1 . The first castles were built in Europe around the 9th century. These castles were very strong buildings where a king or prince could live safely with his army around him. Such castles let the king or prince watch out for attacks and keep out the people he did not like. The castles also let the king or prince watch the people who lived around the castle.
There were not many castles in Europe around 900 AD, but around 1000 AD things changed. Suddenly, many people were building castles because there was an increase in the fighting in Europe during this time. In 1066, William the Conqueror ordered that many castles must be built in England because he was trying to control the people of England. But William was not alone. Because there were many kings and princes fighting in Europe, many more castles were built. These castles were built to be very strong, so some of them can still be seen today.
The first castles used a simple design. A tower was put on top of a lot of earth. All this earth was put under the tower to make it very tall. Moving all this earth made a huge hole all around the tower. Often, this large hole was filled with water. Stone or wood bridges were used to go across this water to get into the tower. A wall was built around the open area near the tower. The family of the king or prince and some of the people who served him lived within this area so that they would be safe. The first castles were made largely of wood in the beginning, but stone became more popular over time. This was because wood catches fire and burns easily. Stone was a better choice for castles.
1. The first castles were built in Europe so that a king or prince ______.| A．stopped their enemies attacking |
| B．kept out the animals he did not like |
| C．watched the people who lived far away from the castle |
| D．lived a rich and happy life with his family around him |
| A．William the Conqueror let people do it |
| B．there were more fights during that time |
| C．more people wanted to control England |
| D．many kings tried to make them stronger |
| A．Stone. | B．Earth. | C．Wood. | D．Water. |
| A．To introduce the fights in Europe. | B．To introduce the castles in Europe. |
| C．To describe kings’ or princes’ lives. | D．To describe William the Conqueror. |
2 . ①A culture’s two greatest gifts are foods and festivals. They often go hand in hand. In China, moon cakes are eaten for Mid-Autumn Festival. Different kinds of foods are cooked in every culture. When we think of a country, one of the first things we imagine is its food. Follow us around the world to learn more about delicious foods and eating habits.
Italy
②The Italians know how to eat. It is home to the three Ps: pizza, pasta and Parmesan cheese. Italian food writer Marcella Hazan once said Italy has two skills—“the art of cooking, and the art of eating”. So what makes Italian food famous?
③They love fresh food and choose their ingredients (食材) by season. So all year round new flavors (味道) can be seen in the Italian countryside.
Mexico (墨西哥)
④Mexico has a proud food history and has influenced many other countries, especially Spain (西班牙). Mexican dishes have three main ingredients: corn, beans and chili peppers (红胡椒粉).
⑤Corn is used to make tortillas (玉米粉圆饼) and nachos (烤干酪辣味玉米片), which always go with a main dish in Mexico. Dishes are usually very hot and spicy (辣的), as most of them are made with freshly chopped chili peppers. Beans are also an important part of Mexican food culture and are grown to make chocolate. In fact, people loved chocolate so much that it was used in many ancient rituals (古典仪式).
US
⑥The US is home of the hot dog and the place for hot apple pie. It is also the birthplace of fast food culture. The American dinner plate is a mixture of many flavors.
⑦Fast food made eating quick and easy for busy people. However, their big appetite (胃口) has caused big health problems. Eating fast food, along with other unhealthy foods, has caused the US to become one of the most obese (肥胖的) nations in the world.
1. What does the writer think is connected with each other in the text?| A．Foods and festivals. | B．Cultures and countries. |
| C．Foods and eating habits. | D．China and other countries. |
| A．enjoy eating fast food | B．like hot and spicy food |
| C．are quite good at cooking | D．are all most famous artists |
| A．Spain. | B．Italy. | C．Mexico. | D．America. |
(①=Paragraph 1,②=Paragraph 2, ...)
A． | B． | C． | D． |
3 . Scientists use computer games to study how ants fight. Computer games can sometimes be very helpful to scientists! A team of scientists in Australia played Age of Empires, a war game, to study ants. They tried to find ways to help local ants live better.
Argentinian ants are an invasive species (入侵物种) in Australia. When they meet with local meat ants, the two ant types fight. And usually, Argentinian ants win. This is dangerous. When local ants die and the invasive animals grow in number, the newcomers may eat a lot of plants and harm the local environment.
Scientists want to help local ants win. They built two characters in the game: Knights as the meat ants that are bigger in size but smaller in number, and Swordsmen as the Argentinian ants that are smaller in size but bigger in number. When the game starts, the characters start fighting with each other just like the two ant types do in real life.
After rounds (轮) of fighting, nine Knights lost to 50 Swordsmen on the flat ground. But the same team of Knights beat 70 Swordsmen in an uphill (上坡的) environment. It showed that the local meat ants could do better in complex environments. The scientists also did tests with real ants. The results were the same.
The team believes that cities can add more lower plants under trees. This way, there will be more complex environments, and the meat ants may win the “wars” against invasive ants.
1. What will happen if local meat ants die and Argentinian ants grow in number?| A．Scientists will be very dangerous. |
| B．The two ant types will live better. |
| C．Local meat ants may eat up a lot of plants. |
| D．Argentinian ants may hurt the environment. |
| A．harmless | B．polluted |
| C．made of many different things | D．made up of few harmful things |
| A．To build more characters in the game. |
| B．To grow more lower plants under trees. |
| C．To let Argentinian ants smaller in number. |
| D．To make the meat ants much bigger in size. |
| A．Helping local ants fight | B．Playing computer games |
| C．Giving a good suggestion | D．Protecting the environment |
China has entered the business of making airplanes. The first Chinese-made commercial (商业的) aircraft took off from Shanghai on Sunday and landed at Beijing Airport. The narrow-bodied C919 plane had 128 passengers on board. The company that made the plane is the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Lid. This is shortened to “COMAC”. China’s President Xi Jinping praised the C919 aircraft as a “triumph of Chinese innovation”. Newspaper s in China called the C919 “a symbol of industrial strength and national pride”. A passenger on the flight was impressed with the plane. He said: “The flight was very smooth, comfortable and memorable. I’ll remember this deeply for some time to come.”
COMAC hopes to be a major player in the commercial airplane market. It hopes to compete with industry giants such as Boeing and Airbus. COMAC started developing the C919 in 2008. Production began in late 2011. In September 2022, it passed the standards (标准) to fly commercially in China. COMAC’s first customer was China Eastern Airlines, which bought five of the aircraft. COMAC plans to build 150 planes each year for the next five years. A spokesperson said there were orders for more than 1,000 C919s from different Chinese airlines. He hopes airlines from other countries will soon start making orders. He added that the plane was an “important milestone” for China’s aircraft industry.
1. Where did the C919 first take off?2. What did newspapers in China call the C919?
3. When did COMAC started developing the C919?
4. “Made in China” (中国制造) is shining worldwide. How do you feel about this? Why?
Japan has started putting radioactive water from the Fukushima (福岛) nuclear power plant into the ocean.
Many people in Japan, as well as countries near Japan, are angry that radioactive water is going into the Pacific.
| A．Hong Kong is worried about food safety as well. |
| B．Local fishermen are worried they will not be able to sell their fish. |
| C．Fishermen in Japan have no complaints about the radioactive water. |
| D．The plant was hit by a huge earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. |
| E．Japan stated the water is safe and would not damage the environment. |
Learning English takes a lot of hard work. Here are some tips to help you improve your English quickly, no matter how much or how little you already know.
If you’re in a class, you should attend class, do the homework and study as much as you can. Courses are good because they push you to learn. But even if you’re not in a class, it’s still possible to practice when you have free time.
Like any goal, learning a language is always easier and more fun if you have a reason to do so. Be sure to remain focused on that reason, since it will help get you through the times when learning seems hard.
You’re not perfect, so you’re going to make mistakes when you’re learning English. The sooner you accept this, the better. Now it will be much easier for you to communicate with others and get your point across. So how can you find language partners to communicate with? Well, use your classmates.
The Internet is a great tool for language learning. It’s common for people to use the Internet to practice their English skills these days. The Internet would probably be the closest thing to a magic program to learn English quickly. So take advantage of all the resources that we have available to us in this day and age!
There’s no shortcut to learn English well. Just keep working hard, and you’ll succeed in the end.
1. What should you do to make learning English easier and more interesting?| A．Make detailed plans. | B．Develop you own rules. |
| C．Set your own goals. | D．Correct your mistakes. |
| A．We can speak English fluently with your partners’ help. |
| B．The Internet plays an important role in learning English. |
| C．We are supposed to practice English as much as you can. |
| D．People can make mistakes when they’re learning English. |
| A．To provide some good English-learning examples for you. |
| B．To explain some practical skills to express yourself freely. |
| C．To describe the advantages of learning English with friends. |
| D．To introduce some good methods to improve your English. |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
Everyone knows that light attracts insects. In ancient times, people questioned why winged insects buzzed around fire. An old saying describes this attraction as being, “like a moth to a flame” (飞蛾扑火). However, a recent study ends the long-believed idea that insects fly towards light because they like it. Biologists at Imperial College London have reported that insects are drawn to light because it helps with their directions when they are flying. The scientists said artificial (人造的) light actually can make some insects lose their way. Jamie Theobald, co-author of the study, said all our guesses about why insects fly toward light “might have been wrong”.
The scientists planned their research in a rainforest in Costa Rica. They put artificial lights under the canopy (林冠) and surveyed the creatures’ flying behavior. Insects usually knows their directions by the moon to fly in straight lines. However, around the artificial lights, the insects became confused and made arcs (弧) and strange patterns of flight. An entomologist said: “Natural sky light helps maintain (维持) proper flight but Artificial light can produce continuous turning around the light and trap an insect.” Artificial light badly influences an insect’s ability to find a mate, things for food, and protect itself against natural enemies.
1. What is ancient people’s attitude towards “a moth to a flame”?| A．Unconcerned. | B．Acceptable. | C．Doubtful. | D．Positive. |
| A．Because they want to provide help for others. |
| B．Because they want to exchange their greetings. |
| C．Because they want to look for something to eat. |
| D．Because they want to make sure their directions. |
| A．To find a better way to catch insects. | B．To test a conclusion of their guesses. |
| C．To make new medicine to kill insects. | D．To stop insects from damaging the crops. |
| A．An old saying connected with insects | B．An adventure carried out in rainforest |
| C．Artificial light is dangerous for insects | D．Insects fight against their natural enemies |
Have you ever wondered why thinking too much makes you tired? A new study has found out some answers to this question. Researchers from the Paris Brain Institute looked at why mental (脑力的) effort makes us tired. They found that when people think a lot, the brain produces a chemical called glutamate (谷氨酸). Too much glutamate upsets the brain’s functions (功能). It means the brain tells the body it is tired and that it must rest. People who spend more than six hours working on a task that requires a lot of thought probably feel more tired. A period of rest allows the brain to return to normal. This explains why a power nap is good for us. A power nap can be as short as 20 minutes, but can make us feel totally refreshed.
The research team looked at the behavior of 40 participants (参与者) in their research. Twenty-four of these had to perform challenging tasks. These included looking at a computer screen and matching different letters that appeared. The other 16 participants did a similar, but easier task. Both teams worked for six hours, and had two ten-minute breaks. The researchers scanned the brains of the participants. They found that the group who had the more difficult task had higher levels of glutamate in their brain. Study author Antonius Wiehler said: “It would be great to find out more about how glutamate levels are restored.” He asked: “Is sleep helpful? How long do breaks need to be to have a positive effect?”
1. How does the author start the text?| A．By making a survey. | B．By raising a question. |
| C．By giving an example. | D．By explaining reasons. |
| A．The doctor that spends over six hours operating on a patient. |
| B．The housewife who spends three hours to do some shopping. |
| C．The boy who spends an hour playing computer games after school. |
| D．The student that spends three hours playing tennis with her friends. |
| A．more convenient | B．more interesting | C．more expensive | D．more difficult |
| A．Business. | B．Science. | C．History. | D．Culture. |
9 . 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”.
1. 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. |
| A．Because of her dressing style. | B．Because of her character. |
| C．Because of her appearance. | D．Because of her life habits. |
| 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. |
| A．Difficult and unbelievable. | B．Stressful and difficult. |
| C．Satisfying and meaningful. | D．Painful and challenging. |
10 . 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.
1. 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. · |
| 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. |
| A．A story book. | B．A guidebook. |
| C．A sports newspaper. | D．A science magazine |
| A．Birds’ sense of light | B．Fish’s way of finding home |
| C．Animals’ sense of direction | D．How to help lost animals |
