【推荐1】

Huge beasts, one male and one female, protect the entrances to palaces, temples and other important buildings in China. These lion statues lie at the sides of the entrances to restaurants and shopping malls as well (the pair in the picture stand guard within the Forbidden City). They are also found in Chinese communities around the world. In Chinese culture, the lion is a symbol of strength and good luck and defends against something bad.

Whether made of stone or metal, these big and heavy statues are always used in pairs, one on each side of a door or gate. Looking out on the left (your right as you move towards the entrance) is the male lion, with his right front paw on a ball that stands for the world. On the other side, the female lion rests her left paw on a baby lion, standing for the raising of life. The two lions show us the Chinese idea of yin and yang: opposites that create one whole. In the mouths of some lion statues is a big pearl (珠状物), a symbol of wisdom and power. These statues are designed so that the pearl can move around but not be removed.

Historians believe lions were brought to China during the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.—220 A.D.), a time of increasing trade along the Silk Road. The lions were from Central Asia and were smaller than the more familiar African lion. Interestingly, in the West, these statues are called “fu dogs” . While in China, they’re never called like that. Here are some interpretations: some think the lions are like Chinese dogs, such as the shih tzu (狮子狗), chowchow and so on. Others say that “fu” sounds like the Chinese word for “success” and the word for “Buddha” .

1. People place the lion statues at the sides of the entrance because ________.

A．they are from the Forbidden City

B．they can fight against bad people

C．they stand for strength and good luck

2. Paragraph 2 is mainly about ________.

A．what the lion statues are made of

B．what the lion statues stand for

C．how much people like the lion statues

3. What is NOT true about the big pearl?

A．We can see it in all the mouths of lion statues.

B．The big pearl symbolizes wisdom and power.

C．The pearl can be moved around but not be removed.

4. The underlined words “interpretations” in Paragraph 3 mean ________.

A．agreements.

B．explanations

C．translations

5. The passage was probably written by ________.

A．a person who likes animals very much

B．a foreigner who designs stone or metal lions

C．a researcher who is interested in historical treasures

【推荐2】

Speaking English is not only about using proper grammar. To use English correctly, you need to understand the culture in which it is spoken. Here are a number of important tips to remember when speaking English in the USA.
General Points to Remember Most Americans only speak English: While it is true that more and more Americans speak Spanish, most Americans only speak English. Americans have difficulties under-standing foreign accents (口音):Many Americans are not used to foreign accents.	Conversation Tips Speak about location (位置):They love to talk about their experiences living or visiting that place. Talk about work: Americans commonly ask. “What do you do?” It’s not thought impolite (as in some countries). Talk about sports: It is a popular topic to discuss between strangers.
Addressing (称呼) People Use last names with people you do not know. Always use “Ms.” when addressing women. Americans prefer informal: In general, Americans prefer informal greetings and using first names or nicknames when speaking with workmates and friends.	Public Behavior Always shake hands. Look your partner in the eyes. Don’t hold hands: Same sex friends do not usually hold hands or put their arms around each other in public in the USA. Smoking is Out! Smoking, even in public places, is strongly disagreed by most modern Americans.

1. It’s necessary to know          when we speak English besides using grammar.

A．the culture

B．the introduction

C．the topics

2. “When speaking to strangers, ask them where they are from and then make a connection (联系) with that place” can be used as a sentence to              .

A．talk about work

B．talk about sports

C．speak about location

3. If you are introduced to a woman called Peal S. Buck, you should usually address her         .

A．Madam Buck

B．Ms. Buck

C．Mrs. Peal

4. According to the passage, which of the following is RIGHT?

A．Smoking is allowed in the modern United States.

B．Americans shake hands only when greeting same sex friends.

C．When you speak to others, it’s polite to look into their eyes.

5. The best title of the passage might be         .

A．American English tips

B．Language differences

C．The importance of culture

【推荐3】Height is just one of the thousands of features your genes（基因）decide. In fact, because you have two parents, your genes provide you a height that usually lands somewhere between the height of each parent. If you`re your parents are tall, then maybe you will be tall, too, but if you have questions about how tall you're going to be, ask your doctor if he or she can help you find it.

But genes don't decide everything. For example, eating an unhealthy diet can keep you from growing to your full potential（潜力）. Getting enough sleep and enough exercise will help you grow to the right height.

No doubt（怀疑）you're wondering how fast you should grow. It depends. There's no perfect or right answer. Kids grow about 2 inches（5 centimeters）a year between age 3 and the time when they start puberty（when your body starts changing and becoming more grown up）.

Your doctor will know how your growth has been going over the years. 2 centimeters here and 2 inches there are not nearly as important as the height you're at now, how you've been growing up to this point, and what other changes your body may be going through.

Don't be scared if you seem to have grown a lot in a very short time. Everyone has a growth spurt（高峰） during puberty. The age for starting puberty is about 10 for girls and about 11 for boys. But it can be earlier or later—between 7 and 13 for girls and 9 and 15 for boys.

You'll usually begin to notice that you're growing faster about a year or so after your body starts to show the first changes of puberty.

1. If you want to know how fast and how tall you should grow, ______________.

A．you should have enough exercise	B．you can ask doctors for help
C．you should get enough sleep	D．you can record your growth during puberty

2. After reading this passage, we can explain ______________.

A．how good it is to be a doctor	B．how much sleep we need
C．why genes can't decide everything	D．what healthy diet is

3. The underlined word "puberty" in the passage means ______________.

A．童年时期

B．婴幼儿时期

C．习惯养成期

D．青春期

4. The passage is mainly about ______________.

A．how the genes work in your body	B．when is the time you grow fast
C．why you look like your parents	D．how you grow to a certain height

5. Which is NOT mentioned in this passage?

A．Your height most probably depends on how high your parents are.

B．Girls' age for starting puberty is usually earlier than that for boys.

C．How your body changes during puberty.

D．You may be scared sometimes when you grow too fast.

【推荐1】根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

Children are born with a natural interest in everything. They are known to have several interests and high energy levels. And they always find certain activities more interesting than others. As such hobbies for little kids are a great way to keep them focused and busy. In fact, certain really cool hobbies can add a great deal of value to their time and energy. But what kinds of hobbies are good for children?     1    

    2     Now many children don’t love reading, but what one needs to understand is that reading is a learning experience and it can help to shape your children’s life.

    3     If they aren’t interested at first, you can give them books with a lot of pictures.

A coin collection is great for children.     4     It is also great to make them more responsible, as they need to keep their collections.

    5     This will make children more confident. Music has its way of calming down a person. And it will give kids something to do in their free time.

All in all, if kids develop useful hobbies, they’ll help them pass their time nicely. Besides, they’ll help them grow and develop in an amazing way.

A．Reading makes children bored.

B．There are plenty of books that can make your children interested.

C．Reading is a must for all age groups.

D．It can really make kids realize the value of money and its importance.

E．Help kids learn to exercise.

F．Let kids learn to play a musical instrument.

G．Here are some active hobbies to share.

【推荐2】October 16 is World Food Day. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is always trying to make everyone in the world have enough food to eat by providing help for them. However, some people are still in a poor situation. In some African countries, some people fall ill because of poor diet (饮食) and some even die of hunger. So their countries have to borrow money from other countries to buy food.

After reading this, does it make you start to think more about the food you eat? Do you waste food? Do you throw food away without finishing it?

As a student, what can you do to reduce (减少) food waste? Here are some of my ideas.

Firstly, do not order too much while eating in a restaurant. If you can’t eat all the food, take the rest of it home. Secondly, the food you eat may not taste good sometimes, but your body needs it. Always try to finish the food on your plate. This is a way that you can easily take care of yourself. Thirdly, make a plan before you go shopping. Don’t buy too much.

In fact, it is everyone’s job to save food. Remember, start with something small and you can make a big difference to others.

1. What does FAO try to do?

A．Sell cheap food.	B．Save people in danger.
C．Help hungry people in the world.	D．Lend money to some poor countries.

2. What can we learn about some of the African people?

A．They are busy.	B．They eat much.
C．They live a hard life.	D．They sometimes waste food.

3. What should you do when you eat in a restaurant?

A．Choose new dishes.	B．Take home what you can’t finish.
C．Order as much food as possible.	D．Enjoy as much food as possible.

4. What is the advice on shopping?

A．Buy what you like.	B．Buy what you need.
C．Buy cheap things.	D．Buy the best things.

5. What is the main idea of this passage?

A．Not to order too much food while eating outside.

B．Eat all the food on the plate.

C．Make a plan before going shopping.

D．Save food from something small.

【推荐3】Maybe you want to exercise more or start going to bed earlier in the coming year. Here is some advice that can help you keep your goals.

● Make a detailed (详细的) plan

If your New Year’s plan is to exercise five days each week, a plan like “I’ll exercise on weekdays” would be too vague (模糊的). A detailed plan like “I’ll exercise at school on weekdays during my lunch break” would be better.

● Get a little help from your friends

Tell a few friends about your goals so you’ll feel ashamed if they check back later and find out you haven’t followed through.

● ____________________________

If it’s not fun to exercise or study, you won’t keep it easily. But if you get fun from your exercise or study, you’ll keep longer. If you can only drink your favourite juice during study hours, you’ll look forward to studying.

● Give yourself more chances

You planned to get to bed early every night, but one Friday you stayed up late. After that, you may want to give up the early-to-bed plan. But giving yourself one or two more chances can help you get better results.

1. How many pieces of advice can you find in the passage?

A．Four.

B．Three.

C．Two.

2. Which plan is the best according to the passage?

A．I’ll practise the piano on school nights.

B．I’ll do homework from Monday to Friday.

C．I’ll play football at school after 6:00 every day.

3. What does the underlined word “ashamed” in the passage mean in Chinese?

A．冷淡的

B．骄傲的

C．羞愧的

4. Which of the following can be put in the blank?

A．Keep exercising

B．Make it fun

C．Begin studying

5. What’s the best title for the article?

A．How to Make Friends

B．How to Celebrate the New Year

C．How to Make New Year’s Goals

【推荐1】

Should WeChat shut down the features “likes”?

For the past few years, WeChat has got us interested in the feature “likes”. It’s the way we have decided how many people think our journeys are fun and recognize our new items are cool. What happens when it is gone? Researchers are doing a survey to figure out whether the feature “likes” should be shut down.

It is really convenient for us to keep in touch with each other and share our happiness on a common platform. Our faithful friendship seems to become stronger, after we interact on the platform with likes. —Jennifer “Likes” should be there, because it is powerful and gets immediate feedback. You immediately feel good about what you wear and how you look. —Anne If there is no “likes”, teenagers will miss it. In a way, “likes” gives you the same kind of feeling as a child gets an ice-cream. My younger sisters are always complaining about it to me “Why not give ‘likes’ to my photos?” —Mike

People are more concerned about how many likes they get. Is now a good time to post? Should I remove my picture that only got 20 “likes”? Posting a photo can be a great stress for people who care about “likes”. —Tom I think WeChat should hide the “likes”, because followers may feel more pressure to pick up the “likes”. We should not focus on how many “likes” the photos get but on the photos themselves. —Brook In my opinion, WeChat should consider making the social network less stressful to use. Users are sometimes forced to join the army of “likes”. As for me, hiding “likes” will improve our experiences. —Jack If WeChat moves to hide “likes”, it can encourage users to post more messages and photos without being worried about how many “likes” they will get. “Likes” is a part of it, but I don’t think hiding “likes” is the key to curing the culture around WeChat. —Cathy

1. How many people in the survey agree to shut down the feature “likes”?

A．Three.

B．Four.

C．Five.

D．Seven

2. The underline word “feedback” in the third paragraph means ________.

A．replies

B．materials

C．feeling

D．knowledge

3. Which statement is TRUE according to Mike?

A．Teenagers won’t miss the “likes”, if it is shut down.

B．He is forced to join the army of “likes” so he feels stressful.

C．“Likes” brings him great pleasure as a child gets an ice-cream.

D．He worries about how many “likes” he gets, after posting a photo.

4. Brook agrees to hide the likes because ________.

A．she is completely controlled by the “likes”.

B．she thinks the users should focus on the photos themselves.

C．she thinks that hiding “likes” will improve her experiences.

D．she thinks hiding “likes” can encourage users to post more photos.

【推荐2】For many years, people have read the news in newspapers or magazines, listened to it on the radio or watched it on TV. These days, social media (社交媒体) has become a new way for people to know what’s going on around the world.

A study showed out that the number of people in the UK watching news on TikTok in 2022 was 3,900,000 up from 800,000 in 2020. It’s also said that 29% of the UK children use TikTok as their main news source (来源).

For many people use social media every day, it’s an easy way to follow news. Stories pop upon people’s eyes as they scroll (滑动) the screen. Also, the news is shown in a user-friendly way—a short video on TikTok. Social media even shows news, stories going on around the world.

However, some people believe that news on social media isn’t true and can’t be always trusted. The newspaper or the TV carefully make sure to get the true information before they post news online, but other people might not do this. Studies show that people in the UK spent 108 minutes a day on a social media. People will be able to take a break from it if they get their news from a newspaper or the TV.

Is social media a good news source? What do you think?

根据材料内容选择最佳答案。
1. How does the writer begin the passage?

A．By telling a story.	B．By asking a question.
C．By showing the difference.	D．By using the numbers.

2. Which picture shows the meaning of the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2?

A．

B．

C．

D．

3. What is Paragraph 3 mainly about?

A．How people get news from social media.	B．If people can trust news on social media.
C．Why people like to read news in the newspaper.	D．How long people spend on social media every day.

4. What does the underlined word “this” mean?

A．Use social media.	B．Post news online.
C．Tell news stories.	D．Make sure to get the true information.

5. Where can you read this passage?

A．In a history book.

B．In a story book.

C．In a newspaper.

D．In a guide book.