He was a journalist (记者) and a political critic (评论家). But to most people, he is the most influential martial arts novelist in the Chinese-speaking world.
During his lifetime, Louis Cha Leung-yung, better known by his pen name Jin Yong, wrote 15 martial arts novels. Over 300 million copies of his books have been sold around the world. He also created some of the most famous characters in the history of Chinese literature, including Guo Jing, Wei Xiaobao and Linghu Chong.
Jin Yong was not the first person to write about the martial arts world known as jianghu, but it is believed that he has written some of its best stories. His works were not only a joy for people to read, but also helped to shape Chinese people’s spirit and values in recent years.
Jin Yong once said, “Wuxia (martial arts novels) is not so much about wu (kung fu), but mainly about xia, something of bravery, justice (正义) and self-sacrifice (自我牺牲).” These values have been passed on to generations of Chinese through his books as well as the countless movies and TV series that have been adapted from his novels.
Jin Yong’s books are not only about heroes who fight for justice. They also show people the beauty of almost every aspect of Chinese culture.
“It is difficult to talk about Jin Yong’s cultural influence. He turns novels into an encyclopedia of Chinese history, medicine, geography, mathematics...” Boston University professor Petrus Liu said.
Jin Yong once said that he hoped people would still read his books even 100 or 200 years after his death. It is probably safe to say that as long as the noble (高尚的) qualities mentioned in his stories never die out, neither will his great works themselves.
1. From this passage, we can know Jing Yong is better known as a ________.| A．writer | B．critic | C．teacher | D．news worker |
①enjoy interesting stories of jianghu ②know and do Chinese kung fu
③learn Chinese culture and history ④form good values and qualities
| A．①②③ | B．①②④ | C．①③④ | D．②③④ |
| A．People will still value Jin Yong’s books with good qualities. |
| B．Jin Yong has such noble qualities that we will never forget him. |
| C．Jin Yong’s values of Wuxia make great sense to Chinese culture. |
| D．Jin Yong’s books will have less cultural influence after his death. |
| A．To shape the value of Wuxia. | B．To introduce the kingdom of kung fu. |
| C．To show justice and bravery. | D．To remember a writer of great works. |
How do people think differently? This has always been unusual. To search an answer, a scientist named J. P. Guilford started a famous study of creativity in the 1970s, known as the nine-dot puzzle (九点谜题). He asked the participants (参与者) to connect all nine dots using only four straight lines, without lifting their pencils from the page. All the participants looked for solutions within the square they imagined. Only 20 percent managed to break out of the square and continue their lines in the white space around the dots, while the rest of them were blinded by the boundaries (边界) of the square.
The results of Guilford’s study led him to a conclusion: creativity needs you to go outside the box. The idea was widely spread soon. Overnight, it seemed that creativity experts everywhere were teaching managers how to think outside the box. The idea was so popular that no one thought of checking the facts. No one, that is, before two different research teams— Clarke Burmham with Kenneth Davis, and Joseph Alba with Robert Weisberg—did another experiment.
To make sure that Guilford’s study is correct, both teams divided participants into two groups. The first group was given the same instructions as the participants in Guilford’s experiment. The second group was told to draw the lines outside the imagined box. Guess what? Only a little more than 20 percent solved the puzzle, which is no big difference from the result of Guilford’s experiment.
Let’s look a little more closely at the surprising result. Solving this problem requires people to think outside the box. However, direct and clear instructions to “think outside the box” do not help participants improve their performance. The widely spread idea that out-of-the-box thinking makes people more creative can, in some way, be dangerous. After all, with one simple but brilliant experiment, researchers had proved that the connection between thinking outside the box and creativity was a misunderstanding.
1. The nine-dot puzzle study is mainly focused on ________.| A．how people do things in real life | B．what people see in the experiment |
| C．how people think in different ways | D．what knowledge people have learned |
| A．To discover the main idea of Guiford’s study. | B．To show different views against Guiford’s study. |
| C．To collect supporting details for Guiford’s study. | D．To double-check the correctness of Guiford’s study. |
| A．boundaries sometimes make people think less creatively |
| B．clear instructions influence how people solve problems |
| C．few people performed better with the clear instructions |
| D．the methods of nine-dot puzzle study need to be improved |
| A．Puzzle Solving: A Key To Creativity | B．Nine-Dot Puzzle: A Magic Test |
| C．Thinking Outside the Box: A Misleading Idea | D．Creative Thinking: An Unusual Topic |
3 . Mobile apps are great and they can do so much to improve our lives. Here, we picked out three of our favourites that we hope you will enjoy too.
| Around Me The app can tell where you are like Baidu but it shows you any nearby points of interest within a certain area. Are you feeling hungry? Click on the “restaurants” and it will show you all your nearby choices. You can even book a hotel or find the movie time of a nearby theatre. |
| Moji Maker Now emojis (表情符号) have become an important part of online conversations. Moji Maker is here to help people design their own. The app can let you build your own emojis to express your emotions to friends. You can look through thousands of designs and put together your own emojis. The app also allows users to trade their special designs with one another. |
| Timeblocks Is your calendar always so messy that you can’t even see it clearly? Perhaps you should try Timeblocks, which could help you manage your time in a simpler and more organized way. Timeblocks is a mobile planner that adds a calendar, to-dos and notes together. It is able to show all of your things on one screen as if you were using a desk calendar. The app not only allows users to add different things, but also write them with one touch. |
1. According to the passage, the apps are __________.
| A．easy | B．free | C．common | D．helpful |
| A．Baidu. | B．Around Me. | C．Moji Maker. | D．Timeblocks. |
| A．We can’t send our emojis to friends at Moji Maker. |
| B．We can buy or sell some new emojis at Moji Maker. |
| C．We don’t know what film is on nearby at Around Me. |
| D．We can see only one thing on one screen at Timeblocks. |
There is a saying that, “Earthquakes don’t kill people, but buildings do.” It seems sadly true. Tens of thousands of people died under bricks（砖）of the damaged（毁坏的）buildings in Turkiye and Syria during the recent earthquakes. Is there a way to build earthquake-proof buildings? Engineers have some life-saving ideas.
To prevent earthquake waves from going through the building, one way is to “lift” the building’s foundation（地基）above the ground. The building can be built on top of pads（热状物）, which are usually made up of steel and rubber （橡胶）. During earthquakes, only the pads move and the building stays steady.
Earthquake proof materials must be easy to ben（弯曲）without breaking. Some of these materials include steel, wood（合金）and bamboo. In Japan, most traditional houses are built with wood instead of concrete（混凝土）, wooden buildings bend to avoid building up stress.
Triangles（三角形）are very strong shapes. When a force comes to one of the corners of a triangle, it will be reduced by going down each side. When the two sides of the triangle are squeezed（挤压）), they lean（倾斜）on each other. During earthquakes, triangles can hold the building together when it shakes. Many earthquake-proof buildings use this shape in the design, both inside and outside the structure.
US company Arx Pax is developing magnetic field（磁场）technology that can raise houses above ground when earthquakes happen. When the sensors in the home feel earthquakes, they will tell “hover engines（悬停引繁）”. These will create an opposing（相反的）magnetic field to lift the house off the ground. Maglev trains use similar technology, so the company believes it can be used in buildings as well.
Japanese company Japan Dome House has made dome shaped（四顶状的）houses with Styrofoam（泡沫塑料）. Styrofoam is a very light material. The whole house weighs only 80 kilograms. So when earthquakes happen, the house will not hurt people.
A． | B． | C． | D． | E． | F． |
5 . A Japanese company has created a “smart’’ mask to improve communication for people wearing face coverings to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The use of face masks has become the new normal in parts of the world still trying hard to reduce spread of the coronavirus. However, masks and other kinds of coverings can affect the quality of communication between wearers.
It can be more difficult to hear voices through the coverings. Many business and public spaces also have social distance barriers in place, which also make it harder for people to be heard and understood.
The wearable electronic device is designed to help improve speech interactions in such conditions. The Japanese startup company Donut Robotics calls its invention the “e-mask”. The device is worn over other common face masks.
The e-mask is made of soft plastic material. It has a built-in microphone and holes in the front to let air in. When it is turned on, the mask uses Bluetooth technology to connect to a mobile device. An app then helps users perform several actions, including turning speech into text, completing telephone calls and making the user’s voice louder. If needed, when people speak, the text of the conversation can also be displayed on a large computer screen, which makes modern online meetings possible. During a company meeting, minutes can be created and translated without typing.
Donut Robotics plans to create a world where people can connect with each other from a distance better. The e-mask will be equipped with a Wi-Fi router. And the company is planning to install AR function as well.
“About 6,000 e-masks have been sold in Japan since a year ago.” Taisuke Ono, the head of Donut Robotics said, “I have received strong interest in the product and I believe it will sell well in China, the United States and Europe.”
1. The e-mask was invented in order to ________.| A．tell people to keep social distance | B．help people to be heard more clearly |
| C．change people’s ways of communication | D．improve the quality of the common mask |
| A．A mobile app | B．An hole in the front | C．A microphone | D．The plastic material |
| A．e-masks are very popular in the world now |
| B．electronic devices will be replaced by e-masks |
| C．people will buy more e-masks than common ones |
| D．Taisuke Ono is sure of the bright future of e-masks |
| A．the ways to use the e-mask better | B．the invention and function of the e-mask |
| C．the ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19 | D．the advantages and disadvantages of the e-mask |
Beep! Beep! Barcode technology makes it faster and easier to buy things in stores.
You’ve probably seen the black-and-white zebra stripes on product packaging. But can you imagine this great invention is more than 50 years old? In 1971, engineer George Laurer came up with a barcode that could be printed on food labels. Later, he designed the Universal Product Code barcode, which was used by many supermarket companies starting in 1973, according to The New York Times. Before this, cashiers who received and paid out money in shops had to record prices by hand.
Time has proven it to be a great invention. Today, barcodes are scanned over 6 billion times every day and used by 2 million companies worldwide, PR Newswire reported.
What information does a barcode include? Where the product comes from, where it has been, its price, expiration date...you name it. It can also help stores keep track of their products. For example, if there are 10 boxes of milk and a customer buys one, it will be recorded so that the store owner knows there are nine boxes left. In the 1980s, libraries started using barcodes to keep track of books in this way.
The next generation of barcodes, such as QR codes, can hold more information. “They can tell customers if a product contains allergens or if it is organic. This provides customers with a greater level of trust in the products they buy,” said GS 1, an organization that develops global barcode standards.
1. According to the passage, barcodes were ________.| A．designed to save money | B．invented about fifty years ago |
| C．first written on food boxes | D．made by a cashier in a supermarket |
| A．who made the products | B．where the products come from |
| C．how much the products are | D．how many products have been sold |
| A．will offer more information about barcodes |
| B．will replace the old generation of barcodes soon |
| C．can help customers know more about the products |
| D．can tell customers what allergens will make them sick |
| A．encourage us to design more barcodes | B．let us realize the influence of barcodes |
| C．help us know some facts about barcodes | D．introduce us the new generation of barcodes |
How do you feel when your teacher asks you to work in a group with other students? Do you like to work together with others or work alone?
The Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, did a survey of students’ ability to work together in groups. They found that students who do well on tests by themselves are also possibly better at working with other people.
This finding was true for many countries. Students in Japan, South Korea, Finland and Canada, where test scores are high, also did well in working together to solve problems. But this was not always the same in every country. Chinese students, who have high scores as well, however, showed average collaborative ability.
“One reason might be that Chinese parents and teachers pay too much attention to scores,” said Zhao Zhongxin, former vice president of the Chinese Family Education Association. “Students have to face a lot of exams and they think school is a place for competition.”
“However, collaborative ability is very important for preparing students for today’s society,” he added. “Luckily, more Chinese parents and teachers have known the importance of this and are thinking of ways to help students with this ability.”
Another interesting finding from the PISA survey was that girls are better than boys at working together. They said girls are more positive to collaborate, which means they are ready to listen to others’ ideas.
PISA also found that the classroom environment will influence how well students collaborate. Students may do better towards collaborating if there are a lot of activities, such as class debates, group work.
1. PISA did a survey on students’ ability of________.| A．working with other people | B．getting high scores on tests |
| C．working out difficult problems | D．making plans for schoolwork |
| A．angry | B．careless | C．pleased | D．helpful |
| A．Give students high scores on every test. |
| B．Help students to face exams. |
| C．Ask girls to work with girls instead of boys. |
| D．Design more communicative activities in class. |
| A．boys do better at working with others than girls |
| B．collaborative ability is more important than test scores |
| C．the classroom environment can influence students’ collaborative ability |
| D．students who do well on tests are better at working with others in every country |
| A．The importance of collaborative ability. |
| B．The findings about collaborative ability. |
| C．The ways of improving collaborative ability. |
| D．The difference between boys’ and girls’ collaborative ability. |
8 . How to be successful? After reading the following, you may get the answer.
 | Mark Zuckerberg, born on May 14, 1984 in America, was good at computer, and now is the boss of Facebook. He married Priscilla Chan and had a daughter. In only 8 years, Zuck made his small website into a world famous one. Zuck once wrote to his friends, "Life is not always easy. You should always keep your dream and work hard." |
 | Nick Vujicic was born, without arms and legs, in 1982 in Melbourne, Australia. Nick met all kinds of difficult things in his life. But he never gave up. Now Nick has his own company. He likes to tell his life story to people. He says attitude is the most important in life and it can help you be successful. |
 | The famous scientist and thinker, Charles Darwin, was born on February 12, 1809, in England. As a boy, Charles liked to go for walks in the forests. He enjoyed watching trees, flowers, animals and comparing what he saw with everything he had read in science books. In 1859, Darwin finished his famous book The Origin of Species and the book changed the world a lot. |
1. Mark Zuckerberg comes from________.
| A．the US | B．England | C．Australia | D．China |
| A．Charles Darwin | B．Nick Vujicic |
| C．Mark Zuckerberg | D．Priscilla Chan |
| A．English | B．science | C．music | D．math |
| A．Nick Vujicic is the boss of Facebook and is very rich. |
| B．Darwin wrote the The Origin of Species at the age of forty. |
| C．Mark Zuckerberg was good at computers and had a son. |
| D．The Origin of Species is a book about science. |
| A．diary | B．storybook | C．magazine | D．guidebook |
