1 . Most Popular UK Destinations for a Staycation
Looking for a cheap stay cation to brighten up your winter? Here are the most popular destinations in the UK.
Blackpool
Whether you’re seeking the thrills of Blackpool Pleasure Beach or are keen to catch a glimpse of Blackpool Tower, the city’s most appealing attraction, the seaside town offers various amazing views. It’s no wonder the town has gained 980.8 million views on TikTok. With accommodation price £75 for a night, you’ll have a golden opportunity to enjoy Blackpool's Illuminations (彩灯) display and the Seaside Trail.
Searborough
North Yorkshire’s Scarborough sees 49,500 monthly searches and 686.4 million views on TikTok. One of the local highlights is the annual St Nicholas Fair. While a one-night stay in Scarborough costs £85, the town offers holiday-makers opportunities to experience ancient British culture at the 12th-century castle ruins.
Swansea
The Welsh town sees 27,100 monthly searches and has 622.4 million views on TikTok. Swansea’s Waterfront Wonderland brings with it the Alpine Village and various amusement attractions. Spending a night here costs just 10 pounds more than in Scarborough. But if you book a week earlier, you can get a 5 percent discount in total. With Cardiff only being an hour’s drive from Swansea, you have the perfect opportunity to catch a game of ice hockey.
Bournemouth
Bournemouth isn’t called Sunny Bournemouth for nothing, as holiday-makers can enjoy breathtaking views along the Jurassic Coast. With a World Heritage Site within its borders, it’s no surprise to see this town with the high number of views on TikTok (868.3 million). A one-night stay will cost you £105, giving you the perfect opportunity to get relaxed.
1. What is the most attractive in Blackpool?| A．Blackpool Pleasure Beach. | B．Blackpool Tower. |
| C．The Illuminations display. | D．The Seaside Trail. |
| A．£ 70. | B．£ 85. | C．£ 85.75. | D．£ 90.25. |
| A．Blackpool. | B．Swansea. | C．Scarborough. | D．Boumemouth. |
2 . Arsh believes in the importance of making the world a more beautiful place. The talented boy not only paints but also sells his artwork and donates the money.
It all started when his parents bought him a set of painting tools for his 8th birthday. Once he had his own materials, he began spending much of his free time putting color on his canvas. As Arsh’s paintings began to grow in number, he decided to give them as gifts to friends and family. Receiving a positive response from people around him, he soon realized his pieces had the potential to get much more than smiles and praise.
His light-bulb moment came shortly after: he would sell his artwork and donate the money to charity. His first plan was to raise $1,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which he accomplished in around nine months by selling his paintings on social media and at local art shows. Since then, he’s broadened his reach to benefit other organizations, including childhood cancer nonprofit Compass to Care and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. He’s raised over $16,000 for charities so far.
Arsh’s artwork is often colorful and cheery, as one might expect from a youngster, but it showcases the impressive technique of a gifted artist. Some pieces are more abstract in nature; others feature realistic renditions (演绎) of flowers and animals. They range in size and complexity, and, accordingly, price. Small paintings might sell for $10 while larger canvases, up to five feet, have gone for $800.
Last year, Arsh won The Diana Award, an honor presented by a UK charity founded on Princess Diana’s belief that young people have the power to change their country. And the young artist has advice for other kids looking to make a difference. “Helping others doesn’t have to be, like, money or anything. It can be your time, your skills, your talent,” he says, “and overall, just be kind to other people to make their day better.”
1. What made Arsh interested in painting?| A．A birthday present from his parents. | B．His parents’ deep love for painting. |
| C．The encouragement of others around him. | D．His fascination with the beauty of nature. |
| A．To pay for his painting materials. | B．To get more attention from others. |
| C．To attract children’s interest in art. | D．To help those people who are in need. |
| A．His fundraising plan is going well. |
| B．He will turn his attention to his studies. |
| C．All his paintings sell at high prices now. |
| D．He is going to teach other children to paint for free. |
| A．Every child has a unique talent. |
| B．Everyone has the ability to help others. |
| C．Talent plays an important role in learning art. |
| D．Helping others is the responsibility of young artists. |
3 . One of the best parts of travel is always the food. Or, more specifically, the junk food. It’s a delight people are unlikely to get to experience during the pandemic. But in one corner of the Internet, hungry people are keeping the joy of international snacks alive.
On r/SnackExchange, users trade the delights of their homeland by mail. First, you find someone on the board to swap (交换) with. You and your partner then post each other a box full of local finest processed foods, eventually uploading photos of your haul (收获) on the board for others to see.
First created in 2010, r/SnackExchange’s membership now totals 102,000. Most come to experience snacks they can’t find at home.
For the users who take part in snack exchanges, it’s a way to learn more about the world. For Meghan Quallick, a snack swapper from California, part of the motivation for swapping with an Australian was to get her hands on a specific item: Cadbury Black Forest bars. A colleague of hers had eaten the chocolate bars on a trip to Australia in years past and fallen in love with them, but was then unable to source them at home. Quallick’s snack partner included 10 bars of the chocolate in her package. “To get some and bring them to her was pretty exciting,” Quallick said. “My colleague had tears in her eyes.”
Snack exchanges do come with obvious financial disadvantages. Part of the process is to agree on a budget before you swap — on average that’s around the US$40-50 mark. But you should be prepared to spend twice as much on shipping as the actual snacks. Occasionally swappers get scammed (欺骗) by partners who don’t deliver on their end of the deal.
Often, the snack exchanges are about more than just the food. Heather Clarke, a snack swapper from Melbourne says, “They’re often cultural exchanges as well. You get people going, ‘Can you tell me what this is?’” Often, users enclose (随信附上) instructions on how to best consume the snacks. Going the extra mile is in the spirit of the community.
1. What is paragraph 2 mainly about?| A．The history of snack exchanges. | B．How users exchange snacks on r/ SnackExchange. |
| C．Why people love to exchange snacks. | D．The influence the pandemic has on snack exchanges. |
| A．She got what she desired to eat from Quallick. | B．She failed to find a swapper online. |
| C．She found the snack she ate before online. | D．She quarreled with Quallick. |
| A．Swappers easily get scammed. |
| B．Swappers seldom find exactly what they want. |
| C．Swappers may spend more time than usual shopping. |
| D．Swappers have to spend more on shipping. |
| A．They should be improved. | B．They are lacking in community spirit. |
| C．They promote cultural exchanges. | D．They should have detailed guides from swappers. |
4 . A humanoid robot can relay video and touch sensations to a person wearing a haptic (触觉内) feedback suit and a virtual reality (VR) headset hundreds of kilometres away, offering away for people to attend events without travelling.
The iCub 3 robot is a 52-kilogram, 125-centimetre-tall robot with 54 joints across its body. Its head contains two cameras where a human’s eyes would be, and an Internet-connected computer where the brain would go. Along with the cameras, sensors covering its body send data to the robot’s “brain”. These sensations are then reproduced on a suit and VR headset worn by a remote human operator.
When the operators react to what they see and feel, the suit’s sensors pick up the movements and the robot matches them. “The key is to translate every signal and bit of digital data that can be sent through the network.” says Stefano Dafarra, who was part of the iCub3 team. There can be a small delay of up to 100 milliseconds to capture and transmit the visual shots, but the operator can case this by moving slightly slower than normal.
The team demonstrated the robot at the Venice Biennale, where it wandered through an exhibition while its operator stood 290 kilometres away in Genoa. Dafarra hopes people will use the iCub3 to attend events remotely, reducing the need to travel. “But at present, a fall could be hugely damaging to the robot, and it’s uncertain whether it could stand up again on its own," he says.
“iCub3 is an interesting robot and offers clear advantages from the previous versions.” says Jonathan Aitken, whose laboratory owns a prior version of the robot. However, he is disappointed that the team wasn’t clear in its research about the data transmission requirements of the new version of the robot. “It would be good to know just how much data was required, and what the upper and lower bounds were.” he says.
1. What’s the principle behind the humanoid robot?| A．It conveys sensations to the wearer and acts accordingly. |
| B．It receives commands from an operator through the Internet. |
| C．The cameras take pictures and then interact with the sensors. |
| D．The computer in the robot processes the data and gives orders. |
| A．Medical consultation. | B．Sports events. |
| C．Outdoor workouts. | D．Virtual tourism. |
| A．It fails to appeal to potential investors. |
| B．Its performance hasn’t been evaluated clearly. |
| C．Its present version still requires to be updated. |
| D．Its transmission of data came across technical problems. |
| A．Humanoid robots with sense of touch catch on |
| B．iCub 3 robot combines with VR to benefit more people |
| C．Humanoid robots let people see and feel things remotely |
| D．New advances in technology enable people to travel at work |
5 . Tokyo restaurant Sushiya no Nohachi reportedly serves great sushi, but it is most famous for its gimmick—making the world’s smallest sushi with a single grain of rice.
Located in Asakusa, a slightly quieter part of Tokyo, Sushiya no Nohachi is the place to go if you want to enjoy the tiniest, most adorable sushi in the world. Each piece is made with only a grain of rice and a tiny slice of topping wrapped in the thinnest piece of nori(海苔). Every served piece is actually perfect, which hints at the amount of work and patience that Bes into making them. They are the work of Hironori Ikeno, the chef of Sushiya no Nohachi, who came up with the idea in 2002 when a client asked him how small he could make his sushi. He answered, “as small as a grain of rice”, and proceeded to demonstrate that he wasn’t kidding. Over the years, the restaurant has become internationally famous for making the world’s smallest sushi.
Despite its size, miniature sushi actually takes a bit longer to make than regular-sized me, because of the precision and concentration required to put the tiny ingredients together. That is part of the reason why the restaurant only prepares tiny sushi for customers a few times a week and no more than five times a day, although they do sometimes make exceptions for foreign visitors who travel to the restaurant just to experience the world’s smallest sushi.
“I had a client from Sweden who came just to see my tiny sushi and the moment she saw it, she literally cried with joy.” Hironori Ikeno said.
Interestingly, one cannot simply order the tiny sushi at the restaurant. It is served for f re upon request with a regular-sized sushi course. Considering the sushi served at this place is reportedly delicious, you should probably be more excited about that. Plus, it also justifies the gimmick that the restaurant is so famous for.
1. What does the underlined word “gimmick” in paragraph 1 probably refer to?| A．A class to teach cooking skills. |
| B．A trick to attract customers. |
| C．A plan to promote the sushi. |
| D．A dish to win over opponents. |
| A．His pursuit for perfection. |
| B．The curiosity of a customer. |
| C．The requirement from his boss. |
| D．A bet he made with others. |
| A．Take more time to make one |
| B．Unpopular among customers |
| C．costs more money to buy one |
| D．needs more expensive materials |
| A．Diversity of the customers. |
| B．His lack of experience. |
| C．Special treatment to foreigners. |
| D．His sense of achievement. |
6 . Before traveling to Lake Tahoe, make sure your plans are in order. Complete vacation packages of the area are now offered online.
| Package 1. Get Outdoors in Lake Tahoe Package Get outdoors and explore! With this fun vacation package, you can stay in the Lake Tahoe area for three nights and have a few adventures along the way. This package also features Lake Tahoe Sport Fishing, allowing guests to get out and fish! Click here to book | Package 2. Lake Tahoe Family Vacation Package If your next trip happens to be in the Lake Tahoe area, then consider booking this one. It is great because it can offer you four full nights at the hotel of your selection and an amazing sightseeing tour through the Emerald Bay. You also can enjoy Lake Tahoe Hot Air Balloons tours and the Wild West Tour. Click here to book |
| Package 3. Lake Tahoe Romantic Getaway Package This is perfect for people who want to have a romantic time. It includes a two-night stay at the hotel of your choice and one of the finest activities in all of Lake Tahoe — the Lake Tahoe Emerald Bay Sunset Boat Tour on the Bleu Wave. During this romantic sail, you can enjoy the beautiful surroundings of Lake Tahoe. Click here to book | Package 4. Lake Tahoe Weekend Getaway Package The Lake Tahoe Weekend Getaway Package is great for people of all ages, so this is a great choice for families. This package includes a two-night stay at the hotel you choose. It also includes a trip which takes place on the Bleu Wave by boat. Click here to book |
| A．Package 1. | B．Package 2. | C．Package 3. | D．Package 4. |
| A．Their boat tour. | B．The hotel for staying. |
| C．The places for traveling. | D．Their target customers. |
| A．A guidebook. | B．A travel report. | C．A local newspaper. | D．A website. |
7 . Imagine if your clothes could pick up the sounds of everything going on around you. Scientists have created a fibre (纤维) which can pick up sounds and could be used as a hearing aid, to monitor heartbeats or even in spacecraft.
The new fibre works like a microphone. It picks up sounds and turns them into vibrations (震动) and then electrical signals, in a similar way to how ears work. When woven (编织) into a shirt, the researchers say the fibre can even detect a wearer’s heartbeat. The fibre can hear sounds as low as those in a quiet library to louder sounds like heavy road traffic. It can even accurately tell the direction of sudden sounds like handclaps.
The fibre was created by engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and researchers at Rhode Island School of Design. “Wearing a piece of clothing that can hear, you might talk through it to answer phone calls and communicate with others,” said lead author Yet Wan, who created the technology at MIT.
Once they had created the fibre, the team wove it into a more traditional piece of clothing which was much more flexible. When it was woven into the back of a shirt it was able to pick up the sound of people clapping, even picking up the direction the clapping was coming from. When woven into the shirt’s inner lining (内衬) it could pick up the person’s heartbeat, which the researchers think could be used in a pregnant woman’s clothes to monitor a baby’s heartbeat.
As well as wearable hearing aids, and clothes that track your heartbeat, the team says there are possibilities beyond clothing. “It can be integrated with spacecraft skin to listen to space dust, or embedded into (嵌入) buildings to detect cracks or strains,” Yet suggests. “It can even be woven into a smart net to monitor fish in the ocean.”
1. What is the scientists’ new invention?| A．A lightweight fibre. | B．A new spacecraft skin. |
| C．A fibre that can hear. | D．A microphone that can talk. |
| A．It is easily distracted by loud sounds. |
| B．It can even pick up faint sounds. |
| C．It works more accurately than human ears. |
| D．It fails to recognise the direction of sounds. |
| A．They wove it into babies’ clothes. | B．They turned it into a fishnet. |
| C．They put it into mass production. | D．They tested its performance. |
| A．The fibre has a wide range of applications. | B．The fibre can bring in a big profit. |
| C．The fibre needs to be improved. | D．The fibre is less flexible than traditional clothes. |
8 . Researchers examined 120 babies aged 6 to 14 months as they watched a children’s opera performed at a concert hall (61 babies watched in person, the other 59 watched a recorded form). They carefully set the recording so the performers were at the same size, distance and volume as the live form. The babies’ responses were tracked through heart monitors and tablets, and afterward research assistants searched through the footage (镜头) to note when babies were looking at the stage and when they looked away.
The live performance kept their attention for 72% of the 12-minute show and also had them continually watching for longer periods of time. The findings suggest that even babies feel the impact of being at a live show, through both musicians’ interactions with an audience and the social experience of being in a crowd. “Their heart rates were speeding up and slowing down in a similar fashion to other babies watching the show. Those babies were dealing with all these distractions (使人分心的事) in the concert hall, but still had these interests in the performance,” says Laura Cirelli, an assistant professor. In comparison, the recording held the babies’ attention for just half of the 12-minute show.
“If there’s something happening that we collectively are engaging (参与) in, we’re also connecting with each other. It speaks to the shared experience,” says Cirelli. “It’s well established that socialization (社会化) is important during early childhood development — a baby’s brain is laying the groundwork for future life skills and abilities as it grows. Music can play a powerful part in making those important bonds. Babies are more likely to socialize with someone after hearing them sing a familiar song or dancing to music with them.”
The study, which was co-authored by Haley Kragness, now an assistant professor at Bucknell University, will also feed into some of Cirelli’s other work. “If a baby is frequently brought to these kinds of events, will that provide the foundation (基础) for their engaging in music and the community later in childhood?” Cirelli says. “It speaks to why we are inborn to consume music and attend live shows in the first place.”
1. How did the researchers make the experiment convincing?| A．By airing two different performances. |
| B．By tracking babies’ activity with caution. |
| C．By asking a smaller group to see the live show. |
| D．By making the recording similar in every detail to the live form. |
| A．They watched the show more carefully. | B．They had faster heart rates. |
| C．They formed bonds with musicians. | D．They enjoyed it without distractions. |
| A．Concerned. | B．Uninterested. | C．Supportive. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．The reasons for our attending live shows. |
| B．The benefits of socialization for babies. |
| C．Live performances’ other influences on babies. |
| D．Babies’ growth after seeing recorded shows. |
9 . Across the world, people and governments are banning pesticides (杀虫剂) and planting more flowers to increase bee populations naturally. Now farmers and beekeepers have a new way to protect bee populations.
The traditional hive most commonly used in the world today was designed by humans about 150 years ago. Most people are so used to them that they mistakenly confuse them with bees’ natural habitat. By completely redesigning the beehive, a company called Beewise was able to address many of the inefficiencies of the box and significantly improve bees’ well- being and lifetime.
Using 24/7 monitoring and smart technology that significantly increases pollination capacity (授粉能力) and honey production, Beewise’s robotic beehive, the Beehome, discovers threats to a honeybee population such as pesticides and the presence of pests and immediately defends against them. Its automatic robotic system responds to threats in real time and requires no human assistance. Beehomes are thermally regulated (热调节的) and can provide protection from fires, flooding, and Asian wasps. The hive even feeds the honeybees when local food supply is not available.
In a statement, the company says, “The Beehome reduces bee deaths by 80%, resulting in increased production of at least 50%, while reducing about 90% of manual labor (体力劳动) when compared to traditional beehives.”
Beewise currently manages more than seven billion bees, which is equal to 25,000 acres of pollinated crops. Through the Beehome device, the Israeli startup says it has saved over 160 million bees over the course of the last 12 months.
Their task of saving bees recently received $80 million funding for their autonomous hive. “We are using precision robotics with the world’s most creative technologies including AI and computer vision in order to save the bees,” stated Saar Safra, CEO of Beewise. He says that with thousands of orders placed in the U.S. in just the last few months, their new funding will allow Beewise to meet the market demand through increased production.
1. What do we know about the traditional hive most commonly used today?| A．It is artificial. | B．It is bees’ natural habitat. |
| C．It can be confusing to bees. | D．It does more harm than good. |
| A．It is similar to natural beehives. | B．It can help bees to settle down. |
| C．It can monitor fires and floods. | D．It keeps bees away from threats. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Objective. | C．Positive. | D．Conservative. |
| A．The benefits of banning pesticides. | B．A new device to save bee populations. |
| C．Potential threats bees are facing today. | D．Ways to increase bees’ pollination ability. |
10 . Craig Clark is retired from his job in computers. He grew bored in his retirement and wanted to take on a challenging hobby. He decided to continue doing what he does best, which is to fix computers. In his spare time, he helps individuals and families improve their lives by giving them access to technology.
Craig places ads for his donations on the neighborhood community website. Once he fixes the old computers, he then offers them to community members for free. He was aware that many individuals struggled financially and often couldn’t afford to buy a computer due to the expense (费用). He wanted to find a way to help solve this problem. So far, he has given away more than 430 computers.
Melissa, one of Craig’s computer receivers, proves his giving nature. Her daughter needed a computer for school. But as a single mother of four children, buying a new expensive computer was not in her budget. One day she received a free computer from Craig. It was a lifesaver for her family.
A computer can influence people in many ways. It helps the elderly easily connect with health professionals from the comfort of their homes. It also saves them time and money by having their medicine and food delivered and monthly bills paid with the help of their online accounts. Computers have also connected many young students with online educational programs. They have also helped families connect with relatives living far away through email, social media, and video meetings.
Craig is excited that his labor of love is beneficial to those in need. He is known in his Florida community as the Tech Fairy. He uses his IT skills as a unique way to help improve the lives of hundreds of his community members. He now wants to inspire other technicians (技术员) to join him on his mission of kindness and become tech fairies in their own communities. Together they can improve the lives of many.
1. What does Craig prefer doing in his spare time?| A．Finding solutions to poverty. | B．Selling computers at a low price. |
| C．Repairing and donating computers. | D．Teaching computer-fixing skills. |
| A．Wise and independent. | B．Clever and energetic. |
| C．Brave and determined. | D．Skilled and generous. |
| A．Community members’ gratitude to Craig. |
| B．Local people’s useful advice on Craig’s business. |
| C．The common types of online educational programs. |
| D．The life-changing benefits brought by Craig’s action. |
| A．A tech fairy connects people with technology |
| B．A man calls on people to recycle used computers |
| C．A fun way to improve community relationships |
| D．A man chooses to be a volunteer in his retirement. |
