1 . Before James Blunt became a musician, he served in the army. He spent four and a half years there, with six months in Kosovo as part of the peace­keeping force. Before leaving the army, Blunt had decided to achieve his dream of becoming a musician. In 2003, he was discovered by a music producer Linda Perry who signed him to her Custard label. However, the road to success never runs smoothly. It seemed that he would become another struggling singer trying to live from hand to mouth (现挣现吃地) when his first two singles failed to make an impact on the British charts. But everything changed when his third single You’re Beautiful made it all the way to No.1 on the UK singles charts, and remained there for five weeks. The album (专辑) Back to Bedlam soon followed and quickly became one of the biggest selling records of the year, remaining ten continual weeks at No. 1. Since then, he has sold more than three million records, making him the first British artist to top the American singles charts in nearly a decade.

Blunt, 34, a throwback (返祖者)to the 1970s soft rock golden age, has been quoted by Western media as saying that he will never get used to people screaming at him in the street.

His success proves a lasting theory: You spend years chasing the right song. Then, if you’re lucky, and if the song really takes off, you spend the rest of your life trying to escape it, or learning to live with it. A few years removed from You’re Beautiful, he can still fill stages worldwide with fans who stay until the end.

1. Which of the following can describe James Blunt’s life as a musician before he sang the song You’re Beautiful?

A．Difficult.

B．Happy.

C．Boring.

D．Smooth.

2. What is the reason for Western media to conclude that “he will never get used to people screaming at him in the street” in the second paragraph?

A．Blunt will never adjust himself to the noisy environment around.

B．The popularity of Blunt has been gaining him an increasing number of fans out of his expectation.

C．What Blunt sings disturbs people so much that they yell to him their anger.

D．People in the street are rude civilians who are against any form of entertaining, including Blunt’s songs.

3. We can infer from the last paragraph that ________.

A．Blunt is well­known in the world for his talent

B．Blunt’s fame as a musician came easily

C．Blunt wasn’t lucky enough to win his fans’ support

D．Blunt has to face the inconvenience his fame has caused

2 . Failure isn’t the end, unless you let it be. Don’t believe me? Here are four people who lived through failure before going on to become names known around the world.

Walt Disney

Disney began his career by being fired by a newspaper for not being creative enough. Later, his Mickey Mouse cartoons were rejected because they were considered to be “too scary for women”. Also, The Three Little Pigs was turned down because it only had four characters. Thankfully, we have the Disney Company today because Disney chose not to listen to any of his critics and press forward towards his dreams.

Stephen King

King is a best-selling writer whose work has been made into several motion pictures. However, his first work was rejected 30 times, which led to King throwing it in the trash. Thankfully, his wife persuaded him to keep working at it, and—from that poor start—Carrie was born.

Milton Hershey

The man who blessed us with the sweet milk chocolate treat we all love wasn’t a hit the first time around. He once worked for a local candy factory. But when he went out on his own, he failed miserably. Then he returned to the family farm and perfected the art of making delicious milk chocolate candy, which we enjoy today.

Theodor Geisel

This author struggled to write a novel that publishing companies would call “pure rubbish” several times — 27 to be exact. The man just wouldn’t quit, though. One fateful night, he ran into an old friend who was a children’s literature editor. The friend agreed to publish Geisel’s work. Better known today as Dr. Seuss, Geisel was never again called a failure after his first book became a hit.

1. Why is the Disney Company known to us nowadays?

A．Disney was rejected many times.	B．Disney improved his works later.
C．Disney got fired and began his career.	D．Disney ignored critics and fought for his dreams.

2. What is Milton Hershey famous for today?

A．His big family farm.	B．His successful art career.
C．His delicious milk chocolate candy.	D．His experience in making milk chocolate.

3. What do the people mentioned have in common?

A．They have a gift for making money.	B．They suffered several defeats on the path to success.
C．They are creative and highly educated.	D．They were successful at the very start.

3 . Fifty-one years ago, a man took a “small step” on the moon and brought mankind a “giant leap” forward. As the first person to walk on the moon, American astronaut Neil Armstrong is a man whose name will be remembered for generations to come.

But being the first is never easy. With so many unknowns about space at that time, Armstrong himself was surprised that Apollo11 actually worked. He thought he and his partners had only a 50 percent chance of a successful landing back in 1969.

It was tough indeed. When the lunar module (登月舱) was approaching the moon's surface, the computer wanted to rest them on a steep slope covered with rocks, but Armstrong realized it was an unsafe place to stop.

As a last minute decision, he safely landed the lunar module by himself. When they finally touched the ground, “there was something like 20 seconds of fuel left,” he said in an interview.

Unfortunately, some people doubted his visit to the moon, saying it was faked. But Armstrong responded with a chuckle (轻声笑), saying: “It was never a concern to me because I knew one day, somebody was going to go fly back up there and pick up that camera I left. ”

For all his global fame, Neil Armstrong is a remarkably modest man. He rarely gave interviews and didn't like talking about his achievement. He stopped giving his signatures when he found that people sold them for thousands of dollars.

“I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks but for the ledger (记账簿) of our daily work, Armstrong said in a CBS interview in 2005. W hen asked how he felt knowing his footprints would be likely to stay on the moon's surface for thousands o[ years, he said: “I kind of hope that somebody goes up there one of these days and cleans them up.”

Armstrong passed away at the age of 82 in 2012, but he will be remembered. “The next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink (眨眼),” his family said to Reuters.

1. It can be inferred from the article that before his expedition to the moon, Armstrong ________.

A．was certain that Apollo 11 would work well

B．believed the lunar module would land safely on the moon

C．had prepared himself to face possible failure

D．planned to land the lunar module on the moon by himself

2. How did Armstrong respond when people doubted that he had been to the moon?

A．He was angry

B．He was troubled by it

C．He tried to find evidence that they were wrong

D．He believed they would be proved wrong some day.

3. By saying“I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks but for the ledger of our daily work”, Armstrong meant that ________.

A．the more daily work you've done, the more easily you will be recognized

B．things that look spectacular are not as useful as ordinary successes

C．achieving greatness can make other successes feel less important

D．everyday's hard work is more appreciated than one successful moment

4. Which of the following best describes Armstrong?

A．He was ambitious	B．He tried to avoid the spotlight
C．He balanced his life and work well	D．He was talkative and loved telling jokes

4 . 阅读下列短文，在空白处填入一个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

When the action movie Wolf Warrior Ⅱ broke China’s box-office records in 2017, a less prominent(杰出的) figure unexpectedly left a strong     1    (impress)on the audience — a military（军方） scientist     2     (call) Dr. Chen who developed a vaccine（疫苗） for a deadly virus spreading across Africa.

Two years ago, a real military scientist Dr. Chen Wei     3     (send) from China to Africa to fight against the deadly Ebola. The only difference between the two figures is     4     the real Dr. Chen is “she”.

When SARS broke out in China in 2003, Dr. Chen and her team isolated the virus and identified the cause of the disease without delay.     5     (luck), the efforts devoted by them had prevented about 14,000 front-line medical workers     6     getting infected.

After SARS, the forward-looking woman shifted her attention to Ebola     7     claimed（夺去） over 10,000 lives worldwide. In 2015, she and her team went to Sierra Leone and started their second phase of clinical experiments. After countless trials and errors, her vaccine has   proven safe and effective, and been widely administered(供给) to staff assigned to help people in Africa.

From SARS and Ebola to COVID-19, Dr. Chen has spent half of her life     8     (fight) against life-threatening viruses. “We do not have any other choices but     9     (win),” she said. And she made     10    .

5 . 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。

It can be easy to miss the wonderful performances of Klay Thompson if you watch at the Golden State Warriors(金州勇士) team in the NBA.

NBA Most Valuable Players Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant tend     1    (get) most of the attention, while Andre Iguadola     2    (watch) closely as well. But then Thompson, 26, does something to make you suddenly remember how special he is, too.

His 60-point game against Indiana on Dec. 5 was an excellent game in     3     has already been an amazing season. Scoring 60     4    (point) in a game is one thing, and it has only happened 66 times in the history of the NBA. But to do it in less than three quarters of play—29 minutes—    5    (be) something very special indeed.

Even     6    (hard) to believe was the fact that Thompson only dribbled(运球) the ball 11 times and held it in his hand for just 88 seconds during     7     whole game.

"I am going to watch the tape of this game and see what I did well and     8    (obvious) celebrate this tonight, because it's something I never thought I could do while     9    (grow) up," Thompson told reporters after the game.

Klay Thompson already knew a lot about basketball early in his life. His father Mychal Thompson, the 1978 No 1 overall pick(选秀状元) in NBA, had a lot of influence     10     him while he was growing up.

6 . 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。

Over a year ago, before Ke Jie, one of China’s and the world’s best Go(围棋) players, battled with AlphaGo, the artificial intelligence (AI) machine     1    (develop) by Google’s Deepmind team, he was     2    (confidence) that he would win-----even though the program     3    (defeat) top ROK Go player Lee SE-dol only two months before.

But then 19-year-old Ke lost. In an interview with CGTN after the match, he admitted, “AlphaGo can see the whole universe of Go, but I can only see a small pond in my backyard,” Ke said. “So, please, let     4     explore the universe, but let me play in my own backyard.”

His     5    (fail) against the AI program didn’t get him discouraged, but made him a better player. He recognized     6     set human beings and intelligent machines apart was the ability of humans to enjoy the game.

Ke set about     7    (update) his Go skill, and since then he has been unbeatable. The proof came at last year’s national league(联赛) of Go     8     he effortlessly defeated his old rival(对手) Chen Yaoye, 29. Only a few days before that, Ke had won the 23rd Samsung Cup, becoming the     9    (young) Go player to win six international championships.

Today’s Ke,     10     a Go player, is trying to be the best player he humanly can.

7 . 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。

Yuan Longping was born in 1930. Considering that farmers often had poor harvests and sometimes even had a serious shortage of food to eat, he     1     (choose) to study agriculture and graduated from Southwest Agriculture College in 1953. Since then, Yuan has devoted his life to     2     (find) ways to boost rice yields. The common     3     (assume) then was that it was impossible to develop a hybrid of self-pollinating plants. Through intense effort, he overcame enormous technical difficulties to develop the first hybrid rice     4     could be used for farming in 1974. This hybrid can attain a higher yield than     5     (convention) crops.

Today, about 60 percent of domestic rice consumption in China is comprised of crops     6     (generate) from Yuan’s hybrid strains. Yuan’s innovation helps feed not just China, but many other countries that depend on rice as well.

    7     impresses people most is his ongoing ability     8     (fulfil) his dreams. His latest vision for “seawater rice” has also become a     9     (real). Yuan Longping is still young at heart and full of vision     10     his advanced years.

8 . John Snow was a famous doctor in London—so expert, indeed,    1    he attended Queen Victoria as her personal    2    (physical). But he became    3    (inspire)when he though about    4    (help)ordinary people exposed    5    cholera. This was the deadly disease of its day. Neither its cause    6    its cure was understood. So many thousands of    7    (terrify)people died every time there was    8    outbreak. John Snow wanted to face the challenge    9    solve this problem He knew that cholera would never be controlled until its cause was found. Through his hard work, he finally found that polluted water carried the virus. Thus, he saved the    10    (life)of many astonished people.

9 . 课文语法填空

Known as the "father of hybrid rice"，Yuan Longping is one of China's     1    （famous） scientists，who considers himself a farmer     2     his fame and influence.     3    （tackle）the crisis of food     4     （short），he attended Southwest Agricultural College and made up his mind to study agriculture. Then as a researcher，he was devoted to finding     5     approach to boosting yields without expanding the area of land.     6     （overcome）enormous difficulties，he developed the first hybrid rice in the world that could be used for farming in 1974，which made     7     possible for farmers to expand their output     8     （great）. Not only has his innovation helped to feed China，but it     9    （alleviate） hunger in other countries depending on rice like India and Vietnam. Given his great contribution，he has received numerous awards both in China and abroad. In spite of being wealthy，he cares little for celebrity or money and makes large donations to support agricultural research. Old     10     he is，he is still working hard to fulfill his dream.

10 . 语法填空

TU Youyou, 84,    1    (honor) with the Nobel Prize in Physiology (生理学) or Medicine on Oct 5. She was    2    first Chinese citizen to win a Nobel Prize in science. Tu shared the prize    3     the Irish-born William Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura of Japan.

Tu is a researcher at the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine. She was honored for    4    (develop) artemisinin , “a new drug therapy against malaria”     5     has saved millions of lives worldwide,     6    (especial) in developing countries, the Nobel Assembly said on its website.

Tu and her colleagues    7    (join) a government project to find a new malaria drug in the late 1960s. They made 380 herbal extracts from 2,000 recipes from traditional Chinese     8    (medicine) books. In 1971, after more than 190     9     (fail), Tu’s team finally found an extract that was 100 percent effective against the malaria parasites (寄生虫) – artemisinin.

“The discovery of artemisinin is a gift to mankind from traditional Chinese medicine. It’s the collective achievement of the research team.     10    (win) the prize is an honor for China’s science and traditional Chinese medicine,” Tu told Xinhua.