When most of us look at our hands, we might notice that we need to clean, or stop biting our fingernails, and that’s about it. But if you ask a doctor, he can see a whole lot more. Everything from poor diet and stress to serious kidney (肾) problems can be revealed by a glance at your fingernails.
There are about 30 different nail signs that can be associated with medical issues, though may indicate more than one problem, according to Dr.Amy Derick, a clinical instructor of dermatology at Northwestern University.
Here are five of the things a doctor can tell about your health based on your fingernails.
1. People who aren’t eating well and lack vitamin or dietary may have thinner than normal nails, which are more likely to break.
2.Horizontal (水平的) lines are associated with serious physical stress. They frequently occur in people who have gone through chemotherapy(化疗).They can also occur after some illnesses, injuries, or with severe malnourishment(营养不良).Interestingly, there may be an altitude connection too. They’ve also been found in people who dove 1,000 feet and others who participated in an Everest exploration.
3. Vertical (垂直的)lines, however, are generally not such a big deal. Some people are more genetically prone to them than others, but they’re commonly associated with aging.
4. When people lack iron, their nails can turn spoon-like. Instead of curving down and covering the finger normally, they ’ll start to rise up on the sides and front, like the part of a spoon that holds liquid.
5. Kidney and liver problems can create “half-and-half nails”, where one part of the nail is white and the other part dark or pink, according to Derick.
Doctors note that because disease diagnosis is complex and some symptoms can be associated with different diseases, you should always see a medical professional if you are concerned about something you notice. What is the main idea of the passage?
| A.Doctors can tell us something about our health by looking at our nails. | 
| B.We should see a doctor if we find nails in bad condition. | 
| C.A famous doctor in the USA conducted an interesting research. | 
| D.If we don’t want to get ill, we need to clean and stop biting our fingernails. | 
 If we don’t eat well or regularly, our fingernails may ________.
| A.become harder than normal nails. | 
| B.become thinner than normal nails. | 
| C.become “half-and-half” nails. | 
| D.have horizontal and vertical lines. | 
Who will have horizontal lines on the nails ?
| A.A cancer patient who has received normal treatment. | 
| B.Hungry African children suffering from severe malnourishment. | 
| C.An explorer who had reached Zhangjiajie in Hunan Province. | 
| D.A patient with serious illness, like kidney and liver problems. | 
 Which of the following best describes the nails that show people lack iron?
| A.The nails are thinner and more likely to break. | 
| B.The nails will curve down and cover the fingers. | 
| C.The nails will start to rise up on the sides and front. | 
| D.The nails will change their colours on the surface. | 
Camp Jano India
  Celebrate Indian culture, languages, arts, festivals and literature. Weekly themes are brought to life through related arts, games, projects, stories and theatre in a very unique, exciting, creative, interactive (互动的) and structured style. A very unique and memorable (难忘的) experience that kids will want to repeat! Mornings are spent with the Hindi language at the child’s level. Afternoons provide the cultural elements taught in an interactive style with special emphasis (重点) on drama.
  Bay Language Academy
  We invite campers (4-12 years old) to travel and open up doors to explore past and recent civilizations through daily field trips. Cultures will be shown through customs and cooking. Lectures (6/10-8/30) will introduce/reinforce French, Spanish or Chinese and the cultures they convey. Our language summer-camp is infused (灌输) with cultural activities and taught by a team of bilingual (通晓双语的) instructors.
  Petits Confettis
  Want your 3- to 5-year-old kids to experience a French camp? Come and join us for 6 weeks of French camps!
  Kids will be totally happy to learn French and French culture while they take part in team projects like building a tipi or making French bread. Weekly themes include cooking, arts, drama, outdoor activities, board games, music, yoga, rhymes and story time.
  Chinese Immersion Summer Camp
  This is our 11th Chinese language and culture summer camp. We take children from 6th grade. This year we continue the weekly fun themes like art, science, cooking and sports in the morning. In the afternoon, we have abacus, reading and Chinese culture lessons taught in Chinese. Our teachers are all native speakers with a lot of experience. Our weekly field trips go to different places like SF zoo, tech museums, fire stations etc.Camp Jano India can give children a memorable experience probably because ______.
| A.it has quite experienced teachers | 
| B.it teaches Indian languages at different levels | 
| C.the activities are arranged for the whole day | 
| D.the activities are carried on in an interesting style | 
Bay Language Academy and Chinese Immersion Summer Camp are similar in that ______.
| A.they both provide field trips | 
| B.they both have bilingual teachers | 
| C.they both provide sports programs in the morning | 
| D.they are both intended for kids of 4-12 years old | 
A girl who likes yoga will go to ______.
| A.Camp Jano India | 
| B.Bay Language Academy | 
| C.Petits Confettis | 
| D.Chinese Immersion Summer Camp | 
What is the common theme of the four camps?
| A.Fun and sports. | B.Travel and adventure. | 
| C.Language and culture. | D.Art and music. | 
The island of Port Cros is in the south of France. I first visited it about ten years ago with my wife. I had read that it was a magical place and it seemed fascinating (迷人的), but I couldn’t believe that it was true. In fact, it was much more magical than the tourist brochures (指南) had said.
 The island is mountainous and covered in trees. The water around the island is transparent like glass. When I first visited it, there was mist rising from the trees. The little harbor looked mysterious and remote: tall palm trees, a few shops and restaurants, no cars, motorcycles or bikes.
 It is not by chance that the island has kept its natural beauty. Once, it was privately owned and the owners always wanted to keep it in its natural state. In 1963, Port Cros became a national park. The park directors made some rules to protect the island. They didn’t allow any new building projects. There is only one hotel and no camping is allowed. Visitors can’t use mountain bikes or smoke on the island. Sailing boats that visit the island mustn’t damage the bottom of the sea or pollute the water around it.
 When we arrived, we started walking to the beach of Port-Man, which was the furthest beach from the port. It took us two hours and when we arrived, the beach was deserted. It seemed that we were the only people on the island. Time seemed to stop. It was so beautiful that we stayed there all day. I visited there again last summer. Nothing had changed. The island still looked magical and mysterious, still with few tourists. It must be wonderful to stay the night on the island, I thought. After all the visitors have gone, the island must be so quiet—a real paradise (天堂)!The author got to know Port Cros at first due to _____.
| A.some tourist brochures | 
| B.his wife’s introduction | 
| C.his first visit there | 
| D.some TV programs | 
How has the natural beauty of the island been kept according to the text?
| A.Foreign visitors are not allowed to visit it. | 
| B.Nothing has been built in the park there. | 
| C.Only bikes can be used on the island. | 
| D.Sailing boats mustn’t pollute the water. | 
When the author first visited Port Cros, _____.
| A.it was very sunny | 
| B.there were few visitors there | 
| C.it took them a whole day to walk to Port-Man | 
| D.the island was deserted and he stayed there for a whole night | 
If you have a bad habit of losing things, a new device that can be connected to any item that you might lose may be the way to solve your problem. The Tile, a small square linked up to your iPhone or iPad via Bluetooth, lets you see how close you are to the missing item, within a 50-to 150-foot range . If the item goes out of your phone’s 150-foot range, it can still be detected (发现) on other smartphones with the same app.
  When you log into the app on your phone, it shows you, with green bars that increase or decrease, how far away you are from the Tile. You can also program it to make a sound when you get close to the Tile. And you can link up your phone with up to ten Tiles. And if your lost item — a dog, for example, or a stolen bike — goes out of your own phone’s 150-foot Bluetooth range, you can set it as a “lost item”. If any of the phones with the Tile app comes within the range of your lost item, a message will be sent to your own phone, reminding you of its position. The Tile app also has the function to remember where it last saw your Tile, so that you can easily find where you left it.
  Since the Tiles use Bluetooth rather than GPS, they never run out of battery or need to be charged, and they last for one year before needing to be replaced. The app, which will come into the market this winter, works with iPhone 5S, iPhone 6, iPad Mini, iPad 3rd and 4th generation, and iPod 5th generation.The Tile app can help you  .
| A.find your missing items | 
| B.use your phone more wisely | 
| C.save your phone’s battery power | 
| D.connect something to your phone | 
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A.The Tile needs to be charged after a year of use. | 
| B.One smartphone can only be linked up to one Tile. | 
| C.The Tile cannot work when linked up to a phone without Bluetooth. | 
| D.A missing item can’t be found if it goes out of the needed range. | 
What does the second paragraph mainly tell us?
| A.What the Tile app is. | 
| B.How the Tile app works. | 
| C.The advantages of the Tile app. | 
| D.Why the Tile app was invented. | 
Where does this passage probably come from?
| A.A science fiction novel. | 
| B.An advertisement. | 
| C.A personal diary. | 
| D.A news report. | 
Speed-reading is a necessary skill in the Internet age.We skim over articles, e-mails and WeChat to try to grasp key words and the essential meaning of a certain text.Surrounded with information from our electronic devices, it would be impossible to cope if we read word by word, line by line.But a new trend calls on people to unplug and enjoy reading slowly, listing benefits beyond the intelligent stimulation.
 A recent story from The Wall Street Journal reported on a book club in Wellington, New Zealand, where members meet in a cafe and turn off their smartphones.They sink into cozy chairs and read in silence for an hour. Unlike traditional book clubs, the point of the slow reading club isn't exchanging ideas about a certain book, but to get away from electronic devices and read in a quiet, relaxed environment. According to the Journal, the Wellington book club is just one example of a movement started by book lovers who miss the old-fashioned way of reading before the Internet and smartphones.
 Slow readers, such as The Atlantic's Maura Kelly, say a regular reading habit sharpens the mind, improves concentration, reduces stress levels and deepens the ability to sympathize. Another study published last year in Science showed that reading novels helps people understand other's mental states and beliefs, a fundamental skill in building relationships.
 Yet technology has made us less attentive readers. Screens have changed our reading patterns from the straight and information.left-to-right sequence to a wild skimming and skipping pattern as we hunt for important words and information. Reading text punctuated with links leads to weaker comprehension than reading plain text. The Internet may have made us stupider, says Patrick Kingsley from The Guardian. Because of the Internet, he says, we have become very good at collecting a wide range of interesting news, but we are also gradually forgetting how to sit back, reflect, and relate all these facts to each other.
 Slow reading means a return to an uninterrupted, straight pattern, in a quiet environment free of distractions. Aim for 30 minutes a day, advises Kelly from The Atlantic. “You can squeeze in that half hour pretty easily if only during your free moments, you pick up a meaningful work of literature,” Kelly said. “Reach for your e-reader, if you like. Kindles make books like War and Peace less heavy, not less substantive, and also ensure you'll never lose your place.”The book club in Wellington mentioned in Paragraph 2 shows____________.
| A.the new trend of slow reading | 
| B.the decline of electronic devices | 
| C.the importance of exchanging ideas | 
| D.the increasing number of club readers | 
According to Patrick Kingsley, people are stupider partly because of_____________.
| A.a non-stop reading pattern | 
| B.the straight, left-to-right screen | 
| C.a wide range of interesting news | 
| D.the lack of reflection | 
According to the passage, slow reading___________.
| A.contributes to understanding among people | 
| B.promotes the current technology advances | 
| C.provides people with a quiet environment | 
| D.cures the memory loss of elderly people | 
What's the best title for the passage?
| A.Benefit of Reading Clubs. | 
| B.Return of Slow Reading. | 
| C.Reading of the Internet Age. | 
| D.Influence of Speed Reading. | 
Time Travel
 If you could travel in time, where would you go? Perhaps you would watch an originalperformance of a Shakespeare’s play in Elizabethan England?
 What about hanging out with Laozi in the Spring and Autumn Period? Or maybe you’d voyage far ahead of the present day to see what the future holds.
 The possibility of time travel is indeed appealing. Stories exploring the subject have been around for hundreds of years. Perhaps the best known example is science fiction novel The Time Machine, which was written by H.G.Wells and published in 1895 for the first time. It was adapted into at least two feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations. It is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposefully and selectively. The term “time machine”, coined by
 Wells, is now universally used to refer to a vehicle transporting people into the far future.
 But could time travel actually be possible? Some scientists say yes, in theroy. They propose using cracks in time and space called“wormholes”,which could be used as shortcuts to other periods.Einstein's theory of relativity allows time travel in extreme circumstances.And British physicist Stephen Hawking says you could travel into the future with a really fast spaceship—going at nearly the speed of light.Though building such a spaceship would of course be no simple task.
 Even if you could travel into the past, there is something called the “grandfather paradox”.It asks what would happen if a time traveler were to go back in time and have his own grandfather killed for some reason, and therefore prevent himself from being born.If the time traveler wasn't born, how would he travel back in time?
 And would you really like to visit the future?In H.G.Wells' book,the main character travels into distant time where he arrives at a beach and is attacked by giant crabs.He then voyages 30 million years into the future where the only living thing is a black object with tentacles(触角).
 If that's what's in store, maybe we are better just living in the present day after all.The novel The Time Machine mentioned in Paragraph 2 aims to show___________.
| A.People's interest in time travel | 
| B.the special feature of the book | 
| C.the long history of time travel | 
| D.the contribution of H.G.Wells | 
Einstein's and Hawking's theories_________.
| A.have similarities in many ways | 
| B.push the invention of the first spaceship | 
| C.have proved wrong by some time travelers | 
| D.suggest the possibility to invent the time machine | 
In Paragraph 4,“grandfather paradox”probably refers to the idea that__________.
| A.the traveler is prevented from meeting his grandfather | 
| B.the traveler goes back in time to seek for his grandfather | 
| C.the grandfather's death makes the traveler's birth impossible | 
| D.The reunion of the traveler and his grandfather brings happiness | 
According to the passage, what is probably the author's attitude towards time travel?
| A.Unclear. | B.Skeptical. | 
| C.Supportive. | D.Unconcerned. |