There is probably no better symbol of spring than flowers. The peach blossom is one of those seasonal flowers. It usually blooms (开花) in March and April.
Pinggu district in Beijing, Nanhui County in Shanghai and Longquan Mountain in Chengdu are all good places to enjoy the beautiful peach blossoms. But if they are not special enough for you, you can go to Nyingchi (林芝) in Tibet. There you can see a sea of pink at the foot of snow-covered mountains under a blue sky. The peach blossom, with its beauty, has won the hearts of visitors and many Chinese poets and writers. From China’s first book of poetry, the Classic of Poetry (《诗经》), to the many poems of the Tang Dynasty, the peach blossom usually has to do with beautiful young ladies. As one famous poem goes:
This very day last year, oh, at this very place,
A pretty face outshone the flowers of peach trees.
I do not know today where shines the pretty face,
Only the pretty flowers still smile in the vernal breeze.
The peach blossom makes people think of a shy woman blushing (脸红). Because of this, the peach blossom is related to romance (浪漫) in China. And if your eyes are the shape of peach petals (花瓣), you have a pair of “taohuayan”. And you probably have peach blossom luck.
1. We can enjoy peach blossoms in Longquan Mountain in Chengdu in March and April.
2. The peach blossom has something to do with handsome young men.
3. The writer quotes (引用) the poem in the passage in order to show the popularity of peach blossoms.
4. Chinese people believe if you have a pair of eyes in the shape of peach petals, it means you may be lucky in love.
5. The passage is mainly about the introduction to peach blossoms.
Rock climbing did not become a sport until late in the 1990s. But now it has become a popular outdoor activity. While rock climbing may still be necessary for mountain climbing, most people just climb low hills for fun.
If you ever tried rock climbing, you will know that it is not a very easy sport. Indoor and outdoor rock climbing both need practice. Most people don’t know that rock climbing sports depends on your body and mind.
To climb successfully, one must use wonderful skills. One of the important rules is to always have three parts of your body on the rock face. Another important rule is that your arms only hold you close to the rock face while your legs are pushing you up. The closer you are to the rock face, the easier it is to climb.
Rock climbing is a wonderful sport. Once you start to learn how to climb, you’ll find more fun. People who like games such as chess playing or problem-solving may love rock climbing because they are nearly the same in the way of thinking. For anyone who wants to get into beautiful shape, rock climbing is a fun and good way. Anyone who enjoys a difficult game and loves the outdoors should think of taking rock climbing as a new hobby.
1. Rock climbing became a sport in the middle of the 1990s.2. Rock climbing is a sport that challenges (挑战) people’s body and mind.
3. The chess players may like rock climbing because they’d like to get into beautiful shape.
4. It’s more difficult for you to climb if you stay farther from the rock face.
5. The passage is mainly about how to climb successfully.
3 . A team from an American company called Apptronik think robots should do all the “boring, dirty and dangerous” jobs that humans don’t have to do.
The team showed their latest human-like robot, Apollo, to the world in August this year. Apollo has two round eyes and an expressive mouth. Apollo is about 1.7 meters tall and weighs about 70 kilograms. It can lift 25 kilograms and has been designed to work with humans safely. The robot can work for four hours after being charged.
Some people may feel uneasy about working with a human-like robot, so the team made the robot look more friendly. It has a digital panel that clearly shows the remaining battery life, the work it is doing, when it will finish the work and what it will do next. Apollo can also do some movements, such as turning his head to show where he is going.
At first, the team built Apollo to put it to work in logistics (物流). For example, it can do tiring work inside a warehouse (仓库). But they hope it can do more work in the future. “We are building robots to do all the things that we don’t want to do, and one day even work on the moon, Mars and other planets,” they said.
根据短文内容,判断句子正（T）、误（F）。
1. A team called Apptronik built robots to give people more jobs.
2. Their latest human-like robot, Apollo, can work for 4 hours after being charged.
3. Apollo has two round eyes and a big mouth.
4. Some people don’t feel comfortable working with a human-like robot.
5. The last paragraph tells about the team’s future plans.
My friend Peter has got a restaurant in a big city. It is near a supermarket. He gets ten robots for the restaurant. He bought them from a foreign company (公司) in America when he decided to open a restaurant last month. The price of each robot is 20,000 yuan. The restaurant is not big, but very popular in that city. Now more and more people come here for dinner.
The robots have different jobs in the restaurant. Two robots cook different kinds of food; one washes the dishes; one cleans the floor and the others give food to the guests. Although all the staff (员工) are robots, it is not expensive to eat in this restaurant. Because Peter doesn’t need to pay for the robots every month!
Robots do most of the jobs in the restaurant, but Peter is still very busy. He must do many things to keep the robots working well. Luckily, Peter is good at studying robots and he knows robots very well. I think in the future, there will be a lot of robot-themed restaurants (机器人主题餐厅) around the world.
1. Six robots give food to the guests in the restaurant.2. The food in this restaurant is expensive because the staff are robots.
3. Peter is free because Robots do most of the jobs in the restaurant.
4. This passage is mainly about a robot-themed restaurant.
5 . Twelve, for Lisa, was a hard year. She moved to a new town with her father after her mother died. She was terribly lonely. To cheer her up, her father bought an old horse for her. She named him Lucky.
Lisa loved Lucky though he was not beautiful. She joined a riding club, but people with beautiful horses all laughed at Lucky. They failed in the events about beauty. Lisa had to be in the speed events. She chose the jumping race.
Joyce rode a big brown house in the race events. She always won the first prize and looked down on others. That made Lisa decide to beat her though it would be her first race.
For the whole next month, Lisa woke up early every day and rode Lucky six miles to the arena（赛马场）. They practiced running and jumping for hours in the hot sun.
Their hard work didn’t make Lisa feel confident（自信的） by the time the show came. She sat at the gate while she watched Joyce and her horse run fast and finish first of all.
Their turn finally came. Lucky jumped over all the fences and Lisa turned him towards the finishing line.
Lucky and Lisa beat Joyce and her beautiful house! The people became silent for a while and then cheered for them loudly.
Lisa got more than the first prize that day. She could be a winner if she wanted something very much and worked hard for it.
根据短文内容判断正、误。正确写“A”，错误写“B”。
1. Lisa lost her father and moved to a new town at the age of twelve.2. Lucky was an ugly and old horse but Lisa loved him.
3. Joyce trained hard with Lucky for a whole month.
4. The people didn’t think Lucky and Lisa would win the match at first.
5. The passage mainly tells us we can’t win if we work hard with our dream.
6 . My grandfather had a small farm. He also worked in a factory.
One autumn, he promised to help his neighbor harvest their corn, but after harvesting (收割) his own corn, Grandpa’s little corn picker (采摘机) broke. At the same time, the factory asked him to work for a longer time than before. He had to leave the farm before the sunrise (日出) and didn’t get home until the sunset (日落). It now seemed impossible to help his neighbor.
One night, Grandpa decided that he wouldn’t let his neighbor’s harvest rot (腐烂) in the field. Without a machine, he’d harvest it by hand.
“When do you think you’d have time to do it?” asked my grandma. “Besides, it’s too dark.”
“I know of one night that I could do it!” he said. “There’s still one more full moon in October. If the weather is clear, I think I can do it. ”
And so a few days later, after a long shift (轮班) at the factory, my grandpa made his way to the field. The weather was cold but clear, and the moon was shining. He worked all night to keep his word. Sometimes, when I want to put off responsibilities (责任), I’d see my grandfather cutting corn in the light of the harvest moon. Behind him, row (行、排) after row of corn stocks (秸秆) stand in respect (尊重) for a man who keeps his word.
根据短文内容判断正误，正确的写（A），错误的写（B）。
1. At last my grandfather didn’t keep his word because his little corn picker didn’t work.
2. My grandfather had to leave the farm before the sunset and arrived home after the sunrise.
3. My grandma thought he couldn’t have time to harvest the corn.
4. It was cold and cloudy that night, and my grandfather worked all night to keep his word.
5. According to the passage, we know no matter how hard it is, we should try to keep our word.
7 . It was a very cold day. It was snowing heavily and the ground was covered with thick snow. The shepherd (牧羊人) thought it was dangerous to climb the hill and it was difficult for the sheep to find some grass there. So he decided to stay in the warm room. He put some hay (干草) in a pen (围栏) so that the sheep could eat it when they were hungry. The dog, who felt cold outside, lay (躺) on the soft hay and soon went to sleep.
At noon the sheep wanted to eat the hay. They were all afraid of the dog and none could get close to it. At last the strongest sheep came to the hay. Before he started to eat, the dog heard it and opened his eyes. He barked loudly to warn (警告) him. The sheep ran away quickly. Looking at the dog, the sheep began to talk angrily.
“What a selfish (自私的) dog!” said one of the sheep. “He cannot eat the hay, and yet refuses to allow those who can to eat!”
In our daily life, we should not do things as the dog did. We shouldn’t be selfish people. Something that seems not to be useful for us may be great treasure for others.
根据短文内容判断正误，正确写的A，错误的写B。
1. The story happened on a cold and snowy winter.
2. The shepherd put the hay there in order to let his dog to sleep on it.
3. The sheep felt hungry and wanted to eat the hay at noon.
4. The dog barked to the strongest sheep to warn him to stop eating the hay.
5. The passage tells us never to be selfish people who do bad things to others.
8 . Once, some fish lived in a pond (池塘). One evening, some fishermen passed by the pond and saw the fish. “This pond is full of fish!” they told each other excitedly. “We must come back tomorrow morning and catch them!” they said.
When the oldest of the fish heard this, he was worried. He called the other fish together and said, “Did you hear what the fishermen said? We must leave this pond at once. The fishermen will return tomorrow and kill us all.” The second oldest of the fish agreed. But the younger fish laughed. He said, “We have lived in this pond all our lives, and no fishermen have ever come here. Why should these men return? I am not going anywhere. My luck will keep me safe.”
The oldest of the fish left the pond that evening with his family. The second oldest of the fish saw the fishermen coming the next morning and left the pond with all his family at once. The younger fish didn’t want to leave even then.
The fishermen caught and killed all the fish left in the pond.
The first fish that saw trouble ahead (预先) and acted before trouble arrived and the fish who acted as soon as trouble came both survived (幸存). But the fish that depended on (依赖) luck and did nothing at all died. It is also the case (情况) in life.
根据短文内容判断正误，正确的写(A)，错误的写(B)。
1. Some fishermen wanted to catch the fish in the pool.2. The oldest of the fish decided to leave in order to keep safe.
3. The younger fish thought he was lucky enough to keep himself safe.
4. The fishermen came back and killed all the fish left the next evening.
5. The passage tells us that acting in time can help us avoid (避免) danger and we shouldn’t always depend on luck.
9 . Once upon a time, there was a great king. He had a smart servant and he always took the servant everywhere.
One day, the king got bitten (咬) by a dog. He asked the servant, “Is this some kind of bad luck?” The servant said, “Good or bad, hard to tell.”
Then one day, the king lost his finger. He asked the servant again, “Is this some kind of bad luck?” The servant still replied, “Good or bad, hard to tell.”
The king got very angry to hear the same words again. So he sent the servant to jail (监狱).
A few days later, some barbarians (野蛮人) caught the king. They wanted to sacrifice (以……做祭献) the king. However, they found that the king’s fingers were not complete (完整的), so they decided to set the king free.
The king set the servant free as soon as he went back. He finally understood the servant’s words “Good or bad, hard to tell.”
He said sorry to the servant but the servant wasn’t angry with him at all. He told the king. “Something that seems to be good can be bad later. If you didn’t put me in jail. I would have to go with you and the barbarians would have sacrificed me.”
The story tells us good things and bad things can turn into each other sometimes.
根据短文内容判断正误，正确的写(A)，错误的写(B)。1. The servant asked the dog to bite the king.
2. The king got angry with the servant because he was bored with hearing the same answer.
3. The barbarians wanted to put the king in jail at first.
4. Staying in jail saved the servant in some way.
5. From the passage, we can learn that we should never trust good words.
10 . When you are in China, you should know about how to behave if someone invites you to dinner.
Seating
Seating arrangements (安排) are very important in China. One should first introduce oneself, or let the master do the introduction if unknown to others, and then take a seat according to the master’s arrangement. The seating arrangement is probably the most important part of Chinese dining.
If the guest of honor or the most senior member is not seated, other people are not allowed to be seated. If he hasn’t eaten, others should not begin to eat. When making toasts (敬酒), the first toast is made from the seat of honor.
Consider Others
When helping yourself to the dishes, you should take food first from the plates in front of you rather than those in the middle of the table or in front of others. It’s bad manners to use your chopsticks to search through the food and “dig for treasure”. When finding your favorite dish, you should not eat it up as quickly as possible or put the plate in front of yourself. You should consider others at the table. If there is not much left on a plate and you want to finish it, you should ask others for permission. If they say they don’t want any more, then you can eat.
Concentrate on (专注于) the meal and others at the table. Watching television, using your phone, or carrying on some other activities while having a meal is considered a bad habit.
Elegance (优雅)
It is not good manners to pick up too much food at a time. When eating, you should close your mouth to chew (咀嚼) food well. You should never open your mouth wide or fill it with large pieces of food. Don’t put too much food into your mouth at a time. If there is food around your mouth, use a napkin to wipe it. When chewing food, don’t make noises. Hitting the bowl with chopsticks is impolite, too. Never stick your chopsticks into the food or point at others with your chopsticks.
根据短文内容，判断正(T) 误(F)。
1. The passage is about how to eat in Beijing and Shanghai.2. You can’t sit until the guest of honor or the most senior member is seated.
3. It is not polite to eat it up without permission even if the food is your favorite.
4. You should open your mouth wide or fill it with large pieces of food.
5. You should use a napkin to wipe the food around your mouth.
