At the age of 16, Clara Barton was advised to become a teacher since she was quite shy. She taught in Massachusetts for ten years, and was invited to Bordentown, New Jersey to teach in a school. She saw that these communities needed complimentary education for their citizens, and she took action by creating a free school, one of the first in her state. But later, ignoring her, officials named a male instead as the head teacher. Disappointed, she left her job and moved to Washington D.C., becoming the first woman employed by the US Patent Office.
Clara Barton was forever changed by her experience with the army in the Civil War. She saw doctors use leaves when dealing with injuries since they had nothing else. The medical supplies were well behind the army, who were moving faster than their medical supply lines. She brought in a truck of medical supplies that she collected personally some years ago. Miss Barton continued to work on the battlefields throughout the war.
She helped in the identification of 13,000 dead Union soldiers. This non-stop work made her fully exhausted, and upon recommendation by her physicians, she traveled to Europe where she recovered energy and enriched herself.
While in Europe, and still in poor health, Miss Barton was moved by the hardship on people brought about by the France-Prussia war. She helped in their relief effort, which encouraged her to create the Red Cross, which served the whole army and common people under a neutral flag.
Clara Barton returned to America and then began the establishment of the American Red Cross. The US government did not think there would ever be another war after the Civil War. But she convinced them that the Red Cross would be valuable to serve in times of natural disasters as well. This was her lasting legacy (遗产), an agency that still provides aid to all people today.What does the underlined word mean in the first paragraph?
| A．Public. | B．Personal. | C．Free. | D．Advanced. |
. Why did Clara Barton bring her personal medical supplies
A There were no medical supplies for the army at all.
B. The army’s supplies couldn’t catch up with them.
C. The army’s supplies weren’t good enough to treat soldiers.
D. The enemies cut off the connection between the army and medical supplies.Clara Barton set up the Red Cross because of _______.
| A．her experiences in Europe |
| B．her poor health |
| C．the lack of supplies for the army |
| D．her work in the US Patent Office |
The US government agreed to establish the Red Cross because Clara Barton _______.
| A．gave a lot of her legacy |
| B．said there might be wars in the future |
| C．explained it would help people in peacetime as well. |
| D．claimed it could save people from the France-Prussia war. |
What does this passage mainly talk about?
| A．The history of American Civil War. |
| B．A general introduction to Clara Barton. |
| C．Clara Barton’s contributions to the US. |
| D．The Establishment of the American Red Cross. |
B
Having a bit of a temper tantrum(发脾气), whether at home or in the classroom, is as harmful as you can get and only serves to discourage your teenagers.
What they really need at this stage in their lives are words that build them up according to their needs that it may benefit them-that is, words of encouragement, affirmation(肯定) and a good deal of praise. The benefits to them and us as parents and teachers are quite amazing-harmony, peace and love.
When I left my last school where I had been a casual(代课老师) for eight years, I received "thank you" notes from the students. I think these notes illustrate what teenagers want and need from their parents and teachers.
Some of the notes mention kindness, patience, thoughtfulness, encouragement and fun. Teenagers value these qualities and what I found was that the more I relaxed and enjoyed their company, the less I had to discipline them.
Below I've included a few excerpts from the notes to let the kids speak for themselves. These are teenagers speaking from the heart and show what, according to teenagers, they need and value.
Each note began, "Thank you for..."
• making each student in the school happy
• putting up with us every time you get us (i.e. having patience)
• Always giving every student a chance and treating everyone like an adult giving lots
of merits and making every lesson fun and enjoyable
• Being very kind & for giving me lots of (merit) stickers
• You make working be fun
• Being a patient and thoughtful teacher
Patience is needed as well as kindness, thoughtfulness, a sense of humor and fun and the ability to listen more than talk.
When we praise and value our teenagers, the results are nothing short of miraculous.What’s the result of having a temper tantrum________?
| A．hurting yourself and your teenagers |
| B．being harmful to yourself only |
| C．being not good for teenagers |
| D．having no negative influence |
Which is NOT needed by teenagers________?
| A．words of encouragement |
| B．words of affirmation |
| C．words of praise |
| D．words of criticism |
What did the author receive when he left his last school________?
| A．"thank you" notes |
| B．students’ criticism |
| C．praise from the school |
| D．parents’ encouragement |
Why does the author mention the “Thank you” notes________?
| A．Because he wants to show himself off |
| B．Because he wants to tell parents and other teachers what teenagers really need |
| C．Because he wants to show that his students are all kind and polite |
| D．Because he doesn’t want to leave that school |
From the passage, we can learn that the author is __________.
| A．impatient, careful and humour |
| B．patient, thoughtful and strict |
| C．patient, kind and humour |
| D．impatient, kind and stubborn |
A
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS) （肌萎缩性侧索硬化症） is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary(随意的) muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.
A-myo-trophic comes from the Greek language. "A" means no or negative. "Myo" refers to muscle, and "Trophic" means nourishment--"No muscle nourishment." When a muscle has no nourishment, it "atrophies" or wastes away. "Lateral" identifies the areas in a person's spinal cord where portions of the nerve cells that signal and control the muscles are located. As this area degenerates it leads to scarring or hardening ("sclerosis") in the region.
As motor neurons degenerate, they can no longer send impulses to the muscle fibers that normally result in muscle movement. Early symptoms of ALS often include increasing muscle weakness, especially involving the arms and legs, speech, swallowing or breathing. When muscles no longer receive the messages from the motor neurons that they require to function, the muscles begin to atrophy (become smaller). Limbs begin to look "thinner" as muscle tissue atrophies.
What Types of Nerves Make Your Body Work Properly?
The body has many kinds of nerves. There are those involved in the process of thinking, memory, and of detecting sensations (such as hot/cold, sharp/dull), and others for vision, hearing, and other bodily functions. The nerves that are affected when you have ALS are the motor neurons that provide voluntary movements and muscle power. Examples of voluntary movements are your making the effort to reach for the phone or step off a curb; these actions are controlled by the muscles in the arms and legs.
The heart and the digestive system are also made of muscle but a different kind, and their movements are not under voluntary control. When your heart beats or a meal is digested, it all happens automatically. Therefore, the heart and digestive system are not involved in ALS. Breathing also may seem to be involuntary. Remember, though, while you cannot stop your heart, you can hold your breath-so be aware that ALS may eventually have an impact on breathing.
Although the cause of ALS is not completely understood, the recent years have brought a wealth of new scientific understanding regarding the physiology of this disease.
While there is not a cure or treatment today that halts or reverses ALS, there is one FDA approved drug, riluzole, that modestly slows the progression of ALS as well as several other drugs in clinical trials that hold promise.
Importantly, there are significant devices and therapies that can manage the symptoms of ALS that help people maintain as much independence as possible and prolong survival. It is important to remember that ALS is a quite variable disease; no two people will have the same journey or experiences. There are medically documented cases of people in whom ALS ‘burns out,’ stops progressing or progresses at a very slow rate.What does the underlined word “their” in Paragraph 1 refer to___________?
| A．ALS patients | B．nerve cells |
| C．motor neurons | D．muscle action |
What’s the main idea of Paragraph 2___________?
| A．introduce the meaning of ALS |
| B．why does a muscle have no nourishment |
| C．where portions of the nerve cells are located |
| D．what leads to scarring or hardening |
Which is NOT involved in the early symptoms of ALS__________?
| A．arms | B．speech | C．breathing | D．heart |
What can we learn from the passage__________?
| A．As motor neurons degenerate, they can no longer send impulses to the muscle fibers. |
| B．If muscles can’t receive the messages sent by motor neurons, limbs begin to look "thinner". |
| C．The heart and the digestive system are also affected by ALS. |
| D．the cause of ALS has been completely understood. |
The passage most probably comes from____________.
| A．Health Magazine | B．News report |
| C．Travel Guide | D．English textbook |
D
A developer edition of Sony’s augmented reality smart glasses will go on sale in ten countries next month, the tech giant has announced.
Pre-orders for the SmartEyeglass, costing $840 (£620), are now being taken in the UK and Germany, with Japan and the US to follow shortly. The black-framed glasses are compatible (兼容的) with recent Android operating systems. Last month Google announced that it was withdrawing its smart glasses for redevelopment. Sony’s initial model will come with a software development kit to encourage people to design apps for it, the company said.
The glasses, which weigh 77g, contain an accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, image and brightness sensors, 3-megapixel camera and a microphone. They also come with a controller, designed to be attached to clothing, which contains a speaker, touch sensor and the device’s battery. Text is displayed in front of the wearer in monochrome green.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook has been open about his dislike of glasses as a wearable device. “We always thought that glasses were not a smart move, from a point of view that people would not really want to wear them,” he told the New Yorker. “They were intrusive (闯入的), instead of pushing technology to the background, as we’ve always believed.”
Stuart Miles, founder of tech site Pocket-lint, said: “I think [Sony is] wasting their time, energy and effort.”
“Google Glass obviously needed a complete rethink... I can’t see how something thick-rimmed and more invasive-looking than Google Glass is going to catch on.
“People are keen on wearables like fitness bands and watches, but they care about their faces. Wearing something on your head is a lot stronger than wearing something on your arm,” he added. “The industry keeps pushing it but consumers just don’t want it.”In which countries people can get the SmartEyeglass first?
| A．The US and Japan. | B．The US and the UK. |
| C．The UK and Japan. | D．Germany and the UK. |
The purpose of this passage is to __________.
| A．introduce an accelerometer developed by the Google company |
| B．tell the people that the SmartEyeglass will go on sale |
| C．people like the glasses very much |
| D．the SmartEyeglass is less than 840 yuan |
What can be inferred from what Stuart Miles said?
| A．He supports Sony’s efforts to develop the SmartEyeglass. |
| B．He cares more about his clothes and face. |
| C．He dislikes the SmartEyeglass. |
| D．He really wants to wear them. |
Choose the true statements according to the passage.
| A．The glasses, which weigh more than 77g. |
| B．Tim Cook has been open about his dislike of glasses as a wearable device. |
| C．Last month Google announced that it was withdrawing its smart glasses for development. |
| D．Sony’s later model will come with a software development kit to encourage people to design apps for it. |
C
Penguins can taste only sour and salty food, scientists have discovered. A genetic study suggests the flightless birds lost three of the five basic tastes long ago in evolution.
Taste is critical for survival in most animals, but may not matter in the penguin, which swallows fish whole, say researchers in China and the US.
Many other birds are unable to taste sweet things, but they do have receptors (感受器) for detecting bitter and umami (or meaty) flavours. The discovery was made when researchers decoding penguin genomes found some of the taste genes were missing. A closer look at the DNA of penguins revealed that all species lack functioning genes for the receptors of sweet, umami, and bitter tastes.
“Based on genetic data, penguins are believed to have sour and salty tastes, but have lost sweet, umami, and bitter tastes,” lead researcher Prof Jianzhi Zhang, of the University of Michigan, US, and Wuhan University, China, told the reporter.
The umami taste gives food the strong, savoury (咸味的) flavour associated with meat. Lacking this sense is surprising for a carnivorous (食肉的) animal, but does not matter that much in the penguin, which swallows fish without chewing. “Their behaviour of swallowing food whole, and their tongue structure and function, suggest that penguins need no taste perception,” said Prof Zhang. “Although it is unclear whether these traits (特点) are a cause or a consequence of their major taste loss.” The findings, published in Current Biology journal, were a puzzle, he added.
One clue comes from the bird’s evolution on the frozen ice sheets of Antarctica. Sending signals from sweet, umami, and bitter (but not sour or salty) taste receptors to the brain does not work at very low temperatures. This may have led to the penguin gradually losing its sense of taste, say the researchers.
Intriguingly(有趣的是), the sweet taste is missing in almost all birds. The hummingbird, which feeds on sweet nectar, is an exception.What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．Penguins lost ability to taste fish |
| B．The life of penguins |
| C．The findings of researchers in China and USA |
| D．Penguins living on Antarctica |
Which of the following animals can taste sweet flavour according to the passage?
| A．The penguin. | B．The hummingbird. |
| C．The polar bear. | D．The fish. |
What was the discovery made by the researchers when decoding penguin genomes?
| A．Some of the taste genes were missing. |
| B．Penguins are believed to have sweet and salty tastes. |
| C．The bird’s evolution on the frozen ice sheets of Antarctica. |
| D．Taste is critical for survival in most animals. |
Which of the following statements is not true according to the passage?
| A．Penguins swallow fish without chewing. |
| B．The findings were published in Current Biology journal. |
| C．Sending signals from sweet, umami, and bitter taste receptors to the brain does not work at very low temperatures. |
| D．Prof Jianzhi Zhang was the lead researcher of a university in UK, and Wuhan University, China. |
B
A new study confirms what most people already know: American women are still far behind American men in taking top leadership jobs in business and politics.
The Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C. produced the study. Pew researchers found that most Americans believe women have the right qualities to be leaders. But they say women may still not be hired into leadership positions.
“On the one hand, the public thinks that women are just as qualified as men to be in top leadership positions, in business and in government, on the other hand the public feels it is easier for men to get those jobs, and the public is also skeptical that things are going to change in the future, particularly on the business front.”
Kim Parker directs social trends at the Pew Research Center. She says the new study found that Americans think men and women have the same intelligence and ability to create new things. But Americans think women and men have some different abilities.
For instance, they believe women are especially good at finding compromises. In other words, women can find ways for people to agree, or at least accept solutions. The study also found Americans see women as more compassionate (有同情心的) and organized leaders than men.
Americans also believe women are better leaders for social issues, such as education and health care. But Americans see men as better leaders on national defense and security.From the first paragraph we can know that ______.
| A．American women are much better than men in business and politics. |
| B．American men are still ahead of American women as leaders in business and politics. |
| C．American women are still ahead of American men as top leaders in business and politics. |
| D．American women are equal to American men in taking top leadership jobs in business and politics.. |
According to the new study, Americans think men and women are equal in ______.
| A．some different abilities. |
| B．politics and government. |
| C．intelligence and ability to create new things. |
| D．top leadership positions and education. |
What can we know from the last two paragraphs?
| A．Women are especially good at finding compromises. |
| B．Americans see men as more compassionate and organized leaders than women. |
| C．women are better leaders for social issues, such as national defense and health care. |
| D．Men are expert in dealing with health care and education. |