Life under lockdown is strange and lonely but people are finding ways to come together and support those in need by volunteering. Here are just a few more ways you can take part in.
NHS Responders
After asking retired medical professionals to return to work, the government has also put out a call for 250,000 volunteers to support the NHS (National Health System). You can apply to be a community response volunteer, collecting and delivering supplies for those in isolation; a patient transport volunteer, helping patients who are dismissed from hospital get home and settled; and an NHS transport volunteer, to assist with delivery of medical supplies.
GAIL'S Bakery
As well as baking breads and pastries for the general public, GAJL's is supplying front-line NHS teams with fresh food, and they need more help to get it where it needs to be. If you want to lend a hand, drop them an email.
Re-engage
Re-engage is a voluntary group that helps reduce loneliness among old people and given that so many people are isolated because of the virus outbreak, they need more volunteers to become call companions. If you want to join them in the telephone befriending service, contact them at 18112256.
A Plate For London
This online platform helps match volunteers with Londoners in need . Now they are focusing on doorstep deliveries of food parcels and hot meals to children who rely on free school meals and those who have lost their jobs as a result of the widespread disease.
1.What is the duty of a patient transport volunteer?
A.Picking up patients. B.Sending patients home.
C.Moving patients to clinics. D.Delivering supplies for patients.
2.Which volunteer group especially cares for the senior?
A.NHS Responders. B.GAIL’s Bakery.
C.Re-engage. D.A Plate For London.
3.Who may be offered food by the online platform?
A.The aged. B.The volunteers.
C.The patients. D.The unemployed.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
School is still out for the summer, but at Eastern Senior High School,students are hard at work.In a garden bursting with vegetables and herbs, nearly a dozen teenagers are harvesting them for the weekend's farmers market. They work Tuesday through Saturday with City Blossoms, a non-profit that brings community gardens to schools and other places where kids gather in urban areas.
Roshawn Little, going into her junior year at Eastern, believes that working in the garden has taught her to try all sorts of new things—like eating different kinds of vegetables more often. And she has taken those healthy behaviors home with her and her family now buy more fruits and vegetables.“We mainly live around liquor（酒）stores and snack stores. There aren’t that many grocery stores. They're way out, and you have to drive so far”—a common problem in low-income urban areas.
City Blossoms is one of many groups across the country teaming up with local communities to establish school gardens, like the one at Eastern. These gardens, advocates say, are really outdoor classrooms where kids learn valuable lessons — not just about nutrition, but also about science and math, even business skills. For example, the gardens can be used for math lessons—like calculating the area of a plant bed—or learning the science of how plants grow.
On a recent weekend at the Aya farmers market, the kids work at a table decorated with handmade signs that read “onions” and “garlic”, inviting people to try their herbed salt with bread. Working at the market helps them practice public speaking skills and business skills.
Nadine Joyner of a nutrition education company has a food table next to the kids at the market and often buys produce from them. She is constantly impressed by the kids’ knowledge of what they're selling—they know how to grow it, how to prepare it, and how to cook it
1.What do students at Eastern do with the harvested vegetables?
A.Sell them on market . B.Take them to school.
C.Give them to farmers. D.Share them at home.
2.What can we infer about the area Little lives in?
A.It is inconvenient in traffic. B.It is crowded with grocery stores.
C.It has poor access to fresh foods. D.It suffers from income inequality.
3.Why does City Blossoms establish school gardens?
A.To provide nutritious food. B.To improve classroom conditions.
C.To cooperate with local community. D.To create outdoor learning chances.
4.Which may be the best title for this text?
A.Green Vegetables, Healthy Gardeners B.School Garden: a Promise Land in Summer
C.Young Gardeners, Knowledgeable Minds D.City Blossoms: an Exciting Garden Project
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
The terrible E1Niño strikes the globe every 2 to 7 years. As warm waters in the tropical(热带的) Pacific Ocean switch eastward and trade winds weaken the weather pattern stretches through the atmosphere, causing drought in southern Africa, wildfires in South America, and flooding on North America's Pacific coast. Climate scientists have struggled to predict El Niño events more than 1 year in advance, but artificial intelligence (AI) can now extend the latest forecasts to 18 months, according to a new study.
The new research uses a type of AI called a convolutional neural network(卷积神经网络), which is adept in recognizing images. Researchers feed the neural network a large number of training images and the AI becomes skilled at identifying fundamental patterns of those images. For example, the neural network can be trained to recognize cats in photos by identifying characteristics shared by all cats, such as hairs and four legs.
Part of the problem with earlier researches on El Niño forecasts is that they rely on a relatively small set of historical statistics for factors such as ocean temperature. To get around this shortage, the scientists fed the program re-creations of historic ocean conditions produced by a set of reliable climate models, ones frequently used for studies of climate change, says the study’s lead author, Yoo-Geun Ham, a climate scientist in South Korea. As a result, the scientists could show the computer system not just one set of actual historic data, lasting from 1871 to 1973, but several thousand reproductions of that same data by the climate models.
But it’s not clear how much real-world benefit will come from pushing forecasts beyond 1 year, cautions Stephen Zebiak, a climate scientist at Columbia University, “The kind of lead time that is actionable is probably less than a year because decision-makers are unlikely to take action further in advance,” he says.
1.What is the advantage of the latest AI forecasts?
A.Faster response. B.Higher accuracy
C.Wider application. D.Longer time range.
2.What does the underlined word “adept” probably mean?
A.Carefully-chosen. B.Well-trained.
C.Newly-developed. D.Wide-spread.
3.What is paragraph 3 mainly about?
A.Improvement on previous studies. B.Requirements for weather forecast.
C.Procedure for analyzing image data. D.Problems with early climate models.
4.What does Stephen Zebiak think of the new AI prediction?
A.It has unclear impacts. B.It calls for effective action.
C.It may not be of actual help. D.It should be treated with caution.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
People often plan to receive medical exam but don’t, resulting in increasing health care cost. A surprising number of citizens mean to complete tax forms in time but forget to, forcing them to pay unnecessary fines. Many families miss the government deadline to complete financial aid forms, losing out on aid available for child care.
How can policymakers help people follow through on important tasks? They use carrots and sticks: bonuses, late fees, or regulations. These methods can be clumsy, and often aren’t effective for the situation at hand. Reminding people to form simple plans. however, provides a low-cost, simple, and powerful tool.
Evidence is growing that providing prompts, which push people at key times to think through how and when they will follow through, make people more likely to act on tasks of importance. In one early randomized study on tetanus vaccination rates, for example, a team of social psychologists showed that 28% of Oxford University seniors got the shot after being encouraged to review their weekly schedules and to select a possible time to stop by the health center. They were also given a list of times when shots were available and a map showing the health center’s location. Only 3% of the seniors got the shot when simply informed about how effective the shots were.
People who make a plan gain an advantage from their psychological forces. Specifically, they can overcome the tendency to put off as well as the tendency to be overly optimistic about the time it will take to accomplish a task. Imagine Sarah who wants to renew a car insurance, but it will require two hours of travel to and from a garage. Making a plan may lead her to lake two hours off and have her responsibilities covered by her colleagues while she is away. Moreover, she will be less likely to underestimate the time needed to accomplish the task—a particularly common problem for complex tasks.
People mistakenly believe that their strong intentions are enough to push them to perform desired behaviors. These psychological research results stress the need for policy decisions that encourage plan making and improve social welfare.
1.What phenomenon is described in paragraph 1?
A.Heavy burden of daily chores. B.Lack of task management skills.
C.Disappointment of over-ambitions. D.Failure to achieve original intentions.
2.What does the randomized tetanus vaccination study show?
A.People need to think deeply before they act.
B.Specific reminders help people accomplish plans.
C.Awareness of task significance matters in planning.
D.Seniors need encouragement to have vaccination shots.
3.What psychological benefit can people get from making a plan?
A.They are realistic in the time required. B.They are optimistic about the outcome.
C.They are confident to overcome hardship. D.They are careful with task arrangements.
4.Who may be the intended readers of this text?
A.Medical staff. B.Government officials.
C.Ordinary people. D.Social psychologists.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Over the last few years, there’s been a trend to focus on gratitude. We can buy different kinds of gratitude journals, or download apps that remind us to write down our blessings.1.“But it's also important to remember that gratitude is free.”says Laurie Santos, who teaches a course on the science of well-being and happiness at Yale University.
Noting down gratitude seems to pay off. Studies have found that giving thanks can help people sleep better, lower stress and improve interpersonal relationships. Keeping a gratitude journal can decrease materialism and enhance generosity among adolescents.2.“It’s one practices that really wins out from the field of positive psychology.” she says. Her students, in addition to keeping gratitude journals, are asked to write a thank-you letter and then read it out loud to the recipient (收信人). “They show measurable improvements in well-being even a month after they’ve done this.”she says.
3.One study found that counting blessings once a week boosted happiness, but doing so three times a week didn't. There’s also a lack of research on bow gratitude exercises help people with clinical depression or anxiety. Indeed, for all the research on the broad benefits of expressing gratitude, it isn't for everyone.4. It can't make injustice, loss or pain disappear.
During really tough times, like when she suffers from poor health, Santos feels like she is reaching for reasons to be grateful. But she still tries to find some. “I’m grateful for the sun that’s shining or being able to wake up,” she says.5.
A.And it isn’t a cure-all.
B.So it doesn’t feel pleasant.
C.Those products remind us to take time to be grateful.
D.What works for some people may not work for others.
E.Gratitude allows her to remember what is going well.
F.Practicing too much gratitude may have undesired effects.
G.That's why gratitude features heavily in Santos' happiness class.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
It’s no news that there are places in this world where children are lacking basic life necessities. Even though there are organizations_________to give children happiness in the world, they can’t be everywhere. This brings a(n)_________: who will stand in the gap and give these children a_________life on earth?
Rajesh Kumar Sharma, a 43-year-old_________decided to open a free school in New Delhi, India for_________children. The idea struck him when he visited the Delhi metro station and_________that many children were playing there_________attending school. When he questioned their_________working at the site, they replied that there were no schools nearby and no one_________.All they wanted for their children was to get a job to____________the family income.____________that he had to quit college due to____________limits, Rajesh did not want the same fate (命运) to happen to these children. So he created a____________school beneath the tracks of the station for them.
Five days a week, with a torn mat to sit on and part of a____________painted as a blackboard, Rajesh spares two hours to____________while his grocery store is attended to by his brother. His students are____________child laborers and farm workers who hardly had the____________to decide their own fate.
Since the school started, it is been____________by anonymous (匿名的) donors who provide clothing, books and stationery (文具) for the children. Rajesh has been able to influence his community as more parents are ____________their children to study. He shows us that nothing is impossible if you put your ____________into it.
1.A.deserving B.waiting C.battling D.failing
2.A.doubt B.question C.guess D.argument
3.A.colorful B.wealthy C.common D.meaningful
4.A.professor B.shopkeeper C.worker D.engineer
5.A.needy B.lonely C.homeless D.hopeless
6.A.expected B.acknowledged C.indicated D.noticed
7.A.other than B.regardless of C.rather than D.apart from
8.A.parents B.classmates C.neighbors D.relatives
9.A.complained B.cared C.reacted D.commented
10.A.add to B.lead to C.bring up D.take up
11.A.Assuming B.Admitting C.Reasoning D.Remembering
12.A.academic B.age C.financial D.time
13.A.traditional B.private C.normal D.temporary
14.A.wall B.train C.roof D.platform
15.A.serve B.teach C.practise D.learn
16.A.mostly B.surely C.rarely D.nearly
17.A.money B.potential C.chance D.experience
18.A.operated B.funded C.built D.expanded
19.A.challenging B.begging C.forcing D.encouraging
20.A.dream B.talent C.heart D.knowledge
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式.
“Du Fu: China’s Greatest Poet,”a 58-minute documentary released recently on BBC, introduces Du Fu to the Western world for the first time1.the form of documentary. In the film, Michael Wood, one of BBC's most popular hosts, visited a number of Chinese2.(city) to retrace Du’s steps. The documentary invited well-known British actor Ian McKellen,3.played Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings movies,4.(read) 15 of Du’s poems that have been translated into English.
Born in 712, Du Fu lived through the violent fall of China’s brilliant Tang Dynasty. lie had the desire to serve his country, but his life5.(destroy) by the An Lushan Rebellion of 755. Of6.many poems he wrote, 500 have been preserved over the ages. For generations he7.(be) the guardian of the moral conscience（良知）of the nation.
The documentary compared Du to Shakespeare to help audiences8.(well) understand the poet’s great achievements in literature. It also highlighted Chinese poetry, noting that its 3000-year-old history makes9.the oldest living tradition of poetry in the world.
During an interview, the director even quoted a line from Du to encourage the people10.(suffer) under the COVID-19 pandemic（流行病).
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
假定英语课上要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中并有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划拟。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2. 只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
The day when we returned to school was impressive. Because the COVID-19 outbreak, we had to stay home during the three months’ “vacation”. I was touching when I stepped into the school, where remained clean and neat. The staff must have worked hard to keep everything tidy and safe but we could study in a comfortable environment. There were sign telling us to wash hands frequently and wearing masks. Mr. Chen, our headteacher, greeted us warm in the classroom. A mask was covered most of his face, but his eyes were shining. He said we had done his part to stop the disease spreading. What a unforgettable day!
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
假定你是李华，你的外国笔友Jeff得知你参加了你校学生会主办的“我最敬佩的科学家”故事分享会，写信询问有关情况。请你回复邮件，内容包括：
1. 感谢关注：
2. 你的分享；
3. 你的感想。
注意：
1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Jeff,
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
难度: 中等查看答案及解析