Following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP), also named COVID -19 by WHO, there is a general fear of the unknown virus as its full effects remain to be seen. Fever, coughing, sore throat, difficulty breathing – the NCP’s symptoms are similar to the common cold or the flu, but it’s potentially more dangerous.
Viruses could be deadly, like HIV and Ebola. 1. How can they cause so much trouble?
Viruses are non-living organisms approximately one-millionth of an inch long. Unlike human cells or bacteria, they can’t reproduce on their own. Instead, they invade the cells of living organisms to reproduce, spread and take over.
Viruses can infect every living thing – from plants and animals down to the smallest bacteria. 2. Sometimes a virus can cause a disease so serious that it is fatal. Other viral infections bring about no noticeable reaction.
Viruses lie around our environment all of the time, waiting for a host cell to come along. They can enter our bodies by the nose, mouth, eyes or breaks in the skin. 3. For example, HIV, which causes AIDS, attacks the T-cells of the immune system.
But the basic question is, where did viruses first come from? 4. “Tracing the origins of viruses is difficult,” Ed Rybicki, a virologist at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, told Scientific American, “because viruses don’t leave fossils (化石) and because of the tricks they use to make copies of themselves within the cells they’ve invaded.”
However, there are three main theories to explain the origin of viruses. First, viruses started as independent organisms, then became parasites (寄生者). Second, viruses evolved from pieces of DNA or RNA that “escaped” from larger organisms. Third, viruses co-evolved with their host cells, which means they existed alongside these cells.
5. The technology and evidence we have today cannot be used to test these theories and identify the most plausible explanation. Continuing studies may provide us with clearer answers.
A.But what are viruses?
B.For the time being, these are only theories.
C.Once inside, they try to find a host cell to infect.
D.The answer may be even less satisfactory than it now appears.
E.Until now, no clear explanation for their origin exists.
F.Experts are concerned about the bad effect that it had on people’s health.
G.For this reason, they always have the potential to be dangerous to human life.
On the summer of 1995, a second-year graduate student named Sergey Brin was giving a tour of Stanford University to prospective students. Larry Page, an engineering graduate from the University of Michigan, was one of those being shown around the campus.
“We both found each other obnoxious and annoying with strong opinions about things,” said Brin. “But we said it a little bit jokingly. Obviously, we spent a lot of time talking to each other, so there was something there.”
The technology of the web at the time meant that people could tell where a webpage linked to just by reading its code. However, to get a complete list of every page to which it linked, they needed to check every other website on the Internet.
Page’s “BackRub” project aimed to qualify these backlinks (反向链接). It was a complex task that not only demanded vast computing resources, but also required extremely complex mathematics, which was where the math genius Brin came in.
Later, Page and Brin came up with the PageRank algorithm - a ranking system which would prove to be a breakthrough idea. And then, BackRub became Google, a play on the term “googol,” meaning “10100.” The system successfully enabled users to search all 24 million pages stored in its database.
On September 15, 1997, Google.com was registered. In August 1998, it got its first funding in the form of a check for $100,000 written by Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, to “Google Inc.” But still there were troubles. Later that month, Page and Brin moved into the garage (车库) of friend Susan Wojcicki (now the CEO of YouTube), and received further investment from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, among others.
Early in 1999, Page and Brin attempted to sell Google to Excite, at the time the No. 2 search engine behind Yahoo, for one million dollars. However, even after the pair had been talked down to $750,000, Excite CEO George Bell rejected them. With no buyer in sight, Google started hiring engineers and moved to an office in California in March 1999. In 2001, Eric Schmidt was hired first as chairman and then CEO, leaving Page and Brin to continue developing Google’s products and technologies respectively. By the end of its first decade, Google had effectively won the search engine wars.
1.According to the article, what can we learn about Larry Page and Sergey Brin?
A.They first met each other when studying at Stanford.
B.They found their first encounter rather unpleasant.
C.They had no intention of running a business initially.
D.They got financial support from Stanford to work on the ranking system.
2.Paragraphs 4 to 5 mainly talk about ______.
A.what motivated Page to launch the “BackRub” project
B.how the “BackRub” project led to the founding of Google
C.how the PageRank algorithm worked
D.how Brin joined Page in carrying out the “BackRub” project
3.According to the article, who did NOT make an investment in Google?
①Andy Bechtolsheim.
②Susan Wojcicki.
③Jeff Bezos.
④George Bell.
A.①② B.①③
C.③④ D.②④
4.What may be the best title for the passage?
A.The Internet: how it changed the world
B.Giant Google: how it beat Excite and Yahoo
C.Excite: CEO regretted for refusing the best offer
D.Google at 20: how two students changed the Internet
We say that technology is a double-edged sword -while it brings convenience, it also brings new problems. The sword of “social media” even has a gender preference in its damage: It cuts deeper into girls than boys.
Earlier studies have shown that spending too much time on social media is bad for teenagers’ mental health. Constantly watching their friends show off “perfect” lives can hurt their own self-esteem (自尊). That’s not to mention the problems caused by online shaming and bullying (霸凌).
Jean Twenge, a professor at San Diego State University in the US, recently discovered an alarming trend: Since 2010, the number of teenage girls who suffer from major depression – showing signs like self-harm and suicide (自杀) - has increased much faster than that of boys. In an article she wrote at The Conversation, Twenge said social media, again, was to blame.
For starters, girls use social media more than boys. Boys tend to spend their screen time on games, where they talk to their teammates through headphones. This counts as real human contact. Girls, however, simply type and browse through posts, which is a much more isolated (孤立的) experience. “They’re not having a real-time conversation with someone,” Mary Fristad, psychologist at The Ohio State University, told NPR.
And when it comes to online shaming, girls are also more vulnerable than boys. “Girls face more pressure about their appearance, which could be exacerbated (加重) by social media,” wrote Twenge.
Shannon McLaughlin, for example, is an 18-year-old from Blackburn College in the US. She shared with the Guardian how social media made her feel depressed. “I was constantly confronted (面对) by women with skinny bodies who were praised for the way they looked. This was only made worse by the diet fixes and skinny culture,” she said. But McLaughlin found a solution. She started volunteering with the National Citizen Service, where she made face-to-face contact with people. “It’s so easy to forget the importance of real connections when we have hundreds of people that we’re trying to impress at our fingertips,” she told the Guardian. And she hopes that others “look up from their phones and focus more on the world around them”.
1.What did Twenge find in her recent study?
A.Overuse of social media harms teenagers’ mental health.
B.Social media does more harm to girls than boys.
C.Girls suffered more from bullying than boys.
D.Online shaming and bullying are to blame for teenagers’ depression.
2.Why do girls tend to feel more isolated than boys online, according to Mary Fristad?
A.Girls have less real-time interaction with people.
B.Playing games allows boys to have more fun than girls.
C.Girls suffer more pressure on social media.
D.Girls usually desire more contact with others.
3.The underlined word “vulnerable” in Paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to“ ”.
A.adjusting oneself well B.fighting back bravely
C.being unconcerned about something D.being likely to be at risk of something
4.What does McLaughlin advise teenage girls to do?
A.Ignore social media and stop following a diet.
B.Connect more with the real world.
C.Constantly take part in volunteer work.
D.Make better use of phones for socializing.
I still remember I was 11 years old when I asked my mom for piano lessons in 2010. We were in the fallout of the recession (经济衰退). She said a polite “no”.
That didn’t stop me. I Googled the measurements for a keyboard, drew the keys on a piece of paper and stuck it on my desk. I would click notes on an online keyboard and “play” them back on my paper one - keeping the sound they made on the computer in my head. I spent six months playing without touching a real piano. Once my mom saw that I was serious, she borrowed money and bought me 10 lessons.
I still remember the first one. I was struck by how real the sound of the piano was. I sat my grade one after eight lessons. Once I started secondary school, we couldn’t afford lessons again. I passed grade three, then grade five, practicing only on my piece of paper.
One evening, when I was about 13, my mom said she had a surprise for me; it was an electronic keyboard, bought with more borrowed money. It was the first time I’d played for her. She was in shock.
My school didn’t offer music A-level. I found the Purcell School for young musicians. The tryouts were difficult. Some of the questions involved an estimation (评价) of the composer or when it was written. I felt overwhelmed. To my amazement I was offered a place.
At Purcell, I spent two years working as hard as I could. I performed to raise money and saved enough to buy my first piano.
When I left Purcell, I was awarded the senior piano prize and senior academic music prize. I am now at the Guildhall School in London. I feel proud: it’s been 10 years since I drew my paper piano, and I’m at one of the world’s leading music schools.
The irony is that I continue to do a lot of my practice away from the piano: what we call mental practice. The paper piano helped spark my curiosity about how music works, the building blocks that form the pieces.
1.Why did the author’s mom buy him lessons at last?
A.She suddenly made a fortune. B.She had no doubt of his talent for piano.
C.She realized he meant what he said. D.She was shocked by his first performance.
2.Which of the following can best describe the author?
A.honest and practical. B.determined and hardworking.
C.humorous and reliable. D.rebellious and pessimistic.
3.The word “irony” in the last paragraph shows that the author was _______.
A.surprised B.absurd
C.satisfied D.curious
4.What’s the author’s main purpose of writing this article?
A.To introduce the method of mental practice.
B.To share how he convinced his mom to buy a piano.
C.To encourage people to stick to their dreams.
D.To describe how costly it is to learn an instrument.
Six years ago, Sam Shapiro’s family adopted a 15-year-old boy from Cite Soleil, Haiti. A few years later, in June 2015, Shapiro wanted to learn more about where his brother grew up, so he visited his brother’s hometown.
What Shapiro saw was a small city where 100 percent of the population lived in poverty. He saw homeless children with no access to education, activities or safe spaces to play. He also saw a run-down, abandoned basketball court.
Shapiro couldn’t fix everything. But he could do something.
“I thought athletics could be used to give kids opportunities for organized activities that could keep them off the streets,” said Shapiro.
A year after his first visit, Shapiro returned to Cite Soleil with his friend Jack Moe. The next month, Shapiro and Moe- then 16-year-old sophomores (大二学生) at the Blake School – formed a nonprofit, called “Sprint to Cite Soleil”, to benefit the city’s youth.
The core program of Sprint to Cite Soleil is basketball, but it also consists of nutrition and community-building to benefit children aged 5 to 18.
“Our mission originally was to provide a new basketball court,” said Moe. “But we soon realized that a lot of kids wanted to play basketball, and more than just a court was needed. We sent jerseys, basketballs, basketball pumps and shoes. Hundreds of kids showed up for a clinic.”
They soon hired 10 coaches and four cooks to prepare nutritious meals for the 160 boys and girls who train every Saturday and Sunday.
And they hired director Joseph Sadrack, a local native, whom Shapiro calls “trustworthy and right for the leadership position ...”
From the start, Shapiro, Moe and Sadrack agreed on how the program should develop.
“We are very much a partnership,” said Shapiro. “Personally, I’ve seen a lot of organizations trying to help in foreign countries. They have their own mindset and want to do things their way.”
“I’m not living there,” he continued. “I don’t know what they need. Before any decision is made, we ask Joseph, ‘What can we do?’ and, ‘What do they need?’”
Now sophomores in college - Shapiro at Wake Forest University in North Carolina and Moe at Stanford in California - they continue their work as co-presidents of the nonprofit.
Shapiro said it’s been a rewarding experience.
“I’m proud that, despite the somewhat of a language and cultural barrier, we’re able to communicate,” said Shapiro. “I’m proud that others believe in us and trust us. That’s what we’re most proud of. Being able to create it and maintain it.”
1.Why did Shapiro go to Haiti?
A.To visit his brother.
B.To do a part-time job.
C.To help his family adopt a kid.
D.To learn about his brother’s hometown.
2.What do we know about Sprint to Cite Soleil?
A.It is only run by two American boys.
B.It makes profits from the local government.
C.It stopped after Shapiro became a sophomore.
D.It provides resources for children and teens.
3.What does Shapiro learn from the program?
A.The language barrier is a big problem.
B.It will be great for his future career.
C.It is difficult but gives him a good feeling.
D.It is too expensive but he will continue.
假定你是李华，你校将举办书法比赛，参赛学生同场竞技书写校名，优胜者的书法作品将被展览一周。请给你校热爱书法的英国交换生Joe写一封电子邮件，邀请他参加这一比赛。要点如下：
1. 比赛的时间和地点；
2. 比赛的要求和细节；
3. 预祝取得胜利。
注意：1.词数100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
参考词汇： 书法比赛 calligraphy contest
Dear Joe,
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
