I have a rule for travel: Never carry a map. I prefer to ask for directions.
Foreign visitors are often lost in Japan because most streets there don’t have names. In Japan, people use landmarks in their directions instead of street names. For example, the Japanese will say to travelers. “Go straight down to the corner. Turn left at the big hotel and go past a fruit market. The post office is across from the bus stop.”
In the countryside of the American Midwest, usually there are not many landmarks. Instead of landmarks, people will tell you directions and distance. For example, people will say. “Go north two miles. Turn east, and then go another mile.”
People in Los Angeles, California, have no idea of distance on a map. They measure distance by means of time, not miles, “How far away is the post office?” you ask. “Oh,” they answer, “it’s about five minutes from here.” You say, “Yes, but how many miles away is it?” They usually don’t know. People in Greece sometimes do not even try to give directions because not many visitors can understand the Greek language. Instead of giving you directions,a Greek will often say, “Follow me.” Then he’ll lead you through the streets of the city to the place.
One thing will help you everywhere— in Japan, in the US, in Greece, or in any other place. You may not understand a person’s words, but maybe you can understand his body language. He will usually turn and then point in the correct direction. Go in that direction, and you may find the place!
1. The underlined word “landmarks” means “streets”.2. If you ask people in Los Angeles for directions, they will tell you the time you have to spend.
3. The Greek language is widely used by people all over the world.
4. There are different ways to give directions in different countries.
Our earth is in trouble. Our drinking water is becoming dirtier, and the air is not as clean as before. People and factories are polluting the air, rivers, lakes and seas. You may think there is nothing you can do to help. That’s not true. There are many things you can do to save the earth.
Cars burn oil. This will make a lot of CO₂ into the air. Too much CO₂ is making the earth warmer than ever. So try to walk, ride a bike or take a bus. This can save some oil and produce less CO₂.
The biggest energy use at home is for keeping warm or cool. So turn off the air conditioner (空调) when you don’t need to use it. Use lights that save energy. Use fewer things that cannot be used again. When you buy something, consider those made from things that can be used again first. A lot of water is needed for shower. So take shorter showers. That can cut the use of the water
Every small action can make a big difference to our earth. Let’s take action to protect it.
1. The water is polluted. But the air is very clean now.2. There is nothing you can do to help save the earth.
3. Too much CO₂ can make the earth warmer
4. We should buy those made from things that can be used again.
When you’re not at home, many worries may come to your mind. Did I turn the light off? Did I lock the door? With a smart home, you can keep away from all of these worries in the future.
A smart home is a home with a network (网络). The network connects with lights and TV sets, so that people connect them from far away by lines, mobile phone or WiFi over the Internet.
More and more people may want to have a smart home, because it makes life much more convenient. It can help keep your room at a certain temperature. It can record what happens inside your home and send the video to your phone. When you are on holiday in other countries, you can use a smart home controller to turn on or off the electricity when necessary. Some smart homes can receive a visitor, make him come in and service him a drink. They can even feed the cat and water the plants.
Besides, smart homes are easy to fix. When a problem happens, you can deal with it yourself. However, for home-users, the smart home is not perfect. It can be rather expensive to have it. Also, because the smart home system makes its owner get home information from anywhere, hackers (黑客) may enter into the smart home easily, and they may use or change their information in the system.
Now, many people are excited at the future of the smart home. There are others who worry that the smart home will make people lazier and lonelier. But anyway, one thing is for sure-the smart home will change the way we live and work.
1. We keep away from our worries in the future with a network.2. According to the passage, nowadays a smart home can lock the door by mobile phones.
3. The third paragraph of the passage is mainly about the steps to use smart systems.
4. Smart homes cost a lot of money at present.
The Sahara is the largest desert in the world. It has one of the most terrible environments on the earth. It covers an area of about 600,000 square kilometers. This is nearly the whole size of the United States.
The huge desert spans (横跨) 11 countries. So it has many different land features (地貌特征). The most famous and beautiful one is the golden sand dune fields (沙丘地). Other land features include mountains, plateaus (高原) and so on. Some of the mountains have snow in winter. Thousands of years ago, the Sahara was not a desert at all. There were many plants and rivers. As the weather changed, it became hot and dry. Although the natural conditions are terrible, there are many plants and animals like snakes, foxes and birds living there. In some places, people grow fruit. Plants can grow there because their roots (根) can reach deep underground to get water.
More than 2,000,000 people live in the Sahara. Some of them move around from place to place with their camels. Others live in towns and cities. Camels are known as the “ships of the desert”. They can travel more than a week without water or food in the desert.
The desert is not always hot. The temperature changes a lot in a day in the Sahara. And the sunshine is strong there. So people have to prepare well if they plan to visit it.
1. The Sahara Desert is 9 times larger than the United States in area.2. Thousands of years ago, the Sahara was not a desert at all.
3. There are no living things in Sahara Desert because of the bad natural conditions.
4. The main idea of the passage is about how to travel in the Sahara.
As we know, all living things have to eat food. For a man, a tiger, a fish, a bird, or even a worm, food is necessary. Generally speaking, all living things are sure to die without food. In every part of the world, many different kinds of animals share living places and live in communities (群落) together. They are connected in a food chain (链).
Within a food chain, some living things are producers and some are consumers (消费者). Plants are producers because they use sunlight, soil and other things to make their own food. Animals are consumers because they have to eat other animals or plants.
There are four different kinds of consumers in the animal kingdom. A carnivore is an animal that only eats other animals. An herbivore is an animal that only eat plants. An omnivore is an animal that eats both plants and animals. A scavenger is an animal that eats dead animals.
Look at the picture. It is an example of a food chain. The food chain shows the order that animals eat each other in a community. In the picture, you can see what animal or plant is food for another animal. See? A leaf is food for a grasshopper, which then becomes food for a hungry mouse. The mouse is food for a snake. The snake is eaten by an eagle. In this way, all of these animals are connected.
2. The food for a mouse according to the picture is a grasshopper.
3. All kinds of animals share their living places with others.
4. There are some living things which don’t need to eat food.
6 . One January morning, Thomas Smith is walking his dog, Jack, in the park. Mr. Smith is sitting under a tree and Jack is running on the ice lake. Suddenly, the dog falls into the water.
“I must save my dog,” says Mr. Smith. He doesn’t think much, and he jumps into the cold water. It’s difficult for him to swim in the cold water. But he is just thinking about saving Jack. Luckily, he helps Jack out of the water. And they are safe now. “When we get out of the water, everybody asks how Jack is, and nobody is worried about me!” Mr. Smith says happily with a smile.
People think Mr. Smith is a hero(英雄). “In fact, many people in the world are doing the same as me,” Mr. Smith says. “But from now on, I must let Jack be away from the ice lake.” Animals are our great friends. Can you do the same for them like Mr. Smith? We should save the animals in danger.
正误判断，正确A/错误B。
1. The story happens on a cold morning in January.
2. Mr. Smith is talking with someone while the dog is running on the ice lake.
3. Mr. Smith feels angry because no one is worried about him.
4. People think Mr. Smith is a hero.
5. The writer wants to tell us to stay away from the ice lake.
In the 1930s, a young traveler was climbing the French Alps (阿尔卑斯山), He arrived at a big piece of land without living things. It was ugly. It was the kind of place you hurried away from.
Then, suddenly, the young traveler stopped on the way. In the middle of this large land there was an old man. On his back was a bag of seeds. He dug a hole in the ground. Then from the bag he took a seed and put it in the hole. He did this again and again. Later, the old man told the traveler, “I’ve planted over 10,000 seeds. Perhaps only a tenth of them will grow.” The old man’s wife and son had died, and this was how he chose to spend his final years. “I want to do something useful to make a difference,” he said.
Twenty years later, the traveler was not young any longer. He returned to the place. What he saw amazed him. He could not believe his eyes. The land was covered with a beautiful forest two miles wide and five miles long. Birds were singing, animals were playing, and wild flowers were here and there. The traveler stood there remembering the lifeless picture of the place that it once used to be. A beautiful forest stood there now, all because someone cared.
1. The young traveler found an old man planting seeds in the middle of a big piece of land with lots of living things.2. The old man dug a hole and put the seed in it over and over again.
3. Quite a few of the old man’s seeds would grow.
4. Twenty years later, the young man discovered a piece of lifeless land which was different from what it used to be.
5. From this story, we know that no matter how impossible something is, we can make a difference as long as we try our best.
The tradition of Afternoon Tea is a very special part of English culture. Afternoon Tea is served mid-afternoon, intended as refreshment between lunch and a late dinner. The idea came from Anna, the Seventh Duchess of Bedford, in 1840. At the time, kerosene(蜡油) lamps were introduced in wealthier homes, and eating a late dinner(around 8 p.m.) became fashionable. This increasingly late dinner was one of only two main meals each day, the other was a mid-morning, breakfast-like meal.
With a long period of time between breakfast and dinner, Anna would become hungry around four o’clock in the afternoon. It is around this time that Anna is said to have complained of “having that sinking feeling”. This was likely fatigue from hunger during the long wait between meals. Thus, she requested a tray of tea, bread and butter and cake be brought to her room during the late afternoon. This became a habit of hers and she began inviting friends to join her.
Later, friends were invited to join her in her rooms at Woburn Abbey. And this practice proved so popular that the Duchess continued it when she returned to London, sending cards to her friends asking them to join her for “tea and a walking the fields”.
Others quickly picked up on the idea. The practice became respectable enough to move it into the drawing-room. Before long this pause for tea became a fashionable social event.
Traditional afternoon tea consists of a selection of dainty sandwiches, scones served with clotted cream. Nowadays however, afternoon tea is likely to be just a biscuit or small cake and a mug of tea.
1. The underlined phrase “That idea” in Para.1 refers to Afternoon Tea.2. According to the passage in 1940s people only had two main meals a day in Bedford.
3. The underlined word “fatigue” in Para.2 means “悲伤” in Chinese.
4. From Para.3&4 we know the development about Afternoon Tea.
5. Para.5 mainly tells us today’s afternoon tea is different from traditional one.
Everyone listened attentively as the woman spoke.
“If you want to say ‘OK’, don't make a circle with your thumb and first finger,” the woman began. “That means OK here in the United States, but in Russia it’s an obscene gesture.”
The audience(观众) of 300 Americans chuckled, a few people took notes.
“It’s all right to admire something,” the woman continued, “but don’t be too enthusiastic (热情的). Don’t say, ‘I really like your tablecloth.’ Your Russian friend will offer you the tablecloth and will be offended(冒犯) if you don’t take it.”
The woman was preparing the Americans for their trip to Russia. In Russia, the language, customs, and food would be different. Even simple things, like making a phone call, would be different. The Americans wanted to learn about these differences before their trip. They didn't want to experience culture shock.
When they arrived in Russia, the Americans were glad that they had prepared for their trip. Most of them experienced only a little culture shock. They enjoyed their visit and made a lot of Russian friends.
Making friends was, in fact, the purpose of the trip. The trip was planned by The Friendship Force, an international organization that develops world peace. The Friendship Force believes that people who are friends will not fight wars. So, to help people from all over the world become friends, it organizes exchanges of people.
The US-Russian exchange was one of the largest exchanges it has ever organized. The Friendship Force sent 300 Americans to Russia and 300 Russians to the United States.
The Russians, like the Americans, prepared for their visit by learning about life in the other country. Still, they, too, experienced a little culture shock.
The Russians knew that Americans were fond of pets, but they were shocked to see pets inside homes. They couldn't believe their eyes when they saw dogs eating in the kitchen and sleeping on people's beds.
The Russians knew that Americans liked to eat fast food in restaurants, but they were disappointed to see that Americans ate fast meals at home, too. In Russia, the evening meal often lasts an hour or two because families sit at the table and talk. When American families eat together—if they eat together — they often eat quickly and don't take time for long conversations. The Russians thought that was a shame.
In spite of their differences in language and culture, the Russians and Americans became friends. The two women in the picture became friends, even though the Russian woman couldn't speak a word of English and the American woman couldn't speak a word of Russian. For two weeks they communicated through sign language and dictionaries.
Some of the Americans who traveled to Russia were schoolchildren from a sixth-grade class. When they returned to the United States, their teacher asked them to write about their trip. One 11-year-old girl wrote, “I have learned a lot from this experience. I learned to adapt(适应) to a different culture. And I learned that people all over the world are more alike than they are different.”
正确涂A，错误涂B。
1. An obscene gesture is not polite.
2. People who are offended are a little angry because their feelings are hurt.
3. The Friendship Force believes that people who live in Russia do not have comfortable lives.
4. Although their languages and cultures were different, the Russians and the Americans became friends.
5. The text is mainly about the language, customs, and food in Russia.
The Chang’e 5 robotic probe(探测器) has become China’s first spaceship to bring the country’s national flag to the Moon.
The scene of the Five Starred Red Flag against the dark sky on the grey lunar surface was taken by a camera on the Chang’e 5 robotic probe’s lander and then sent to the ground control. In Chang’e 3 and 4 tasks, the national flag was painted on the spaceship. Therefore, the flag carried by Chang’e 5 is the first Chinese national flag that has been planted on the Moon.
The system to raise the flag was designed and produced by engineers at China Space Sanjiang Group in Hubei Province. It has three parts.
Because of the strong radiation(辐射) and the terrible temperatures on the Moon, we couldn’t use traditional fabrics(面料). If we place an ordinary flag on the Moon, its colors will quickly become lighter. Designers spent more than one year choosing and testing ideal materials, and finally picked a new kind of material that can resist the very difficult conditions on the Moon.
1. Chang’e 3, Chang’e 4 and Chang’e 5 all brought the Chinese national flag to the moon.2. The flag raising system includes three parts.
3. If we place an ordinary flag on the Moon, its colors will quickly become dark.
4. The main idea of the passage is about the first Chinese national flag planted on the moon.
