I made a promise to myself on the way to...

Why I Got Rid of My Cell Phone

In 2017 I decided to take a break from my cell phone. Instead of shutting it off completely, I decided to turn it off for a month to see how it goes. By the end of the month I found that I could live without a cell phone. It has been seven months since I have lived without a cell phone. I would like to share with you the reasons why I decided to get rid of my cell phone.

1. Checking my phone was the first thing I did when I woke up and the last thing I did before going to sleep. Throughout the day I would check my phone countless of times. It became a bad habit of mine in which the only way to break it was to be far away from it.

When I owned a phone, I was constantly connected to it. I wasn’t taking enough time to see what was right in front of me. There was no end of the day when it came to work and there was not nearly enough time to relax. Instead, I was constantly going.2.

3. If I was having a conversation with someone, I would think about what else I could be doing or texting other people instead of being fully present in the conversation. Now that I don’t have a cell phone, I am more present in my conversations and to my surroundings.

I was completely dependent on my cell phone.4. A cell phone was my quick and easy problem solver. Whatever problem I met during the day, I used my cell phone for the answer. Without my cell phone I have become more self­dependent and a self­problem solver.

I also found that my sleep wasn’t as good as it had been in the past. Screens stimulate (刺激) your mind and can affect your natural sleep patterns.5. However, I did not have the self­control to do this. I would go to bed with a stimulated mind causing me to have a poor night sleep.

A.It made me less social.

B.I found that I was addicted to my phone.

C.Having a cell phone split my attention in half.

D.I know that is not good for my health.

E.The answer to this is to turn off your phone a few hours before bed.

F.These phone­free travels were some of the most liberating moments of my life.

G.It was my watch, my alarm clock, my email, my maps, my wallet, and my way to talk with friends.

    The world's first hydrogen- powered trains have begun running in Germany. They began carrying passengers Monday in Germany 's northern Lower Saxony state. The new train will run100-kilometer trips and can travel up to 140 kilometers an hour.

A French railroad company called Alstom built the two trains. Team in Germany and France cooperated on the project, which was supported by the German government. The new train model ,called the Coradia ilint, signals the beginning of efforts in Germany and other nations to move away from pollution-producing diesel(柴油) trains.

Compared with the diesel trains, the Coradia iLint is designed to run on non-electrified train 1ines with low levels of noise. It uses a process that combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electrical power. If the system produces more energy than the train needs at that time, it can store the extra energy in batteries. The only emissions(排放物) are water and steam.

A single tank of hydrogen can run a Coradia iLint train for about 1,000 kilometers. This is very similar to the distance a diesel-powered train can run on with a single tank.

Hydrogen-powered trains cost more than diesel trains to build. But Alstom officials say the operating costs are much lower. The company plans to provide another l4 Coradia iLint trains to Lower Saxony by 2021.

The head of railroad operations in the area ,Carmen Schwabl, praised replacing diesel trains with hydrogen. She said the move was an important first step in using clean-burning technologies to reach climate protection goals. Officials say the area's many wind turbines (涡轮机) will produce part of the energy to create the hydrogen to power the trains. Alstom says several other European countries have also expressed interest in developing hydrogen train systems. France has already said it wants its first hydrogen train to be operating by 2022.

1.Why did Germany build the new trains?

A.To make traveling much easier.

B.To carry more passengers.

C.To replace diesel trains.

D.To develop friendship with France.

2.It can be concluded that hydrogen trains ________.

A.are widely used

B.can produce water and oxygen

C.can stop air pollution

D.are environmentally friendly

3.What might be the best title for the text?

A.World's First Hydrogen Trains

B.Efforts to Reduce Emissions

C.Saving Natural Resources

D.A New Way to Make Electricity

    A large body of research has been developed in recent years to explain many aspects of willpower. Most of the researchers exploring self-control do so with an obvious goal in mind: How can willpower be strengthened? If willpower is truly a limited resource, as the research suggests, what can be done to make it stay strong?

Avoiding temptation (诱惑) is an effective method for maintaining self-control, which is called the "out of sight, out of mind" principle. One recent study, for instance, found office workers less attracted to candy in the desk drawer than that on top of their desks, in plain sight.

The research suggesting that we possess a limited reservoir of self-control raises a troubling question. When we face too many temptations, are we to fail? Not necessarily. Researchers don't believe that one's willpower is ever completely exhausted. Rather, people appear to hold some willpower in reserve, saved for future demands. The right motivation allows us to tap into those reserves, allowing us to carry on even when our self-control strength has been run down. High motivation might help overcome weakened willpower-at least to a point.

Willpower may also be made less vulnerable (脆弱) to being exhausted in the first place.

Researchers who study self-control often describe it as being like a muscle that gets tired with heavy use. But there is another aspect to the muscle comparison, they say. While muscles become exhausted by exercise in the short term, they are strengthened by regular exercise in the long term. Similarly, regular practices of self-control may improve willpower strength.

The evidence from willpower-exhaustion studies also suggests that making a list of resolutions on New Year's Eve is the worst possible approach. Being exhausted in one area can reduce willpower in other areas, so it makes more sense to focus on a single goal at a time. In other words, don't try to quit smoking, adopt a healthy diet and start a new exercise plan at the same time. Taking goals one by one is a better approach. Once a good habit is in place, Baumeister says, you'll no longer need to draw on your willpower to maintain the behavior. Eventually healthy habits will become routine, and won't require making decisions at all.

1.From the studies in the passage we learn that ________.

A.people have unlimited self-control B.high motivation ensures one's success

C.too many temptations often lead to failure D.willpower is hardly completely exhausted

2.The underlined phrase "tap into" in Paragraph 3 most probably means ________.

A.put up with B.make up for

C.make use of D.keep away from

3.The author compares self—control to muscles ________.

A.to explain the benefits of practicing self-control

B.to show the significance of regular exercise

C.to argue that self-control can he easily used up

D.to prove the long-term effect of willpower

4.To develop a good habit, which of the following does the author prefer?

A."I will give up dessert and do exercise."

B."I will set three goals this new semester."

C."I will read an English novel every month."

D."I will keep myself from any temptation."

    US student Vanessa Tahay stands out from the other teenagers in her school. Her skin is dark, her accent is thick, and if you ask her, she will tell you these are the things she is proudest of. Tahay is a poet, and at 18 she was considered among the best in Los Angeles.

When she is on the stage, audiences often go silent. They also laugh, shout and cry. But this doesn't come easily for someone who comes from a village that sits at the base of a huge mountain range in Central America. When she first appeared at school, she was teased by others for being short and different. She never spoke, so they called her “mouse”.

“How do I defend myself?” Tahay thought. “I don't know how.”

“Keep going,” her mother would tell her. “At some point, you'll learn.”

She spent hours after school and on weekends watching the same DVDs: English without Barriers.

Tahay's elder brother, Elmer, persuaded her to go to the after-school poetry club. In the last six years, her English teacher Laurie Kurnick has turned Cleveland Charter High School's poetry program into one of the most respected in the city. Her team draws from the likes of D.H. Laurence, Pat Mora and Kendrick Lamar to create poems about their own lives. The poems focus on many things —some funny, some painful.

The first time Tahay read the group's poems, chills went up her spine (脊柱). “I wish I could write like that,” she thought. “I want to say something.”

She wrote her first poem about her first year in America. She called it Invisible. The day her turn came to recite in front of the team, she broke down crying. She cried for 15 minutes. “I had so much held in,” Tahay said. “I couldn't even finish it.”

But she kept at it despite her less-than-perfect grammar, spelling and diction (措辞). Still, she wouldn't tell her friends about her poetry because she worried they would make fun of her.

But with time, her poems changed her. “They gave me pride,” Tahay said. “They told me that I'm worth something.”

“She had this innocence,” Kurnick said. “This willingness to be genuine and show you things you don't ever see.”

1.What did Tahay's mother suggest she do when she was teased by others?

A.Fight with them bravely. B.Report them to her teachers.

C.Try hard to make friends with them. D.Ignore them and keep going.

2.What are the themes of Tahay and her team's poems?

A.Funny and painful stories about their lives. B.Their appreciation of natural beauty.

C.Their expectations of a better future.               D.Their admiration for the great poets.

3.How did Tahay benefit from writing poems?

A.She became the first student poet in the city.

B.She won many national poetry competitions.

C.She felt more confident about herself.

D.She improved her grammar and spelling greatly.

请阅读下面短文,并按照要求用英语写一篇 150 词左右的文章。

The National Outline (纲要) for Educational Reform and Development is bringing change to China’s annual College Entrance Examination.

Currently, a student’s score on the College Entrance Examination is the only factor determining his or her future. Universities set minimum scores in screening (筛选) prospective students, and only those whose scores are higher than the minimum are admitted. The outline suggests that universities choose students based on not only the results of the entrance exam, but also other criteria. For example, if a student’s score is lower than his peers’, but he shows great potential in the subject he’s applying for, then the college might consider admitting him despite the lower general score.

The outline also proposes that some subjects, as a pilot project (试点项目), carry out multiple exams each year. This means that if a student fails an exam, he may have other chances at the exam in the coming semester. And to improve the system for higher education, China will gradually classify exams according to different kinds of education. The outline states that entrance exams for colleges and universities should be organized by the Ministry of Education, while exams for vocational schools (职业学校) should be organized by provincial educational departments.

（写作内容）

1. 请用约30个词概括阅读材料的主要内容；

2. 然后以约120个词就“高考模式改革”谈谈你的看法，包括以下要点:

(1) 你看到这篇新闻报道的感受；

(2) 你最认同文章中提到的哪一种措施；

(3) 你对现行高考模式的看法。

（写作要求）

1. 作文中可以使用自己亲身的经历或虚构的故事，也可以参照阅读材料的内容，但不得直接引用原文中的句子；

2. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称。

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