Fortunately or otherwise, moats(护城河)have been part of my neighborhood throughout my more than 60-year life. No matter where we moved, our house was never more than 300 meters away from the moat that is not far enough to avoid the overpowering unpleasant gas that wafted night and day from the putrid water of the moat where untreated sewage had been dumped for centuries. Later, I shifted to the capital. My house was just 50 meters away from a moat and its stench was no different than that from the one in Xi’an.
A few years after I shifted to the capital, the Xi’an authorities began cleaning the moat. Thousands of residents who were forced to stand the stench volunteered to help with the cleaning and after years of efforts, they turned the moat into a tourist attraction along with the famous city wall. It took a few more years for the Beijing authorities to start cleaning the moat near my house. It was dredged and its bed paved. More sewage plants were installed to treat the polluted water which was then re-released into the moat. And restaurants and factories along the moat were shifted elsewhere to prevent untreated water or waste from being discharged into it. Now the moat is perhaps the most attractive part of the Yuan Capital Relics Park. The 10-kilometer-long moat is my favorite place for evening walk. The cleaning of the moats in Xi’an and Beijing exemplify the efforts China has made to clean rivers, lakes, canals and moats.
While the government’s determination, huge investment and strict supervision are responsible for the improvement in water quality, China’s unique “river chief mechanism” has also played an important role in the success. The mechanism, introduced in 2007, assigns the upkeep and health of each part of a river to the top official of that area. Along the moat near my home in Beijing. there are many billboards with the phone numbers of local authorities who are also the river chiefs of different sections of the moat, asking residents to report any activities that could pollute the moat. I have no idea how many river chiefs there are in China, but I know there are at least five for the 10-km-long moat.
But for all the progress it has made in environmental and ecological protection, China still has a long way to go to improve water quality to the highest level, because despite more than 90 percent of the waste water being treated in urban areas, sewage treatment is not yet effective in rural areas.
1. What is the writer’s original feeling about the moat?| A．It was attractive. | B．It was fragrant. |
| C．It was disgusting. | D．It was magical. |
| A．Dragged | B．Polished | C．Cleared | D．Removed |
| A．Residents mainly take charge of the moat nearby. |
| B．Residents must inform officials of daily activities. |
| C．River chiefs help residents sort the household waste. |
| D．River chiefs play a positive part in improving the moat. |
| A．Eco-friendly China will continue to improve water quality. |
| B．China possesses the most effective tools to better water quality. |
| C．China is far from active in improving water quality. |
| D．The progress made in eco-protection can be wholly achieved across the country. |
相似题推荐
As we grow up, we gradually develop a set of our own values or beliefs. These are influenced by society, our family, the education we receive and so on. Once this value system is set up, it’s not easy to change later in life.
Financial experts say that everyone also has their own belief of how to manage their finances. This is part of our value system and it has a great impact on the way we look after our money.
According to our different values, experts put us in three categories. They are: the ant, the cricket and the snail.
The ant—works first
Just like ants who work heart and soul in summer in order to store food for winter, these people don’t care about enjoying the moment. They work very hard and save money they earn so that they can enjoy life when they get old and retire. The ant loves to save but they could make more out of their money if they were willing to invest in some funds and stocks with low risk.
The cricket—fun first
The cricket wants to enjoy everything now and doesn’t think too much about the future. They even borrow money when they really want something. Many young people now belong to this group. These people have little savings. When they get old, they might have problems. They should learn to save and buy insurance.
The snail—lives under pressure
The snail refers to people who make life difficult for themselves. They take big long-term loans from the bank in order to buy things such as luxury houses. They are happy to take big loans even though they are not sure whether they can afford it. This can cause problems in the future. They should plan more carefully.
1. People with the character of the snail would like to __________.
| A．enjoy life at the moment without thinking much about the future |
| B．put work before everything else |
| C．live a luxury life at all costs |
| D．take the risk of investing a large sum of money |
| A．society | B．our family |
| C．money | D．education |
| A．the relation between man and insects |
| B．the spending nature of people |
| C．the insects in nature |
| D．the problems with dealing with money |
| A．The cricket. | B．The ant |
| C．The snail. | D．None of the above. |
【推荐2】I recently came in contact with celebrity magazines. My family isn’t one to give money for pictures of skinny, drunk celebrities with paragraphs about their relationships and shopping cart times. Thus, I was excited to finally get a chance to read about other people’s attractive yet troubled lives.
Right away I noticed how each magazine seemed to be a copy of the other. They had headlines and pictures that were almost the same. Still, the pictures of perfectly constructed faces with cute designer outfits going on with their daily lives made me read on.
Wait, celebrities taking their dogs for a walk? Spending an afternoon at a park? All of these things seemed so ordinary things my own family and I do together often. I suddenly realized how unextraordinary the people in these magazines were. They are simply normal people who happen to have a cool job and much money. For some reason, pictures of them doing things like buying milk at the store appeal to millions of readers. Then, when these regular people mess up, their mistakes are painted onto hundreds of newspapers and Internet sites.
What if every time we made a mistake, it was made public? Have you ever failed a test? Imagine seeing pictures of you on the front of a newspaper with headlines like, “Regular Schooling Isn’t Enough”. You’d be embarrassed. Now, I’m not necessarily taking the celebrity’s side. I’m more realizing the fact that these people we are crazy about are just ordinary human beings with many photographs following them around. Role models? I’d think not. Personally, I’d rather look up to people in any community who have accomplished a lot instead of an ordinary person walking his dog in Berverly Hills.
1. What do we know about the author’s family?| A．They admire celebrities very much. | B．They are curious about the life of celebrities. |
| C．They are not interested in celebrities. | D．They often buy celebrity magazines. |
| A．They live a happy life. | B．They seldom do usual things. |
| C．They attract people’s admiration. | D．They are just ordinary people like us. |
| A．Celebrities who live an ordinary life. | B．Extraordinary people who accomplish a lot. |
| C．Common people who do great things. | D．People who make great contributions to communities. |
| A．To show people’s different attitudes towards celebrities. |
| B．To advise us to have a right attitude towards celebrities. |
| C．To describe the actual life of celebrities. |
| D．To ask us to be realistic about others’ mistakes. |
【推荐3】When we first gave our daughters (then 13 and 15 years old) cell phones for emergencies, we made them sign an agreement in which we strictly ruled where and when they could use their phones and even we could check their every text message. However, in less than a year, we lost control of the situation.
There is a terrible reality that almost every teenager sends between 50 to 100 messages a day - some as many as 300, and 70% of teenagers admit hiding their online behavior from parents. According to a study, teenagers need as much sleep or more than they get as children - that's between 9 and 10 hours of sleep a night, but only 20% of them are getting it. When they don't get enough sleep, they perform poorly in school, feel very hungry, are more likely to have flu and are very emotional.
Recently, we adopted a "check in at tuck in" (盖被子时交手机) rule at our house, an idea I learnt from a parenting expert. It is very simple. At bedtime, when we "tuck in" our children for the night, they must "check in" their phones. They will probably bargain like this:
"But I use it for my alarm clock."
"I'll wake you up."
"My friends might need me."
"If there is an emergency, they can call the fixed phone and I'll wake you up."
A few weeks ago, when I drove my younger daughter to a friend's house for a sleepover, she handed me her phone. "I guess I should check this in now, since you won't be there to tuck me in tonight. I'll call you from Ellie's phone if I need you."
1. The first paragraph that the writer writes is to______.| A．show the writer's family life |
| B．lead to the topic of the passage |
| C．advise to buy cell phones for children |
| D．introduce the writer's two daughters |
| A．controlling their online behavior |
| B．working hard through the Internet |
| C．replacing alarm clocks with cell phones |
| D．keeping in touch if something urgent happened |
| A．Performing well in school. |
| B．Feeling very hungry. |
| C．Being easy to have flu. |
| D．Being very emotional. |
| A．How to Take Control of Children |
| B．How to Help Children Sleep Well at Night |
| C．How to Get Children off Cell Phones at Night |
| D．How to Assist Children with Cell Phones |
【推荐1】People feel good about recycling, maybe even more so when it comes to electronics. While electronics recycling isn't bad, making it a panacea(万能药) for the e-waste problem we currently have certainly is. Unfortunately, that's how we think of recycling — and companies to jump on that trend to appear more “green”.
A case in point: Apple. In 2016, there was lots of report on Liam, a robot able to dismantle(拆卸) an iPhone in just 11 seconds — a good way to recycle 1.2 million units a year. That sounds amazing until you take into account the fact that Apple had actually sold 231 million new iPhones the year before. Liam, actually, is the perfect symbol for recycling in the field of high-tech: a drop of green water in an ocean of pollution.
According to a recent UN report, the US produces about 6.3 million tons or 14% of the world's electronic waste. Worldwide, almost 45 million tons of electronic waste were produced in 2016. Among them, only 20% had been recycled in some shape or form. The remaining 80% made its way to a more environmentally damaging end at the landfill(垃圾填埋场).
Of course, we can say it's time to double our recycling efforts. However, the huge amount of e-waste is impossible to cope with. The UN report points out that while there is an increased focus on recycling today compared to the past, the effort to reuse used devices simply can't keep pace with the high consumption rates for new devices.
In their environmental responsibility report, Apple admits that 77% of the carbon footprint of their electronics comes from their manufacture, versus(相对于) 17% comes from its actual use. The environmental effect of replacing a device, even if it is recycled after, remains significant.
1. Which of the following can best describe Liam?| A．It's useful but can't make a big difference. |
| B．It's energy-saving but too expensive. |
| C．It's well-made but won't become popular. |
| D．It's advanced but impractical. |
| A．Few high-tech companies. |
| B．Not enough recycling efforts. |
| C．High demand for new electronics. |
| D．Difficult recycling processes. |
| A．It is very effective. |
| B．It is quite good. |
| C．It is environmentally damaging. |
| D．It is far from “green” recycling. |
| A．A Recent UN Report on E-Waste Problem |
| B．The Limitation of Electronics Recycling |
| C．A Good Way to Cope With E-Waste |
| D．The Responsibility for Apple to Decrease E-Waste |
【推荐2】When Purdue University researchers set out to develop a new paint, the goal was to create one that would reflect sunlight away from a building. It turns out they also set an official Guinness world record for the whitest paint on the planet.
“When we started this project about seven years ago, we had saving energy and fighting climate change in mind,” Professor Xiulin Ruan said.
The paint reflects 98.1% of solar radiation while also emitting infrared (红外线的) heat.
Because the paint absorbs less heat from the sun than it emits, a surface coated with this paint is cooled below the surrounding temperature without consuming power. Typical commercial white paint gets warmer rather than cooler, Paints on the market that are designed to reject heat reflect only 80%-90% of sunlight and can’t make surfaces cooler than their surroundings.
“Conventional air conditioners consume power that is often from burning fossil fuel. Meanwhile, while they move the heat from inside of a house to the outside, they turn the electricity into heat and leave even more heat to the surrounding and earth, further causing a heat island effect and warming up the Earth,” Professor Ruan told IFLScience.
“In contrast, our paint does not consume any power, and directly sends off all the heat to the deep space, thus helping cooling down the Earth. According to a previous model, painting 0.5-1% of the Earth’s surface (roofs, roads, cars, unused land, etc) with our paint will stop the warming trend. Painting many human made-structures would be a great way to fight the climate crisis in many ways. The paint is not yet available commercially and the scientists are working with a commercial company to speed up the paint production and put it on the market.
1. What’s the purpose of creating the whitest paint?| A．To make the street cleaner. |
| B．To help fight climate change |
| C．To remind people of climate warming. |
| A．It sets an official standard for the whitest paint on the earth. |
| B．It turns the light into heat and makes the houses much cooler |
| C．It makes whatever it’s painted on much cooler than its surroundings. |
| A．About 80%. | B．About 90%. | C．About 98.1%. |
| A．The World’s Whitest Paint |
| B．Paint the Earth White |
| C．A Wonderful Invention |
【推荐3】Is it possible to make paper without trees? Australian businessmen Kevin Garcia and John Tse were determined to find out. They spent a year researching a possible alternative（可代替物） that could serve as a possible raw material for making paper.
"What if we re-engineer how paper is made to be more in line with our environmental responsibility?" asked Garcia. Then Garcia read about a Taiwanese company making paper out of stone and inspiration struck. A year later, in July 2017, they launched Karst Stone Paper. The company produces paper without using wood, water or chemicals with terrible smell. Their source is stone waste mined from construction sites and other industrial waste places.
"If you look at the whole process of how paper is traditionally made, it involves cutting trees, adding chemicals and bleach to make pulp（纸浆）, using lots of water and then squeezing, drying and flattening it into sheets of paper," said Garcia. "It contributes to high carbon emission（排放） and deforestation."
The pulp and paper industry uses over 40% of all industrial wood traded globally, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Karst, based in Sydney, aims to reduce the rate of deforestation with its sustainably-made paper goods.
In 2019, Garcia estimated（估计）Karst's paper production helped save 540 large trees from being cut down, 83,100 liters of water from being used and 25,500 kilograms of carbon dioxide from being emitted.
"We collect abandoned limestone from wherever we can find it, wash it and ground it into fine powder," Garcia said. "The powder is mixed with HDPE resin（高密度聚乙烯树脂）. The paste-like mixture is finally turned into thin sheets of paper. The carbon emission from this process is about 67% less than making paper from tree pulp," he said.
1. What can we learn about the company Karst Stone Paper?| A．It just aims to make great profits. | B．It produces paper in conventional ways. |
| C．It makes paper from stone waste. | D．It develops materials for making paper. |
| A．The paper is of high quality. | B．It is environment-friendly. |
| C．The process is much simpler. | D．It is energy-consuming. |
| A．Responsible. | B．Ambitious. | C．Cautious. | D．Sympathetic. |
【推荐1】When I was only 3 years old, my mother taught me to memorize and recite poems. She was my first teacher of the arts, and my father was the first to appreciate my performance. Even at that young age, I had a simple understanding of how art and culture affect us as human beings and how we can connect to each other through the arts, which shapes my life to this day.
When I was growing up, my parents supported my interest in taking acting classes and doing community theater. Their faith in me and the professional training I was getting from my theater teachers gave me a sense of purpose and a sense of self-confidence. I learned what artistic achievement actually was and what hard work the business was. Although many people see the rosy picture to our business, I was really learning what it would require for me to become a professional.
I became an actress, but arts education isn't just about preparing our young people for a job in the arts. I recently talked to some of the kids attending theater education, Some of them want to work in theater, and some don't, They are leaning not only theater skills, but also about the world around them. They lean about discipline and hard work and what's required and what they have to do to bring themselves to the work, They learn how they can be of service in the world through the arts. They lean how to work with a team. By studying the arts, these students are open to worlds and lives that they might not have any other way of knowing about or any other way to connect with in their lives the way they are right now.
These young people are our future. We are passing the torch to them. And I think that's one of the most important reasons why we need to foster the arts.
1. When the writer was 3 years old, she________| A．learned many kinds of arts | B．did well in communication |
| C．had a deep understanding of arts | D．recited poems to her father |
| A．Funny. | B．Bright. | C．Terrible. | D．Hopeless. |
| A．Discipline and hard work are not included in arts education. |
| B．Students studying the arts should travel around the world. |
| C．Attending theatre education does the kids much good. |
| D．Arts education can only prepare the youth for jobs in the arts. |
| A．Where to get arts education | B．When kids should learn arts. |
| C．How to improve arts education. | D．Why arts education counts. |
【推荐2】“We can't play tennis because you don't have a net.” I was standing on a suburban street when Eric, the boy next door, said that to me. Two rackets(球拍)in hand, I felt my face burning and anger spread through my 10-year-old body.
“I don't have net? You don't have net. Your father and mother don't have net,” I yelled, firing at him with what I thought was a hurt. I just had to make him understand that I had plenty of net. Eric was speechless. He admitted that indeed, he and his family had neither a tennis court nor a net, but he seemed unable to make sense of my reaction to this shortcoming.
As a new arrival to the United States, armed with limited English words, I had thought that “net” meant "manners". Eric didn't want to play with me because I lacked good manners. It was only after I stormed home that my brother, who had been in America for a decade, explained where I had gone wrong.
Language barriers are the most common communication barriers. Even when we speak the same language, understanding and being understood can be difficult, not to mention communicating in a foreign language. And confusion and amusement follows-a phenomenon that is common in sitcom(情景喜剧).For example, in a 1970s British sitcom, a foreign student says “squeeze(捏)me”, instead of “excuse me”, to his young principal.
That's the thing with languages. Though the languages are technically the same, the meanings, implications and interpretations of words are different. No two people really speak the same one. But in order to be understood, we should be willing to use more words and expressions and have the patience to find out more about what is happening to get a whole picture of the situation.
1. Why was the author angry?| A．Eric refused to lend him a bat. | B．He thought Eric was rude to him. |
| C．Eric laughed at his limited English. | D．He had to play tennis without a net. |
| A．His bad manners. | B．His poor background. |
| C．His limited vocabulary. | D．His violent character. |
| A．Went angrily. | B．Left hurriedly. |
| C．Attacked suddenly. | D．Disappeared completely. |
| A．They are worsened by sitcoms. |
| B．They contribute to cultural differences. |
| C．They can be overcome by sending and receiving ideas. |
| D．They exist even between speakers of the same language. |
【推荐3】“Lei ming m ming baak ngo gong ge waa ah? Do you understand what I am saying?” I stare back at the speaker dumbly, my lips parted, the ideas clear in my mind but a response unable to express itself in a language in my distant range. After an uncomfortable pause, a bunch of words spill out of my mouth, sounding forced and unnatural.
The anecdote (轶事) above is a semi-conversation I had in Malaysia years ago. A three-week stay in Malaysia once every few years was often the highlight of my summers—what more can you ask from a food paradise? But besides the family, food, and escape that Malaysia offered, trips also brought accompanying feelings of guilt that I just couldn’t seem to translate. For one month every few summers, I got a taste of what it feels to be an outsider in my own culture, peering in. I was a girl lost in translation, passively absorbing the various tongues shouted between the stalls in the wet markets, quietly nodding along at my grandparents’ huge family dinners.
In America though, I am a different person. I don’t think twice about my grammar when speaking. I don’t struggle with the words and fear that my logic and stories won’t get through to people. So as a native English speaker, I do not have to worry daily about whether I’m judged for having an accent or whether I’m misunderstood across languages. In Malaysia, I naturally burst out “have you eaten?” instead of recalling the Malaysian equivalent “you makan already?” In Malaysia, everything about the way I speak-my accent, intonation, sentence structure, slang-gives me away. My American-ness is seen in the way I talk, dress, and act. Maybe my face could pass for a Malaysian local, but once I open my mouth to speak I am so clearly not. It is uncomfortable and awkward, and sometimes I wonder if I did not look Asian at all would it be better, since there would be no more language expectation for me than for a white tourist.
1. How did the author feel in the anecdote?| A．Confused and scared. | B．Embarrassed and nervous. |
| C．Curious and surprised. | D．Upset and puzzled. |
| A．Because she had to stay away from her family |
| B．Because she didn’t enjoy speaking the language |
| C．Bccause she had to accept what grandparents said |
| D．Because she found it hard to understand the culture. |
| A．She was a good language learner. | B．She didn’t like being an Asian. |
| C．She was judged unfairly in Malaysia | D．She spoke English unconsciously in Malaysia. |
| A．Opinion | B．News. | C．Education. | D．Humor |
【推荐1】New technology is making it possible for people to make videos of people appearing to say things they never actually said. The videos are known as “deepfakes”.
The word “deepfake” is a combination of “deep learning”(an important part of artificial intelligence) and “fake” (not real). Deepfake software allows people to replace part of a video with another video image. The result is a fake video.
The software allows you to put your face over the face of a talking president or movie star. This process will make your face speak in the voice of that president or movie star. Many people are worried the technology will be used to trick voters. Lawmakers, intelligence officials and media experts have expressed concern about deepfakes. They warn the false videos could be used to threaten America’s national security.
“We have entered a new world where it is going to be difficult to know how to believe what we see,” said Hany Farid, a researcher at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. He added, “the opposite result is also worrying. People will become so used to seeing false videos that they will be more likely to doubt a real video. ”
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency(DARPA) is already working to develop technologies to identify fake images and videos. But Senator Rubio says, now the identification is difficult and takes a very long time.
“It takes advanced technology to be able to show that it’s not real. And by the time that’s done, it’s been widely used.”
Rubio and other lawmakers say people will need to take more responsibility to identify fakes.
1. What is “deepfake” software used to do?| A．Kill some virus. | B．Make fake videos. |
| C．Make excellent movies. | D．Benefit stars and leaders. |
| A．False videos might mislead people. |
| B．It was too difficult to use the software. |
| C．Private information might be given away. |
| D．Some people might be addicted to “deepfakes”. |
| A．It is really difficult to identify fake videos. |
| B．The technology “deepfake” has been banned. |
| C．The government is responsible for identification. |
| D．National security is being threatened by “deepfake”. |
| A．Ways to identify fake videos. |
| B．People’s different views on “deepfake”. |
| C．A new technology with a bright future. |
| D．A worrying new technology “deepfake”. |
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| A．$7 | B．$38.5 |
| C．$55 | D．S51.7 |
| A．has to register at www.citycab.com.sg |
| B．can choose the time and place to collect the group |
| C．may apply to the Singapore Tourism Board |
| D．must first pay at least $105 as deposit |
| A．Maxi cab driver can stop on the way on request with extra charges. |
| B．The cabby tour cam show you around Singapore in the night time. |
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【推荐3】Ask 9-year-old Annie what the worst thing was that ever happened in her house last year, and she won’t tell you that it was her parents divorcing, although they did. No, what Annie remembers most are the horrible fights leading up to the announcement about the divorce which was, as it turned out, and despite her parents anxiety about telling her, “not that big of a deal.” “I already knew they were not getting along well,” Annie says, “Every night after I went to bed, l would hear my parents fighting.” It made me really unhappy. When they finally decided to get a divorce, all of that stopped.
Annie's experience is more common than you might think, and there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that “staying together for the sake of the children” is not all it's cracked up to be, and may do more harm than good. According to psychologist Lynn Martingdale, hearing their parents argue is often more stressful for children than separation and divorce, and if you think that your children don’t know that there's trouble in family, then you're kidding yourself. The home life of children whose parents have an unhappy marriage is often far from ideal, and what's worse, parents will compound the problem by taking their unhappiness out on the children.
The Center for Moving Forward conducted a study in 2014 in which they followed 25families whose parents had been in marriage counseling. After tracking these families for 5 years, they found that the children of the parents who had eventually gotten divorced were not worse off than the children of those who had remained together, and in some cases had fared better. The study took into consideration, social and the children's general sense of well-being.
1. Why was Annie really unhappy according to paragraph 1?| A．Her parents fought every night. | B．Her parents finally got divorced. |
| C．Her parents decided to abandon her. | D．Her parents got along badly with her. |
| A．Separation and divorce will hurt the children most. |
| B．Keeping an unhappy marriage hurts children more. |
| C．Children can't understand their parents' marriage well. |
| D．Children can’t feel the unhappiness from their parents. |
| A．To give an example of divorce. |
| B．To support Annie's correct answer. |
| C．To further clear the author's view point. |
| D．To highlight the importance of the study. |
| A．Divorce Is Good for Children | B．Divorce Is Not the Worst Thing |
| C．Fighting Is Often Stressful | D．Staying Together Is for Children Only |
