1 . Liu Ziqing fell in love with ballet as a little boy. But he never really got the
Most people in their early 50s call themselves lucky if they can lightly jog a few times a week without
“I had been
Becoming a ballet dancer at age 53 wasn’t a(n)
| A．ability | B．right | C．chance | D．desire |
| A．food | B．paper | C．money | D．medicine |
| A．product | B．habit | C．reward | D．luxury |
| A．ended up | B．stuck to | C．felt like | D．kept on |
| A．refused | B．decided | C．pretended | D．remembered |
| A．controlling | B．suffering | C．reducing | D．hiding |
| A．curiosity | B．imagination | C．flexibility | D．patience |
| A．find | B．use | C．make | D．attain |
| A．stand | B．vary | C．conflict | D．connect |
| A．carrying out | B．putting up | C．thinking about | D．setting about |
| A．responded | B．stressed | C．complained | D．recalled |
| A．temporary | B．challenging | C．easy | D．interesting |
| A．suppose | B．understand | C．accept | D．suspect |
| A．defeated | B．missed | C．hated | D．ignored |
| A．supportive | B．ashamed | C．afraid | D．proud |
2 . Last year, the bushfires in Australia burned more than 12.35 million acres of land. At least 25 people were killed and 2000 homes destroyed. According to the BBC, that was the most casualties(伤亡) from wildfires in the country since 2009. The University of Sydney estimates that 480 million animals have died in South Wales alone.
Zeke Hausfather, an energy systems analyst and climate researcher at Berkeley Earth, said warmer temperatures and extreme weather made Australia more susceptible to fires and increased the length of the fire season. "The drier conditions combined with record high temperatures in 2019 created main conditions for the disastrous fires. Australia's fires were worsened by the combination of those two. 2019 was the perfect storm for being the warmest year on record for Australia and the driest year on record for Australia," Hausfather added on Friday.
Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, said warmer ocean temperatures are also contributed to more variable weather around the world. Trenberth believes that global warming contributed to energy imbalances and hot spots in the oceans, which can create a wave in the atmosphere that locks weather patterns in places, causing longer rain events in Indonesia, for example, and at the same time contributing to drought in Australia. He said that once an area experiences drought conditions for two months or more, it increases the risk of fires catching and spreading. Those changing weather patterns due to global warming make drought events longer.
Climate experts stress that climate change is not the only factor in the severity(严重) of wildfires. How land is managed can also impact the amount of fuel available for fires. Practices like controlled bums and other factors can impact the risk to people and property, such as warning systems and the type of development in a given area. Changing those policies has great potential to limit future damage from wildfires along with changes to how fire management resources are dispatched(派遣).
1. What are the numbers about in paragraph 1?| A．The causes of Australian fires. | B．The results of Australian fires. |
| C．The damaged areas of Australian fires. | D．The property destruction of Australian fires. |
| A．Very quickly to adapt to. |
| B．Very seriously to focus on. |
| C．Very likely to be influenced by. |
| D．Very easily to be protected against. |
| A．Longer dry weather contributes to global warming. |
| B．Global wanning is also a main cause of the bushfires. |
| C．Warmer ocean temperatures leads to the fires directly. |
| D．The imbalanced energy leads to the temperature rising. |
| A．To stress the effects of Australia fires. |
| B．To show the methods for land management. |
| C．To predict the seriousness of Australia fires. |
| D．To provide some advice about reducing fire damage. |
3 . Several years ago, I was at a pre-season football practice at a high school where I was working with the team on a concussion (脑震荡) research project. The players were lined up in two rows facing each other and with little more instruction from the coach than, “on the whistle, hit the man across from you”, great concern rushed through my mind.
Professional sports get the lion’s share of attention, but over three million children and teenagers in the United States play the same game. This directly places concussions as a significant public health concern for all.
However, for decades, concussion has been considered a temporary injury with no long-term consequences. Many athletes will do just about anything to stay on the field and “play through the pain” as a sign of toughness. In 2005, with the release of the brain tissue pathology (病理学) report of Mike Webster a, a retired National Football League player, our thinking on concussion began to shift. Since then, public attention has focused on this link between brain injury and blows to the head. As our understanding of concussion progressed to understanding its significance as an injury, so too did the development of player equipment.
In the early 1900s football was played without helmets (头盔), but severe injuries, like skull fractures, led to the occasional use of leather helmets in the 1920s.The first facemask entered the game in the 1950s. Modern helmets use advanced shell materials, have moveable panels to absorb forces, and multi-layered padding that responds to different impacts. Companies will continue to improve helmets as new materials become available, guided by the newest science.
Sports are an important part of a society’s culture and they give millions of children much-needed exercise. Yet, participation in any sport carries injury risk, and concussion will always be part of that. As those children become adults and make sport their hobby or even career, ensuring them play safely at all levels is essential.
1. What made the author feel concerned?| A．The coach’s in experience. |
| B．The physical conflicts among the players. |
| C．Unawareness of the potential injuries. |
| D．Unpredictable outcome of the project. |
| A．They tended to ignore it. |
| B．They felt scared about it. |
| C．They quit playing immediately. |
| D．They refused medical assistance. |
| A．Its gradual improvement. |
| B．Its widespread influence. |
| C．The discovery of its new materials. |
| D．The difficulty of its mass production. |
| A．Exercise is vital for children. |
| B．Sports safety can’t be overemphasized. |
| C．No participation in sports is without injuries. |
| D．Concussion is the most common injury in sports. |
4 . The 7,400 or so languages in use today speak to the fact that our species is born to communicate. But while it is tempting to view language as merely a consequence of our extraordinary cognitive (认知的) powers, Caleb Everett thinks there may be more going on.
In A Myriad of Tongues: How languages reveal differences in how we think, he argues that language itself may shape our understanding of the world and our experience of time and space. To put it another way, the language we speak may influence the way we think.
Such a provocative (挑衅的) idea might have been controversial (有争议的) a few decades ago, says Everett, because language experts restricted themselves to analyzing languages of industrialized, higher-income countries. But we now know they fall short of representing the variety of languages spoken today — and the more we learn about understudied tongues, the more evidence we find for the complicated interplay between language and thinking.
Take Berinmo, a language of Papua New Guinea, as an example. Unlike English speakers, explains Everett, Berinmo speakers struggle to remember whether an object they were shown earlier was blue or green — perhaps because that language doesn’t distinguish between these colours. But it does make a formal distinction between yellowish — greens and other greens, and Berinmo speakers typically find it easy to remember which of these colours an object they saw earlier was painted, while English speakers struggle to do this.
Language also influences how we think about objects. Yucatec Maya, spoken in Mexico, encourages its speakers to classify objects according to their material properties rather than their function. Where an English speaker might group a plastic comb and a wooden comb together and exclude a wooden stick, a Yucatec Maya speaker would usually group the wooden objects together. English-speaking people get the information they need by sight alone.
We live through a language extinction event predicted to see the loss of about 30 per cent of today’s tongues by 2100. His book makes it clear this is more than just a tragedy (悲剧) for local communities. Given the insights that languages offer into the human mind, their disappearance is a loss for us all.
1. Why is Everett’s book mentioned?| A．To set off a discussion. |
| B．To lead in the topic of the text. |
| C．To recommend a meaningful book. |
| D．To show the importance of languages. |
| A．Proof of the complex relationship between language and thinking. |
| B．Different means of communication in different regions. |
| C．The variety of languages spoken in the world. |
| D．The reasons for language extinction. |
| A．Their colours. | B．Their function. |
| C．Their appearance. | D．Their material characteristics. |
| A．Concerned. | B．Doubtful. | C．Uncaring. | D．Shocked. |
5 . The Masai(马赛人) are continually trying to keep their own ways in an increasingly modern world. They live along the border of Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa, moving their homes from time to time to follow their cattle, the source of their livelihood. They rely on their cattle in many parts of their life. They like drinking the cows’ milk.
They don’t kill their cattle for food. But if a cow is killed, the parts of its body are used to make containers, shoes, clothin, ropes, bed coverings and so on. Not all of the men have cows. The more cattle a man owns, the richer he is considered to be. A man who owns 50 or fewer cattle is considered poor. Rich men have a thousand or more. The cattle, though owned by the man, are considered to belong to the man’s entire family. The family names the cattle and can recognize each animal’s special voice.
The Masai men have become known as warriors(勇士), protecting their cattle against other wild animals. They wear their red long hair. Most women often take care of their children, cook food, clean clothes and make clothing at home. They also make necklaces dresses and headdresses. A few women can also become authorities once they are powerful enough. They speak a language called Maa.
The houses of Masai made from sticks and grass, which are held together with a mixture of mud, are not very firm or safe. These plain houses with some basic supplies are built in a circle and make up a Masai village. They are not meant to last long since the migration(迁徙) of the cow population means that the Masai move as well. In the meantime, in order to prevent animals from entering, they also form a wall of branches. The whole setup is to protect the cattle, which sleep at night in the middle of the village. They seem to live a natural and self-sufficient life but lack modern civilisation.
1. What do we know about the Masai?| A．They don’t move in their lives. |
| B．They each have their own cows. |
| C．They don’t kill their cattle at all. |
| D．They are heavily dependent on cattle. |
| A．Designers. | B．Authorities. |
| C．Housewives. | D．Warriors. |
| A．Modern. | B．Lasting | C．Simple. | D．Safe. |
| A．Africans: Living a Moving life |
| B．Africans: Brave People in the World |
| C．The Masai: Rich People in East Africa |
| D．The Masai: Maintaining a Traditional Lifestyle |
6 . Joseph Salmon, 17, was practising ice fishing with his mom on a lake in Iowa. Suddenly, Salmon saw a jeep, driven by an old man, Thomas Lee,
Then another young man waved at Lee and tried to
Things looked extremely
Finally, the rescue workers arrived. Lee was transported to a nearby hospital. Neither he nor his dog was injured while Salmon was only treated for a minor
| A．fall | B．shake | C．show | D．push |
| A．reason | B．strike | C．instant | D．error |
| A．border | B．blackboard | C．street | D．shoreline |
| A．drive | B．signal | C．return | D．explain |
| A．at a loss | B．at no cost | C．in shame | D．in relief |
| A．Therefore | B．Instead | C．Somehow | D．Otherwise |
| A．reliable | B．promising | C．vague | D．urgent |
| A．aggressive | B．anxious | C．patient | D．peaceful |
| A．ship | B．pool | C．river | D．water |
| A．handle | B．drag | C．break | D．purchase |
| A．hesitated | B．sought | C．declined | D．regretted |
| A．motionless | B．artificial | C．flexible | D．obvious |
| A．held | B．took | C．washed | D．rushed |
| A．mistake | B．scratch | C．procedure | D．resource |
| A．fortunate | B．elegant | C．ridiculous | D．sensitive |
7 . Definitions of adult learning vary, but it is usually defined as all forms of learning undertaken by adults after having left initial education and training, however far this process may have gone.
Education and training are important factors for achieving the strategy objectives of raising economic growth, competitiveness and social inclusion. However, with some exceptions, the process of implementing education and training remains weak. Most education and training systems are still largely focused on the education and training of young people and limited progress has been made in changing systems to mirror the need for learning throughout the lifespan.
An additional 4 million adults would need to participate in lifelong learning. Recent research confirms the importance of investing in adult learning. The research on adults indicates that those who engage in learning are healthier, with a consequent reduction in healthcare costs.
The big economic challenge in Europe is to raise its growth and employment performance while preserving social cohesion(凝聚力). The rapid progress in other regions of the world shows the importance of creative, advanced and quality education and training as key factors of economic competitiveness. General levels of competence must increase, both to meet the needs of the labour market and to allow citizens to function well in today's society.
Europe is facing big demographic(人口的) changes that will have a major impact on society and on the economy and consequently on education and training provision and needs. Over the next 30 years, the number of younger Europeans will fall by 15%. One in three Europeans will be over 60 years old, and about one in ten will be over 80.
Given the challenges identified above, raising the overall level of skills of the adult population by offering more and better learning opportunities throughout adult life is important for both efficiency and equity reasons. Not only does lifelong learning help make adults more efficient workers and more active citizens, it also contributes to their personal well-being.
1. Which can replace the underlined word “implementing” in paragraph 2?| A．Carrying out. |
| B．Taking in. |
| C．Knowing about. |
| D．Looking over. |
| A．Adults have reduced healthcare costs. |
| B．Learning is good for adults’ health. |
| C．Few adults need to receive learning. |
| D．More research will focus on learning. |
| A．Europeans are not healthy. |
| B．Many old Europeans have died. |
| C．The European population is aging. |
| D．Young Europeans are out of work. |
| A．Lifelong learning is essential. |
| B．Raising adult population is significant. |
| C．We should help more efficient workers. |
| D．Work contributes to personal well-being. |
8 . Monthly Talks at London Canal Museum
Our monthly talks start at 19:30 on the first Thursday of each month except August. Admission is at normal charges and you don’t need to book. They end around 21:00.
November 7th
The Canal Pioneers, by Chris Lewis. James Brindley is recognized as one of the leading early canal engineers. He was also a major player in training others in the art of canal planning and building. Chris Lewis will explain how Brindley made such a positive contribution to the education of that group of early “civil engineers”.
December 5th
Ice for the Metropolis, by Malcolm Tucker. Well before the arrival of freezers, there was a demand for ice for food preservation and catering, Malcolm will explain the history of importing natural ice and the technology of building ice wells, and how London’s ice trade grew.
February 6th
An Update on the Cotsword Canals, by Liz Payne. The Stroudwater Canal is moving towards reopening. The Thames and Severn Canal will take a little longer. We will have a report on the present state of play.
March 6th
Eyots and Aits-Thames Islands, by Miranda Vickers. The Thames had many islands. Miranda has undertaken a review of all of them. She will tell us about those of greatest interest.
Online bookings:www.canalmuseum.org.uk/book
More into:www.canalmuseum.org.uk/whatson
London Canal Museum
12-13 New Wharf Road, London NI 9RT
www.canalmuseum.org.uk www.canalmuseum.mobi
Tel:020 77130836
1. When is the talk on James Brindley?| A．February 6th. | B．December 5th. |
| C．November 7th. | D．March 6th. |
| A．The Canal Pioneers. | B．An Update on the Cotsword Canals |
| C．Eyots and Aits-Thames Islands | D．Ice for the Metropolis |
| A．Miranda Vickers | B．Malcolm Tucker |
| C．Chris Lewis | D．Liz Payne |
9 . Museums in Baltimore
The Walters Art Museum
The Walters Art Museum contains 36,000 objects from around the world. Walking through the museum’s historic buildings, visitors encounter a stunning panorama of thousands of years of art, from romantic 17th-century images of French gardens to fascinating Ethiopian icons, ancient Roman sarcophagi (石棺), and peaceful images of the Buddha.
Tickets: $9.5. Free for children aged 7 and under.
Baltimore Museum of Industry
The Baltimore Museum of Industry celebrates the innovators, entrepreneurs and workers who promoted this port city into the industrial age. From garment making to airplane manufacturing, visitors to the museum will discover how their pioneering spirit built the region’s manufacturing might. Located in an 1860s oyster cannery on a five-acre waterfront campus, the BMI offers dynamic exhibitions and hands-on activities for guests of all ages.
Tickets: $15. Half price for children.
Baltimore Museum of Art
The Baltimore Museum of Art is home to an internationally renowned collection of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art. It has 90,000 works of art—including the largest holding of works by Henri Matisse in the world. The BMA is now throughout the multi-year project so that visitors can enjoy its outstanding selection of European and American painting and sculpture from the 17th through 20th centuries.
Tickets: $10. Ten percent off if booked on the official website.
American Visionary Art Museum
The American Visionary Art Museum is the nation’s museum for self-taught, creative skills. Three historic buildings house wonders created by farmers, housewives, mechanics, the disabled, as well as the occasional neurosurgeon. From carved roots to embroidered rags, tattoos to toothpicks, ‘the visionary’ transforms dreams, loss, hopes, and ideals into powerful works of art.
Tickets: $9.5. Free for children aged 6 and under and museum members.
1. Which museum best suits people interested in contemporary French paintings?| A．The Walters Art Museum. | B．Baltimore Museum of Industry. |
| C．Baltimore Museum of Art. | D．American Visionary Art Museum. |
| A．It’s a place for memorial celebrations for the city. |
| B．It was built in a factory where food was canned. |
| C．It offers free exhibitions for guests of all ages. |
| D．It is now undergoing a multi-year project. |
| A．$19. | B．$23.5. | C．$27. | D．$28.5. |
10 . In September 2017, villagers found a tiny elephant wandering around alone in Burkina Faso, West Africa. They named the baby elephant Nania and brought it to a local wildlife base. The caregivers there saw promising signs-the young elephant remained physically healthy and didn't seem depressed. Experts predict the elephant was discovered within a day or two of being separated from her family, or she wouldn't have survived.
Fortunately, Nania grew well with her caregivers, who acted as her parents playing with her for 6-8 hours a day. Several months later, Nania was ready to start the process of returning to wild elephant group. As is known to us, turning wild animals into adopted ones is actually a process the animals can do naturally. Most animals including nonrelatives act like family. However, helping an elephant rejoin the wild is no simple task. Will it be able to find food for itself, avoid danger, and eventually have its own children?
Meanwhile, scientists began the search for her mother using DNA matching technology. They began collecting wastes samples from the 40 wild elephant tribes that passed through the area and analyzed the elephant wastes for DNA in a lab. Then one day, the lab found a surprising result: the DNA was a match. One of the sampled elephants was not just a family member of Nania, but almost surely her mother. Most importantly, through the DNA, the scientists discovered that Nania is a forest elephant. Forest elephants are endangered, which makes the importance of saving Nania much greater.
“What you really hope for is that there’s some connection that can be remembered when she finds her own species,” Katie Moore, vice president for animal rescue, said. “And that it just happens. To Nania, it will not feel lonely any more.”
1. What do we know about the tiny elephant from paragraph 1?| A．It seemed well although it was lost. | B．It was frightened of being left alone. |
| C．It had been missing for a long time. | D．It felt quite frustrated for loneliness. |
| A．It was impossible for it to find its family. |
| B．It was hardly able to join other species family. |
| C．It was unwilling to leave and go back to the wild. |
| D．It might be hard for it to survive back in the wild. |
| A．Nania forgot the animals in wildlife base. | B．Nania managed to get used to its former life. |
| C．Nania could be recognized by other elephants. | D．Nania had almost forgotten her family members. |
| A．The Endangered Forest Elephants | B．A Lost Elephant Finding Its Mother By Itself |
| C．A Rescued Elephant’s Returning To The Wild | D．An Amazing DNA Matching Technology |
