Have you heard of shikumen houses (石库门) in Shanghai？ It is a type of architecture that combines Western culture and traditional Chinese residential characteristics. It uses stone as door frames (门框) and solid wood in black lacquer (漆) as door leaves (门扇)．Over the past 100 years，many significant historical events have been seen in shikumen houses, such as the first National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1921.
Unfortunately, many Shangbai locals don’t even know about shikumen houses, and they are disappearing due to the development of the city. To make a difference, a group of students from Shanghai International Studies University has established a studio called “Meeting Shikumen”. “We probably can’t stop them from disappearing,” said Mei Zi, 18, the leader of the group. “But we want to let more people know that shikumen houses exist.”
Starting in 2022, the students opened accounts on WeChat and Instagram to share information about shikumen houses, such as the significance of their architectural design and how they reflect Shanghai culture. To draw more young people’s attention to shikumen houses, they also created original IP figures called “Kuku” and “Tiantian”. The students even created a series of WeChat stickers of Kuku and Tiantian, which now have been used by more than 10,000 people.
“This project has become a tradition of our university and will be carried on by students,” Mei said. “In the future, we want to interact with international students in Shanghai, by taking them on theme tours of shikumen houses, to share shikumen with people from various cultures.”
1. What materials are commonly used in the construction of shikumen houses?| A．A mixture of clay and straw. |
| B．A mixture of glass and steel. |
| C．A combination of bamboo and wood. |
| D．A combination of stone and black-lacquered solid wood. |
| A．To prevent shikumen houses from disappearing. |
| B．To raise public awareness of shikumen houses. |
| C．To promote the architectural design of shikumen houses. |
| D．To document historical events related to shikumen houses. |
| A．Created two original IP figures. |
| B．Organised theme tours of shikumen houses. |
| C．Developed an app to introduce shikumen architecture. |
| D．Produced a documentary on the history of shikumen houses. |
| A．To preserve shikumen houses as historical landmarks. |
| B．To establish a museum featuring shikumen architecture. |
| C．To increase global recognition of shikumen houses. |
| D．To spread shikumen houses on social media platforms. |
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【推荐1】For centuries, the power of Chinese emperors rose and fell with their control of the Grand Canal. Today, this waterway is shorter than it once was, but it is still the longest man-made river in the world. Importantly, the Grand Canal continues to provide a significant cultural and economic link for modern China.
The original canal system began around the year 605. China’s Emperor Yang realized that he needed a better way to move food quickly to his army from China’s southern rice-growing region to the country’s north. So about one million people-mostly farmers-worked on the construction of the first section of the Grand Canal, which took six years.
Over the next 500 years, the canal’s importance grew. However, by 1127 , parts had begun to deteriorate. In 1279, Kublai Khan began to repair and build new parts of the canal, which created a more direct north-south route to and from Beijing. Future rulers continued to expand and improve the waterway, and it eventually became an important national lifeline.
In addition to moving rice around China, the Grand Canal was an important cultural connection. Soldiers, businessmen,and artists transported ideas, regional foods, and cultural practices from one part of China to another. According to ancient stories, this is how Beijing acquired two of its best-known trademarks. Peking duck,a dish from Shandong Province, and the Peking opera, from Anhui and Hubei regions,were both brought north by the canal.
For more than a thousand years, goods have been transported along the Grand Canal.Even today, the country’s watery highway plays an important economic role in China. Boats continue to carry tons of goods. In addition, local governments-eager to in-crease tourism and real estate (房地产) development-are beautifying areas along the canal.
In 2005, a group of citizens proposed that the historic Grand Canal be made a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was officially granted (批准) in 2014. The hope now is that the Grand Canal-one of the world’s great engineering achievements -will continue to link north and south China for centuries to come.
1. Why was the Grand Canal originally built?| A．To enable more people to visit distant parts of China. |
| B．To allow the army to move quickly from the north to the south. |
| C．To promote the cultural and traditional connection of south China. |
| D．To transport food from the southern regions of China to the north. |
| A．It took six years to complete its first section. |
| B．Even today, it is the longest man-made river in the world. |
| C．Around a million people worked on the first part of the canal. |
| D．It allowed Peking duck and the Peking opera to spread to southern China. |
| A．Get worse. | B．Get destroyed. | C．Get shorter. | D．Get repaired. |
| A．Renewed Importance. | B．Cultural Connections. |
| C．The Army’s Highway. | D．The Origins of the Peking Opera. |
| A．Construction of the Canal began. |
| B．New parts of the Canal were built. |
| C．The Grand Canal became a World Heritage Site. |
| D．The Grand Canal was proposed as a UNESCO Heritage Site. |
In an effort to prevent language loss, scholars from a number of organizations- UNESCO and National Geographic among them –have for many years been documenting dying languages and the cultures they reflect.
Mark Turin, a scientist at the Macmillan Center, Yale University, who specializes in the languages and oral traditions of the Himalayas, is following that tradition. His recently published book, A Grammar of Thangmi with an Ethnolinguistic Introduction to the Speakers and Their Culture, grows out of his experience living, looking and raising a family in a village in Nepal.
Documenting the Tangmi language and culture is just a starting point for Turin, who seeks to include other languages and oral traditions across the Himalayans reaches of India, Nepal, Bhutan, and China. But he is not content to simply record these voices before they disappear without record.
At the University of Cambridge Turin discovered a wealth of important materials- including photographs, films, tap recordings, and field notes- which had remained unstudied and were badly in need of care and protection.
Now, through the two organizations that he has founded-the Digital Himalaya Project and the World Oral Literature Project- Turin has started a campaign to make such documents, found in libraries and stores around the world, available not just to scholars but to the youngers.
Generations of communities from whom the materials were originally collected.Thanks to digital technology and the widely available Internet. Turin notes, the endangered languages can be saved and reconnected with speech communities.
1. Many scholars are making efforts to ________.
| A．promote global languages |
| B．rescue the disappearing languages |
| C．search for language communities |
| D．set up languages research organizations |
| A．Having first records of the languages. |
| B．Writing books on language searching. |
| C．Telling stories about language users. |
| D．Linking with the native speakers. |
| A．The cultural statics in India. |
| B．The documents available at Yale. |
| C．His language research in Britain. |
| D．His personal experience in Nepal. |
| A．Write sell and donate. |
| B．Record, repeat and reward. |
| C．Collect, protect and reconnect. |
| D．Design, experiment and report. |
【推荐3】The dinner party is disappearing according to an article in The New York Times. “How can this be?” You might wonder. Don’t we meet with friends to taste food in the hottest restaurants? Aren’t we invited by friends to enjoy home-cooked meals? And we throw parties for friends on special occasions, don’t we?
Is it because people are too busy to cook for others and then invite them to the table? Perhaps, but there are many food lovers nowadays, and TV programs teaching people how to cook are very popular.
In her opinion, its influence has been harmful to human communication. “People don’t even respond to dinner invitation anymore,” she said. “Not only do they cancel at the last minute, they do it by text message.”
Things have changed a lot today. Perhaps the dinner party has just become a different kind of thing. However, it needs only be more than some food, a table and a location.
| A．The age of great hosts is dead with the change of people’s lifestyles. |
| B．In fact the dinner party the writer worries about disappearing is another kind. |
| C．The real problem is that people don’t know how to make conversation anymore. |
| D．They know exactly which guests to invite so that they can share their favourite food. |
| E．The culture of the dinner party is not necessarily based on money and social influence. |
| F．Yet nowadays, people prefer to eat takeout food on sofa while playing on mobile phones. |
| G．She also expresses dissatisfaction with electronic equipment. |
【推荐1】Gray wolves will no longer be protected under the Endangered Species Act in most of the US, federal officials announced this week.
“After more than 45 years as a listed species, the gray wolf has reached all conservation goals for recovery,” Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said.
This move was criticized by wildlife advocacy groups and environmentalists who decided to challenge the decision.
“Abolishing protections for gray wolves is irresponsible,” said Defenders of Wildlife President and CEO, Jamie Rappaport Clark. “Gray wolves occupy only a small part of their former range and need continued federal protection to fully recover. We will be taking the US Fish and Wildlife Service to court to defend this species.”
The new rule will officially publish next week, and go into effect 60 days after that. Then, states will assume control of gray wolves and accept for Mexican wolves, a subspecies that will remain protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Over the years, there has been a back-and-forth between conservation groups and the Fish and Wildlife Service over whether the gray wolf should be delisted (除名) as an endangered species. The last attempt was under the Obama administration, but was met with fierce opposition and was later withdrawn.
There was also a lot of opposition to the recent delisting of the gray wolf, with more than 837,000 comments noted online. According to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the organization submitted more than 1. 8 million comments opposing the rule.
While the federal government is removing protections, at least one state is hoping to add them. There is currently a question on the vote in Colorado about a gray wolf recovery program, which would reintroduce the animal in the state. The proposal would reintroduce and manage gray wolves by the end of 2023.
"Wolves remain absent from about 70% of currently suitable habitat in the lower 48 states, and this rule could have terrible consequences for their future,” Amanda Wight, Program Manager of Wildlife Protection said.
1. How does Bernhardt feel about the gray wolf recovery?| A．Urgent. | B．Worrying. | C．Successful. | D．Impossible. |
| A．Set more protection rules. |
| B．Call on environmentalists to donate. |
| C．Ask the government to set up more reserves. |
| D．Accuse the US Fish and Wildlife Service. |
| A．The related rule has been in effect. |
| B．It has been under debate for years. |
| C．Many people vote to support it. |
| D．Colorado will be the first to carry it out. |
| A．The Endangered Species Act is going into effect |
| B．The number of gray wolves is largely increasing |
| C．Gray wolves will lose Endangered Species Act protection |
| D．The Endangered Species Act will meet great change |
【推荐2】Shanya Gill, a 12-year-old middle schooler from San Jose, California, won the top award in the Society for Science’s annual middle school competition for designing a fire detection system that is superior to existing ones, according to a press release from the organization.
Shanya’s inspiration came after a fire destroyed a restaurant in her neighborhood during the summer of 2022, reported Washington Post. “I had never really experienced something like that before,” she told Washington Post about the early morning fire at Holder’s Country Inn, which started in the kitchen. “They had smoke detectors, and yet it still burned down,” she added.
After she studied fire statistics and saw how common fires are, Shanya decided that she was going to do something about it. She spent more than a year developing a fire detection system that she believes could prevent the fire. That’s because smoke detectors sense active fires from the smoke in the air, while Shanya’s thermal imaging device is designed to stop fires from occurring.
Her complex system has two parts, a thermal camera and a Raspberry Pi, a tiny computer. The device detects when a heat source has been left unattended for ten minutes and sends a text message alert.
Creating the prototype (原型) was difficult and the hardest part was the coding. “I had two designs, and the final device succeeded because it outperforms smoke detectors in speed and accuracy.” Shanya wants to bring the costs down to $60 to make it even more affordable than hardwired smoke detectors.
“Shanya saw a problem and tried hard to solve it, and that’s what we need to encourage with all young people,” said Ajmera, president and CEO of Society for Science. Her remarkable research not only reflects her talent but also paves the way for an exciting new future.
1. What inspired Shanya to design the fire detection system?| A．A neighbor's burnt kitchen. |
| B．A report on Washington Post. |
| C．A terrible restaurant experience. |
| D．A horrible fire in her community. |
| A．By having people updated. |
| B．By sending a warning mail. |
| C．By controlling the water tap. |
| D．By putting out a heat source. |
| A．It was fast and precise. |
| B．It was cheap and simple. |
| C．It was complex and unique. |
| D．It was affordable and convenient. |
| A．Teenagers are the architect of the future. |
| B．A problem is a chance to bring out the best. |
| C．The thirst for knowledge is a never-ending one. |
| D．The best way to predict the future is to create it. |
【推荐3】Nowadays, kuakuaqun or praise groups have become more and more popular on the Internet, Their aim is to comfort young people. These groups provide words of support for those who are unhappy.
Spending just a little money, you can enter such a group. Share your problems or success, and you will receive positive messages soon. These messages, mostly from strangers, will help you feel better. A leader of one of the groups talks about his first purpose, “I want to help people learn to praise others and accept others, praise.”
I like the idea of kuakuaqun. However, I think getting praise from strangers online isn’t very useful in the long run. This is especially true when you are paying for the praise. These people don’t know you, so the praise may not be earnest. Real and meaningful praise comes from the people you know.
With this in mind, we should try to praise our friends and family members when they need some encouragement. Simply saying to a classmate, ‘I like you’, can lift his or her confidence. Being kind to others is easy. And it adds the necessary sweetness to make everyone’s life better.
1. Words of support of kuakuaqun are mainly from _________.| A．Students | B．Strangers | C．Relatives | D．classmates |
| A．to fight with others | B．to make friends with others |
| C．to draw some pictures | D．to praise others and accept others’ praise |
| A．勇敢的. | B．大量的. | C．真诚的. | D．虚拟的. |
| A．a book | B．a magazine | C．a computer | D．an online group |
