One morning, a blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said, “I am blind. Please help me.” There were only a few coins in the hat.
A man was walking by. He took out a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote something on it. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by could see the new words. Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, “Are you the one who changed my sign this morning? May I know what you wrote?” The man said, “I only wrote the truth, I said what you said but in a different way.” What he had written was, “Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it.”
Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was a blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind. It reminded you to be thankful for what you have. When life gives you a 100 reasons to cry, show life that you have 1,000 reasons to smile. Face your past without regret. Handle your present with confidence. Prepare for the future without fear. Keep the faith and drop the fear. The most beautiful thing is to see a person smiling.We can learn from the text that the man helped the blind boy by __________.
| A．sitting together with him | B．rewriting the sign |
| C．teaching him some principles | D．raising money for him |
Why did the man come back that afternoon?
| A．To bring some food to the boy. |
| B．To explain to the boy why he had left. |
| C．To make sure the boy was still there. |
| D．To check if there were some changes. |
It can be inferred that the boy was ________ after he found out what the man had written.
| A．moved | B．amazed | C．excited | D．worried |
What is the main idea of the text?
| A．We should help those who are in trouble. |
| B．We should value what we have in life. |
| C．We should respect people with disabilities. |
| D．We should use a wise way when helping others |
Each summer, you hear news about a sports player being rushed to the hospital or passing out because the heat was just too much. If you follow some basic safety tips, you’ll be safe and happy playing outside for years to come.
Drinking water is crucial to your health in the heat. This is the first thing that everyone says when it is hot outside. You should not drink soda, coffee, or iced tea when you’re playing outside, and for a few hours after you get inside too.
Be sure to take enough breaks to let your body rest. If you feel that your coach don’t let you take enough breaks in the heat, don’t wait until you feel awful to march to the sidelines. Once you feel bad, it’s usually too late. Just be honest with your coach when you need breaks. He’ll understand.
When you do have a break, don’t sit in the sun. With the sun beating down on you, you’ll only heat up and sweat more. Try to grab a seat in the shade under a tree, or even better, go indoors for a little while. Cooling yourself down can help you stay active longer.
The signs of dehydration（脱水）can be tough to recognize. They include a dry or sticky mouth, dry skin, a headache, and dizziness（头晕）. You might not always feel thirsty, so watch out for the signs of dehydration, and get yourself into the shade and get some water before it gets worse.
The earlier in the day you start your workout or practice, the cooler it will be. If you can start practice before the sun comes up, you have a few good hours to practice in the cool hours of the morning. Also, the earlier you practice, the earlier you can be done, which gives you some good recovery time when the heat gets bad in the afternoon. If you need more practice time, a good idea is to take a break when the heat is bad and come back to the field later in the evening, when the sun is setting.
As long as you pay attention to the above, playing sports safely in the heat isn’t a difficult thing.
Title: Some safety tips while playing sports in the heat
| Drinking water in time |
●Drinking water is crucial and necessary when you play outside. ●Some drinks are not |
| Taking enough breaks |
●Breaks can ●Take a rest before it is too late. ●Take a break in the shade or go |
| ● ●Get into the |
|
| Choosing |
●Practice before ●Do extra exercise in the evening with the sun |
The research tracked the health of 101,000 US nurses over three decades.
Light-to-moderate smokers were twice as likely to die of sudden heart problems as those who had never smoked.
But those who quit smoking saw their risk begin to go back down within years, a journal of the American Heart Association reports.
_________
During the study, there were 315 sudden cardiac deaths（心脏性猝死）——where the heart unexpectedly stops working.
In people aged 35 or younger, this usually because of a heart condition that runs in the family.
But in people who are older than this—as most of the nurses in the study were —it can be the first sign of coronary heart disease, where the heart’s arteries become blocked by fatty deposits.
Of the 315 sudden deaths in the study, 75 were among current smokers, 148 were among recent or past smokers and 128 occurred in people who had never smoked.
Reason to quit
After taking into account other heart risk factors, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and family history of heart disease, Dr Roopinder Sandhu and his colleagues found the women who smoked were twice as likely as likely to die suddenly even if they smoked “light-to-moderate” amounts —between one and 14 cigarettes a day.
For every five years of continued smoking, the risk went up by 8%.
But women who quit saw their risk fall to that of someone who had never smoked, after 20 years of cessation.
Dr Sandhu, of the University of Alberta, Canad, said: “What this study really tells women is how important it is to stop smoking. The benefits in terms of sudden cardiac death reduction are there for all women, not just those with established heart disease.”
“It can be difficult to quit. It needs to be a long-term goal. It’s not always easily achievable and it may take more than one attempt.”
Ellen Mason, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “This study shows that smoking just a couple of cigarettes a day could still seriously affect your future health.”
“As we approach the new year, many of us will be making resolutions and giving up smoking will be the top of the list for lots of people.”
“If you’re thinking of quitting and need a nudge, this research adds to the wealth of evidence that stopping smoking is the single best thing you can do for your heart health.”
A recent study in The Lancet of 1.2million Women found those who gave up smoking by the age of 30 would almost completely avoid the risk of dying early from tobacco-related diseases.
Latest figures suggest a fifth of women in England smoke.According to the research, light smokers____________.
| A．are not likely to suffer from heart problems |
| B．are more likely to suffer from heart problems than moderate ones |
| C．can go on smoking only if they don’t smoke much |
| D．have a high possibility of dying of heart disease |
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．Nonsmokers wouldn’t die of sudden cardiac death |
| B．Most of the nurses concerned in the research were middle aged. |
| C．All age groups of people were involved in the research. |
| D．If the smokers had quit smoking, they wouldn’t have died of heart disease. |
Which of the following is best suitable for the blank in the passage?
| A．Raised risk | B．Ways of quitting smoking |
| C．Diseases related to smoking | D．Signs of heart disease |
The underlined word “nudge” in the passage probably means “____________”
| A．push | B．confidence | C．study | D．comparison |
Endless playing of songs like All I Want For Christmas in shops during the festive season doesn’t just drive us mad—the songs also make us more careless with our money, research has warned.
While repeated performance of Jingle Bells may seem like an innocent attempt to raise customers’ spirits during the nightmare of Christmas shopping, the songs also have a more delicate impact.
“Background music, or ‘muzak’, can be used by marketers to impose cultures—such as the commercialization of Christmas—onto consumers and influence their behaviour, ”experts said.
Dr. Alan Bradshaw of Royal Holloway, University of London, said, “Festive jingles are force-fed to Christmas shoppers in a bid to change their mood, influence their sense of time and what sort of products they buy. In other words, this is an attempt to control your shopping habits in a way that you might hardly be aware of.”
“Often we are told that we have the freedom to choose where we want to shop, but during Christmas the use of music in this way is so common that our freedom to choose disappears.”
Dr. Bradshaw and Prof Morris Holbrook of Columbia University examined the phenomenon and found that retailers often “dumb down” the music played in shops to relax customers, meaning it is easier to control their behaviour.
It is thought that slowing down the rhythm of music in shops can trick customers into thinking less time has passed, and therefore spend more time examining the shelves, for example.
Some providers of background music have been known to promote their services by claiming they can boost profits by controlling the behaviour of customers.
“A common trick is to take a popular current song and record an instrumental version which can be slowed down or sped up at different time of the day to influence behaviour in different ways,” Dr Bradshaw said.
Background music is often classed as “Muzak” in honor of the Seattle-based company which began producing its soft-sounding melodies in the 1930s.According to Dr. Bradshaw, in what ways does Christmas music influence customers?
①their mood ②their income ③their sense of time ④the sort of products they buy
| A．①②③ | B．①③④ | C．②③④ | D．①②④ |
Shopkers slow down the rhythm of music in shops to__________.
| A．let customers spend more time shopping |
| B．make customers and sales assistants relaxed |
| C．let customers enjoy the beautiful music |
| D．help customers find what they really want |
What kind of music is now often adapted to influence customers in shops?
| A．Classical music. | B．Popular modern songs. |
| C．Folk songs. | D．Jazz music. |
It should be very clear that we live in a most spectacular（壮观的）time. It’s a time when information is of primary importance. It’s a time when new information technologies are fundamentally transforming the world in every aspect. Among the changes, which have come upon modern society, the ones in education are probably the most obvious and influential. New information technologies are accelerating changes in education, at the same time presenting revolutionary tools with the potential to make education more efficient and more effective than ever.
The application of new information technologies has remarkably promoted the process of education. Online learning is probably the best case in point. As is often the case with “technology”, online learning may appear to be horrible; it can sound like alphabet soup sometimes. Now let’s see whether you can understand all this. You can participate in CBT at a CLC via the convenience of IDL. What does it all mean? Let me translate: GBT—Computer-Based Training; CLC—Computer Learning Center; IDL—Interactive Distance Learning. Sound complicated? Not really. Online learning is much less complicated than it seems. Students can learn at any time, anywhere, at any speed. They can make their own learning schedules and follow their own paths to suit their lifestyles. In my university, every semester there’re several online courses available, which need no class meetings or paper materials. The only thing I have to do is just to get online regularly as I wish, and download necessary learning materials. Then everything I need to know about the course is only a click away.
But online learning is not perfect; it’s like the microwave oven: it does some things better, but it is not a complete replacement for the traditional model. The traditional classroom model for education and learning is hard to leave behind. Because humans are social creatures, there’re times when we need to see each other face-to-face for interactive learning. A social and personal connection often builds effective teams, solves problems, and inspires confidence. So one possible solution is to combine online learning with the old traditional classroom learning , which not only makes the learning process faster and cheaper, but also highlights the interactions between teachers and students.
The bottom line: the Internet is the most important educational tool in the information age and online learning will become a main part of every individual’s learning experience in the future. That’s exactly how we will move knowledge from the ones who have it to the ones who need it faster and cheaper, and that’s how we’re going to survive in the information age.The most suitable title for the passage should be “___________.”
| A．Education in the information age |
| B．Advantages and disadvantages of online learning |
| C．Online learning vs classroom learning |
| D．How to survive in the information age |
In Paragraph 3 the microwave oven is mentioned as an example to indicate that_________.
| A．online learning needs improving |
| B．online learning doesn’t suit everyone |
| C．online learning will exist alongside the traditional model |
| D．online learning is more advanced than the traditional model |
Which of the following descriptions about online learning is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．It is more efficient and effective. |
| B．It is convenient to both teachers and students. |
| C．It stresses interactions between teachers and students. |
| D．It is a cheaper way of learning. |
It can be inferred from the passage that________.
| A．not all the people are in favor of online learning |
| B．it is not easy to combine online learning with classroom learning |
| C．in the future all the courses will be available online |
| D．in a sense our survival in the world depends on online learning |
Former National Football League player and children’s author Tim Green has added another book to his list of accomplishments: Unstoppable. The book tells the story of a 12-year –old boy named Harrison, who survives life in a cruel foster home before he finally finds a loving family. Once he settles in and realizes his natural football ability, tragedy strikes again and he loses his leg to a deadly bone cancer. Unstoppable follows Harrison’s incredible journey as he faces many challenges in his life.
Tim Green says he decided to write a novel about a kid facing cancer after watching how his wife fought to survive her own illness. “Her mental and physical toughness were more heroic to me than anything I’d ever seen in the national sports leagues,” Green told TFK Kid Reporter Zachary J. Lewis.
After watching his wife’s battle, Green said, he knew he needed to write about a person who struggled through a serious illness. But because the target age for his books is teen, he needed to tell the story through the eyes of someone that age.
When friends introduced Green to Jeffrey Keith, Green knew he had found the right person to help him“ capture the heroism that it takes to fight cancer”. Cancer-survivor Jeffrey Keith lost his leg to disease at age twelve, but went on to be the goalie （守门员）for the Boston College Division 1 Lacrosse（长曲棍球）Team and was also the first amputee to run 3,300 miles across the country. When Green heard Jeffrey Keith’s story, he knew it was the perfect narrative on which to base his next book.
TFK asked Keith what it felt like to read Unstoppable for the first time. “Tim captured what it felt like for me to go through this experience and battle back,” Keith said. “After I read the book, Tim asked me to describe it in one word, and I said ‘awesome’. Tim’s work sends a message to all the kids across the country that are facing obstacles that can have nothing to do with cancer: you are all unstoppable, as long as you believe it.”Who inspires Tim Green to write the novel Unstoppable?
| A．A boy named Harrison. | B．His wife. |
| C．Zachary J. Lewis. . | D．Jeffrey Keith |
The underlined word “amputee” in Paragraph 4 most probably means________
| A．a person who has survived cancer |
| B．a person who has had a leg or an arm cut off |
| C．a person who looks different from others |
| D．a person who has no arms or legs |
What do we know from the last paragraph?
| A．Jeffrey Keith thinks highly of Unstoppable. |
| B．Jeffrey Keith has read Unstoppable many times. |
| C．Unstoppable will be one the best-sellers this year. |
| D．Jeffrey Keith is fond of reading Tim Green’s novels. |
The novel Unstoppable intends to inspire kids that ________.
| A．they should fight against disease fearlessly |
| B．they should pursue their dreams |
| C．they can become a writer if they want |
| D．they can overcome any obstacles ahead |
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