There is a fun fact. Each year, people in all 28 European Union (EU) member countries are asked to change their clocks twice. They move forward by one hour (12 p.m. becomes 1 p.m.) on the last Sunday of March and back by one hour (1 p.m. goes back to 12 p.m.) on the last Sunday in October. This is called “daylight saving time (DST, 夏/冬令时)”.
But in 2019, they will no longer need to do so. On Sept 14, 2018, the EU announced that it will stop practicing DST in October 2019, USA Today reported. The change comes following an online survey conducted in EU countries. Eighty-four percent of the 4.5 million Europeans who took the survey said they oppose (反对) seasonal clock changes.
DST was first introduced in Germany during the World Wars and became law across the continent (大陆) in 1996. It helps people make better use of longer summer days and save energy.
For example, with DST, people get up and go to bed an hour earlier during the summer. By having an extra hour of sunlight, people can save electricity, since they don’t need to turn their lights on.
However, after over 20 years of DST, people believe that the practice is out of date, especially since we now have energy-saving technology like LED light. “We are clearly headed toward smart cities, smart buildings and smart solutions which will bring much more savings than a change of the clock,” European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic told Deutsche Welle.
Others have pointed out that clock changing can lead to imbalance (失衡) in our bodies’ internal (体内的) clocks and cause long-term health problems, Reuters noted.
1. “Daylight saving time” lasts about ________ a year.| A．five months | B．six months | C．seven months | D．eight months |
| A．In France. | B．In Germany. | C．In the US. | D．In the UK. |
| A．Because it helped people save energy. | B．Because it was fashionable and modern. |
| C．Because people wanted to enjoy longer nights. | D．Because people opposed seasonal clock changes. |
| A．What we can use to save energy. | B．Why changing clocks is no longer needed. |
| C．What changes new technology can bring. | D．Why clock changing can harm our health. |
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【推荐1】Qingming is not only one of China’s 24 solar terms, but also the time for Chinese people to honour the dead. Qingming, which falls in early April when the temperature begins to rise and rainfall increases, is the right time for spring cultivation （耕作）.
Qingming was included as a Chinese public holiday in 2008.Chinese people call themselves the children of the Yan and Yellow emperors. A great ceremony（仪式）is held on Qingming every year in order to honour the Yellow Emperor, also known as the Xuanyuan Emperor.
This tradition is often accompanied（伴随）with an outdoor activity+—spring outing.
| A．On this day, the Chinese from all over the world pay respects to this ancestor together. |
| B．People like to go boating or visit relatives. |
| C．Qingtuan, a round green dessert, is one of the must-have foods for the festival. |
| D．At the same time, Chinese people will visit tombs of their ancestors around Qingming. |
| E．The spring sunshine brings everything back to life. |
【推荐2】Richard Louy, an American writer, wrote about what he called nature-deficit disorder(大自然缺失症) in his book. He called for saving ourselves from nature-deficit disorder.
Getting back to nature has been found helpful in reducing stress.
Getting back to nature can help your body heal itself. A study showed that patients who spent more time in natural light healed(康复) faster and had less pain than those who didn’t.
Spending time outdoors also provides people with chances of forming better relationships.
| A．He’s not the only one to come up with this idea. |
| B．Being close to nature helps improve your creativity. |
| C．It seemed nature served as a natural medicine for them. |
| D．In a study, volunteers were given stress tests before and after walking in the woods. |
| E．People should spend time outdoors talking face to face and enjoying the beauty of nature together. |
【推荐3】Communication has always been a necessary part of human life, allowing us to share information, express feelings.
However, the biggest changes came with the Industrial Revolution (工业革命) and later the technological development. The telegraph (电报) was invented in the 19th century.
The late 20th and early 21st centuries have seen the most rapid development in communication technology. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and WeChat have created new ways for us to share our lives and thoughts to more people.
Also Video calling technologies have made it possible to have face-to-face conversations with people who are thousands of miles away.
As technology continues to develop, it will be interesting to see how communication methods further change the way we interact with the world around us.
| A．Geographic distances are no longer problems. |
| B．This was the beginning of written communication. |
| C．Over the years, the ways we communicate have changed greatly. |
| D．It made it possible to send messages over long distances in a very short time. |
| E．The journey of communication is an ongoing story to connect with the world around us. |
| F．The introduction of the Internet and mobile phones has changed the way we communicate. |
Inventions | |
Phone | The first telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. It made communications easier. Later, a cell phone was developed in 1973 in America. It was one of the most useful inventions. People can use cell phones to communicate with others much more easily. |
TV | The first TV set was invented by an English scientist, John Baird, in 1926. The invention helped people watch films at home instead of going to the cinema as before. At first, TV sets only broadcast black-white pictures. Several years later, colored TV sets made the pictures lively. However, they were heavy and thick, so it was difficult to move them. Then, digital TV sets came into being. They are light and thin. Many TV programs are available(可获得的) at any time. |
Computer | The first modern computer was invented in America in 1946. It was as big as a room. It improved the speed and could be used for calculating(计算). In the 1950s, desktop computers were invented in the same country. They became smaller and could be put on the desk. Since then, they have become very important in many fields of work and leisure. Before the 1970s, the computers were single. It was the Internet that joined the computers into a big family, so they could share information with one another. |
1. The first cell phone was invented ________.
| A．in 1876 | B．in 1926 | C．in 1973 |
| A．in the cinema | B．on the computer | C．on TV |
| A．China | B．the US | C．the UK |
| A．calculating |
| B．joining the computers into a big family |
| C．playing games |
| A．cell phones can't be used for making vision (可视的) calls. |
| B．Digital TV sets are light and thick. |
| C．The Internet connects computers together. |
The ancient road started from Chang’an(now Xi’an) and ended in Eastern Europe, near today’s Turkey and the Mediterranean Sea. It was about 6,500 kilometers long and went across one-fourth of the earth.
The Silk Road got its name in the 19th century because Chinese silk used to be carried along this road. Silk, jade, ceramics and iron went west to Rome. And from the west came glass, gems and food like carrots.
The Silk Road was very important to both China and the rest of the world. It was more than an ancient international trade route. Besides trade, knowledge about art science and literature, as well as crafts and technologies was shared across the Silk Road. In this way, languages and cultures developed（发展） and influenced（影响） each other.
Today，China is trying to build the“21st Century Marine（海洋的）Silk Road”．With the help of APEC held in Beijing in November 2014, the dream of One Belt One Road (the “Silk Road Economic（经济的）Belt”and “21st Century Marine Silk Road”)（“一带一路”） is coming true.
1. The underlined word “route” in Paragraph 1 probably means
| A．方式 | B．路线 | C．成就 | D．关系 |
| A．In the 19th century | B．In the 18 th century |
| C．During the Western Han Dynasty. | D．During the Eastern Han Dynasty |
| A．It was about 6, 500 meters long. |
| B．It was about 5,000 kilometers long. |
| C．It went across one-third of the earth. |
| D．It went across one-fourth of the earth. |
| A．Because Chinese silk was carried along this road. |
| B．Because Chinese silk was made along this road. |
| C．Because things were traded from market to market along this road. |
| D．Because the ancient traders bought and sold things along this road. |
| A．the Silk Road was only an ancient international trade route |
| B．many new silk roads have been built by the Chinese government so far. |
| C．the Silk Road was a very important line of communication connecting（连接）East and West |
| D．the Silk Road prevented the development of languages and cultures between East and West. |
Every place in the United Kingdom has a name which tells a story! The names of towns and villages tell us about the history of the country.
Thousands of years ago, people called the Celts lived all over Britain. Then the Romans came. Many towns in England have names that end in “-chester” because the Romans called their towns “castra”. The Romans never got to Wales or Scotland and many towns there have Celtic names. Place names in Wales often begin with “llan” Which means “church”.
After the Romans left England, people called Anglo-Saxons arrived. Their villages often got their names from the family who lived there. Some names ended in “-ham”so Tottenham means “the village of a man called Totta”. Many Anglo-Saxon villages also ended in “-ton” (this means village too), so Upton is “a village on a hill” and Moreton means “a village by a lake”.
The Vikings came to England too, from Scandinavia. Their villages ended in “-by”, for example Kirkby comes from the words “church” and “village”. And then finally, in 1066, England became Norman. The Normans spoke French and gave the place name “grange” (which means farm) to many places all over England.
1. Where did the the place “Birmingham” get its name from?| A．The Celts. | B．The Anglo-Saxons. | C．The Romans. | D．The Normans. |
| A．Four. | B．Five. | C．Six. | D．Seven. |
a. The Romans returned to Rome.
b. The Normans became kings of England.
c. The Anglo-Saxons came to England from Europe.
d. The Celts came to Britain.
e. The Romans arrived and built towns and cities.
f. The Vikings travelled to Britain from Norway and Denmark.
| A．decafb | B．dacefb | C．deacfb | D．dacefb |
| A．The history of the UK. | B．Different names of places in the UK. |
| C．The history of different people in the UK | D．Every place name tells a story. |
【推荐1】It is said that tea can improve creative power of the literary (文学的) artists in ancient China. According to Lu Yu’s Tea Classics, tea-drinking in China can be traced back (追溯) to the Zhou Dynasty—tea was discovered by Shen Nong and became popular as a drink in the State of Lu because of Zhou Gong.
Tea-drinking in China has a history of 4,000 years. As the legend (传说) has it, Shen Nong tasted hundreds of wild plants to see which were poisonous, in order to prevent people from eating the poisonous plants. It’s said that he was once poisoned but was saved by eating some leaves of an evergreen plant with white flowers. Later, people called the leaves that saved his life “cha”.
In modern times, people still keep tea-drinking as one of their daily activities. According to the study, tea can also have effects on some modern illnesses. To those who have to work with computers for a long time, drinking tea can help them to build up a wall against the computer radiation. To those who may have too much fat, drinking tea can help them to recreate a new balance in their bodies. And to those aged people, drinking tea is also a good way to keep a calm mood for a longer life.
1. Tea-drinking in China can be traced back to ________.| A．the Zhou Dynasty | B．the Xia Dynasty | C．the Qing Dynasty | D．the Tang Dynasty |
| A．Shen Nong was once poisoned. | B．Shen Nong was a hero. |
| C．The birth of tea. | D．Tea became popular. |
| A．The legend of Shen Nong. | B．The history of tea-drinking in China. |
| C．Drinking tea can help people live longer. | D．Tea can have effects on some modern illnesses. |
【推荐2】Helping your children choose a hobby is very good for them. They can learn a lot when they are enjoying themselves. To help your children choose a hobby for fun, here are a few tips that may help:
Match your children’s interests. If she likes to cook, buy her a cookbook. If he enjoys collecting baseball cards, buy him a special scrapbook. Show your interest in and support of their interests.
Try different hobbies. Introduce a new hobby as a birthday or holiday gift. In trying something completely different, your children may become interested in it or at least get to know a new thing.
Share a hobby with your children. Take an art class as a family. Go for a mountain climbing together. Spending family time doing fun things can make a healthy and nice relationship.
Take it to the next level. If they prefer pop music, visit a singer star’s website. Take in a concert. Make it fun for everyone.
Don’t push your interests to your children. Let children choose their own interests, though you can always introduce them to a new one. Don’t show your disappointment if they choose something different from what you think of.
Hobbies are a great way for children to learn new things. Help your children to try different interests until they choose one they want to learn more about.
根据短文内容，选择正确答案。
1. The passage is written for ________.
| A．parents | B．doctors | C．teachers | D．students |
| A．Match your children’s interests | B．Try something different |
| C．Share a hobby with your children | D．Don’t push your interests to your children |
| A．推 | B．服务 | C．放弃 | D．逼迫 |
| A．the family relationship | B．the pop music | C．your children’s hobby | D．we don’t know |
| A．hobbies are a great way for children to learn new things |
| B．helping your children to choose a hobby is very good for them |
| C．spending family time doing fun things can make a healthy and nice relationship |
| D．letting kids choose their own interests though you can always introduce them to a new one |
【推荐3】It’s believed that people have the best memory in their twenties. However, this isn’t completely true. Scientists from MIT in the US found that many people were best at doing different things at different ages. People aged 10 to 90 years old took part in different memory tests.
1. At _______ people reach the peak of understanding people’s feelings.
| A．22 | B．32 | C．43 | D．48 |
| A．people aged over 30 are good at dealing with details |
| B．people can do best in basic math when they are 50 years old |
| C．the scientists found people aged about 20 had the best memory |
| D．the scientists invited people of all ages to join in the memory test |
| A．A storybook. | B．A math book. | C．A science website. | D．A sports newspaper. |
