I’m learning to drive in Switzerland. I think it will be a good idea to learn now, because I have plenty of free time and I have earned a little money to pay for lessons. I never learnt when I lived in the UK, so luckily driving on the “wrong” side isn’t a problem.
However, there are a lot of rules to remember. When you see a road to your right and there are no white lines on the ground, the cars to your right have the right to go before your car and you have to stop for them. In practice, lots of people forget this and either wait for each other while both drivers try to remember what to do, or beep (鸣喇叭) at each other if both try to go at the same time!
When you drive round a roundabout, you should check all your mirrors. To remember how to do this, I often count them aloud—one, two, three—then a second glance at my blind spot when I’m in the roundabout. One friend came driving with me and after about an hour asked why on earth I was counting. He had passed his test so long ago,but he couldn’t remember ever having to check three mirrors!
Driving still seems scary to me so I drive quite slowly. I also don’t know the countryside roads very well and don’t know what’s coming up round the corner or over the next hill. I drive slowly so I feel safe, but my driving instructor tells me to speed up or cars will bump into me from behind when trying to drive through a dangerous place. So driving slowly is just as dangerous as driving fast!
I’m not a very practical person, so learning to drive has been a challenge. I don’t have a lot of confidence and find it quite demotivating to do something that doesn’t come naturally to me. To make driving more fun and interesting, I learn in Swiss German, so my instructor gives me instructions in Swiss. This way I’ve tricked myself into enjoying driving and hopefully I will pass the test!
1.What can be inferred from the first paragraph?
A.It isn’t a proper time for the author to take driving lessons now.
B.Driving on the “wrong” side doesn’t influence the author.
C.The author is too poor to pay for driving lessons in Switzerland.
D.It is easy for the author to get confused about the driving rules in Switzerland.
2.Why does the author often counts “one, two, three” aloud when driving round a round about?
A.to remind himself to check the mirrors B.to speed up
C.to drive through a dangerous place D.to make driving more interesting
3.What does the underlined word “demotivating” in the last paragraph mean?
A.Encouraging. B.Amazing.
C.Exciting. D.Discouraging.
假设你是红星中学高三学生李华。 上周，你和同学们参加了朝阳区组织的“三大战疫 有我有你”海报设计活动。请根据以下四幅图的先后顺序，写一篇英文周记，记述整个过程。
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假设你是红星中学高三学生李华。你的英国朋友Jim在给你的邮件中提到他想看一个关于中国文化方面的展览，并请你推荐。请给他回信，内容包括：
1. 介绍展览的相关内容（例如：时间、地点、主题等）；
2. 说明你推荐该展览的原因；
3. 询问对方的意向。
注意：1. 词数不少于50；
2. 开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Jim,
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Yours,
Li Hua
Anxiety Disorders
Everybody worries or feels nervous from time to time. 1. But for people with anxiety disorders, those fears and worries aren’t temporary. Their anxiety persists, and can even get worse over time.
Anxiety disorders can severely impair a person’s ability to function at work, school and in social situations. 2. Fortunately, though, there are effective treatments for anxiety.
In some cases, medications have a role in treating anxiety disorders. Yet research shows behavioral treatment, alone or in combination with medication, is a highly effective treatment for most people with an anxiety disorder.
Understanding Anxiety
Anxiety disorders are common in both adults and children. About 18 percent of U.S. adults and 25 percent of adolescents age 13 to 18 will experience anxiety, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. 3.
There are several major types of anxiety disorders: generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobias, social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, etc.
Seeing a Psychologist About Anxiety Disorders
Though many types of anxiety disorders exist, research suggests that most are driven by similar underlying processes. People with anxiety disorders tend to become easily overwhelmed by their emotions, and they tend to have particularly negative reactions to those unpleasant feelings and situations.
4. Unfortunately, avoidance can backfire and actually feed the anxiety.
Psychologists are trained in diagnosing anxiety disorders and teaching patients healthier, more effective ways to cope. A form of psychotherapy known as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is highly effective at treating anxiety disorders. Through CBT, psychologists help patients learn to identify and manage the factors that contribute to their anxiety.
Psychotherapy for Anxiety Disorders: What to Expect
Psychotherapy is a collaborative process, where psychologists and patients work together to identify specific concerns and develop concrete skills and techniques for coping with anxiety.5. However, psychologists won't push patients into such scenarios until they’re sure they have the skills they need to effectively confront their fears. Psychologists sometimes use other approaches to treat anxiety disorders in addition to CBT, among which group psychotherapy and family therapy are two effective ways.
A.Anxiety disorders are very treatable.
B.Anxiety is a normal human reaction to stressful situations.
C.Anxiety can also interfere with a person’s relationships with family members and friends.
D.About 4 percent of adults, and nearly 6 percent of teens, have anxiety disorders classified as severe.
E.Often, people try to cope with those negative reactions by avoiding situations or experiences that make them anxious.
F.Patients can expect to practice their new skills outside of sessions to manage anxiety in situations that might make them uncomfortable.
G.People with anxiety worry about a number of concerns, such as health problems or finances, and may have a general sense that something bad is going to happen.
Learning a second language is tricky at any age and it only gets tougher the longer you wait to open that dusty French book. Now, in a new study, scientists have pinpointed the exact age at which your chances of reaching fluency in a second language seem to plummet: 10.
The study, published in the journal Cognition, found that it’s “nearly impossible” for language learners to reach native-level fluency if they start learning a second tongue after 10. But that doesn’t seem to be because language skills go downhill. “It turns out you’re still learning fast. It’s just that you run out of time, because your ability to learn starts dropping at around 17 or 18 years old,” says study co-author Joshua Hartshorne, an assistant professor of psychology at Boston College.
Kids may be better than adults at learning new languages for many reasons. Children’s brains are more plastic than those of adults, meaning they’re better able to adapt and respond to new information. “All learning involves the brain changing,” Hartshorne says, “and children’s brains seem to be a lot more skilled at changing.”
Kids may also be more willing to try new things (and to potentially look foolish in the process) than adults are. Their comparatively new grasp on their native tongue may also be advantageous. Unlike adults, who tend to default (默认) to the rules and patterns of their first language, kids may be able to approach a new one with a blank slate (石板).
These findings may seem discouraging, but it was heartening for scientists to learn that the critical period for fluent language acquisition might be longer than they previously thought. Some scientists believed that the brief window closes shortly after birth, while others stretched it only to early adolescence. Compared to those estimates, 17 or 18 — when language learning ability starts to drop off — seems relatively old.
“People fared better when they learned by immersion (沉浸), rather than simply in a classroom. And moving to a place where your desired language is spoken is the best way to learn as an adult. If that’s not an option, you can mimic an immersive environment by finding ways to have conversations with native speakers in their own communities,” Hartshorne says. By doing so, it’s possible to become conversationally proficient — even without the advantage of a child’s brain.
1.The underlined word “plummet” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to “__________”.
A.decrease B.rise
C.end D.vary
2.What can be inferred from Joshua Hartshorne’s words?
A.Children are too young to grasp a second language.
B.Age 10-18 is the best time to learn a second language.
C.Adults go beyond the critical period for learning a second language.
D.Communicating with native speakers enables you to master all the language skills.
3.Why adults can’t reach native-level fluency in a second language?
A.Adults are less influenced by their mother tongues.
B.Adults spend more time responding to new information.
C.Adults are only too willing to experience something awkward in the process.
D.Adults prefer an immersive environment to a classroom in learning a second language.
4.The passage is mainly about __________.
A.the best age to learn a second language
B.the approaches to learning a second language
C.why kids learn a second language more easily than adults
D.whether adults can learn a second language like their younger selves
As humanity has got richer, animal’s roles have changed. People need their services less than before. Fewer wolves and thieves meant less demand for dogs for protection; the internal combustion engine（内燃机）made horses unneeded; modern sanitation（卫生设备）kept rats in check and made cats less useful. No longer necessities, domestic animals became luxuries. Pet-keeping seems to kick in when household incomes rise above roughly $5,000. It is booming.
The trend is not a new one. Archaeologists（考古学家）have found 10,000-year-old graves in which dogs and people are buried together. Some cultures -- such as in Scandinavia, where dogs have long been both working dogs and companions -- have kept pets for thousands of years. But these days the pet-keeping urge has spread even to parts of the world which have no tradition of sinking into a comfortable chair with a furry creature.
The pet business is growing even faster than pet numbers, because people are spending more and more money on them. No longer are they food - waste - recyclers, fed with the remains that fall from their masters’ tables. Pet - food shelves are full of delicacies crafted to satisfy a range of appetites, including ice cream for dogs and foods for pets that are old, diabetic or suffer from sensitive digestion; a number of internet services offer food, tailored to the pet’s individual tastes.
In the business this is called “pet humanisation” -- the tendency of pet owners to treat their pets as part of the family. This is evident in the names given to dogs, which have evolved from Fido, Rex and Spot to -- in America -- Bella, Lucy and Max. It is evident in the growing market for pet clothing, pet grooming and pet hotels.
People still assume that pets must be working for humanity in some way, perhaps making people healthier or less anxious. But the evidence for that is weak. Rather, new research suggests that dogs have evolved those irresistible “puppy - dog eyes” precisely to affect human emotions. It has worked. The species that once enslaved others now works very hard to pay for the care of its pets. Sentimental（多愁善感的）Americans often refer to themselves not as cat-owners but as the cat’s “mommy” or “daddy”. South Koreans go one further, describing themselves as cat “butlers”. Watch an unlucky dog-walker trailing “his” hound（猎犬）, plastic bag in hand to pick up its mess, and you have to wonder: who’s in charge now?
1.Which of the following trends is NOT TRUE according to the passage?
A.People’s needs for animal services are decreasing.
B.Both the pet number and the pet business are growing.
C.Pets are increasingly making their owners less anxious.
D.Pet foods are more various and customized than before.
2.Which of the following is referred to as evidence of “pet humanization?”
A.The names given to pets in American families nowadays.
B.Pet’s inbuilt ability to affect emotions of their owners.
C.Human beings ever rising urge for pet-keeping.
D.Pet’s roles as both working staff and companions.
3.Which of the following statements is the author most likely to agree with?
A.Pets should be treated as equals of their human masters.
B.Human beings are getting much benefit from their pets.
C.Pet-keeping is still restricted within certain parts of the world.
D.Some pet owners spend too much money on their pets.
4.Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
A.The Changing Roles of Animals B.The Urge for Pet-keeping
C.Who Owns Whom D.Love Me, Love My Dog
