1 . The British are known for their sense of humour, but it is often difficult for foreigners to understand their jokes. The main point to remember is that the British often use understatement.
Understatement means saying less than you think or feel. For example, if someone is very impolite and shouts at another person, someone else might say, “She isn’t exactly friendly.” Or if someone is sunburnt outside, he might say, “
Another key to understanding British humour is that the British like to make fun of themselves as well as others. They often laugh about the silly things that happen in our everyday life when someone falls over in the street. They also like to make jokes of people from different classes of society. They like to make jokes about the way they speak, the way they dress and the way they behave. What’s more, the British love to watch comedies about people who do not know how to behave in society. The famous Mr. Bean is a good example of this kind of humour.
Mr. Bean is the role played by British actor Rowan Atkinson in 1990. Mr. Bean doesn’t talk often. Instead, he uses his body movements and facial expressions to make people laugh. Perhaps what makes Mr. Bean so funny is that he does things that adults in the real world wouldn’t do. Mr. Bean is popular in many countries around the world because you don’t need to understand his humour with the help of English. As a result, British sense of humour has become well-known to many people.
1. How does the author explain “understatement”?| A．By listing facts. | B．By making a survey. |
| C．By giving examples. | D．By making comparisons. |
| A．It’s a little sunny today. | B．I love the sun so much. |
| C．The sun plays a joke on me. | D．The heat has nearly killed me. |
| A．The British prefer to laugh at themselves rather than others in their daily life. |
| B．The British usually fully express how they really feel or think in their conversations. |
| C．Most of English people suppose it’s impolite to make fun of people who can’t behave well |
| D．Mr. Bean is popular in the world because he often uses body languages instead of talking a lot. |
| A．Developing a Sense of Humour | B．Understanding British Humour |
| C．The Influence of British Humour | D．Movie Actors with British Humour |
2 . Dragon Head-raising Day is celebrated on the second day of the second Chinese lunar month to show respect to Dragon King and wish good weather for a big harvest. It is considered the start of spring and farming.
After the cold winter, spring comes and animals are awake, but because of the winter, the weather is dry and farming needs water. The story goes that after this day, the Dragon King who controls clouds and rains would wake from his winter sleep and bring rainfall for the crops.
On that day, there are lots of traditional celebration activities. First, in the early morning when it’s still dark, families go to a river or a well with lanterns to get water and then carry it back home. Then they light candles, burn incense sticks (香柱) and offer a sacrifice (祭品). This ritual is named Yintianlong (lead the field dragon). People believe the actions can bring wealth and health to their homes.
The most well-known tradition on the day is having a haircut. It’s a sign of good luck and energy in the whole year. However, it is very bad luck to get a haircut during the first lunar month.
Eating “dragon” food is another important part of celebrations. Chinese are best at connecting certain food with luck so food eaten on this day also gets special names. Noodles which are long and thin are called “dragon beard (long xu).” Dumplings are called “dragon ears (long er).” Spring rolls are “dragon scales (long lin)”, and people call popcorn “dragon seeds (long zi)”.
Those celebration activities may be different in the south and the north, and some activities are remained to nowadays, while some are just kept in the past. But the wish for a good year ahead is the same despite the change of time or space.
1. What do Chinese people think of the Dragon King?| A．It creates spring winds. | B．It controls the animals for farming. |
| C．It brings rains for lands. | D．It wakes after the first rain in spring. |
| A．A set of actions. | B．A kind of sacrifices. |
| C．The name of a dragon. | D．The word of greetings. |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
| A．To introduce the traditions of Dragon Head-raising Day. |
| B．To compare different traditions of the south and the north. |
| C．To explain the importance of “dragon” in Chinese culture. |
| D．To share experiences of celebrating Dragon Head-raising Day. |
Many scientists believe our love of sugar may actually be an addiction (上瘾). When we eat or drink sugary foods, the sugar goes into our blood and influences the parts of our brain that make us feel good. Then the good feeling goes away, leaving us wanting more. All tasty foods do this, but sugar has an especially strong influence. In this way, it is an addictive drug (药) that doctors suggest we should all cut down on.
“It seems like every time I study an illness and follow a way to the cause, I find my way back to sugar,” says scientist Richard Johnson, One-third of adults worldwide have high blood pressure, and up to 347 million have diabetes (糖尿病). Why? “Sugar, we believe, is one of the causes, if not the major (主要) cause,” says Johnson.
Our bodies are designed to live on very little sugar. Early humans often had very little food, so our bodies learned to be very experienced in storing sugar as fat. In this way, we had energy stored for when there was no food. But today, most people have more than enough. So the very thing that once saved us may now be killing us.
So what is the solution? It’s clear that we need to eat less sugar. The trouble is, in today’s work, it’s not easy to avoid. From breakfast cereals (谷物) to after-dinner desserts (甜点), our foods are increasingly filled with it. Some producer even use sugar to replace taste in foods that are advertised as low in fat. So while the foods appear to be healthier, plenty of sugar are often added.
1. What did scientists find about sugar?| A．It can be found in all tasty foods. | B．It is something that influence our brain. |
| C．It can make us feel good for a long time. | D．It is the main cause of high blood pressure. |
| A．Saving sugar as fat. | B．Having less energy. |
| C．Having no food to eat. | D．Eating too much fat. |
| A．People today seldom exercise. | B．We get used to eat it at school. |
| C．It’s in so many food and drinks. | D．Some producers sell too much sugar. |
| A．To remind readers to eat less sugar. | B．To ask scientists to fight against sugar. |
| C．To tell readers the illness caused by sugar. | D．To teach readers different ways to store sugar. |
“Do you know Macao was never my real name. I have been away for too long, mother ...”
Song of Seven Sons — Macao, was written by Wen Yiduo in 1925, is still in the hearts of Macao’s teenagers today. The Basic Law of Macao Special Administrative Region came out in 1993 and to work on Dec, 20, 1999, as Macao returned to China. From then on, it has become much easier to build a closer relationship with their motherland.
Chan U, an 18-year-old, is studying at the University of Macao. She said, “travelling to the Chinese mainland has become easier. Visits to Zhuhai have become a part of the daily life of some people.” Kun Lot U, 25, studies at the South China University of Technology. She said, “Many local people go to Zhuhai to buy vegetables as they are fresher and cheaper than those in local markets. Young people often go to Zhuhai to play jubensha, a role-playing game.”
The number of trips out of Macao in January was 2.23 million, and most of them went to the Chinese mainland. Cities like Chongqing, Changsha and Hangzhou are popular places for young people, according to Chan. Guangdong is also a good choice since the language and food are similar.
“Young people in Macao care a lot about what’s happening on the mainland,” said Kun, “Like the young people on the mainland, they also use apps from the mainland to know the hot issues (话题). They have learned many mainland Internet catchphrases (流行语). I know about the most popular ones such as ‘yyds’, and they make us understand more about people and life on the mainland.”
More than half of the people in Macao use online shopping apps from the mainland. Kun said that it’s because they can find almost everything they need at good prices on the apps. The products are first shipped to a collection station in Macao. It usually takes about three to seven days for local people to get the product. “The connection between Macao and the motherland is getting stronger and stronger,” said Chan.
1. Why does the writer mention Song of the Seven Sons — Macao?| A．To start a story. | B．To explain an idea. |
| C．To introduce a topic | D．To discuss a problem |
| A．Apps from the mainland. | B．Hot issues from the mainland. |
| C．Role-playing games from the mainland. | D．Internet catchphrases from the mainland. |
| A．Most people in Macao enjoy visiting Zhuhai in their daily life. |
| B．In January, 2.23 million people in Macao visited the Chinese mainland. |
| C．The language and food in Guangdong are different from those in Macao. |
| D．Online shopping apps from the mainland are popular with people in Macao. |
| A．The Daily Life of Young People in Macao |
| B．Macao, Staying Connected with the Mainland |
| C．A famous Song, Song of the Seven Sons — Macao |
| D．The Most Popular Places for Young People on the Mainland |
5 .
Smartphone Use in Teenagers’ Life | |
| There are about 6.8 billion smartphone users worldwide nowadays. And about 88% of teenagers aged between 13 and 17 use smartphones in their daily life. According to the latest report, they spend about 2 hours on smartphones every day. |
How do Teenagers Allocate (分配) Time on the Smartphone?
| |
What do Teenagers Think of the Smartphone? ◆Jenny: My mom and I love shopping on it. It saves time and money. ◆Lueas: When I feel nervous, I like to listen to music on it. It’s a good way to relax. ◆Mary: It makes our life convenient, but we should never spend too much time on it. ◆John: It is really useful and helpful and it helps me a lot when I have trouble in study. | |
1. According to the passage, teenagers spend about one third of their time ______ on smartphones.
| A．taking photos | B．playing games |
| C．sending text messages | D．watching and sharing videos |
| A．is a great learning tool for him | B．provides a good way to relax |
| C．makes it much easier to shop online | D．should not be used too much |
| A．School life. | B．World trade. |
| C．Health and environment. | D．Society and modern life. |
6 . Here are some ideas for learning English faster.
You are like a new baby. Babies learn their language slowly. First they learn to listen. Then they learn to talk. Finally, they can read and write.
Listen to English every day. Listen to English radio, watch English TV, go to see English movies or use online lessons. These are useful.
Read English stories. Start with children’s storybooks. Try to read stories for English start learners. Try English Club.
Write down new words. Start a new word notebook. Write words in alphabetical order （A…B…C）. Make some sentences. Try to use an English-English dictionary.
Keep an English diary. Start with one sentence. Like how do you feel? How is the weather? What did you do today? Write another sentence tomorrow.
1. The writer gave us ________ ideas for English faster.| A．four | B．five | C．six | D．seven |
| A．To Listen. | B．To talking. | C．To reading. | D．To writing. |
| A．Children’s textbooks. | B．Children’s storybooks. |
| C．Children’s picture books. | D．Children’s music books. |
| A．按音标顺序 | B．按简易顺序 | C．按字母顺序 | D．按长短顺序 |
| A．Babies learn to read and write first. |
| B．Listening to English radio is not helpful. |
| C．We should always use an English-Chinese dictionary. |
| D．We can start with one sentence to keep an English diary. |
Scientists understand why summer leaves are green and why they change to yellow or orange in the autumn. But autumn reds are different. Some leaves turn red. Others don’t. It’s amystery. Scientists want to find the answers.
All summer long, a green chemical called chlorophyll catches energy from sunlight for photosynthesis, a process that makes food for the plant. Yellow and orange chemicals called carotenoids are there through the summer, hidden by the chlorophyll. In the autumn, photosynthesis stops, and chlorophyll breaks down.Then carotenoids show through in the leaves. This explains the autumn colours of yellow and orange, but not the reds of trees. The source of the reds is anthocyanin which the leaf doesn’t start making until autumn.
But why do trees use a lot of energy to make anthocyanins in the leaves as the trees are preparing to drop them for the winter?Perhaps anthocyanins help a leaf save nutrients it stored up in the growing season. Dr.Eppes and her students ran a study to test that idea. In a protected area in North Carolina, they counted the types of trees that live in rich soil low on the hillsides, and the types that live in poor hilltop soils. Low on the hillsides, they found more birches and other trees that can’t make anthocyanins. These trees have yellow or brown autumn leaves. On the hilltops, most of the trees were red maples and others that can make anthocyanins, giving them red leaves in the autumn.
“Trees that don’t make anthocvanins seem to naturally live at places where nutrients get added to the soil every time the river floods, ” Dr.Eppes says. “Trees that make anthocyanins seem to live in places without this special ‘meal’.” She guesses the anthocyanins may lie in the soil after he leaves drop, fertilizing the tree in the spring,
Other scientists find that for trees that make anthocyanins, the leaves that get more sun tend to turn redder than those in shade. They think the anthocyanins work like sunscreen, protecting the leaf when it moves nutrients into the tree and stores them for the winter.
Scientists are not sure about why nature paints some autumn leaves red yet, but they are a few steps closer!
1. The underlined word “mystery” in Paragraph 1 means “something ________”.| A．useless | B．unknown | C．incorrect | D．impossible |
| A．gets plenty of energy from sunlight |
| B．makes leaves turn red in the autumn |
| C．helps change solar energy into food for trees |
| D．is hidden by the chlorophyll all summer long |
| A．may get nutrients from their fallen red leaves |
| B．are more likely to be found low on the hillsides |
| C．mainly live in the soil with nutrients from river water |
| D．can protect their autumn leaves against strong sunlight |
| A．Dr. Eppes did the research on autumn trees on her own. |
| B．Scientists have known the secret of red autumn leaves. |
| C．Scientists have different ideas on the function of anthocyanins. |
| D．Dr. Eppes finds trees that make anthocyanins have different reds. |
8 . The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on December 25, 2021. It’s a space telescope developed by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Agency. Named after James E.Webb, who created Apollo program, this telescope is a replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope, which headed to space in 1990.
Webb is different from Hubble in some ways. It can see infrared light which makes it possible to look through clouds of gas and dust in the universe and explore the very distant galaxies.With a 6.5-meter-wide golden mirror, it can collect more than six times as much light as the Hubble mirror, so it can see tiny objects more clearly. To “see” faint galaxies in infrared light, Webb needs to be extremely cold, or it would only see its own infrared light. Made of a thin plastic, the heat shield is five layers thick, and it keeps the mirror at minus 234°C. Besides, Hubble moves only about 550 km above Earth while Webb orbits the sun, 1.5 million kilometres away from Earth. This lets Webb stay in line with Earth, allowing the moon to protect it from the light and heat of the sun and Earth.
As the most powerful telescope ever made, Webb is a giant step forward in human space exploration. With it, scientists can observe the very distant galaxies to see how the first galaxies forming out of the darkness. By comparing the earliest galaxies with today’s, they may understand how galaxies have changed over time. It’s also possible for them to study the atmospheres of the faraway planets and search for possible signs of life. Above all, seeing through and into clouds of dust also allows them to find out where stars and planetary systems are being born. This is the primary goal of Webb.
Webb is scheduled to work in space for between five and ten years, so it has enough time to send back fascinating data and images and give us a big surprise.
1. Webb is a space telescope that ________.| A．was sent to space in 1990 |
| B．will take the place of Hubble |
| C．was made by NASA alone |
| D．is named after Webb’s creator |
| A．works in higher temperatures |
| B．can look deeper into the universe |
| C．moves closer around the earth |
| D．can see tiny objects as clearly as it |
| A．Looking for life on the faraway planets. |
| B．Studying the formation of the first galaxies. |
| C．Studying new stars and planet formations. |
| D．Finding out the change process of galaxies. |
| A．The Working Time of Space Telescopes |
| B．The Differences between Webb and Hubble |
| C．The Most Powerful Telescope Has Come |
| D．The Discoveries Scientists Have Made with Webb |
9 . Having a learning disability (缺陷、障碍) doesn’t mean you can’t learn, but you’ll need some help and you’ll need to work very hard. If you have a learning disability, remember that you are not slow.
Learning disabilities can be genetic. That means they can be passed down in families through your parents, even your grandparents.
“Dyslexia” is a learning disability that means a kid has a lot of trouble reading and writing. Kids who have trouble with math may have “dyscalculia”. Other kids may have “language disorders”, which means they have problems understanding language and understanding what they read.
How do we tell if a student has a learning disability? Reading, doing math, and writing letters may be difficult for lots of kids at first. But when those early troubles don’t fade away (逐渐消失) after they have grown up (长大), and they can’t deal with (处理) them and to make any progress (进步), it’s possible the kid has a learning disability.
Finding out you have a learning disability can be sad. You might feel different from everyone else. But the fact is that learning disabilities are pretty common. And if you have a learning disability, you can start getting the help you need to do better in school. But to make this special help really work, you’ll need to practice the new learning skills. It may take a lot of practice every day. That can be a challenge (挑战), but you can do it. Soon, you’ll make progress and enjoy the results of all your hard work: more fun and success at school.
1. What does the underlined word “genetic” mean in the passage?| A．变异的 | B．遗传的 | C．特殊的 | D．个别的 |
| A．It is a physical (生理的) illness. |
| B．It can be treated easily by doctors. |
| C．It always happens to only a few children who are lazy. |
| D．A learning disability needs new learning skills. |
| A．He/She always fails in exams. |
| B．He/She will always be laughed at by others. |
| C．He/She will enjoy more fun at school. |
| D．He/She will get into trouble in learning a certain subject. |
| A．I can’t get good grades. |
| B．The teacher says I am a slow student. |
| C．I can’t deal with early troubles when I have grown up. |
| D．My learning style is quite different from others’. |
| A．can’t understand math | B．cleverer than common kids |
| C．can also make progress | D．can’t learn by themselves |
10 . Chinese astronauts gave a science lesson to millions of students on Dec 9, 2021. They did so from 400 kilometers above Earth, from the Tiangong space station. The three, Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu, showed life in space and did experiments in gravity.
“It was the first lesson of the Tangong class, China’s first in space.” noted China Daily. “Its goal is to make more people know space science.”
“The lab of the space station has many conditions that the Earth lab does not have, such as the environment of weightlessness and radiation.” Wen Xin, a professor at University, told Xinhua. He said that important jobs for astronauts in the space station include research of cell growth and plant life.
In the lesson, Ye did experiments that had to do with cell growth in a weightless environment. He compared the growth and shape of cells in artificial gravity and zero gravity to study their changing rules in space. This was not the first time that China has tried to grow plants in space. As early as 2016, Chinese scientists grew rice on the Tiangong Ⅱ space lab to study how plants grow without an Earth-like environment.
Another experiment in the space lesson was shown by Wang Yaping. She showed how a paper flower “bloomed” on the surface of water in Tiangong space station. She explained that the surface tension of water becomes stronger in space due to zero gravity. Surface tension is like a “skin” of water. One of the examples of surface tension on Earth is that some insects can walk on water. Most of the time, gravity is too strong and it breaks the “skin”. But with zero gravity in space, some insects can use surface tension to “stand” instead of falling through water. Surface tension plays a key role in product development. Researchers are measuring surface tension to improve the quality of their products. Detergent effect can be improved with even lower amounts. Surface tension also has influence in medicine development.
Although the astronauts are thousands of miles away, their research really influence our life. Shi Yi, a teacher, told China Daily that the space lesson was “an eye-opening experience that would attract more students to study science”.
1. What do we know about the science lesson?| A．Its goal is to study the cell growth in space. | B．It focused on the use of zero gravity in space. |
| C．It only showed experiments in artificial gravity. | D．It was the first lesson from China’s space station. |
| A．Ways to study the rules of cell growth. |
| B．How to better develop space-grown plants. |
| C．How cells grow in a weightless environment. |
| D．Differences between artificial gravity and zero gravity. |
| A．It always gets stronger when increases. | B．It makes insects fall through water In space. |
| C．It helps plants to grow better in space. | D．It can help to make better detergents. |
| A．Tiangong space station | B．Special teachers from space |
| C．A science lesson in space | D．A study of weightlessness |
