1 . There are so many kinds of animals on the earth, but do you know some of them are in danger?
| The polar bear is the largest bear. It lives in one of the coldest areas in the world. Its thick fat and hair help it stay warm, and its white appearance（外表） on the snow can protect it as well. | The pangolin（穿山甲） is one of the endangered animals on the earth. It stays in the cave（洞穴） during the day and comes out in the evening for food. When it comes to natural enemies（敌人）, the pangolin will curl（卷） into a ball to protect itself. It is very smart, isn’t it? |
| The Siberian tiger, also known as the Northeast China tiger, is one special kind of tiger. It’s the largest living cat by weight. The male（雄性的） tiger is about 3 meters long. Its tail is about 1 meter long, and its weight can reach to 350 kg. It’s a pity that there are fewer tigers now. | The panda is one of China’s symbols. Most of them mainly live in Sichuan Province and Gansu Province in China. They are black and white and like eating bamboo. Though they look fat, they can climb trees and swim well. Now, there are only about 1,864 pandas in the wild, so we must take action to protect them. |
1. How does the polar bear keep warm?
| A．By climbing the tree. | B．By curling into a ball. |
| C．By using its thick fat and hair. | D．By swimming in the water. |
| A．Now China has only about 1,864 pandas. |
| B．The Siberian tiger lives in the south of China. |
| C．The pangolin comes out for food in the evening. |
| D．The polar bear has almost no enemy because it is strong. |
| A．Let people know some cute animals. |
| B．Introduce the largest animal in the world. |
| C．Introduce the ways animals protect themselves. |
| D．Call on people to protect endangered animals. |
Chinese New Year Painting, or nianhua in Chinese, is a kind of traditional paintings to be put up on walls and windows during the Spring Festival. Its bright colors and different subjects show the Chinese great expectation for happiness and wealth.
Chinese New Year Painting is an old handicraft. Its original(最初的)form was a picture of a door god during the Tang Dynasty. Later, more subjects such as the Kitchen God, women and babies were included. As the Chinese New Year arrives, every family puts up its New Year paintings in order to say goodbye to the past and welcome the future. One of the most famous woodblock New Year paintings comes from Yangjiabu of Shandong Province. It covers all kinds of themes and forms. They reflect people’s everyday life.
As time went by, people found New Year paintings old-fashioned. Besides, they considered the door god too scary to hang in their homes. They wanted something more artistic. So in the middle of the 1980s, the sales of New Year paintings dropped greatly.
Usually, colorful woodblock New Year paintings are produced in four steps. Firstly, artists draw a simple sketch(素描)on the paper. Secondly, they make the simple sketch on the wood board and print a few samples(样品). Thirdly, they add color to the sample. Lastly, when the preparation is finished, the printers paint color on the color board, and then put paper on the wood board and brush the paper. Then the colorful woodblock New Year paintings are ready.
There are four main themes in the Chinese New Year paintings…
1. Which is the first form of Chinese New Year Painting?| A．A picture of babies. | B．A picture of a door god. |
| C．A picture of women. | D．A picture of the Kitchen God. |
| A．wanted something that was full of art | B．found New Year paintings unimportant |
| C．thought the door god couldn’t bring good luck | D．found it hard to produce New Year paintings |
| A．How artists add color to the sample. |
| B．What woodblock New Year paintings reflect. |
| C．How artists produce colorful woodblock New Year paintings. |
| D．Who makes the simple sketch on the wood board and the paper. |
| A．Culture. | B．Nature. | C．Education. | D．Health. |
| A．The history of Chinese New Year Painting. |
| B．The development of Chinese New Year Painting. |
| C．The process of creating Chinese New Year Painting. |
| D．The introduction to main themes of Chinese New Year Painting. |
3 . At some point in life, many people develop a mental(精神) problem. While most people get over it, for others it doesn’t go away easily.
The WHO says that about 20 percent of teenagers worldwide suffer from mental illness. It’s thought that the number of teenagers with mental illness around the world will increase by half by 2020. It will become one of the main causes of illness, and even death.
In China, the picture isn’t bright, either. About one tenth of teenagers under the age of 17 have a mental health challenge.
The world is changing fast. Study and relationships have always caused stress, but today the stress is much higher than before, the WHO said.
A research centre in Oxford University says that young people today have big stresses at school. For example, they experience bullying(欺凌). In a 2017 report, the centre noted that the Internet was a special source(渠道) of stress. Online, young people often see “messages about perfection” and this causes the young “great uncertainty about their futures”, says the centre.
Also, according to China Daily, Chinese people don’t ask for help with their mental problems. They fear that others will think less of them if they say that they are in mental trouble. Elaine Peng, a US mental health educator, makes a similar point. And in the UK, over three quarters of young people believe their mental problems have a social stigma. It is reported in 2017 that a quarter of young UK people wouldn’t ask for help if they developed a mental problem.
Young people who don’t ask for help for their condition may be creating problems for themselves in the future. Elaine Peng warned that, “If we hide our mental health, it may remain a problem forever.”
“My message for young people is, if you feel something is wrong within you—ask for help,” he told China Daily.
1. Which of the following is NOT the cause of stress according to the passage?| A．Heavy schoolwork. | B．Some information from the Internet. |
| C．Being bullied at school. | D．Certainty about the future. |
| A．They don’t think them serious. | B．They can get over them in time. |
| C．They can keep their mental health secret. | D．They are afraid of being looked down upon. |
| A．shame | B．advantage | C．help | D．pride |
| A．think less of themselves | B．avoid being bullied |
| C．ask for help as soon as possible | D．stay away from the Internet |
| A．ask research centers for help | B．show some different opinions from different countries |
| C．tell about teenagers’ stresses | D．call public attention on teenagers with mental illness |
4 . “What is the name of the supermarket? I can’t remember right now.”Have you ever heard your grandparents ask questions like this sometimes? Usually, we think that older people’s memory becomes bad because their brains get weak. But now a team of scientists at the University of Tubingen in Cermany has a new idea. “The human brain works slower in old age,” says Michael Ramscar, the team’s lead scientist, “only because it has stored more information over time.”The findings are based on a series of computer tests related to learning and memory.
Scientists had the computer read a certain amount of words and learn new things each day. When the computer “read”a small amount of data(数据), its performance on cognitive(认知的)tests was similar to that of a young adult. But if the computer took in larger amounts of data, its performance was similar to that of an older adult. Often it was slower, but not because its processing ability had dropped. Rather, increased “experience”had caused the computer’s database to grow, giving it more data to process—which takes more time. This is similar to how old people process information.
Imagine that one person knows just two people’s birthdays and can get them right each time he or she is asked. Another person knows the birthdays of 2,000 people, but can only match the right person to the right birthday 9 times out of 10. Can you say the first person has a better memory than the second person?
“The larger the library you have in your head, the longer it usually takes to find a particular word, ”Benedict Carey, a science reporter for The New York Times, wrote in an article about the study.
1. Why is the poor memory of elderly people mentioned at the beginning?| A．To introduce the new findings. |
| B．To describe the way elderly people live. |
| C．To express his or her care about the elderly. |
| D．To draw public attention to elderly people. |
| A．By telling stories. | B．By doing experiments. |
| C．Be making surveys. | D．By listing others’ opinions. |
| A．The data. | B．The brain. | C．The computer. | D．The information. |
| A．Memorizing birthdays is easy |
| B．the first person has a better memory |
| C．who has a better memory is uncertain |
| D．the second person can memorize 10% birthdays |
| A．How computers process data. |
| B．How to improve memory. |
| C．Old people can remember things easily. |
| D．More information makes the brain slower. |
5 . We all know that many inventions have changed our life a lot. They play important roles in our daily life. Here are some interesting inventions.
Morpher People refuse to wear helmets (头盔) because they’re thick and heavy. Morpher is a bike helmet made of plastic (塑料). It is just as strong as traditional helmets, but it can be folded almost completely flat, making it easier to carry. Morpher may be available for sale in stores in the near future. | Hyper Adapt Have you ever seen the movie Back to the Future? Maybe everyone wants the pair of shoes in the movie that can tighten or loosen by themselves. Now, thanks to the Shoe Factory, the dream is realized. When you push a button on the shoe, Hyper Adapt can tighten or loosen around the feet. |
Flyte Flyte is a light bulb that can float (漂浮) and turn. Flyte has been popular with most people since it came out in January. The company also introduced a lot of similar products, including a planter, Lyfe, which came out in June. | Little Printer It looks lovely and is called Little Printer. This machine can print news headlines (摘要), riddles and other things on a roll (卷) of paper. If you want to make your own little newspaper, don’t forget to use it. |
| A．steel | B．plastic | C．gold | D．wood |
| A．To protect our heads more safely. |
| B．To tighten or loosen by themselves around the feet. |
| C．To float and turn in the water. |
| D．To print news headlines, riddles and other things. |
| A．Morpher. | B．Little Printer. | C．Flyte. | D．Hyper Adapt. |
6 . In America, just as in Europe, men usually open doors for women, and women always walk ahead of men into a room or a restaurant, unless the men have to be ahead of the ladies to choose the table, to open the door of a car or do some other things like the above. On the street, men almost always walk or cross the street on the closer side of the ladies to the traffic (交通). But if a man walks with two ladies, he should walk between them. Then if the host (主人) or hostess (女主人) or both of them come in a car to get their guest for dinner, the guest should sit at the front seat and leave the back seat though there are no people sitting on it.
1. In America, men usually _________.| A．walk ahead of women | B．eat in a restaurant |
| C．walk behind women | D．drive a car to work |
| A．walk between them | B．run before them |
| C．follow them | D．go away |
7 . Beijing Opera(京剧) is our national opera. It has a history from 1790. Its music and singing came from Anhui and Hubei. There are four main roles(角色) in Beijing opera: Sheng, Dan, Jing and Chou.
Beijing Opera is full of famous stories beautiful facial(面部的) paintings, wonderful gestures (姿势) and fighting. Some of the stories are from history books but many of them are from famous novels(小说). The people in the stories usually can’t agree with each other. They became angry, sad and lonely. Sometimes they are worried. They find a way and everyone is usually happy in the end.
Beijing Opera is a part of Chinese culture. Now both young people and old people like it. Also, more people around the world are learning about Beijing opera.
1. How old was Beijing Opera in 2020?| A．210 years old | B．220 years old |
| C．230 years old | D．240 years old |
| A．music and singing | B．acting and fighting |
| C．music and acting | D．painting and singing |
| A．Angry | B．Sad | C．Happy | D．Worried |
| A．Newspapers | B．Famous novels | C．Magazines | D．history books |
| A．Beijing Opera only has a short history. |
| B．There are three main roles in Beijing Opera. |
| C．Beijing opera isn’t a part of of Chinese culture. |
| D．Both young and old people like it now. |
8 . In the natural world, some animals are very strong. They usually live alone, such as tigers. But for some small animals, they also have their way to survive (生存)—to work together with each other.
Meerkats (猫鼬) live in the desert, with enemies everywhere. To survive, they have all the skills to live there: They can hunt well. They can see their enemies from far away. But they cannot survive alone. They survive because of one skill—they usually live and work together as a team. For them, teamwork means life or death.
Meerkats live underground in large groups and have different group roles. Some watch for enemies, some look after the young meerkats and others go hunting. Meerkats can’t talk like humans, but they can transit information by different sounds. They can tell the others where the enemy is—an eagle (鹰) in the air flying towards them or a snake on the ground.
So what can people learn about from these amazing animals? They show us the importance of teamwork. Teams are small groups of people who work together, but have different skills. Teams usually make better decisions than one person alone. Because a team often has people with different skills, and it has more ideas than one person. Everyone in the team can help with making decisions. People usually work hard and feel good to be in a team. With more ideas, the group can choose the best answer to the problem.
Teamwork allows common people to achieve uncommon results.
1. What can we learn about meerkats?| A．They live in the forest. | B．They can’t hunt for themselves, |
| C．They can’t see enemies from far away. | D．They usually work together as a team. |
| A．collect | B．record | C．pass | D．keep |
| A．They make more careful preparations. |
| B．They spend a long time making a decision. |
| C．They have many people with different skills. |
| D．They allow common people to achieve uncommon results. |
| A．It only works for successful people. | B．It is important in people’s life and work. |
| C．It stops people from making good decisions. | D．It is sometimes not useful when making decisions. |
| A．Let’s protect the animals | B．Teamwork means life or death |
| C．Meerkats are wonderful animals | D．Teamwork makes the weak stronger |
9 . How do astronauts live and work on a space station? You can get the answer from the Tiangong Class, a series of lectures from China’s space station. In the Tiangong Class, Chinese astronauts will become the “teachers in space”. Months ago, three Shenzhou-13 astronauts, Wang Yaping, Ye Guangfu and Zhai Zhigang, gave their first class. Thousands of young students took the class.
With the help of the other two astronauts, Wang first gave the students a tour around. She showed students how to live and work on the space station. After the tour, the astronauts did some interesting experiments. In one experiment, Wang made a small water film and put a pink folded paper flower on it. Soon the flower blossomed (开花). “I made the flower with my daughter while on earth and I always think of her when I see the flower,” said Wang. “Students, all of you are flowers of the motherland. I hope your dreams can blossom like flowers.”
During the class, the students learned how different space is from the earth. Many students showed great interest in space and science. Wang Yihan, a fifth-grade student, said, “It was an eye-opening experience. The experiments really surprised me. They were wonderful! I want to be an astronaut too!”
1. Where was the Tiangong Class held?| A．On China’s space station. | B．On the moon. |
| C．At school. | D．In the reading room. |
| A．The science teacher. | B．Three China’s astronauts. |
| C．The guide. | D．The coach. |
| A．flew and jumped in space | B．did some exercise |
| C．cooked the space meal | D．did some interesting experiments |
| A．Hope of the motherland. | B．The future of the motherland. |
| C．Flowers of the motherland. | D．The rising sun. |
| A．They learned little about space. |
| B．They showed great interest in space and science. |
| C．They experienced some dull (枯燥的) experiments. |
| D．They all wanted to be an astronaut. |
10 . If you want to study abroad, letters of recommendation (推荐信) are very important. So how can we get a perfect letter of recommendation? Here is something you should notice.
Who: Letters of recommendation are the most useful when they are written by teachers, coaches, and youth group advisers who know you well. The people you ask should be able to describe your skills and your success as well as your personality (个性). Colleges prefer letters from your present teachers, because they know your recent work the most. Read instructions carefully, since some colleges may ask you to find a science or math teacher to write for you.
What: Since most letters of recommendation are full of praise for the person, colleges that take them seriously are trying to get to know the true you. The best letters are those that share personal stories about you and show the important qualities (品质).
How: There’s a good chance that the more information you give your recommender, the better the letter will be. I suggest that all students prepare an activity resume (简历) that includes the following: after-school activities; community service work; abilities to be a leader; prizes; work experience; and what you’ve done during your last three summers.
Why: Letters of recommendation can often be quite important when two students are compared and colleges can only pick one.
1. Why do colleges prefer letters from your present teachers?| A．They are good at math or science. | B．They know your recent work the most. |
| C．They can describe your skills and personality. | D．They will do everything to help you study abroad. |
| A．your skills | B．your success | C．your habits | D．your qualities |
| A．Abilities to be a leader. | B．Your parents’ jobs. |
| C．After-school activities. | D．Prizes and work experience. |
