Imagine looking for your lost dog. You step into a cave. But instead of the dog, you find beautiful cave paintings. You see paintings of horses, deer, and bison that were drawn in black, brown, red and yellow. Your first question would probably be “Who did this?”
This is what happened to four French boys in 1940. They found the Lascaux caves. The paintings the boys discovered in those caves are about 17,000 years old. They were drawn by the ancient people called Cro-Magnons.
Cro-Magnons looked much like people of today. They used tools, such as fishing nets. But their art was extremely good. The main cave at Lascaux is called Great Hall of Bulls, which has a picture of bulls and horses in many colours. The largest animal is 18 feet long. There are smaller animals, such as bison, stags and a bear. There is also a strange spotted two-horned (两只角的) animal.
To the left of the main cave are the most famous paintings that are the drawings of animals in many different colours. One painting is called Little Horses. On the ceiling are horses and cows. The most unusual sight may be in The Shaft of the Dead Man where there is a rhinoceros, a carefully drawn dead man, an injured bison and a bird.
Why did Cro-Magnon artists do these beautiful drawings on cave walls? Did the drawings call upon some magic power? Did the Cro-Magnon people hope that the drawings would bring good luck? There is one thing the paintings seem to tell us. The CroMagnons were interested in the world. They looked at beauty and they understood it.
1. The author uses the word “You” in Paragraph 1 to .| A．attract readers’ attention |
| B．make it clear that this is a true story |
| C．give readers good directions to find the caves |
| D．compare modern people with Cro-Magnon people |
| A．boys | B．tools | C．humans | D．animals |
| A．The cave paintings are beautiful. |
| B．Who found the beautiful cave paintings. |
| C．The Lascaux caves hold colourful ancient paintings. |
| D．Drawings of horses are on the walls of the Lascaux caves. |
| A．a research paper | B．a cultural magazine |
| C．a science newspaper | D．a travel guide |
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【推荐1】Mona Lisa, oil painting on a popular wood panel by Leonardo da Vinci, is probably the world’s most famous painting. It was painted sometime between 1503 and 1519, when Leonardo was living in Florence, and it now hangs in the Louvre Museum, Paris, where it remained an object of pilgrimage (朝圣) in the 21st century. The sitter’s mysterious smile and her unproven identity have made the painting a source of ongoing investigation and fascination.
The painting presents a woman in half-body portrait, which has as a backdrop of a distant landscape. Yet this simple description of a seemingly standard composition gives little sense of Leonardo’s achievement. The three-quarter view in which the sitter’s position mostly turns toward the viewer, broke from the standard profile pose used in Italian art and quickly became the convention for all portraits one used well into the 21st century. The subject’s softly sculptural face shows Leonardo’s skillful handling of shading and reveals his understanding of the muscles and the bones beneath the skin. The delicately painted veil, the finely wrought hair, and the careful depiction of folded fabric demonstrate Leonardo’s studied observations and inexhaustible patience. Moreover, the visual curves of the sitter’s hair and clothing are echoed in the shapes of the valleys and rivers behind her. The sense of overall harmony achieved in the painting—especially apparent in the sitter’s faint smile—reflects Leonardo’s idea of connecting humanity and nature. In its exquisite combination of sitter and landscape, the Mona Lisa set the standard for all future portraits.
There has been much speculation and debate regarding the identity of the portrait’s sitter. Scholars and historians have given numerous interpretations, including that she is Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco di Bartolomeo del Giocondo. That identity was first suggested in 1550 by artist biographer Giorgio Vasari. Another theory was that the model may have been Leonardo’s mother, Caterina. That interpretation was put forth by, among others, Sigmund Freud, who seemed to think that the Mona Lisa’s mysterious smile emerged from a — perhaps unconscious — memory of Caterina’s smile.
1. What aspect of Mona Lisa continues to fascinate people according to paragraph 1?| A．Its standard composition. | B．Its famous painter. |
| C．The sitter’s facial expression. | D．The sitter’s proven identity. |
| A．The handling of shading. | B．The position of the sitter. |
| C．The description of background. | D．The depiction of clothes. |
| A．Mona Lisa revolutionized portrait painting criteria. |
| B．Leonardo observed the skin carefully. |
| C．Leonardo focused on presenting humanity. |
| D．Mona Lisa overshadows the background landscape. |
| A．Guesses on the sitter’s identity. | B．Interpretations of Freud’s theories. |
| C．Influence of Giorgio Vasari. | D．Role of Leonardo’s mother. |
【推荐2】The first drawings on walls appeared in caves thousands of years ago. Later the Ancient Romans and Greeks wrote their names and other things on buildings. Modern graffiti (涂鸦) seems to have appeared in Philadelphia in the early 1960s, and by the late sixties it had reached New York. The new art form really took off in the 1970s, when people began writing their names on buildings all over the city. In the mid seventies it was sometimes hard to see out of a subway car window, because the trains were completely covered in paintings known as masterpieces.
Art galleries in New York began buying graffiti in the early seventies. But at the same time, John Lindsay, the then mayor (市长) of New York, declared (宣布) the first war on graffiti. By 1980s it became much harder to write on subway trains without being caught, and instead many of the graffiti artists began using roofs of buildings or cloth.
The debate over whether graffiti is art or vandalism (故意破坏公共财物罪) is still going on. Peter Vallone, New York city councilor (市议员), thinks that graffiti done with permission can be art, but if it is on someone else’s buildings it becomes a crime. On the other hand, Felix, a member of the Berlin-based group Reclaim Your City, says that artists are getting cities for the public back from advertisers, and that graffiti stands for freedom and makes cities livelier.
For years graffiti has help a few people gain international fame. Jean-Michel Basquiat began writing graffiti on the street in the 1970s before becoming a famous artist in the 1980s. Works by the British artist Banksy have been sold for over £100,000. Graffiti is now sometimes big business.
1. What can be learned about graffiti in the 1970s?| A．It went through a hard time. | B．It first reached New York. |
| C．Modern graffiti first appeared. | D．Modern graffiti became really popular. |
| A．Graffiti was considered illegal on subway trains. |
| B．Graffiti disappeared from subway trains. |
| C．New York looked a lot cleaner. |
| D．Graffiti was accepted as an art form. |
| A．Graffiti protects the streets from advertisements. |
| B．Graffiti can be beautiful if it is done by a skilled artist. |
| C．Graffiti is a crime if it is done without permission. |
| D．Graffiti can be useful for cities if it expresses good messages. |
【推荐3】Generations of children grew up reading comic(漫画) books secretly, hiding out from parents and teachers who saw them as a waste of time and a risk to young minds. Comics are now gaining a new respectability at school. That is thanks to an increasingly popular and creative programme, often aimed at struggling readers, that encourages children to plot, write and draw comic books, in many cases using themes from their own lives.
The Comic Book Project was started in 2001 by Michael Bitz at an elementary school in Queens. Since its creation, the programme, which is mainly conducted after school, has spread to more than 850 schools across the country. It has gotten a big push from the craze(狂热) among adolescents for comic book clubs and for Manga, a widely popular variety of comic originating in Japan.
The point is not to drop a comic book on a child’s desk and say “read this”. Rather, the workshops give groups of students the opportunity to collaborate(合著) on often complex stories and characters that they then revise, publish and share with others in their communities.
Teachers are finding it easier to teach writing, grammar and punctuation with material that students are fully invested in(投入). And it turns out that comic books have other built-in advantages. The pairing of visual and written plotlines that they rely on appear to be especially helpful to struggling readers. No one is suggesting that comic books should substitute for traditional books or for standard reading and composition lessons. Teachers who would once have dismissed comics out of hand are learning to exploit(利用) a style that clearly has a powerful hold on young minds. They are using what works.
1. Which of the following is probably the best title of the passage?| A．Japanese Comic Books. |
| B．Comic Books in the Classroom. |
| C．Reading Efficiently. |
| D．A Current Craze. |
| A．develop the cooperation among adolescents |
| B．make sure that students live a rich and colourful life after school |
| C．help students who have some difficulty in reading |
| D．popularize a new method of teaching |
| A．comic books were first used in Japanese schools |
| B．parents have different opinions about their children reading comic books |
| C．more and more teachers will realize the advantages of comic books |
| D．comic books will be allowed to enter all the schools in the country |
【推荐1】Before I studied psychology, I used to think that people would laugh when funny things occurred. While I was right about that, I discovered there are lots of other psychological factors that make people laugh other than the funny part of a joke. When someone laughs at a joke, there will usually be more than one reason that makes him laugh and the more reasons there are, the more powerful the joke will be.
I was attending a stand-up comedy show in Egypt, and when the man started to make fun of pedestrians crossing streets, everyone laughed their hearts out. The main reason those people strongly laughed was that almost all of them felt angry towards pedestrians who crossed streets carelessly. The joke wasn’t only funny, it also made the audience feel that they were right about being angry at those pedestrians. That is, people were laughing both because of the funny joke and because of the happiness experienced as a result of the psychological support they got.
The better a joke makes a person feel, and the more it includes other psychological factors, the more the person will like it. For example, if you envy one of your friends, and someone tells a joke that is funny and, at the same time, makes your friend seem stupid, then you will probably laugh at it louder than if you weren’t jealous of him.
In short, we don’t laugh only when we hear something funny; we also laugh when we experience some kind of happiness that results from the other psychological factors involved in the joke. I strongly discourage making fun of anyone or belittling someone to make someone else laugh. All I want to explain is that if your joke supports a person’s emotions, he will certainly like it a lot.
1. What did the author find out after studying psychology?| A．Only good jokes make people laugh. |
| B．Many factors lead to people laughing. |
| C．Funny things can make people laugh. |
| D．Laughter can make people healthy. |
| A．They played a trick on the pedestrians. |
| B．The pedestrians behaved in a funny way. |
| C．They could feel the pedestrians’ happiness. |
| D．Their emotion was approved of by the show. |
| A．Praise. | B．Blame. |
| C．Look down on. | D．Make up to. |
【推荐2】If you could design your own school and study whatever you wanted, what would you choose to learn?
This isn’t an unlikely question for students at Monument Mountain Regional High School, who are taking part in an activity called the Independent Project. The program is a special school within the Massachusetts public high school that’s completely run by students - no teachers, parents, or adults are allowed - and they’re in charge of deciding their whole curriculum.
These teens’ homework and what they study in the classroom are all totally up to them. Charles Tsai, a journalist, made a 15-minute film about the project that shows the wide variety of activities different students join.
Students aren’t taking this lightly - instead of reacting irresponsibly to the freedom to design their own studies, they’re dealing with their own interests by writing poetry collections, learning instruments and taking flight lessons.
The program is this: On Mondays students come up with questions in relation to one of their school subjects, then they spend the rest of the week researching and coming up with possible conclusions to these questions. On Fridays, they present this information to their classmates.
“I think the more choices we have in our school, the more students we will help develop into the kind of citizens that we need,” Principal Marianne Young explains in the film.
In the video, teens express their satisfaction with the program because it holds different kinds of learners, even those who don’t always succeed in a traditional study situation.
“I have difficulty in reading and writing. School has always been a big problem for me,” one student named Sergio explains in the video. “If it were not for this program, I don’t know if I’d be graduating - I don’t know where I’d be right now. I think this has really been my savior and got me through the last two years of high school.”
1. What is the Independent Project about?| A．Various activities for students. | B．A self-designed school. |
| C．Student-centered curricula. | D．Teacher-free classes. |
| A．Teachers work out a curriculum for students. | B．Students serve as teachers in turn. |
| C．Students research topics they put forward. | D．Teachers work together with students. |
| A．He finds it hard to graduate. |
| B．He feels grateful to the Independent Project. |
| C．He has bitter memories of high school. |
| D．He performs badly in the Independent Project. |
| A．The Independent Project is available throughout Massachusetts. |
| B．Students react passively to the design of their studies. |
| C．The courses in the school are designed diversely. |
| D．The program benefits those who fall behind both in study and behavior. |
【推荐3】It’s a known fact that emissions (排放物) from gas-powered vehicles are harming the atmosphere. In response to this, Porsche, the German sports car company, began producing e-fuels at a pilot plant in Chile last year. Currently, the fuel will be used only in sports cars at Porsche’s performance and experience centers.
E-fuels are made by passing electricity through water. The electricity separates the hydrogen and oxygen from water. The hydrogen is then mixed with CO₂ to produce a liquid e-fuel, which can be produced using many renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power. E-fuels follow the chemical structure of gasoline, making it possible for gas-powered cars to run on e-fuels almost without any change.
E-fuels can help ease the transform away from gas-powered cars, for those who may not be able to afford electric vehicles (EV). It will also help to reduce waste by keeping gas-powered cars in service, instead of throwing them away prematurely. Additionally, the use of e-fuels will not require new facility to be built unlike EVs. Existing gas stations and cars will be able to stay in use, which is already a big saving.
Despite the many benefits, opinions differ on whether e-fuels are truly eco-friendly. E-fuels are widely said to be nearly carbon neutral (碳中和), although an independent study indicates that e-fuels release the same amount of CO₂ as gasoline. Since e-fuels are still being developed and tested, their true impacts are still unknown. Meanwhile, e-fuels are very expensive to produce, partly due to energy loss during production. Unfortunately, only about half of the energy used in producing e-fuels is actually transformed into fuel. Additionally, only about 16% of the energy used in e-fuel production is actually used to power the car. Whereas, about 70% of energy is preserved when powering an EV. Even though the use of e-fuels will preserve existing facility, it will still take time and money to integrate it into everyday life. Currently, the price of e-fuels is nearly double the cost of regular fuel.
E-fuels are still a work in progress. Though opinions are divided on e-fuels, with more testing and development, they have been considered another way to help fight against the climate crisis. “There are currently more than 1.3 billion vehicles with combustion (内燃) engines worldwide. Many of these will be on the roads for decades to come, and e-fuels offer the owners of existing cars a nearly carbon-neutral alternative. With the e-fuels pilot plant, Porsche is playing a leading role in this development,” said Michael Steiner, member of the Executive Board for Development and Research at Porsche AG.
1. What can we learn from this passage?| A．E-fuels release no CO₂. |
| B．E-fuels were tested in Germany at first. |
| C．E-fuels are applicable to gas-powered cars. |
| D．E-fuels need to be mixed with CO₂ in actual use. |
| A．draw a conclusion. | B．present an opinion |
| C．further a discussion | D．provide a solution |
| A．Positive. | B．Dismissive. | C．Doubtful. | D．Objective. |
The perimeter(周长) of this square city is 6.4km long and the city wall is the earliest and largest city wall in China. It is 12 m high with width of 5 m. The wall was built with earth and covered with bricks. Outside the city wall there is a river, 4 m wide and 4 m deep.
There are several gates of the city, two each on the east and west and one each on the south and north side. All the gates have two doors each. This has given the city the name “Turtle City” with the two gates on the south and north standing for the head and tail of the turtle and four gates on the east and west as the four legs. The doors on the south and north stand opposite each other, like the head of the turtle extending out and two wells just beyond southern gate are like a turtle’s two eyes.
Located on the trade route between Beijing and Xi’an, Pingyao developed into a merchant center where the local people set up the nation’s earliest banks. These banks were the first in China to use checks.
Several old courtyards have been turned into museums, most of which were homes and offices of Pingyao’s old banks. One of the most unusual aspects of a visit here is realizing that this place was very important to China’s financial(金融的) history.
1. What does the passage mainly talk about?
| A．The ancient city—Pingyao. |
| B．China’s ancient financial center—Pingyao. |
| C．The city wall of Pingyao. |
| D．The museums in Pingyao. |
| A．Four. | B．Five. | C．Six. | D．Seven. |
| A．The gate on the north. |
| B．The gate on the south. |
| C．The gate on the east. |
| D．The gate on the west. |
| A．Pingyao city played an important role in ancient China’s finance. |
| B．museums in Pingyao city are now used for bank offices. |
| C．Pingyao city was one of the largest cities in ancient China. |
| D．old banks in ancient Pingyao city used checks only. |
【推荐2】Cultural heritage sites are a nonrenewable resource. Today architectural heritage sites are being destroyed at an alarming rate. They’re threatened by rising seas, pollution, overtourism, conflicts and so on. Recently, Notre Dame Cathedral has attracted international attention.
Since its main construction from 1163 to 1350, Notre Dame Cathedral repeatedly has been damaged and repaired. On April 15, 2019, the landmark’s roof caught fire, causing the collapse of its spire (尖顶) and upper walls severely damaged. Work on the site began quickly. Through the work of photographer Tomas van Houtryve, writer Robert Kunzig, and artist Fernando Baptista, people will see restoring scenes where ruins are cleared and statues saved. Even the COVID-19 pandemic caused only a two-month delay. Architects have said the expensive project is on track to be completed in 2024.
And thorny questions arise. What duty do we owe the creations of our ancestors? What lesson can we draw from their presence?
Humankind has answered that differently. In Dresden, Germany, the Frauenkirche, an 18th-century baroque church, was famous for its bell-shaped dome (穹顶). In February 1945, one of the most destructive bombing attacks of World War II reduced the city to ruins. After German reunion, the church was reconstructed using many of its original stones, as a symbol of peace and harmony. Berlin’s Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church also fell to bombing but had a different story. Its spire has been left a ruin on purpose to be a “warning monument” against war and destruction.
Like the Frauenkirche, Notre Dame is being rebuilt as close as possible to how it was before, including using the original, toxic metal — lead (铅) — for the roof, causing the debate about how to restore and maintain historic buildings. Actually, no one claims to have the “right” answers on preservation; there may not even be right answers. What people could do is to continuously monitor the global care of cultural heritage sites, as a matter of significance to humanity’s past, present, and future.
1. What do we know about Notre Dame Cathedral?| A．It was once threatened by conflicts. |
| B．It collapsed totally during a fire decade ago. |
| C．It has undergone repeated repairs since 1163. |
| D．It was not influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| A．Simple. | B．Tough. | C．Accurate. | D．Attractive. |
| A．To remind people the value of peace and harmony. |
| B．To warn people the influence of war and destruction. |
| C．To demonstrate different solutions to heritage site preservation. |
| D．To introduce reconstruction methods such as using original materials. |
| A．Cultural heritage sites are nonrenewable so that they are worth protecting. |
| B．Notre Dame Cathedral has been the most attractive heritage site globally. |
| C．The reconstruction of cultural heritage sites seldom causes disagreements. |
| D．The reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral after fire has been completed. |
【推荐3】Norwegians would perhaps highlight their custom of “gå på tur”— going on a journey on foot or on skis. In Denmark, everyone knows what “hygge” is — to freely enjoy the good life with the people you love. They’re the issues of “intangible cultural heritage”, things that cannot be physically touched such as traditions, stories, music, dance and craft skills.
In 2003, UNESCO, the education, science and culture organization of the United Nations, adopted an agreement to “preserve the intangible” and many developing-world countries were quick to get their traditions included on the official list. But it would take almost 10 years for “Agreement for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage” to be approved by the Scandinavian countries.
Annika Sjöberg is responsible for managing the work of the agency in Sweden. She has been, and continues to be, flooded with suggestions of intangible cultural heritage worthy of protection, submitted by committed citizens and organizations wanting to see their particular traditions included on the list that should be ready sometime in the next couple of years.
Suggestions have also been received concerning various maritime traditions: old shipwright skills such as the building of wooden hulled vessels, are in decline and at risk of being lost forever.
“Our work has attracted considerable attention as it is regarded as being a little out in left field,” says Sjöberg. “In addition, it’s also opened people’s eyes to the fact that the things we can’t physically touch indeed have a major bearing on the way in which we live. Even in an urbanized society, there is knowledge we carry with us that we’ve inherited from previous generations-knowledge that’s important to preserve and take care of.”
Sjöberg explains that the point is not to preserve this cultural heritage in a stony rigid form, as traditions must be allowed to change and evolve. She also emphasizes that her work should not be interpreted as a nationalistic project, rather as a means of multicultural spreading.
It’s actually a matter of documenting the knowledge that exists in the various traditions. What is most exciting is the diversity that now exists and the ways in which different cultures interact with each other.
1. Why are “gå på tur” and “hygge” mentioned at the beginning of the text?| A．To remind people to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. |
| B．To introduce the main topic of the text. |
| C．To appeal to the world to mind physical cultures. |
| D．To highlight how special the northern European countries are. |
| A．Date back to 2003. | B．Last for ten years old. |
| C．Meet the agreements of UNESCO. | D．Be in the developing country. |
| A．She is working for the UNESCO agency in Switzerland. |
| B．She monitors the protection of physical cultural heritage. |
| C．She tries her best to restore the world-wide particular traditions. |
| D．She has been managing the cases of the intangible cultural heritage. |
| A．Creation of the UNESCO. |
| B．Annika Sjöberg’s daily routine. |
| C．Intangible cultural heritage of UNESCO. |
| D．Safeguarding the cultures of the Scandinavian countries. |
