1 . On July 28, I retired from my position. After teaching for many years, I looked forward to kayaking (划独木舟) with my grandsons, seeing friends and traveling for leisure with my husband. But my body had other plans for me. A broken spine (脊椎) in my back took me down a path that upended my plans.
I have long had back pain. However, I pushed through the pain to do my work, which worsened my condition. Doctors urged an operation when increased disability meant I could not sit, stand or walk for a long time. But I wanted to see whether physical therapy (治疗) could create an easier option.
Indeed, hard work with a great physical therapist has let me improve my mobility, sitting and standing. But X-rays told a different story. My spine was unstable and bending. After careful consideration and a second opinion from another professional, I agreed to surgery yet in the near term. Needless to say, the past months have been tough and the way ahead will be even tougher. Kayaking with my grandsons in the peacefulness of the lake is all out of reach, for now.
When I met my physical therapist for the first time, I was a mess. He listened to me outline my history with tears and then calmly said, “You have to make friends with your body.” I have repeated that line to myself daily and worked to embrace my body. I have focused on gratitude. I’m grateful that I do not have a fatal disease. I’m grateful that the body I have remains alert to the world, loved by family and friends. I’m grateful that I am still myself.
I don’t know exactly how the future will play out. The surgeon assures me that I should be able to get in my kayak by summer. But I may have to make friends with a different body, one that is mine regardless of the shape.
1. Why did the author’s condition become worse?| A．She disliked physical therapy. |
| B．She hurt her back when kayaking. |
| C．She still worked despite back pain. |
| D．She was unwilling to have an operation. |
| A．She forgot to kayak with her grandsons. |
| B．She decided to accept an operation right away. |
| C．She completely recovered after physical therapy. |
| D．She asked another doctor for advice on the operation. |
| A．Her wish to enjoy retirement life. |
| B．Her physical therapist’s advice. |
| C．Her worsening physical condition. |
| D．Her love for her family and friends. |
| A．Learning to accept my body |
| B．Enjoying my retirement life |
| C．Fighting against my back pain |
| D．Being grateful for what I have |
LEGO has been around forever and is still a favorite toy for children of all
David Aguilar, a 19-year-old from Spain,
Now,
It’s so refreshing to see such a clever young man who tries to help others in similar situations
Nowadays people’s screen time is really much. Both adults
Looking at a screen for a long time is harmful
In today’s society, it may not seem that we can cut screens out
1. 目前学生的近视现状；2. 保护眼睛的具体措施；3. 呼吁同学们保护眼睛。
注意：1. 词数应为80字左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 倡议书的开头和结尾已经给出，不计入总词数；
4. 参考词汇：myopia n. 近视 short-sighted adj. 近视的
Dear fellow students,
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Students’ union
5 . Take a look at your fingers. Would you believe me if I told you that the length of your fingers in relation to one another can predict your personality? I know that it sounds like one of those silly tests you see on Facebook, but I have to admit that it was spot-on for me.
Look at your three middle fingers of your left hand. Is your index finger(食指)longer than your ring finger? Is your ring finger longer than your index finger? Or are the two the same length?
Category 1: A longer ring finger. If your ring finger is longer than your index finger, research shows that you’re likely a charming type, and you can probably talk yourself out of any situation. Others often find this personality type irresistible(无法抵制的)and will go to great lengths to help you. You’re more likely to take risks, and you’re good at problem-solving. People in this category make great engineers, soldiers and crossword-puzzle solvers.
Category 2: A longer index finger. If your index finger is longer than your ring finger, chances are that you are full of confidence — possibly even to the point of being over-confident and too proud. You are not necessarily shy, but you do enjoy time to yourself especially when you’re trying to complete a project. You are a determined go-getter who can make things happen, but you may be shy when it comes to taking the first step in building up a friendship. You are also probably happy with what you have, but you’re always wishing for more.
Category 3: The two are the same length. If your index finger and ring finger are roughly the same length, you are likely to avoid conflict at all costs and seek to keep the peace in your relationships. You are well-organized, faithful and sympathetic. But deep down under all of that caring and peace-loving, you also can go mad unexpectedly when you’re pushed too far.
How well did these descriptions match your personality? I was surprised at the accuracy in my case.
1. What might people with a long ring finger tend to be like?| A．Creative. | B．Attractive. | C．Hard-working. | D．Harm-hearted. |
| A．They are not welcome most of the time. |
| B．They always feel confident and never feel shy. |
| C．They are always satisfied with what they have. |
| D．They prefer to be left alone when working on a project. |
| A．The crossword-puzzle solver. | B．The adventurer. |
| C．The peacemaker. | D．The sweet talker. |
| A．Never believe the silly tests on Facebook. |
| B．The length of fingers can show personality. |
| C．Why your fingers are not of the same length. |
| D．How to find out about one’s personality exactly. |
6 . It is reported that the sense of smell plays a dominant role in the social interactions of all land animals except humans. Then the question arises: Is this because humans don’t use their noses in social settings the way all other land animals do? Or is this behavior covert (隐蔽的), rather than overt, in humans?
In fact, this is exactly what Inbal Ravreby, a graduate student in Prof. Noam Sobel’s laboratory in Weizmann’s Brain Sciences Department, tried to answer. And as several lines of evidence suggest that humans are constantly, although mostly subconsciously, sniffing themselves and others, Ravreby supposed that the latter is the case.
To test her hypothesis, Ravreby conducted the study with pairs of click friends: same-sex nonromantic friends whose friendships had originally formed very rapidly. Because such friendships emerge prior to an in-depth acquaintance, they may be particularly influenced by physiological characteristics such as body smell. She then collected body smell samples from these click friends and conducted two sets of experiments to compare the samples with those collected from random pairs of individuals. In one set of experiments, she performed the comparison with a device known as an electronic nose, or eNose, which assessed the chemical signatures of the smells. In the other, she asked volunteers to smell the two groups of body smell samples in order to assess similarities measured by human perception. In both types of experiments, click friends were found to smell significantly more like each other than the individuals in the random pairs.
Next, to rule out the possibility that body smell similarity was a consequence of click friendships, rather than a contributing cause, Ravreby performed an additional set of experiments, in which she used the eNose to “smell” a number of volunteers who were complete strangers to one another, and then asked them to engage in nonverbal (非言语的) social interactions in pairs. After each such structured interaction, the participants rated the other individual in terms of how much they liked that person. Subsequent analysis revealed that the individuals who had more positive interactions indeed smelled more like each other, as determined by the eNose.
“These results imply that, as the saying goes, there is chemistry in social chemistry,” Ravreby concludes. However, Sobel offers words of caution, “This is not to say that we act like dogs or goats — humans likely rely on other, far more dominant signals in their social decision-making. Nevertheless, our study’s results do suggest that our nose plays a bigger role than previously thought in our choice of friends.”
1. What did Inbal Ravreby want to figure out?| A．Whether humans have a sharp sense of smell. |
| B．Whether humans’ noses can detect all types of smells. |
| C．Whether it is necessary for humans to sniff other people. |
| D．Whether the sense of smell plays a role in humans’ interaction. |
| A．The way to make comparisons. | B．The participation of random pairs. |
| C．The way volunteers used the eNose. | D．The number of pairs of click friends. |
| A．To determine the reliability of the finding. |
| B．To avoid interactions between click friends. |
| C．To make the experiments much more interesting. |
| D．To test the accuracy of the eNose in smell analysis. |
| A．Disapproving. | B．Doubtful. |
| C．Positive. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．Have a rest. | B．Walk further. | C．See a doctor. |
8 . As time goes on, neuroscientists learn more about the wonders of human brains. The deeper understanding offers ways to enhance your brain to work in your favor. You don’t have to be a brain scientist to do it!
When you hear the word hack, you might be reminded of the snaky computer science term. Computer hackers need to understand the inner workings of a computer to break into its system.
Neurohackers use their knowledge of how the brain works to change though patterns, like daily habits. Doing this requires understanding the way habits form in the brain. Whenever you repeat a task, the brain connects its wires together between brain cells. Over time, these habits become hardwired into the brains.
Below the conscious mind lives the subconscious, a deeper mental space that hosts what you have previously engraved into your mind.
| A．Find out what neurohacking is. |
| B．The same goes for neurohackers. |
| C．Just learn how to hack your brain. |
| D．How can you improve your mindfulness? |
| E．How do you change those undesirable habits? |
| F．Habits free up our brains so that we can learn new things. |
| G．With proper practices, you’ll build a deeper awareness of your own brain. |
9 . Mark Bertram, 46, lost the tips of two fingers at work in 2018 when his hand became trapped in a fan belt. “It's life-changing but it's not life-ending,” he says. “Doing work is harder now. Everything is just a little different.”
After two surgeries and occupational therapy, Bertram decided to make light of his condition by asking Eric Catalano, a tattoo (纹身) artist, to create fingernail tattoos. The idea made everyone in the studio laugh—until they saw the final result. “The mood changed,” Catalano recalls from his Eternal Ink Tattoo Studio. “Everything turned from funny to wow.”
When Catalano posted a photo of the tattoos, a pair of fingernails that looked so real that no one could believe their eyes, he had no idea the image would eventually be viewed by millions of people around the world.
The viral photo pushed Catalano, 40, further into the world of paramedical (辅助医疗的) tattooing. Now people with life-altering scars come from as far away as Ireland to visit his shop. They enter Eternal Ink looking for the artistic healing they saw online. Using flesh-toned (肉色的) inks and a needle, Catalano transforms his clients' view of themselves.
Leslie Pollan, 32, a dog breeder in Oxford, was bitten on the face by a puppy in 2014. She underwent countless surgeries to correct a scar on her lip.
“Plastic surgery gave me no hope,” she says. “So I looked for other options.” She ultimately traveled six hours to meet with Catalano. He hid Pollan's lip scar, giving her back a piece of her confidence.“ You don't understand until you've been through it,” Pollan says. “It made me have a different look on life.”
Catalano performs up to eight reconstructive tattoos. While he charges $100 per regular tattoo, he doesn't charge for paramedical tattoos. “Financially, it doesn't make sense,” Catalano says. “But every time I see that emotion from my customers, I'm 100 percent sure this is something that I can't stop doing.”
1. What best describes people's attitude when first hearing of fingernail tattoos?| A．Indifferent. | B．Ridiculous. |
| C．Confident. | D．Surprised. |
| A．He drew an artistic puppy. |
| B．He inked scars on her face. |
| C．He created a lip tattoo. |
| D．He performed plastic surgeries on her. |
| A．Cosmetic surgery is of no use. |
| B．Tattoos earn Mark Bertram a good fame. |
| C．Catalano is a kind and generous person. |
| D．Fingernail tattoos are popular around the world. |
| A．A Life-changing Event | B．Miracle Tattoos |
| C．An Amazing Artist | D．A Promising Business |
10 . Sneezing is one of the many wonders of the human body and one of our protective reflexes (反射动作). When something stimulates the inside of our nose - such as dust or pollen - the tiny nerve endings inside our nose send a message to our brain that in turn sends out messages to many parts of our body to release the sneeze.
Sometimes you feel the urge to sneeze when you're in a meeting or during the quiet part of a play or concert. You might do your best to stifle the reflex so you don't sneeze. But it's better to interrupt your coworkers and seatmates than risk health consequences, say researchers.
According to a case described in the journal BMJ Case Reports, a 34 - year - old in Leicester in the U. K. ended up hurting his throat while trying to hold in a forceful sneeze. The man said he felt a “popping” sensation in his neck after pinching (捏) his nose and holding his mouth closed to stop a sneeze. The pressure didn't have anywhere to go, so it tore the soft tissue. The man had to be fed by a tube after the incident and eventually made a full recovery.
I know all sorts of sneezers, quiet ones and loud ones. Each person is different. As Dr. Mitchell Grayson, a professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, explains, “Some people have bouts (一阵) of sneezing. It's a neurologic reflex, and it depends on the person. Some people may have 10 to 20 sneezes in a row.” It usually depends on the level of irritation in your nose, because you'll keep sneezing until you get it out.
The saying that your eyes will pop out of your head if you sneeze with them open is false. Our eyes shutting tight when we sneeze is simply a reflex, much like our leg going up when our knee is tapped. It doesn't really have a good reason 一 it just happens.
1. What does the underlined word “stifle” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Stop | B．Relax |
| C．Strengthen | D．Change |
| A．To introduce a new topic | B．To support the second paragraph |
| C．To summarize previous paragraphs | D．To highlight the main idea of the text |
| A．The personal habits | B．The emotional state |
| C．The health condition | D．The stimulation level |
| A．the pressure has nowhere to go | B．they don't want to hurt their throat |
| C．their eyes may pop out | D．a protective reflex happens |
