Ice climbing is a moving winter sport that combines excitement, skills and determination.

Back in 2014 and 2018, the sport was presented to the public during the Sochi Winter Olympic Games in Russia and the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games. The next goal for ice climbing is showing the sport in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

If you are already interested in this sport, here are some of the world’s best places with special ice formations (冰构) that you shouldn’t miss.

Ouray, Colorado, the US

Ouray offers climbers easy access to more than 200 named climbs, with free entrance to the park. The ice park also provides professional guidance and services for beginners. Ouray usually hosts the biggest ice festival in North America every January.

Shuangqiaogou, Sichuan, China

China has a lot of ice walls, which are located in different mountains in the northern and western parts of the country. Among them, Sichuan province’s Shuangqiaogou, or Twin Bridge Trench (双桥沟), in Mount Siguniang has some of the finest such spots. The ice season in the area usually starts from mid-December and runs through late February. Climbers can enjoy various ice formations as well as a clean and quiet environment.

Valdez, Alaska, the US

Alaska’s surprising Valdez area has been attracting world-class climbers to the area for ten years. Each year, climbers go there to follow classic routes such as Sheep Creek and Solomon Gulch (希普河和所罗门峡谷). Others explore the area by themselves, hoping to find the next classic site on their adventures. The climbers can find glacier hiking, skiing and sled (雪橇) trips there.

1. If a new climber goes to Ouray, he will ________.

A．pay for the entrance	B．be given some help with climbing
C．watch the ice festival at any time	D．learn climbing lessons for free

2. How long does the ice season in Twin Bridge Trench last?

A．More than a year.	B．About ten months.
C．More than four months.	D．Less than three months.

3. Which of the words can best describe the sports in Valdez?

A．Thrilling and open.	B．Enjoyable and safe.
C．Tiring and safe.	D．Boring and dangerous.

An allowance is an important tool for teaching kids how to budget, save and make their own decisions. Children remem­ber and learn from mistakes when their own dollars are lost or spent foolishly.
How large an allowance is appropriate? Experts say there is not right amount. Actual amounts differ from region to re­gion, and from family to family.
To set an appropriate allowance for your child, work up a weekly budget. Allow for entertainment expenditures such as movies and snacks. Next, include everyday expenses such as lunch money, bus fare, school supplies. "If you make the child responsible for these ‘ ills’," says Josephine Swanson, a consumer specialist, " he or she will learn to budget for nec­essary expenditures."
Finally, add some extra money to make saving possible. If you can, keep your child’s allowance in line with that of his friends. A child whose purchasing power falls away below his peers’ can feel left out.
It can be tough, but avoid excusing your children when they make a mistake with their allowance. When Brooke Ste­phens was ten and growing up in Jacksonville, her mother gave her $5 a week, $1.75 of which was for bus fare and lunch." If you lose your money," Brooke’s mother told her, "you walk home."
One week the girl spent all her allowance in a candy store, then she called home for a ride. " Mom made me walk home," recalls Stephens, now a financial planner in Brook­lyn. " At first I was angry. But I finally realized that she was trying to teach me an important lesson. "
Experts advise that an allowance should not be tied di­rectly to a child’s daily chores. Kids should help around the house not because they get paid for it but because they share responsibilities as members of a family. You might, however, pay a child for doing extra jobs at home, which can develop his or her initiative.
4. Which of the following is the possible title of the passage?

A．How to develop a child’s initiative.

B．How to work up an amount of pocket money.

C．How to teach a child to save money.

D．How to teach a child about money.

5. It can be inferred from the passage that if a child is given an allowance, he or she may ________.

A．spend all the money very soon

B．be spoiled and finally ruined

C．feel responsible and careful about money

D．lost the money and can not return home

6. In Paragraph 4, the words “his peers” refer to ________.

A．his parents

B．his teachers

C．his financial experts

D．his friends

7. The author implies in the passage that ________.

A．paying children for their housework is no good

B．a child’s initiative can be developed if he or she is paid for all the housework

C．children may feel lost and lonely if they have no pocket money

D．children may learn to put aside some money if they are given a great amount of pocket money

You dash through a crowded railway station, tripping over bags, spilling (泼出) your coffee, only to have the doors slide shut in your face, leaving you breathless on the platform as the train pulls away.

But at least, if you’re in France, someone may be playing the piano for you. But it won’t be performed by a paid musician, or even a street entertainer playing for coins. It will just be a random passer-by, jamming for the fun of it on one of the pianos that the national railroad company, S. N. C. F., has fixed in nearly 100 stations across France. They are free for anyone to play, and travelers from all walks of life have taken to doing just that.

Gares & Connexions, the S. N. C. F. division that manages its stations, rents the instruments from the producer, Yamaha: which maintains them and tunes them every month or two. The first one was set up in the Gare Montparnasse in Paris in 2012.

The music, mixed with the sounds of shouting passengers, screaming trains and rolling suitcases, gives French stations a special soundscape. The amateur musicians have included Irish soccer fans and even babies. In 2014, Gares & Connexions and Yamaha organized a nationwide contest called Your Turn to Play, asking participants to submit videos of themselves using one of the pianos. It drew nearly 900 entries.

Isn’t the railroad company taking a big chance? Apparently not: “None of the instruments has been vandalized to this day, or even merely damaged,” said Claire Foumon, a spokeswoman for Gares & Connexions. “They are shared and respected by all.”

So if you miss a train in Paris; Bordeaux or Marseille one day, perhaps someone will be playing a favorite piece that will ease your pain. Or perhaps you’ll sit down and play your annoyance away yourself.

8. Why did Gares & Connexions fix pianos in railway stations?

A．To advertise Yamaha’s products.	B．To make stations more attractive.
C．To let travelers have a relaxing trip.	D．To help street artists make a living.

9. What does Paragraph 4 mainly tell us?

A．The contest has proved a hit.	B．The pianos are very popular.
C．Railway stations are crowded.	D．Everyone can be an amateur musician.

10. What does the underlined word “vandalized” in Paragraph 5 probably mean?

A．Selected carefully.	B．Checked regularly.
C．Reserved in advance.	D．Destroyed on purpose.

11. What would be the best title for the text?

A．Miss a train yet catch a tune	B．A soundscape in the memory
C．The role of piano in French life	D．An amazing train with a piano bar

Scientists think they have answered a mystery: How some ocean creatures got so huge so quickly.

A few million years ago, the largest whales, averaged about 15 feet long. Then seemingly overnight, one type of whale—the toothless baleen whale (须鲸类)—became huge. Modern blue whales get as big as 100 feet, the largest creatures ever on Earth. “We really are living in the time of giants,” said Nicholas Pyenson of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. “Why is that?” “It happened in the glance of an evolutionary eye, which makes it harder to figure out what happened,” said Graham Slater, lead author of the study. Their study has suggested an answer: Ice ages in the last 3 to 5 million years started it, changing the oceans and food supply for whales.

The researchers used fossil records of the smaller whales to create a family tree for baleen whales—which include blue whales, humpbacks and right whales. Using computer simulations (模拟) and knowledge about how evolution works, they concluded that when the size changes started, the South and North poles got colder and the water circulation in the oceans changed and winds shifted. Slater and Pyenson said cold water went deep and moved closer to the equator (赤道) and then eventually moved back up with small fish and other small animals that whales eat. That’s why you can see lots of whales in the summer in California’s Monterey Bay, Slater said.

Baleen whales, which have no teeth, feed by eating huge amounts of ocean, filtering (过滤) out the water and eating the creatures they capture. Toothed whales, like sperm whales (抹香鲸), hunt individual fish, so the ocean changes that made food less evenly (平均地) spread out didn’t affect them as much. “If you are a whale, the easiest way to take advantage of resources is to get big,” Slater said. But baleen whales hunt schools of fish. Olivier Lambert at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, who wasn’t part of the study, calls it “a really convincing situation”. But he said the lack of fossils in certain time periods is an issue. As oceans warm from man-made climate change, the sea will be more like it was when the whales were smaller and they will have a more difficult time surviving, Slater and others said.

12. What does the author mean by “It happened in the glance of an evolutionary eye” in the second paragraph?

A．Researchers thought the change of baleen whales was unimportant.

B．Researchers paid little attention to the change of baleen whales .

C．The change of baleen whales was too difficult to explore .

D．The change of baleen whales happened too quickly.

13. What played the key role in baleen whales’ becoming huge?

A．The water circulation in the oceans.

B．Its eating a small amount of fish.

C．The increase of food supply for whales.

D．Man-made climate change.

14. What do you know about sperm whales and blue whales according to the text?

A．Sperm whales eat more food.

B．Blue whaler live much longer.

C．Sperm whales prefer to hunt schools of fish.

D．Blue whales usually swallow schools of fish.

15. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．Olivier Lambert thinks the study is perfect.

B．Global warming has threatened the whales.

C．The whales may become even bigger.

D．There are no whale fossils now.