop the cyberbullying.
Talk to your parent or teacher or an adult if you see bullying or if you are worried about a friend.
Say sorry if you are not kind to someone. You can write a message or talk to the person.
And always remember: think about how to be kind in the future.
For more information, visit our home page at www.kidsword.com.
1. According to the passage, the followings are bullying EXCEPT:| A．laughing with people | B．hitting people |
| C．telling lies about people | D．calling people mean names |
| A．at school | B．at home | C．on the Internet | D．on the street |
| A．share them with friends | B．keep them as your secrets |
| C．reply to them at once | D．give them to your teacher |
7 . When making choices, people assume that they pick what they like. However, research suggests that we like something strictly because we have chosen it. In other words, we dislike things we don’t choose. And this phenomenon has existed since we were babies.
In an experiment, US researchers brought several 10 to 20-month-old babies into a lab and gave them two same bright and colorful soft blocks to play with. They set each block far apart, so the babies had to crawl to one or the other—a random choice. After the baby chose one of the toys, the researchers took it away and came back with a new option. The babies could then pick either the toy they didn’t play with before, or a brand-new toy.
It turned out that the babies reliably chose to play with the new toy rather than the one they had not chosen.
In follow-up experiments, when researchers instead helped choose which toy the baby would play with, the phenomenon disappeared. “As if they were saying, ‘Hmm, I didn’t choose that object last time, because I guess I didn’t like it very much” said Lisa Feigenson, co-author of the study.
This is a very important phenomenon in life, Feigenson noted. Adults will less like the thing they didn’t choose, even if they had no real preference in the first place. It looks like babies do just the same.
It shows that the act of making choices changes how we feel about our options. The random choices might become our preferences. “They are really not choosing based on whether they are novel or what they prefer,” said Alex Silver, co-author of the study.
This new finding explains why adults build unconscious preference when they make choices between the same things. Justifying(证明有道理) choice is somehow fundamental to the human experience. “I chose this, so I must like it. I didn’t choose this other thing, so it cannot be so good. Adults make these inferences unconsciously,” Feigenson said.
Such tendency makes sense to us as we live in a consumer culture and must make so many choices every day, between everything from toothpaste brands to styles of jeans.
Next, researchers will look at whether too many choices could be a problem for babies as they certainly are for adults.
1. What is the purpose of the experiments?| A．To test whether people choose what they like. |
| B．To see why babies prefer new toys to old ones. |
| C．To explain how babies and adults make choices differently. |
| D．To study if too many choices could create problems for people. |
| A．Babies prefer bright and colorful toys. |
| B．Babies’ preference largely affects their choices. |
| C．Babies prefer adults to help them make choices. |
| D．Babies’ previous random choices affect their preference. |
| A．It entirely changes our styles to choose. |
| B．It helps us make wise decisions in a consumer culture. |
| C．It promotes the relationship between adults and babies. |
| D．It helps us understand our unconscious preference for choices. |
| A．Babies like what they choose | B．Random choices matter |
| C．Too many choices puzzle the adults | D．Preference affects the choice |
8 . Are you right-handed or left-handed? Have you ever wondered why?
With 10% of all humans being left-handed, lefties have been looked down upon as being unlucky. In the past, left-handers were thought to be strange, and left-handedness was thought to be caused by how anxious a pregnant (怀孕的) woman was during her pregnancy. However, we might now be closer to discovering the genetic reasons behind handedness.
We know that the human body is made up of cells, each of which contains a nucleus (细胞核). Inside the nucleus are thread-like structures called chromosomes (染色体) which can be stretched out to what is known as DNA. Sections of this DNA are referred to as genes — one section of DNA would show clearly your hair color and others, the shape of your nose!
The University of Oxford research team examined the genomes (基因组) of 400,000 volunteers in the UK Biobank, of whom 38,332 were left-handed. The team discovered four genetic regions, three of which had proteins (蛋白质) that play a key role in the formation of the physical structure of the cells.
By studying the brain scans of 9000 volunteers, researchers noticed that in people who were left-handed, the left and right halves of their brain that dealt with language worked in a much more intentionally matched manner. This led them to conclude that the genetic differences they had observed in left-handed people were responsible for differences in the white matter that connects language regions of the brain.
The team also found that the regions of left-handers’ brains that set them apart from right-handers gave them a slightly higher chance of getting some mental diseases, but a slightly lower chance of getting Parkinson’s disease. This study is the first to find a link between handedness, genes, and the language areas of the brains.
1. Why does the writer use two questions at the beginning?| A．To show the importance of genes. |
| B．To invite the readers to answer them. |
| C．To draw the readers’ attention to the topic. |
| D．To test the readers’ knowledge about being left-handed. |
| A．It is caused by the anxious pregnant woman. |
| B．It has something to do with genes. |
| C．It means greater creativity. |
| D．It is regarded as being strange. |
| A．By asking volunteers questions. |
| B．By testing volunteers’ intelligence. |
| C．By examining genomes and studying brain scans. |
| D．By comparing the acts of people with different hands. |
| A．Right-handers are better than left-handers. |
| B．Left-handers have a smaller chance of getting Parkinson’s disease. |
| C．Handedness is decided by the white matter of the brain. |
| D．There is a connection between handedness and genes. |
9 . Mumbai, India’s financial capital, is famous for its terrible traffic. But since October 22nd its roads have been unbelievably clear. The reason is that drivers for Uber and Ola, India’s two biggest ride-hailing(打车服务) companies, have been on strike(罢工). Local newspapers reported that 90% of the roughly 35,000 drivers in the city have stopped working. Mumbai’s middle classes have been forced back onto trains and buses to get around.
Protests(抗议者) against working conditions at ride-hailing companies are not new, nor unique to India. The drivers’ complaints are clear. When Uber, an American company and Ola, from Mumbai, started operating five years ago, they paid drivers generously. Some made as much 100,000 rupees a month ($1,360), a fortune in India. But over the past two years pay has been cut strongly. And in recent months, rising petrol prices have made things worse.
But that drivers are poor can’t make sure a successful strike. What seems to be making a difference in Mumbai is the organizing strength of powerful unions, in particular one called Maharashtra Rajya Rashtriya Kamgar Sangh. If it were not for those colleagues of this union who keep order, forcing striking drivers to take off their clothes or destroying their phones, thousands of angry drivers would have crossed the warning line.
The ride-hailing companies do not think they have the support of the authorities; last year, Uber won an injunction(禁令), forcing police officers to stop threatening its drivers. But if the companies give in to the strikers, what will happen? In July, one of Ola’s top managers said that the company’s losses increased by 55% last year to $660m. Uber does not publish figures for each of its markets, but it is not thought to be making money in India. Striking drivers should perhaps not push things too far: they may find themselves out of jobs.
1. Why have the roads in Mumbai been clear recently?| A．People in Mumbai prefer trains and buses to get around. |
| B．Most of drivers stopped working because of the strike. |
| C．The roads are under repair. |
| D．Unions in Mumbai stopped all the drivers from working. |
| A．Unions in Mumbai have little organizing strength. |
| B．The decrease of drivers’ income is the main cause of this strike. |
| C．Mumbai’s traffic used to be very terrible. |
| D．Uber may not earn much money in India market. |
| A．With the help of the authorities, ride-hailing companies will not give in to drivers. |
| B．The strike will be successful in the end. |
| C．Drivers should continue their strike until their demands are met. |
| D．Drivers should not protest extremely, or they would lose their jobs. |
| A．Ride-hailing in India: A Hopeless Story. |
| B．Ride-hailing in India: A Successful Business. |
| C．Ride-hailing in India: Facing Great Challenges. |
| D．Ride-hailing in India: Struggling for Survival. |
10 . If you live in Shanghai, Beijing or many other cities, you may see many orange bicycles on the streets these days.
These bikes are owned by a company called Mobike. You can order a bike through an app on your phone. When you find a bike, you just scan a QR code(扫描二维码) on the bike so you can use it. You don’t need to return the bike to a station—you can park it anywhere.
China was known as “the kingdom of bicycles” about 30 years ago. But more people choose to drive cars and catch the subway these days. Bike rental(租赁的) services like Mobike are bringing bikes back.
“Back then, I got the feeling that Chinese people were trying to be modern and push away the past. So they did not want to be connected with bicycles,” said Ines Brunn, a German woman who runs a bike store in Beijing. “I do believe changes in people’s tastes will shape new thinking about bikes.”
Online rental services are making biking more convenient, but it’s still not easy to ride bikes in Chinese cities. Cars often take up bicycle lanes(道路). Bikers have to ride next to cars in car lanes, which can be very dangerous.
Beijing plans to build over 3,200 km of new bike lanes. Drivers who drive in bike lanes will be punished. Traffic signs will be put up to better protect bikers.
1. If you want to use a Mobike, ________.| A．you have to pay for an app |
| B．you don’t need to pay for it |
| C．you have to scan a QR code |
| D．you don’t have to return it |
| A．Bike rental services are becoming more popular. |
| B．China had the most bicycles in the world about 30 years ago. |
| C．More people are driving cars or taking the subway these days. |
| D．There are more bicyclists than motorists these days. |
| A．Chinese people like modern things. |
| B．More people will start riding bikes. |
| C．People in Beijing are changing their tastes. |
| D．Chinese people like riding bicycles. |
| A．Bringing back bikes |
| B．Orange bikes will be fashionable |
| C．How to use a Mobike |
| D．Why is Beijing building new bike lanes? |
