1 . “There’s more to life than bills and money.” The sentence comes from the film Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things. The film talks about minimalism, a style that supports the idea of “less is more”, while also questioning the thought that material things bring happiness. The principles* of minimalism show how we can take a serious look at the ways we spend money to live a more purpose-driven, joyful life.
A recent study carried out by Northwestern University shows that people who place greater value on material things have a higher chance of becoming low-spirited. People buy more, earn more in order to buy more, create more stress earning more, and are more likely to be low-spirited because of stress.
Minimalism presents a way out from that. Rather than working to buy more, we can spend less. It focuses on things that improve our lives, serve a purpose, and bring happiness.
Minimalists tell us we can use minimalism in all areas of life: relationships, technology, social media ... It means using not only our money, but our time and attention purposefully so we fill our lives with things that bring us happiness. Minimalism helps avoid things like spending too much or mindlessly checking your phones. It is all about the reexamination of your priorities so you can remove the extra things—the possessions, relationships and activities —that are of little value.
For each of us, different things have their own value. If some artwork brings some meaning to your life, great! If Saturday rides make you happy, then go for it. The minimalist lifestyle won’t look the same for everyone. You can bring more happiness into your life by slowly testing what you can live with and what you can live without. In the end, minimalism is about creating the freedom to enjoy a happier life.
1. A film was mentioned in Paragraph 1 to ________.| A．lead into the topic | B．show what is important in life |
| C．introduce what minimalists are | D．tell us the importance of a simple life |
| A．If people buy more, they can earn more. | B．Low-spirited people are more likely to buy more. |
| C．Spending a lot can put people under great stress. | D．People should spend their money on important things. |
| A．the most important | B．the most powerful | C．the most popular | D．the most diffficult |
| A．Principles of minimalism. | B．Lifestyles that most people enjoy. |
| C．Extra things that we should remove. | D．Advice on living a minimalist life correctly. |
2 . When it comes to Germany, music lovers might immediately think of Bach’s or Beethoven’s classical works, and soccer fans would call the Bundesliga one of their must-see events.
But how much do Germans know about China and Chinese culture? Three learners at the China Cultural Centre in Berlin recently shared with us their stories of learning Chinese and Chinese culture.
Andreas Pietsch is a history professor at the University of Münster. While learning Chinese at the centre, Pietsch, a music lover, was gradually drawn to traditional Chinese instruments. Two years ago, he began to learn to play guzheng. Having travelled to China several times, Pietsch said he planned to visit all the six sites on the Renminbi notes. So far he has visited five, except the Potala Palace in Tibet.
“My interest in Chinese started during my second trip to China,” said Alexander Straβmeir, president of State Office for Refugee Affairs. “Chinese has the most beautiful characters in the world. I chose to practise Chinese calligraphy because it shows the beauty of Chinese culture.” Though he finds the tonal system in Chinese really challenging, Straßmeir says he enjoys learning the language as it is like a mirror in which he could see a different way of thinking behind the language itself.
Keno Budde is an undergraduate student at the Free University of Berlin. Asked why he’s learning Chinese, Budde answered, “I made the decision after l saw clearly what would happen in the future.” Budde is impressed with some of the latest technologies coming from China, such as the high-speed trains, mobile payment and Huawei’s leading position in the 5G race. “Learning a language gives you the insight into a country’s culture. Learning Chinese can give us more chances in the future as China will go on growing,” Budde explained.
1. What is probably the Bundesliga in Paragraph 1?| A．Football news. | B．A group of football fans. | C．A football club. | D．A football competition. |
| A．He has never visited China before.. | B．Learning Chinese is not difficult for him. |
| C．He is planning to visit the Potala Palace in Tibet. | D．Learning Chinese gives him a new way of thinking. |
| A．Travelling helps to learn about a country’s culture. | B．Learning Chinese culture is interesting but difficult. |
| C．Learning Chinese is important because of China’s growth. | D．Germans are supposed to develop their own high technologies. |
| A．History. | B．Culture. | C．Science. | D．Sports. |
Traffic lights are red, yellow and green. They are very important signals. Traffic lights are usually put at busy street corners to help control traffic. Sometimes, they are on streets near schools and shops, too. Most young children are taught what each of the colored lights means, so everybody can stay safe.
The first traffic signals were used for trains. The signals were put alongside railway tracks. The color red was used to mean “stop” because it warned people of danger. A red light was also the easiest color to see far away. Train drivers could see the red “stop” light ahead and had enough time to slow down and stop their trains. A green light was used to mean “take care” and a white light meant “go”.
However, there were many dangerous accidents on the train tracks. Some train drivers thought a star shining in the night sky was a white light that meant “go”. So the signals were swapped. The “go” light was changed to green and the “take care” light was changed to white.
During these times, people travelled by train or in carts pulled by horses. Years later, when cars were built, people began to drive them because they could travel much faster than horses. However, the road rules for drivers were not very clear and many people were hurt crossing the roads. Yellow warning signs had to be put on the side of the roads to warn drivers to take care and allow people to cross safely.
Today, towns and cities all over the world have traffic lights. Red and green lights match the signals used on the railways. Yellow lights are easy to see, so they are used to warn drivers that they should slow down and prepare to stop.
1. Why was the color red used to mean “stop”?| A．It warned people of traffic rules. | B．It helped trains run well. |
| C．It gave people a warning of danger. | D．It was the first color people thought of. |
| A．produced. | B．exchanged. | C．suggested. | D．compared. |
a. A white light b. A green light c. A yellow light
| A．b﹣a﹣c | B．b﹣c﹣a | C．a﹣c﹣b | D．a﹣b﹣c |
| A．The advantages of traffic lights. | B．The history of traffic lights. |
| C．The importance of traffic lights. | D．The meanings of traffic lights. |
Little birds talk with their sisters and brothers in their nest. They make a sound for food. Mum tells them to be quiet when danger comes. But now a new study finds that kind of talk begins long before the babies are born. Even in the eggs, they can talk with each other and know when to get out or when to keep waiting.
To check that finding, a team of scientists from Spain watched unborn birds carefully in Salvora Island. Over there, sea birds produce eggs and minks eat baby birds. So it is quite a dangerous place for baby birds. Knowing when to come out of the egg is a matter of life and death.
Scientists collected sea bird eggs and put them into two groups. When minks come, a parent will give warning calls to the baby birds. Scientists played those calls for one group. While the other group stayed in a safe box. They would never hear such calls.
When scientists put all the eggs together, they found something surprising: after receiving warning calls, the eggs vibrated more than the others. Those vibrations moved from one egg to another. It was just like there were ears in the eggs. It was clear that unborn birds talked with their sisters and brothers about danger.
1. This passage is mainly about ________.| A．a magic egg | B．a wild animal | C．a new study | D．a huge box |
| A．check when birds begin talking | B．protect the sea birds in danger |
| C．take photos of beautiful sea birds | D．know when birds get out of eggs |
①collected bird eggs ②played warning calls ③put eggs together ④put eggs in group
| A．①→②→③→④ | B．①→④→②→③ |
| C．②→①→④→③ | D．②→①→③→④ |
| A．Birds in Danger | B．Love from Eggs |
| C．Nature for Birds | D．Talk in the Eggs |
5 . The vacation is finally here, and families are preparing for a great vacation, away from the daily routines. Once a vacation meant getting outdoors and enjoying life, but now more people are staying indoors because of the smart phones and many other modern inventions.
A key step toward returning to normal lives should be going outdoors more often and working out more often. It is time to get outdoors to experience family time together with fun family activities. For example, hit the bicycle paths. Researches show that half of children like riding bicycles better than playing on computers or smart phones. We know kids are introduced lo digital technology at younger ages, so this result may be a little surprising. Luckily, this doesn’t change the fact that bicycle riding is a fun, healthy outdoor activity. Every family can enjoy it.
Another great family activity getting everyone outdoors to enjoy nature is gardening. It can not only burn hundreds of calories without traditional exercise, but also gives both kids and adults a sense of success when their hard work pays off. A growing number of studies has shown that the advantages of gardening brings us are far more than exercise and fresh air — it helps people become both physically and mentally healthier. If your family do not own a garden, you need only a window box or a few houseplants to see these improvements in your health. It’s hard not to enjoy life when you’re with flowers, vegetables, and all the wildlife they bring — and now there’s science to back that up. Professors from the University of Texas and Texas A&M asked 298 adults how they see their life — their levels of optimism, and found that gardeners had higher scores in all those areas than nongardeners.
A recent research suggests everyone makes sure he or she gets the right amount of outdoor activities. After enjoying some of these outdoor activities, you might just find your family want to stay in the great outdoors.
1. How many outdoor activities are introduced in this passage?| A．One. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．Four. |
| A．More and more people are enjoying outdoor activities. |
| B．Bicycle riding is the most popular activity among children. |
| C．Children are using digital technology at younger ages. |
| D．Gardening gives people a sense of success but burns few calories. |
| A．Outdoor activities are always preferred by families to spend their vacations. |
| B．Outdoor activity is a must for families to get together. |
| C．Outdoor activities or smart phones are good choices for vacations. |
| D．Outdoor activities can make family members enjoy nature better. |
| A．outdoor activities fill family time with more fun |
| B．staying outdoors is no good for people’s health |
| C．taking sports outdoors are children’s favorite choice for summer vacation |
| D．it is of great importance for families to join in indoor activities |
6 . There are many beautiful villages in the world. Here are some of the most beautiful ones. Let’s enjoy the beauty of them.
Ping’an Village, China
Ping'an Village is at the top of Guilin’s famous Longji rice terraces and is home to about 100 Zhuang families. The village offers visitors a chance to not only enjoy the rice terraces here, but also know many traditions of Zhuang people in Guangxi.
Bibury, England
Bibury is a beautiful village on the River Coin in England. Once it was described by William Morris as “the most beautiful village in England". It is famous for Arlington Row, a group of stone buildings built in the 14th century.
Giethoorn, Netherlands
Giethoorn is a quiet village in Netherlands. It’s one of the greenest places of the country with lots of trees around. There are very few roads but many canals and bridges (more than 180 bridges) in the village. Most of the villages can only be reached on foot or by boat, just like Venice, so it’s also called “the Venice of Netherlands”.
1. If Jack wants to know traditions of Zhuang people, where can he go?| A．Ping’an Village | B．Bibury | C．Giethoorn | D．Venice |
| A．About 180 Zhuang families live in Ping’an Village. | B．Bibury is one of the greenest places of England. |
| C．We can see the rice terraces in Giethoorn. | D．Taking a car isn’t a good way to visit Giethoorn. |
| A．art | B．travel | C．history | D．science |
7 . Shanghai is home to a population of nearly 25 million, 47,500 tall buildings and more than 6 million vehicles. If a visitor to the Nanjing Building in downtown Shanghai opens a window and reaches out to take a photo of the area, safety worker Fan Tianyu will receive an immediate alarm on a smart bracelet. He then will rush to the scene of the incident in the seven-storey structure. Fan will tell the visitor to stop taking photos and close the window.
At the start of this year, Shanghai became the first city in China to sign a document covering the development of its digital transformation. The bracelet is part of a smart system being used in the building to sense safety risks that could fall on crowds of passers-by below. For example, when the flow of passers-by on Nanjing Road reaches a risk level, the district urban operation management center lets out a “large passenger flow warning” to shops. And the building’s smart system sends a notice to the safety manager.
The system uses a range of advanced technologies, including big data, artificial intelligence, 5G, and internet of things sensing abilities. It judges the building for visitor flow, fire prevention, noise levels, and use of elevator. The system produces reports that are like health checkups for the building 24 hours.
Xu Huili, director of the center said, “The city, which is a window for the world to see China, is a pioneer in bringing forward the urban digital transformation of the city. It is also trying to use digital urban management, which helps improve governance capability in big cities and finally benefits local people.”
The Shanghai government has announced the use of smart systems will help urban management in office buildings, large supermarkets and so on. The smart system, along with technological support from Huawei, now plays a big role in such work.
1. If a tourist opens a window to take a photo of the Nanjing Road from one of the high buildings, ________.| A．he or she will be honored | B．he or she will get a beautiful view |
| C．he or she will be praised | D．he or she will be warned not to do so |
| A．It is an app which makes you look beautiful. |
| B．It is a metal ring that you wear around the arm. |
| C．It is part of a smart system used in urban management. |
| D．It is a watch which could record the amount of exercise. |
| A．It is used for controlling traffic flow. |
| B．It is impossible to get a real-time data with the smart system. |
| C．It covers various advanced technologies with several advantages. |
| D．It is helpful to the urban management or school buildings. |
| A．Confident. | B．Sorry. | C．Worried. | D．Surprised. |
Most viruses can be found and killed by our immune system as soon as they enter our bodies. However, some viruses, for example, the coronavirus, are sneaky. They are difficult to recognize and find. These viruses can cause deadly diseases, like COVID-19. Human-to-human transmission can easily occur, and pandemic will therefore break out. Vaccination is by now a simple, safe and effective way to protect us from the diseases.
▲ Vaccines are something that “looks” exactly the same as the viruses, mainly made from the viruses that are weakened or killed. They will not make us really ill. They only stimulate and activate our immune system to work, telling it something harmful is coming in. The immune system will know what the “viruses” look like, and send B cells (lymphocytes) or antibodies to find and kill them. Meanwhile B cells will remember them for the next kill. A vaccine may also give us passive immunity by providing B cells taken from an animal or a human to play the same role.
Scientists have developed more than 180 vaccines to fight against COVID-19. The technical approaches of these vaccines can be a little different, but their aims are the same.
Take the inactivated vaccine as an example. In an inactivated vaccine, the coronaviruses are already killed or made into the ones unable to produce more new viruses. When the immune system “sees” them, it will try to kill them. The question is: without enough these viruses how can B cells remember them? That’s why we need to take the vaccine more than one time. Though this vaccine is safe, it might not be as effective as it is expected to be.
The live-attenuated vaccine is different. In this vaccine, the viruses are weakened, but they are alive. They can produce enough new viruses to train the immune system to kill and remember them, so people only need to take the vaccine once. The live-attenuated vaccine is considered the most effective, but there is a worry: what might happen once these viruses wake up?
Therefore, although vaccination is by now one of the best ways to protect us from COVID-19, it can be better.
1. The coronavirus can ________.| A．not be killed | B．not be found | C．cause deaths | D．stop pandemic |
| A．Vaccination can provide us with B cells. | B．Vaccines are made from different viruses. |
| C．Vaccination can prepare us against viruses. | D．Vaccines won’t make us ill as the viruses do. |
| A．needs taking more than once | B．is equally safe |
| C．contains viruses that are killed | D．is more effective |
| A．Vaccination is good enough to treat COVID-19. |
| B．The immune system can be more effective with vaccines. |
| C．The viruses in inactivated vaccines can make new viruses. |
| D．180 vaccines have been developed to fight against diseases. |
9 . Lima, the capital of Peru, is located in the central coastal part of the country, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. With a population of more than 9 million, Lima is one of the largest cities and the only capital in South America that faces the ocean.
Lima has a long history. The lost Inca civilization, is thought to be a mystery. There are many museums, where you can learn: how the ancient American Indians founded the Inca Empire and built Machu Picchu, a famous ancient city in the Andes Mountains; what happened in 1532 and why over 90% of Peruvians speak Spanish. Visiting the historic center, a World Heritage Site, you may find you are communicating with both the past and the present.
Lima is also a place where you can find the lifestyles and fashions, created by its people and culture. You will see Peruvian clothes, dances, and taste their delicious foods and drinks. You can see buildings in different styles, enjoy the fantastic sunset over the ancient ruins, climb the mountains, fly over the ocean, or sit in the restaurants and bars to experience Peruvians’ relaxing life.
You may have heard “It never rains in Lima.” In fact, the special geographic feature makes it not as dry as it is said to be and it is warm all year round. Though it seldom rains in summer, it sometimes drizzles on early winter mornings. The drizzle and the wet air “water” the ground, which makes the crops and the plants grow. Moreover, modern technology helps to bring water from the snow and ice on the top of the Andes (over 6,000m high) for the city to use. People there never waste water.
Lima is such an amazing city that it is worth a visit.
1. According to the passage, where is Lima on the map?A． | B． | C． | D． |
| A．Indian | B．Spanish | C．English | D．Inca language |
| A．warm air | B．sea water | C．snow and ice | D．very light rain |
| A．which is rich in water resources | B．where people can learn Inca culture |
| C．which is the largest in South America | D．where the houses are in the same style |
Imagine a world where you move around in front of a computer in your own sound space. You listen to your favorite songs, play loud computer games or watch a movie-all without other people hearing the sound.
That’s the possibility presented by “sound beaming,” a new technology from Noveto Systems, an Israeli company. The company debuted a desktop device that sends sound directly to a listener without the need for headphones. The device included nature videos of birds on a lake, bees flying and a quiet waterway.
Because the device does not use headphones, it’s possible to hear other sounds in the room clearly. The device uses a 3-D technology that finds and follows the ear position of the listener. It sends ultrasonic waves to create sound pockets by the user’s ears. Sound can be heard in stereo or 3-D. The 3-D method creates sound on all sides of the listener. By changing a setting, the sound can follow a listener around when he moves his head. The listener doesn’t need to tell the device where he is. It is also possible if the listener moves out of the sound beam’s path, he hears nothing at all.
Ayana, the manager of the company, enjoys watching the reactions of people trying the technology for the first time. Most people just say, “Wow, I really don’t believe it. No one else can hear but only you.” One tester, Louise Dixon, writes that listening to the device is like something from a science fiction movie. The sound seems so close that it feels like it’s inside your ears while also in front, above and behind them.
The company expects the device will have many uses. People could play a game, a movie or music without waking up others in the same room. Office workers could listen to music or have video meetings without others hearing.
While the idea of sound beaming is not new, Noveto was the first to make use of the technology. Its CEO Christophe Ramstein said a “smaller” version of the device would be on sale next year.
1. According to the passage, “sounding beaming” can ________.| A．provide different sounds of wild animals |
| B．make it possible for listeners to share music |
| C．protect people’s ears when listening to music |
| D．help people listen to music without headphones |
| A．The way the device works. | B．The development of the device. |
| C．The advantages of the device. | D．The purpose of making the device. |
| A．A manager who usually holds meetings in a company. |
| B．A student who plans to attend online classes in a library. |
| C．A reporter who likes listening to music when writing alone. |
| D．A runner who wants to enjoy music when jogging in a park. |
| A．Music World in the Future | B．Choose a Magical Headphone |
| C．The 3-D Technology of Music | D．Enjoy your Own Sound Space |
