Greta Thunberg

“I have not accomplished anything. ”This statement was made by Greta Thunberg(17 years old)and it couldn’t be further from the truth. Her dedication to protecting the environmenl for our future generations is all accomplishment on its own. Her ability to resist to adults in power is admirable and continues to push the importance of conservation to the front of our minds.

Peggy Shelmrd

WE ACT for Environmental Justice is an organization that“through advocacy，planning，and research…mobilizes low-income communities to make environmental changes. ”At the helm(掌权)of WE ACT is Peggy Shepard. Her goal is to make sure that sustainable environmental practices are accessible to all，regardless of circumstance.

Rachel Carson

American marine biologist，writer，scientist，and ecologist，Rachel Carson(1907—1964)，was way ahead of her time. She wrote about conservation in the late 1930s and focused on her mission of protecting our oceans.

Julia“Butterfly”Hill

In the late 90s，Julia“Butterfly”Hill spent 738 days living in an ancient redwood，called Luna. This act brought awareness to the immense human threats to Redwood trees. Julia continues to advocate for the environment. “By standing together in unity，solidarity and love，we will heal the wounds in the earth and in each other. We can make a positive difference through our actions. ”

【1】What do we know about Greta Thunberg?

A.She has not accomplished anything.

B.She seldom tells the truth.

C.She faces powerful people bravely to protect environment.

D.She shows great respect and admiration to people in power.

【2】Why did Peggy Shepard set up the organization WE ACT?

A.To help poor people to lead a better life.

B.To appeal to low-income group to protect our environment.

C.To make people aware of the environmental status.

D.To control the changes of environment.

【3】Who preferred taking on-the-spot actions to protect environment?

A.Greta Thunberg.B.Peggy Shepard.

C.Rachel Carson.D.Julia“Butterfly”Hill.

One of the world’s largest owls，the Eurasian eagle owl，set up ____ in Jos Baart’s third-storey apartment planter. ____ the mother owl’s three chicks hatched，they’ve taken to watching ____ through the window with their new landlord(房东).

In video footage，the huge，fluffy chicks can be seen standing at attention in ____，eyeing the television screen ____ Baart’s shoulder.

Their ____ mom typically watches over her hatchlings from behind a bush for six to eight hours at a stretch each day，seemingly a little more ____ of Baart and her babies’TV-watching habits.

They seem to have grown ____ to each other now，but not so long ago，Baart，thought they were ____. “I thought，damn，those pigeons again，”he says. He was proven ____ one day when he arrived home and the large mother owl took ____ right in front of him. “You can see how ____ they are，”Baart says in the footage. “They’re not scared at a11. ”

Eagle owls typically nest on cliffs and ledges，but are sometimes known to ____abandoned golden eagle nests. They have no natural predators and a long lifespan of 20 years in the ____，but can live up to 60 years in captivity(圈养).

【1】A.holds onB.turns outC.1ives upD.gives away

【2】A.campB.timeC.businessD.shop

【3】A.BeforeB.UntilC.OnceD.Since

【4】A.videoB.footageC.gamesD.TV

【5】A.senseB.wayC.rowD.hurry

【6】A.overB.onC.offD.by

【7】A.less-diligentB.less-friendlyC.gentleD.ambitious

【8】A.carelessB.patientC.cautiousD.sensitive

【9】A.addictedB.accustomedC.attachedD.opposed

【10】A.annoyancesB.guestsC.friendsD.enemies

【11】A.fakeB.trueC.rightD.wrong

【12】A.frightB.flightC.careD.place

【13】A.cuteB.tenseC.relaxedD.alert

【14】A.leave behindB.stand upC.put upD.take over

【15】A.regionB.nestC.wildD.field

Dear editor,

I was shocked by the news that neighbors of a German university protested to the government that some students often gathered and shouted at night, disturbing local residents. They demanded if the students were not dismissed, they would move out of the area.

I want to ask those young people: When you were letting off screams, were you aware that you were damaging other people’s normal life?

This doesn’t happen by chance. I often witness similar things in our country, too. For example, throwing waste water onto the streets and spitting in public places can frequently be seen. Some tourists litter casually or even carve their names on ancient scenic spots! Many young people are fond of jumping queues and never offer their seats to the elderly.

All over the world, people are beginning to worry that civilized behavior is a thing of the past. In fact, civilized behavior can help bring trust from others and success in the fierce world market competition. Therefore, increasing the quality of citizens is becoming urgent.

Anonymous

[写作内容]

1. 用约 30 个单词概述上述信息的主要内容;

2. 以约120词就“文明礼仪”这一话题谈谈你的认识，内容包括：

(1) 从和谐社会建设和个人成长发展的角度论述“文明礼仪”的重要性；

(2) 联系实际，谈谈你打算如何做一个文明守礼的中学生。

[写作要求]

1. 写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句；

2. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；

3. 不必写标题。

[评分标准]

内容完整，语言规范，语篇连贯，词数适当。

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That morning, I got up late and _________ to school without breakfast. While crossing a street, my bike _________ a stone and I fell on the ground, with my both knees badly hurt. I managed the _________ and continued my riding. On my arrival at school, my teacher took us to the _________ for a basketball match. _________ I could hardly walk normally, I joined in the game. When I _________ to pass the ball, I was knocked down and fell down on my back. I could not _________ the bad pain and cried. My classmates all started _________ at me and continued their match. __________ on the ground alone, hungry and painful, I couldn’t stop my crying. Just at that moment, Jack, one of my teammates, __________ towards me from the other end and helped me. He comforted me and tried all __________ to make me stand. He asked another classmate to take his __________ and kept sitting beside me. He kept me company the whole day and even __________ me home after the school was over.

It was on that day that I leant and believed the proverb “a friend in need is a friend indeed” to be __________.

【1】A.anxiousB.happyC.surprisingD.unexpected

【2】A.ranB.walkedC.droveD.hurried

【3】A.kickedB.beatC.hitD.touched

【4】A.painB.lossC.sadnessD.trouble

【5】A.campusB.playgroundC.fieldD.lab

【6】A.AlthoughB.SinceC.UntilD.Once

【7】A.decidedB.hopedC.orderedD.tried

【8】A.imagineB.standC.controlD.forget

【9】A.staringB.laughingC.pointingD.shouting

【10】A.StandingB.SittingC.FallingD.Lying

【11】A.jumpedB.facedC.ranD.moved

【12】A.methodsB.ideasC.plansD.conditions

【13】A.sealB.roleC.placeD.position

【14】A.putB.pickedC.droppedD.left

【15】A.goodB.trueC.positiveD.responsible

What makes us laugh?

Why do we laugh? Well it’s funny you should ask, but this question is a very interesting one to investigate. For what at first seems like a simple question turns out to require a surprisingly complex answer –– one that takes us on a journey into the very heart of trying to understand human nature.

Most people would guess that we laugh because something is funny. But if you watch when people actually laugh, you’ll find this isn’t the case. Laughter expert Robert Provine spent hours recording real conversations at shopping malls, classrooms, offices and cocktail parties, and he found that most laughter did not follow what looked like jokes. People laughed at the end of normal sentences, in response to unfunny comments or questions such as “Look, it’s Andre”, or “Are you sure?”. Even attempts at humor that provoked laughter didn’t sound that funny.

So if we want to understand laughter, perhaps we need to go deeper, and look at what is going on in the brain. The areas that control laughing lie deep in the sub cortex(下皮层), and in terms of evolutionary development these parts of the brain are ancient, responsible for primal(原始) behaviors such as breathing and basic reflexes(反射). This means laughter control mechanisms are located a long way away from brain regions that developed later and control higher functions such as language or even memory.

Perhaps this explains why it is so hard to control a laugh, even if we know it is inappropriate. Once a laugh is started deep within our brains these “higher function” brain regions have trouble interfering. And the opposite is true, of course. It is difficult to laugh on demand. If you consciously make yourself laugh it will not sound like the real thing – at least initially.

But this does not fully answer the original question. To answer this, perhaps we need to look outwards, to look at the social factors at play when people laugh. Provine’s study suggests that it isn’t just some independent process that happens to us while we are talking to someone. He also found that laughter was most common in situations of emotional warmth and so-called “in-groupness”.

Perhaps “transmission” is another most important feature of laughter. Just listening to someone laugh is funny. You can even catch laughter from yourself. Start with a forced laugh and if you keep it up you will soon find yourself laughing for real.

What these observations show is that laughter is both fundamentally social, and rooted deep within our brains, part and parcel of ancient brain structures. All these things are true. And biologists say each time we get closer to an answer for a fundamental question, it deepens our appreciation of the challenge remaining to answer the others. And there is a long way to go.

Improved symptoms are linked to slimming down the unexpected part of the body - opening the door to better treatments. Professor Richard Schwab, chief of sleep medicine at Pennsylvania University, said: "Most clinicians, and even experts in the sleep apnoea world, have not typically focused on fat in the tongue for treating sleep apnoea."Having a large neck was previously believed to be the culprit(引起问题的事物). Prof Schwab said: "Now we know tongue fat is a risk factor and sleep apnoea improves when tongue fat is reduced, we have established a unique therapeutic target that we've never had before.

In sleep apnoea the airways become blocked - leading tosnoring. It blights the lives of four and two percent of middle aged men and women, respectively, in the UK. Long term, sleep apnoea is linked with a number of chronic diseases, including highblood pressure, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and depression.

Analyzing MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans of the throat and nose of obese patients, the researchers found reducing tongue fat is the key. They found that a reduction in tongue fat volume was the key factor. Weight loss also resulted in a smaller pterygoid - the jaw muscle that controls chewing. This is irrespective of whether they appear to fall into the typical "high-risk" obese categories, said Prof Schwab.

He added: "Primary care doctors, and perhaps even dentists, should be asking about snoring and sleepiness in all patients, even those who have a normal body mass index, as, based on our data, they may also be at risk for sleep apnoea."

Twenty-two million Americans suffer from sleep apnoea, in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts, causing patients to wake up randomly throughout their sleep cycles. One of the recommended treatments is CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), which has been free on the NHS since March 2008.

【1】What can we learn from Prof Schwab?

A.People with high tongue fat must be at high risk of obesity.

B.Sleep apnea improves when tongue fat is reduced.

C.Patients with a normal body mass index won’t develop sleep apnea.

D.Most clinicians focus on the fat on the tongue to treat sleep apnea.

【2】What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?

A.The shape of tongue fat.

B.The harm of tongue fat.

C.The feature of tongue fat.

D.The cause of tongue fat.

【3】What does the underlined word “blight” in the third paragraph most probably mean?

A.harmB.affect

C.benefitD.cost

From the first day he entered my classroom, Willard P. Frank existed in his own world, shutting out his classmates and me. My attempts at building a friendly relationship with him were met with complete indifference. I could see that his classmates fared no better. Willard was strictly a loner who seemed to have no desire or need to break his silence．

Shortly after the Thanksgiving holiday, we received word of the annual Christmas collection of money for the less fortunate people in our school district. “Christmas is a season of giving,” I told my students. “There are a few students in the school who might not have a happy holiday season. By contributing to our Christmas collection, you will help buy food, clothing and toys for these needy people. We will start the collection tomorrow.”

When I called for the contributions the next day, I discovered that almost everyone had forgotten except for Willard P. Frank. The boy dug deep into his pants pockets as he walked slowly to my desk. Carefully, he dropped two quarters into the small container. “I don’t need milk for lunch,” he mumbled. For a moment, just a moment, he smiled. Then he turned and walked back to his desk.

That night, after school, I took our few contributions to the school principal. I couldn’t help sharing the incident that had taken place. “I may be wrong, but I believe Willard might be getting ready to become a part of the world around him,” I told the principal. “Yes.” he nodded. “And we might do well to have him share a bit of his world with us. I just received a list of the poor families in our school who most need help through the Christmas collection. Here, take a look at it.” As I gazed down to read, I discovered Willard P. Frank and his family were the top names on the list. Seeing this, I decided to do something for him.

STUDY FINDING #1: “Truly novice users（初学者） with no knowledge of Spanish need on average 15 hours of study in a two-month period to cover the requirements for one college semester of Spanish.”

STUDY FINDING #2: “The average study time for the final study sample was about 19 hours, or a little over two hours a week.”

STUDY FINDING #3: “The Babbel app works similarly well for people with different gender, age, native language, education, employment status, etc.”

Learning a language is aboutspeakinga language, and with the help of Babbel, our novice challenge participants were able to start having conversations in just three weeks’ time, proving that Babbel is, indeed, the shortest path to a real-life conversation.

【1】How does the writer recommend Babbel to readers?

A.By listing research findings.

B.By introducing some of its contents.

C.By telling stories at the beginning.

D.By comparing it with other apps.

【2】What is the purpose of the last paragraph of the text?

A.To introduce Babbel .

B.To appreciate Babbel.

C.To advertise Babbel.

D.To analyze Babbel.

A.as sharp as a spearB.as plain as day

C.as stupid as a gooseD.as sly as a fox

A.whichB.thatC.whatD.whether