1 . When you are about to go to a boarding school (寄宿制学校) in England, there are many different questions that may come to mind. But once you look at them with some perspective (视角), you will certainly feel easy. Here is a normal boarding day.
Early Morning:
Usually boarders get up around 7:00 am and have around an hour to take a shower and put on their uniform before breakfast.
Lessons:
Classes start at 9: 00 am and every lesson lusts for 50 minutes. After two lessons, at 10: 40 am, you’ll have a short break. The next period of classics will include two more lessons.
Lunch:
Lunch is usually held around 12:30 pm at the dining hall, where you’ll join your friends to enjoy a hot dish. After an hour of lunch, you’ll have three or four more lessons to attend.
Dinner:
At 5:00 pm you will have finished your school lessons for the day. Most boarding schools in the UK offer their full boarders different kinds of hot meals to choose from.
Activities/ Sports:
All boarding schools in the UK provide many different kinds of activities for their boarders, such as football, swimming, golf or art.
Prep:
An important part of boarding school life is the supervised homework session known as “prop”. Although “prep” might sound stressful, it’s a great way for you to keep up with your studies.
Free time:
Once you have done all your classes and activities, it’s time to relax.
Bedtime:
In most boarding schools, the lights go out around 10:30 pm.
Being nervous just before you go to a boarding school is completely normal and understandable. Hopefully, knowing the usual routine (常规) can help you. Once you are there, you will also see how exciting life in a boarding school in England can be.
1. What can help you keep up with your studies in the boarding school?| A．Doing activitıes. | B．Having lessons. |
| C．Enjoying free time. | D．Supervised homework sessions. |
| A．Classes usually start at 8:30 am. | B．Students can have a short break after four lessons. |
| C．They don’t give students any free time. | D．They turn off the lights around 10:30 pm. |
| A．To help students know about boarders’ life. | B．To attract more students to boarding schools. |
| C．To introduce a new school life. | D．To advertise for boarding schools. |
2 . Taking good care of your teeth may be linked to better brain health, according to a study published in the July 5, 2023, online issue of Neurology. “Our study found that gum (牙龈) disease and tooth loss were linked to brain shrinkage (萎缩) in the hippocampus (海马体), which plays a role in memory and Alzheimer’s disease (阿尔兹海默病),” said study author Satoshi Yamaguchi, Ph.D. of Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan.
The study involved 172 people without memory problems. Their average age was 67. Participants had dental exams and took memory tests at the beginning of the study. They also had brain scans to measure the volume of their hippocampus at the beginning of the study. This was measured again four years later. For each participant, researchers counted the number of teeth and checked for amount of gum disease.
Researchers found that the number of teeth and amount of gum disease was linked to changes in the left hippocampus of the brain. For people with mild gum disease, having fewer teeth was associated with a faster rate of brain shrinkage, which is the same for people with severe gum disease having more teeth. After adjusting for age, researchers found that for people with mild gum disease, the increase in the rate of brain shrinkage due to one less tooth was equal to nearly one year of brain aging. By contrast, for people with severe gum disease the increase in brain shrinkage due to one more tooth was equal to 1.3 years of brain aging.
“These results highlight the importance of preserving the health of the teeth and not just maintaining the teeth,” Yamaguchi said. “The findings suggest that controlling the progression of gum disease through regular dental visits is crucial, and that teeth with severe gum disease may need to be removed and replaced with appropriate false ones.”
Yamaguchi said future studies are needed with larger groups of people. The limitation of the study is that it was conducted in one region of Japan, so the results may not be applied to other locations.
1. What is Yamaguchi’s study mainly about?| A．Causes of gum disease. | B．The symptoms of brain shrinkage. |
| C．Ways to take good care of one’s teeth. | D．The connection between the teeth and the brain. |
| A．By making comparisons. | B．By referring to previous studies. |
| C．By conducting a survey among dentists. | D．By proving experts’ theory in experiments. |
| A．Gum disease is increasing among people. |
| B．Keeping teeth healthy is of great importance. |
| C．Removing natural teeth is bad for dental health. |
| D．Doing a routine dental checkup can avoid gum disease. |
| A．Exploring treatments for gum disease. |
| B．Seeking new methods to improve brain health. |
| C．Involving people from other places in the research. |
| D．Applying the research to relieve Alzheimer’s disease. |
3 . Most people above 16 years old have a strong wish that they should drive on the road by themselves. Thus, getting a license is an exciting time in their life. Ultimate Drivers is there to help your teen learn the rules of the road and get important driving experience.
What We Offer
Intimate Drivers’ program will help students prepare for their road test and give them the skills they need to become lifelong safe and defensive drivers.
The beginner program offers 20 hours of in-class training, 12 hours of homework assignments and 8 hours of in-car training. Each in-class training lasts 120 minutes and each one-on-one in-car training 80 minutes. What’s more, students can be picked up for free from home, work or school.
What You Need To Know
Students can complete the classroom part of the course in just two weekends or if it better suits their schedules, they can take it during the evenings on weekdays. There are also classes offered during the holiday break.
Students can start taking line classroom part of the driving training without the G 1 license, but do need it by the time they’re ready to start the in-car driving lessons.
What Extra Benefits Are
The beginner drivers can get much through the program. After that they’ll receive student testimonials (证明书) . The testimonials show teenagers who have taken the course feel more confident in their abilities and many believe they couldn’t have passed the road test without it.
Sign up before April 5th, and students can get an insurance discount!
1. How many times does the program offer in-class training?| A．20. | B．12. | C．10. | D．8. |
| A．Get the G 1 license. | B．Finish the classroom part. |
| C．Sign up before April 5th. | D．Receive a student testimonial. |
| A．A review. | B．An advertisement. |
| C．A guide. | D．An encyclopedia. |
4 . After a busy morning, lunch can feel like just the pick-me-up you need-but sometimes the meal that you thought would energize you is the very thing that makes you want to nap at your desk.
Feeling tired after lunch, or post-meals in general, is known as postprandial somnolence—or, colloquially, the food coma.
Part of this phenomenon is due to basic physiology (生理学): When humans eat, most of our blood goes to the digestive organs to process the food, said Sandra Arévalo, director of community health and wellness at Montefiore Nyack Hospital in New York state.
The tendency to get tired after eating isn’t inherently suggestive of something amiss (出错的). But there can be additional factors that worsen this natural response, making getting through the rest of the workday or any activities feel like a slog. Here’s what to watch out for and how to make adjustments.
When it comes to why you feel overly tired after eating, a common cause is consuming meals that are heavy in terms of quantity or quality. Not eating breakfast can lead to overindulging later in the day if excessive (过度的) hunger makes controlling your appetite difficult, Arévalo said.
Sometimes, however, the makeup of certain foods can contribute to tiredness. Fats are the hardest nutrient to digest because their molecules are much larger than those of protein or carbs, said Julie Stefanski, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. If you had a meal high in fat—such as fried foods or pizza—that could make you feel tired. Meals high in added sugar or refined or highly processed carbohydrates can have the same effect.
The fiber in so-called whole foods like corns slows the absorption of sugar into the body, which means they don’t cause blood sugar or insulin spikes and instead give you more stable, lasting energy, said Kristin Kirkpatrick, a registered dietitian at the Cleveland Clinic.
“A five-minute walk or something helps to improve circulation and alertness (机敏), as well,” Arévalo said.
1. What can we know from the third paragraph?| A．Blood is bad for the digestive organs. |
| B．Blood has varieties of tasks to carry out. |
| C．Eating habits have a great effect on health. |
| D．Eating too much can burden the digestive organs. |
| A．over-consuming | B．overweight | C．felling sleepy | D．lacking energy |
| A．Sugar cake. | B．Pizza. | C．Fried egg. | D．Corn. |
| A．To present a new study. | B．To clarify a concept. |
| C．To provide some guidance. | D．To show a social phenomenon. |
5 . Ireland has had a very difficult history. The problems started in the 16th century when English rulers tried to conquer (征服) Ireland. For hundreds of years, the Irish people fought against the English. Finally, in 1921, the British government was forced to give independence to the south of Ireland. The result is that today there are two “Irelands”. Northern Ireland, in the north, is part of the United Kingdom. The Republic of Ireland, in the south, is an independent country.
In the 1840s the main crop, potatoes, was affected by disease and about 750,000 people died of hunger. This, and a shortage (短缺) of work, forced many people to leave Ireland and live in the USA, the UK, Australia and Canada. As a result of these problems, the population fell from 8.2 million in 1841 to 6.6 million in 1851.
For many years, the majority of Irish people earned their living as farmers. Today, many people still work on the land but more and more people are moving to the cities to work in factories and offices. Life in the cities is very different from life in the countryside, where things move at a quieter and slower pace.
The Irish are famous for being warm－hearted and friendly. Oscar Wilde, a famous Irish writer, once said that the Irish were “the greatest talkers since the Greeks”. Since independence, Ireland has revived (复兴) its own culture of music, language, literature and singing. Different areas have different styles of old Irish songs which are sung without instruments. Other kinds of Irish music use many different instruments such as the violin, whistles, etc.
1. What does the author tell us in Paragraph 1?| A．How the Irish fought against the English. |
| B．How Ireland gained independence. |
| C．How English rulers tried to conquer Ireland. |
| D．How two “Irelands” came into being. |
| A．food shortages and a lack of work in the 1840s led to a decline in population |
| B．people are moving to the cities for lack of work in the countryside |
| C．it is harder to make a living as a farmer than as a factory worker |
| D．different kinds of old Irish songs are all sung with instruments |
| A．the Irish character | B．the Irish culture |
| C．Irish musical instruments | D．a famous Irish writer |
| A．Life in Ireland | B．A Very Difficult History |
| C．Ireland, Past and Present | D．The Independence of Ireland |
6 . Carbon dioxide emissions from transportation are now thought as the top source of green-house gases. One of the most effective ways to reduce your carbon footprint is to reconsider how much, and how often, you travel.
Going car free for a year could save about 2. 6 tons of carbon dioxide, according to a study from the University of British Columbia. How can you stop using a car? Try taking a train, bus or better yet, riding a bike.
But let’s be realistic. You will likely need to use a car this year. So, when you do, here are some tips to make your trip more climate-friendly. Driving efficiently can help to reduce emissions. Go easy on the gas and brakes and drive like you have an egg under your foot. Regularly service your car to keep it more efficient. Keeping your tires pumped correctly can re-duce emissions. Low tire pressure will hurt your fuel economy. Air conditioning and frequent city driving can make emissions go up. So cut down on these as often as possible. Use cruise control (定速巡航) on long drives-in most cases, this can help to save gas. Don’t weigh your car down with extra things that you don’t need on your trip.
Fly often? Taking one fewer long round-trip flight could reduce your personal carbon footprint significantly. If you use public transportation often and fly less, your carbon foot-print might still be relatively sustainable, but if you drive and fly a lot, your emissions will be sigher. If you can’t avoid flying, you can offset them by donating money to sustainable proacts, such as supplying efficient stoves to rural homes, or projects which help farmers deal with crop waste environmentally.
1. What does the author think of going car free?| A．Efficient. | B．Costly. | C．Impractical. | D．Reliable. |
| A．Maintaining your car properly. | B．Using cruise control in the city. |
| C．Stepping hard on the gas and brakes. | D．Geiting rid of all the necessary loads. |
| A．Make up for. | B．Team up with. | C．Set foot in. | D．Put up with. |
| A．How to save fuel when driving cars | B．How to reduce your carbon footprint |
| C．Reduce carbon footprint by all means | D．Lower carbon footprint in transportation |
7 . As a young girl growing up in France, Sarah Toumi dreamed of becoming a leader who could make the world a better place. Her passion to help others was awakened when, from the age of nine, she accompanied her Tunisian father to his birthplace in the east of the country during holidays. There she organized homework clubs and activities for children.
Toumi witnessed first-hand the destructive effect of desertification (沙漠化). “Within 10 years rich farmers became worse off, and in 10 years from now they will be poor. I wanted to stop the Sahara Desert in its tracks.” A decrease in average rainfall and an increase in the severity of droughts have led to an estimated 75 percent of Tunisia’s agricultural lands being threatened by desertification.
Toumi recognized that farming practices needed to change. She is confident that small land areas can bring large returns if farmers are able to adapt by planting sustainable crops, using new technologies for water treatment and focusing on natural products and fertilizers rather than chemicals.
In 2012, Toumi consolidated (巩固) her dream of fighting the desert. She moved to Tunisia, and set up a programme named Acacias for All to put her sustainable farming philosophy (理念) into action. “I want to show young people in rural areas that they can create opportunities where they are. Nobody is better able to understand the impact of desertification and climate change than somebody who is living with no access to water.”
By September 2016, more than 130, 000 acacia trees had been planted on 20 pilot farms, with farmers recording a 60 percent survival rate. Toumi estimates that some 3 million acacia trees are needed to protect Tunisia’s farmland. She expects to plant 1 million trees by 2018. In the next couple of years, Toumi hopes to extend the programme to Algeria and Morocco.
1. How did Toumi’s holiday trips to Tunisia influence her?| A．They made her decide to leave the country. |
| B．They helped her better understand her father. |
| C．They aroused her enthusiasm for helping others. |
| D．They destroyed her dream of being a teacher. |
| A．Low rainfall. | B．Soil pollution. | C．Cold weather. | D．Forest damage. |
| A．To create job opportunities for young people. |
| B．To help the children obtain a basic education. |
| C．To persuade the farmers not to use fertilizers. |
| D．To promote the protection of their farmland. |
| A．Saving Water in Tunisia | B．Holding back the Sahara |
| C．Planting Trees of Native Species | D．Fighting Poverty in North Africa |
8 . Sugar-free cookies, sugar-free candy, and diet soda—are these better for you? After sugar became a no-no in the nutrition and wellness world, sugar-free food and drinks acted as a replacement for once beloved sweet drinks and snacks. Being claimed to be ZERO sugar means the food and drinks are healthier, better for diabetics, and help you slim down ... Right? Wrong. Sugar-free products aren’t better for you. In fact, they are worse. For most sugar-free products, it means that artificial sweeteners (甜味剂) are used instead of real sugar. The problem is that these sweeteners do not come from natural soures and they can do you more harm than good.
Let’s get into what these artificial sweeteners actually are. Sugar-free sugar sounds wrong because there is no such thing as sugar-free sugar. Some of these sugar-free alternatives even contain sugar and the ones that have chemicals your body often does not know how to process. Most artificial sweeteners are a lot sweeter than sugar so only a small quantity of them are needed. That’s why they can market sugar-free alternatives as “low-calorie” or “no-calorie’. It also means that you get no nutritional value from consuming them, which is why so many sugar-free replacements are classified as “non-nutritive”. These artificial sweeteners tend to hide under some names. Actually, they are 200-600 times sweeter than sugar.When you eat sweet stuff, your body continues to desire it and, even though your body cannot metabolize (代谢) these sugar-free alternatives, your brain does not know the difference. In turn sugar-free alternatives relate to weight gain and Type-2 diabetes. Besides, artificial sweeteners also damage your gut’s ability to break down sugar which impacts everything you eat. In other words, your body doesn’t know how to handle artificial sweeteners because they have nothing real to process.
Here is a good rule of thumb: stay away from artificial sweeteners and look for non-sugar, natural sweeteners like stevia (甜叶菊) or date sugar. In the war against artificial sweeteners and real sugar, both lose. Satisfy your sweet tooth with natural sugar that comes from fruits and stay away from products claimed to be sugar-free.
1. What do most sugar-free products have in common?
| A．They don’t taste sweet. | B．They are free of calories. |
| C．They are rich in nutrition. | D．They have artificial sweeteners. |
| A．They are as sweet as sugar. | B．They pose a big risk to health. |
| C．They can be metabolized easily | D．They have long been added to food. |
| A．To keep a balanced diet. | B．To stay away from sugary products. |
| C．To choose fewer artificial ingredients. | D．To take in sugar from natural sources |
| A．Why are sugar-free products bad for your health? |
| B．How will sugar-free products affect your body? |
| C．What can be called sugar-free products? |
| D．Why are sugar-free products popular? |
9 . In January, 2021, the ice-making work on the ”Ice Ribbon“, a landmark venue for the Beijing Winter Olympics, was completed.
In the Winter Olympics, where races can be won or lost by a small time gap, tiny imperfections in the ice can make all the differences. ”It’s not just a hunk of ice like you’d normally think of, like ice cubes sitting in your freezer,“ told Kenneth Golden, a U. S. mathematician who studies the structures of ice. ”It’s a much more fascinating and complex substance than people would normally think.“
The first step for building any ice rink is to purify the water to remove dissolved solids like salts and minerals. Such impurities don’t fit in the regular hexagonal(六边形的)structure of ice that forms as water freezes. The purer the water, the more consistent the ice surface.
In addition to the need for excellence in the raw materials of ice-making, technology is also very important, As one of the most advanced technologies for winter sports venues, a carbon dioxide cooling technology has been applied on a large scale for the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. CO2 , is not new when it comes to ice-making. However, it has been gradually replaced by the man-made refrigerant, like Freon.
With increasing attention toward climate change, the old refrigerant has come into use again. As an element of the atmosphere, CO2, doesn’t damage the ozone layer. Although CO2 is a greenhouse gas, its greenhouse effect is much lower than that of other synthetic refrigerants. The Winter Olympics venues adopted CO2 instead of Freon as a refrigerant in ice-making, which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions greatly.
”We believe these technological innovations will bring Beijing 2022 to spectators all over the world in a more impressive way.“ told Gao Bo from the Media Operations Department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
1. What is the result of impurities in water for ice-making?| A．The water isn’t able to freeze completely. |
| B．The quality of the ice will be affected. |
| C．The ice surface will be more consistent. |
| D．It’s likely for athletes to fall on the ice. |
| A．It’s the most advanced technology for ice-making. |
| B．CO2 is more efficient than other refrigerants. |
| C．CO2 is more environmentally friendly than Freon. |
| D．CO2 has already existed in the atmosphere. |
| A．Unclear. | B．Opposed. | C．Doubtful. | D．Favorable. |
| A．The Beijing Winter Olympic Games Are Coming |
| B．Beneath Olympic Ice |
| C．The Use of Refrigerants in Olympic Games |
| D．The Structure of Ice |
10 . Central Museum Guide
Welcome to Central Museum, where you can discover two million years of human history through paintings, sculptures, photographs, and more. Here is the information you will need to plan your visit.
Booking tickets
You’re advised to book a time slot on our official website in advance to guarantee entry, as the museum can sometimes be crowded. Visits are available each day for those who don’t have advance bookings, but this does depend on capacity. Please speak to staff at the ticket office in Building A to check availability. Our busiest times are during school holidays, Christmas, and New Year. The quietest time of the year is between late October and early December.
Photography, filming, and drawing
Hand-held flash photography and video recording are allowed for private purposes only. Tripods (三脚架) and selfie sticks may not be used inside the museum buildings, since they may disturb other visitors and cause damage to the exhibits. We regret to inform you that drawing is temporarily not allowed to help facilitate visitor flow.
Food and drink
The Court Cafe is located on the first floor of the Great Court next to the Pacific Gallery, serving freshly made sandwiches, salads and cakes, as well as a selection of hot and cold drinks. It is an ideal place for grabbing a quick bite or having a break while you plan the next step of your visit.
Baggage storage
You can store your belongings in the locker room near the entrances of Building A and Building B. Please note that large items, including some bags and all suitcases, are not permitted on site.
1. When should you go to the museum for a quieter visit?| A．On August 21st. | B．On October 1st. |
| C．On November 10th. | D．On December 25th. |
| A．In Building A. | B．At the Great Court. |
| C．At the Pacific Gallery. | D．Near the entrance of Building B. |
| A．Arriving without advance bookings. |
| B．Storing a suitcase in the locker room. |
| C．Taking some photos with a selfie stick. |
| D．Drawing some pictures in the galleries. |
