1 . We all know there is a problem with plastic pollution. Five trillion plastic bags are used every year. One million plastic drinking bottles are bought every minute.
What if we could use plastic waste to build roads? This is exactly what Toby McCartney has done.
In 2019, McCartney’s UK-based company, MacRebur, built the world’s first plastic road in Elgin town, Scotland. The plastic waste was made into grains and then mixed with biturnen (沥青). The road looks just like any other road. But it has improved strength and is more stretchy (有弹性的) thanks to the plastic.
“Our technology can not only help solve the problem of plastic waste but also produce roads that deal better with changes in the weather, reducing cracks and holes on the roads,” McCartney told the BBC.
McCartney’s idea came from a trip to India. “I saw people in India would put plastic waste into the holes on the roads and burn it. The plastic would melt down and cover the hole,” said McCartney.
“I knew that there must be some similarities between the plastic and biturnen, which both come from oil. That’s how I started to think about mixing them,” he said.
After lots of testing, McCartney found the perfect recipe. And now his company has built many plastic roads around the world, from Australia to Europe. A one-kilometer stretch of roads uses about 684,000 plastic bottles or 1.8 million plastic bags. The road itself can be recycled at the end of its lifetime. The materials can be reused to build new roads.
“We’re just a small part of ending the plastic problems, but it’s nice to be part of it,” McCartney said. “I just don’t want my daughters to live in a world where there are more plastics in our oceans than fish.”
1. Compared with usual roads, which of the following are the advantages of the plastic road?a. saves money
b. is not easy to break
c. is mixed with biturnen
d. is not afraid of hot weather
| A．ab | B．ac | C．bc | D．bd |
| A．Indian people’s way of fixing roads. | B．His wish of reducing plastic pollution. |
| C．His knowledge of plastic and biturnen. | D．Seeing cracks and holes on roads one day. |
| A．684,000 | B．6.84 million | C．1.8 million | D．18 million |
| A．He is willing to offer help in reducing plastic pollution. | B．Children should also join to reduce plastic pollution. |
| C．Plastic pollution will soon be solved with his help. | D．Plastic pollution is becoming more and more serious. |
2 . When visiting the southern Chinese city of Liuzhou, the first thing people notice is its quietness. What is missing is the continuous noise of fuel vehicles (燃油车辆) in most big cities. It is because almost 50% of the cars sold in Liuzhou last year were electric vehicles (EVs电动汽车), making the city of about 4 million people the biggest EV market in the world. Not only that, the natural environment of the city is also wonderful.
Liuzhou’s first move was to let people know more about EVs. SAIC-GM-Wuling carried out a free 10-month test-drive plan in 2017. More than 15,000 people took the carmaker’s Baojun E100 for a trial (试用). The trial was so popular that chances ran out within minutes, and 70% of test-drivers bought one of the vehicles. Wuling then studied people’s needs and driving habits to make improvements.
At the beginning, people had many worries about EVs, such as safety or the problem about charging (充电). In fact, it’s very comfortable to use EVs. Free parking and tens of thousands of charge points are on hand for drivers. People have realized not only does it save money to drive electric cars but also there are many charge points for convenience. Besides, the air is becoming cleaner after more and more EVs hit the road.
“Guiding people towards electric cars is not easy”, said Jochen Sicbert, managing director at JSC Automotive in Singapore. But officials of Guangxi are also trying to make the use of Evs more popular in other cities, including in other parts of China. “Cities should support the light-weight and small vehicles coming into the city as those vehicles can fit everywhere and don’t use too much power,” Siebert said. “That should be the future.”
1. What made Liuzhou lead the world?| A．EVs’ production. | B．EVs’ sales. | C．City environment. | D．Population increase. |
| A．It worked very well. | B．It cost Wuling much money. |
| C．It was doubted by people at first. | D．It was carried out in many other cities. |
| A．Guidance of safe driving. | B．Advantages of driving EVs. |
| C．Solutions to traffic problems. | D．Suggestions from EVs’ customers. |
| A．To build a less-polluted city. | B．To draw public attention to Wuling. |
| C．To encourage the use of electric cars. | D．To explain some environmental problems. |
3 . Now more and more people who want to learn a new language turn to mobile apps for help. While these language learning apps allow users to study a new language anywhere at any time, how effective(有效的) are they?
That is a question Shawn Loewen, a professor at Michigan State University (MSU), is trying to answer. He recently made a study focusing on Babbel, a popular language learning app, to see if it really worked at teaching a new language.
“Millions around the world are already using language learning apps, but few studies have researched whether they can help improve one’s speaking skills,”Loewen said. “There are almost no other studies that have looked at mobile language learning apps. So, this study is very important to the field.”
In the study, 85 students at MSU used Babbel for 12 weeks to learn Spanish. At the beginning of the study, the students took a test to assess(评价) their speaking, vocabulary and grammar in Spanish. After 12 weeks, the 54 students who completed all study requirements took the same test again to see how much knowledge they had gained.
The study showed that nearly all the students who completed the requirements improved their Spanish language knowledge and ability to communicate after 12 weeks of using Babbel.
“On the whole, learners in this study increased their oral proficiency(口语能力).” Loewen said. “These results show that Babbel not only helps teach knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, but also speeds up the development of oral communication skills.”
Also, learning gains in oral proficiency, grammar and vocabulary were connected with how much time students spent using the app. 59% of students improved speaking skills by at least one level in an American foreign language proficiency assessing system. The percentage of learners who improved rose even higher among those who spent more time using the app. For those who studied at least six hours, 69% increased at least one level, rising to 75% for those who studied for at least 15 hours.
1. What does Loewen say about his app study?| A．It is based on a lot of published studies. |
| B．It compares many language learning apps. |
| C．It answers a question about learning new languages. |
| D．It may be the first to study if apps help language learning. |
| A．They learnt Spanish in class using Babbel. |
| B．They tried using different language learning apps. |
| C．Some of them took two tests before and after 12 weeks |
| D．Some of them finished their study requirements in 24 weeks. |
| A．It can be useful for just some of its users. |
| B．It effectively helps teach a new language. |
| C．It might be the best Spanish learning tool so far. |
| D．It does better in improving skills than knowledge. |
| A．The relationship between app use time and progress. |
| B．The disadvantages of using language learning apps. |
| C．The big differences in students’ learning habits. |
| D．The difficulties of learning a new language. |
Zhou Jiangtao passed away at only 17 years old. He got bone cancer when he was 13. Four days before the announcement of his death, he asked to donate his organs (器官). “I do know the pain of suffering from disease and the helplessness of having no cure (治愈方法) …I’ve seen so much sadness and regret and want to offer help.”
On the day he ‘‘left’’, two patients who had been waiting for cornea transplants (角膜移植) were told they would get donations. Zhou’s body was moved to Zhejieng University School of Medicine on the same day.
It has been 12 years since China started a national pilot (试点) programme for human organ donation. According to the China Organ Donation Administrative Center, about 300,000 people across China are waiting for life-sustaining (维持生命的) organ transplants, but only 20, 000 receive transplants each year.
In recent years, organ donation and transplantation have gotten more public support in China. As of April 2, more than 4. 62 million people had signed up (登记) for organ donation, said the center. As many as 75 people can benefit from a single donor (捐献者). There’s no age limit to donation, while people under 18 need a guardian’s consent (监护人同意).
In China, there are some deeply rooted traditions about the bodies of dead people. For example, many believe the body is a gift from one’s parents. So, they think dead bodies must be kept complete.
But many others have changed their beliefs. Donating organs is a way to help others and extend (延展) the meaning of one’s life. Increased willingness has been seen among young and
middle-aged people, noted People’s Daily. “Dedication (奉献) makes life more precious (宝贵的) than oneself,” Zhou once said.
1. What did Zhou Jiangtao decide to donate?
2. What does the underlined word “left” in Paragragh 2 mean in English?
3. When did China begin national pilot program for human organ donation?
4. Why are some people against organ donation?
5. What do you think of donating organs?
Dreams are stories or a series of events that take place in a person’s mind while they are asleep. You dream around four to six times a night, even if you can’t remember them in the morning. Scientists don’t really know for sure for why we do it. One theory is that sleep is a chance for the brain to deal with thoughts and feelings—keeping things it thinks are important in memories and getting rid of others. Another theory says dreams can help you see things from different points of view and could even help you solve problems.
There are two main phases (阶段) of sleep. These are rapid eye movement(REM), when the eyes move quickly in lots of directions behind closed eyelids (眼睑), and non-rapid eye movement. You can dream in either phase, but it’s most likely to be during the REM phase, which happens about 90 minutes after you fall asleep. This is when brain activity increases until your mind is almost as busy as it is when you’re awake. Many scientists think that animals including cats and dogs can dream because they experience REM sleep.
It is a good idea to go to sleep at about the same time each night. It is also important to give yourself time to relax. This could be by reading or listening to relaxing music. Try to stay away from bright lights and screens, such as phones, tablets or TVs. If you find you are worrying about something, have a notepad by the bed. You can write down your worry, close the pad and put the thought out of your mind, then deal with it the next day. You could also write down your dreams when you wake up (if you can remember them).
All about Dreams | |
| What are dreams? | ● Dreams are ● Although scientists are not sure about the Sleep can help people Dreams can help people see things |
| There are two main phases of sleep — rapid eye movement(REM) and non-rapid eye movement. ● Dreams ● Eyes move quickly and brain activity keeps | |
| How to have a good night’s sleep? | ● Go to sleep at a ● ● ● Put the thought out of your mind if something worries you. |
6 . Flying kites is an activity loved by many Chinese in spring. It has been around for more than 2,300 years. It was first invented by Mozi, he spent three years in making a “bird” out of wood and flying it for a day before it fell down. His student Lu Ban replaced the wood with bamboo, and the “bamboo bird” was able to fly as long as three days.
It was not until the Tang Dynasty that the kite was used for fun. Because of the popularity of paper, common people were able to make kites with paper instead of expensive silk, and the kite were in different styles, making methods and decorations (装饰). Little lanterns are tied to the kite. And when the kites are flying in the sky, the lanterns look like stars at night.
The skeleton (骨架) of the kite is usually made of bamboo. The process of tying the skeleton includes choosing bamboo, cutting bamboo, bending bamboo strips (弯曲竹条) and making strips together. Then, you have to choose which material is put on the skeleton as cover. Silk and paper can be often seen as the cover. Painting, the third step, makes your kite come alive and beautiful.
Kites are not only flown during the day time but also in the evening. What makes flying kites during this day special is that people cut the string while the kite is in the sky to let it fly free. It is said this brings good luck.
1. The first kite was made of ________.| A．bamboo | B．wood | C．stick | D．steel |
| A．One day. | B．Two days. | C．Three days. | D．Four days |
| A．The kite was first invented by Mozi. | B．Lu Ban made the kite fly longer. |
| C．The kite is used for fun in the Tang Dynasty. | D．You can see kite flying only during the daytime. |
| A．覆盖 | B．表面 | C．雕像 | D．毛毯 |
| A．How to fly a kite. | B．How to make a kite. |
| C．The introduction of kite. | D．The meaning of flying a kite. |
7 . Some white cliffs appear in Denizli Province, Turkey. In them are small, bluey-green pools—it looks as if the snow is melting. In fact, those aren’t icy cliffs—they’re terraces of rocks. Because of its appearance, the site is known as Cotton Castle.
Cotton Castle is more than 325 feet high and nearly 9,000 feet long. There are 17 hot springs at the top and the spring water is between 35℃ and 60℃.
The springs are the reason for Cotton Castle’s unusual appearance. Forced by earthquakes, the mineral-rich water comes up from inside the Earth. When the mineral in the water meets air, it forms a jellylike thing as it makes its way down the cliff. Eventually the jelly dries and hardens into white rocks. Some water also collects to create pools. Because the water cools several degrees as it flows into the pools, it’s possible to swim in these natural hot springs.
The process has gone on for tens of thousands of years. Cotton Castle has been a popular attraction since around 200 B.C., when a king founded a town called Hierapolis near the site. People believed the hot springs had healing powers. By the 1970s, Cotton Castle was so popular that hotels were built nearby, even on top of it.
Unfortunately the construction caused parts of Cotton Castle to break off, and heavy foot traffic turned some pools brown. To avoid any future damage, the government listed it as a protected World Heritage Site. The hotels were soon torn down, and now only some pools are open to visitors. With these steps, Cotton Castle will hopefully be around for many years, its ice-like beauty frozen in time.
1. Which picture shows Cotton Castle?A． | B． | C． | D． |
| A．has 325 hot springs at the top |
| B．heats the spring water after it flows out |
| C．is a new attraction near a town |
| D．is formed after mineral-rich water meets air |
| A．The beauty of Cotton Castle may remain for a long time. |
| B．Tourists will not be allowed to visit those pools any more. |
| C．More hotels and towns will be built around Cotton Castle. |
| D．Cotton Castle will disappear soon due to people’s damage. |
| A．An “Ice” Castle | B．A Healing Site |
| C．A Private Castle | D．A Man-made Site |
8 . To remember vocabularies drives a lot of students mad. Are there any useful methods to do it better? Here is a passage for you to read and learn.
Stay up late doing exercises, remembering every grammar rule and reading all English articles you’ve learned again and again... Are these the ways you learn English? The bad news is that this method may do you little good. But the good news is that there are better ways to build your English vocabulary.
·Learn a new English word every day
If you’re not sure where to start, try making cards of the most commonly used words. Another way to build up your English vocabulary is reading. If you like reading about travel, pets or food, read about these topics in English. Look for English newspapers or magazines about your favorite subjects or visit websites or blogs about these topics. Read a few articles each morning, and circle new words. If you like watching movies, pick one and start watching. If you’re afraid you won’t understand everything, you can always watch them with subtitles. Once you’re confident in your English listening skills, try watching movies without subtitles.
·Don’t forget to record new words in a vocabulary notebook
Whenever you come across a new word, write it down. Many English language learners carry a notebook for this purpose. Keep the notebook and a pen at hand. Then, you’ll have something to review while traveling or taking a break.
·Vocabulary learning system
Another thing to do is to develop an organized but easy way of collecting and learning new words. For example, a card system should include the following information，
*Word
*English meaning of the word
*Phrases or sentences
*Related words
*Words of similar meanings and words of opposite meanings
*Chinese meaning on the back of the card
· ▲
It is found that people understand and remember facts better if they are given in logical（合逻辑的） groups. For example, it is less difficult to remember words that are related to each other than those unrelated ones. Creating lists of words related to common themes–such as friendship, family, wealth, careers, sciences–will be much easier to learn and remember than collecting words according to their first letters.
1. In Paragraph 1, the writer introduces the topic by _________.| A．describing the common scenes of students’ ways of learning |
| B．listing the problems that students have when learning |
| C．presenting a few questions that students want to ask |
| D．telling a funny story of language learning experience |
| A．names of books, magazines, or other published works |
| B．translations of foreign films shown at the bottom of the screen |
| C．second titles which are often longer and explain more |
| D．names that describe people’s social positions or jobs |
| A．Understand and remember facts better | B．Collect words by theme or subject |
| C．Remember a list of unrelated words | D．Divide words according to their first letters |
| A．Time order. | B．Space order. | C．From specific to general. | D．From general to specific. |
Many of you have probably had this experience: You get on a train and are ready to have a rest or read a book, only to find that the passenger in front of you is watching a TV show on his/her tablet without earphones. The child next to you won’t stop crying. And the old lady behind you talks on her phone during the whole trip.
Wish the train could be less noisy? There might be a solution for you. The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, one of China’s busiest high-speed rail lines, will have “quiet” carriages（车厢）starting from Dec.23, Xinhua reported.
In quiet carriages, onboard videos will be quiet and announcements（公告）will be made at a lower voice. Doors at the ends of the carriage will be kept closed to cut down noise from other carriages, CGTN noted. Train attendants（乘务）will make sure that passengers remain quiet and follow the rules.
Passengers who are willing to follow the rules can choose the quiet carriages when booking their tickets, according to China's national railway operator.
Some people have pointed out that this kind of quiet environment should be offered in all carriages. They say that having quiet carriages might give people the impression that they don’t need to be quiet in non-quiet carriages.
While some Internet users are in favor of the new service, it has also caused discussion about just how quiet travelers should be in quiet carriages. Many people have raised questions such as “What if I snore（打呼噜）?” and “Can we talk to our travel companions（同伴）if we need to?”
1. Paragraph 1 is written to show that ________.| A．many people watch TV shows on trains | B．people do all kinds of things on trains |
| C．traveling by train is very common | D．people on trains are sometimes very noisy |
| A．Train attendants won’t make any announcements. |
| B．No one will make sure passengers follow the rules. |
| C．Passengers won’t be allowed to watch videos. |
| D．The doors at the ends of these carriages will stay closed. |
| A．In need of. | B．In support of. | C．In search of. | D．In place of. |
| A．The rules should be made more clear. | B．Most people don’t like the service. |
| C．It's hard to make trains perfectly quiet. | D．The service is better for solo（独自的）travelers. |
On December 25, 2021, a new and exciting age of space science started when the James Webb Space Telescope was launched* into space. According to NASA, Webb is the largest and most powerful space science telescope ever built.
At first, Webb was planned to cost half a billion dollars and launched in 2007. But it turned out to be impossible. As designed, Webb’s orbit* is about 1.6 million kilometers away from the earth. It is too far for the astronauts to repair if it breaks down. So everything has to work perfectly on the first try, and it is the main reason why NASA spent nearly 30 years and 10 billion dollars getting it ready for launch.
Considered as a successor* to the old Hubble Space Telescope, Webb will allow us to look deeper into the universe than ever before. Hubble mostly sees what we see—which is known as visible light. But Webb is designed to focus on the infrared* light, which is invisible to the human eyes. That means Webb can see through dust* in the universe and make new discoveries by examining stars inside those dust clouds. It will try to collect light from the very first stars when the universe was young. By collecting the light, the telescope can see galaxies as they appeared in the past, which could help to explain how the universe began. It will also study the planets around other stars, looking for signs of life.
In order to collect the light and focus it into its camera, the mirror* Webb uses is 6.5 meters across much larger than Hubble’s 2.4-meter-wide mirror. The size advantage gives Webb 6.25 times more surface area to collect light in the universe, letting it see further and more detailed. However, the mirror also needs to be small enough to fit into a rocket to be launched into space. To fit the telescope in the rocket, engineers built the mirror with 18 honeycomb-shaped segments* that could fold up. And during Webb’s journey to the orbit, they will unfold, creating one large mirror.
Now, Webb has been in its orbit for several months, and it will send back its first images in June. By the time, the results will prove it is of great value to put so much time and money in building it.
1. NASA put off sending Webb into space because ________.| A．there wasn’t enough money for the further research |
| B．Webb’s orbit was too far away for the rockets to reach |
| C．it was not necessary to send Webb into space so early |
| D．it was hard to make Webb work excellently in its orbit |
| A．costing much more efforts to be designed and built |
| B．working in a shorter distance away from the earth |
| C．using a 2.4-meter-wide mirror to collect more light |
| D．collecting infrared light to explore the start of space |
| A．People still need to be patient for the results of Webb’s first try. |
| B．It’s close to the orbit and will send back its pictures this summer. |
| C．The mirror it uses has been half unfolded since it was launched. |
| D．It is the largest and most expensive space telescope in the world. |
| A．Future of Making New Space Telescope |
| B．A Space Telescope with High Expectation |
| C．Challenges for exploring further universe |
| D．A Special Mirror for Collecting Lights |
