1 . The best paintings simply take your breath away. Here are some famous paintings you might be interested in.
Our Daily Bread
It was painted in 1886 by Anders Leonard Zorn from Sweden, which depicts (描绘) his mother cooking potatoes for the harvesters. The painting is from his private collection and honors his mother. He was in his mid-20s when he painted it to show how his mother tried hard to support him and the big family. The painting was later bought by National Museum in Stockholm.
Glow of Hope
It is also referred to as Woman with the Lamp. It’s a work of art by S. L. Haldankar. This painting was produced in 1945-46. Haldankar had the idea of painting it at an Indian festival Diwali, the festival of lights, when he saw his daughter in a beautiful Indian dress with a candle in one hand and her other hand protecting the flame from the wind.
Dog Lying in the Snow
This popular work was created in 1911 by a Germany-based artist, Franz Marc. The painting features Marc’s own Siberian Shepherd named Russi. The dog was lying comfortably in the white snow in January, near the village where he lived. The scene shows a creature in harmony with nature.
Portrait of Mari Clasen
It is one of the most famous oil paintings in the world. The Drammen, Norway-based artist Halfdan Johnsen Egedius painted it in 1895. He described the beauty of the Norwegian folk costume-bunad, worn by Mari Clasen, a pretty young woman from South Central Norway. The painting speaks a lot about the beauty and traditions of the country.
1. Why did Anders Leonard Zorn create Our Daily Bread?| A．To praise the local harvesters. |
| B．To describe people’s daily life in Sweden. |
| C．To express his thanks to his mom for her hard work. |
| D．To show the relationship between him and his mother. |
| A．His adventure in an Indian village. |
| B．A beautiful Indian dress he bought. |
| C．A scene of his daughter at an Indian festival. |
| D．The candle business during an Indian festival. |
| A．Glow of Hope. |
| B．Our Daily Bread. |
| C．Dog Lying in the Snow. |
| D．Portrait of Mari Clasen. |
2 . When we think of London theatres, we think of big productions in the centre of the city, costing hall a month’s rent for a single ticket. But the true heart of London theatres isn’t in Leicester Square. If you want to experience a five-star show for a £10 ticket, Of-West End is the way to go.
Theatre 503
There were a number of famous performers presenting themselves on the stage. Only holding 63 people, it’s a tight squeeze. But it’s well worth the push and squeeze that you’ll share with the locals for the outstanding performances.
Kiln Theatre
Located in the heart of Kilburn, Kiln Theatre opened in the Forester’s Hall in 1980. In 1987 the theatre was almost totally destroyed by a fire which started in a neighbouring yard. Two years later it was rebuilt. After undergoing a major redevelopment, the theatre reopened as the Kiln Theatre under the artistic leadership of Indhu Rubasingham in 2018.
Soho Theatre
As the name suggests, the theatre sits in the centre of Soho, and its bar has become a club for artists and audiences alike. By day it’s a house of writing, workshops, showcases, meetings and events and by night it’s a stage to an average of six shows.
Her Majesty’s Theatre
Her Majesty’s Theatre opened in 1897, which is known as a playhouse with productions of Shakespeare’s works as well as dramas based on his novels. However, following the death of Queen Elizabeth Ⅱ, Her Majesty’s Theatre will be renamed to His Majesty’s Theatre after King Charles MI’s coronation(加冕).
1. What is the major concern of theatre-goers who go to Off-West End?| A．Location. | B．Schedule. |
| C．Price. | D．Accommodation. |
| A．Theatre 503. | B．Kiln Theatre. |
| C．Soho Theatre. | D．Her Majesty’s Theatre. |
| A．Enjoy Shakespeare’s plays. |
| B．Interact with famous artists. |
| C．Propose a new name for the theatre. |
| D．Attend the king’s coronation ceremony. |
3 . Online courses offer people abundant opportunities to learn. Try some of the Harvard online courses about humanities.
The Path to Happiness
From Confucianism to Daoism, the philosophies developed over two thousand years ago are among the most powerful in human history. This course brings voices from the past into modern contexts to explore the path to a good life today.
Duration: June 16, 2021—June 14, 2022
Fees: Free of charge
Pace: Self-paced
Difficulty: Introductory
Introduction to the Ancient Greek World
This course is about ancient Greece with its unique places, ways of life and historical changes. We survey the most important social institutions and cultural traditions. We also study everyday features such as food and dress.
Duration: June 21—August 6, 2021
Fees: $3400
Pace: Instructor-led
Difficulty: Introductory
Biotechnology and the Human Good
Biotechnology offers exciting and promising prospects for healing the sick and relieving the suffering. In this course we consider possible functions beyond common treatments like making people look younger, perform better and become perfect.
Duration: June 21—August 6, 2021
Fees: $ 3400
Pace: Instructor-led
Difficulty: Intermediate
Superheroes and Power
What makes superheroes popular? How can they help us think about super powers? In this course, we explore those questions in Marvel and DC favorites (especially the X-Men) as well as independent comics novels.
Duration: June 22 —August 6, 2021
Fees: $ 3400
Pace: Instructor-led
Difficulty: Intermediate
1. Which course can you take if you are free in Oct. 2021?| A．The Path to Happiness | B．Introduction to the Ancient Greek World |
| C．Biotechnology and the Human Good | D．Superheroes and Power |
| A．Powers of superheroes. | B．More uses of biotech. |
| C．Ways to increase happiness. | D．Clinical practices of biotech. |
| A．They are of the same level. | B．They are free of charge. |
| C．They belong to the same subject. | D．They are instructor-led. |
4 . Whom should you marry? Where should you live? How should you spend your time? For centuries, people have relied on their sixth sense to figure out answers to these life-changing questions. However, now as amounts of information about all aspects of human behaviour have become more and more accessible, we can use this big data to help decide on the best choice.
Consider this question: what makes people happy? Data have revealed the activities that provide far more enjoyment than most of us would have guessed, such as exercising, going to a museum and gardening. Then there are the things that give us less pleasure than you might assume, such as playing video games, watching TV and surfing the internet. Watching sports games involving your favourite team can be really dangerous to your mood, it turns out.
Another way to be happier is to marry well. Here, too, data is offering us new insights. One study by 86 researchers collected information on more than 11,000 romantic couples. They used machine learning models to understand what predicts romantic satisfaction. They found many highly desired features, such as a partner’s attractiveness and height, have just about no relation with long-term happiness. Instead, psychological (心理上的) qualities, such as having a so-called “growth mindset”, were likely to play a bigger part in developing romantic satisfaction.
These are the early days of the data revolution (革命) in personal decision-making. I am not claiming that we can completely outsource our lifestyle choices to algorithms (算法), though we might get to that point in the future. I am claiming instead that we can all dramatically improve our decision-making by referring to evidence from thousands or millions of people who faced difficulties similar to ours. And we can do that now.
1. Why does the author put forward several questions at paragraph 1?| A．To throw doubt on people’s sixth sense. |
| B．To introduce a new way to make choices. |
| C．To guide readers to think over their previous life. |
| D．To compare some confusions of common people. |
| A．Exercising and watching sports games. |
| B．Playing video games and gardening. |
| C．Surfing the internet and watching TV. |
| D．Going to the museum and doing sports. |
| A．A partner’s appearance is the key to romantic satisfaction. |
| B．Taller males have more chances to have a happier life. |
| C．Features to keep romantic satisfaction are still unknown. |
| D．Psychological qualities matter more in long-term happiness. |
| A．Opposed. | B．Supportive. | C．Unconcerned. | D．Doubtful. |
5 . Cities have been described as essential to climate change solutions, but they can also raise the kinds of ecologists that will bring us into a more comprehensive biological future.
As a black wildlife biologist from Philadelphia, I stood out among my coworkers. My presence in ecology has challenged assumptions about not only what a biologist looks like, but also where a biologist comes from. In the U.S., ecology was and is mainly white and conducted in rural landscapes, but I had no history of camping, fishing, hunting or hiking. I had yet to recognize that Philadelphia, with its four seasons and richness of squirrels (松鼠), row homes and festivals, was actually my first ecological classroom. There I witnessed wild cats eating birds and rats, people shooting bats from their homes and snakes being killed by lawn mowers (割草机). This is as much ecology in action as anything we witness in fields and forests.
Urban wild animals exhibit many features and behaviors that set them apart from their rural twins: they may be bigger, eat more diverse food sources, are active at different times of the day, move differently and have different personalities. Some biologists argue they are even “smarter”. Besides, urban wildlife balances more risks—such as road chemical poisons and diseases from domestic animals—with rewards. Some of those rewards come from humans providing food and some from the distribution of our parks and water bodies.
In our professional lives as biologists, living with such wild animals can make us more tolerant of species diversity, which can benefit the natural world. Nature is no longer only primitive wilderness but includes sounds of human laughter and garbage trucks. We expect more biologists from urban settings because urban environments naturally train keen observers who are the future of ecology.
1. Which makes the author stand out among his coworkers?| A．His nationality. | B．His city background. |
| C．His interest in outdoor activities. | D．His love for animals. |
| A．Urban wild animals. | B．Rural animals. |
| C．Domestic animals. | D．Wildlife biologists. |
| A．They have trouble in getting food. | B．They enjoy safer living conditions. |
| C．They do better in fighting diseases. | D．They are more adaptable to environment. |
| A．Urban Wild Animals Survive. | B．Benefits of City Conservation. |
| C．Cities Build Better Biologists. | D．A Black Biologist from Philadelphia. |
6 . The idea of turning recycled plastic bottles into clothing is not new. During the past five years, a large number of clothing companies, businesses and environmental organizations have started turning plastics into clothing to deal with plastic pollution. But there’s a problem with this method. Research now shows that microfibers(微纤维)could be the biggest source of plastic in the sea.
Dr. Mark Browne in Santa Barbara, California, has been studying plastic pollution and microfibers for 10 years. He explains that every time synthetic(合成)clothes go into a washing machine, a large number of plastic fibers fall off. Most washing machines can’t collect these microfibers. So every time the water gets out of a washing machine, microfibers enter the sewer and finally end up in the sea.
In 2011, Browne wrote a paper stating that a single piece of synthetic clothing can produce more than 1,900 fibers per wash. Browne collected samples(样本)from seawater and freshwater sites around the world, and used a special way to examine each sample. He discovered that every single water sample contained microfibers.
This is bad news for a number of reasons. Plastic can cause harm to sea life when eaten. Studies have also shown that plastic can take in other pollutants.
Based on this evidence, it may seem surprising that companies and organizations have chosen to turn plastic waste into clothing as an environmental “solution”. Ever though the science has been around for a while, Browne explains that he’s had a difficult time getting companies to listen. When he asked well-known clothing companies to support “Benign by Design”, his research project, which is trying to get clothes that have a bad effect on humans and the environment out of the market, Browne didn’t get a satisfying answer. Only one woman’s clothing company, Eileen Fisher, offered Browne funding.
1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?| A．New microfibers have been discovered. |
| B．Making clothes from plastic bottles can’t solve the pollution. |
| C．The use of plastic bottle has been reduced in the past five years. |
| D．Turning recycled plastic bottles into clothing hasn’t been put into practice. |
| A．How to wash synthetic clothes. |
| B．How to prevent plastic pollution. |
| C．How microfibers end up in the sea. |
| D．Relationship between synthetic clothes and microfibers. |
| A．It has achieved great success. |
| B．It is facing some difficulties. |
| C．It is supported by many firms. |
| D．It hasn’t got anything done. |
| A．Recycled plastic clothing: solution or pollution? |
| B．The impact of Microfibers on the sea. |
| C．Environmental protection: moving forward or backward? |
| D．Turning plastic into clothing, a new step in environmental protection. |
7 . A study on astronauts found that a short sleep during the day up to two and a half hours long improved working memory performance. Working memory includes focusing attention on one task while holding other tasks in memory, so a poor working memory could result in errors.
Taking a short sleep may make you think more clearly for the period right after you wake up and maybe several hours into the day. Taking a short sieep once or twice a week could lower the risk of heart attacks, according to a 2019 study published in the journal Heart. After tracking more than 3,400 peopIe between the ages of 35 and 75 for slightly more than five years, the researchers found that those who enjoyed occasional short sleep—once or twice a week, for five minutes to an hour—were 48% less likely than those who didn’t take a short sleep to experience a heart attack or heart failure.
A lack of quality sleep could lead to overeating because not enough sleep is believed to stimulate hunger and stop hormone(荷尔蒙)signals that communicate fullness. The findings were important because women were at high risk of fatness and sleep disorders, the researchers said, which could both be driven by a high intake of food. Taking a short sleep has been found to improve your creativity. The right side of your brain might experience a strong mental feeling during a short sleep, research suggested. The right side is the hemisphere(半球体)most associated with creative tasks, such as imagination and thinking, while the left is more logical. Rescarchers monitoring the brain activity of 15 people found that the right side of their brain communicated busily with itself as well as with its left part. The left side of the brain, however, remained relatively quiet. In a January 2020 study of 2,214 Chinese adults aged 60 and older, those who took afternoon sleep for five minutes to two hours showed better mental response than those who didn’t take a short sleep.
1. What do we know about the study on astronauts?| A．Taking a short sleep surely results in errors. |
| B．Improving working memory ability needs a long sleep. |
| C．Sleeping up to one and a half hour is needed during the day. |
| D．Having a good working memory may complete the task better. |
| A．It may make you think clearly all day. |
| B．It could reduce the risk of heart attacks. |
| C．It made 48% of people frce from a heart attack. |
| D．It may cause over 3,400 persons to suffer from heart attack. |
| A．Refer to. | B．Focus on. | C．Give up. | D．Lead to. |
| A．Sports. | B．Education. | C．Health. | D．Technology. |
8 . Sharon Holland and her husband, Jer, are travelling around the world and saving money at the same time by swapping (交换)houses with strangers to keep the bills low. They only have to pay for their flights, meaning they save hundreds of pounds on their holidays each year.
The couple’s occupation allows them to enjoy long periods of school holidays. Both work as school Deputy Principals, which allows them to take their children, Cian, 23, Miah, 13, and Faye, 11, abroad up to four times per year. On average, they pay £1,250 per year for flights.
Sharon, from Cork, Ireland, has exchanged her home with a stranger 40 times in the last 13 years and says she’s never regret. She said: “I couldn’t imagine travelling in any other way now. Swapping our Irish Georgian farmhouse for another house abroad is amazing. There are home-style houses, modern city apartments and beautiful architectural period houses too. Every holiday is different and staying in someone else’s house makes our experience more rewarding and enjoyable. We are able to meet more locals and understand the culture more than we would if we were to stay at a hotel. We bring our laptops during the summer weeks as we are both responsible for timetabling and school planning but this can be done at a distance”.
Sharon has visited various cities in America, France, Germany, Hungary, ltaly, Spain, Netherlands, the UK and their home country of Ireland. “But our favourite place is Italy. We have been lucky enough to visit there six times. Over the ycars, every experience has been great—from the architecture to the food. We have made some wonderful happy memories for less”, adds she.
1. Why do the couple travel by swapping houses with strangers?| A．To avoid taking flights. |
| B．To spread local culture. |
| C．To improve their living condition. |
| D．To cut down their travel costs. |
| A．She comes from England and likes Italy. |
| B．She never lives in a hotel when traveling. |
| C．She is fond of the way of swapping houses. |
| D．She plans to open a school with her husband. |
| A．Embarrassing. | B．Fantastic. | C．Dangerous. | D．Traditional. |
| A．To share a couple’s special way of travelling. |
| B．To advise more people to travel worldwide. |
| C．To introduce ways of exchanging houses. |
| D．To teach us how to save money while traveling, |
9 . Sports can help you keep fit and get in touch with nature. However, whether you are on the mountains, in the waves, or on the grassland, you should be aware that your sport of choice might have great influence on the environment.
Some sports are resource-hungry. Golf, as you may know, eats up not only large areas of countryside, but also tons of water. Besides, all sorts of chemicals and huge amounts of energy are used to keep its courses (球场) in good condition. This causes major environmental effects. For example, in the dry regions of Portugal and Spain, golf is often held responsible for serious water shortage in some local areas.
There are many environment-friendly sports. Power walking is one of them that you could take up today. You don’t need any special equipment except a good pair of shoes; and you don’t have to worry about resources and your purse. Simple and free, power walking can also keep you fit. If you walk regularly, it will be good for your heart and bones. Experts say that 20 minutes of power walking daily can make you feel less anxious, sleep well and have better weight control.
Whatever sport you take up, you can make it greener by using environment-friendly equipment and buying products made from recycled materials. But the final goal should be “green gyms”. They are better replacements (代替物) for traditional health clubs and modern sports centers. Members of green gyms play sports outdoors, in the countryside or other open spaces. There is no special requirement for you to start your membership. And best of all, it’s free.
1. What is the meaning of the underlined words in paragraph 2?| A．resource-consuming | B．resource-developing |
| C．resource-protecting | D．resource-controlling |
| A．It is environmentally-friendly. | B．It improves our health. |
| C．It is simple and free. | D．It can make you put on weight. |
| A．Playing basketball in a gym. | B．Motor racing in the desert. |
| C．Cycling around a lake. | D．Swimming in a sports center. |
| A．To show us some major outdoor sports. |
| B．To encourage us to go in for green sports. |
| C．To discuss the influence of some popular sports. |
| D．To introduce some environmentally-friendly sports. |
10 . When you are in Mérida of Mexico, you can take any of the transportation ways.
On foot
Once you are in the city center, getting around Mérida on foot is very convenient. Most of the main attractions are centrally located, and you’ll have a hard time getting lost thanks to the city’s thoughtful construction.
By bike
If you’d rather explore the city on two wheels, do so at your own risk. Bikers will be especially pleased on Sundays, when some of Mérida’s most beautiful and popular motorways shut down to car traffic for bikes. For the event, you’ll find many bike rental shops open for business.
By car
If you plan to explore the areas surrounding Mérida during your trip, renting a car is a good choice. For travelers who do not plan to leave the city of Mérida, a rental car can still be useful. If you do choose to rent a car, booking it ahead of your trip will likely save you money. Be prepared to show a credit card and a valid driver’s license from your home country.
By bus
There are a number of local bus ways that visitors can take advantage of during their stay. Bus stops are everywhere throughout the city, and most run from around 6 am to 11 pm. However, people who are not locals may find it difficult to determine which way to take and where to find the bus stops. See the Mérida transportation website for information on specific way.
By taxi
Taxis in Mérida are considered safe and are fairly easy to catch - just note that you’ll need to know some basics in Spanish to communicate with most drivers. Typically, drivers have a set fare to get to various attractions within the city.
1. Which is the convenient way to travel in the city center of Mérida?| A．By bus. | B．By car. | C．By bike. | D．On foot. |
| A．Deciding which bus way to take. | B．Renting a bike on Sundays. |
| C．Booking a car ahead of a trip. | D．Getting to various attractions. |
| A．Show your credit card. | B．Prepare a driver’s license. |
| C．Pay Mexican car insurance. | D．Learn some basic Spanish. |
