1 . 2024 is the Year of the Dragon. Of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac (生肖), the dragon is the only unreal one. But Chinese people love it so much for thousands of years. And they always say they’re the “descendants (后代) of the dragon”. But how much do you know about the animal? Does it have the same meaning in different cultures?
Both people in the east and west think dragons are like snakes. Now in China, we can still find records of dragons. For example, some ancient jade carvings (玉雕) look like snakes in a letter “C”. In the west, people see dragons as big snakes in the old book The Penguin Book of Dragons.
However, stories about dragons are very different between the East and West. Dragons in China have a horse-like head, a long body but no wings (翅膀). People think they are beautiful and smart. And they can also bring good luck. While dragons in the west have shorter bodies and big wings. They often mean bad luck. Some of them can even blow fire from their mouth. For example, the evil witch (邪恶女巫) Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty, can turn herself into a big dragon!
East or west, in the world of fantasy, the dragon will always play an important role!
1. Of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, which animal is the only unreal one?| A．The cow. | B．The horse. | C．The mouse. | D．The dragon. |
| A．People in China. | B．People in Canada. |
| C．People in America. | D．People in Australia. |
| A．A letter C. | B．A strong tiger. |
| C．Big snakes. | D．Ancient jade carvings. |
| A．Dragons in the west have small wings. | B．Dragons in the west are smart animals. |
| C．Dragons in China have a cow-like head. | D．Dragons in the east can bring good luck. |
| A．Dragons and Snakes | B．The History of Dragons in China |
| C．Dragons in the East and West | D．The Symbol of Western Dragons |
Hangzhou, together with five other cities in Zhejiang, hosted the 19th Asian Games from Sept. 23 to Oct. 8. The Games was very “smart” with the use of many exciting technologies. Let’s have a look!
What if there was an accident during the game and the players needed first aid? Drones (无人机) could be used to send things over. Using a drone saves about 60 percent of the time. Medicine, blood and other things needed for first aid can be sent to people quickly.
Every dish at the Asian Games should be safe and healthy. In the kitchen of the athletes’ village in Hangzhou, there was a special system (系统) that could tell people’s faces. If a “stranger” went into the kitchen, an alarm would go off to let people know. The managers of the kitchen would also get messages on their phones. There is also a system to keep an eye on the temperature of the fridge.
Say that you were in Hangzhou and would watch one of the games. It would be sad if you couldn’t find your way. AR (增强现实技术) was here to help you. There is a mini program called the Hangzhou Asian Games AR service. You could turn on your phone’s camera and it would see where you were and then showed you the way.
1. The 19th Asian Games Hangzhou lasted for seven days.2. The “Drones” could be used to send people quickly in this passage.
3. The alarm in the kitchen can receive food messages from athletes.
4. The AR service can help out people who are lost to find their ways.
5. The passage is mainly about how technology works in 19th Asian Games Hangzhou.
3 . Yunnan is a beautiful province where many ethnic minorities (少数民族) live together. So there are many interesting minority festivals and you can take a look.
| Torch Festival The Yi people celebrate this festival to remember a hero, who once drove away grasshoppers with fire. During the festival, families light sticks in houses and outside in fields to send away bad luck. Other activities include horse races and bullfights (斗牛). |
| March Fair Festival It is an important festival for the Bai people to trade goods (货物). In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, businessmen from far and near came to the fair. Nowadays, there are huge crowds of people everywhere and they trade everything that one might expect to find. |
| Drying Clothes Festival It is one of the most important festivals for the Yao people. During the one-day festival, the Yao people dry their colorful clothes and shoes out of windows. They get together at the square to show off their embroidery (刺绣) skills. |
| Sisters’ Meals Festival It’s a celebration of love and spring for the Miao people. Miao girls dress up in their finest and cook four-color rice together, which stands for the four seasons. Single (单身的) young men and women enjoy singing and dancing together. |
1. The ________ people celebrate Torch Festival to remember a hero.
| A．Yi | B．Bai | C．Yao | D．Miao |
| A．Torch Festival | B．March Fair Festival |
| C．Drying Clothes Festival | D．Sisters’ Meals Festival |
| A．By cooking a big dinner. | B．By making the finest clothes. |
| C．By shopping with their sisters. | D．By singing and dancing together. |
| A．March Fair Festival started from the Ming Dynasty? |
| B．During Torch Festival, people seldom hold horse races. |
| C．Drying Clothes Festival only lasts one day every year. |
| D．Sisters’ Meals Festival celebrates the four seasons in a year. |
| A．health | B．culture | C．sports | D．business |
Does it really matter if we know how old animals are? To many scientists, it does.
When studying animal populations, it is very important for scientists to know how many animals there are and how old they are. This information can help scientists learn which animals are thriving (兴旺) and which ones need more care and help. Scientists usually use the following ways to tell animals’ age.
For many animals, their teeth can help scientists know their age. In some animals, some teeth don’t come in until a certain age. Take cows for example. Like humans, cows have two sets of teeth, milk teeth and permanent teeth (恒牙). They normally get their first pair of permanent teeth when they’re two years old. Then they have the next pair at age three, the third pair at age four...
Hair and skin (皮肤) can also provide information about age. Some animals will possibly get bad skin and gray hair as they get older. If you have an older dog, you may have noticed that its nose and mouth get grayer as it gets older.
Scientists are continuing to discover new and more ways of telling the age of animals. Recently, scientists learned that they could tell the age of humpback whales (座头鲸) by examining their DNA. That’s really good news!
1. Scientists study the populations of animals to know which animals can live the longest.2. Cows normally get their first pair of permanent teeth when they’re three years old.
3. As dogs get older, they might get grayer noses and mouths but their skin remains the same.
4. Scientists made a new achievement in telling the age of animals by examining their DNA.
5. The passage mainly introduces some scientific ways to tell animals’ age.
If you’re a fan of ships, don’t miss China’s first home-grown large cruise ship (邮轮) — “Adora Magic City”. The ship is 323.6 meters long, with 135,500 GT tons. It has the beauty of both traditional Chinese art and the Western style.
It can carry up to 5,246 passengers and provides them with rich and colorful activities. It has 16 floors and a total of 40,000 square meters of public living and relaxing space. People can shop at a large duty-free (免税) store on the cruise ship. It’s around 2,000 square meters in size. People on the ship will also enjoy movies and special food. There is even a kids’ playground with some water-play things and a big area for children to enjoy the sunshine.
The Adora Magic City began its first trip on January 1, 2024 and the trip lasted for seven days and six nights. The ship traveled 1,119 nautical miles, carrying more than 3,000 passengers. Longer lines will be planned in the future. “We expect the ship to become ‘a floating (漂浮的) name card at sea’,” said a Chinese government officer.
1. Both traditional Chinese art and the Western style can be seen on the Adora Magic City.2. The large duty-free store on the ship is around 40,000 square meters.
3. People can’t see a movie on the Adora Magic City.
4. The first trip of Adora Magic City is less than 8 days.
5. The text introduces some facts of Adora Magic City.
6 . Banana is a kind of popular fruit. It tastes good and you needn’t wash it before eating. However, British scientists say that the fruit may disappear by 2050.
One reason for this is climate change. Scientists collected information from 27 countries and areas. They produce 86 percent of the world’s bananas. Scientists found in the past 60 years, the temperature rise has really made the average production (平均产量) of bananas increasing year by year.
However, if temperatures keep rising, this advantage will disappear. Ten of the countries, including India, the world’s biggest producer of bananas, will produce fewer bananas. By 2050, the fruit may die out.
Don’t bananas like to grow in hot weather? In fact the perfect temperature for growing bananas is between 24℃ and 32℃. If temperatures get too high, they will stop growing.
Diseases (疾病) are another danger to bananas. Bananas are grown by shoot cuttings (茎段) instead of seeds. This means that all banana plants have the same genotype (基因型). In other words, if a disease is able to kill one plant, it could kill them all.
One serious disease is called Panama. It spreads easily. It has spread across South Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Australia. If one banana farm suffers from (感染) the disease, it will take 30 years until it is able to grow bananas again. Scientists haven’t yet found a way to treat this disease.
1. What does the underlined word “climate” in Paragraph 2 mean in Chinese?| A．降雨量 | B．气候 | C．土壤 | D．环境 |
| A．Bananas are widely grown in India now. |
| B．The best temperature to grow bananas is 33℃. |
| C．The higher the temperature is, the better bananas will grow. |
| D．Bananas will disappear because of the cold weather. |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
| A．Bananas won’t be as tasty as before. |
| B．All countries in the world can grow bananas well. |
| C．A disease is able to kill one plant, but it couldn’t kill them all. |
| D．Panama can make a banana farm stop producing bananas for a long time. |
| A．How to Grow Bananas | B．Let’s Protect Bananas |
| C．Bananas Might Go Away | D．The Bananas’ Growing Conditions |
7 . The elephant-foot drum is a very special instrument for the Dai people. The drum-making skill was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2011.
The elephant-foot drum dance is very popular among the Dai people. It can be danced by one or two people or a group of people. It is often performed during festivals. This form of dance was at first used to scare off evil and welcome the new year. Now it is a way for the Dai people to show their joy as well as their village culture. It also shows that the Dai people are kind, friendly and inclusive (包容的).
Xie Wenping, who is 32 years old, learned how to make these drums from his grandfather. “I was determined (下定决心的) to make more and better drums when I grew up,” Xie said.
But making an elephant-foot drum is no easy task. “Making an elephant-foot drum takes about 30 steps and one month,” Xie explained. First, Xie needs to choose the right wood and shape it like an elephant’s leg. Then he needs to hollow out the inside and cover it with cowhide (牛皮). The cowhide needs to go through many steps before it can be used on the drum. After that, Xie paints the drum with special patterns and adds a protective layer (保护层) on top. The last steps are tuning (调音) the drum and making it look nice. “A good elephant-foot drum should sound loud and strong when you beat it,” Xie said.
Even though making these drums can be repetitive (重复), Xie always feels encouraged when he sees his grandfather’s smile while making them. “Over the years, the number of craftspeople (工匠) skilled in making elephant-foot drums has gone down,” Xie said. “I feel like it’s my job to keep this tradition alive.”
To make it easier for people to enjoy the elephant-foot drum outside of Yunnan, Xie came up with the idea of making a smaller version (版本) of the drum and designing key chains that look like the drum.
1. What is the purpose of the elephant-foot drum dance now?| A．To compete with other villages. | B．To show their sadness and losses. |
| C．To show their friendliness and culture. | D．To scare off evil and welcome the new year. |
| A．easy | B．challenging | C．creative | D．the most exciting |
| A．The number of craftsmen is increasing. |
| B．The number of craftsmen is going down. |
| C．Its place has been taken by modem drums. |
| D．The tradition is no longer popular among the Dai people. |
| A．thought out | B．listened to | C．paid attention to | D．gave up |
| A．An Elephant-Foot Drum Maker | B．Making the Elephant-Foot Drum |
| C．Elephant-Foot Drum: A Cultural Treasure | D．The Art and Culture of Elephant-Foot Drum Dance |
School stress is something most students have to learn to deal with.
Deal with stress at once.
Find out where your stress comes from.
Is there a certain person, situation or environment causing you to feel stressed out?
If you don’t know how to deal with your stress, find someone to help you. If you’re at school, you may ask a teacher or a friend for help. If it’s a problem that you need help with right away, talk to someone in your classroom. If you’re not in a hurry, think about asking your parents or your teachers for help.
Move away from the situation if you can.
You can take a break by taking a walk outside. You can also make up a story about forgetting something in your car.
| A．Ask for help. |
| B．Do more exercise. |
| C．It will give you a reason to walk outside. |
| D．Get to know the way your body experiences stress. |
| E．My problem is that I can’t get on well with my family. |
| F．The first thing is to find out more about what’s causing it. |
| G．And it’s important to find a good way to deal with your stress. |
The popular TV series Meet Yourself (有风的地方) show the beauty of some intangible cultural heritages (非物质文化遗产) in Dali, Yunnan province. Let’s take a look at a few things.
Wood carving (木雕)
Jianchuan wood carving has a history of over 1,000 years. It has rich culture meanings. The carving usually uses patterns like flowers, plants and dragons. This type of wood carving is widely used in people’s buildings. Each piece of wood carving carries great efforts from the masters.
Tie-dyeing (扎染)
Tie-dyeing is an old dyeing skill. It started as early as in the Tang Dynasty for a small part of people. But now, tie-dyeing has modern things on clothing and bags, selling at home and abroad.
Flower cake
Flower cake is no doubt the most popular snack of Yunnan province. It has a history of more than 300 years. Even the Qing Dynasty emperor Qianlong was its big fan. The most special part of the cake is that it has flowers in the cake.
These traditional skills not only stand for Chinese wisdom, but also add colors to our modern lives.
1. Jianchuan wood carving has rich culture meanings.2. We can know that tie-dyeing isn’t an old dyeing skill.
3. The flower cake has a history of more than 3,000 years.
4. These traditional skills only stand for Chinese wisdom.
5. The passage mainly introduces some intangible cultural heritages in Dali.
10 . With the development of science and technology, our daily life is becoming more colorful and more convenient.
| The Bookless Library | Can you imagine walking into a library and finding all books have turned into computers? The world first bookless public library plans to open in San Antonio, Texas. Computers will take the place of books. |
| Google Glass | Google Glass is a pair of glasses with a battery (电池) hidden inside the frame (边框). It can carry out many of the same tasks as smart phones. The glass has a hidden camera and a tiny screen. It is designed to take hands-free photos or videos of anything people are doing. |
| A New Kind of Shirt | Hate washing clothes? You’re going to love this kind of shirt made by an American clothing company, Wool & Prince. This shirt can be worn for 100 straight days without washing! The Wool & Prince shirt never needs ironing (熨烫). |
| An Underwater Hotel | It looks like a spaceship but it is actually a picture of an underwater hotel. A company plans to build in the sea which is about 18 meters below the surface. The whole building is underwater and you can get to it by swimming and diving. |
1. Where is the world first bookless public library planed to open?
| A．In Gray, Indiana. | B．In Anchorage, Alaska. |
| C．In San Antonio, Texas. | D．In Los Angeles, California. |
| A．It can take photos and videos. | B．It can be used for drinking. |
| C．It can be used for seeing a film. | D．It can read a book like a man. |
| A．The traditional clothes. | B．The Nike Clothes. |
| C．The Wool& Prince shirt. | D．A coat with a battery. |
| A．By walking into it. | B．By swimming or diving. |
| C．By taking a spaceship. | D．By driving a special car. |
| A．New Vehicles | B．New Problems |
| C．New Libraries | D．New Inventions |
