Big moments of the past 25 years
Hong Kong came back to China 25 years ago. There were many important moments.
1997
Hong Kong was returned to China. The “one country, two systems” policy started.
2003
Individual visits began. Before that, people from the mainland could only visit Hong Kong in groups.
2005
Hong Kong Disneyland opened in September. It is China’s first Disney theme park.
The city held the equestrian sports as part of Beijing Summer Olympics.
2012
Hong Kong high school graduates could study at some universities on the mainland. They just need to offer their local grades.
2018
Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge opened in October. People can drive from Hong Kong to Zhuhai in just 45 minutes.
2022
The government decided to improve Hong Kong International Airport. It will welcome 0.2 billion visitors every year in the future.
1. When did an individual from the mainland start to visit Hong Kong?| A．In 1997. | B．In 2003 | C．In 2005. | D．In 2008. |
| A．China’s first Disneyland park opened there. |
| B．Hong Kong held sports for Beijing Olympics. |
| C．Hong Kong people could go to Zhuhai more easily. |
| D．People started to use Hong Kong International Airport. |
| A．It tells great developments of Hong Kong. | B．It describes beautiful parks in Hong Kong. |
| C．It shows important buildings in Hong Kong. | D．It talks about famous people of Hong Kong. |
2 . The elderly people in care homes in London are given hens to look after to stop them feeling lonely. The project was started by a local charity. It also helps them to be healthier. Workers in care homes have reported old people use less medicine after hens are in use.
Among those taking part in the project is 80-year-old Ruth Xavier. She said, “I used to keep hens when I was younger and had to prepare their breakfast each morning before I went to school. I like the project a lot. I am waiting there in my wheelchair in the morning letting the hens out and waiting there again at night to see they’ve gone to bed. It’s good to have a different interest. People have been bringing their children to see the hens and they come and sit outside to watch them. I’m enjoying the creative activities, and I feel great to have a sense of achievement*.”
There are now 700 elderly people looking after hens in 20 care homes in the North East, and the charity has been given money to start it all over the country. Wendy Wilson, a care manager at 60 Penfold Street, one of the first to embark on the project, said, “Elderly people really welcome the idea of the project and the creative way. We are looking forward to the good result and the fun the project can bring to people here.” Lynn Lewis, director of Notting Hill Pathways, said, “we are happy to be taking part in the project. It will really help connect old people through a shared interest and creative activities.”
1. What is the purpose of the project?
| A．To help old people learn new knowledge. | B．To provide part-time jobs for the aged. |
| C．To raise money for elderly people. | D．To improve the elderly people’s life. |
| A．She has learned new life skills. | B．She has done something useful. |
| C．She has made her memory better. | D．She has developed a strong will. |
| A．improve | B．know | C．begin | D．refuse |
| A．It is popular with old people. | B．It needs to be more creative. |
| C．It makes a lot of money. | D．It takes time to see the results. |
Today, we think weekends and takeouts (外卖) are nothing special. However, did the ancient people enjoy them as well? What were their lives like?
In ancient China, there were no “weekends” because people did not use a weekly calendar (日历). But people could still relax after work. During the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), officials (官员) took one day off every five days. During the Tang Dynasty (618-907), officials worked for ten days and rested for one day. They usually bathed and washed their hair on their day off, known as “xiumu”. People like farmers and businessmen usually worked most of the year. But they would take a few days off during the Spring Festival. During the Ming and Qing dynasties. People also took days off for Emperor’s (帝王的) birthday.
Many people like ordering takeouts to fill their stomach today. In fact, ancient people did the same thing! People at that time even had special meal boxes for takeout dishes. It was along wooden box with several layers (层). They also used warming plates made of two layers of porcelain (陶瓷). Hot water could be put between them to keep dishes warm!
According to history books. Emperor Xiaozong (1127-1194) in the Song Dynasty liked to order takeouts late at night. His servants would go around the city to pick up dishes and bring them back to the palace. Common people also ordered takeouts. Restaurant waiters would go out into the streets and shouted out which dishes could be ordered that day. People would then place an order. Later, delivery men would bring food to customers’ homes.
How interesting these history facts are!
1. How does the writer begin the topic?| A．By sharing facts. | B．By giving examples. | C．By telling stories. | D．By asking questions. |
| A．Officials still had to work on Emperor’s birthday. |
| B．Officials usually had a bath and rested on xiumu. |
| C．Officials could rest because of the weekly calendar. |
| D．Officials got a rest after five-day work in Tang Dynasty. |
| A．Boxes. | B．Plates. | C．Layers. | D．Takeouts. |
| A．To show people the fact of Emperor’s life. |
| B．To help people with learning modern history. |
| C．To make people know how to order takeouts. |
| D．To let people know more about ancient China. |
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 |
6 . 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. |
Have you ever heard about the whitest paint in the world? In September 2021, researchers at Purdue University in the US, had invented a paint that received a Guinness World Records for being the whitest in the world. But that isn’t the paint’s only special quality (特征).
The paint is developed by professor Xiulin Ruan and his team. It is so white that it could reduce (减少) the need for air conditioners. It works through a cooling technology that offers great promises to reduce space cooling cost and global (全球的) warming. “When we started this project seven years ago, we had saved energy and fought climate (气候) change in mind.” Ruan said in This Is Purdue. They wanted to invent a paint that would reflect (反射) sunlight away from a building, largely reducing the need for air conditioners.
In a report written by Ruan’s team, the researchers explain the white paint reflects up to 98.1% of sunlight, and sends infrared heat (红外线热) away from its surface (表面) at the same time. The paint takes in less heat from the sun than it gives out, so the outside of an object covered with this paint is cooled below surrounding (周围的) temperature without so much air conditioning. However, other paints get warmer rather than cooler. They reflect only 80%-90% of sunlight and do not have special qualities to make the outside of objects cooler than their surroundings.
“If you were to use this paint to cover a roof (屋顶) area of about 1,000 square feet, we think that you could get a cooling power of 10 kilowatts. That’s more powerful than the central air conditioners used by most houses, ”Ruan told in This Is Purdue. In other words, ______. The paint will probably help buildings depend less on air conditioning systems that are the cause of a part of the global warming.
You can’t buy the paint just yet, but researchers are working with a company to put the paint on the market. Someday we could cool our homes simply by painting our roofs with the whitest paint and it could help fight against climate change.
1. What is known about the paint?| A．It has different colors. | B．It uses heating technology. |
| C．It is friendly to environment. | D．It doesn’t cost much money. |
| A．It makes the objects warm. | B．It cools the surface of the objects. |
| C．The objects reflect half of sunlight. | D．The objects take in infrared heat. |
| A．it’s much cheaper to use this paint than air conditioners |
| B．using air conditioners too much can cause global warming |
| C．scientists need to improve this paint to solve more problems |
| D．this paint could take the place of air conditioners in some places |
| A．To introduce a special paint. |
| B．To advise people to cool homes. |
| C．To tell the use of air conditioners. |
| D．To share reasons of climate change. |
①Most people agree that honesty is a good thing. But does Mother Nature agree? Animals can’t talk, but can they lie in other ways? Can they lie with their bodies and behavior? Animal experts may not call it lying, but they do agree that many animals, from birds to chimpanzees, behave dishonestly to fool other animals. Why? Dishonesty often helps them survive.
②Many kinds of birds are very successful at fooling other animals. For example, a bird called the plover sometimes pretends to be hurt in order to protect its young. When a predator gets close to its nest, the plover leads the predator away from the nest. How? It pretends to have a broken wing. The predator follows the “hurt” adult, leaving the baby birds safe in the nest.
③Another kind of bird, the scrub jay, buries its food so it always has something to eat. Scrub jays are also thieves. They watch where others bury their food and steal it. But clever scrub jays seem to know when a thief is watching them. So they go back later, unbury the food, and bury it again somewhere else.
④Birds called cuckoos have found a way to have babies without doing much work. How? They don’t make nests. But they get into other birds’ nests secretly. Then they lay their eggs and fly away. When the baby birds come out, their adoptive parents feed them.
⑤Chimpanzees, or chimps, can also be sneaky. After a fight, the losing chimp will give its hand to the other. When the winning chimp puts out its hand, too, the chimps are friendly again. But an animal expert once saw a losing chimp take the winner’s hand and start fighting again.
⑥Chimps are sneaky in other ways, too. When chimps find food that they love, such as bananas, it is natural for them to cry out. Then other chimps come running. But some clever chimps learn to cry very softly when they find food. That way, other chimps don’t hear them, and they don’t need to share their food.
⑦As children, many of us learn the saying “You can’t fool Mother Nature.” But maybe you can’t trust her, either.
1. A plover protects its young from a predator by ________.| A．getting closer to its young | B．driving away the adult predator |
| C．leaving its young in another nest | D．pretending to have a wound |
| A．chimps are always honest | B．chimps are sometimes dishonest |
| C．chimps are ready to fight others | D．chimps can be selfish |
| A．Cuckoos fool their adoptive parents by making no nests. |
| B．The losing chimp won the fight by taking the winner’s hand. |
| C．Some clever scrub jays often steal their food back. |
| D．Some chimps lower their cry to keep food away from others. |
| A．How does honesty help animals survive? | B．Do animals lie? |
| C．Does Mother Nature fool animals? | D．How do animals learn to lie? |
9 . When we see babies or pets, we can’t help gently touching them to show our love. And they give us happy feelings back. But a recent study shows that it’s different for plants.
In fact, ▲ . That’s because touching changes their genes and, even worse, can slow their growth. Professor Jim Whelan of the La Trobe Institute in Australia gave an explanation. “The lightest touch from a human, or even plants touching each other in the wind, leads to a huge gene change in the plant.”
In order to test the idea, the scientists did an experiment on plants. They grew a number of plants to the age of four weeks. Then they touched them with a paintbrush every 12 hours over a 36-hour period. They found that as a result, the mitochondria in the plants had been partly hurt. The mitochondria are the “powerhouse of the cell”. The mitochondria produce energy for the rest of the cell in both animals and plants. If this “powerhouse” is weakened, the plants will lose a large amount of energy that should have supported their growth. Whelan further explained, “If the touching is repeated, then plant growth is reduced* by up to 30 percent.” According to Science Alert, repeated touching or moving plants will make them grow shorter than others.
Although the touching does have a strong effect on plants, it’s not always bad. The researches believe, in some way, it could be helpful. It may help plants fight against insects and bad weather. The new research findings have led to a deeper understanding of the plants’ reply to touching. And the research might also “open up new ways to optimize growth in the future.” Science Alert reported.
1. Which of the following is the best for “ ▲ “ in Paragraph 2?| A．people like touching plants | B．plants don’t “like” to be touched |
| C．plants won’t grow if they are touched | D．people should touch plants as much as possible |
| A．shorten the life of plants | B．help plants produce more energy |
| C．make plants grow more slowly | D．cause the death of plants |
| A．improve | B．reduce | C．stop | D．fight |
| A．to touch plants often to show our love |
| B．some ways of helping plants grow better |
| C．advantages and disadvantages of touching plants |
| D．the differences of touching the plants and the animals |
A different kind of school in Pakistan is giving poor children, and even their mothers and grandmothers, a new chance to get an education (教育).
The programme is called Street to School. It is a way to keep these children off the streets, while providing them with a basic education and useful life skills. Organizers started it in 2014 to set up a school for children who played on the streets every day while their parents were working. Mohammad Hassan, the founder of the programme, says children who spend all day on the streets are in danger of catching dangerous illnesses and could also be caught up in crime (犯罪).
This programme centers on reading, writing and maths. Students are also taught English as well as the local language, Urdu. Street to School also includes sports activities and provides students with information on how to stay healthy and take care of themselves.
Street to School managed to get children off the streets. And running the school also taught Hassan another great need in the community. “We started this programme for kids, but we found very quickly the kids would bring their homework without parents’ signatures (签字). That meant kids were not getting the needed help at home to do their homework. So we decided to develop a special course for these parents.”
Tahira Bibi is a grandmother who has always worked as a clothes maker and never got the chance to attend school. She cannot read or write. She says watching her grandchildren pushes her to act. “When I watched my grandson and granddaughter studying. I also developed an interest in learning. I believe that learning has no ending.”
Street to School now teaches 15 adult women and Hassan expects this number to keep growing.
1. Hassan founded this programme, because street children ______.| A．are in terrible situations | B．are often caught in street crime |
| C．don’t want to work by themselves | D．aren’t smart enough to go to school |
| A．how to teach children well | B．why to provide the course |
| C．what things to teach children | D．where to hold sports activities |
| A．set an example for their children | B．manage their children’s time well |
| C．help their children with schoolwork | D．understand the importance of learning |
| A．No pains, no gains. | B．Practice makes perfect. |
| C．It’s never too old to learn. | D．Learn from yesterday, live for today. |
