1 . Good manners mean politeness. Politeness can be seen in our daily lives, such as in one’s way of dressing, speaking and standing. Everyone should pay enough attention to his manners all the time. A man with good manners is welcomed everywhere and can make friends easily. On the other hand, a man with bad manners is thought to be rude and nobody wants to be friends with him. He would feel lonely and unhappy.
If you want to be a person with good manners, you will learn to use some useful expressions, such as “Please”, “Excuse me” and “Sorry” on different occasions. Also,where help is needed, you should be happy to lend a hand.
Like customs (风俗), good manners maybe different from country to country. Good manners in one country may not be good manners in another country. In order to behave like a person with good manners in different places, it is necessary for one to learn about cultures of other countries.
1. In the passage, a person’s good manners can be seen from the following EXCEPT ________.| A．dressing | B．speaking | C．standing | D．sleeping |
| A．be welcomed here and there | B．make friends easily |
| C．be rude | D．enjoy himself all the time |
| A．机会 | B．次数 | C．场合 | D．地点 |
| A．Good manners can make us lonely and unhappy. |
| B．People with good manners say “Sorry” all the time. |
| C．People with good manners are happy to help others. |
| D．Good manners are the same all over the word. |
| A．How to be careful in our daily lives. | B．How to make friend easily. |
| C．How to say useful expressions. | D．How to be a person with good manners. |
Birthdays are celebrated all over the world. Some traditions are rather similar from one country to another: candles, cakes and birthday wishes. But there are also different ways to celebrate birthdays. Here are some:
Argentina (阿根廷): In Argentina, as in many Latin American countries, one of the most important birthday parties is a girl’s fifteenth. When girls reach the age, they can have a huge party and dance first with their fathers, and then the boys at the party.
China: The birthday child receives presents from others. Friends and family members are invited to dinner, and noodles are served to wish the birthday child a long life.
Holland (荷兰): The birthday child receives an especially large present. The family also put flowers or balloons on the birthday child’s chair to make it beautiful.
India: Indian children usually wear white to school. However, the birthday child wears colored clothes to school and gives out chocolates to everyone in the class. His/ Her best friend helps do this.
Japan: The birthday child wears new clothes to mark the special time. Certainly, birthdays are more important than others, especially the third and seventh birthdays for girls and the fifth for boys.
1. In Argentina, when the children reach fifteen, they can have a huge party and dance with their fathers, and then the boys at the party.2. Chinese children always eat noodles to wish a long life on their birthdays.
3. A birthday child usually wears white to school in India.
4. In Japan, only the third and the seventh birthdays are important for kids.
5. The passage is mainly about similar birthday traditions in some countries.
Folk music is a kind of popular music. It comes from the people of any country. Folk singers sing songs from centuries ago, and they also write songs. They want to express their feelings about new things in the world today.
The word “folk” means “people”. Folk songs tell stories about people. For example, the songs tell about their jobs and work, their friends and their life. They also express ideas such as love and war. The words in the songs are an important part of the music.
In the United States and Europe, folk music became very popular during the 1960s. Fans listened to folk singers performing at concerts. The singer told stories, sang and played the guitar.
Fans listened to the music and often sang along with the performer. Some of the folk singers during this time were the Peter, Paul and Mary, Pete Seeger.
Later, people began to play this kind of music themselves at schools, at parties (盒式录音带) recorded by new folk performers. They can listen to folk music on the radio.
1. Folk music came from the United States.2. The words are not important in folk music.
3. A popular folk singer in the 1960s was Pete Seeger.
4. Fans could sing along with a performer.
5. Today, people play folk music themselves and don’t buy the singer’s disks any more.
Music plays an important role in our daily life. We can hear music when we’re at a store or a restaurant. People call it background music. Recorded background music was first used in shops and restaurants, but it soon became popular in other public places. Now many sports centers, children centers and theaters also like to use background music.
Why do many stores use it? Well, because they want to make customers stay longer. Then customers may buy things if they stay longer. In fact, some background music is soft. However, some background music is too loud. Many customers don’t like any background music. When they hear it, they may get angry and walk out of the shop.
According to a study, 75% of the customers care about the background music when they go into a store. If they like the music, they’ll stay longer and they’ll come to the store again. However, 50% of the customers will leave the store because they don’t like the music. They even say that they may not return to the store again.
So stores should choose a proper ‘sound’ for their customers. The proper background music is a good way to attract (吸引) more customers. Some restaurant owners even say that background music is as important as the taste of the food.
1. The theaters and sports centers were the first to use recorded background music.2. Many stores use background music to make the customers stay longer.
3. 85% of the customers care about the background music when they go into a store.
4. The background music can make the owner’s places look more beautiful.
5. The text mainly talks about background music in shops and restaurants.
5 . When we think about 2050, it seems that it is far from now and it will be a totally different world. But in fact, it is just about 30 years from now and we can already know what will be possible to have by that time. Now, let’s have a look at some predictions about 2050 together.
First, AI (人工智能) will offer (提供) more jobs in 2050. Many people worry about AI in our lives because they think in the end robots will do all the work and we won’t have jobs. But according to the survey of Forbes, in 2021, AI will create 2.3 million jobs and make only 1.8 million jobs disappear (消失).
Second, space travel will be possible in 2050. According to Business Insider, people can travel in space in 2050. But it will only be for wealthy people, because the travel to space will cost (花费) about 100 million dollars for just one week.
Last, self-driving cars will make driving safer. According to a report by Stanford University, in 2050, self-driving cars will make traffic related (有关联的) deaths less possible and they can also bring changes in our lifestyles, too. We will have more time for ourselves.
1. According to the survey, AI will create ________ jobs.| A．1.8 million | B．2.3 million | C．30 million | D．100 million |
| A．rich | B．healthy | C．successful | D．outgoing |
| A．You can drive it to space. |
| B．You can travel to anywhere you want. |
| C．You will drive it faster than usual cars. |
| D．You will have more free time. |
| A．five | B．four | C．three | D．two |
| A．AI will surely make robots do all the work for humans. |
| B．Life in 50 years will keep the same. |
| C．Space travel may come true in 2050. |
| D．Self-driving cars will make driving less safe. |
Do you hear of the Old Tea Forest of Jingmai Mountain? The mountain is in the city of Pu’er, Yunnan province. On September 17, 2023, this cultural landscape (文化景观) was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List (《世界遗产名录》). It includes nine villages, three old tea planting places and three forests.
In the tenth century, the ancestors (祖先) of the Blang (布朗族) people came to the mountain. They discovered wild tea trees and started to produce tea from them. Later, the Dai and some other ethnic groups (民族) also came to live here with their colorful cultures. These cultures added something more to Jingmai.
Here, the locals hold important festivals. The Shankang Festival of the Blang people, for example, honors their “tea ancestors.” Another example is the Water Festival of the Dai people. During these festivals, they give their thanks to the tea trees. They also make good wishes for the tea forests.
In Blang culture, every tea tree is said to have a spirit (灵魂). For this reason, the Blang people there do not use pesticides (杀虫剂) on their tea trees. They use natural ways to get good tea.
In this place, the mountain nurtures (养育) tea, and tea nurtures people. Tea is an important part of the locals’ lives. They are thankful for the gifts from nature!
1. Jingmai Mountain is in Yunnan.2. The ancestors of the Dai people came to the mountain in the 10th century.
3. During the festivals, people there only give their thanks to the tea trees.
4. The Blang people think every tea tree has a spirit in their culture.
5. The passage tells us something about the Old Tea Forest of Jingmai Mountain in Pu’er.
Travel study—a new way to spend your holiday. Have you ever heard about it?
When you have a travel study, you can see Big Ben, Sydney Opera House, the Statue of Liberty and so many other places. During the travel study, you may go traveling by yourself, or with your family or your friends.
When you travel, you are in a different culture every day. You will be served with different new food and make new friends. You read all these from books in the past, but now it is real and you are part of it. Besides, you may also learn other cultures from your new friends because they are from different countries.
Maybe you already have foreign teachers in your school to teach you English. But he or she will not stay to speak English with you all the time, right? During the travel study, you have to speak it every day and almost everywhere because you are in an English-speaking country!
It also gives you a chance to live alone. That will teach you how to live. “What should I do if I lose my way in a foreign country?” “How can I buy what I want with my poor English?” You have to be clever and find answers for yourself.
In short, you can get a lot from the travel study.
1. Your parents are not allowed to be with you during the travel study.2. Enjoying different cultures is an important part of the travel study.
3. Foreign teachers can stay with you and teach you English all the time.
4. Travel study is a good chance to learn to deal with challenges in a new environment.
5. The writer mainly talks about the advantages of travel study.
8 . Yunnan, a magical place with amazing biodiversity (生物多样性), is home to plants, insects and animals of different kinds. The 25 ethnic (少数民族的) groups enrich its culture as well.
Kunming, the capital of Yunnan, is also known as the Eternal Spring City, and as “the City of Flowers” around the world. The reason why Kunming is the flower center is because of the pleasant weather in Yunnan and the soil is perfect for growing flowers. Every year, a large number of people come to this city to revel in its sea of colors. Dounan Flower Market is the largest flower trading market in Asia which is almost five football fields in size, selling nearly 1, 600 kinds of flowers.
In the southern most point of Yunnan, there are wild Asian elephants living with the local people in the tropical (热带的) rainforest in Xishuangbanna. And it is the most well-protected ecosystem in China.
Pu’er is widely known for tea and it is grown on the side of the mountains. When the tea leaves are ready, they are picked leaf by leaf with hand and sent for processing. And then the tea is sent to many different countries and places around China. The tea ceremony(茶道)is getting more and more popular, and it’s also a very important part of business in Yunnan.
If you ever get a chance to visit Yunnan, please don’t miss the special food and performances of each ethnic group.
1. Yunnan is home to different kinds of ________.| A．wild Asian elephants and tropical rainforest | B．tree, flowers and birds |
| C．rivers, lakes and mountains | D．plants, insects and animals |
| A．1,500 | B．1,600 | C．1,700 | D．1,800 |
| A．There are 25 ethnic groups in Yunnan Province. |
| B．The pleasant weather in Yunnan is perfect for growing flowers. |
| C．The tea produced in Pu’er is only sent to other countries in the world. |
| D．The wild Asian elephants live in the tropical rainforest in Xishuangbanna. |
| A．a guidebook | B．a newspaper | C．a story book | D．an advertisement |
| A．Take a trip in Yunnan. | B．Amazing biodiversity. |
| C．Tea ceremony in Yunnan. | D．The wild Asian elephants. |
9 . China’s Double Ninth Festival falls on the ninth day of the ninth month of the Chinese lunar calendar every year. It is a traditional folk holiday focusing on good health and long life. Let’s take a look at some key words related to this festival.
Nine
Nine is an important number in Chinese culture because its pronunciation means “long” in Chinese. According to the Book of Changes (《易经》), the number six is considered yin while nine is yang. The ninth day of the ninth lunar month in the Chinese calendar features two nines, so the day is given the Chinese name “Chongyang”.
Plants
When it comes to the Double Ninth Festival, two important plants, the cornel (茱萸) and chrysanthemum (菊花), have to be mentioned.
Cornel, famous in traditional Chinese medicine, is widely planted in the north and south of China. Ancient people believed that wearing the cornel on this day could help prevent illness and avoid disasters.
They also believed that the chrysanthemum could drive away bad luck and prevent one from getting a cold in late autumn. So, drinking chrysanthemum wine has always been a traditional custom at this festival.
Elders
As times change, the festival has been given more meaning. In 1989, the Chinese government set it as a day for the elders, to encourage all to respect and love them, so as to build a beautiful, age-friendly society.
1. What does the Double Ninth Festival focus on?| A．Wealth and happiness. | B．Good luck and healthy life. |
| C．Success and fame. | D．Good health and long life. |
| A．Two. | B．Three. | C．Four. | D．Five. |
| A．Technology. | B．Culture. | C．Nature. | D．Business. |
| A．The Double Ninth Festival falls on August 9th each year. |
| B．The number nine is considered yin while six is yang. |
| C．People plant cornel widely in the north and south of China. |
| D．It was believed that the chrysanthemum could bring wealth. |
| A．Two Important Plants | B．An Important Number |
| C．A Traditional Folk Holiday | D．Key Words in Double Ninth Festival |
10 . Now satellites are helping to forecast (预报) the weather. They are in space, and they can reach any part of the world. The satellites take pictures of the atmosphere (大气), because this is where the weather forms (形成). They send these pictures to the weather stations. From the pictures, meteorologists (气象学家) can often say how the weather will change.
Today, nearly more than one hundred weather stations in over ninety countries receive satellite pictures. When they receive new pictures, the meteorologists compare them with earlier ones. Perhaps they may find that the clouds have changed during the last few hours. This may mean that the weather on the ground may soon change, too. In their next weather forecast, the meteorologists can say this.
So the weather satellites are a great help to the meteorologists. Before satellites were invented, they could forecast the weather for about 24 or 48 hours. Now they can make good forecasts for two weeks. Soon, perhaps, they may be able to forecast the weather for fifteen days or more ahead (提前).
1. Satellites travel ________.| A．in space | B．in the atmosphere |
| C．above the ground | D．above space |
| A．clouds form there |
| B．the weather forms there |
| C．the weather satellites can do it easily |
| D．the pictures can forecast the weather |
| A．during they study satellite pictures |
| B．before they received satellite pictures |
| C．when they have received satellite pictures |
| D．after they have compared new satellite pictures with earlier ones |
| A．five days | B．one week |
| C．two weeks | D．fifteen days or even longer |
| A．weather forecasting | B．taking pictures of the atmosphere |
| C．doing other work in many ways | D．receiving pictures of the atmosphere |
