阅读与回答问題。

As the global pandemic（流行病） speeds up, many are wondering about the effectiveness of masks and when it’s proper to wear them. Most people from the East believe that wearing a mask is important to control the spread of the novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP新冠肺炎). But people in the West generally would argue that, unless one is already ill, wearing a mask is unnecessary.

In Eastern countries like China, mask-wearing has a long history in their cultures. In fact, people in the East wear masks not just to protect themselves from illness but also for a variety of other reasons.

In many Asian countries, masks are worn in many situations in daily life, such as doing housework or visiting patients in the hospital. They can give people the comfort of being protected.

In recent years, they are worn simply for beauty. Young people in Japan, for example, wear masks as a fashion statement, expressing their personal style through unique designs and patterns.

In Asia, wearing a face mask is also an expression of group-oriented values（集体主义）.

Wearing a mask, one becomes part of a giant group. “People communicated their responsibilities to the social group of which they were members,” wrote Peter Baehr, a research professor in social theory at Lingnan University, Hong Kong.

In Western countries, however, individual values are the most important.

As a citizen, it is one’s duty to prevent the spread of illness in following ways, such as washing one’s hands and limiting one’s contact with others. A face mask is kept only for those showing symptoms（症状） of illness.

Whether from the East or the West, social culture has played an important role in one’s decision about whether or not to wear a mask. That’s because human beings are social creatures who consider much about what other members of society think of us. The most important thing is to respect others’ opinions, no matter how different they are.

56．For most people from the East, what is of great importance to control the spread of NCP ?

57．What can masks give people in many Asian countries?

58．Why do young people in Japan wear masks?

59．Who is a face mask kept only for in Western countries?

60．If you are a citizen in Western countries, how can you prevent the spread of illness?

     As an English, I can speak three languages—English, German and French, so do you think the British people are very good language learners? The fact is that they aren’t.

Some statistics (数据) from the survey done by the European Commission (欧盟委员会) showed that 62% of the British people only speak English. 38% speak at least one foreign language and 18% speak two or more. Compared with the British people, 56% of the people in other European countries speak at least one foreign language and 28% speak two or more. From this you can see that the British people are famous for not speaking foreign languages and that they are not good language learners in Europe.

And the survey also showed that English is the most widely-spoken foreign language. Many European people can have a conversation in English. That’s why my people don’t think it is necessary to learn a foreign language.

In Britain, students are not required to learn a foreign language. That means learning a foreign language is only an option at school. In UK schools it is common for children to start learning a foreign language at 11 and many of them give it up at 14. So why don’t students continue learning foreign languages at school? Because they think it is more difficult to get good marks in languages than in other subjects such as science or history.

To solve this situation, the British government is looking for different ways to improve language learning at school. One way is to start learning it at a much younger age. Another one is to give school children more choices.

Changing the British attitude (态度) to learning foreign languages may be a hard task but the government decides to try!

36．Which country does the writer come from?

A．America. .              B．China. .                  C．Britain. .                D．Egypt.

37．Which of the following about the British people is true?

A．They are good language learners.

B．62% of them speak two or more languages.

C．They are famous for speaking foreign languages.

D．More than half of them only speak English.

38．According to the passage, students in Britain prefer to learn _____.

A．science or German .                                   B．history or German

C．science or history .                                     D．German or French

39．In Paragraph 4, “an option” means _____.

A．a choice .               B．a game .                 C．a mistake .              D．a conversation

40．What is the best title of the passage?

A．Speaking English .                                     B．Foreign Language Learning in UK

C．Schools in UK .                                         D．Young English Learners

    Listening test is one of the most important parts of the English exam. Here are some tips for you.

Before you start to listen, you need to-relax. Don’t be stressed out. And try to read the questions. These questions usually help you understand the conversation or the passage.

Then listen carefully to the first sentence. It usually tells you the main idea of the passage. When you’re listening, try to do some thinking and take some notes, such as:

☆What happened

☆When, where, and how

☆What does the speaker want to tell us

In this way, you may understand the passage better,

Please remember not to think about one or two words for a long time. When you hear some words you don’t know, don’t spend too much time on them. Very often, you’ll find out what they mean later when you go on with the listening.

46．This passage mainly talks about _________.

A．tips on listening   B．tips on speaking 

C．tips on reading  D．tips on writing

47．It’s better for you to keep _________ when you start to have a listening test.

A．excited          B．relaxed          C．stressed out     D．worried

48．We should listen to the first sentence carefully, because it usually tells us _________.

A．the answers to the questions         B．where to write the answers

C．the main idea of the passage         D．how much time left (剩余) for the listening test

49．When you’re listening, it’s important for you to _________.

A．remember every word                  B．take some notes

C．understand all the words             D．think about one or two words for a long time

50．The_________ usually help(s) us understand the passage better.

A．questions        B．first sentence   C．notes            D．A, B and C

It Is Never Too Early to Think—and Communicate—like a Scientist

Who is a scientist and what is his job? A chemist doing experiments? A geologist out studying rocks? When most people think about science, they imagine characters making discoveries or finding cures （治疗方法） for new diseases. However, these leave out an extremely important part of the scientific process: communicating—sharing the results of that work.

Imagine if someone discovered something important about a disease. Other scientists need to understand the work well enough to use these new developments to make even more discoveries in the future. The public, too, needs to understand how these discoveries might influence their lives. But none of this will be possible if the work is not shared. Being a scientist goes far beyond the moment of discovery.

Without clear communication, scientists would not be able to use the work that has already been done. So how do scientists tell others about the work that they have done? How do they make sure that everything that they share is as clear and correct as possible?

Researchers publish their work in scientific journals （期刊） .These journals can be read by other researchers around the world. It is very important for these journals, and for the scientists who read them, to make sure that the research included is as correct as possible. In order to do that, articles given to scientific journals before publication first go through a process called peer review. Other scientists who do research in areas related to the work in an article are asked to read through it. Scientists also provide feedback to the writers. They bring up new questions the writer may not have considered, recognize limitations to the results being described, and also make sure that no mistakes were made during the process.

Frontiers for Young Minds is a scientific journal written for—and reviewed by young people. All of the articles in it are based on works already published in a peer reviewed scientific journal. However, while scientists are good at making sure that articles are understandable for other scientists, there are no better experts to make sure that something can be understood by young people than the young people themselves. By working together with an experts young reviewers read the article to see if any part of the article is hard to understands make it clear why the experiment was done in the way it was done and check whether the figures （数据） clearly explain the point of the article.

Basically, these young reviewers learn to think like scientists. It is never too early to start! Ask questions, learn new things, and don't forget the importance of communicating your findings.

1 ． What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?

A ． What is required to be a good scientist.

B ． Who should understand a scientist’s job.

C ． Why sharing the results of scientific work is important.

D ． How scientists make sure their work is clear and correct.

2 ． From the passage we can know that________.

A ． scientists are good at working together with others

B ． young people usually enjoy reading scientific journals

C ． in peer review, other scientists bring up questions to readers

D ． young reviewers help make articles in Frontiers for Young Minds more readable

3 ． What is the writer's main purpose in writing this passage?

A ． To introduce how scientists do their jobs.

B ． To offer practical advice on how to ask scientific questions.

C ． To explain the effects of peer review on scientific journals.

D ． To encourage young people to think and communicate like scientists.

Why Wisdom （智慧） Doesn't Work as Well as We Think It Does

We relate wisdom to age. Most of us believe that gaining wisdom is like picking up stones on a path: the longer you're on the path, the more stones you'll collect.

It seems a reasonable inference, then, the older you are, the more wisdom you have. Older people usually make fewer careless mistakes, and they often know the best course of action in a given situation. But I think there's another explanation at play here, which we might consider in the light of what we know about human decision-making.

There are two different ways of decision-making: plans and habits. Here's an example of how these ways differ. If you ^’ re driving somewhere for the first time, you'll need a plan. You will need to know whether to turn left or right, because you don’t already have that information stored away in your head. On the other hand, you don't need a plan when you're going somewhere familiar （熟悉的） because the order of steps that will take you there is stored as a habit. But if you find that the road is blocked by fallen trees, you’ll have to think about another way. Such a plan allows you to more easily deal with new situations, but they require a lot more attention.

The use of plans and habits changes over the course of our lives. A baby can't use habits to make decisions, because any situation she ^’ s in will be a new one. As we build up a store of familiar situations, the more we can depend on habits. The older you are, the more likely your behavior is based on tried- and-true habits rather than fresh planning.

But what does this tell us about wisdom? Well, it suggests that wisdom is interactive, not static : it is a relationship between a person and their surroundings （环境）， The reason that wisdom seems to come out so effortlessly from well-seasoned minds is that they have a store of habitual information about how to act in a given situation.

But it also makes a worrying prediction: if older people were put in a new situation, with which they had no familiarity, they wouldn't make better decisions than someone who is young. It is the same with mistakes. Older, seemingly wiser people make fewer mistakes because they're familiar with surroundings they often deal with. If you controlled for the familiarity of the situation, then people in different age groups would probably make the same number of mistakes. Younger people might even make fewer mistakes, because they are better at coming up with fresh plans.

While wisdom gives you expertise within a particular environment, it doesn't mean that you'll be able to generalize that to new experiences. It's not that we necessarily get wiser as we get older, but we put ourselves in fewer situations where we are likely to make mistakes.

1 ． What do we know about the two ways of decision-making according to the passage?

A ． Using plans or habits to make decisions is an ever-changing process.

B ． The use of plans and habits requires lots of attention and effort.

C ． When going somewhere familiar, we need to work out a plan.

D ． Younger people depend more on habits to make decisions,

2 ． What can we learn from the passage?

A ． Younger people have a great advantage in becoming wiser.

B ． Older people are better at making careful plans before action.

C ． Older people seem wiser because they ^’ ve stored more habitual information.

D ． Younger people make more mistakes when they're in unfamiliar surroundings.

3 ． What does the underlined word “static” probably mean in Paragraph 5?

A ． Uncontrolled. B ． Unchanged. C ． Increasing. D ． Surprising.

4 ． What is the writer's main purpose in writing this passage?

A ． To stress the importance of gaining wisdom.

B ． To compare the two different ways of decision-making.

C ． To call on younger people to learn more from older people.

D ． To remind us to view the wisdom of older people reasonably.