1 . Many people still remember the magic of Father Christmas from when they were children. As parents, they try to keep that magic alive for their children for as long as they can.
That is why Letters from Father Christmas could be the perfect book for those who regard Christmas as a special time of year. The man who wrote these letters is one of the most famous names in English literature — J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings. The letters were Tolkien’s way of keeping Father Christmas alive for his four children, over a period of more than twenty years.
Every Christmas, an envelope with a North Pole stamp arrived. It was addressed to Tolkien’s children. Who could it be from? The children must have been very excited as they opened it. Inside, they would find a handwritten letter from Father Christmas. The letters were also beautifully illustrated—each must have taken its true author, Tolkien, a long time to complete.
The letters told wonderful stories about Father Christmas’s life and adventures at the North Pole. A regular character in the letters was Polar Bear, who once climbed the North Pole (an actual pole in this case) and fell through the roof of Father Christmas’s house. In another letter, Father Christmas complained about how he could not stop his helpers playing games with the toys instead of wrapping them up. Interestingly, the letters did not contain the usual warnings to children that they might not receive their presents if they were not good. The letters did, however, change as Tolkien’s children got older：
...but if you find that not many of the things you asked for have come, and not perhaps quite as many as sometimes, remember that this Christmas all over the world here are a terrible number of poor and starving people.
Letters from Father Christmas tells us that as well as enjoying the adventures of Father Christmas, Polar Bear and other characters at the North Pole, we can all share the true spirit of giving at Christmas time. By expressing love for his children in such a special way, Tolkien may indeed have been the real Father Christmas.
1. What is Tolkien famous for?| A．His novel The Lord of the Rings. | B．His letters to Father Christmas. |
| C．His fantasy childhood memories. | D．His introduction to Father Christmas. |
| A．They were sent from Father Christmas. | B．They were wrapped up in good boxes. |
| C．It was hard to write the different stories. | D．The beautiful pictures were hard to make. |
| A．Life will be easy if you work hard. | B．It’s no use complaining about life. |
| C．We should learn to give care to others. | D．Children love presents with pictures. |
| A．He addressed all his letters to Father Christmas. |
| B．He showed his love for his children in a special way. |
| C．He got others to know some people were starving. |
| D．He discovered the spirit of Father Christmas. |
2 . It's just past 7 a.m.on a February morning in Maya Bay, several weeks after authorities reopened what is one of Thailand's most popular tourist attractions to the world for the first time since June 2018 following a massive restoration program.
In the hours to follow, a slow but steady flow of tourists becomes in great numbers as dozens of tourists make their way to the white﹣sand beach, phones at the ready as they take photos. Swimming is not allowed, though visitors can take a few steps in. It's disappointing, but a huge improvement over what visitors once experienced here.
Maya Bay is located in a Thailand's national park.The destination was made famous by the 2000 film The Beach，starring Leonardo DiCaprio.As the film's popularity grew，so did tourists' desire to visit the location where much of it was shot —Maya Bay.
"Around 40 years ago, Maya Bay was already a tourism destination, but mainly for Thai tourists because you didn't have speedboats at that time, " says Thon, a marine biologist and professor who requested authorities to close the bay four years ago. Over the years, the number of tourists rose from less than 1, 000 to as many as 7, 000 or 8, 000 visitors a day at its peak. On average, around 5, 000 people entered the bay each day.
In 2018, the Thai government closed the bay and began to restore the damaged ecosystem.
Since then, Thon and a team of fellow marine experts and volunteers have replanted over 30, 000 pieces of coral, much of it grown off the coast of a nearby island. Meanwhile, the wildlife also returned and has been growing. "Only three months after we closed the bay, the blacktip sharks came back and gave birth…so there are a lot of things happening in Maya Bay."
1. What do the first two paragraphs mainly tell us about Maya Bay?| A．Its business hours. |
| B．Its massive restoration |
| C．Its huge improvement. |
| D．Its reopening. |
| A．Maya Bay. |
| B．The 2000 film The Beach. |
| C．Leonardo DiCaprio. |
| D．A Thailand's national park. |
| A．The benefit from tourism. |
| B．The long history of Maya Bay. |
| C．The rapid growth in tourists. |
| D．The reason for the film's popularity. |
| A．the protection efforts for Maya Bay was a little late. |
| B．the protection efforts for Maya Bay has no support from the government. |
| C．the protection efforts for Maya Bay remains to be seen whether it's useful. |
| D．the protection efforts for Maya Bay has been effective. |
3 . Each year, millions of children around the world are unable to go to school. To draw attention to this widespread problem, the United Nations (UN) is putting education first. Recently, the UN screened a documentary film (纪录片) called Back to School. The film is the second in a series of documentaries for the 12-year project “Time for School”.
These films follow seven children from seven different countries. This 12-year project began in 2003, when the children first started school. “This is something we could do to help the education crisis in the world,” said producer and writer Judy Katz. “Documentary film-makers can get deeply involved in a problem and do something about it.”
More than 100 million children will never set foot in schools, sixty percent of whom are girls. Cheryl Faye, head of the UN Girls Education Initiative, spoke about the many factors that prevent girls from getting an education. One problem is the long distance many children must travel to get to school. Also, girls in many cultures are traditionally expected to marry early and work to help their families. “We need to make a special effort for girls,” Faye said.
As part of the UN’s goals, the organization wants every single child to get at least an elementary education by 2015.
Students from Lawrence Middle School in New York were deeply moved after they saw the film. The seventh-grade class is raising money to help build a library on the outskirts (郊区) of Nairobi, Kenya, where Joab—a child in the documentary lives. The class teacher, Karen Weiner, and the class are known in their school as the “Kenya crew”. All the kids were really happy to support Joab and said they felt great about their fund-raising efforts. Like the seventh-graders at Lawrence Middle School, kids can work together to make a difference in places like Nairobi. By raising money for education, kids can help children on the other side of the world have a chance at a better, happier life.
1. What is the purpose of the UN screening a documentary film Back to School?| A．To raise funds for global education. |
| B．To show the achievements which have been made in the past few years. |
| C．To raise public awareness of the need for global education. |
| D．To encourage all the children to come back to school. |
| A．Because more than one half of the children who never go to school are girls. |
| B．Because more than 100 million girls will never go to school. |
| C．Because most of the girls are tired of going to school. |
| D．Because sixty percent of the children in the world are girls. |
| A．Long distance from school. | B．Helping work for the family. |
| C．Early marriage. | D．Being born weak. |
| A．American middle school students’ desire to go to Kenya. |
| B．The content of the documentary film Buck to School. |
| C．An example of being inspired to take action after seeing the film. |
| D．How students from Lawrence Middle School raise money for their education. |
4 . Dorothy Lee and her husband were driving home from a study group one night when their car suddenly hit something. Mrs. Lee looked at her husband, who was driving, and saw his head move down and up several times and fall. In the next minutes Mrs Lee managed to avoid a serious accident while stopping the car, called 911 on her cellphone and tried to make her husband come back to life before an ambulance arrived. But at the hospital, soon after learning her husband had died of sudden heart trouble, Dorothy’s heart appeared to give out as well. She experienced sudden sharp pains in her chest (胸腔), lost senses and knew nothing.
Doctor’s of that hospital were surprised at finding: There wasn’t any evidence of heart trouble. Finally, doctors thought that Mrs. Lee had suffered from a broken-heart syndrome (伤心综合症). The disease looks like heart trouble, but appears to have little connection with heart trouble. It is caused mainly by stress and other strong feelings. The disease is uncommon, making up for about 1% to 2% of people — and about 6% of women — who are likely to suffer such sudden heart trouble. It can be very dangerous sometimes, but for the most part patients recover quickly, with no lasting damage to their hearts.
If patients are hospitalized with the broken-heart syndrome, their hearts might be beating as little as 20% of what it should work. But within 48 to 72 hours, many recover to the 60% level that is considered healthy. It is uncommon.
Mrs. Lee’s heart was so weakened by her husband’s death that she nearly died. The 63-year-old woman needed a special balloon pump (球囊泵) during the first days in the hospital. But in spite of warnings by her doctors, she attended her husband’s funeral (葬礼) five days later.
1. What can we learn about the accident?| A．The husband died in it. | B．The wife died later in the hospital. |
| C．The husband died because time was wasted. | D．The husband died of heart trouble after it. |
| A．Her bad health. | B．Worry, anxiety and sadness. |
| C．Her seriously damaged heart. | D．The aging of the heart. |
| A．She was calm in case of emergencies. | B．She was unhealthy but strong minded. |
| C．She was easily hurt and moody. | D．She was caring and generous. |
| A．The broken-heart syndrome is less common among women. |
| B．Patients with the broken-heart syndrome can recover by themselves. |
| C．The broken-heart syndrome could come and go both quickly. |
| D．Most people may suffer from the broken-heart syndrome. |
5 . Ana Lizana works for the East Anglia ONE project-the largest of shore wind farm in Europe, made up of 102 turbines (涡轮) and powering around 500, 000 homes. It’s expected to be the model for offshore wind farms around the UK. A journalist is interviewing her.
Journalist: You’ve bad great career development. How did that happen?
Ana: My excellent female engineer manager taught me to be disciplined (训练有素的) and organized at work. I’m proud of being one of the few female electrical engineers on the project but all the women are from Spain. Scottish Power found it difficult to acquire female electrical engineers from the UK. In Spain, the industry is more equal because the numbers of boys and girls who study engineering are the same.
Journalist: What do the pupils ask when you visit them?
Ana: The schoolchildren ask me about my salary, because most of them want to be lawyers or doctors or do economics for banking. Girls in the UK don’t regard engineering as an opportunity. I tell them that I enjoy what I’m doing and that we provide and generate electricity for everybody.
Journalist: What’s the worst thing that has gone wrong?
Ana: For a tight programme, the worst thing is when we lose time. That can be the most stressful. My responsibility is about making sure it’ll be on time and is ready.
Journalist: How do you feel at weekends?
Ana: Tired! This project is a full marathon. You cannot work every day at 100pc but you need to try to be at 80pc. The weekend is all about rest and filling myself with new energy.
Journalist: What is the most satisfying thing about your work?
Ana: To know that you are creating a project that can generate electricity just by using wind. You are working on something great and being useful, and sharing knowledge with colleagues.
1. What can we learn about the East Anglia ONE project?| A．It contains more than 102 turbines |
| B．It’s the largest wind farm in Europe. |
| C．It provides electricity for 500.000 people. |
| D．It’s likely to set an example to British of shore wind farms. |
| A．she is asked about her salary |
| B．she trains and organizes girls |
| C．she shares knowledge with colleagues |
| D．she fails to generate electricity as quickly as possible |
| A．the UK needs more female electrical engineers |
| B．Spain has more boys than girls studying engineering |
| C．Scottish Power calls for male engineers from the UK |
| D．Europe generates most electricity just by using wind |
6 . Personalized medicine changes conventional medicine which typically offers blanket recommendations and offers treatments designed to help more people than they bam but that might not work for you. The approach recognizes that we each possess unique characteristics, and they have an out size impact on our health.
Around the world, researchers are creating precision tools unimaginable just a decade ago: superfast DNA sequencing(排序); tissue engineering, cell reprogramming, gene editing, and more. The science and technology soon will make it possible to predict your risk of cancer, heart disease, and countless other illnesses years before you get sick. The work also offers prospects for changing genes in removing some diseases.
Last spring, researchers at the National Cancer Institute reported the dramatic recovery of a woman with breast cancer, Judy Perkins. The team, led by Steven Rosenberg, an immune(免疫的) treatment pioneer, had sequenced her cancer cells’ DNA to analyze the sudden change. The team also removed a sampling of immune cells and tested them to see which ones recognized her cancer cells' genetic faults. The scientists reproduced the winning immune cells by the billions and put them into Perkins to attack her cancer cells. More than two y cars later. Perkins, a retired engineer from Florida, shows no signs of cancer.
Thirty years ago, scientists thought that it would be impossible to understand our genetic rules and sequence the 3.2 billion pairs of different elements in our DNA. “It was like you were talking fairytales,” Kurzrock said. “The conventional wisdom was that it would never happen. Never And then in 2003, never was over.”
It took the Human Gene Project 13 years, roughly one billion dollars, and scientists from six countries to sequence one gene complex. Today sequencing costs about a thousand dollars. The latest machines can produce the results in a day. The technology, combined with advanced cell analysis, clarifies the astonishing biochemical variations that make every human body unique.
1. What can we know about personalized medicine?| A．It has emerged a decade before. |
| B．It offers blanket recommendations. |
| C．It uses genetic information to help patients. |
| D．It administers treatment intended for most people. |
| A．Promising. | B．Highly risky. | C．Fruitless. | D．Strictly confidential. |
| A．Sequencing her immune cells. |
| B．Reprogramming her cancer cells |
| C．Analysis of her life style changes. |
| D．Identification of cancer-fighting cells. |
| A．Its wide applications. | B．Its recent advances. |
| C．Its major disadvantages. | D．Its attractive prospects. |
7 . I can’t miss the little old lady with her kerchief (方头巾) on her head, a black umbrella blowing all over. I can tell she is freezing. She is standing at a bus stop, and I’m driving by, late for my early morning shift. I decide to stop and offer her a ride.
Of course, she declines, but when I ask again and insist, finally, she gets in the car. I take her to her destination, and by the time she gets out of my car, she is smiling and thanks me.
I was late for work that day, but I was so glad that I stopped. That was 40 years ago, and the beginning of a new habit, one that continues when I’m out driving in bad weather.
If there’s someone at a bus stop, especially if it’s an elderly person waiting at off hours and in bad weather, I will pull over and ask if they need a ride.
Once, a young doctor jumped in. She had finished a long shift and had been waiting and waiting at the bus stop. She had no hesitation and, for the first time, I was able to help someone who performs miracles (奇迹) on a daily basis. That felt good.
But the best part of my ride offers is the conversation. I do tend to ask a lot of questions: where are you from, where are you going, family, background, pets and whatever else comes to mind. Surprisingly, everyone wants to chat. We are usually laughing by the time the ride is over. “What a shame!” I often think when they hop out, as the stories were just getting started.
Now as retirement approaches, I believe I have found my calling. I will be happy to join a community driving program to take people to one appointment or another — or perhaps just to the coffee shop to sit and listen for an hour.
As the years pass, perhaps I will be the one standing at the bus stop. Perhaps there will be somebody who rolls down a window and offers me a seat for a little ride. I will continue to take that leap of faith in the kindness of strangers.
1. What are the first three paragraphs mainly about?| A．How the author started offering rides. |
| B．The value of the author’s actions. |
| C．An old lady who impressed the author. |
| D．An accident that happened 40 years ago. |
| A．Helping people who contribute to society. |
| B．People accepting her offer without hesitation. |
| C．Chatting with her passengers. |
| D．Making friends with her passengers. |
| A．Become a taxi driver after retirement. |
| B．Continue driving people to their destinations. |
| C．Wait to be offered a ride at a bus stop. |
| D．Share her stories with more people. |
| A．Elderly people need more care and support. |
| B．It is important to find a purpose in life. |
| C．Offering rides to strangers involves risks. |
| D．Always believe in the goodness in people. |
8 . From the roar of a crowd to the quiet of a library, sound and silence might seem like polar opposites. However, according to a new research, our brains perceive them in the same way. Silence may not be a sound, but scientists say we can truly hear it.
In this new study, researchers examined how people experience silence using well-known auditory illusions (错觉). The illusions are meant to test the perception of noise, but for the study, the team adapted them to measure people’s response to silence, instead.
“If you can get the same illusions with silences as you get with sounds, then that may be obvious that we literally hear silence after all.” Chaz Firestone, a co-author of the study and cognitive scientist at Johns Hopkins University, says in a statement.
In the study, participants were tricked by these “silence illusions” in a similar way to how people are typically fooled by the sound versions of the experiments.
The researchers prepared seven experiments and tested them on 1,000 study participants. In one experiment, researchers played a recording that sounded like background noise in a crowded place. In the first half of the recording, the background noise was interrupted by two separate periods of silence. In the second half, one continuous period of silence was inserted (嵌入). Researchers asked participants which silence felt longer- the combination of the first two periods of silence, or the second uninterrupted one. Most participants thought the continuous silence was longer, but it was actually the same length as the two shorter silences combined.
These results were consistent with previous research that examined auditory illusions, which used two separate sounds and one continuous sound. With that illusion, people also perceived the continuous sound as longer than the two separate ones together.
Similar findings across the seven experiments suggested that humans experience silence and sound in much the same way: They can distort (扭曲) our perception of time.
1. Why did researchers use auditory illusions in the new study?| A．To help people perceive sounds. | B．To test people’s adaptability to noise. |
| C．To measure how people respond to silence. | D．To remind people to be quiet in the library. |
| A．Illusions of silence fool people’s brains. |
| B．The three periods of silence are of the same length. |
| C．Sound is usually difficult for people to perceive. |
| D．Participants chose a recording and played it. |
| A．A diary. | B．A journal. | C．A novel. | D．A guidebook. |
| A．We can truly hear silence like a sound. |
| B．Sound and silence are actually the same. |
| C．Auditory illusions affect our perception ability. |
| D．Our brain has the ability to perceive sound and silence. |
9 . Shaping, drying, glazing and firing... in less than 5 minutes, a mini vase only millimeters in size starts to take shape as viewers watch on. As the founder of a miniature ceramics (微型陶瓷) studio, Wang Wenhua never expected that his works would surprise viewers in China, let alone those abroad, and that his short videos would earn over 45 million views and 4.2 million likes on a video application.
Having worked in China’s “Porcelain Capital (瓷都)” Jingdezhen in East China’s Jiangxi Province for 14 years, Wang said he had once seen the world’s biggest ceramic here but he had never seen the smallest, so he decided one day to try something different—making micro porcelain.
Things were not easy in the beginning, and many people doubted him. “They called me crazy and mocked me when I went to factories and asked them to help make miniature tools for me to create micro pottery. Even my wife did not support me,” Wang said.
However, Wang did not give up and after about half a year of experimentation, Wang finally made miniature tools on his own and was able to complete his first miniature porcelain—a vase.
According to Wang, the key to making a miniature ceramic work is concentration and a pair of steady hands. After numerous attempts, Wang found that the smallest works he could get were about 2 millimeters in size. “It would probably miss my original intention if I made micro pottery using a microscope, so I have focused more attention on making the smaller pieces more beautiful and complex,” said Wang.
The smallest vase that Wang has made is a bowl only 2 millimeters tall, 3 millimeters wide and 1 millimeter thick. Wang says he plans to apply for the Guinness World Records for the world’s smallest pottery work.
1. What inspired Wang Wenhua to make micro porcelain?| A．The high expectations of the viewers. |
| B．The popularity of his videos on a video application. |
| C．His decision to make something different. |
| D．The responsibility of the founder of the studio. |
| A．Ambitious and wise. | B．Brilliant and wealthy. |
| C．Talented and stubborn. | D．Determined and focused. |
| A．Using a microscope in his work. | B．Advanced tools made by himself. |
| C．Carrying out numerous experiments. | D．Attention on a thing and steady hands. |
| A．Art. | B．Fashion. | C．Education. | D．Psychology. |
10 . Kindness is regarded as a true strength, and the success of civilizations relies on kindness. We teach children from a young age to “be kind to one another” and “treat others the way you want to be treated”. Being kind is even shown to be good for well-being. According to Mayo Clinic, when we perform acts of kindness, the pleasure center in our brain is activated, releasing the stress-reducing hormone. Individuals who volunteer on a regular basis report greater life satisfaction. That said, consider the following question: Could kindness ever be considered harmful to us when it has such clear benefits? Let’s think about this assuming we are in the workplace.
You are a new person on the team, and you want to be well-liked and respected by your co-workers. You’re a kind person and tell your team,“Let me know how I can help you; I am always available to help.” Though you may truly mean it, there are people in the world who can consider your kindness is weakness unfortunately. This can lead to you being taken advantage of by others.
Let’s fast-forward to a year later, you have been in your position now for one year and you are working with the same team. You notice that your co-workers continue asking for your succor over and over again. In fact, the only time they interact with you is when they need something. You have been always at your co-workers’ service and there has rarely been any return from them. Imagine the level of your discouragement you are feeling.
In a very broad sense, it is advantageous to be kind to others, and your kind acts will be appreciated and, perhaps, pay off. However, you need to be willing to say “no”. When people ask you for a favor, asses if you have the time,energy and attention to get to them. To truly be kind, sometimes you need to be more comfortable saying “no” to others and saying “yes” to yourself.
1. Why is Mayo Clinic mentioned?| A．To show the positive effects of kindness. |
| B．To explain the reasons for being kind. |
| C．To stress the importance of kindness. |
| D．To assess the current kindness education. |
| A．Your colleagues never interact with you. |
| B．You work with the same team in the same position for a year. |
| C．You hardly receive any return for your service from your colleagues. |
| D．You always fail to serve your colleagues and receive no returns from them. |
| A．Finding the best way to refuse others. |
| B．Acknowledging your efforts and sacrifices. |
| C．Being grateful for others’ kind gestures. |
| D．Being a little more self-focused. |
| A．Is the power of kindness undervalued? |
| B．Why are random acts of kindness important? |
| C．Are we hurting ourselves with kindness? |
| D．How can showing kindness promote well-being? |
