1 . As a young girl growing up in France, Sarah Toumi dreamed of becoming a leader who could make the world a better place. Her passion to help others was awakened when, from the age of nine, she accompanied her Tunisian father to his birthplace in the east of the country during holidays. There she organized homework clubs and activities for children.
Toumi witnessed first-hand the destructive effect of desertification (沙漠化). “Within 10 years rich farmers became worse off, and in 10 years from now they will be poor. I wanted to stop the Sahara Desert in its tracks.” A decrease in average rainfall and an increase in the severity of droughts have led to an estimated 75 percent of Tunisia’s agricultural lands being threatened by desertification.
Toumi recognized that farming practices needed to change. She is confident that small land areas can bring large returns if farmers are able to adapt by planting sustainable crops, using new technologies for water treatment and focusing on natural products and fertilizers rather than chemicals.
In 2012, Toumi consolidated (巩固) her dream of fighting the desert. She moved to Tunisia, and set up a programme named Acacias for All to put her sustainable farming philosophy (理念) into action. “I want to show young people in rural areas that they can create opportunities where they are. Nobody is better able to understand the impact of desertification and climate change than somebody who is living with no access to water.”
By September 2016, more than 130, 000 acacia trees had been planted on 20 pilot farms, with farmers recording a 60 percent survival rate. Toumi estimates that some 3 million acacia trees are needed to protect Tunisia’s farmland. She expects to plant 1 million trees by 2018. In the next couple of years, Toumi hopes to extend the programme to Algeria and Morocco.
1. How did Toumi’s holiday trips to Tunisia influence her?| A．They made her decide to leave the country. |
| B．They helped her better understand her father. |
| C．They aroused her enthusiasm for helping others. |
| D．They destroyed her dream of being a teacher. |
| A．Low rainfall. | B．Soil pollution. | C．Cold weather. | D．Forest damage. |
| A．To create job opportunities for young people. |
| B．To help the children obtain a basic education. |
| C．To persuade the farmers not to use fertilizers. |
| D．To promote the protection of their farmland. |
| A．Saving Water in Tunisia | B．Holding back the Sahara |
| C．Planting Trees of Native Species | D．Fighting Poverty in North Africa |
1. What kind of people are “early birds”?
| A．The people getting up early in the morning. |
| B．The people going to bed early at night. |
| C．The people going to bed late at night. |
| A．Around 9: 00 p. m. | B．Around 10: 00 p. m. | C．Around midnight or later. |
| A．One-fourth. | B．Two-fifths. | C．One-fifth. |
| A．Some intelligence tests. | B．Getting grades in school. | C．Getting good jobs. |
3 . A newly published study shows that chess players perform objectively worse and — make more suboptimal (次最优的) moves when there is more fine particulate matter (颗粒物) in the air.
“We find that when individuals are exposed to higher levels of air pollution, they make more mistakes, and they make larger mistakes,” says Juan Palacios, a co-author of a newly published paper detailing the study’s findings.
Scholars have produced many studies exploring the effects of air pollution on cognition. The current study adds to that literature by analyzing the subject in a particularly controlled setting. The scholars used three web-connected sensors inside the tournament venue to measure carbon dioxide, PM2.5 concentrations, and temperature, all of which, can, be affected by external conditions, even in an indoor setting.
To evaluate the matter of performance of players, meanwhile, the scholars used software programs that assess each move made in each chess match, identify optimal decisions, and flag significant errors. During the tournaments, the researchers examined and ruled out alternate potential explanations for the dip in player performance, such as increased noise. They also found that carbon dioxide and temperature changes did not correspond to performance changes. Ultimately, the analysis confirms that the findings are driven by the direct exposure to air particles.
The researchers also found that when air pollution was worse, the chess, players performed even more poorly when under time constraints. The tourmament rules required that 40 moves had to be made within 110 minutes; for moves 31-40 in all, the matches, an air pollution, increase of 10 micro-grams per cubic meter led to an increased probability of error of 3.2 percent, with the magnitude of those errors increasing by 17.3 percent. And while the focus of this particular study is tightly focused on chess players, the findings have strong implications for high-skilled office workers.
1. What does the study find about air pollution?| A．It becomes more and more serious in the gym. |
| B．It can help evaluate chess players’ performance. |
| C．It may affect more people with mental processes. |
| D．It can’t be affected by indoor surroundings. |
| A．To measure carbon dioxide and temperature. |
| B．To assess the performance of players. |
| C．To help players make great moves. |
| D．To distinguish players’ errors in time. |
| A．Limit. | B．Freedom. | C．Consumption. | D．Measurement. |
| A．Various reasons for chess players’ mistakes. |
| B．A new research on chess players’ performance. |
| C．Scholars’ concern about chess players’ health. |
| D．The influence of air pollution on chess players. |
4 . While English is getting more important in our schools, Chinese has become popular among foreign kids. But Chinese can be more difficult to learn. At least 16-year-old Piao Chenglong thinks so. “English is easier for me. Chinese characters (汉字) have too many strokes (笔画),” said Piao. “But I want to learn it. I want to study at Beijing University when I grow up.” Piao is from Korea. He came to China in 2008.
In Korea, there are more than 300, 000 Chinese learners like Piao. Some Korean students begin to learn to write the language on their first day at school. To help students learn Chinese, Korea holds speaking competitions for high school students every year.
Chinese isn’t just popular in Korea. People from all the world want to learn it. The Ministry of Education of China says that nearly 130 million people from 85 countries are learning Chinese. This number will be increasing to 800 million in the coming years.
In America, Chinese is the second most popular foreign language after Spanish. Some American middle schools have Chinese classes. Students learn to make jiaozi and tie Chinese knots (中国结). Some even try to write and draw in the Chinese way!
People want to learn Chinese because China is becoming such an important country. Foreign countries want to understand China better to help them with business. The Chinese government is also helping the world learn Chinese. It has sent more than 200 Chinese teachers to more than 60 countries in the world. Many more Confucius Institutes (孔子学院) will be set up in the world. These institutes will teach Chinese to foreign students.
1. Which of the following is the topic sentence for the text?| A．Chinese has become popular among foreign kids. |
| B．Chinese can be more difficult to learn. |
| C．In America, Chinese is the second most popular foreign language after Spanish. |
| D．Students learn to make jiaozi and tie Chinese knots. |
| A．China. | B．America. | C．Korea. | D．Spain. |
| A．making jiaozi |
| B．writing and drawing in the Chinese way |
| C．tying Chinese knots |
| D．singing Chinese songs |
| A．Because Chinese is getting more important in their schools. |
| B．Because Chinese characters have too many strokes. |
| C．Because the number of people learning Chinese will be 800 million. |
| D．Because China is becoming more and more important in the world. |
With the development of modern technology, people can stay
Once joining the WeChat, people can find more and more people start to add them
However, addiction to WeChat will rob people of the time that should otherwise
6 . Fashion rental has been on the increase for a few years, similar to trends such as up-cycling and charity shopping. It seems likely to be another pandemic related trend, pushing people to think about fashion consumption and sustainable living — a positive to come out of an isolating two years. Maybe more sustainable way of looking and thinking about fashion is the industry’s future.
According to Fashion United, the fashion rental market is “expected to grow more than 10% year-on-year until 2027”. Rental is a positive in the rapidly changing world of fashion. It is not a trend; it is a solution to limiting the unnecessary production and consumption of clothing.
Sue Ingle, owner of Heavenly Hat Hire, says her main customers are “those attending weddings and races”. Discussing the cost of living, she explains how “people are unwilling to pay £200 for a hat they may only wear once”, so paying a percentage of this on a rental is more affordable and therefore more accessible to a wider audience.
Fashion rental is widening its market. Luxury department stores such as Selfridges and Harrods join forces with rental companies to provide designer items on loan. So why go to a smaller business? From purchasing experience, small businesses often have a more personal feel with extra touches, which are not needed but much appreciated. Heavenly Hat Hire invites customers to book an appointment to try on hats. Sue names the hats to give them a more personal feel and loves it when a customer comes in telling her “I don’t suit hats and never wear them”, then an hour later leaves happily with a hat in hand.
If the pandemic revealed anything to the fashion industry, it is that no brand, no matter its scale, is completely secure. We should support the companies thinking about environmental impact and making improvements to become more sustainable. Small businesses providing this as well as exceptional services should get all our support.
Fashion rental is around to fill the gap in your wardrobe when necessary. As Sue says, “We all need to buy less and love what we already have a little bit more.”
1. What does the author intend to show in Paragraph 3?| A．The change of fashion. | B．The reason for the rise of fashion rental. |
| C．The promising future of fashion rental. | D．Rental’s accessibility to a wide audience. |
| A．To prove fashion rental’s huge profit. | B．To introduce some famous clothing brands. |
| C．To show fashion rental gains popularity. | D．To appeal to more stores to join in the trade. |
| A．Fund-saving. | B．Flexible and movable. |
| C．Fast developing. | D．Eco-friendly. |
| A．Approving. | B．Critical. | C．Objective. | D．Unclear. |
7 . We all know that unpleasant feeling when we’re talking about something interesting and halfway through our sentence we’re interrupted. But was that really an interruption? The answer depends on whom you ask, according to new research led by Katherine Hilton from Stanford University.
Using a set of controlled audio clips (录音片段), Hilton surveyed 5, 000 American English speakers to better understand what affects people’s perceptions of interruptions. She had participants listen to audio clips and then answer questions about whether the speakers seemed to be friendly and engaged, listening to one another, or trying to interrupt.
Hilton found that American English speakers have different conversational styles. She identified two distinct groups: high and low intensity speakers. High intensity speakers are generally uncomfortable with moments of silence in conversation and consider talking at the same time a sign of engagement. Low intensity speakers find it rude to talk at the same time and prefer people speak one after another in conversation.
The differences in conversational styles became evident when participants listened to audio clips in which two people spoke at the same time but were agreeing with each other and stayed on topic, Hilton said. The high intensity group reported that conversations where people spoke at the same time when expressing agreement were not interruptive but engaged and friendlier than the conversations with moments of silence in between speaking turns. In contrast, the low intensity group perceived any amount of simultaneous (同时) chat as a rude interruption, regardless of what the speakers were saying.
“People care about being interrupted, and those small interruptions can have a massive effect on the overall communication,” Hilton said. “Breaking apart what an interruption means is essential if we want to understand how humans interact with each other.”
1. What does Hilton’s research focus on?| A．What interruptions mean to people. |
| B．Whether interruption is good or not. |
| C．How to avoid getting interrupted. |
| D．Why speakers interrupt each other. |
| A．Record an audio clip. | B．Answer some questions. |
| C．Listen to one another. | D．Have a chat with a friend. |
| A．It’s important. | B．It’s interesting. |
| C．It’s inefficient. | D．It’s impolite. |
| A．Human interaction is complex. |
| B．Communication is the basis of life. |
| C．Interruptions promote thinking. |
| D．Language barriers will always exist. |
8 . When I was about 5 years old, I experienced my very first random act of kindness. I was sitting at the roadside one evening, crying alone for some reason when suddenly, a boy came up to me and gave me a plastic rose, I remember the moment when I took the rose from his hand; I was smiling from ear to ear, whispering “I want to be like him” to myself as I watched him walking away.
From then on, I made it as my life mission to do random acts of kindness whenever I can. I was very determined to make other people smile. That was the only reason why I joined my school’s Red Crescent Society and became a volunteer. Unfortunately, not everyone thinks in the same way as I did. Whenever I do something nice to others, people around me will start to judge my actions. Often I will just keep quiet and ignore what they say, but every once in a while, they do drive me up the wall.
These people like to complain about how humans nowadays are lacking of humanities and compassion. However, when they actually see somebody doing a good deed in front of them, they start to question and criticize that person’s honesty. Perhaps it is the increasing crime rate and the never-ending rat race that caused them to be so suspicious to nice strangers. In other words, people nowadays have lost sight of the real meaning of kindness and just let it go unnoticed. That is why I think random acts of kindness are really important. These selfless acts are not only capable of bringing joy to the receivers but also to the givers. Because of this, I want to help spread the idea of these random acts to the whole world. I want to show the people how the little things they give could make a big difference in someone else’s life.
1. What was the influence of the boy’s rose on the author?| A．It made the author feel ashamed. | B．The author decided to follow suit. |
| C．The author said a lot to the boy. | D．It gave the author strength and hope. |
| A．To be a volunteer. | B．To live a happy life. |
| C．To make others smile. | D．To have a good time. |
| A．Make me very angry. | B．Bring difficulty to me. |
| C．Force me to climb the wall. | D．Force me to the dead corner. |
| A．Rats are always running on the streets. | B．Those who do good deeds are respected. |
| C．The author feels sad about other people. | D．Trust between people is decreasing. |
9 . The New Year is the moment when people vow to improve their fitness. They join gyms, swear off alcohol and adopt healthier diets. These resolutions usually do not last beyond January.
But some employers try to help their workers stick to their goals by offering “wellness” programmes. One of the longest-running examples began in 1979 at Johnson & Johnson (J&J), an American health-care company. The plan promotes weight loss, smoking quitting and efforts to reduce blood pressure. The firm claims it reduced medical costs by $400 an employee per year, and resulted in fewer workers suffering from heart disease or high blood pressure.
Yet an examination of the data by Martin Cherniack of the University of Connecticut found that in 2005-2008, a sharp jump in alcohol use, depression and stress among J&J employees occurred. This took place just at the same time when the firm had a target of lifting productivity by 9% a year. So the employees may have been leaner and fitter, but it is possible that workplace pressure to produce more means greater stress.
All this suggests that employee well-being is a rather more complex topic than can be tackled by a programme devoted to exercise and healthy living. A study by RAND Europe, a research institute, found that obvious bad habits such as smoking and high alcohol use were in fact not associated with lower productivity, while obese workers were no more likely to take time off than anyone else. The biggest productivity problems were associated with lack of sleep, financial concerns and mental-health issues—factors that may well be directly linked to work-related stress.
It seems reasonable for companies to expect some level of economic return on any wellness programme that they provide. But a better impact on confidence and enthusiasm (and thus productivity) might occur if workers felt that their managers had a real interest in their welfare.
1. What is Johnson & Johnson’s plan?| A．To improve employees’ fitness. | B．To increase their productivity. |
| C．To reduce their medical cost. | D．To raise their welfares. |
| A．It solved all the health problems. | B．It worked to a certain extent. |
| C．It could do nothing about health. | D．It hardly improved their health. |
| A．Exercise and healthy living. | B．The New Year resolution. |
| C．Work-related stress. | D．Heavy medical costs. |
| A．By focusing on productivity. | B．By being carried out continuously. |
| C．By winning managers’ support. | D．By improving employees’ welfares. |
10 . Chinese students always complain that they’re under great pressure and don’t get enough sleep. But they may be surprised to learn that they’re much luckier than their peers in South Korea and Japan, according to a recently published report, conducted by Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences on the physical and mental health of senior high school students in the three Asian countries.
According to the study among nearly 6,000 high school students in the three countries, Chinese students are the tallest but poorest in physical fitness. Chinese students are on average 168.17cm, compared with 167.61cm for South Korean students and 164.70cm for Japanese students. Chinese students asked for sick leave more than students in other countries. About 72 percent of Korean students never asked for sick and injury leave during high school, compared to 53 percent for Japanese students and 45 percent for Chinese students. Moreover, Chinese students drink alcohol and smoke earlier than Korean and Japanese students. Around 70 percent of Chinese students have drunk alcohol, compared to 50 percent for Korean and Japanese students.
According to the survey, Japanese and South Korean students suffer more pressure than their Chinese peers. Statistics show 16 percent of students in China said they experienced mental pressure often over the past year, while the numbers in Japan and South Korea were 33 percent and 47 percent respectively. Their worries come from “study”, “future after graduation”, “friendships” and “relationship with their parents”. To go with stress, 57.9 percent of Korean students sleep the least, less than six hours a day, compared with 46.6 percent of Japanese students and 30 percent of Chinese students.
More Chinese students were satisfied with their physical appearance, double that of students in the survey from Japan and South Korea. The report said that over half of students in South Korea had tried to lose weight in the past year, while in China the figure was only 22 percent. In measures of self-worth, such as “I think I am valuable” and “I think I am successful”, “I can complete many things”, “I won’t give up to failure,” Chinese students showed greater self-confidence than students in Japan and South Korea.
1. What’s the main idea of the second paragraph?| A．Chinese teenagers are tallest, but most unhealthy. |
| B．Chinese students drink most alcohol and smoke earliest. |
| C．Japanese students ask for least sick leave. |
| D．Chinese students ask for sick leave most often. |
| A．Chinese students are luckiest, yet most unsuccessful. |
| B．Chinese students are confident in themselves and luckier. |
| C．Japanese students are most stressed. |
| D．South Korean students sleep the least. |
| A．The height. | B．The percentage. | C．The weight. | D．The number. |
| A．study and career | B．physical appearance | C．friendships | D．family relationship |
