1 . Yesterday was Mother’s Day. Unfortunately, my mother was not among the many happy mothers, as I couldn’t visit her this year. I made a
My mother always says that kids don’t need to
If you
However, her deep connection to the song helped her to
Last week, a colleague
| A．complaint | B．promise | C．response | D．belief |
| A．long for | B．bring about | C．wait for | D．figure out |
| A．missed | B．tried | C．regretted | D．avoided |
| A．visit | B．select | C．leave | D．reflect |
| A．strangely | B．carelessly | C．seriously | D．kindly |
| A．remember | B．admit | C．doubt | D．wonder |
| A．called | B．published | C．claimed | D．created |
| A．assist | B．place | C．win | D．adopt |
| A．curious | B．disappointed | C．worried | D．emotional |
| A．duty | B．gift | C．idea | D．faith |
| A．refers | B．comes | C．leads | D．heads |
| A．develops | B．fades | C．remains | D．increases |
| A．compared | B．shared | C．provided | D．filled |
| A．common | B．special | C．serious | D．commercial |
| A．respect | B．attention | C．satisfaction | D．manners |
2 . There are many traditions around the world that are interesting and fun, but there are also those that are bizarre (奇异的) and even a little cruel.
In Sweden it’s common for parents to leave their babies outside to nap (小睡) even when the temperatures are below zero. Many people, including me, would find this custom risky and merciless, but many Swedes actually consider it good for their babies. They believe that by exposing their young ones to their country’s cold temperature they can help their babies to grow up healthily and protect them from diseases. They also believe doing so will help them sleep longer and better.
In Bali, Indonesia, babies are forbidden to touch the ground for three months. The reason is that during the baby’s first months its connection to the “spirit” is still unbroken and clean and letting it touch the ground would defile it. For three months, the baby is constantly held in someone’s arms — the father, mother, grandparents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and even neighbors. After 105days, a special ceremony called the Nyabutan is held where the baby touches Mother Earth for the first time.
In Guatemala, it’s common to see babies being bathed with cold water. Maya mothers commonly practise this bizarre custom with the belief that it’s beneficial to the baby’s health. Bathing their babies with cold water is also an effective means to remove heat rashes (痱子), and this custom helps babies sleep better.
Some Indians allow their babies to be thrown from temple roofs as high as 50 feet. This strange custom started 500 years ago and continues to this day, though there’s a movement to ban it for obvious reasons. However, Hindus believe that performing this custom brings good luck and health to their babies. Below the roof is a bed sheet that’s held lightly by several men. The baby lands safely on the sheet. The tradition’s practitioners and believers strongly prove that it’s safe, saying no babies have ever been injured.
1. What does the author think of the baby custom in Sweden?| A．Interesting and fun. | B．Unique and thoughtful. |
| C．Dangerous and a little cruel. | D．Beneficial and practical. |
| A．Make the best use of. | B．Achieve or realise completely. |
| C．Leave or break away from. | D．Make something dirty or no longer pure. |
| A．To bring good luck and health to those babies. |
| B．To stop them from getting all kinds of illnesses. |
| C．To prevent them from feeling hot during summer. |
| D．To get rid of their heat rashes and contribute to sleep. |
| A．They have no religious belief. |
| B．It is a new custom and many people hate it. |
| C．They think the custom leads to babies’ injuries. |
| D．Many babies have been seen injured in the past years. |
3 . A simple project to help a family in need stopped Luke Mickelson in his tracks. In 2012, he and his family were inspired to build and donate a bunk bed, one bed on top of the other, after learning there were local children who slept on the floor. Shocked to discover how widespread this need was in his community, Mickelson founded Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a nonprofit that builds and delivers beds to children in need.
Born and raised in Idaho, Mickelson, now 41, had a successful career. He coached his kids’ sports teams and fished in the nearby river. But when he met children who were sleeping on the floor, his peaceful life changed course.
Using safety guidelines and his daughter’s bunk bed as a model, Mickelson started buying wood and supplies to build beds with his own money. He recruited friends and family members to help around the holidays. As the word spread, interest and involvement from his and other communities flooded—along with Mickelson’s bunk bed output. “That first project, we built 11 bunk beds in my garage,” he said. The next year, they did 15. Then it doubled every year. In 2017, they built 612 bunk beds.
With the motto “No kid sleeps on the floor in our town”, the nonprofit and its more than 65 branches have built and delivered more than 1,500 free beds to children across America. But along with the rapid growth, Mickelson was faced with a tough choice: advancing his career-or has nonprofit. He chose the latter and went from making “great money to zero money”. He’s never looked back. “I found that the need I have isn’t financial,” he said. “The need I have is seeing the joy on kids’ faces, knowing that I can make a difference.”
1. Why did Mickelson set up Sleep in Heavenly Peace?| A．To help the poor children. | B．To make a big fortune. |
| C．To inspire his community. | D．To get more donations |
| A．He had his own fish farm. |
| B．He often changed his career. |
| C．He used to sleep on the floor as a kid. |
| D．He originally had a relaxing and pleasant life. |
| A．They showed little interest in it. |
| B．They were supportive and involved in it. |
| C．They were doubtful about the safety of the bunk bed. |
| D．They volunteered to buy beds with their own money. |
| A．Uncertain. | B．Doubtful. | C．Cautions. | D．Positive. |
4 . Eating out in the United States is not much different than eating out in other parts of the worlds. There are still fast-food chains such as McDonalds and KFC for those hamburgers. However, what makes the restaurants in the US unique is that there is a cultural diversity of restaurants serving food from almost every part of the world. When you arrive in Irvine, and travel around the city, you will find many restaurants of many different cultures, ranging from European, to the Middle East and Asia. So, when you first arrive, there are always restaurants close by that offer the food you prefer.
Now how do you find those restaurants and know if they are good or not? The most common way is through the Internet. In the US, most restaurants can be found through a smartphone app called Yelp. It is a commonly used search engine for restaurants and it is very convenient to use! All you need is to enter the cuisine you want such as “Indian, Sichuan, Sushi, Vegetarian, etc.” In addition, each restaurant on there is also rated and reviewed by some of their past customers. At some restaurants, you can also sign up for the waiting list through the app to economize time!
If you don’t have time to go out and eat, there are food delivery services available. Traditionally, pizza is the most common food for delivery. Some delivery services you can try are DoorDash, UberEats, or Postmates. All you would need to do is just make free account, select the restaurants on their webpage, order from the menu, and enter your address to have the food delivered to your home. They usually have a delivery discount the first time you sign up for an account, so make sure to take advantage of that!
1. What sets restaurants in the United States apart from other parts of the world?| A．The presence of fast-food chains like McDonalds and KFC. |
| B．The availability of a wide range of cultural diversity in food options. |
| C．The use of Internet apps for ordering food. |
| D．The tradition of having food delivered to one’s home. |
| A．By asking locals for recommendations. |
| B．By exploring the city on foot. |
| C．By using the Yelp app and searching for specific cuisines. |
| D．By checking in at their hotel for a list of nearby restaurants. |
| A．Save. | B．Spend. | C．Kill. | D．Waste. |
| A．By offering a wide range of food options. |
| B．By providing free delivery for all orders. |
| C．By allowing customers to order through smartphone apps. |
| D．By offering delivery discounts to first-time account sign-ups. |
5 . Get up at 6 am, arrive at the hospital one hour earlier to help patients check in, and accompany patients during consultations ...In recent years, “patient escorts (陪护)” has emerged as a new industry, and those who have taken on this career are known as “people who sell time”, 26-year-old Zhang Tian is one of them.
September 4 was a lucky day for Zhang Tian. On this day, Zhang Tian saw a video about patient escorts on a short video platform. The daily routine of patient escorts shown in the video fascinated her and gradually inspired her to take this on as a business. She looked through many platforms and read multiple information and found there indeed exists a certain demand for patient escorts, especially for the elderly, children, and pregnant women. Since she had never engaged in this kind of work before, she spent two days in major hospitals in Wuhan, in order to familiarize herself with all the departments on different floors, as well as the processes of medical consultation and preparation for surgery.
After preliminary preparatory (预备的) work, Zhang Tian posted a video of myself-introduction on major social platforms, talking about the help and services a patient escort provides, as well as some tips for a quick and convenient medical consultation. At first, she was a little worried that her video would go unnoticed. However, after she uploaded the video, it got over 100 likes and she received her first ever offer as a patient escort.
The memory of her first task is still alive and fresh in her mind. She received a phone call on September 9 from a man whose father was seriously ill and might need surgery. He wanted Zhang Tian to accompany his father through his consultation and treatment. Zhang Tian made full preparations before meeting her first client (客户) and did a very good job despite her nervousness.
“Later, the family expressed their gratitude to me over and over again, which warmed my heart and gave me a sense of achievement,” Zhang Tian said.
1. Why did Zhang Tian spend two days in hospitals in Wuhan?| A．To go for a physical examination. |
| B．To take a break from her daily routine. |
| C．To provide her services to clients. |
| D．To get familiar with different departments and medical procedures. |
| A．By applying to different hospitals in Wuhan. |
| B．By participating in social media platforms. |
| C．By seeking recommendations from friends. |
| D．By offering free services to the elderly, children, and pregnant women. |
| A．She was worried but performed well. |
| B．She regretted taking on the role. |
| C．She felt overwhelmed and unprepared. |
| D．She was very upset because of negative feedback from the client. |
| A．Careless. | B．Imaginative. | C．Considerate. | D．Loyal. |
6 . In 1959, Handler changed how toy dolls were made when she introduced “Barbie” to the world. With her mature figure, Barbie was one of the first “grown-up” dolls to hit the retail market.
Handler wanted to create a toy that was different from the baby dolls that occupied little girls’ toy boxes. She wanted a doll that girls could show their future dreams upon and allowed for limitless outfit (全套服装) and career choices. Inspired by paper dolls of the time, Handler, to much disagreement, made sure Barbie had the body of a grown woman.
“My own idea of Barbie,” Handler wrote in her autobiography, “was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be. Barbie always represented the fact that a woman had choices.”
There’s even a Barbie for cancer patients — Brave Barbie — a partnership between Mattel and CureSearch that sends a bald (光头的) Barbie to families affected by cancer. “Gifting my daughter a Barbie who suffered from cancer was wonderful,” Michelle, a cancer survivor said, “We would play with that Barbie together and I’d heartbreakingly watch her pretend to take the doll to the hospital for chemo (化疗), or place its long wig (假发) on top of its head and tell the doll that it’s time to be beautiful again.”
Bald Barbie was super brave and went on awesome adventures after chemo. Sometimes she felt sick and needed to sleep, but would feel much better after a rest. Bald Barbie always beat the cancer and went on to live a long and happy life with her family. That Barbie became so much more than a plastic doll — she was a means of communication and a coping mechanism (应对机制) during an extremely unhappy time for little families.
1. Why did Handler create Barbie?| A．To make a hit in the women’s retail market. |
| B．To appeal to boys with her various clothing. |
| C．To inspire girls to make choices as they wish. |
| D．To do a research on women’s career choices. |
| A．Interested yet proud. | B．Sad yet comforted. |
| C．Delighted and ashamed. | D．Heartbroken and regretful. |
| A．A reliable emotional support. | B．A glue for broken relationships. |
| C．An effective practical treatment. | D．A secret medium of argument. |
| A．Medicine. | B．Sports. | C．Story. | D．Environment. |
7 . For many years I always invented excuses for either picking this or gathering that on my trips outdoors. My reward from these adventures goes beyond just
The wind
Then my eyes began to see more. Wildflowers only hardly
Understanding nature has been a lifelong pursuit (追求). Each visit to the woods is a
| A．hunting | B．touching | C．harvesting | D．farming |
| A．woods | B．city | C．sea | D．desert |
| A．field | B．nature | C．museum | D．ship |
| A．define | B．ensure | C．prove | D．inspire |
| A．enjoyed | B．hated | C．feared | D．reminded |
| A．appearance | B．action | C．performance | D．sounds |
| A．fading | B．rushing | C．going | D．blowing |
| A．violent | B．peaceful | C．mad | D．crazy |
| A．wide | B．scary | C．alive | D．clean |
| A．see | B．listen | C．dance | D．observe |
| A．recognized | B．imagined | C．encountered | D．removed |
| A．unusual | B．visible | C．blind | D．average |
| A．reserved | B．forced | C．trained | D．replaced |
| A．slightest | B．hugest | C．cleanest | D．fanciest |
| A．material | B．goal | C．sign | D．reminder |
8 . While most musicians work with other artists when creating their music, Holly Herndon, an American musician and sound artist who is now based in Berlin, takes a different way, working with the machine learning software called Spawn. The software uses artificial neural networks modeled after the structure of the human brain. These networks learn patterns from databasets (数据集) during the training process. Based on the data, the networks create new material that includes Herndon’s own voice.
When producing her album, PROTO, Holly trained databasets to write new music. The process requires the input data of music written by people or by artificial intelligence (AI). The neural networks then produce variations (变奏曲) of that music. “Computers surprise you in a way that an instrument doesn’t,” Holly said. So what does music sound like when composed by what is essentially a robot? It sounds like music from the future!
But Holly Herndon isn’t the only one exploring AI in composition. Machines have played an increasingly important role in music over the last century. The godfather of computer science, Alan Turing, developed the first computer-generated music in 1951. Then in 1980, David Cope from the University of California, Santa Cruz developed EMI — Experiments in Musical Intelligence, a system that analyzes existing music and produces new pieces based on it.
AI might not take over the job of the “pop star” anytime soon, or will it? Miquela Sousa is a computer-generated artist with over one million followers on Instagram. “I’m a model and singer. And I’m a robot,” Miquela said. This then raises the question: Can we reproduce creativity using a computer?
Though those questions are not easy to answer, I believe the next frontier of music lies somewhere in between. I can see the path forward with a new dawn of creativity that combines human inventiveness with AI. And the next chapter of music will certainly become wonderful as music and AI become even more closely connected.
1. What sets Holly Herndon apart from most musicians?| A．Her American origin and Berlin relocation. |
| B．Her work with other artists in music production. |
| C．Her use of machine learning software in music creation. |
| D．Her training in computer science and artificial intelligence. |
| A．The use of various musical instruments. | B．The input of existing music. |
| C．The cooperation between human musicians. | D．Holly Herndon’s rich knowledge of robots. |
| A．Critical. | B．Indifferent. | C．Positive. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．The Differences Between Human and Robotic Artists |
| B．The History of Music Development |
| C．Holly Herndon: A Gifted Musician |
| D．The Future of Music: Human Creativity and AI Integration |
9 . Over the last century, engineers all over the world have spared no effort to achieve the unachievable in bridge design.
Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge
No bridge is as long as the Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge in the world. The 164.8-kilometre-long bridge built in 2011 in China serves as part of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway. The trip from Ningbo to Jiaxi ng that previously took 4．5 hours has been reduced to two, thanks to this bridge.
Rio-Niterói Bridge
Completed in 1974, the Rio-Niterói Bridge in Brazil is the second-longest bridge in all of Latin America connecting the cities of Rio and Niterói across the Guanabara Bay. The Rio-Niterói Bridge is technically known as a “box-girder (箱形梁)” bridge, made of special concrete. It receives an astonishing 140,000 (or more) vehicles per day.
Hartland Covered Bridge
The Hartland Covered Bridge is the world’s longest covered bridge. The 1,282-foot-long bridge was opened in 1901 and has been on Canada’s list of National Historic Sites since 1980． Although it was originally built without a roof, the bridge was capped with wooden materials during the repairs in 1921.
Jiaozhou Bay Bridge
The newly-built Jiaozhou Bay Bridge in China was named “world’s longest bridge over water” by Guinness Book of World Records in 2011, a title previously held by the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. The dispute was settled when the title of “longest continuous bridge over water” was given to the causeway, with the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge receiving the title of “longest bridge over water”.
1. What’s special about Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge?| A．It is available for high-speed trains. |
| B．It is the longest covered bridge across the world. |
| C．It receives an astonishing 140,000 vehicles every day. |
| D．It is longest continuous bridge over water. |
| A．Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge. | B．Rio-Niterói Bridge. |
| C．Hartland Covered Bridge. | D．Jiaozhou Bay Bridge. |
| A．It was once longest bridge over water. | B．It was originally built with a roof. |
| C．It is the longest bridge. | D．It is a wooden bridge over water. |
10 . I’m 62 now and always planned to
I started volunteering three years ago. My team of volunteers have
Working with my older neighbors is
As an area coordinator (协调人), I also help recruit (招募) and manage volunteers, without whom the work would be
I’ve met amazing people from all
| A．remind | B．belong | C．sell | D．volunteer |
| A．annoyed | B．puzzled | C．stuck | D．confused |
| A．picked up | B．set up | C．stepped up | D．held back |
| A．formally | B．extremely | C．likely | D．regularly |
| A．community | B．school | C．human | D．nature |
| A．rewarding | B．hardworking | C．embarrassing | D．disappointing |
| A．forgotten | B．found | C．judged | D．overcome |
| A．difference | B．comment | C．mistake | D．risk |
| A．delivering | B．announcing | C．writing | D．sharing |
| A．assumed | B．valued | C．proved | D．complained |
| A．common | B．convenient | C．impossible | D．strange |
| A．habit | B．energy | C．health | D．journey |
| A．suggestions | B．names | C．walks | D．opinions |
| A．enriched | B．realized | C．imagined | D．remembered |
| A．stress | B．understanding | C．loneliness | D．education |
