As the novel coronavirus rapidly spreads to a majority of the world's nations, many countries are canceling their major sporting and cultural events.
Already, major domestic (国内的) events in China, including the National People's Congress and the World Athletics Indoor Championships, have already been postponed (推迟). Now the rest of the world seems to be following suit.
The world of soccer is also being affected. In February, Italy was the first to play its league games behind closed doors (without spectators), and following the recently announced lockdown measures throughout Europe and the US, all domestic and international games have been placed on hold (暂停), as have Asian soccer leagues, including those of Japan, South Korea and China.
In addition, Euro 2020 - a major international soccer tournament for European teams - has also been canceled to allow more time for domestic leagues to conclude. When asked about the cancelations, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said, "The health of persons is much more important than any football game."
The outbreak is also impacting cultural events around the world. Facing Europe's largest COVID-19 pandemic, with over 86,000 confirmed cases (确诊病例) by March 28, Italy cut short its iconic Venice carnival (狂欢节) and Milan Fashion Week show. The latter was being live-streamed from an empty theater.
Internationally, perhaps the biggest cancelation is the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Japanese officials were initially optimistic that the event would continue, but given the rapidly increasing number of worldwide cases, officials had no choice but to postpone the event for the first time in history. The International Olympic Committee approved the request on March 24, delaying the event until the summer of 2021. Speaking at a press conference shortly after the decision, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, "We agreed that a postponement would be the best way to ensure that the athletes are in peak condition when they compete and to guarantee the safety of the spectators."
Supporting the move, Yvonne Maldonado, an infectious (传染的) disease researcher, told The Washington Post, "If you bring many people together, and then you ship them back all over the world: That's the perfect way to transmit. If you want to disseminate (传播) a disease, that would be the way to do it."
1. What does the underlined phrase "following suit" in Paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Doing what you want. | B．Doing what you are told. |
| C．Doing what others are doing. | D．Doing what others don't do. |
| A．The Venice Carnival was live-streamed this year. |
| B．Euro 2020 has been canceled for health reasons. |
| C．Soccer matches in Italy were canceled in February. |
| D．Soccer leagues in Japan played as usual in February. |
| A．They decided to put them off. |
| B．They decided not to host them. |
| C．They will be held as scheduled. |
| D．They will be held in another city. |
| A．make the athletes in good health. |
| B．make the athletes in peak condition and guarantee the safety of the spectators. |
| C．make the games more popular. |
| D．respond to the call of the Olympic Games. |
| A．supported | B．doubtful | C．unsatisfactory | D．worrying |
Story A
I remember catching a "thief" in a clothes shop once. It was strange. The man was hiding a yellow sweater inside his coat. I thought he had stolen it, ao I caught him. We found later that his wife gave him the sweater for his birthday, but he hated it. He just wanted to return it to the shop for money, but he didn't want his wife to see him ! We soon let him go.
Story B
Another day, a man called Bob went into a bank on Sixth Street. He wrote on the back of an envelope, "Give me the money! Or I'll kill you." and gave it to the bank clerk(职员).She gave him$100, 000 and the man ran away. Then we received a phone call from the bank clerk. She told us to go to the man's house in Candy Town and get him. We caught him as soon as he got out of the elevator(电梯).He couldn't believe that we found him so quickly. We told him that the front of the envelope he used had his name and address on it!
1. What is Mr Smith?
| A．A policeman. | B．A bank clerk. |
| C．A shopkeeper. | D．A thief. |
| A．by the way | B．by mistake |
| C．by accident | D．with his wife's help |
| A．He didn't want his wife to see it. |
| B．H.e liked money more than the sweater. |
| C．He hated it and wanted to get the money back. |
| D．He wanted to change for another one. |
| A．he received a call from the bank clerk |
| B．the police waited for him outside |
| C．he killed the bank clerk |
| D．his address was found on the envelope he was |
| A．He is careless. | B．He is careful. |
| C．He is brave. | D．He is energetic. |
