1 . Queen Elizabeth II is not only the queen of the United Kingdom, but she is also the queen of other 16 countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Jamaica. Her face is seen on stamps and coins all around the world.
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born in London on April 21st, 1926. Her parents were George, the Duke of York, and Elizabeth, the daughter of the Earl and Count-ness of Strathmore. As a child, Princess Elizabeth lived with her parents and younger sister in London and Windsor. Every summer, she traveled to Scotland to visit her mother’s parents. She was interested in all sorts of sports, but her favorites were horse riding and swimming. She was also fond of acting, art and music.
As princess Elizabeth grew older, she started to play a part in British public life. When she was 14,she broadcast a radio message to all the children of Britain and the Common-wealth. Two years later, she carried out her first public engagement, and started to go on official tours shortly after that. After a tour to South Africa in 1946, she married Philip Mountbatten. The couple had four children: Prince Charles, born in 1948, Princess Anne, born in 1950, Prince Andrew, born in 1960 and Prince Edward, born in 1964.
After her father died, Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II in a ceremony held in London in 1953. As a queen, she has many duties, and leads a very busy life. She travels throughout the world, meeting the leaders of other countries, and attends a large number of official functions. She also holds a meeting every week with the British Prime Minister. Every year, on Christmas Day, she broadcast a message to the people of British and the Commonwealth, talking about her hopes for the future.
Queen Elizabeth has been on the throne for more than 60 years and has become one of the most famous women in the world. Lots of people in British believe that she tries hard to understand her people and be a good queen. More than her title, this quality has earned her much love and respect.
1. How old is Queen Elizabeth II now?| A．80. | B．92. | C．96. | D．98. |
| A．Queen Elizabeth II is only the queen of the United Kingdom. |
| B．Elizabeth lived with her family in London and Scotland when she was a child. |
| C．Elizabeth started to take part in British public life when she was 14. |
| D．As a queen, Elizabeth is highly thought of in Britain. |
| A．She has many duties and lives a very busy life. |
| B．She has been a queen for more than half a century. |
| C．Lots of people in Britain love and respect her. |
| D．She always tries to respect her people and be a good queen. |
| A．The introduction of Elizabeth. | B．The childhood of Elizabeth. |
| C．Why people respect Elizabeth. | D．How Elizabeth came to power. |
Freestyle skier Gu Ailing, 18, is one of the superstars of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.
Born to an American father and a Chinese mother, Gu decided
People say she is
Gu says she wants to encourage more girls in China to try skii ng and other extreme sports, many of which only
3 . The Nobel Prize is considered as one of the most recognizable and admirable awards possible, honoring people of the world for their outstanding achievements in different fields.
Alfred Nobel was born in 1833 to a family of engineers in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1850, he met Ascanio Sobrero, the inventor of nitroglycerin (硝酸甘油) in Paris. Interested in its unpredictable nature of exploding under pressure or heat, Nobel started to find a way to control it and make a usable explosive. After years of efforts, in 1867, Nobel invented dynamite, which is much easier and safer to control than nitroglycerin.
During his lifetime, Nobel invented and patented various explosives. He built up his wealth from his 355 inventions, from which dynamite was the most important.
When Alfred’s brother Ludwig died in 1888, a French newspaper mistakenly published Alfred’s obituary (讣告). Reading his own obituary, Nobel was disappointed to find out his public image. The newspaper strongly blamed Nobel for inventing dynamite, giving him the nickname of “the merchant of death” and saying “Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.”
To Alfred, this obituary was a warning. He spent his lifetime alone inventing things and was deeply concerned with how he would be remembered. This unfortunate event inspired him to make changes in his will, so as to improve his public image, and to be remembered for a good cause. In 1895, one year before his death, Nobel made the last will, saying clearly that his wealth would be used to create a series of prizes for those who have made great contributions to mankind in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace. To widespread astonishment, Dr. Alfred Nobel gave away 94% of his total wealth to found the five Nobel Prizes.
1. What led to Nobel’s invention of dynamite according to Paragraph 2?| A．The strong desire to make money. | B．His great curiosity and devotion to science. |
| C．His lifetime dream of achieving success. | D．The valuable help from his family. |
| A．34. | B．40. | C．42. | D．55. |
| A．Optimistic. | B．Satisfied. | C．Upset. | D．Supportive. |
| A．To be remembered as “the merchant of death”. | B．To prove the importance of his inventions. |
| C．To publish his findings of scientific research. | D．To leave a good name to the public. |
4 . Edward O. Wilson, known as “ant man”, was born on June 10, 1929, in Birmingham, Alabama. His parents divorced when he was young, and he was moved frequently throughout his childhood. Wilson grew up exploring the forests and wildlife. One of these adventures left him partly blind, but they also set off his lifelong fascination with ants and their social structures.
Wilson earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Alabama. In 1955, he received his Ph. D. from Harvard and worked there until retirement.
Wilson’s early study of ants led to his first major discovery in 1959: how ants communicate through the release of chemical signals. Later, in 1990, Wilson and German biologist Bert Holldobler published their Pulitzer-winning The Ants. It detailed the insects’ social structure that was both valued by scholars and accessible to general readers.
Another of Wilson’s major works started in the early 1960s when he teamed up with Robert MacAr-thur. The pair published The Theory of Island Biogeography, where they sought to explain why different places have different numbers of species.
What many consider to be Wilson’s most important contributions to evolutionary biology came in 1975 when he published Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. The work explored the genetic roots of animal behavior and argued that genes shaped human behavior. Wilson faced accusations for these ideas but his work finally largely proved true. In 1978, his ideas on the role biology plays in human culture peaked in On Hu-man Nature, which won him a Pulitzer (普利策奖) in 1979.
Wilson published more than 400 scientific papers and 20 books. These achievements offered him a type of superstar status, but friends and colleagues say the polite Southerner remained down to earth. “Professor Wilson really listened and engaged with whomever he was interacting with,” said Corrie S. Moreau, who was one of Wilson’s final advisees.
1. What contributed to Wilson’s passion for ants?| A．His disability. | B．His boyhood time spent in nature. |
| C．The school education he received. | D．The discovery he made about ants. |
| A．The social structure of ants. |
| B．The distribution of different species. |
| C．The links between biology and human culture. |
| D．The role of chemical signals in communication. |
| A．Imaginative. | B．Independent. | C．Open-minded. | D．Modest. |
| A．A science magazine. | B．A health report. |
| C．A film review. | D．A travel guidebook. |
5 . Mark Twain, the famous American writer, liked to play jokes on others. But once a joke was played on him.
One day Mark Twain was asked to give a talk in a small town. At lunch he met a young man he knew who told him that he had an uncle who never laughed or smiled.
The young man told Mark Twain that nobody and nothing could possibly make his uncle smile or laugh.
“You bring your uncle to my talk tonight,” said Mark Twain. “I’m sure I can make him laugh.”
That evening the young man and his uncle sat in the first row. Mark Twain spoke directly at the old man. He told some rather interesting stories, which made everyone in the hall laugh. But the old man never even smiled. Mark Twain told the most interesting stories he knew. But the old man’s face was still a blank. At last Mark Twain stopped. He felt tired and discouraged.
Some days later, Mark Twain told a friend of his about what had happened. “Oh,” said his friend, “I know that old man. He has been deaf for years.”
1. Which of the following statement is NOT true?| A．Mark Twain could make everyone in the hall laugh except the old man. |
| B．Mark Twain liked to play jokes on others |
| C．Mark Twain was an English writer. |
| D．Once a young man played a joke on Mark Twain. |
| A．his uncle liked to listen to Mark Twain’s talk |
| B．his uncle could not possibly be made to laugh or smile |
| C．his uncle never laughed at people |
| D．his uncle liked laughed |
| A．to bring his uncle to lunch | B．to ask his uncle to talk there that night |
| C．he could make his uncle laugh | D．to sit in the first row with his uncle |
| A．the old man | B．the young man |
| C．Mark Twain himself | D．a friend of Mark Twain’s |
The 2020 Nobel in Chemistry was awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudnn. The two female scientists won the prize
Gene editing has a wide
One of the most convenient methods of gene editing is called CRISPR/Cas9,
In simple words, CRISPR/Cas9 is the “scissors” of genes. The greatness of CRISPR/Cas9 lies in extreme accuracy. It also enables humans to breed (孕育) more plant
In the future, the discovery
Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gumah, 72, won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature. News of the award was greeted with
Gumah is
He has said he “stumbled (跌跌撞撞) into” writing after
Gumah’s native language is Swahili,
Anders Olsson is chairman of the Nobel Committee for literature. He called Gumah “one of the world’s
8 . Frequent goodbyes to her family come hand-in-hand with Wang Yaping’s intensive training. This time, however, her goodbye has sparked joy in her 5-year-old daughter’s eyes as she is “shooting for the stars.”
Known for broadcasting a 40-minute live lesson during her first space trip, she is very likely to draw global attention again during her second space mission.
Wang was born in 1980 to a rural family in Shandong Province. “When I was young, my world was small,” Wang recalled. “My dream was much more simple: to go beyond the village and to pay back all that my parents had given me.”
Her space dream started in 2003 when China sent Yang Liwei into space. “I watched the bright rocket flame on TV, and an idea flashed through my mind: China now has a male taikonaut, when will there be a female one?” Wang said. After racking up safe flights for 1, 600 hours over nine years, Wang became a strong candidate for China’s first flight by a female taikonaut. However, she did not pass her final tests. Wang did not lose heart but pushed forward even harder. She always ran three laps more than others in physical courses; she volunteered to be held to the same standards as her male partners during desert survival training, and she asked to train in the pressure chamber for an extra 30 minutes each time. “You can’t catch a break simply for being a woman,” she said.
Her efforts were not in vain. Wang became a crew member of the Shenzhou-10 space mission in 2013. And more notably, she earned the title of China’s first space teacher after giving a lecture to students from an orbit more than 300 km above the Earth’s surface.
Liu Cixin, China’s famous sci-fi writer and Hugo Award winner, said Wang’s lesson was like a “brush,” which painted a space world for children that is different from Earth.
1. What do we know about Wang Yaping?| A．She is the first woman to enter space. |
| B．She went to space just for a lecture in 2013. |
| C．She is the first Chinese to give a lesson in space. |
| D．She dreamed to pay back her hometown as a child. |
| A．She was puzzled about her future for a period |
| B．She felt down completely under great pressure. |
| C．She volunteered for heavier tasks than men. |
| D．She strengthened herself through hard practice. |
| A．Learned and generous. | B．Wise and cooperative. |
| C．Honest and ambitious. | D．Determined and hard-working |
| A．In a magazine. | B．In a novel. |
| C．In a chemical paper. | D．In a math textbook. |
9 . No one knows exactly when jazz was invented, or by whom. But it is said that it began in the early 1900s. Jazz was a new kind of music, for America and the world, and New Orleans was its birthplace. Here are some information about jazz.
Who were the jazz pioneers? Most were blacks. This music was not written down, and at first only blacks played it. It was hard for white musicians to learn the new style. But soon they, too, were playing jazz. The popularity of this music spread. From New Orleans, it traveled up the Mississippi to Chicago, then to Kansas City and New York. By the 1920s, there were many jazz musicians, both black and white. Many of them were famous. One man was better than the rest. His name was Louis Armstrong.
Louis Armstrong was a born musician. He was not only talented but also hard-working. He also had a good sense of humor and a big, good-natured smile. These personal qualities were valuable in his rise to fame. After he became famous, he traveled around the world. It seemed that everyone wanted to hear Louis play. But life was not always easy, especially at the beginning.
Louis Armstrong was bornin1900 in New Orleans. His father never went to school and his mother could hardly read. When Louis was still a kid, his parents separated, and Louis lived with his mother. How hard their life was can readily be imagined. And yet Louis smiled through everything. He later wrote, “My whole life has been happiness. Life was there for me and I accepted it. Whatever happened has been beautiful to me. I love everybody.”
1. The underlined word “they” in Paragraph 2 refers to________.| A．new styles | B．jazz pioneers |
| C．black musicians | D．white musicians |
| A．His family background. | B．His big, good-natured smiles. |
| C．His talent and hard work. | D．His good sense of humor. |
| A．The development of jazz and its best musician. |
| B．The development of music. |
| C．The influence of Louis Armstrong. |
| D．The influence of jazz on Americans. |
| A．a science paper | B．a music magazine | C．an art picture | D．a Chinese book |
10 . One of the greatest contributors to the first Oxford English Dictionary was also one of its most unusual. In 1879, Oxford University in England asked Prof. James Murray to serve as editor for what was to be the most ambitious dictionary in the history of the English language. It would include every English word possible and would give not only the definition but also the history of the word and quotations showing how it was used.
This was a huge task, so Murray had to find volunteers from Britain, the United States, and the British colonies to search every newspaper, magazine, and book ever written in English. Hundreds of volunteers responded, including William Chester Minor. Dr. Minor was an American surgeon who had served in the Civil War and was now living in England. He gave his address as “Broadmoor, Crowthorne, Berkshire,” 50 miles from Oxford.
Minor joined the army of volunteers sending words and quotations to Murray. Over the next 17 years, he became one of the staff’s most valued contributors.
But he was also a mystery. In spite of many invitations, he would always decline to visit Oxford. So in 1897, Murray finally decided to travel to Crowthorne himself. When he arrived, he found Minor locked in a book-lined cell at the Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane.
Murray and Minor became friends, sharing their love of words. Minor continued contributing to the dictionary, sending in more than 10,000 submissions in 20 years. Murray continued to visit Minor regularly, sometimes taking walks with him around the asylum grounds. In 1910, Minor left Broadmoor for an asylum in his native America. Murray was at the port to wave goodbye to his remarkable friend.
Minor died in 1920, seven years before the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was completed. The 12 volumes defined 414, 825 words, and thousands of them were contributions from a very scholarly and devoted asylum patient.
1. According to the text, the first Oxford English Dictionary_________.| A．came out before Minor died |
| B．was edited by an American volunteer |
| C．included the English words invented by Murray |
| D．was intended to be the most ambitious English dictionary |
| A．He helped Murray to find hundreds of volunteers. |
| B．He sent newspapers, magazines and books to Murray. |
| C．He provided a great number of words and quotations. |
| D．He went to England to work with Murray. |
| A．He was shut in an asylum. | B．He disliked traveling. |
| C．He was busy writing a book. | D．He lived far from Oxford. |
| A．Cautious and friendly. | B．Unusual and scholarly. |
| C．Friendly and determined. | D．Considerate and optimistic. |
