1 . I was an avid (热衷的) list maker. I thought the lists would help me finish things more
My real turning
It was near the end of July, so I
I still make
| A．naturally | B．secretly | C．effectively | D．creatively |
| A．duty | B．time | C．method | D．reason |
| A．adapted to | B．searched for | C．depended on | D．went over |
| A．amazed | B．stressed | C．bored | D．pleased |
| A．point | B．occasion | C．opportunity | D．stage |
| A．Otherwise | B．However | C．Besides | D．Thus |
| A．put up | B．took over | C．threw away | D．broke through |
| A．dark | B．crowded | C．warm | D．unusual |
| A．meaningful | B．different | C．full | D．long |
| A．preparing | B．recovering | C．clearing | D．establishing |
| A．imagined | B．missed | C．avoided | D．started |
| A．removed | B．challenged | C．ensured | D．preserved |
| A．eagerness | B．shame | C．relief | D．belonging |
| A．profits | B．lists | C．wishes | D．goals |
| A．want | B．prove | C．approach | D．inspire |
2 . Napoleon Bonaparte by Emil Ludwig (German1881~1948)
Napoleon Bonaparte is an extraordinary statesman, strategist, the founder of the French First Empire. This biography was written by famous German writer Emil Ludwig, and there’s no doubt that the book is a great success. The writer uses his own writing style to show the charming character of Napoleon to the readers of the book.
Cao Xueqin Biography by Li Jianshu, 2009 (Chinese edition)
The book tells the life story of the novelist Cao Xueqin — author of The Dream of the Red Mansions. Cao was born to a rich family but suffered great poverty for most of his life. He drew on his life experiences to write his famous novel, which was published after his death.
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller, 1903
Even though Keller wrote this autobiography when she was only 22 years old, it is considered a great book in American literature. It tells about her dark and silent childhood, and how her teacher — Anne Sullivan opened up a new world to her by teaching her how to communicate.
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, 2011
Isaacson interviewed Steve Jobs over forty times, and interviewed hundreds of Jobs friends, relatives, and rivals to sum up Jobs’ remarkable life. The result is an interesting story of a man driven to succeed and driven to make perfect products.
1. Which of the four books is written by Chinese edition?| A．Cao Xueqin Biography. | B．The Story of My Life. |
| C．Steve Jobs. | D．Napoleon Bonaparte. |
| A．Cao Xueqin Biography. | B．The Story of My Life. |
| C．Steve Jobs. | D．Napoleon Bonaparte. |
| A．Cao Xueqin Biography. | B．The Story of My Life. |
| C．Steve Jobs. | D．Napoleon Bonaparte. |
3 . Feasts for Museum-goers
Museums have become the latest must-see destinations for both locals and tourists alike all over China and let’s take a quick look at what some of them have in store for enthusiastic museum-goers.
Gentle View
Paintings and sculptures from across the country are on display at the ongoing exhibition, Colors, at the Shandong Art Museum in Jinan, Shandong province. The event is held in celebration of International Women’s Day, which falls on Friday. The Shandong Artists Association launched the annual exhibition in 2017 to encourage women artists and to offer them a platform for their talents and their unique ways of viewing the world.
Cultural Peak
Ink artist Huang Binhong (1865 — 1955), considered one of the major figures of modern Chinese art, spent a lifetime carrying on his country’s cultural heritage while also maintaining a modern spirit and a universal outlook. Immortal Legacy is an ongoing exhibition at the Art Museum of Beijing Fine Art Academy that sheds light on Huang’s belief in cultural tradition. His landscape paintings indicate his appetite for the scenery of southern China, where he grew up and spent most of his life.
Timeless Beauty
In celebration of Chinese New Year, Immortal Brushwork of Danqing, the Tianjin Museum staged a long-term exhibition starting in early February, bringing together dozens of paintings ranging from the Song (960 — 1279) to Qing (1644 — 1911) dynasties. Examples include a portrait of an aristocratic woman by Leng Mei, a pioneering figure of Chinese portraiture in the 17th and 18th centuries. Leng’s paintings successfully convey the atmosphere and situations his subjects experienced, revealing their moods and emotions.
Calligraphic Sage
Hailed as the “modern sage of caoshu script”, Lin Sanzhi is recognized as one of the leading calligraphers of the 20th century. My Admiration of Ancient Masters, an exhibition at the Anhui Art Museum, reviews Lin’s efforts in calligraphy, poetry and Chinese painting through which he built a connection with the spiritual worlds of past artists and sought new dimensions for the art form. Also on display are landscape paintings, showing how he made use of calligraphic techniques to present the vastness of nature.
1. Which show would satisfy visitors’ desire to appreciate art from female’s perspectives?| A．Colors. | B．Immortal Legacy. |
| C．Immortal Brushwork of Danqing. | D．My Admiration of Ancient Masters. |
| A．Artworks by women artists. | B．Classical figure paintings. |
| C．Paintings from modern times. | D．Painting subjects analysis. |
| A．They feature Chinese calligraphy. |
| B．They exhibit landscape paintings. |
| C．They employ calligraphic techniques. |
| D．They show the scenery of southern China. |
4 . Family: Poems — by Mr. Keith Keenan
Kindle $0.00; Hardcover $12.50; Paperback $7.00.
The poet describes personal thoughts and feelings in a lyrical journey to understand and celebrate his family. “Family” looks at living honestly in places, not illusions. Figurative (形象的) language, a love of metaphor and sharp images all make the poems work.
Time to Heal — by Aleandra Vasiliu
Kindle $9.99; Hardcover $21.94; Paperback $12.64.
From the bestselling author comes an inspirational poetry book about love, healing, and growth. It is a reminder to strive to change for the better. Featuring more than 130 uplifting poems and black-and-white illustrations, it’s a great companion when you need to embrace self-love and personal transformation.
Seeds from a Birch Tree — by Clark Strand
Kindle $9.99; Hardcover $26.80; Paperback $16.95.
Seeds from a Birch Tree makes nature into a spiritual path. Its message was simple: Haiku teaches us to return to nature by following the seasons — seventeen syllables at a time. With its mix of poetry and memoir (回忆录), the book guides us to the joy hidden in plain sight, leading us to get into a good state of body and mind.
A Poem for Every Day — by Allie Esiri
Kindle $9.99; Hardcover $28.05; Audio CD $18.05.
This audio book is a collection of 366 poems which link to events on key dates—funny for April Fools’ Day, festive for Christmas. This is the perfect gift for poetry lovers of all ages. These poems are informative, peaceful, and energetic!
There are a large number of poetry collections on Amazon. More information, please click here.
1. How much will you pay if you are to buy a hardcover edition of a book on haiku?| A．$12.50. | B．$21.94. | C．$26.80. | D．$28.05. |
| A．Family: Poems features plain language. |
| B．Time to Heal features colorful illustrations. |
| C．Seeds from a Birch Tree focuses on human nature. |
| D．A Poem for Every Day focuses on festive celebrations. |
| A．A marketing website. | B．A literature magazine. |
| C．A book review. | D．A news report. |
5 . Fancy spending your summer break improving your skills and preparing for your first job? We have gathered the best summer programs in Singapore in recent years. Now you will be able to narrow down your choices and make a decision.
StandOut Global Summer Program
At StandOut Summer School, one of your missions will be to work as an intern (实习生) with leaders in the business world who have plenty of years of experience in the field. Through this program, you can boost your knowledge by interacting with experts in fields like digital marketing, entrepreneurship (创业), investment, etc. Wherever you come from, the school will welcome you in their all-inclusive program.
NTU Summer School Program
Nanyang Technological University will take you on a unique experience in their summer camp. In NTU`s summer school, you will be able to enjoy your favorite business track out of five different options, Each track will lead you to an internship at. a top-ranked company lasting from 3 weeks to 2 months.
NUS Summer School
The National University of Singapore offers one of the leading summer camps in Singapore. The program is designed for students who are from its partner universities located all around the world. With passion as one of the university’s core values, the NUS Summer School guarantees continuous development for its students.
Singapore Management University Global Summer Program
With its third Global Summer Program starting in July, Singapore Management University offers international students an unforgettable opportunity: 4 weeks of learning in Singapore, with a week spent overseas in another Asian city to merge in an unmatched experience.
Get in touch with us to get all your questions about global summer programs answered!
What do the first two programs have in common?| A．Both help students start their own business. |
| B．Both invite experts to guide students. |
| C．Both expand students’ knowledge in business. |
| D．Both offer students internships at top-ranked companies. |
6 . Many parents of both boys and girls have witnessed striking differences in the way their kids use technology, with their sons generally gravitating to videogames and their daughters often spending more of their screen time scrolling through social media. Emerging research indicates that brain differences between males and females help account for the split.
Marc Potenza, a professor at Yale University, teamed up with researchers at universities in China to find out why. Using functional MRIs, which measure brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow, the team studied neural responses in young male and female gamers, particularly in the parts of the brain associated with reward processing and craving --a motivating factor in addiction. When the men and women were shown photos of people playing videogames, those parts of the men’s brains showed higher levels of activation than those parts of the women’s brains.
Brain regions that have been implicated in drug-addiction studies also were shown to be more highly activated in the men after gaming. The researchers said the results suggest men could be more biologically prone (有倾向的) than women to developing internet gaming disorder.
But girls and women aren’t free from problems when it comes to digital media. Data from Pew shows that, in general, women use social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest far more than men. Many girls and women are drawn to those photo-sharing sites because they like to form bonds and find similarities, says Rosanna
Guadagno, a social psychologist at Stanford University. Some recent studies show that girls feel the ill effects of too much social media use, such as depression and anxiety, more than boys do.
Researchers at the University of Zurich looked at how differences in brain functioning can help explain why women tend to be more prosocial—that is, helpful, generous and cooperative—than men. In the 2017 study, they hypothesized that the areas of women’s brains related to reward processing are more active when they share rewards and that those areas in men are more active when receiving, selfish rewards. Brain scans conducted on men and women, in which they chose between receiving a monetary reward only for themselves or one that involved sharing money with others, supported their theory.
Scientists say understanding those differences is critical to parents’ ability to help kids navigate the fast-changing world of tech.
Which is true about Professor Potenza’s research?| A．The team conducted the research in Yale university. |
| B．There were no changes in blood flow in female games. |
| C．Women’s brains showed higher levels of activation than men’s. |
| D．They focused on the brain’s responses to the part related to addiction. |
7 . The green, natural forest absorbs carbon dioxide from the air through photo- synthesis (光合作用). There is another way of dealing with the climate crisis. That is setting up fields of dark-colored solar panels (太阳能电池板), also known as “solar forests”, which replace power stations that use fossil fuels such as coal and gas to make electricity, thus mitigating harmful emissions (排放) of greenhouse gases.
But since they are both relatively dark, they absorb a lot of solar radiation. Some of the energy is used for photosynthesis in natural forests or to produce electricity in “solar forests”, but most returns to the atmosphere, heating it up. Then what would be the more effective land use option in terms of the climate crisis: planting a forest, or building solar panels? This issue has long been debated by decision-makers around the world. Now, we may have an answer, thanks to a new study.
First, the researchers compared the impact of a forest on the climate crisis in a dry area to that of a solar farm in a similar environment. The researchers found that the albedo effect (反射效应) of both of these “forests” was similar, but that the absorption or prevention of carbon emissions was very different. It turns out that it takes 2.5 years for the heat emitted by solar farms to be balanced by the carbon emissions that are avoided, thanks to the energy they produce. In the case of a natural forest of similar size, it would take more than 100 years of photosynthesis to balance its heating effect.
The researchers also studied how the heating-cooling relationship changed in other climates and found that in more humid environments, the heating effect of planting large numbers of trees is smaller. And the break-even point is reached within 15 to 18 years.
“In dry places, building solar forests seems far more effective in addressing the climate crisis. Meanwhile, forests absorb about a third of annual carbon emissions and play a vital role in the global rain cycle, in maintaining biodiversity and in many other environmental and social contexts. Preventing them from being cut down and planting more trees in humid areas are of great significance,” explains one of the researchers in the study.
What does the underlined word “mitigating” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Releasing. | B．Decreasing. |
| C．Generating. | D．Stabilizing. |
8 . Seated at the grand piano in MIT’s Killian Hall last fall, first-year student Jacqueline Wang played one piece of Mozart’s music. When she’d finished, Mi-Eun Kim, a pianist and lecturer at MIT, asked her to move to the back of the hall. Kim tapped at an iPad. Suddenly, the music Wang had just played poured forth again from the piano - its keys sinking and rising just as they had with Wang’s fingers on them. Wang stood with a confused expression, taking in a repeat of her own performance.
This unusual lesson took place during a three-week residency (驻留期) of the Steinway Spirio|r, a piano that obtains the data of live performances and offers students new possibilities for studying and experimenting with music.
Wang was one of several participants to have the experience of hearing herself play while watching the data of her performance move up and down across a screen: color-coded rectangles (矩形) indicating the speed and duration of each note, and a moving line charting her use of the damper pedal (阻尼踏板). Wang could even edit her own performance when Kim suggested her rhythmic use of the pedal might be unnecessary. Using the iPad interface to erase the pedaling entirely, they listened to the playback again, the notes gaining new clarity,
For Wang, the session introduced an element she’d never experienced since beginning her piano studies. The visual display of how long each key was played and with what speed gave her a more precise demonstration of the ideas of voicing and evenness.
Playing the piano is one of the most complex activities that humans do with their hands. Some people might think the new technology will replace the pianist. In Kim’s view, that human complexity is complemented by this kind of technical possibility. But it doesn’t mean all of the things that go into learning music will be abandoned. It’s going to be an invaluable third partner: the student, the teacher, and the Spirio | r. It’s going to play a necessary role in lots of musical efforts.
1. What can we say about the new piano technology?| A．It is difficult to operate. |
| B．It needs to be more intelligent. |
| C．It might reveal users’ privacy. |
| D．It is beneficial for students’ learning. |
| A．The music world is full of uncertainties. |
| B．Technology cannot replace human pianists. |
| C．There won’t be fiercer competition among pianists. |
| D．Pianists should be updated with the latest technology. |
9 . Edward rose early on the New-year morning. He looked in every room and wished a Happy New Year to his family. Then he ran into the street to repeat that to those he might meet.
When he came back, his father gave him two bright, new silver dollars.
His face lighted up as he took them. He had wished for a long time to buy some pretty books that he had seen at the bookstore.
He left the house with a light heart, expecting to buy the books. As he ran down the street, he saw a poor family.
“I wish you a Happy New Year.” said Edward, as he was passing on. The man shook his head.
“You are not from this country.” said Edward. The man again shook his head, for he could not understand or speak his language. But he pointed to his mouth and to the children shaking with cold, as if (好像) to say, “These little ones have had nothing to eat for a long time.”
Edward quickly understood that these poor people were in trouble. He took out his dollars and gave one to the man, and the other to his wife.
They were excited and said something in their language, which doubtless meant, “We thank you so much that we will remember you all the time.”
When Edward came home, his father asked what books he had bought. He hung his head a moment, but quickly looked up.
“I have bought no books”, said he. “I gave my money to some poor people, who seemed to be very hungry then.” He went on, “I think I can wait for my books till next New Year.”
“My dear boy,” said his father, “here are some books for you, more as a prize for your goodness of heart than as a New-year gift.”
“I saw you give the money cheerfully to the poor German family. It was nice for a little boy to do so. Be always ready to help others and every year of your life will be to you a Happy New Year.”
1. Edward expected to ________ with the money he got from his father.| A．help the poor family | B．buy something to eat |
| C．buy some pretty books | D．learn another language |
| A．He couldn’t understand the boy | B．He wouldn’t accept the money |
| C．He didn’t like the boy’s language | D．He was too cold to say anything |
| A．One dollar | B．Two dollars | C．Three dollars | D．Four dollars |
| A．got a prize for his kind heart | B．had to buy his books next year |
| C．bought the books at the bookstore | D．got more money from his father |
10 . “I am so sorry,” I tearfully said to my principal investigator (PI), explaining I would not be able to return to work as originally planned. Before I became a parent, I had assumed a baby would fit right into my academic plans. But now, as the end of my leave approached, I realized I couldn’t simply carry on as I always had. I was worried this decision might signal the end of my academic career — but I felt I had no other choice.
Thankfully, my PI had more foresight. He told me I didn’t need to resign and that he could offer me a contract that would allow me to contribute to our project from afar. It proved to be an absolute career lifeline tailored to me.
Then five years after stepping back from academia, I felt ready to re-enter more fully. Because I had been able to keep my hand in during my time away, the prospect was much less daunting than it would have been otherwise. I ended up landing a lecturer position that allowed me to slowly ease back in, focusing on teaching and scholarship with research taking a back seat. And when, 4 years on, a senior lectureship position came up in the very group I had left a decade earlier, the timing was right. With both of my children in “big school”, I was ready to really put my foot down on the career accelerator. I got the job.
Now, 6 months into my new role, I am happy to be right where it all began, with involvement in so many interesting projects. But what truly made the difference for me was the offer of what I needed during that time away. I hope more institutions and PIs can come up with creative provisions (条款) for those in their workforce who don’t want to give up their careers but want-or-need to take extended periods of leave. And to those who are taking such breaks, or considering it, know that returning is possible. Above all, on both sides: Please do not discount extended leavers. We have a lot to offer — if we are given the chance.
1. What can we learn about the author from the first paragraph?| A．Her path to PI began when she became a parent. |
| B．She struck a balance between work and family. |
| C．She had intended to stick to her academic plans. |
| D．She chose to prioritize her career over her family. |
| A．Fearsome. | B．Realistic. | C．Regretful. | D．Promising. |
| A．Academic researches. | B．Supportive work environment. |
| C．Interest in the projects. | D．Involvement in engaging projects. |
| A．To analyse. | B．To entertain. | C．To report. | D．To promote. |
