高考英语每日练 | 时间银行:用一小时换一小时(阅读+七选五)

In a suburb of Leeds, a small office above the library keeps a curious kind of bank. The Hour Bank, as it is called, does not deal in money. Members earn one credit for every hour they spend helping a neighbour — driving an older person to the doctor, repairing a fence, teaching someone to use a smartphone — and they spend the same credits when they need help themselves. A doctor's hour, a student's hour and a gardener's hour are all worth exactly the same.

Ellen, a retired nurse, joined three years ago. She drives four members to their hospital appointments every week and has earned enough credits for guitar lessons with a sixteen-year-old down the road. "I spent twenty years being useful to strangers at work," she says. "Now I am useful to people whose names I know, and someone is teaching me something I have wanted to learn since I was fourteen."

Running such a bank is harder than it looks. Coordinators spend hours matching requests, and the most wanted services — lifts to the hospital, help with official forms — are always in shorter supply than the offers. When a hundred members can cook but only three can fix a boiler, the waiting lists grow. Some banks now run short evening classes to train members in the skills nobody has, which quietly turns a weakness into a small training school.

Researchers studying loneliness have taken an interest. In towns where an hour bank operates, members report more frequent contact with their neighbours and, in one study, noticeably better sleep. The idea has now spread to more than forty towns. Its organisers remain modest about the numbers. "We are not solving loneliness," one coordinator says, "but an hour given to a neighbour is an hour the neighbour is no longer alone — and that is a beginning."

1. What is special about the Hour Bank?

A. It lends money to neighbours in need.

B. Every member's hour has the same value.

C. Only retired people are allowed to join.

D. It pays members according to their skills.

2. Why is Ellen's example mentioned in Paragraph 2?

A. To show that members both give and receive help.

B. To prove that the bank pays its members well.

C. To encourage more nurses to join the bank.

D. To explain why guitar lessons are popular.

3. What is a practical difficulty for hour banks?

A. Members refuse to help complete strangers.

B. There are too many coordinators to manage.

C. Some badly needed services are rarely offered.

D. Hospitals are unwilling to accept the service.

4. What does the coordinator's comment in the last paragraph suggest?

A. The banks have completely solved loneliness.

B. Small acts of help are a meaningful start.

C. The research results are clearly exaggerated.

D. Hour banks will soon replace other services.

The Quiet Power of Routine

For many young people, the word "routine" sounds like the enemy of fun: the same breakfast, the same bus, the same desk at the same hour.     36     Studies of daily habits suggest the opposite: the more of the day that runs quietly on habit, the more attention is left free for everything that truly matters.

There is a simple reason for this. Every small decision — what to wear, when to revise, which bag to pack — uses up a little mental energy.     37     Writers, scientists and athletes understood this long before the research caught up.

Routine also protects mood. When the week has a shape — a fixed evening run, a Sunday phone call home — small failures feel smaller.     38    

The danger, of course, is a routine that never changes.     39     The solution is simple: review your habits at the end of each month, and keep only the ones that still serve you.

None of this means planning every minute of the day.     40     The purpose of routine is not control; it is to make ordinary days steady enough for the extraordinary ones to happen.

选项

A. So they fix the small things — same breakfast, same start time, same notebook — to save their best hours for real work.

B. Successful people, we are often told, wake at five, run ten kilometres and answer emails before sunrise.

C. A bad Tuesday then becomes just one Tuesday, not proof that the whole term is falling apart.

D. Yet the evidence points the other way.

E. That is why many psychologists advise students to change their study habits every week.

F. A timetable that helped you in September may quietly steal your sleep by November.

G. Leave some empty spaces in it on purpose.

阅读理解

1. B　第一段末句："A doctor's hour, a student's hour and a gardener's hour are all worth exactly the same." → 医生、学生、园丁的一小时价值完全相同，选 B。A「借钱」与"does not deal in money"矛盾；C「只许退休者加入」文中无据（学生也是成员）；D「按技能付费」与"价值相同"相反。

2. A　Ellen 每周开车送人看病（付出），同时用积分换吉他课（获得）——"someone is teaching me something I have wanted to learn"，体现"既给予也接受"，选 A。B「银行付酬高」它不发钱；C「鼓励更多人当护士」跑题；D「吉他课受欢迎」文中未比较。

3. C　第三段："the most wanted services ... are always in shorter supply than the offers ... When a hundred members can cook but only three can fix a boiler, the waiting lists grow." → 最被需要的服务供不应求，选 C。A「拒绝帮陌生人」与全文相悖；B「协调员太多难管理」文中说的是匹配工作量大，非人数过多；D「医院不愿接受」无据。

4. B　末段协调员说："We are not solving loneliness, but an hour given to a neighbour is an hour the neighbour is no longer alone — and that is a beginning." → 承认不能彻底解决孤独，但认为小帮助是有意义的开端，选 B。A「已彻底解决」与原话矛盾；C「研究结果被夸大」他并未否定研究；D「将取代其他服务」无据。

七选五

36. D　空前说"许多人觉得例行公事是乐趣的敌人"，空后说"研究显示恰恰相反"。D "Yet the evidence points the other way."（然而证据指向另一面）承上启下，与空后 "suggest the opposite" 呼应，选 D。B 是常见刻板印象，与下文"研究"衔接不上；E 与下文"每月回顾一次"矛盾。

37. A　空前讲"每个小决定都消耗一点心力"，空后讲"作家、科学家和运动员早就明白"。A "So they fix the small things — same breakfast, same start time, same notebook — to save their best hours for real work." 用 So 承接因果（所以把小事固定下来省下精力），与空后"他们早就明白"衔接，选 A。

38. C　本段讲"例行公事保护情绪：小的失败感觉更小"。C "A bad Tuesday then becomes just one Tuesday, not proof that the whole term is falling apart."（糟糕的周二只是一个周二，而不是整个学期崩塌的证据）正是"失败变小"的具体展开，选 C。

39. F　空前指出"危险在于从不改变的例行公事"。F "A timetable that helped you in September may quietly steal your sleep by November."（九月帮你的时间表，到十一月可能悄悄偷走你的睡眠）给出"不更新"的具体后果，与空后"每月回顾、只留有用的"衔接，选 F。E「每周更换习惯」与空后"每月回顾"直接矛盾。

40. G　空前"这并不意味着计划到每一分钟"。G "Leave some empty spaces in it on purpose."（故意留出空白）承接"不必排满"，并与空后"例行的目的不是控制，而是让平常的日子足够安稳"呼应，选 G。