【推荐1】Hannah Huxford encountered the fry-stealing gull in Bridlington, a coastal town on the Yorkshire coast. Huxford snapped the well-timed photo on her iPhone in 2011; it went viral soon after. A decade later, the fry-stealing gull is appearing on billboards, as part of an advertising campaign for Google.

Researchers recently discovered that food may actually become more attractive to gulls when the birds observe humans handling it first, according to a 2020 study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

Because the birds seem to be attracted to food items that they’ve watched humans touch, another of the study’s authors, says that it’s even more important to properly throw food waste and snack wrappers in the trash. “Our findings suggest that gulls are more likely to approach food that they have seen people drop or put down, so they may associate areas where people are eating with an easy meal,” Dr. Laura Kelley said.

The scientists approached 74 herring gulls in coastal towns in Cornwall, tempting them with weighted bags of fried potatoes. Only 19 gulls were curious or hungry enough to linger (逗留), allowing the scientists to place the bag on the ground and retreat a short distance away, waiting in a crouched (蹲下) position to see if a gull would approach.

Their experiments demonstrated that gulls were more cautious about approaching a tempting treat if there was a person nearby who was watching them closely. However, the scientists also found that far fewer of the birds than expected showed interest in investigating the food at all when being stared at.

In fact, people may be able to protect their lunches from gulls by avoiding areas where the birds tend to gather and keeping a closer eye on their meals, she added. “Gulls have a bad reputation but, like all animals, they are just trying to survive,” Goumas said. “We can try to alleviate the conflict we have with them by making changes in our own behavior.”

1. Why does the author mention “the fry-stealing gull photo” in Paragraph 1?

A．To open up the topic.	B．To kid about the gull.
C．To tell us an episode.	D．To introduce the background.

2. What can we know about gulls from the scientists’ experiments?

A．They don’t like the food left over by humans.

B．They approach the treat when they are hungry.

C．They are interested in eating food with humans.

D．They probably won’t eat the treat when being watched.

3. What’s Goumas’s attitude to the action of the fry-stealing gull?

A．Conservative.	B．Sympathetic.
C．Skeptical.	D．Indifferent.

【推荐2】Last summer, two nineteenth-century cottages were rescued from remote farm fields in Montana, to be moved to an Art Deco building in San Francisco. The houses were made of wood. These cottages once housed early settlers as they worked the dry Montana soil; now they hold Twitter engineers.
The cottages could be an example of the industry’ s odd love affair with “low technology,” a concept associated with the natural world, and with old-school craftsmanship (手艺) that exists long before the Internet era. Low technology is not virtual (虚拟的) —so, to take advantage of it, Internet companies have had to get creative. The rescued wood cottages, fitted by hand in the late eighteen-hundreds, are an obvious example, but Twitter’s designs lie on the extreme end. Other companies are using a broader interpretation (阐释) of low technology that focuses on nature.
Amazon is building three glass spheres filled with trees, so that employees can “work and socialize in a more natural, park-like setting.” At Google’s office, an entire floor is carpeted in glass. Facebook’s second Menlo Park campus will have a rooftop park with a walking trail.
Olle Lundberg, the founder of Lundberg Design, has worked with many tech companies over the years. “We have lost the connection to the maker in our lives, and our tech engineers are the ones who feel impoverished (贫乏的), because they’re surrounded by the digital world,” he says. “They’re looking for a way to regain their individual identity, and we’ve found that introducing real crafts is one way to do that.”
This craft based theory is rooted in history, William Morris, the English artist and writer, turned back to pre-industrial arts in the eighteen-sixties, just after the Industrial Revolution. The Arts and Crafts movement defined itself against machines. “Without creative human occupation, people became disconnected from life,” Morris said.
Research has shown that natural environments can restore(恢复) our mental capacities. In Japan, patients are encouraged to “forest-bathe,” taking walks through woods to lower their blood pressure.
These health benefits apply to the workplace as well. Rachel Kaplvin, a professor of environmental psychology, has spent years researching the restorative effects of natural environment. Her research found that workers with access to nature at the office—even simple views of trees and flowers—felt their jobs were less stressful and more satisfying. If low-tech offices can potentially nourish the brains and improve the mental health of employees then, fine, bring on the cottages.
1. The writer mentions the two nineteenth-century cottages to show that ________.

A．Twitter is having a hard time

B．old cottages are in need of protection

C．early settlers once suffered from a dry climate in Montana

D．Internet companies have rediscovered the benefits of low technology

2. Low technology is regarded as something that _______.

A．is related to nature	B．is out of date today
C．consumes too much energy	D．exists in the virtual world

3. The main idea of Paragraph 5 is that human beings ________.

A．have destroyed many pre-industrial arts

B．have a tradition of valuing arts and crafts

C．can become intelligent by learning history

D．can regain their individual identity by using machines

4. The writer’s attitude to “low technology” can best be described as ________.

A．positive

B．defensive

C．cautious

D．doubtful

5. What might be the best title for the passage?

A．Past Glories, Future Dreams

B．The Virtual World, the Real Challenge

C．High-tech Companies, Low-tech Offices

D．The More Craftsmanship, the Less Creativity

【推荐3】Arens, a driver of a delivery company, was making his rounds near a pond in Bozeman, Montana, when he heard an unearthly sound.

It was December 2018, and about 15 feet from the frozen banks was the source of that cry — a half- submerged brown- and- white wirehaired dog, struggling to hold on to a thin layer of ice.

How she got there no one knows, but an elderly man was already on the scene, determined to save her. He’d entered the pond in a rowboat and was hacking a way at the ice with a rock to create a path to the dog.

It was slow going, and Arens, 44 , thought he stood a better chance. He took off his clothes, even though the temperature was -30℃ , and jumped into the rowboat.

His heart beating fast, Arens slid closer to the dog and used the other man’s rock to smash away at the ice. He gave himself a strong pull and slipped off the boat, crashing into 1 6 feet of freezing water. He resurfaced in time to see the dog going under. Using nervous energy to keep warm, he swam about five feet toward her, grabbed hold of her collar, and pulled her to the ice. He then boosted the dog into the boat and slid it back to the shore, where anxious bystanders carried the dog to the home of the rowboat owner.

Once in the house himself, Arens jumped into a warm shower with the dog until they both felt warmer.

A few more minutes in the pond, the vet (兽医) told Arens, and she would have likely suffered heart failure.

The next day, Arens was back working in the same neighborhood when the dog’s owner came over to thank him for saving Sadie.

Arens says, “ That special delivery was the highlight of my career.”

1. What does the underlined word “ hacking” in paragraph three most probably mean?

A．cutting

B．finding

C．mending

D．adopting

2. Why does Arens think “he stood a better chance” (in paragraph four) according to the passage?

A．He was able to jump into the rowboat.	B．He had better nerves to keep warm.
C．He had an advantage in age.	D．He was a faster swimmer.

3. Which of the following statements is true about the incident?

A．After saving the dog, Arens carried her home.

B．Arens jumped into the river on seeing the dog.

C．The dog was hunting when she fell into the water.

D．Without Aren’s help, the dog could hardly survive.

4. What is the main idea of the passage?

A．A story of a pet lover.	B．A special delivery of a driver.
C．A dog suffering from heart attack.	D．A fight against freezing water.

【推荐1】Some people preserve their tradition and old ways of life wherever they go. They eat the same food from childhood. They follow traditional religious ceremony even when they have moved away. Some people adapt a bit, but some people I know never adapt to a new environment.

In England, there are places where the English language is not needed as people have formed their own communities, where most of the residents are from the same background. Some people do not feel the need to adapt or fit in the mainstream society as their community is complete with community school, supermarkets, and places of worship.

When my son was small, it was entertaining to be creative with the seasons. I was trying to bring up a child with cultural awareness. It resulted in my vast collection of cheap commercialized New Year red items, and my effort in creating Chinese New Year atmosphere in a foreign land. Perhaps I was trying too hard.

Having lived in England for nearly 20 years, I’m more used to the festivals and traditions here. I’ve changed a great deal and the most significant change is that I no longer eat rice every day. I don’t even have a rice cooker anymore. Now I eat rice occasionally and I cook it from a saucepan. Just a few weeks ago, I left some rice cooking on the stove, made a cup of tea, and drank the tea in the chair next to my computer. Halfway through typing I smelt something from the kitchen, I had burnt the rice. A Chinese person had just burnt some rice. Now I need a new saucepan as I couldn’t remove the charred stains on the saucepan.

1. Why don’t some people choose to fit in the mainstream society?

A．It is difficult for them to fit in the new society.

B．They don’t accept the new way of life.

C．It is useless for them to learn a new language.

D．They have formed their own communities.

2. What can we infer from the third paragraph?

A．The author collected many red items.

B．Red is the main color in Chinese New Year.

C．Creativity is vital in bringing up children.

D．People’s cultural awareness is becoming weak.

3. Which of the following can be the best title for this passage?

A．Do as the Romans Do

B．Take Things as They Are

C．Keep Traditions in a Foreign Land?

D．Celebrate Chinese New Year Abroad?

【推荐2】The pandemic has put the future on fast-forward, with one noticeable idea: the drive-in cinema.

In the early 1930s, Richard Hollingshead, a car-parts salesman, had an idea. He'd heard his mother complain about how uncomfortable she found the wooden seats in cinemas. What if she could watch a film from the comfort of her car? To test the thought in his driveway, he put a film projector on the front part of his car, hung a sheet from some trees and invited his neighbors. He patented the idea and in June 1933 opened his first drive in cinema near Camden, New Jersey.

But the idea was slow to take off. By 1945 there were only 96 drive-ins in America. Everything changed in 1949 when Hollingshead's patent was overturned, allowing other companies to open drive-ins without having to pay him tax. With the development of an in-car speaker and perfect synchronization with the on-screen image, the number of drive-ins in America jumped to 2,000 by 1950 and more than 4,000 by 1958.

Drive-in cinemas went into a fall in the late 1950s as shopping malls sprang up in American suburbs. The space occupied by drive-ins was more valuable to property developers as a location for daytime shopping, rather than just showing films in the evening. Besides, more and more people had televisions at home.

The few hundred remaining drive-ins have experienced an unexpected rebirth in 2020 as social-distancing requirements forced indoor cinemas to close. This summer 160 Walmart parking lots were turned into temporary drive-ins. In many ways, the covid-19 outbreak has driven us into the future, promoting the adoption of remote working, online learning, e-commerce and telemedicine. When it comes to drive-ins, however, the pandemic has taken us back to the past.

1. What is a drive-in cinema?

A．A park-in theatre.	B．An indoor theatre.
C．A car rental company.	D．A parking space.

2. What does the underlined word “overturned” in paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Spreading.

B．Out of date.

C．Registered.

D．Out of favor.

3. What may be one reason for the fall of drive-ins in the late 1950s?

A．People didn't like them anymore.	B．They were less interesting than TVs.
C．They were purchased by property developers.	D．The space for them was not available anymore.

4. What does the writer try to tell us?

A．The rise and fall of drive-in cinemas.

B．The contributions made by Richard Hollingshead.

C．The unexpected return of drive-ins during the pandemic.

D．The difficult situation of cinemas under the pandemic.

【推荐3】Our first welcome to the UK wasn’t from the staff of Heathrow Airport or the coach driver who entered into our lives to take us to our new city and new home for the next three weeks. It was, in fact, the noisy and energetic seagulls full of songs that flew down to us. When left from the planes’ exits passage, we still could hear their loud and clear songs through the glasses. It was amazing that they lifted our spirits and cheered us up after our stupidly long and awful journey.

These seagulls welcomed my Chinese people into their home with open wings and if they could speak instead of merely squawk, I’m sure we would have struck up some bright and harmonious relationship. They liked to hover overhead around with childlike greetings they sang or just simply walk fearlessly close to our feet. Some of us saved bread our host family prepared in the lunchboxes for these friends. And lovely, we would like to share what we have for the rest of eternity.

But Julie, the mother of my host family, who then I stayed with, does not think so. Strangely as well, she could not give any reasons. The squawk-proof double-glazing that is closed explains. Perhaps she prefers to sleep with her windows open but she always fails to do that, because those birds seemed to like staying up till next morning, wholly screaming for her on and on. And they decide to keep doing so every single night. Furthermore, every time she has to wash the marble floor of the gardens, Julie would look up around and swear to the droppings (鸟粪) shortly followed by a smile on her face towards me and said: “They are friendly to you.”

But stop thinking that she hates the creatures and never plans to have a change. Because there is another side to her evident feelings towards the birds. We will do some shopping at weekends and every time there Julie doesn’t forget to put a big bag of wild birdseed into her carriage which costs quite more than milks or juices for one week. I can see what it goes for since she refills the wild bird feeder (喂食器) before a big hurry to drive to work every morning and when working she knows what is happening back at home — seagulls are enjoying the seed and leaving for next morning.

I’m leaving soon and not likely, I guess, though I hope not, to get back to see my friends here in England in the future. I said I would miss all friends living here including the seagulls. And when Julie was refilling the feeder again, she said: “They’re nice but they are not my friends.”

1. According to the first paragraph, we can know that __________.

A．they felt disappointed at not being welcomed by any local people as they landed

B．they felt surprised to find seagulls there shortly after they landed

C．they didn’t like to be welcomed by the seagulls because they were noisy and stupid

D．those birds were more energetic and friendly than the local people

2. Julie said the seagulls were nice but not her friends for the following reasons EXCEPT that _________.

A．the seagulls disturbed her every night	B．the seagulls dirtied her garden
C．the birdseeds were not cheap	D．the seagulls were friendly to her guests

3. The passage is most possibly taken from ___________.

A．a magazine about birds	B．a book about London
C．an advertisement attracting visitors to London	D．a magazine about travelling