【推荐1】When I visited the remote Swedish town of Alvdalen, I was immediately struck by the forest-covered valley in which it is situated. I was set to meet the last speakers of Elfdalian. The language is currently used only by about2,500 people, but it has preserved language features that are to be found nowhere else in Scandinavia.

Because of its relative isolation, Elfidalian is unique among Nordic languages. While speakers of Swedish, Norwegian and Danish are able to have simple conversations and understand each other, it is not so with Eilfdalian. And it is this feature that makes Elfdalian completely baffling to non-local people.

For centuries, it was unnecessary for the majority of the native Elfdalian-speaking population to learn standard Swedish or other languages, as most trade and economic networks occurred within local areas. Elfdalían remained an active language until the 20th century.

However, with increased mobility and the arrival of mass media, speakers of Elfdalian switched to Swedish. At present, only half of the residents of Alvdalen speak it, and of the youngest generation, only about 60 children under the age of 15 are fluent in it.

During my visit, I was lucky to be introduced to a group of language activists united under the name Ulum Dalska. Attempts are being made by these local enthusiasts to revive the language. After many years of action, Ulum Dalska has recently been successful in convincing the local authorities to start up an Elfdalian-speaking group at the local preschool. This means that, for the first time in history, Elfdalian has made its official entry into the Swedish schooling system.

On the whole, more and more people seem to be convinced of the preciousness of Elfdalian and the need to preserve it for future generations. And in a globalizing world, the right attitude is perhaps the most important step towards a full language recovery.

1. Why did the author go to the town of Alvdalen?

A．To discover a remote Swedish forest.	B．To explore a unique forest language.
C．To call on a group of language activists.	D．To pay a visit to a forest-covered valley.

2. Which of the following best explains “baffling” underlined in paragraph 2?

A．Out of date.	B．Easy to learn.
C．Convenient to spread.	D．Hard to understand.

3. What contributed to Elfdalian’s role as an active language before the 20th century?

A．The huge Elfdalian-speaking population.

B．The natives’ refusal to accept other languages.

C．The self-sufficient economy among the locals.

D．The high economic status of Elfdalian-speaking areas.

4. What do we know about Ulum Dalska?

A．It helps language research.	B．It aims to preserve Elfdalian.
C．It is financed by the government.	D．It was founded by language experts.

【推荐2】Like many new graduates, I left university full of hope for the future but with no real idea of what I wanted to do. My degree, with honors, in English literature had not really prepared me for anything practical. I knew I wanted to make a difference in the world somehow, but I had no idea how to do that. That’s when I learned about the Lighthouse Project.

I started my journey as a Lighthouse Project volunteer by reading as much as I could about the experiences of previous volunteers. I knew it would be a lot of hard work, and that I would be away from my family and friends for a very long time. In short, I did not take my decision to apply for the Lighthouse Project lightly. Neither did my family.

Eventually, however, I won the support of my family, and I sent in all the paperwork needed for application. After countless interviews and presentations, I managed to stand out among the candidates and survive the test alone. Several months later, I finally received a call asking me to report for duty. I would be going to a small village near Abuja, Nigeria. Where? What? Nigeria? I had no idea. But I was about to find out.

After completing my training, I was sent to the village that was small and desperately in need of proper accommodation. Though the local villagers were poor, they offered their homes, food, and hearts as if I were their own family. I was asked to lead a small team of local people in building a new schoolhouse. For the next year or so, I taught in that same schoolhouse. But I sometimes think I learned more from my students than they did from me.

Sometime during that period, I realized that all those things that had seemed so strange or unusual to me no longer did, though I did not get anywhere with the local language, and returned to the United States a different man. The Lighthouse Project had changed my life forever.

1. What do we know about the author?

A．He felt honored to study English literature.

B．His dream at university was to become a volunteer.

C．He took pride in having contributed to the world.

D．His university education focused on theoretical knowledge.

2. How was the writer’s application process?

A．Awkward.

B．Complex.

C．Entertaining.

D．Effortless.

3. What did the writer do in the village?

A．Working as a teacher.	B．Helping villagers build hospitals.
C．Raising money for his students.	D．Inviting locals to enter his Project.

4. Which can be the best title of the text?

A．Lighthouse Project—The Promise of African Education

B．The Memorable and Rewarding life in Abuja

C．A Life-changing Voluntary Experience

D．Lighthouse Project—A Volunteer Organization for New Graduates

【推荐3】The beautiful island country of Madagascar has a serious school shortage. About a third of Malagasy children have no access to education because the schools are too far away or severely overcrowded. Thinking Hus, a non-profit dedicated to increasing global access to education, plans to tackle the issue with a series of 3D-printed schools, the first of which was completed in April 2022.

The 765-square-feet structure, named Bougainvillea, will house 30 students. The construction a began with the printer pouring a cement-like (水泥状) mixture in a pattern to create the walls. The entire process took just 18 hours! The roof, doors and windows were locally sourced, and the walls were made of a cement mixture that can resist big environmental pressures in the area. Bougainvillea was 3D printed by 14 Trees, a company with experience printing buildings throughout Kenya and Malawi.

Maggie Grouts, the 22-year-old founder of Thinking Huts, is a senior at the University of Colorado and was just 15 when she started Thinking Huts. Adopted from a rural village in China when she was 18 months old, Grout realized that not all kids were as fortunate as her and wanted to help. The idea for the 3D-printed schools came to her after brainstorming(集思广益) with her father on ways to use the technology for the greater good.

The 3D printing approach shrinks the construction turnaround time from months to days, as well as the cost. This allows more schools to be built in less time and reduces the building’s carbon footprints. And these savings in time, cost and materials meet a real need for education infrastructure (基础设施) to help bridge the global opportunity gap.

“Thinking Huts hopes to have a Thinking Hut in every community where children do not have a place for education and is fundraising to develop this goal. By using 3D printing, we are combining the potential of technology with architectural solutions that tackle real problems the world faces within education,” says Grouts.

1. What are 3D-printed schools intended for?

A．Reducing construction wastes.

B．Providing high-quality education for local students.

C．Helping deal with a shortage of schools.

D．Drawing public attention to 3D-printing technology.

2. What do we know about Bougainvillea?

A．It has a complex architectural structure.

B．It features strong resistance to bad weather.

C．It is built with the help of the local government.

D．It can hold more students than traditional schools.

3. What can we infer about Maggie Grouts from the text?

A．She is truly creative and warmhearted.

B．She had no access to school as a child

C．She is devoted to designing 3D-printed products，

D．She raised money for kids from rural areas in China.

4. What does the author mainly want to tell us in paragraph 4?

A．The advantages of 3D-printed schools.

B．The wide popular tyof3D-prining technology.

C．The significance of narrowing the global opportunity gap.

D．The impact of 3D-printed buildings on the environment.

【推荐1】Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was a French writer and pilot who used his life experiences to write his publications. The Little Prince is one of his most famous books, selling about 140 million copies worldwide, which makes it one of the best-selling and most translated books ever published. Born in Lyon, France in 1900, Saint-Exupéry’s family was filled with nobility. His father was a manager of an insurance company who died when Saint-Exupéry was very young.

In 1915, Saint-Exupéry joined a high school in Switzerland. Due to his poor performance in class, Saint-Exupéry didn’t graduate from the boarding school in 1917. Saint-Exupéry twice tried to apply to the French Navy Cadet School. However, both times he failed the entry test. Finally, he went to a local college to study architecture. Again, due to poor grades, he didn’t complete his study.

In 1921, Snint-Exupéry decided to join the French army as a soldier. He trained as a pilot and made his first solo（单独的）flight in July of that year. The next year, after he obtained his licence, he was asked to transfer to the air force. However, his fiancee（未婚委）and her family believed that joining the air force means meeting lots of risks. In that case, they were against his staying in the military. Finally, Saint-Exupéry gave in to them and left the military. Later he took an office job in Paris.

As he had difficulty setting on a career path, Saint-Exupéry began to fly as a pilot again in 1926. It turned out that he was a successful pilot and made great contributions to his country during World War Ⅱ. Saint-Exupéry’s last light was on 31 July, 1944. He left on a wartime mission over occupied France, from which he was never seen again.

Saint-Exupéry was honoured by the Trench in France and the French region of Quebec, Canada. His portraits appeared on the 50-franc notes and 100-franc coins before the introduction of the euro in France. In Lyon, his birthplace, the city’s international airport was named after him.

1. What do we know about The Little Prince?

A．It is a copy translated from another work.

B．It has been a big hit since it was published.

C．It is about the business of the author’s father.

D．It is about the author’s view on rich family life.

2. Why did Saint-Exupény take an office job?

A．He performed badly at school.

B．He did poorly in his entry exam.

C．The military’s office refused his application.

D．His fiancee’s family objected to his staying in the air force.

3. Why is Lyon’s airport named after Saint-Exupery?

A．To celebrate his success.

B．To remember his first light.

C．To show great respect for him.

D．To introduce him to the world.

4. How is the text organized?

A．In order of space.	B．In order of time.
C．In order of importance	D．In order of place.

【推荐2】He was once referred to as the Picasso of poetry.Beloved by Chileans (智利人) of all classes, he is one of the most widely read and respected poets in history.He is Pablo Neruda who was born in 1904 and died in 1973.

Born with   the   name Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, he was a tall, shy and lonely boy.He loved to read and started to write poetry when he was ten.The American poet Walt Whitman, whose framed picture Neruda later kept on his table, became a major influence on his work.

However, his father did not like the idea of having a poet for a son and tried to discourage him from writing.To cover up the publication of his first poem, he took the pen name Pablo Neruda.

In 1924 Neruda gained fame with his most widely read work “Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair”．Yet his rich experience as a diplomat(外交官) and an exile made him go beyond the theme of love.His work also reflected the political struggle of the left and development of South America.He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.

Neruda loved the sea which he   saw as creative, destructive and forever moving.He found inspiration in the power and freedom of the waves and the seabirds on the coast.“I need the sea because it teaches me，” he wrote.“I move in the university of the waves.” He loved how the sea forever renewed itself, a renewal echoed(回荡) in his work.

1. Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto took the pen name Pablo Neruda because____.

A．literary greats usually used the pen names

B．his father encouraged him to use the name

C．he wanted to prevent his father knowing the publication

D．he was greatly influenced by other poets

2. Which of the following is NOT the theme of his works？

A．Love.

B．Political struggle.

C．Social reform.

D．The development of South America.

3. The last paragraph mainly tells us ____.

A．the sea gave Neruda vast writing inspiration

B．the beautiful scenery along the Chile coast

C．Neruda's poems were widely read overseas

D．Neruda loved to write his poems near the sea

【推荐3】Almost no one can resist a good mystery novel or detective novel, so these novels sell thousands of copies each year. And many readers regard famous mystery author Agatha Christie as Queen of Crime, whose stories are known for their tense atmosphere and strong psychological suspense and have a great effect on the English mystery novels.

Christie was born in September 1890 in England. When she was growing up, her mother often told her stories. Christie loved these stories, which took her into a world of fantasy. Christie’s mother also encouraged her to write from a young age and also took her to travel a lot.

She married Archie Christie in 1914 at the beginning of World WarⅠ. During the war, Christie wrote her first detective story: The Mysterious Affair at Styles. She chose the crime, and then invented a detective named Hercule Poirot, ranking second to Sherlock Holmes, to solve it. She sent the book to a publisher, but it was rejected.

After the war ended, Christie sent her book to more publishers, and finally, in 1920, one published it. She earned just $25 for it. Over the next few years, Christie wrote more books and short stories, gaining experience as a writer. In spite of her literary success, life was not going well at home. In 1928, Archie and Agatha got a divorce (离婚). A short time later, she met a young archaeologist, Max Mallowan. After getting married in 1930, they began to spend some time each year in the Middle East, which provided settings for some of Christie’s novels, such as Murder at the Vicarage(1930), Murder on the Orient Express (1934) and Death on the Nile(1939).

Christie continued writing for the rest of her life. When she died in January 1976, readers around the world mourned (哀悼) her death. But her tales of mystery continue to be loved by new generations of readers. They’ve been translated into hundreds of languages and are selling well today and outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare in Britain.

1. As a whole, this text 　　　　.

A．is a biography of Agatha Christie

B．promotes Agatha Christie’s novels

C．explains how Agatha Christie became a writer

D．is a review of Agatha Christie’s novels

2. What do we know about Hercule Poirot?

A．He was better known than Sherlock Holmes.

B．He made Christie become famous.

C．He was good at catching criminals.

D．He was the only main character in the novel.

3. From the underlined part “outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare in Britain”, we can learn that 　　　　.

A．the Bible helps her works to sell in Britain

B．the sales of her works rank third in Britain

C．the works of Shakespeare don’t sell better than hers in Britain

D．they sell well equally in Britain

4. Which is the right order for what Agatha Christie experienced?
①She had her first detective novel published.
②She finished The Mysterious Affair at Styles.
③Her mother encouraged her to write.
④Her marriage to Archie ended in divorce.
⑤She wrote Murder on the Orient Express.

A．③②④①⑤	B．③①②⑤④
C．②①③⑤④	D．③②①④⑤