Your summer vacation is coming at the end of June this year. The following activities in the city can help you to have a colorful vacation.

	Paintings & Calligraphy (书法) Great changes have taken place in China. To show love for the Communist Party of China, 100 students from different schools will use their pens and brushes to show you the great changes. For more information, call Lily at 152-5827, please. Time: 10:00—15:00 July 1st—July 15th, 2023 Closed on Mondays Place: Achievement Hall
	A book on embroidery (刺绣) The book Xun Xiu Ji has been named China’s most beautiful book. Zhang Shulin is the writer of it. We have invited Fan Deng to introduce it to us. For more information, call Linda at 679-8871, please. Time: 14:00—15:30  June 30th, 2023 Place: School Hall
	Inventions To memorize Yuan Longping, Father of Hybrid Rice, people in our city will show you their greatest inventions on saving food. In the show, you can see a lot of new inventions from people at different ages. Guides will stay with you from the beginning to the end. Time: 13:30—16:00  August 10th—August 11th, 2023 Place: Sunshine Hall
	Oil paper umbrellas   Oil paper umbrellas, with a history of over 1000 years in China, used to be common. Umbrellas take more than 70 steps to make, including making support with bamboo, pasting papers (糊纸) and painting patterns (图案). It takes at least a week to make an umbrella. There are many kinds of oil paper umbrellas on show. Time: 9:00—15:30  July 6th, 2023 Place: Sightseeing Hall

1. How long will the activity called A book on embroidery last?

A．One day.

B．Two days.

C．Three days.

D．Four days.

2. Where can you see the inventions?

A．In School Hall	B．In Sunshine Hall.
C．In Sightseeing Hall.	D．In Achievement Hall.

3. Which activity will you choose if you are interested in doing it yourself?

A．Paintings & Calligraphy.	B．A book on embroidery.
C．Inventions.	D．Oil paper umbrellas.

4. Who is the text written for?

A．Students.

B．Teachers.

C．Parents.

D．Writers.

①There are 56 ethnic (民族的) groups in China. Different ethnic groups have their own special cultures. Let’s enjoy some of them.

②The Bai people use a very old way, tic-dye (扎染), to dye clothes. Tie dye has a history of nearly 1, 500 years. During the Tang and Song dynasties, people chose tie dyed clothes as gifts.

③The Mongolian people live in the Mongolian yurts (蒙古包). These yurts are large round tents and their tops look like umbrellas. They are the traditional homes of the Mongolian people. The yurts are usually white because they’re made of sheep’s wool. And white is a symbol of happiness.

④The Zhuang people like singing even more than talking. On the third day of the third Chinese lunar (阴历的) month, they hold a big singing festival. It is thrilling and wonderful. All the people can’t help singing happily. Men and women singers sing in pairs. The winners are the “king”, and “queen” of singing.

⑤The Miao people have a special festival, Manghao Festival. It’s in the first Chinese lunar month every year. The Miao people consider Manghao as a hero who helped to protect their homes. At the festival, young men dress up like Manghao and touch others to express good wishes.

5. What’s the Mongolian yurt?

A．A big umbrella.	B．A traditional building.
C．A sheep’s home.	D．A symbol of happiness.

6. What does the underlined word “thrilling” mean in Paragraph 4?

A．Quiet.

B．Slow.

C．Exciting.

D．Easy.

7. How do people celebrate Manghao Festival?

A．By choosing tie-dyed clothes as gifts.	B．By protecting their homes like a hero.
C．By sending some good wishes to others.	D．By dressing up and touching other people.

8. How is the text organized?

A．

B．

C．

D．

Some animals can easily find their way home after a long journey. How do they make it? Scientific research shows that they are born with certain unusual abilities for direction.

A certain kind of ants, for example, can count their steps to avoid getting lost. They can go as far as 110 metres and bring food home. These ants live in the open desert, so they have nothing to guide them along the way. It’s like someone walking six kilometres through a dark forest.

Some fish have an unbelievable sense of smell. They can smell even a single drop of their home water in a large sea area. Some sea birds have a similar ability. They are able to make a smell map of their flying area.

Some animals can sense the earth’s magnetic field (磁场), while humans can’t. This magnetic field guides a certain kind of fish when they swim a long way to a place and then back. How can this kind of fish do that? It is still a mystery. Scientists have no good answers yet.

However, animals with such unusual abilities still have difficulty dealing with environmental changes caused by human activities. For example, many birds depend on stars for direction, but they get lost easily at night when city lights are kept on all night. To solve this problem, we can simply turn off some lights at night. Clearly, one small act of humans may mean a lot to animals.

9. How can a certain kind of ants find their way home?

A．By living in the open desert.	B．By remembering their steps.
C．By walking as far as 110 meters.	D．By using an amazing sense of smell. ·

10. Why do many birds lose their way at night according to the last paragraph?

A．Because they can’t see clearly.

B．Because they mistake lights for stars.

C．Because they depend on magnetic field.

D．Because they are used to the environment.

11. Where is this text most probably from?

A．A story book.	B．A guidebook.
C．A sports newspaper.	D．A science magazine

12. Which can be the best title for the text?

A．Birds’ sense of light	B．Fish’s way of finding home
C．Animals’ sense of direction	D．How to help lost animals

You must have read or heard of the sad love story between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu. But can you imagine the two singing opera (歌剧) in English rather than speaking poetic Chinese?

Jia and Lin are two characters from the Chinese novel A Dream of Red Mansions (《红楼 梦》), written by Cao Xueqin (1715—1763). Now the book has been made into an English-language opera. After being performed in San Francisco, the US, the performance came to Beijing, Changsha and Wuhan in 2017.

Many of the opera’s creators have backgrounds in both Chinese and American cultures, including the director and playwrights (剧作家). Their understanding of both cultures helped them change a Chinese classic into a foreign-language opera.

The book, which covers the rise and fall of the Jia family, has 120 chapters and hundreds of characters. But opera writer David Henry Hwang cut down the number of characters to just seven. Hwang, a Chinese-American, focused on the love story between Jia and Lin and tried to write a tragedy (悲剧) that everyone would understand.

The art director Timmy Yip, from Hong Kong, tried to help foreign people understand the characters by using costumes (服装) and stage decorations. He compared Lin to water and gave her a light green costume. When Lin showed up on stage, there was usually water around her on the stage.

The creators considered the work of introducing a Chinese classic to Western audience was worth doing. Hwang told China Daily he was happy to “have made a contribution (贡献) to the land where my parents were born”.

13. What do we know about A Dream of Red Mansions from Paragraph 4?

A．It is mainly about the rise and greatness of the Jia family.

B．It tells a love story between Jia and Lin with a happy ending.

C．The book is very long and there are many different characters.

D．The book has always been made into an English-language opera.

14. Why did Timmy Yip compare Lin to water?

A．Because of her dressing style.	B．Because of her character.
C．Because of her appearance.	D．Because of her life habits.

15. What can we infer from the text?

A．A Dream of Red Mansions is written by Cao Xueqin.

B．Hwang’s parents were born in United States of America.

C．The English-language opera was shown in four cities in China.

D．Timmy Yip knows a lot about Chinese and American cultures.

16. What do the creators of the opera think of their job?

A．Difficult and unbelievable.	B．Stressful and difficult.
C．Satisfying and meaningful.	D．Painful and challenging.

阅读短文，从方框内所给的选项中选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，其中有一个多余的选项。

In ancient China, willow branches (柳枝) were often used as a gift to friends and family members who would leave.     17    

One reason is that willow trees are strong.     18     Because of this special feature, when saying goodbye to loved ones, giving a willow branch is a way to tell them you hope they will easily get used to their new living environment.

Another reason is that, in Chinese, the pronunciation for the willow tree “柳” is similar to the character “留”.     19     However, you may know that they must leave.

    20     At that time, Baqiao, a bridge in Chang’an, today’s Xi’an, was a common place to say goodbye. People often stopped there and handed willow branches to people who were going to depart.

Willow branches, as a symbol of saying goodbye, were often mentioned in poems, especially at the time of the Tang and Song dynasties.

A．It is one of the symbols of Chinese culture.

B．They can live in any soil, wet or dry, north or south.

C．It’s said that this custom became popular during the Han Dynasty.

D．Do you know why willow branches are a symbol of saying goodbye?

E．So giving a willow branch in ancient China was like asking the others to stay.

Li Zixuan is a junior middle school student. He has had many dreams since he was little. But as time goes by, some new dreams have ________ and some old ones have disappeared.

However, only one dream is still in his mind.

Li Zixuan says that when he was a child, he ________ rockets and spaceships. At first, he didn’t know what they were. From his father, he knew that scientists make rockets to carry things into space, and spaceships are used to carry people through space. From then on, he has had a real ________ in space. Every time he sees beautiful stars and the moon in the sky at night, he gets very ________. He is always dreaming that he can fly to space to look at the earth one day. His mother knows about his dream and often ________ him.

In school, Li Zixuan learnt that the first man flew into space in 1961 and later, more astronauts ________ in traveling into space. Some astronauts even landed on the moon. His teacher always encourages him to learn more. He knows not everyone has a ________ to travel into space. He must prepare for it well. More importantly, before he can fly to space, he must be trained ________. It needs hard work and a long time.

Li Zixuan knows it’s not easy to achieve his dream, but he ________ to try his best. He says, “I’ve had this dream for many years. It has brought me a lot of joy and always gives me power. Even if it doesn’t come true in the end, I won’t be ________.”

21.

A．appeared

B．lost

C．changed

D．remained

22.

A．heard about

B．learnt from

C．built up

D．drove away

23.

A．ability

B．advantage

C．confidence

D．interest

24.

A．bored

B．anxious

C．excited

D．afraid

25.

A．accepts

B．doubts

C．refuses

D．encourages

26.

A．succeeded

B．tried

C．failed

D．risked

27.

A．dream

B．duty

C．chance

D．plan

28.

A．quickly

B．specially

C．exactly

D．carelessly

29.

A．caused

B．hated

C．hoped

D．decided

30.

A．pleased

B．worried

C．sorry

D．relaxed

阅读短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或用括号内所给词的正确形式填空，使短文通顺、连贯。

“Zero calories (卡路里) and no putting on weight.” We often talk about diet soft drinks (低热量软饮料) like this. But are they really a good     31     (choose) for us?

Some people think diet soft drinks are     32     (healthy) than others because they don’t have sugar or calories. In their opinion, having these drinks can help     33     (they) lose weight.

Actually, diet soft drinks also have some sugar. Usually, with 0.5 gram of sugar or less in 100-gram drink, this kind of drink     34     (describe) as a diet soft drink.     35     they have little sugar, diet soft drinks still taste sweet by using artificial sweeteners (人工甜味剂).

They have very few calories.

But when you eat sweet-tasting things like sugar, it hits your brain and     36     (make) you want more. Your brain tells your body     37     (prepare) itself for more sugar. When you drink     38     bottle of diet soft drink, the brain receives the “sweet signal”, but no sugar arrives. Since the brain is fooled, it still wants more sweets. Some people drink diet soft drinks instead     39     water. Diet soft drinks can damage your     40     (tooth) and affect your appetite (影响食欲). These drinks are not good for you.

45. 随着网络的不断发展，越来越多的人们通过网络进行阅读。同时也有人认为网络阅读存在很多弊病，人们应该多阅读经典纸质书籍。针对这个话题你的学校正在开展征文活动。假设你是李辉，请你写一篇英文短文进行投稿，发表自己的想法。

要点如下：
1. 你对于网络阅读的看法；
2. 你的理由；
3. 你的希望。
注意：
(1)词数为80—100；开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数；
(2)可适当增加细节；以使行文连贯；
(3)文中不能出现真实姓名及学校名称等。

As the Internet develops, more and more people read on the Internet.

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