1 . Playgrounds for All Kids
Most of us are all too familiar with the typical playground set-up, monkey bars, swings, and slides, all accessed by steps and surrounded by a sea of sand or wood chips.
Goldberg describes the idea behind designing these playgrounds as completely inclusive. They don’t strictly cater to (迎合) children with disabilities and are not meant to prevent any child from having access to play.
| A．What are their accessible playgrounds like today? |
| B．Harper’s Playground was created for just this problem. |
| C．Harper’s Playground began to work on its initial designs. |
| D．The equipment and layout provide access to a fun experience for all. |
| E．Slides are built extra wide so a caregiver and a child can go together. |
| F．It hopes to eventually spread across the country and, ultimately, the world. |
| G．The intention of these public playgrounds is to give kids a safe and fun place to play. |
2 . Dr. Jewel Tankard, the CEO and founder of the Millionairess Club, is going to attend the Millionairess Conference on Saturday, in Detroit. The conference inspires women to learn the rules of economics, become financially independent, and start their own businesses.
Tankard thinks a millionairess is someone who desires more. It has nothing to do with her present financial state. It has everything to do with her desiring more, wanting more and believing in more. The desire is big, but women are inspired in the end to make a big difference.
Tankard’s parents were the first African Americans to own a business in downtown Detroit. They had housekeepers, cooks, drivers, and all the best money could buy. After Tankard turned 19, however, they lost everything. After their lives greatly changed, Tankard asked her mom what her thoughts were during the process. Like many other women, her mother told her that she felt that some different financial decisions should have been made but she finally left money decisions up to her dad.
Tankard wants women to know they are able to become educated about financial matters and that they have the ability to make sound financial choices. Just because a man is a man, it doesn’t make him a better financial manager. Women should learn to trust their financial instincts and step up concerning money matters.
The Millionairess Conference is held to help ordinary women lead extraordinary lives by arming attendees with the knowledge and tools needed to take control of their finances. It works on providing financial advice to help women achieve generational wealth.
1. Who is a millionairess in Tankard’s opinion?| A．A woman who always makes a contribution. | B．A woman who is always hungry for more. |
| C．A woman who has started a business. | D．A woman who has a lot of money. |
| A．Her mother’s words. | B．Her wealthy childhood. |
| C．The conflict between her parents. | D．The desire of African Americans. |
| A．Men’s decisions aren’t always wise. |
| B．Their social position is relatively high. |
| C．The education they receive requires them to do so. |
| D．They have the ability to make wise financial choices. |
| A．To improve the development of economy. | B．To provide women with a better education. |
| C．To guide women to financial independence. | D．To achieve equality between men and women. |
3 . Six months before she died, my grandmother moved into an old people’s home and I visited her there. The room was clean and warm, and the care assistants were kind and cheerful. A general knowledge quiz show was on the television, and the only other sound was snoring. People moved only when they needed to be helped to the bathroom. It was disappointing. Grandmother talked a lot about how much she missed seeing her grandchildren, but I knew from my sister that they hated going to visit her there.
So I was interested to read a newspaper article about a new concept in old people’s homes in France. The idea is simple, but revolutionary — combining a residential home for the elderly with a nursery school in the same building. The children and the residents eat lunch together and share activities. In the afternoons, the residents enjoy reading or telling stories to the children, and if a child is feeling sad or tired, there is always a kind lap to sit on.
The advantages are huge for everyone concerned. The children are happy, because they get a lot more individual attention. The residents are happy because they feel useful and needed. And the staff are happy because they see an improvement in the physical and psychological health of the residents and have an army of assistants to help with the children.
Nowadays there is less and less contact between the old and the young in an increasing number of countries. There are many reasons for this, including the breakdown of the extended family, working parents with no time to care for ageing relations, families that have moved away, and smaller flats with no room for grandparents. But the result is the same-increasing numbers of children without grandparents and old people who have no contact with children, and more old people who are lonely and feel useless, along with more and more families with young children who desperately need more support. Ifs a major problem in many societies.
That’s why intergenerational programs, designed to bring the old and the young together, are growing in popularity all over the world.
1. What does the underlined word “residents” in paragraph 2 probably refer to?| A．Old people. | B．School teachers. | C．Assistants. | D．Staff. |
| A．They felt lonely and useless. | B．They weren’t allowed to be visited. |
| C．They weren’t looked after properly. | D．They lived in a dirty and uncomfortable room. |
| A．The extended family is broken down. |
| B．There isn’t much room for grandparents. |
| C．Working parents have no time to care for their children. |
| D．There isn’t much contact between the old and the young. |
| A．Advice on how to communicate with children. |
| B．Plans for setting up more homes for old people. |
| C．Examples of successful intergenerational programs. |
| D．Ways of teaching entertainment skills to old people. |
4 . A survey by the American Psychological Association shows that one in ten adults reads online news at least once an hour. A lot has been written about the mental health influence from news addiction, and in particular from reading negative reports. Just like junk food, “junk” news can be bad for our health.
In recent years, things have been getting increasingly more negative. A study of the content of New Zealand’s largest newspaper showed that while in 1973 the average number of stories about death on the front page was 0.75, by 2013 it was 4.1(and no, there weren’t five times more people dying).
What’s more, online news, and the stories we read on mobile phones in particular, tend to be even more negative than print. A 2019 study of 50 U.S. newspapers showed that mobile versions of newspapers report three times more stories about disasters and accidents than paper ones.
Such negative reports lead people to believe that things are worse than they really are. They can lead to stress, worry and lower spirits.
Experiments also suggest that loneliness and poor relationships have been connected with reading negative reports. After reading negative reports, people are less likely to help others. Even worse, when we check news on smart phones, we may “phub” our loved ones, which leads to lower relationship satisfaction.
Negative reports attract our attention far more than positive ones. That’s a global happening. I hope, however, that if we realize that negative news is spoiling our moods, we might all be more willing to change.
1. Why is “junk food” mentioned in the first paragraph?| A．To entertain readers. | B．To introduce the topic. |
| C．To make an advertisement. | D．To keep readers away from it. |
| A．The death rate in New Zealand is very high. | B．Print newspapers have become less popular. |
| C．Stories about death have become less popular. | D．Negative reporting has been increasing over years. |
| A．Live a hopeful life. | B．Become more careful. |
| C．Become less likely to help others. | D．Pay more attention to their physical health. |
| A．Ignore | B．Hate | C．Laugh at | D．Care about |
| A．A Survey on News Reading Habits | B．Negative Effects of Mobile Phones |
| C．Is Online News Better Than Print? | D．Is Junk News a Danger to Health? |
5 . As for old people, some of the applications are hard to use because they didn’t grow up with them. They don’t have simple models of how they should work, what to do when something doesn’t work or where to go for help. We make it as easy as possible to be used for people who are not familiar with the technology.
I think there is huge potential and we are designing it. The ability to connect to friends, who remember the same movies and news and music, is really important, especially as people get old. They end up in retirement homes and they aren’t always close to their friends. Allowing the network to help them connect with friends and family is a really powerful thing.
My mother is an enthusiastic user of the Internet, although it took me years to get her to use e-mail. She was born with normal hearing, but lost it when she was 3. She was totally deaf for many years, until age 53, when she got ear aids. They work really well. That is a big change for her. But before then, her friends couldn’t call her on the phone, so they insisted she use e-mail to communicate with them.
Young people don’t even think of the Internet as technology. It’s just there, and they use it. There’s been a very interesting change in communication styles between old people and young people. There are some kids who are now in their teens and aren’t willing to make phone calls. And they think of e-mail as old-fashioned and slow.
The reason why teens don’t make phone calls seems to be that they don’t know what to say. When they call they often stop for a while. They don’t know what to say, and there’s this silence. On the other hand, texting is considered proper, and it’s okay if you don’t answer. You might have been distracted(分心的). It’s not considered rude. But it is considered strange if you’re in this kind of voice conversation and simply stop talking.
1. We can infer from the passage that the author is a ________.| A．company manager |
| B．program designer |
| C．college professor |
| D．mobile phone designer |
| A．Interesting. | B．Amazing. |
| C．Boring. | D．Common. |
| A．To save money. |
| B．To maintain friendship. |
| C．To avoid embarrassment. |
| D．To make communication much easier. |
| A．They don’t know how to use some applications. |
| B．They have to buy electronic productions at a high price. |
| C．There is no professional teacher to teach them how to use the Internet. |
| D．They have no friends to communicate with online. |
The average cost of raising a child until the age of 18 was 485,000 yuan in China in 2019,
New policies in 2021 encourage families to have up to three children,
Three major
7 . We use both words and gestures to express our feelings, but the problem is that these words and gestures can be understood in different ways. It is true that a smile means the same thing in many cultures. So does laughter and crying.There are also a number of striking similarities in the way different animals show the same feelings. Dogs, tigers and humans, for example, often show their teeth when they are angry. This is probably because they are born with those behaviour patterns.
Fear is another emotion that is shown in much the same way all over the world. In Chinese and English literature, a phrase like “he went pale and began to tremble” suggests that the man is either very afraid or he has just got a very big shock. However, “he opened his eyes wide” is used to suggest “anger” in Chinese whereas in English it means “surprise”. In Chinese “surprise” can be described in a phrase like “they stretch out their tongues”! “Sticking out your tongue” in English is an insulting gesture or expresses strong dislike.
Even in the same culture, people differ in the ability to understand and express feelings. Experiments in America have shown that women are usually better than men at recognising fear, anger, love and happiness on people’s faces. Other studies show that older people usually find it easier to recognise or understand body language than younger people do.
1. According to the passage,________.| A．we can hardly understand what people’s gestures mean |
| B．we cannot often be sure what people mean when they describe their feelings in words or gestures |
| C．words can be better understood by older people |
| D．gestures can be understood by most of the people while words cannot |
| A．people have different abilities to understand and express feelings |
| B．people have the same understanding of something |
| C．people never fail to understand each other |
| D．people are equally intelligent |
| A．words are used as frequently as gestures |
| B．words are often difficult to be understood |
| C．words and gestures are both used in expressing feelings |
| D．gestures are more efficiently used than words |
| A．Words and feelings |
| B．Words, gestures and feelings |
| C．Gestures and feelings |
| D．Culture and understanding |
8 . While telling others your zodiac sign (星座), you are being evaluated (评估). Evaluations are being made about your luck, your personality, future development and how you will do in a given year. So what is the Chinese zodiac, exactly? It’s a 12-year cycle labeled (标记) with animals, starting with a Rat and ending with a Pig. For example, if you were born in 2004, you are a Monkey.
The Chinese believe some animals are luckier than the others, such as the Dragon. Unlike in Western tradition, the Chinese Dragon stands for power, strength and wealth. It’s everyone’s dream to have a Dragon baby. Ma Yun’s parents must have been very proud. And they are not the only ones. In 2012, the Year of the Dragon, the birthrate in China increased by about 5%. That means another one million more babies. With a traditional preference for baby boys, the boy-girl ratio that year was 120 to 100. When those Dragon boys grow up, they will face much more serious competition in love and job markets.
According to the BBC and Chinese government reports, January 2015 saw a peak of cesarean sections (剖腹产术高峰). Why? That was the last month for the Year of the Horse. It’s not because they like horses so much, it’s because they try to avoid having unlucky Goat babies.
Tiger is another unwelcome animal, because of its dangerous and unstable (不稳定的) personality. Many Chinese places saw a considerable decline of birthrate during those years.
Perhaps one should consider zodiac in a different way, as those Tiger and Goat babies will face much less competition. Maybe they are the lucky ones. I went through the Forbes top 300 richest people in the world, and it’s interesting to see the most unwelcome two animals, the Goat and Tiger, are at the top of the list, even higher than the Dragon. So maybe we should consider that it’s much better to have less competition.
1. What can we infer from Paragraph 2?| A．Dragon boys are much more competitive when growing up. |
| B．There were about one million dragon babies in 2012. |
| C．There were 20% more boys than girls born in 2012. |
| D．Ma Yun is proud that he is a Dragon. |
| A．People wanted to have Horse babies very much. |
| B．People considered Goat babies to be unlucky. |
| C．It’s the first month of the year. |
| D．People tried to avoid dangers. |
| A．Drop. | B．Need. |
| C．Increase. | D．Change. |
| A．They have fewer competitors. |
| B．They are difficult to get along with. |
| C．They will be more popular in job markets. |
| D．They will become richer than Dragon babies. |
9 . From checking social media every minute to being lost in computer games, we tend to overuse technology. “For many people, a moment without your phone or laptop in sight can feel like a lifetime,” the Daily Mail commented.
A computer model called Mindy may persuade many people to think twice. A team from the US-based company Toll Free Forwarding built a three-dimensional model to uncover the negative effects technology can have on human bodies in less than 800 years.
“Spending hours looking down at your phone strains your neck and throws your spine off balance,” explained Caleb Backe, a health and wellness expert in the US. Then, the muscles in our neck need to spend extra effort to support the head, making our back hunched and neck wide.
“The way we hold our phones can cause pressure in certain points of contact-causing text claw,” Nikola Djordjevic, a practicing physician in Serbia told the team. It affects the elbows too, causing pain in the arm. Scientifically, it is called cubital tunnel syndrome. That’s why Mindy has a 90-degree elbow, and her hands look like she’s always holding a mobile phone.
Some people also commented that human evolution may not work this way. They believe that only features with actual benefits would be kept throughout the years. For example, features that can increase the rate of survival, instead of the negative impact of technology.
However, current human lifestyles still raise concerns. A model called Emma was built by researchers in the UK in 2019 to show how the way people work at their desks could change them in 20 years.
The research team built Emma based on the health issues mentioned by over 3,000 workers in France, Germany and the UK. Emma’s back stays bent, and her legs are swollen due to the time people spent in front of computers. With little time spent outdoors and in the sun, her skin is pale, too.
1. What is the purpose of building the model Mindy?| A．To encourage better use of electric devices. |
| B．To discourage people from overusing phones. |
| C．To prove the immediate effects of using phones. |
| D．To find solutions to overusing phones. |
| A．She has bent fingers. | B．She has a normal elbow. |
| C．She has dark and healthy skin. | D．She is hunch-backed and thin-necked. |
| A．Negative technological impact. | B．Beneficial evolution prediction. |
| C．Mindy’s future appearance. | D．The connection between evolution and technology. |
| A．To compare the two models. | B．To promote healthy lifestyles. |
| C．To relieve concerns of lifestyles. | D．To contradict the optimistic opinion. |
10 . In 1909, Forster published a science fiction short story, The Machine Stops, in which a future civilization falls apart because its technology — much of which sounds a lot like the internet — collapses. Last Friday, after Storm Eunice caused the biggest national power cut on record to more than 55,000 homes across southern and eastern England and South Wales, people begin to think Forster’s imagined machine was really stopping.
It’s not unreasonable to think that Forster’s machine is seizing up when your gas heating doesn’t work because the pump is electric, when you have to go for a drive to charge the mobile phone, when everything in the freezer is going off, when you can’t get on the internet because the WiFi needs mains power, and much of your home technology — from smart doorbells to smart speakers — doesn’t work because, even if it has battery back-up, it still needs Wi-Fi. Millions of landlines will stop working by 2025 because they will use the internet, requiring a broadband connection.
The death of the landline will spell the moment when we are finally full hostages to the electricity supply. As hundreds of thousands of households across northern England lost power because of Storm Arwen last December, people in remote areas without mobile reception were left unable to call for help, as their landlines were phased out in favour of broadband-enabled phones reliant on electricity.
What are we to do to keep our homes working when electricity can no longer be relied on? People have taken to firing up wood burners to keep warm. Those with oil-fired kitchen ranges for cooking,heating and hot water,have been feeling particularly grateful for that reliable appliance.
“A more radical solution is house batteries. However,for society as a whole,it is less likely to be put into action because home batteries are not a neat and wonderfully clean solution”,says Dr Constable,“Lithium-ion batteries are dangerous. They cause fires. That’s why airlines are cautious about them and why you can’t take those little electric scooters on the London.”
1. Why did people begin to believe Forster’s imagination?| A．A smart home was not reliable at all. | B．They saw the biggest national disaster. |
| C．Forster gave a solution to their trouble. | D．What Forster described became a reality. |
| A．By analysing the troubles. | B．By listing a lot of facts. |
| C．By sharing an expert’s idea. | D．By recommending a fiction. |
| A．Substitutes ought to be prepared before they are needed. |
| B．The smarter technology is, the less we need to worry about. |
| C．The more technology we rely on, the more powerless we may be. |
| D．Home batteries are a wonderful choice when there is no electricity. |
| A．Being Left Hostages to Electricity | B．Time to Look for New Energy |
| C．Days at Home without Electricity | D．Collapsing of Future Civilization |
