Have you ever heard of Weifang, Shangdong Province? What is it known for? There is an international kite festival every April in Weifang that is a modern city with many traditions. People from all over the world compete in the kite flying. There are also competitions for the best kites. The kites in the competition are all made by hand.
Most people have flown a kite. It makes people happy. It’s easy to make it. It’s made of bamboo and paper. But not so many people know that kites were first made in China thousands of years ago. The ancient Chinese made and flew kites even before they could write.
A long time ago, the Chinese made kites to use in wars. They would fly these war kites in the dark. The kites were fixed and they made strange sounds in wind. Men who were at war against them would hear these sounds and run away. They thought those strange sounds were made by gods in the sky.
The ancient Chinese also flew kites to bring good luck and to make their crops grow rich and tall. Sometimes they tied long strings and hooks (钩子) to their kites. Then they would fly the kites over water, letting the hooks hang down to catch fish.
The Chinese use sticks, string (线) and paper for their kites. Some of these kites look like animals or trees and others look like houses.
1. Chinese made and flew kites before they could write.2. In ancient China, kites could be used for helping people fly.
3. The ancient Chinese used kites in wars because the kites could bring good luck.
4. Sticks, string and paper are used for making kites by the Chinese.
5. The passage mainly talks about the kite festival in Weifang.
In America and England, if you go to a birthday party, you’ll have a good meal and a lot of drinks. After that, you will play different kinds of games.
The children aged 10-14 will have a “sleepover” party.
Usually this kind of party is on a Friday or a Saturday night when the children do not have lessons next morning. For this kind of party, the birthday person invites 5—6 close friends over for dinner. After dinner, the children will eat cakes and ice-creams, and the birthday person will open his or her gifts.
During the evening, the children may go skating, go to watch basketball or soccer games or something else. Also, the children will eat pancakes at midnight and then go on talking and playing games, such as card games or computer games. Next morning the mother will make a big breakfast of some nice food such as cakes, bread with meat or eggs.
Then the parents will pick up (接) the children at about nine o’clock next morning.
1. In America and England, children usually have a “sleepover” party on a Tuesday night.2. The birthday person will open his or her gifts after dinner.
3. During the evening, the children do many things except (除……之外) going skating.
4. At about 9 o’clock next morning, the parents will pick up their children.
5. This passage mainly tells us how American children prepare for their birthday parties.
Life in the future will be different from life today. Between then and now many changes will happen. But what will the changes be?
The population (人口) is growing fast. There will be more people in the world and most of them will live longer than people live now.
Computers will be much smaller and more useful, and there will be at least one in every home. And computer studies will be one of the important subjects in schools then. People will work fewer hours than they do now and they will have more free time for sports, watching TV and traveling. Traveling will be much cheaper and easier. And more people will go to other countries for holidays.
There will be changes in our food, too. More land will be used for building new towns and houses for all the people. Then there will be less room for cows and sheep, so meat will be more expensive. Maybe no one will eat it every day. Instead, they will eat more fruits and vegetables.
Maybe people will be healthier. Work in the future will be different, too. Robots will do dangerous and hard work. Because of this, many people will not have enough work to do. This will be a problem.
1. In the future there will be more people.2. Every family will have at least a robot in the future.
3. In the future people don’t have to work long hours.
4. People may not eat fruit as much as they do today.
5. One big problem in the future is that many people will not be able to find work.
4 . Nowadays, people show all kinds of things on the Internet—good food, nice clothes, wonderful vacations and so on. Now showing the number of steps is becoming popular, too. Why?
People are finding it important to be in good health. To keep healthy, many people go to work on foot. When they start walking, they open the step counter app in their phones to record (记录) how many steps they walk that day. After a day’s walk, some people show the number on WeChat or Weibo. This can make them learn from each other and keep exercising.
“This helps me to exercise much and keep a good habit,” Miss Liu said. “I can also talk about how to keep healthy with my friends on WeChat. We are in the same group to encourage (鼓励) each other to keep exercising.”
Mr. Wu likes to exercise. But in the past he was kind of lazy and didn’t want to exercise every day. “After I use the step counter app, everything is different. It’s great to exercise with my friends. Sometimes there are prizes for those who walk more steps. I really like it.” he said.
Walking is a relaxing and useful way to exercise. Both the old and the young like it. Recording the steps helps people develop (养成) a good habit of walking and showing the number can make people more interested in walking. But don’t take the number too seriously.
1. What is becoming popular on the Internet now?| A．Showing the number of steps. | B．Showing wonderful vacations. |
| C．Showing good food and nice clothes. | D．Showing lovely pets. |
| A．备忘录 | B．计步器 | C．计时器 | D．体重器 |
| A．More people go to work on foot to save money. |
| B．Miss Liu and Mr. Wu like to exercise with their friends. |
| C．People usually show the number of steps in the morning. |
| D．Walking isn’t a useful way to exercise. |
| A．It can make people relaxed. | B．It can make people stop driving cars. |
| C．It can make people develop a good habit. | D．It’s useless. |
| A．It is important to be healthy. | B．People who walk more steps get prizes. |
| C．Walking is the best way to exercise. | D．The use of the step counter app. |
5 . In Tianjin, China, a group of people are waiting at the bus stop. Soon, a bus comes. It isn’t the same bus that we usually see on the street. It looks like a panda with black ears and black eyes.
After getting on the bus, people only need to buy their tickets by scanning (扫描) their hands! About one minute later, the bus starts its self-driving mode (模式). It stops for traffic lights automatically before it gets to the next stop. That is to say, it can drive and stop by itself. But there is still a driver on the bus. He will do something if the bus is in danger.
There are also some robots on the bus. People can talk to them and ask them for help. If there is a bad person on the bus, the robots will call the police. “It’s convenient,” says a woman taking the bus. “And kids love the bus because there are many pictures of cats on it.”
DeepBlue makes this kind of bus. It is working in ten cities all over China. More cities in China will have this kind of bus this year. I think soon you can take the bus in your city.
1. What does the bus look like?| A．A cat. | B．A robot. | C．A panda. | D．A zebra. |
| A．主动地 | B．自动地 | C．人工地 | D．被迫地 |
①Call the police. ②Talk to people. ③Play with kids. ④Drives a bus.
| A．①② | B．②④ | C．①③ | D．②③ |
| A．The bus is the same as usual bus. |
| B．People now can take the bus all over China. |
| C．People pay for tickets before getting on the bus. |
| D．Kids love the bus because of the pictures of cats on it. |
| A．buses in the past | B．a new kind of bus |
| C．the history of DeepBlue | D．the smart robots on the bus |
The Torch Festival (火把节) is usually from the 24th day to the 26th day of the sixth lunar month (农历月) every year. It is an important traditional festival of ethnic groups (少数民族) like the Yi People, Naxi People, Lisu People, Hani People and Bai People in Southwestern China. Here is something about the Torch Festival of the Bai People.
During the Torch Festival, the Bai People put the torches up in front of every house. At night, everyone holds the torches out. The streets look like a fire dragon. At the very end of the celebration, people lay their torches on the ground and set them on fire. After that, they jump over the fire three times, one by one. It is believed that this drives bad luck away and bring good luck. The festival brings lots of fun to the Bai people. And every year many visitors come to enjoy it as well.
1. The Bai People celebrate the Torch Festival in the sixth lunar month.2. The celebration of the Torch Festival normally lasts for a week.
3. The Bai People put up the torches in front of their houses during the festival.
4. The Bai People believe that jumping over the fire can bring them good luck.
5. The writer wrote the passage to show how wise the Bai People were.
A team of scientists are carrying out a project at the University of Greenwich in London. They are trying to find ways to make food on Mars in the future. The project is called Feeding Mars. It tries to use water, fish and fish waste to grow fruit and vegetables on Mars.
It would take at least 21 months to reach Mars, learn about its surface and return to Earth. So it would be a big help if the spacemen could grow fresh food on Mars itself. However, farming on Mars will be very hard. There’s a lot of water that could be taken from ice just below the surface, but the land on Mars is short of the nutrients that living things need. The team says that they could solve the problem by growing plants and fish together. Fish waste can then be used to provide nutrients for plants.
“It is expected that you can grow lots of food, such as vegetables, tea and medicinal plants on Mars,” said Dr. Benz Kotzen, who leads the project. “You can even harvest fish for food then.”
1. The project tries to use water and fish to grow fruit on the moon.2. The project would take at least 21 months to return to Mars.
3. The poor land condition makes it difficult to farm on Mars.
4. Scientists could grow plants and fish together to solve the nutrients’ problem.
5. Dr. Benz Kotzen was disappointed about this project.
8 . Tea bag drinking is most Westerner’s favorite way of drinking tea. Do you know how it came about?
The tea bag was invented in 1980 by Thomas Sullivan, an American tea seller. He was sending out free tea in silk bags for people to try. People put the bags together with the tea leaves into the cup and added hot water. The tea tasted good, and people thought it was easy to clean the cup. They were not happy when Sullivan started sending them loose (散的) tea again.
Sullivan realized that he had a hot new thing in his hands, and he built a machine to pack the bags. As tea bags became popular, they were changed from silk to gauze (薄纱) and later paper. In 1952, Lipton Tea made the tea bag even more popular with its invention of the four-sided tea bag. Tea bags were soon a hit in the UK, and today 85% of the tea in the UK is packed in paper bags.
However, many people still prefer loose-leaf tea. This is because some tea companies put not very good tea in their tea bags. But for most drinkers, tea bags are still the easy, tasty way to go.
1. Who invented tea bag?| A．Lipton. | B．The Chinese. |
| C．An English tea seller. | D．Thomas Sullivan. |
| A．people were happy with the loose tea |
| B．the tea in bags was free and very good |
| C．the tea tasted good and the cups was easy to wash |
| D．people didn’t know any better way to enjoy the tea |
| A．Tea bags soon became popular in the UK. |
| B．Tea bags weren’t allowed to be sold in the UK. |
| C．Tea bags surprised everyone very much in the UK. |
| D．Tea bags kicked (踢) the loose-leaf out of the market. |
| A．silk | B．paper | C．gauze | D．plastic |
| A．The history of tea bags. | B．The invention of tea. |
| C．The way of drinking tea. | D．People’s favorite tea in the world. |
Dragons are not real animals, but look like a combination (结合体) of many animals such as snakes, fish and deer. They have two horns (角) and a long moustache (胡须). With fantastic powers, they fly in the sky or swim in the sea. They can make rain, too. The Chinese dragon is a symbol of strength and good luck. The emperors of ancient China loved dragons. Their clothes were covered with pictures of dragons.
We are proud to call ourselves the “descendants of the dragon”. In Chinese, excellent people are often called dragons. A number of Chinese sayings talk about dragons, for example, “Hoping one’s child will become a dragon.” which means hoping he or she will be successful.
It is said that people born in the Year of the Dragon have certain characteristics. They are creative, confident, brave and quick-tempered (易怒的). There are also some traditional festivals about dragons in China, such as Dragon Head-Raising Day and Dragon Boat Festival. We have different kinds of activities to celebrate them. These two festivals come every year, but the Year of the Dragon comes every twelve years. The dragon is very important in Chinese culture. As the “descendants of the dragon”, it is necessary for us to know the opinions on dragons in our culture. It can help us understand why our parents always want us to be “dragons”.
1. The Chinese dragon is a symbol of strength and good luck.2. There are not a number of Chinese sayings about dragons.
3. The people born in the Year of the Dragon are easy-going.
4. The Year of the Dragon comes every twelve years.
5. This passage mainly tells us something about the Mid-Autumn Festival.
What do you think the future will be like? Now welcome to my future life!
I get up in the morning and look into the mirror. I look young. In 2122, many people can live to be 150 years old. So at the age of 50, I’m not old at all. And my parents look the same age as I!
I say to my shirt, “Turn red.” It changes from green to red. In 100 years, “smart clothes” can change the color or style as I like.
I walk into the kitchen. I pick up the milk, but I hear a voice, “You shouldn’t drink that!” My fridge (冰箱) knows that the milk is not fresh. In 100 years, every household appliance (家用电器) is like my secretary (秘书).
It’s time to go to work. In 2122, cars drive themselves. Just tell my “smart car” where to go. Then, I can go what I want to go. On the way, call my friends with my watch. Such “smart technology” (智能技术) is all around me.
So will all these things come true? “All these will come true, even better.” says a scientist. I couldn’t agree more with the scientist. I’m looking forward to the new life.
1. The writer will look old in the mirror in 100 years.2. In 100 years, few people can live to be about 150 years old.
3. In 2122, “smart clothes” can change the color or style as I like.
4. In 2122, We don’t need drivers any more.
5. The writer thinks of the life in the future will be much worse than now.
