【推荐1】Learning English as a second language can be a challenge, but it can also bring a lot of advantages.     1     The international business community often uses it for communication, even among people who do not speak the same native language. There are also many professional publications printed in English, which means it is often an important language for anyone working in science or research.

    2     People who speak two or more languages can easily get jobs in travel, international business, or translation. Even outside of a professional environment, people often like to be able to talk to individuals from around the world. They can communicate and talk with others more easily.

Knowing English can broaden the types of people you can speak to. Many people find great social and cultural benefits in having pen friends from other countries.     3    A large number of websites are available primarily in English. Anyone who does not understand the language may have difficulty using them. Besides, for anyone interested in traveling to countries in which English is the common language, it is often essential to understand and speak it. Throughout the UK, US, and Canada, traveling and shopping are often made easier by speaking English.     4    

Learning a language can also be a great way to meet people, even if you never plan on leaving home. A class at a local community center or college can introduce you to a wide variety of people. Language courses often encourage students to carry on conversations with each other in the language being learned.     5    

A．It’s hard to get a job without speaking English.

B．This can be a great way to break the ice with new people.

C．And the Internet makes such communication fast and easy.

D．For many people, learning English can broaden their employment opportunities.

E．Reading novels, watching movies and listening to music in English can also be helpful.

F．One of the primary benefits is that it is often considered the language of global business.

G．It is much easier for you to explore these regions and more easily communicate with the locals.

【推荐2】Free Level Test: Spanish courses in Sydney

Let your language journey begin.

Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world and the official language of more than 20 states, including Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, Chile, etc.

If you are planning a trip or just want to learn Spanish, consider taking a free Spanish Level Test at Instituto Cervantes Sydney, the official Spanish language and cultural centre in Australia.

Instituto Cervantes Sydney is home to Spanish language classes whose purpose is to develop students’ ability to understand, speak, read and write in Spanish. All teachers are university qualified and use the most up-to- date teaching methods.

If you already have some knowledge of Spanish, this Level Test is fit for you, as you will be tested by one of the teachers before being put into a class. You can also have all the information you need to start learning Spanish here, including courses and costs.

Ask the customer service team members about information on the free library service for students and the exciting cultural activities held all year round.

If you haven't studied Spanish before, you can enroll(注册) online in a level A1.1 ( Beginner Course). You can also enroll at the reception during business hours.

Don't miss out on discounts. Learn Spanish with up to a 7% Early Bird Discount if you enroll before the 20 of April. Students at Instituto Cervantes Sydney also enjoy special discounts on activities such as dance classes, cinema tickets and much more.

Begin your Spanish language journey with Instituto Cervantes Sydney today by joining a free Level Test this summer; there are different classes to choose from between the 11h and 18 of April.

For more information on Instituto Cervantes Sydney and their classes and cultural activities, please visit sidney. cervantes. es/ en/ default. shtm.

1. To a student who has learned Spanish, the class he will be in is decided by _______.

A．which country he is from	B．his grades in a Level Test
C．when he enrolls for the course	D．his reasons for learning Spanish

2. What do we know about the Spanish courses?

A．They are about business Spanish.	B．They center on learners' listening.
C．They are run with cultural activities.	D．They are taught with traditional methods.

3. Why are learners advised to enroll before the 20" of April?

A．They can save some money.	B．They can go to free dance classes.
C．They can start their classes earlier.	D．They can choose their favorite teachers.

【推荐3】To me, Shakespeare is a bit of a touchy subject in the theatre industry. I believe Shakespeare’s plays to be the most challenging in terms of language. When you have challenging language, then understanding the plot and topics discussed becomes a challenge as well. It’s like a chain. If you don’t understand it from the start, it makes things hard later on and people tend to give up on it. Regardless of all of this, I believe Shakespeare’s plays are important in the sense that they are where true theatre started. William Shakespeare is a name everyone knows regardless of whether you enjoy his work or not.

Many high schools or colleges do at least one Shakespeare’s play every few years and I like that. I think it’s important to expose students to plays that are a bit more challenging than they’re used to. Of course, it’s not easy to understand these plays but then think about the people who act in those plays. When acting, you have to understand your character inside and out and not only that, but you need to completely know everything going on around you as well. So to understand the script is one thing, but then to take it to that next level in terms of acting in a Shakespeare’s play is a whole other thing. How about memorizing the lines? That’s one of the hardest things actors have said they had to get through. It is such heightened language that it’s almost like learning a foreign language. Shakespeare’s play is tough and that’s what I think I love about it the most. The challenge is understanding. Once you have that then you have room to play with it.

Therefore, if people walked into a Shakespeare’s play with more of an open mind, their experience would be so much better. There is an immense amount of exploration and discovery in his plays and the experience can be really satisfying. It’s hard stuff, but it’s fascinating and we should be embracing it.

1. What’s the main idea of the passage?

A．The characteristics of Shakespeare’s plays.

B．How to perform Shakespeare’s plays successfully.

C．The importance and way of enjoying Shakespeare’s plays.

D．How to understand the tough language of Shakespeare’s plays.

2. What’s the biggest challenge in understanding Shakespeare’s plays?

A．The plot and topics.

B．The challenging language.

C．Understanding the characters.

D．How to understand from the start.

3. What does the underlined word mean in paragraph 2?

A．Outstanding and lively.

B．Strange and mechanical.

C．Complicated and difficult.

D．High-leveled and interesting.

4. What does the writer suggest you do when enjoying Shakespeare’s plays?

A．Act them out.

B．Remember the lines in them.

C．Learn Shakespeare’s language.

D．Enjoy them with an open mind.

【推荐1】Microsoft won’t renew the contracts (合同) for dozens of news production staff working at its MSN website and plans to use AI to replace them. The roughly 50 employees were informed that their services would no longer be needed beyond June 30.

The Microsoft spokesman said in a statement, “Like all companies, we analyze and make judgments on our activities and services on a regular basis. This can result in increased investment in some places and, from time to time, rearrangement in others. These decisions are not the result of the pandemic.”

MSN will use AI to replace the production work its journalists had been doing. That work includes using an automated system (自动化系统) to identify trending news stories from dozens of publishing partners and to help improve the content by rewriting headlines or adding better accompanying photographs or slide shows.

“I spend all my time reading about how automation and AI are going to take all our jobs — now it’s taken mine” one of the terminated contractors said. “But with fewer human beings to monitor the technology, AI may not be fully familiar with strict editorial guidelines and could end up letting through inappropriate stories.”

MSN has experienced a number of changes since its launch as Microsoft Network in 1995. Once it offered original content and links to news, weather and sports. In 2013, it rolled back original news content and began cutting employees. By 2014, it launched are designed version that partnered with other news sites, paying them to redistribute their content. Today, the news service relies entirely on those partnerships with no original news content of its own. Selecting and editing stories rather than actually generating them made it easier for MSN to increasingly rely on an automated editing system.

1. On what basis did Microsoft make the decision to cut employees?

A．Pressure from competitors in the industry.	B．The proposal that AI engineers put forward.
C．Difficulties the pandemic has brought about.	D．Analysis and assessment made by the company.

2. What will AI do in place of journalists in MSN?

A．Developing an automated working system.	B．Bettering the content by revising headlines.
C．Shooting photos to go with the news story.	D．Finding out the inappropriate news stories.

3. What does the underlined word “terminated” probably mean in Paragraph 4?

A．fired

B．trained

C．chosen

D．promoted

4. What makes it convenient for MSN to achieve automation?

A．A well developed distribution strategy.	B．Money saved from cutting on employees.
C．Are designed version with no original news.	D．The technical cooperation with other websites.

【推荐2】阅读下列短文，根据短文内容用英语回答问题。

What do you do in a situation like this? You’re eating dinner with friends in a nice restaurant. You’re having a great time when a phone rings at the table next to you. A man takes out his phone and starts talking loudly about problems he’s having with his girlfriend. He talks for almost ten minutes! This happens all the time - on buses, in restaurants, everywhere!

Many people find cell phones useful in their daily lives. But we’ve all sat next to someone talking too loudly on a cell phone. You may want to tell the loudmouth to end the conversation, but let the management take care of noisy customers. You can only control your own behavior. Here are a few rules:

* Off means off! Follow the rules of restaurants and other public places. If a sign says “turn off cell phones”, don’t use your phone.

* Lights off, phone off! Never take calls in a theater or at the movies.

Pay attention! Talking on a cell phone while driving is dangerous. And watch where you’re going when you’re walking down the street and talking on the phone.

As more people use cell phones, things are only going to get worse. So, the next time you’re getting ready to make a call, stop and consider the people around you.

1. What does the passage mainly talk about? (no more than 10 words)
2. What does the underlined word “loudmouth” in Paragraph 2 probably mean? (no more than 5 words)
3. Where could you see the sign “Light off, phone off!” according to the passage? (no more than 10 words)
4. What’s the author’s attitude towards someone talking too loudly on a cell phone in public? (1 word)
5. How do you like people who talk loudly on a phone in public? (no more than 25 words)

【推荐3】About the time that schools and others quite reasonably became interested in seeing to it that all children, whatever their background, were fairly treated, intelligence testing became unpopular.

Some thought it was unfair to minority children. Through the past few decades such testing has gone out of fashion and many communities have indeed forbidden it.

However, paradoxically(自相矛盾的), just recently a group of black parents filed a lawsuit (诉讼) in California claiming that the state’s ban on IQ testing discriminates(歧视) against their children by denying them the opportunity to take the test. (They believe, correctly, that IQ tests are a valid method of evaluating (评估) children for special education classes.) The judge, therefore, reversed, at least partially his original decision.

And so the argument goes on and on. Does it benefit or harm children from minority groups to have their intelligence tested? We have always been on the side of permitting, even promoting such testing. If a child of any color or group is doing poorly in school it seems to us very important to know whether it is because he or she is of low intelligence, or whether some other factor is the cause.

What school and family can do to improve poor performance is influenced by its cause. It is not discriminative to evaluate either a child’s physical condition or his intellectual level.

Unfortunately, intellectual level seems to be a sensitive subject, and what the law allows us to do varies from time to time. The same fluctuation (起伏) back and forth occurs in areas other than intelligence. Thirty years or so ago, for instance, white families were encouraged to adopt black children. It was considered discriminative not to do so.

And then the style changed and this cross-racial adopting became generally unpopular, and social agencies felt that black children should go to black families only. It is hard to say what are the best procedures. But surely good will on the part of all of us is needed.

As to intelligence, in our opinion, the more we know about any child’s intellectual level, the better for the child in question.

1. Why did the intelligence test become unpopular in the past few decades?

A．Its validity was challenged by many communities.

B．It was considered discriminative against minority children.

C．It met with strong opposition from the majority of black parents.

D．It robbed the black children of their rights to a good education.

2. The author believes that intelligence testing       .

A．may ease racial discrimination in the United States

B．can encourage black children to keep up with white children

C．may seriously worsen racial discrimination in the United States

D．can help black parents make decisions about their children’s education

3. The author’s opinion of child adoption seems to be that       .

A．no definite rules can be prescribed

B．white families should adopt black children

C．adoption should be based on IQ test results

D．cross-racial adoption is to be advocated

4. Child adoption is mentioned in the passage to show that ______.

A．good will may sometimes complicate racial problems

B．social surroundings are vital to the healthy growth of children

C．intelligence testing also applies to non-academic areas

D．American opinion can shift when it comes to sensitive issues

【推荐1】     No one knows yet the accurate number of lives which have been lost in this terrible fire. But reports suggest that it is more than one hundred.
     A wall of flames fifty feet high and at least one hundred and fifty miles wide is now racing towards the forests and rich farmlands of southern Victoria . Towns less than one hundred miles from Melbourne will be in danger unless the wind changes . People are rushing excitedly into the streets . The police have warned them not to see the fire but many people are doing so .
     The cause of the fire is unknown . No rain has fallen in this part of Australia for three months , and the hot , north-west wind from the great central desert is blowing at more than thirty miles an hour .
     The firefighters are travelling to the fire by road , rail and air . But it is not easy to get there . Flames and fallen trees have cut off or blocked roads and railway lines . The thick smoke often prevents them from finding the air strips (飞机跑道).
     It is said that the fire has brought the greater danger to the country since the Second World War .
1. By the time the article was written , the fire        .

A．had just broken out	B．had been put out
C．was spreading violently	D．was coming to an end

2. The writer wrote this article mainly to tell people        .

A．the fire was terrible and dangerous

B．it was impossible to put out the fire

C．more than one hundred people died of the fire

D．to join in the fight against the fire

3. In the 4th paragraph , the writer suggested that        .

A．the fire would soon be controlled by the firefighters

B．it would be very difficult to put out the fire

C．the government was paying great attention to the fire

D．the fire had caused great losses and the airport was in ganger

4. The underlined word “ accurate” in the first sentence has the same meaning as        .

A．recent

B．whole

C．rough

D．exact

【推荐2】Craftsman Qian Gaochao and his son recently spent more than six months making three “chicken-blood” stone carvings showing the taekwondo and wrestling competitions of the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022. As a national inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage (非物质文化遗产) of the chicken-blood stone carving technique, Qian Gaochao says that he is working on the other carvings related to the Asian Games in the chicken-blood stone museum in Changhua town, Zhejiang Province.

Chicken-blood stone is one of China’s most prized decorative materials and has been used for centuries to create carved works with characteristic red markings. With its bright blood-red color, bright crystal-like jade texture, quality and shape, chicken-blood stones are celebrated the world over. The artistic value of Changhua chicken-blood stone lies in its adaptability, which can be made into decorations of various sizes and forms. It is not only a mineral specimen (标本) that records geological changes, but also a cultural relic that reflects the productivity of different eras, living conditions and folk customs.

The stone has become a cultural symbol of deepening bilateral friendship in diplomatic (外交的) activities. For example, in 1972, the Chinese premier gave Changhua chicken-blood stones to Japan as State gifts. In 1986, a seal of Changhua stone was presented to the US. In 2016, the Changhua stone sculpture “Haliaeetus Albicilla Dud a Portrait Seal” was presented to Poland. In September 2016, 36 sets of portrait seals were given as gifts to guests who attended the 11th C20 Summit held in Hangzhou.

“As a craftsman, I’m not only doing carving work but also recording the development and changes of our society and remembering the era through the medium of my carvings,” Qian Gaochao says. He has created fascinating works, many of which are related to important events in Chinese history and famous people who have made significant contributions to the country.

“We are also recruiting qualified people to continue to inherit and innovate these traditional skills,” Qian Gaochao says. “Additionally, we often hold research activities and provide training courses, enabling more young students to understand and learn Chinese traditional culture,” he adds.

1. What do Qian Gaochao and his son’s recent works describe?

A．Famous athletes.	B．Beautiful natural scenery.
C．International sporting events.	D．Ancient folk customs in Changhua.

2. What highlights the artistic value of Changhua chicken-blood stone?

A．It is rare for its unique shape.	B．It is a mirror of the local climate.
C．It features a bright blood-red color.	D．It has high adaptability to different designs.

3. What are the examples in paragraph 3 for?

A．Presenting the popularity of chicken-blood stone.

B．Showing the role of chicken-blood stone in diplomacy.

C．Explaining the approaches to promote Changhua’s economy.

D．Proving the importance of Chinese culture in connecting the world.

4. What do we know about Qian Gaochao from his words?

A．He provides free carving courses for qualified students.

B．The innovation of traditional culture faces great challenges.

C．Learning carving skills is not attractive to modern young people.

D．He devotes himself to recording China’s development through carving.