1 . 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 in English instead of speaking poetic Chinese?
Jia and Lin are two characters from the classic 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, 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 heartbreaking tragedy that everyone would understand.
The art director Timmy Yip, from Hong Kong, tried to help foreign people understand the characters using costumes and stage settings. 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 it to be a meaningful job to introduce a Chinese classic to Westen audiences. Hwang told China Daily he was happy to “have made a contribution to the land where my parents were born.”
1. Where was the opera first performed?| A．In Beijing. | B．In Changsha. |
| C．In San Francisco, US. | D．In Wuhan. |
| A．It is mainly about the rise and greatness of the Qing Dynasty. |
| B．It tells the happy-ending love story between Jia and Lin. |
| C．The book has seven characters in total. |
| D．The book is long and rich in characters. |
| A．To help the audience better understand Lin’s character. |
| B．To make the stage more beautiful and attractive. |
| C．To show the importance of water in Chinese culture. |
| D．To suggest the sad ending of Lin and Jia. |
| A．Difficult and unbelievable. | B．Stressful and tough. |
| C．Painful and challenging. | D．Meaningful and satisfying. |
| A．The Classic Chinese Novel A Dream of Red Mansions |
| B．Change a Chinese Classic into a Foreign-language Novel |
| C．Chinese Classic Made into an English-language Opera |
| D．A Famous Love Story Introduced to China |
2 . Our brain is the most important part in our body. It helps us to think, speak, feel, and move. It’s no wonder we need to look after it and just like the rest of our body. We need to keep it exercised to keep it healthy.
Our brain is made up of 86 billion neurons—or nerve cells (神经元), but as we age, some of these gradually die off. In serious situations, nerve cells in different areas of the brain become hurt and finally die, leading to a condition called dementia (痴呆), which influences a person’s ability to think properly.
It’s a good idea to train our brain by learning ways to increase our memory and intelligence. For example, solving crossword puzzles (字迹) can be really helpful. Dr Catherine Loveday, who’s a neuropsychologist, thinks learning a second language is also great for the brain, as it requires us to switch (切换) between languages, making our brain stronger.
However, if you don’t speak another language, there are still ways to train your brain. If you’re right-handed, try performing tasks like brushing your teeth with your left hand to improve your brain.
The main reason we do these exercises is to keep our brain active. It can help to develop additional abilities to help protect the brain against the loss of memory or thinking. Dr Catherine Loveday, says, “Even if people take up languages or other activities later in life, it will provide them with a degree of protection.” As an old saying goes, “It’s never too old to learn.”
According to a study, people are surprised to know about that eating chocolate might increase our ability to get and use knowledge. It could improve how you learn and use information. Although it might not be good for the rest of your body, at least it could make you a brain box!
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Earthquakes show how powerful nature is and how they influence human’s lives in many ways. In an earthquake, the ground moves or shakes, sometimes very strongly. It can bring buildings falling down to the ground and break up roads, railways, and bridges. A big quake can also kill hundreds of thousands of people. That’s why it’s important to use special designs and technologies to make our towns safer from earthquakes when planning and building them.
These days, there are many ways for scientists to know an earthquake may be on the way. A seismograph is an instrument that picks up movement of the ground. Modern seismographs use computers that carry out results from the recordings right away. Scientists also use information from satellites which tell them when the ground is moving and an earthquake may happen soon.
But how do earthquakes happen? The earth has four main layers (层). The top of it is made up of many pieces. These pieces are called plates. The lines where plates meet are called faults. Three kinds of faults are created as plates move in different ways.
Usually, the plates move smoothly. But when they suddenly move several centimeters, pressure builds up where they are pushing into or against each other, so that earthquakes happen. Almost all earthquakes happen at faults. Most of the earthquakes happen along the coast. However, some happen in the middle of land, where the plates meet.
Overall, earthquakes teach us to respect nature’s power and get ready for surprises from it. They make us rethink the importance of understanding how our planet works and how we should live with it.
Harm from earthquakes ●Buildings, roads, railways, and bridges fall down or break.●People can be killed. |
| Structure of the earth ●Three types of faults:①plates pushing into each other ②plates ③plates pushing against each other |
| Solution to lower the harm from earthquakes ●We need to make our towns safer from earthquakes with | Cause of earthquakes ● | |
| Ways of ●Use a seismograph. ●Get information from satellites. | Location of earthquakes ●Along the coast or in the middle of land. | |
| Lesson learnt from earthquakes ●Develop a balanced relationship between human and | ||
A surprising different kinds of insects (昆虫) live in our planet. Most of insects live more than all other animals together. Insects have survived (存活) on earth for more than 300 million years, and they may have the ability to survive for millions more.
Insects can be found almost everywhere—on the high mountains and on the bottom of rushing rivers, in the cold South Pole and near the hot equator. They dig through the ground, jump and sing in trees, and run and dance in the air. They are so small that they can hide in almost any tiny space. The one place that they have not yet been found is open oceans (海洋).
There are many reasons why insects are so successful in surviving. They are able to gradually change themselves to survive in changeable and quite difficult environments. Insects have a strong ability to reproduce: An African ant queen can lay as many as 43,000 eggs a day. A strong and hard cover can protect their soft bodies from chemicals, water and physical harm. Their wings help them fly away from dangers or towards food. Also, insects can survive on a wide and different kinds of natural and man-made foods—wood, grain, pepper, cotton, books, other insects and so on.
Another reason for their success is their protective colors. They come in many different colors and shapes. An insect may be right before our eyes, but nearly unable to be seen because it looks like a green leaf, a seed or some other natural things. Some insects have wing patterns that look like the eyes of bitter-tasting insects, and hungry enemies are fooled into avoiding them. Others use bright colors to send warning signals (信号) that they taste bad, have pains or are poisonous (有毒的).
The Surprising Insects | ||
| Amazing insects | ◎ Insects have lived on earth for over 300 million years. Most lived longer than all other animals together. ◎Insects can live everywhere | |
| Strong abilities to survive | To | This helps insects live in hard conditions. |
| To reproduce | An African ant queen can lay 43,000 eggs a day. | |
| To adapt to a wide and different kinds of foods | Insects can survive on variety of foods both from | |
| To protect themselves | ◎The strong and hard cover is used as a ◎Different colors and shapes | |
5 . Computers may be able to help us in more ways. Recent research has showed a new computer program that can learn human emotions (情感).
Researchers asked a group of people to type (打字) two paragraphs from Lewis Carroll’s novel Alice in Wonderland. The people then chose an emotional state they felt while typing. Moods tested were joy, fear, anger, sadness, disgust, shame and guilt. Then the researchers put the text into the computer to study. Surprisingly, the computer was right 70 percent of the time in telling their emotional states. The most correct emotions it guessed were joy (87 percent) and anger (81 percent). The least accurate emotion the computer guessed was sadness (60 percent).The researchers found that the people were hardly typing when they were in a bad mood, which may explain the inexactness of the second result.
However, the findings could have great importance for artificial intelligence (人工智能), and it may allow computers to get along with us in a friendlier manner. “If we could build any system that is intelligent enough to communicate with humans—that is, it can identify users’ emotions and change its behavior accordingly, then using machines could be more effective and friendly.” the researchers wrote in study. For example, when looking for a movie online, perhaps a computer program could make suggestions for films that would match your mood. And as the researchers said, this kind of computer program could also help humans in a number of ways. First, with online teaching, emotionally intelligent computers could change its teaching style to help students learn better. Second, with online talking, doctors were able to tell the emotion of a patient.
1. Which of the blanks can be filled with the underlined word “accurate”?| A．It is ________ to say that the sun goes around the earth. |
| B．It is important for reporters to report ________ news. |
| C．Many of the numbers were ________ so we made a wrong decision. |
| D．Many professional tools and machines are used to avoid making ________ results. |
| A．By learning the researchers’ instructions. |
| B．By reading the words people typed on the computer. |
| C．By comparing them with other kinds of tested moods. |
| D．By learning the emotional states people chose when they typed. |
| A．By listing facts. | B．By offering explanations. |
| C．By giving examples. | D．By comparing the results. |
| A．It helps people develop smarter machines. |
| B．It makes people speed up their typing speed. |
| C．It will produce similar studies on people’s moods. |
| D．It clearly explains the relationship between moods and typing. |
| A．Computers can feel human emotions. |
| B．Computers can change human emotions. |
| C．Computers can improve human emotions. |
| D．Computers will make a difference to human emotions. |
6 .
a
Listening to favorite songs could cut down people’s sense of pain, according to a new study in Frontiers in Pain Research. And the best pain relievers were found to be sad and moving songs, though peaceful and cheerful music can relieve people’s pain in some degree. Playing music for patients can cut down the use of medicine, making them more relaxed. | b
“When it comes to walking and diabetes (糖尿病) risk, it’s not just how much you do it — it’s also how fast you move”, a new study has found. Compared with easy walking, those who walk at a normal speed have a 15% lower risk. Walking at a “fairly brisk (相对快的)” speed means a 24% lower risk than those who easily walk. And brisk walking has the biggest advantage: a 39% lower risk. |
c
A recent study shows regular Internet use could cut down the risk of developing dementia (痴呆) in those over 50. The researcher explains, “Going online may help to get much knowledge, which can stop brain aging and cut down the risk of developing dementia.” But using the Internet too much may increase the risk of developing dementia. | d
New guidelines from the International Society of Hypertension (ISH) suggest meditating (冥想) for 45 minutes each day to lower blood pressure. The ISH says “body and mind” goals should be connected with certain advice, like cutting down on salt, controlling wine drinking, and exercising often. These things make a difference to dealing with blood pressure. |
1. Which kind of music can relieve people’s pain most?
| A．Sad and moving songs. | B．People’s favorite songs. | C．Peaceful and cheerful songs. |
| A．By giving reasons. | B．By giving examples. | C．By making comparisons. |
| A．To tell the reason why going online and better health are connected. |
| B．To tell the importance of going online as much as possible for old people. |
| C．To explain the reasons why old people have the risk of developing dementia. |
| A．Drink less wine. | B．Eat salty food in daily life. | C．Meditate for 45 minutes every day. |
| A．Suggestions for some patients. |
| B．Achievements in medical field. |
| C．New findings to deal with some health problems. |
7 . This year is the 21st year of China’s first manned space mission (太空任务), with Yang Liwei becoming the first Chinese astronaut to go to space. Since then, another 17 astronauts have reached for the stars. The choice of astronauts began in 2022 and is now in full swing. Experts showed how difficult the training is before astronauts can fly to space.
The human body is not fit for space life. Astronauts face many challenges on a space mission. The changes in gravity (重力) influence their bodies. Living in a small spacecraft for months does harm to their mental (智力的) health. Something during missions challenges their knowledge and ability to solve problems under huge pressure. So without doubt, astronauts have to meet very high standards and go through a difficult training program.
To make sure that Chinese astronauts complete their missions and return to Earth safely, many training subjects were set. Besides physical fitness training, it also includes basic scientific knowledge, mental health, and so on.
Among the training subjects, the most tiring one is underwater training. This training is planned for astronauts to fit the micro-gravity environment in space. According to the report, “Nie Haisheng once reported a two-kilogram loss in weight after one underwater training exercise.” Each astronaut receives training for at least three and a half years before having the chance to go to space.
It also requires language and cultural training for Chinese astronauts to better communicate with other international astronauts. Their efforts and hard work have made China an important player in the space race, and they continue to encourage future generations (一代人) to reach for the stars.
1. When was China’s first manned space mission?| A．In 2003. | B．In 2013. | C．In 2022. | D．In 2023. |
① mental health ② physical fitness ③ driving and flying
④ language and culture ⑤ basic scientific knowledge
| A．①②③⑤ | B．①②④⑤ | C．②③④⑤ | D．①②③⑤ |
| A．By giving an example. | B．By telling a story. |
| C．By comparing with others. | D．By asking a question. |
| A．Unsure. | B．Interested. | C．Worried. | D．Hopeful. |
| A．Tell us the importance of space training. |
| B．Show the hard training that astronauts need before going into space. |
| C．Introduce the history of China’s manned space mission. |
| D．Describe the great achievements of China in space. |
8 .
| 1 Record everything you can see
| 2 This bulb is “lighter” than air
|
3 New chopsticks make fun of your tongue
| 4 Pollution-canceling headphones
|
1. What can the smart glasses do?
① listen to music ②turn the light on and off ③increase the salty taste
④make phone calls ⑤take pictures and short videos ⑥avoid polluted air
| A．②③⑥ | B．①④⑤ | C．③④⑤ | D．④⑤⑥ |
| A．We can’t touch the bulb because it connects with electricity. |
| B．The bulb can float in the air because it’s very light. |
| C．The bulb can be connected to your phone. |
| D．The bulb is good for environment and can be lit easily. |
| A．“Wonderful! They not only make food more delicious but also healthier.” |
| B．“Excellent! They make the methods of making food become more convenient.” |
| C．“Nice! They help our body get more salt and avoid taking more light food.” |
| D．“Amazing! We needn’t put the salt into the dishes.” |
| A．What do the headphones look like? |
| B．When were the headphones invented? |
| C．Who would like to use the headphones? |
| D．Who invented the headphones? |
| A．The smart scientists. | B．The importance of salt. |
| C．The great inventions. | D．Protect the environment. |
9 . Supercomputers can analyze (分析) blood samples and predict patients who may become badly ill. In this way, the supercomputers could save thousands of lives a year, according to The Daily Express.
The artificial intelligence (AI) system, developed at University College London, is used in NHS hospitals. It will check “at risk” patients. So doctors can take early action to prevent death or bad illness.
Dr Young, a famous surgeon (外科医生) at Southend University Hospital, said, “I am so excited about this technology. Instead of people getting sick or dying because they are not picked up in time, this will allow us to take action earlier which will save lives and money. I think the use of AI in healthcare is as big as the Industrial Revolution (工业革命) was. It is also a sign of a completely new example in the way we manage healthcare.”
The technology is the idea of Dr Vishal Nangalia, a surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital in London. He used AI to analyze a billion blood samples from 20 different UK hospitals. Computers give the blood test report, which shows changes in red and white blood cells (细胞). Then surgeons can predict if a patient is becoming worse according to the report.
Dr Vishal Nangalia found the accuracy (准确性) of prediction results is high. It is much higher than the accuracy of traditional methods. This gives doctors the chance not only to save lives but to prevent bad illness. What’s more, it is making the health service safer and more efficient. Dr Young said, “Instead of waiting for people to get into a bad condition, we will be able to treat them earlier.”
1. How do supercomputers help save lives?| A．By choosing medicine for patients. |
| B．By checking patients’ conditions. |
| C．By helping doctors write reports. |
| D．By analyzing blood samples and make predictions. |
| A．To show the history of the hospital. |
| B．To introduce the use of supercomputer. |
| C．To show the influence of AI in healthcare. |
| D．To introduce the use of the traditional methods. |
| A．It helps patients get better more slowly. |
| B．It can’t prevent any kind of illness. |
| C．It is only good for patients with blood illness. |
| D．It can discover the changes of red and white blood cells. |
| A．In a storybook. | B．In a guidebook. |
| C．In a medical newspaper. | D．In a fashion magazine. |
People use a computer to search for information, send e-mails, do shopping or play games. All these activities would not go well without a small mouse.
The world’s first computer mouse appeared in 1964. It was invented by Douglas Engelbart who worked in a research organization at that time. The mouse was mainly made up of a wooden “house”, a circuit (电路) board and two metal wheels. Engelbar t called his invention the “Bug”. Because the long “tail” on the back made it look more like a mouse, the name “mouse” became well-known soon.
8 years later, Bill English, an American computer engineer, developed the mouse further. He changed the wheels into a rolling (滚转的) ball at the bottom of the mouse. The “Ball Mouse” was easier to use. It was such a success that it could be found in lots of offices. It had its problems, though. For example, the ball became dirty easily from rolling around the desktop. The dirt had to be often cleaned out to keep the ball running well.
The disadvantages led to the next development in around 1980. It was then that the optical (光学的) mouse was invented. However, the mouse wasn’t widely used because it was too expensive.
The computer mouse has come a long way since its invention in the 1960s. It has been improved many times to meet the changing needs of users. But with the rise of touch screens, gesture (手势) control and voice control, is the computer about to move on into the future without its best friend?
Some experts believe the days of the computer mouse are numbered, because the touch screens make people and the computer closer and closer. Moreover, computers that can read our brains and facial expressions are in development. But some people think the mouse will still have a market—even with the development of new technology. What’s your opinion about it?
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