1 . If you want to fill your shelves with the best books of all time, you’re in the right place.
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein (1974)
The imagination of Shel Silverstein is on full display in this classic collection of short stories and poems. The book is truly one of the best poetry books of all time because of its staying power for children. The stories of this American poet, author, singer and folk artist have something for everyone.
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (1878)
Most critics regard it as one of the most typical literary love stories. The author’s Russian tale of unfortunate lovers is filled with fascinating quotes like, “He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.” This one belongs on any book collector’s shelf.
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1943)
It is a timeless tale of a prince’s journey in search of adventure. What he finds, however, are interactions with adults who leave him so upset. It’s one of the most appealing short books we’ve ever read and also one of the most widely read children’s classics all over the world.
The Shining by Stephen King (1977)
The master of mystery must be included in any list of books you should read in a lifetime. That’s why you will find it here. Horror fans take note: This is one of the scariest and best Stephen King books of all time.
1. In which book can we read about unfortunate lovers?| A．Anna Karenina. | B．The Shining. |
| C．The Little Prince. | D．Where the Sidewalk Ends. |
| A．Shel Silverstein. | B．Stephen King. |
| C．Antoine de Saint-Exupery. | D．Leo Tolstoy. |
| A．They are both novels. |
| B．They are both for children. |
| C．They are both about adults. |
| D．They were both written in the 1970s. |
2 . Grandparents are known as great companions (陪伴) and often give their grandchildren lots of love. Being a grandparent is a big job, but grandparents have a lot of experience. In many cultures, grandparents are looked up to as a source of wisdom (智慧).
Some kids live far away from their grandparents so they stay in touch by phone, through email, and with letters. Other kids live close to their grandparents, making it easy to visit often. And still other kids live with their grandparents.
Sometimes, the family is sharing the grandparents’ house and sometimes the grandparents move into the family’s house. Any change can be difficult to adjust (适应) to. But after the adjustment period, you might find you enjoy having someone else in the house and a new person to spend time with. If your grandparent needs help, you might be the one to lend a hand. And your grandparent might be able to help you by playing a game with you, telling the best stories or fixing you a snack after school.
Quite a few kids live with grandparents who take care of them in place of their parents. Kids who live with grandparents might miss their moms or dads and wish they could live with them instead. The grandparent may find it difficult to keep up with a kid and all of his or her needs. In this situation, both the kid and the grandparent should work together. Loving and caring for each other can be the glue that keeps everything together.
And one more thing: You might want to put the first Sunday after Labor Day on your calendar. Why? It’s Grandparent’s Day!
1. In many countries, grandparents ________.| A．look forward to having a job | B．live far away from their grandchildren |
| C．are regarded as rich in knowledge and experience | D．are considered to be the best friends and companions |
| A．kids don’t like to live with their grandparents |
| B．parents shouldn’t leave children to their grandparents |
| C．grandparents find it too hard to live with their grandchildren |
| D．living together does good to grandparents and grandchildren |
| A．By sharing the best stories. | B．By having common interests. |
| C．By meeting each other’s needs. | D．By loving and looking after each other. |
| A．to celebrate Grandparent’s Day | B．to visit grandparents on Sunday |
| C．that Labor Day is an important day | D．that Grandparent’s Day is on Sunday |
3 . Just before New Year, the principal (校长) called me into his office and asked me to read a poem written by me at the New Year party. “Sure,” I said with a smile, my dreams of being a famous
For weeks, I worked on my poem,
Well, I was confident until I looked around and realized how many people were there. And how big the hall was, and how
Suddenly, I was on stage with the bright white lights blinding my view of the audience and the feeling that my
The room was
The room was dead silent. Maybe no one liked it. I felt like I was going to faint. Then out of the silence there was
| A．singer | B．performer | C．poet | D．speaker |
| A．quickly | B．carefully | C．gently | D．intelligently |
| A．relaxation | B．comfort | C．pleasure | D．inspiration |
| A．ready | B．right | C．excited | D．tired |
| A．strong | B．little | C．passive | D．shallow |
| A．print | B．give | C．present | D．write |
| A．see | B．feel | C．notice | D．hear |
| A．audience | B．principal | C．poet | D．host |
| A．throat | B．mind | C．dream | D．heart |
| A．microphone | B．poem | C．voice | D．audience |
| A．silent | B．clean | C．empty | D．noisy |
| A．entertain | B．cheer | C．forget | D．observe |
| A．gave out | B．ended up | C．spoke out | D．came out |
| A．stress | B．translate | C．erase | D．choose |
| A．whispering | B．clapping | C．crying | D．chatting |
4 . If you have the strange feeling that you’ve read this before, don’t be alarmed. It’s probably just déjà vu. Déjà vu is the strange feeling that you’ve experienced something before, while at the same time knowing that you haven’t. You visit a friend’s apartment and have the overwhelming sense you’ve been here before, but that can’t be the case. This is the first time you’ve ever visited this city. Still, the feeling may be so real that you almost know what you’ll find when you walk into the kitchen.
Experts estimate roughly two out of three people have had the experience at least once. The experience typically lasts no more than a few seconds and there’s no warning of when it’s about to happen, making it extremely difficult to study. Much that is known about déjà vu is based on surveys. Still, researchers have come up with novel ways to study it in the wild.
Anne Cleary, professor of cognitive psychology and memory researcher, used virtual reality (VR) to trigger (引发) déjà vu. Cleary and her team took subjects through a series of scenes in the video game, carefully designed so that the spatial layout (空间布局) of one scene was similar to another, even though the actual images were quite different. The subjects experienced déjà vu when a scene was similar to one they’d seen before, suggesting that a similarity in spatial layout between two places might lead to a déjà vu-like sense of familiarity in a novel place.
“There may be many different reasons that could all be true for why déjà vu can happen,” Cleary says. Though no one has yet explained what causes déjà vu, it’s a good thing that science finally got serious about studying the strange phenomenon. “I think déjà vu research has been shedding light on processes that are helping us to understand memory better at a wider level than just trying to understand déjà vu,” says Cleary.
1. Why does the author mention “visiting a friend’s apartment” in paragraph 1?| A．To draw a comparison. | B．To make an assumption. |
| C．To present a fact. | D．To illustrate a concept. |
| A．Uncontrollable factors. | B．Unproven surveys. |
| C．Subjects’ mental state. | D．Similar spatial layout. |
| A．She compared similar scenes with the subjects. |
| B．She guided the subjects through a novel place. |
| C．She applied virtual reality to trigger déjà vu. |
| D．She depended on surveys to learn about déjà vu. |
| A．The accurate causes of déjà vu. | B．The phenomenon of déjà vu. |
| C．The significance of déjà vu research. | D．The procedure of déjà vu research. |
5 . As we continue to explore farther out into our solar system and beyond, the question of humans living on other planets often comes up. Manned bases on the Moon or Mars for example, have long been a dream of many. There is a natural curiosity to explore as far as we can go, and also to make human existence permanent (永久的). In order to do this, however, it is necessary to adapt to different extreme environments. On the Moon for example, a settlement must be self-supporting and protect its inhabitants from the airless, severe environment outside.
Mars, though, is different. While future bases could adapt to the Martian environment over time there is also the possibility of modifying (改造) the surrounding environment instead of just co-existing with it. This is the process of terraforming — adjusting Mars’ atmosphere and environment to make it more Earth-like. But the bigger question is, should we?
One of the main issues is whether Mars has any native life or not and if it does, should it be preserved as much as possible? If the answer is yes, then large-scale human settlements on Mars should be completely off-limits. Small settlement might be fine, but living on Mars should not be at the cost of any native habitats, if they exist. If Mars is home to any indigenous life, then terraforming should be a non-issue; it simply should not be done.
What if Mars is lifeless? Even if no life exists there, that untouched and unique alien environment needs to be preserved as it is as much as possible. We’ve already done too much damage here on our own planet. By studying Mars and other planets and moons in their present natural state, we can learn so much about their history and also learn more about our own world. We should appreciate the differences of other worlds instead of just transforming them to suit our own ambitions.
1. What is the best title for the text?| A．Is there life on Mars? | B．Can we adapt to Mars? |
| C．Should we terraform Mars? | D．Are Mars and Earth So Different? |
| A．Ensure that it’s not harmed. | B．Make peace with the Martians. |
| C．Change the unpopulated regions. | D．Assess the advantages and disadvantages. |
| A．Advanced. | B．Native. | C．Foreign. | D．Intelligent |
| A．By referring to others’ research. |
| B．By commenting on different planets. |
| C．By proving the benefits of terraforming. |
| D．By arguing in support of one viewpoint. |
6 . A Canadian addicted to Chinese ink wash painting
Canadian Brandon Collins-Green calls himself a Chinese culture “addict”. He has lived in China for over six years, spending his time in painting in the Chinese ink wash style and translating Chinese classics into English.
Collins-Green, 37, is a doctoral candidate in classical Chinese literature at Jiangxi Normal University in Nanchang. About 15 years ago, his first encounter with a stage adaption of the classic Chinese novel The Dream of the Red Chamber in Singapore inspired him to study Chinese in the following years. Learning Chinese as a second language, Collins-Green found it was not easy to understand a novel written in Chinese. “Besides the stories, I am interested in the poems, dialogues and lantern riddles in the book,” he said, “Because of The Dream of the Red Chamber, I wanted to get a closer look at China.”
His strong curiosity about China and Chinese culture prompted Collins-Green to travel to the city of Nanchang in 2015, in the hope of learning what the real China was like. During a visit to Badashanren Memorial Hall in Nanchang, where paintings of a famous Chinese artist were on exhibition, Collins-Green was interested in how a tiny brush could depict (描画) the curves of hills, shade and light on paper.
In his years spent translating The Dream of the Red Chamber into English, he has gradually found his way of combining Chinese and foreign cultures into his paintings, writing poems in English as the backdrops of his figures. As of this year, Collins-Green has completed over 2,500 works, including translations of The Dream of the Red Chamber, landscape paintings and portraits.
He lives a life greatly influenced by The Dream of the Red Chamber, renting a loft of about 9 square meters beside his university as a studio. Since this March, his paintings have been exhibited at art festivals in cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Xi’an, bringing him a group of fans. Some have sent him emails, asking about the meanings of the poems in his paintings.
“We can see from Collins-Green that traditional Chinese culture is becoming more attractive to people in other countries,” said Li Shunchen, Collins-Green’s mentor at Jiangxi Normal University. “I really recommend that more people come to China to see how fast it is changing and to enjoy the charm of its culture,” Collins-Green said.
1. What first inspired Collins-Green to study Chinese according to the passage?| A．His love for Chinese paintings. | B．The stage version of a classic Chinese novel. |
| C．The need of his translation work. | D．His second language learning. |
| A．amazed. | B．disappointed. | C．relaxed. | D．frightened. |
| A．His strong curiosity about China gradually faded away. |
| B．He studied Chinese well in China. |
| C．He made great achievements as an addict to Chinese culture. |
| D．His works produced some negative reactions in viewers. |
7 . Francis Kere is the first African to win the Pritzker Prize, known as the Nobel Prize of architecture. However, his
His early reputation came in helping
The result of their hard work was a welcoming structure with a “floating” roof that
In this process, local people learned
Adopted by architects in dozens of countries, his
| A．angle | B．welfare | C．journey | D．border |
| A．perceived | B．crowded | C．estimated | D．reacted |
| A．trick | B．infection | C．qualification | D．experience |
| A．integrate | B．chart | C．oppose | D．design |
| A．banned | B．encouraged | C．ordered | D．warned |
| A．firm | B．soil | C．draft | D．gesture |
| A．Moreover | B．Otherwise | C．Therefore | D．However |
| A．blocks | B．delays | C．refuses | D．allows |
| A．wind | B．fire | C．light | D．air |
| A．subscribe to | B．deal with | C．participate in | D．depend on |
| A．academic | B．urgent | C．severe | D．practical |
| A．challenged | B．declared | C．attracted | D．agreed |
| A．denied | B．suspected | C．imagined | D．demonstrated |
| A．ignore | B．generate | C．miss | D．lose |
| A．innovation | B．fantasy | C．patience | D．expense |
8 . A Neste fuel station in Finland is currently the only place in the world where you can have your car refueled by a robot. It’s the pilot site chosen by Autofuel, a Danish startup, to test its futuristic refueling system—a robotic arm that can locate a car’s fuel tank door, select the right type of fuel; and operate the pump (加油泵).
“Our technology intends to provide the customers with maximum comfort and safety at gas stations,” Jonas Thor Olsen, CEO of Autofuel, said. “The robotic arm doesn’t need human involvement. It allows them to go to the shop for a coffee or take a short break while the car is refueled.”
Autofuel’s solution consists of a robotic arm housed within the fuel pump, and a series of sensors and cameras designed to keep things running smoothly. Cameras detect the vehicle’s registration number, so the system is able to detect what kind of fuel it requires. Another camera directs the car to stop in a certain area so that the arm can easily reach the fuel tank door. The arm itself then starts to move, opening the door, selecting the right fuel and finally refueling the car.
The whole thing looks great in promotional videos, but after one of them recently became popular online, people brought up a few concerns. First of all, in order for the entire process to work, one needs to have their vehicle registered with Autofuel. That’s information many people have no inclination to share for something as small as refueling. Also, the speed at which the robotic arm operates worries a lot of people as it appears to move much slower than a human.
With robots and AI becoming such a big part of our lives lately, it’s easy to imagine solutions like Autofuel becoming mainstream in the near future. But any new innovation has to be tested and improved over and over again.
1. What is a robotic arm’s promotional advantage concerning car refueling?| A．It moves faster than a human. | B．It doesn’t need car registration. |
| C．It can park cars automatically. | D．It requires no human assistance. |
| A．Opportunity. | B．Permission. | C．Willingness. | D．Ability. |
| A．It is well accepted. | B．It is far from perfect. |
| C．Its structure is strange. | D．Its function is meaningless. |
| A．This Robotic Arm Will Refuel Your Car | B．An Innovation Has Been Improved Greatly |
| C．Some Negative Views on a Refueling Solution | D．A More Efficient Assistant at the Train Station |
9 . In 2005, Rachel O’Neill, of Rockwood, Michigan, was working full-time as an assistant in an engineering company. While
She was struck by the heavy work done by girls to
Rachel
So far, more than 10 million dresses have been donated to children in 97 countries, including the United States, though Africa remains a focus. The nonprofit runs a distribution center in Malawi and works
“Nearly half of Malawi’s population is under age 14,” Rachel says, “We are
| A．active | B．internal | C．elegant | D．primitive |
| A．load | B．preserve | C．support | D．form |
| A．interrupted | B．prevented | C．persuaded | D．warned |
| A．dresses | B．cakes | C．books | D．trousers |
| A．led | B．donated | C．floated | D．leaked |
| A．set | B．achieved | C．lost | D．had |
| A．flooded | B．froze | C．dived | D．took |
| A．experiment | B．exposure | C．evidence | D．experience |
| A．simple | B．harmonious | C．royal | D．poor |
| A．customs | B．hairstyles | C．clothes | D．possessions |
| A．violently | B．directly | C．severely | D．hurriedly |
| A．apart from | B．far from | C．absent from | D．tired from |
| A．cover | B．charge | C．shelter | D．remove |
| A．Urgent | B．Distinct | C．Generous | D．General |
| A．trouble | B．danger | C．faith | D．silence |
10 . The Internet’s carbon footprint is as bad as air travel. While it is difficult to measure precisely, estimates place it at over two percent of global greenhouse gas emissions(排放)—the same as the air travel.
Information may appear to spread around the world unseen to our eyes, but it actually passes through enormous data centers placed strategically about the globe, which store, organize and deliver everyone’s data. These centers are extremely energy intensive. In the EU, they consume close to three percent of its total energy usage and also require lots of water to prevent their computers from overheating. In the US, about a fifth of data centers draw water from already stressed water sources.
A typical spam email(垃圾邮件)emits around 0.03g of CO2 emissions, though longer messages read on a laptop can go all the way up to 26g. Now multiply that by 333 billion(roughly the number of emails that get sent every day in 2022). That puts all those work emails into perspective. One study found if every British adult sent one less “thank you” email a day, it would save 16, 433 tons of carbon a year. It even predicted that the ICT industry could account for up to a fifth of the world’s energy consumption by 2025.
However, there are measures that we can take to reduce our digital carbon footprint. For instance, you can unsubscribe from marketing and other spam emails and only subscribe to newsletters that you still regularly read. Have regular data checks where you delete old contact lists and other documents that no longer have any use. Keep a clean inbox and delete emails you no longer need.
1. Why does the author make a comparison in the beginning?| A．To present the digital carbon footprint. |
| B．To emphasize the importance of air travel. |
| C．To advise people not to travel by airplane. |
| D．To inform the disadvantages of the Internet. |
| A．It enjoys a wide popularity. |
| B．It has various kinds of functions. |
| C．It causes large energy consumption. |
| D．It has quite a complex mode of operation. |
| A．To draw the readers’ attention. |
| B．To illustrate a certain information. |
| C．To highlight the change of CO2 emission. |
| D．To stress the importance of reducing CO2 emission. |
| A．Neutral. | B．Optimistic. |
| C．Unfavorable. | D．Concerned. |
