| 1. 难度：中等 | |
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Four habits of happy people While the recent research has shown that about 60 percent of our baseline (基本) level of happiness is probably genetically determined, it means 40 percent is under our control. You can’t go back and get new genes.1.. Here are the good habits of happy people. ·Spend time outside. If you can clock 20 minutes a day outside, studies show you’ll not only maintain a better mood, but your mind will be more open and you’ll improve your working memory. 2.. ·Exercise regularly. All exercise releases endorphins (脑内肽) in your brain, and if you work out regularly, this mood boosts（增强）even carries over to non-workout days.3.. Mood stays about the same on days they don’t. 4.. A study has confirmed that when people actively try to be happy, they raise their baseline moods, making them feel happier than those who do not try. In the study, two sets of participants listened to “happy” music. Those who actively tried to feel happier reported the highest level of positive mood afterwards. ·Care for others. 5.. Volunteer work is good for both mental and physical health. People of all ages who volunteer are happier and experience better physical health and less depression. A. Exercise is easy to do. B. Put effort into being happy. C. People around you impact your mood. D. Sunshine and fresh air make you feel good too. E. But you can start a good morning over with a new attitude. F. People who spend time every month helping others are happier. G. On exercise days, people’s mood is significantly improved after exercising.
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| 2. 难度：中等 | |
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This week is Teacher Appreciation Week. That makes it a good time to think of ways to honor the teachers who inspire, educate and care about the students they work with year after year. 1. An easy way to make teachers feel appreciated is to write them a thank-you note. Be sure to include any favorite parts of their class and anything the teacher did for you that really had an effect on you. "I value notes and letters I receive from my students, their parents and grandparents,"a teacher once said. 2. Visit A Former Teacher 3. Many teachers mentioned they love seeing and hearing from former students. It makes them realize that their work matters. If you want to visit a former teacher, the best time to go is during their "off-period" or lunch. If you go to a different school and you want to see your former teacher, be sure to email them in advance. Ask when a good time to visit would be. Put Away Your Cellphone Putting your cellphone away in class is an easy thing any student can do. It may seem helpful to look up an answer to a question or do research. 4. Try to think hard about an answer before immediately reaching for your phone. Think about how you are staying in the present moment while you're paying attention in class. Listen And Learn The teachers interviewed said they had many different struggles and things that made them want to be a teacher. However, they all did agree on one thing. All the teachers mentioned wanting to see their students learn and succeed.This tip hardly requires any action at all. 5. A. Value Notes and Letters B. Write A Letter To Say Thank You C. However, your cellphones can actually seem like a competitor for your teacher. D. Another simple way to show your appreciation is to visit a teacher you had a few years ago. E. When teachers are trying to get students to remember concepts, this can be a huge challenge. F. Just know that when you listen and learn, you'll show your teacher why they do what they do. G. Seeing the evidence of the positive influence they have had on their students is comforting for teachers.
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| 3. 难度：困难 | |
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Imagine that you are in a remote village somewhere with no medical clinic. 1.Once the doctors get to you, they examine you and take blood samples, but they won't be able to help you until they take the samples back to the hospital to find out what is wrong.2. Thanks to engineer Andy Ozcan, many people may never be in this situation. He has invented an app that turns your mobile phone into a diagnostic(诊断的)tool. Ozcan's invention is important because it is very accurate and easy to use. In many remote places, even if doctors have microscopes and other instruments to help them make diagnoses, there may still be other problems. Many doctors, for example, don’t have enough training to correctly interpret what they see.3.With Ozcan's mobile phone app, health workers can take a special photo of a blood sample and send it to a central computer at a hospital. The computer will then automatically interpret the photo and send a diagnosis back in a few minutes. 4.His technology only requires a mobile phone and an Internet connection. As more than four billion people already have cell phones, the cost of establishing the diagnostic system is fairly low. By inventing a medical tool that uses existing technology---mobile phones---Ozcan has developed a medical tool that is both practical and economical. Therefore, it can be effectively almost anywhere.5. A. Another reason that Ozcan's invention is important is that it is inexpensive. B. Even though you may only have a simple infection (感染), you might die because of the delay. C. People are trying to reduce the cost of this new medical tool. D. Ozcan's simple, cost-effective tool might just save millions of lives around the world. E. This tool has become much more popular all around the world. F. You become very sick and must wait days until a mobile medical unit arrives to help. G. As a result, they may diagnose illnesses incorrectly.
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| 4. 难度：中等 | |
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How to be a better reader Reading is an extremely important skill.1. Here are some suggestions on how to be a better reader. Know your reading purpose.2. The kind of reading you do in class or for your homework is different from how you read a novel for pleasure in the summer vacation. If you know your reading purposes， you can choose the best reading methods. Use all the information in the book. Good textbooks are well-organized with title subtitles， introductions， summaries or conclusions. Many books also have pictures with captions(说明文字).3. Another aspect of good writing is that each paragraph has a topic sentence. If you concentrate on understanding the topic sentence this may help you to understand what comes next. 4. You can't really expect to understand a difficult book if you are trying to read in the same room with the television on and your little brother distracting(使某人分心) you. The same goes for reading on the bus on the way to school. You can't expect to read a textbook and listen to music at the same time either. Try to find a quiet and comfortable place with good light， and your dictionaries and other materials nearby. Use your dictionary wisely. A common mistake of ESL students is to look up each unknown word in the texts they are given to read.5.It can even make understanding more difficult because by the time you reach the end of the paragraph you have forgotten what you read at the beginning! So use your dictionary wisely. A. Choose the right time to read. B. Choose a right place to read. C. Look at all these first before starting to read. D. But it takes a long time and can be very boring. E. The wider your vocabulary is， the easier you will find your reading. F. Reading is also an excellent way to improve your general English. G. the way you read a book or a text depends largely on your reasons for reading it.
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| 5. 难度：困难 | |
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Smartphones store a lot of personal data. These devices know our names,the names of our friends，our addresses and where we are right now.1. A weather app needs to know where a person is to report the local forecast，for example. Many smartphone apps don't cost anything to download and use.But don't be fooled. There's still a price. 2. Those same apps may often send data on to advertisers as well.Those advertisers will pay well to know how people behave and live.Once your data leave a device，you can't get them back. And that data theft may not be harmless. Moreover，those data may tell when someone leaves home and when he gets back. 3. Social media sites often have access to a user's images and posts. Recently a new online tool has been developed to track the misuse of private data.4. It tells people when their apps are sending data，which can help spot the misuse. SPEProxy identifies the misuse of data using an approach that has already been used to diagnose illnesses. In the clinical field，a kind of medical software is used to collect data from a patient. Then it compares them to those symptoms of many possible illnesses to make a diagnosis. Right now，people can only track data with the new tool by going to a website.5. It's also a bit awkward to use.People may not want to go to the trouble of getting online to track their data. A more convenient version that people could install on their phones is in urgent need. A．It is called SPEProxy. B．That means it's limited. C. It is more than convenient to use in computers. D．Your privacy is what's paying for it. E．Some apps use those data to do their job. F．Some apps may charge you much money to operate. G．They can show how and where people spend their days.
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| 6. 难度：中等 | |
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As long as there have been exams, students have found ways to cheat. Today the correct answers are just a few taps away on a smart phone. So countries have come up with new ways to stop the funny business. Some use metal detectors, surveillance (监控) cameras, and mobile phone jammers (干扰器).1. Cheating in high school leaving exams got so bad in Mauritania and Algeria that this year the authorities turned off the Internet for the entire country. Algeria did so for at least an hour during tests (which last about a week).2.Other countries, such as Iraq, Uzbekistan and Ethiopia, have for years been shutting down the Internet during exam time. In each country students are under high pressure to do well in the tests, which often determine whether they can continue their education at a good university.3.But high marks are rare. In Algeria only around half of students passed the exams in recent years. In Mauritania the rate is much lower. 4.Darrell West of the Brookings Institution, a think-tank, estimates that in 2015-2016 Internet shutdowns ordered by governments cost countries at least $2.4bn. 5. A.Turning off the Internet is expensive. B.Teachers try to help — in their own way. C.Others have taken a more severe measure. D.A splendid grade may mean a scholarship abroad. E.Mauritania cut access from morning until evening on exam days. F.For that kind of money, countries could even improve their schools. G.With so many students cheating electronically, governments are taking extreme steps.
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| 7. 难度：中等 | |
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Culture shock isn’t a clinical term or medical conditions. It’s simply a common way to describe the confusing and nervous feelings a person may have after leaving a familiar culture to live in a different culture. 1. That can be exciting, but it can also be overwhelming(不可抗拒的). Everyone feels the pressure to fit in at one time or another—whether they’ve lived in the area for days or years. But don’t feel like you need to change everything about yourself so you can stand out less. 2. Here are a few tips for making sure your new culture doesn’t overpower the old: Educate people about your culture. Just because you’re the one entering the new culture doesn’t mean you should be the one doing all the learning. 3. They may know little about it. It will also help them to learn more about you in the process. Find a support group. Find kids in your class or neighborhood who recently moved, too. You can share experiences. 4. You probably left behind good friends and family when you moved. If it’s going to be a long time until your next visit, keep in touch. You also left behind other things—like your favourite spot to hang out. Keep pictures around to remind you of home. Remember, it’s important to be yourself. 5. You will have your own pace of adjusting. As long as you find a good combination between old and new, you’ll be fine. A. Keep in touch with home. B. Understand the new culture. C. But the good news is that culture shock is temporary. D. When you move to a new place, you’re bound to face a lot of changes. E. Try not to force yourself to change too fast or too many things all at once. F. All of your experiences before you came to your new home are part of you. G. Take the opportunity to teach classmates and new friends about your culture.
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| 8. 难度：中等 | |
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What do you order when you go to a Chinese restaurant? Do you start with an appetizer of fried dumplings and then move onto General Tso's chicken? 1. Tofu is made from soybeans（黄豆）.There are different types of tofu, from soft creamy silken tofu to pressed extra firm tofu. The difference is the amount of water in them. The longer the tofu is pressed, the more water is squeezed out and the tofu becomes denser（更密实）and chewier. 2. In the letter to his friend John Bartram, Franklin cites（引用）a description of a type of Chinese cheese made from soybeans called "teu-fu” by Fernandez Navarette who published accounts of his travels to China in the late 1600's. However, there isn't much documentation of tofu production in the United States. 3. In 1917, as part of an effort to develop new sources of protein for American soldiers during World War I, the United States Department of Agriculture sent Chinese-born doctor Yamei Kin a dietitian well-known for promoting tofu as an nutritious meat alternative, to China to study soybeans 4. It wasn't until the 1970's that tofu started to become better known, during a wave of interest in vegetarianism（素食主义），natural food, and less wasteful food sources. 5. And the restaurant. chain Chipotle successfully added tofu to its menu a few years ago. A. Americans are not big consumers of tofu. B. Let's take a look at tofu and its history in the United States. C. Or do you start with deep-fried tofu and then choose Ma Po tofu instead? D. Today, you can buy different types of tofu in many American supermarkets. E. Despite the government's efforts, interest among the American public never picked up. F. One of the earliest references to tofu by an American is in a letter by Benjamin Franklin. G. It is likely that by the early 1900's, cities with large Asian populations had small tofu shops.
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