1 . It was a typical summer day in my small town, with the sun shining and the sky clear. I was sitting on my porch, enjoying the peaceful view of the rolling hills and the calm lake, when suddenly a strong wind blew in from the west. The peaceful sky turned dark as a storm approached.
I went inside, grabbing my raincoat and heading to the barn to secure the animals. The cows were nervous, sensing the approaching storm. I quickly tied them up and ran back to the house, just as the rain started to pour down. The wind was howling and the rain was pounding against the windows. Lightning and thunder followed, making the atmosphere even more electric. I sat by the window, watching the raging storm and praying that everything would be okay.
After what seemed like hours, but was only a few minutes, the storm passed. The clouds moved away, revealing a bright and sunny sky. I walked outside, taking in the fresh air and surveying the damage. The trees were bent over and some branches had been blown off. Our vegetable garden was flooded, but other than that, everything seemed to be fine. I breathed a sigh of relief as I realized that no serious damage had been done.
That evening, as I sat by the fireplace with a cup of hot coffee, I reflected on the experience. It reminded me that nature can be both powerful and unpredictable, but that we must persevere and adapt to whatever it throws at us. The next morning, as I watched the sun rise over the now-calm landscape, I felt a sense of pride knowing that my family and I had weathered the storm together.
1. What does the word “weathered” mean in the last paragraph?| A．enjoyed | B．survived | C．forecasted | D．changed |
| A．Angry | B．Relieved | C．Scared | D．Sad |
| A．Problem and solution | B．Cause and effect |
| C．in order time | D．by Comparison |
| A．The author explains how to prepare for and cope with a storm. |
| B．The author describes how a storm ruined his day and his garden. |
| C．The author compares and contrasts the different weather conditions in his town. |
| D．The author recounts how he and his family withstood a sudden storm and learned a lesson from it. |
2 . Once upon a time, a daughter complained to her father that her senior high school life was unhappy and that she was tired of struggling with homework all the time.
Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, h placed potatoes, eggs and coffee beans in them. After 20 minutes, he took them out, putting the potatoes and eggs in a bowl and the coffee in a cup.
Turning to his daughter, he said, “Look closer, and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After puling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to taste the coffee. Its good smell brought a smile to her face.
“Father, what does this mean?” she asked. He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and the coffee beans were in the same adversity (逆境)—the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently.
The strong and hard potato became soft and weak in boiling water. The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard. However, the coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new. “Which one do you want to be like,” he asked. “When adversity knocks on your door, how will you respond?”
In life, challenges happen to us all, but the only thing that truly matters is what happens within us.
1. Why did the girl complain to her father?| A．Because of her tiring job. | B．Because of her hard school life. |
| C．Because of her father’ s busy work. | D．Because of the food her father cooked. |
| A．The girl liked the coffee best. |
| B．The father was good at cooking. |
| C．Different people have different reactions to adversity. |
| D．The girl didn’t like the potatoes and eggs. |
| A．thick | B．hard | C．strong | D．easily-broken |
| A．Challenges and responses. | B．Adversities and a chef. |
| C．A chef and coffee beans. | D．Father and daughter. |
3 . Guan Shanyue Art Museum
Shenzhen artists are sending hope and gratitude to the Chinese CovID-19 frontline workers through 215 artworks at the “We Are Together”exhibition running until May 17. The paintings, sculptures, photographs and music videos show medical workers, delivery men, cleaners, police officers and volunteers working tirelessly during the outbreak. Meanwhile, a selection of master Quan Shanyue’s paintings featuring flowers and birds are also on display until July.
Hours: 9 a. m. -12 pm; 2 pm. 4. 30 p. m. closed Mondays.
He Xiangning Art Museum
Selected paintings by master He Xiangning are offering an in-depth review of her revolutionary and artistic career. The paintings mainly portray plum blossoms, pine trees, lions, tigers, and landscapes. Meanwhile, contemporary Chinese oil paintings produced in the past 30 years are also on display at the “As Times Go By”exhibition until May 5.
Hours: 9:30 a. m. - 4:30 p. m. , closed Mondays.
MixC Shenzhen Bay
The ”Fantastic Dali” exhibition, running until May 5, presents an unimaginable world of 200 artworks by Spanish master Salvador Dali. Another exhibition running until May 28 features painting “Along the River During the Qingming Festival” by Ming artist Qiu Ying(1494-1552)and vivid scenes for visitors to take photos.
Hours(Dali): 10 a. m. -7 p. m. (Mon. -Fri.), 10 a. m. -9 p. m. (Sat.-Sun)
Hours(Qiu Ying): 10 a. m. -9 p. m. , closed Mondays.
1. What are on exhibition in Guan Shanyue Art Museum?| A．Artworks by a Spanish master. | B．Paintings featuring landscapes. |
| C．Music videos showing lions. | D．Artworks honoring COVID-19 fighters. |
| A．“Fantastic Dali”. |
| B．“We Are Together”. |
| C．“As Times Go By”. |
| D．“Along the River During the Qingming Festival”. |
| A．A travel journal. | B．An art website |
| C．A painting album. | D．A comic book. |
4 . Despite many public health campaigns to highlight various problems with sugary drinks, we drink them a lot. But, not everyone consumes them. Two new studies shed light on the fact that some of us easily fall victim to the harms of sugary drinks than others.
Though sugary drinks are everywhere, some people find them harder to resist and the first study, conducted by professor Joshua McGreen at Flinders University, sought to understand why. For the research, 128 young adults of 17 to 25 completed a computer test evaluating their attitudes about soft drinks, measured against their soft drink consumption. The study showed that the more unconscious positive judgments individuals had of soft drink advertising, the more soft drink they consumed. It also found that a lack of inhibitory control, which is the cognitive process that allows us to control our desires — say, to buy a nice-tasting soft drink even though we know it’s unhealthy — was also a factor in increased consumption.
A second study provides clues about who is more easily influenced by the marketing strategies. The study found that soft drink companies, like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, have multi-billion-dollar advertising and marketing budgets aimed to “create, maintain and increase consumer demand around benefits related to happiness, social status etc.” These campaigns are “increasingly being directed at disadvantaged groups”, including children and adolescents generally.
Soft drinks, even “zero-sugar” ones, are typically high in calories, but of little nutritional benefit. Placing a tax on sweet drinks may be one strategy to reduce people’s consumption. McGreen also suggests that people develop strong self-control of soft drink consumption. It’s something he wants to research further.
1. What do the two new studies focus on?| A．The harm of sugary drinks. | B．The popularity of sugary drinks. |
| C．The consumers of sugary drinks. | D．The profit made by sugary drinks. |
| A．Those who have a good impression of soft drinks. |
| B．Those who have a good spending habit. |
| C．Those who can control their desires well. |
| D．Those who have no interest in soft drink advertising. |
| A．The warning against the consumption of soft drinks. |
| B．Plans to research into self-control of soft drink consumption. |
| C．The importance of sports stars in advertising soft drinks. |
| D．Suggestions on reducing the consumption of soft drinks. |
| A．Positive. | B．Negative. | C．Uncaring. | D．Ambiguous. |
5 . Have you ever received a gift that was so clearly, not your taste that you wondered if perhaps it had been handed to you by mistake? Worse, have you ever given a present and watched your friend look as though she had opened the wrong box? Maybe she responded with a polite “Why, thank you,” but you knew you had missed the mark. Why do presents sometimes go wrong? And what do your choices (good and bad) reflect about your personal qualities?
Choosing the right gift is an art, I believe. It calls for empathy—the ability to put yourself into someone else’s head and heart.We’re all able to do this; in fact, we’re born with a kind of natural empathy.After the earliest period of childhood, however, it needs to be reinforced (加强) —by our parents, teachers, friends. When it isn’t, we’re not able to understand other people’s feelings as sharply.This can show in the gifts we select, and so can many other emotional(情感的) qualities.
Think back to the presents you’ve given over the past year, the time and effort you put into your selection, how much you spent, your thoughts while you were shopping, and your feelings when the receiver opened the package.Keep in mind that what you choose displays your inner world.(Of course, you may express yourself differently with different friends, relatives, and other people you know.)
We live in a society where exchanging presents is an important part of communication.Ignoring the tradition won’t make it go away.If you really dislike such a tradition, tell your friends ahead of time.
1. The underlined expression “you had missed the mark” means you had failed to _______.| A．make her feel better | B．keep your friendship |
| C．get the expected effect | D．receive a present in return |
| A．Natural empathy needs to be reinforced. |
| B．Emotional changes influence one’s choice of gifts. |
| C．Selecting the right gift is an ability people are born with. |
| D．Choosing gifts requires one to understand the receivers. |
| A．the choice of gifts reflects one’s emotional qualities |
| B．one learns from what he did in the past |
| C．attention should be paid to the receivers’ responses |
| D．one should spend more time choosing gifts |
| A．Ways of Choosing Gifts | B．An Important Tradition |
| C．Exchanging Presents | D．Message in a Gift |
6 . Learning Chinese could be one of the most important decisions you ever made. Chinese is becoming the language to learn in the 21st century. With the world’s largest population and a rapidly growing middle class, China stands to become the engine of the world’s economy in the coming years. This will make learning Chinese very important to people in many industries, or to those of us who wish to visit China or learn about its culture and history.
There is an ongoing effort to modernize the writing system and standardize(使标准化) the language. An increasing number of people learning Chinese are learning Mandarin, so unless you absolutely need to learn another dialect (such as Cantonese), be sure to study Mandarin.
For native English speakers Chinese is one of the most difficult and most different languages to learn. The vocabulary is wholly unfamiliar and unlike anything we know. In addition, in the Chinese tone system, words are said in rising or falling tones, which helps to distinguish them. Furthermore, there is the Chinese writing system—a collection of thousands of individual ideograms (表意文字), or symbols, which represent a word or an idea. These ideograms have no phonetic value—that is to say, we can’t tell how the word is pronounced by how it is written. There is a way to present written Chinese in a phonetic script called pinyin. If you are learning Chinese, you'll be working with this pinyin system, but the beauty of the traditional writing system shouldn’t be passed up(放弃). All these factors make learning Chinese difficult for us. Yet, for a determined learner, there’s always a way to overcome them.
1. Why is learning Chinese becoming more and more important?| A．Chinese engines are very welcome. |
| B．China has the world’s largest population. |
| C．There are more and more rich people in China. |
| D．China has become important to the world economy. |
| A．The author thinks Chinese is as difficult as English. |
| B．The author is interested in the Chinese language and culture. |
| C．Foreign languages can play a great role in industrial development. |
| D．As long as the pinyin system is learned well, one can learn Chinese well. |
| A．The difficulties of learning Chinese. |
| B．The advantages of learning Chinese. |
| C．The Chinese tone system. |
| D．The Chinese writing system. |
| A．The sources of Chinese characters. |
| B．The importance of learning Chinese. |
| C．The advice on how to learn Chinese. |
| D．The difficulties of learning other languages. |
7 . Tired of standing in line? Wait a bit longer, and you may never have to again.
Amazon has opened 24 of its Amazon Go stores, which use cameras and artificial intelligence (AI) to see what you’ve taken off shelves and charge you as you walk out. Some companies are closely copying Amazon’s approach to using AI-powered cameras fixed in ceilings. But others are trying an entirely different way to skip the checkout: smart shopping carts. These companies have added cameras and sensors (传感器) to the carts, and are using AI to tell what you’ve put in them. Customers pay by entering a credit card, or through an online payment system. When a customer exits the store a green light on the shopping cart shows that their order is complete, and they’re charged.
The companies behind the smart carts, including Caper and Veeve, say it’s much easier to add technology to the shopping cart than to an entire store. Amazon’s Go stores rely on hundreds of cameras in the ceiling. The shelves also include sensors to tell when an item is removed. Ahmed Beshry, co-founder of Caper, believes the technology to run Go is too expensive to use in a large-format grocery store. Neither Caper nor Veeve has said how much their smart shopping carts will cost, making it difficult to compare the different formats. Shariq Siddiqui, CEO of Veeve, said, “We’re always happy when Amazon is doing something. They force retailers (零售店) to get out of their old school thinking.”
Each time a business uses AI and cameras, it raises questions about customers’ privacy and the effect on jobs. Beshry notes that the cameras in his shopping cart point down into the cart, so only a customer’s hand and part of their arm will be captured (拍摄) on camera.
1. What do we know about the smart shopping carts?| A．They are able to recognize goods put in them. |
| B．They are linked to the cameras fixed in the ceilings. |
| C．They flash the green light when the order is canceled. |
| D．They can tell customers where to find what they want. |
| A．It is likely to help retailers to think differently. |
| B．It has attracted many more retailers than before. |
| C．It is far more expensive than their shopping carts. |
| D．It may reduce the cost of running a store greatly. |
| A．That they can only buy goods online. |
| B．That goods in the stores may be more expensive. |
| C．That they have to wait in a line for a longer time. |
| D．That somebody may know their privacy. |
| A．The new technology improves retail sale. |
| B．AI-powered cameras are used in retail stores. |
| C．Artificial intelligence affects the future of job market. |
| D．Smart shopping carts will let you skip the line. |
8 . Have you experienced a condition when listening to a very loud music makes your heartbeat so fast that you can actually feel the
But why does this happen? Experiments found that the
It is believed that people who havens lower heart rate have a longer life.
Therefore, it is used as a
| A．light | B．shallow | C．heavy | D．mild |
| A．nature | B．anxiety | C．respect | D．security |
| A．integrated | B．changed | C．linked | D．marked |
| A．compared | B．adapted | C．exposed | D．opposed |
| A．style | B．beauty | C．fantasy | D．effect |
| A．formed | B．developed | C．translated | D．made |
| A．brings out | B．brings up | C．brings about | D．brings in |
| A．enjoyable | B．unbearable | C．unforgettable | D．beneficial |
| A．helpful | B．joyful | C．grateful | D．doubtful |
| A．Interestingly | B．Similarly | C．Absolutely | D．Unbelievably |
| A．limit | B．competition | C．fame | D．risk |
| A．speeds up | B．holds up | C．slows up | D．puts up |
| A．selflessness | B．calmness | C．loneliness | D．restlessness |
| A．learning | B．relaxation | C．permission | D．cooperation |
| A．hardens | B．touches | C．saddens | D．heals |
9 . I fell in love with Yosemite National Park the first time I saw it. My parents took us there for camping. On the way out, I asked them to wait while I ran up to El Capitain, a
About 15 years ago I started seeing a lot of
I tried
In 2004, together with some climbers, I set a date for a
Each year volunteers come for the cleanup from everywhere. In 2007 alone, 2,945 people picked up 42,330 pounds of trash.
I often hear people
| A．distant | B．huge | C．narrow | D．loose |
| A．immediately | B．finally | C．gradually | D．recently |
| A．imagining | B．painting | C．describing | D．climbing |
| A．garden | B．home | C．lab | D．palace |
| A．material | B．resources | C．waste | D．goods |
| A．more | B．most | C．less | D．least |
| A．throwing away | B．picking up | C．breaking down | D．digging out |
| A．kill | B．save | C．wait | D．spend |
| A．cleanup | B．party | C．picnic | D．concert |
| A．dropped out | B．showed up | C．looked around | D．called back |
| A．demand | B．receive | C．achieve | D．overcome |
| A．plan | B．visit | C．contact | D．difference |
| A．talk | B．complain | C．argue | D．quarrel |
| A．doing | B．thinking | C．questioning | D．watching |
| A．method | B．explanation | C．example | D．research |
10 . The train had been long delayed. Running out of
He lay down and fell asleep but was soon woken up by a woman. She handed him his bag and
Andy’s thoughts drifted(飘)to when he was
Andy woke up later feeling much better. Then he noticed the woman,who’d
Without thinking twice, Andy wrapped his mother’s scarf around the baby. To his
| A．luck | B．patience | C．time | D．energy |
| A．train | B．truth | C．cause | D．notice |
| A．insisted | B．explained | C．apologized | D．admitted |
| A．surprised | B．ready | C．thankful | D．expecting |
| A．checking | B．leaving | C．planning | D．packing |
| A．hurt | B．annoyed | C．ashamed | D．puzzled |
| A．Lately | B．Finally | C．Suddenly | D．Instantly |
| A．look | B．pill | C．rest | D．sandwich |
| A．for safety | B．on purpose | C．in case | D．by accident |
| A．calmness | B．confidence | C．comfort | D．care |
| A．warmth | B．memory | C．smell | D．touch |
| A．helped | B．pleased | C．disturbed | D．greeted |
| A．comfortably | B．safely | C．gently | D．tightly |
| A．relief | B．amazement | C．mind | D．advantage |
| A．arms | B．scarfs | C．passengers | D．mothers |
