1 . Shane Grammer’s artwork can be found in cities in Mexico, South Korea, Dubai and beyond.In the past years, it’s the murals (壁画) he painted on damaged walls throughout the town of Paradise, California that have gained attention and touched viewers.

In 2018, the Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California’s history, swept through Paradise, flattening entire communities, killing scores of people, and displacing tens of thousands. Grammer,whose hometown was just 15 miles from Paradise, was living with his family and working in the Los Angeles area when he saw accounts of the destruction on his friends’ social media pages. A single mother he knew shared a photo of ash and rubble where her home once stood. A childhood friend’s post showed her burned-down house. After he saw a photo of a friend Shane Edwards’ home, which had been reduced to a brick wall with only a chimney standing, he was driven to paint it.

With Edward’s permission, Grammer then used spray paint to transform Edwards’ burnt chimney into a strikingly black-and-white portrait of a woman, a piece he called “Beauty Among the Ashes.” Once the image was posted on Instagram, the victims of the fire, especially, could not contain themselves. “You bring beauty and hope.” one posted. Over three months, the 47-year-old created a series of more than a dozen spray-painted murals on the remains of buildings and vehicles rendered useless by the flames. The images included a victim of the fire, a young girl who survived but lost her house, and a series of religious characters.

As a street artist, Grammer has committed his life to creating more art installations (装置艺术) all over the world that connect people through tragic life events. He has started a foundation called the Art Through Hope Foundation where he intends to bring peace through his art to those affected by tragedy. “I want to do something powerful and make art that emotionally influences people,” said Grammer in an interview with KRCR. “I think any artist would consider that as their ultimate goal. And to me, that is the biggest miracle I feel like.”

1. What has led to Grammer’s rise to fame?

A．The Art Through Hope Foundation.	B．The post of a burnt-down house.
C．His paintings on the ruins in Paradise.	D．His art installations all over the world.

2. Why did Grammor paint murals after the Camp Fire?

A．To record the wildfire.	B．To bring hope to the victims.
C．To add beauty to the ashes.	D．To remember his friend's home.

3. What docs the underlined word “that” in the last paragraph refer to?

A．Creating touching art.	B．Working miracles in art.
C．Bringing peace through art.	D．Doing something powerful.

4. Which of the following is the best title for the text?

A．From Ashes to Art: Street Artist’s Murals of Hope

B．From Paradise to Worldwide: Street Artist’s Journey

C．From Tragedy to Hope: the Story of Shane Grammer

D．From Mural to Miracle: Shane Grammer’s Art Mission

2 . When authoring his epitaph (墓志铭), Thomas Jefferson omitted his two terms as the nation’s third president yet included “Father of the University of Virginia.” The Founding Father spent the last years of his life not in the _____ but instead pursuing one of his most treasured missions: it was creating the University of Virginia. As mastermind of the university’s architecture and curriculum, Jefferson assured that what he _____ was sound.

Jefferson personally designed and oversaw the _____ of what he would regard as an “academic village.” At the front and center of a tree-lined lawn area, Jefferson _____ positioned the Rotunda, a round brick building featuring classical Greek columns in front. The domed (圆顶的) top of the Rotunda contained a library stocked with 7,000 books _____ by Jefferson himself, while the area beneath included two floors of classrooms. At that time, such noticeable placement of the Rotunda was a marked _____ from other universities’ designs, which generally featured chapels (小教堂) for the training of clergy (牧师).

_____ use of the grassy area in front of the Rotunda, Jefferson added ten two-story houses for teachers’ housing and connected them to student dormitories with colonnades, column- lined covered walkways. To keep teachers _____ while they were talking heated, Jefferson included dining halls in his design, referring to them as “hotels.”

In the spirit of his new nation, Jefferson introduced the notion of what we now call electives. Instead of a strictly dictated curriculum, students could _____ from ten academic disciplines. These disciplines were subject areas that _____ from ancient and modern languages to certain branches of science. To support the _____ components of the university’s curriculum, Jefferson included a botanical garden, an experimental farm, and an observatory. (Not one to _____ the slightest detail, Jefferson showcased the ten categories by placing a carefully chosen Roman symbol on each of the ten house.)

Although he didn’t live to see the full completion of the university’s construction, or _____ the graduation of the first senior class, Jefferson ensured that the university, which would later be named a World Heritage site, _____ free choice in classes, respect for classical routes, and curiosity about the sciences.

Those principles are forever remembered in the last part of his epitaph, which, if stated differently, could easily have read “____visionary for all Americans.”

1.

A．company

B．school

C．government

D．library

2.

A．figured out

B．left behind

C．carried on

D．took over

3.

A．construction

B．decoration

C．evolution

D．launch

4.

A．optimistically

B．accidentally

C．emotionally

D．strategically

5.

A．edited

B．written

C．chosen

D．copied

6.

A．absence

B．departure

C．prevention

D．relief

7.

A．Maximizing

B．Denying

C．Protecting

D．Losing

8.

A．turned to

B．held up

C．looked to

D．fuelled up

9.

A．select

B．differ

C．hear

D．keep

10.

A．dated

B．ranged

C．resulted

D．borrowed

11.

A．mathematics

B．language

C．science

D．history

12.

A．overlook

B．notice

C．hide

D．explore

13.

A．less

B．rather

C．else

D．even

14.

A．encouraged

B．reformed

C．questioned

D．evaluated

15.

A．personal

B．academic

C．professional

D．economic

3 . In 2019, a white-haired senior was awarded the Friendship Medal, the highest order of honor of China for foreigners. It was Isabel Crook. In her more than a century of life, she spent more than 90 years in China and cultivated (培养) a large number of foreign language talents for China.

In 1915, Isabel was born in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. After graduating from the University of Toronto in 1938, Isabel couldn’t wait to return to China. With hard work, she and her colleague completed the survey of over 1,500 families in some villages in Bishan County. She recorded the daily life of the villagers in Xinglongchang with detailed field notes, which give the young people today some idea of the state of affairs in villages at that time.             

In 1947, Isabel and her husband David Crook came to China to observe and study the ongoing land reform. A year later, they completed the study and accepted the invitation to stay in China for language teaching.

One could hardly imagine the teaching conditions in the midst of a war. They asked their students to take small stools (凳子) with them so that they could give class everywhere. They tailored (定制) teaching approaches to suit students’ different language proficiency levels. Without handy teaching materials, they collected articles from English newspapers and magazines. In oral English teaching, Isabel asked students to watch their teachers in a given conversation first. Since there were no tape recorders at school, she had to perform the conversation again and again.

Isabel retired in 1981, but she returned to Southwest China many times to set up scholarship for children from poor families. She also went to Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and other places to help with foreign language teaching. Isabel died in 2023 in Beijing.

1. What do we know about Isabel according to the text?

A．She got China’s highest honor for foreigners.

B．She received her college education in China.

C．She returned to China as a teacher at age 23.

D．She helped children in need all over China.

2. When did Isabel start the journey of education in China?

A．In 1915.

B．In 1938.

C．In 1948.

D．In 1981.

3. Which of the following best describes the couple’s teaching?

A．Boring but helpful.	B．Simple and modern.
C．Traditional but attractive.	D．Flexible and personalized.

4. What does the author want to illustrate by mentioning Isabel’s experiences?

A．Her working experiences were rich.

B．Her life in China was quite colorful.

C．She devoted herself to teaching in China.

D．She showed great interest in Chinese history.

6 . In 1943, a jury (评审委员会) of top scholars and scientists elected James Yen one of “the ten greatest revolutionaries of our time”, listing him along with Albert Einstein and Orville Wright. Yet all he did was teaching Chinese farmers to read.

Born in Sichuan in 1890, James Yen graduated from the Yale University in 1918. After this, he went to France to support Chinese workers who had been sent to help the Allies in World War I. Working to help and teach them to read and write letters, Yen realized how much they needed education. Therefore, he wrote a simple literacy (读写能力) book which used only 1000 basic characters. In the 1920s, inspired by his experiences, Yen organized the National Association of Mass Education Movements. Its purpose was to bring literacy to the Chinese masses.

For 4000 years, reading and writing in China was only done by scholars. Everybody knew, including the farmers themselves, that farmers were incapable of learning. That thoroughly deep-seated point of view was James Yen’s first “impossible” challenge to overcome. The second challenge was the Chinese language itself, consisting of many characters, each character having rich meanings. The third challenge was the poor technology and inconvenient transportation. How could James Yen reach the 350 million farmers back then? These were impossible odds, an impossibly huge goal.

Yet he made it and then expanded his goal: teach the rest of the Third World to read. Practical reading programs started pumping out literate people like a gushing oil well in the Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Kenya, Indonesia, Bangladesh and India. People became literate. For the first time in their entire history, they could access the accumulated knowledge of the human race.

What’s the secret of James Yen’s success? He tried to do something that seemed impossible. He worked long hours. And he started with what he had in front of him and gradually took on more and more, little by little.

1. Why did James Yen establish the National Association of Mass Education Movements?

A．To promote his book about Chinese characters.

B．To support Chinese workers in World War I.

C．To teach Chinese people to read and write.

D．To follow the example of Einstein.

2. What problem did James Yen meet in teaching the farmers?

A．Scholars’ protest against it.	B．The difficulty of the Chinese language.
C．Farmers’ inability to learn.	D．The shortage of teaching methods.

3. What can we learn about James Yen from Para. 4?

A．He spread the agricultural knowledge around.

B．He led less developed countries to literacy.

C．He helped some countries build oil wells.

D．He changed the course of history.

4. What is the main reason for James Yen’s success?

A．His lifelong ambition.	B．His educational background.
C．His down-to-earth practice.	D．His teaching experience.

7 . The Japanese animation (动漫) director Hayao Miyazaki, a workaholic auteur generally considered to be one of the art form’s most accomplished masters, has been trying to retire since 1997. “I know I’ve mentioned I’m retiring many times in the past,” he told a press conference, “So I know that many of you might think, ‘oh again’. This time is for real.” Cut to 2023: The release of Hayao Miyazaki’s final “final” film, The Boy and the Heron.

With The Boy and the Heron, Miyazaki wanted to go back even further to his childhood. Indeed, the film’s opening scene is inspired by Miyazaki’s experience of growing up during World War Two. Much like an infant Miyazaki, Mahito is evacuated from Tokyo to live in the relative safety of the countryside. It is here, tormented (折磨) by grief, living miserably with his father and his father’s new wife, that he meets the nominal Heron: a half-man, half-bird creature who mockingly tells Mahito that his mother is still alive. It is around this point, as the fish chant for Mahito to “join us”, as the frogs climb over his face, that The Boy and the Heron takes a turn for the strange. Having followed the Heron, Mahito finds himself stranded somewhere between life and death.

How do we live? It is a question that has haunted Miyazaki, a director always torn between optimism and despair, for most of his career: How do you live—as one character in The Boy and the Heron describes it—in “a foolish world filled with murder and thievery”? Perhaps, without getting into specifics, the film’s ending suggests another interpretation: Legacies, successors, even art itself, none of it actually matters. All that matters is that people—Miyazaki’s family, his friends, even the audience—continue to live on, to engage with the real world rather than retreat into fantasy.

1. What do the words “oh again” indicate in paragraph 1?

A．People’s doubt about Miyazaki’s retirement.

B．People’s concern about Miyazaki’s health.

C．People’s eagerness for Miyazaki’s animations.

D．People’s admiration for Miyazaki’s artistic achievements.

2. What does the author intend to do in paragraph 2?

A．Add some background information.

B．Share Miyazaki’s growing-up experiences.

C．Introduce the film.

D．Display the latest film-shooting techniques.

3. What does the underlined word “haunted” in paragraph 3 mean?

A．Inspired.

B．Bothered.

C．Scared.

D．Relieved.

4. Where is this text most likely from?

A．A diary.

B．A travel guide.

C．A novel.

D．A magazine.

8 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. Where did Meg Medina spend her childhood?

A．In the US.

B．In Cuba.

C．In Spain.

2. When was Meg Medina’s first book released?

A．In 2016.

B．In 2011.

C．In 2008.

3. Which book won one of the top awards in children’s literature?

A．Milagros: Girl from Away.

B．Merci Suárez Changes Gears.

C．Mango, Abuela, and Me.

9 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What TV channel is Jimmy Kimmel Live on?

A．NBC.

B．TBS.

C．ABC.

2. When did Jimmy Kimmel become especially famous?

A．After he hosted the Oscars.

B．After Donald Trump became president.

C．When he cried at his show for the first time.

3. On talk shows, what usually comes right after the opening speech?

A．An interview.

B．A musical performance.

C．A comedy performance.

4. What did Jimmy Kimmel do before hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live?

A．He taught in a drama school.

B．He worked at a radio station.

C．He went to school in Los Angeles.

10 . 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。

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Those are the words of Thomas Alva Edison, one of the greatest     1     (inventor) in the history of the United States.

Edison, who grew up in the Midwest, was     2     (large) self-educated. He earned 1,093 patents in his lifetime, including the lightbulb. Being     3     successful businessman, Edison often reworked existing technology, making it more practical for widespread use.

Edison was born on February 11, 1847, a day that     4     (celebrate) as National Inventors’ Day today. The Thomas Edison Center, which was created in memory of Edison, is at Menlo Park in New Jersey. It is said that the seven years Edison spent at the lab he created in New Jersey were the most     5     (product).

“Menlo Park is the birthplace of     6     (record) sound. It was in Menlo Park     7     Edison invented the phonograph (留声机) in 1877. The invention led to the 30-year-old Ohio native’s international fame. From then on, he was known     8     the “Wizard (奇才) of Menlo Park.”

A phonograph was the first device that was used     9     (reserve) sound. It was the precursor (先驱) to record albums and CDs. The original model had no volume knob (旋钮), so listeners would have to control the sound by     10     (place) a sock in the machine. That’s where we get the expression “put a sock in it”, which means “stop talking”.