1 . If you want to know something about British life, their spirit, and even their humor, watching some classic British films will certainly help. Here are some recommended to you.
Notting HillAfter the success of his film Four Weddings and a Funeral, writer and producer Richard Curtis captured the essence of being British in 1999’s Notting Hill. Set against the background of affluent (富足的) West London, the film became popular for its charming and funny portrayal(刻画) of a British nobody trying to impress a Hollywood star.
The Full MontyThis 1997 film is a Sheffield-based comedy about six unemployed men who form a group to make money for a better life. Despite its hummer, the film dives deeper into some serious issues surrounding working-class culture. The Full Monty is an uplifting film that gives an insight into the work and life of the working class in Britain.
TrainspottingDanny Boyle’s 1996 comedy-drama Trainspotting is about a group of Scots in the 1980s, based on the book by Irvine Welsh. With a cast of truly great actors including Ewan MeGregor, the tale impressed the audience globally. It rapidly became a critical success.
Monty Python’s Life of BrianFeaturing a jam-packed cast of comedic stars. Monty Python’s Life of Brian tells the story of a young man who is in a case of mistaken identity. The film reflects the unusual and wonderful British sense of humour. As a film guaranteed to entertain, Monty Pythons Life of Brian is not to be missed by those looking for an insight into what makes the British laugh.
1. What can the audience learn about by watching The Full Monty?| A．Hardships of comedic stars | B．Daily life of people in West London |
| C．Unique experiences of some Scots. | D．Life of the British working class. |
| A．A comedy film. | B．A science fiction film. |
| C．An action movie | D．A horror movie. |
| A．Notting Hill. | B．The Full Monty. |
| C．Trainspotting. | D．Monty Python’s Life of Brian. |
2 . The world is full of screens. They are on TVs, computers and smartphones. Screens are at school, at home, and just about everywhere in between. The time people spend every day looking at screens is known as “screen time.” Most families have rules about how much time children can spend with screens. Why do they have rules? Are there good reasons to limit screen time?
In many ways, screens are helpful for communication and connecting with other people. Social media and video calls allow people to be always in touch with one another. ________By sharing and commenting on videos, photos, games or music, people can meet others who have similar interests.
However, some adults are worried that young people spend too much time on screens and not enough time meeting people in real life. As a result, they may not properly understand feelings or develop strong relationships.
Many kinds of screen time may be good for students. Students may use screen time to develop their skills in creating music or videos. They may even learn skills such as coding (编程) computer programs. When students use their screen time to do research online, they may meet people who are different from them or ideas they have never thought about before.
However, some researchers think that screens change how the brain processes information. Some have linked (连接) screen time to lower test scores or less attention time.
In the future, scientists will continue studying the effects of screen time. Parents will likely continue to make rules limiting screen time. Plenty of good things can come from all this screen time, but it’s a good idea for people to pay attention to how much time in a day they spend looking at a screen. They should know how screen time influences their health, relationships, and learning.
1. Choose the best sentence to fill in the blank “ ________” in Paragraph 2.| A．People create videos and photos with their screen time. |
| B．People spend too much time sharing photos and videos. |
| C．Screen time can also help people build new relationships. |
| D．Screen time encourages people to meet friends in real life. |
| A．Social media. | B．Learning Skills. |
| C．Playing Games. | D．Researching online. |
| A．It should be increased. | B．It should not be limited |
| C．It should be made good use of. | D．It should not be allowed at school. |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
| A．What Is Screen Time? | B．Screen Time and Learning. |
| C．Screen Time: Good or Bad? | D．Screen Time and Social Life. |
3 . “Children, tomorrow I shall expect all of you to write compositions,” said a teacher of Love Lane School. “Then, on Friday those who have done the best may stand up and read their compositions to the school.” Some of the children were pleased, and some were not. “What shall we write about?” they asked.
Some of them thought that “Home” was a good subject. Others liked “School”. One little boy chose “The Horse”. A little girl said she would write about “Summer”. The next day, every pupil except Henry Longfellow had written a composition.
“Well, then,” said the teacher, “you may take your notebook and go out behind the schoolhouse for half an hour. Think of something to write about, and write the word on your notebook. Then try to tell what it is, what it is like, what it is good for, and what is done with it. That is the way to write a composition.”
Henry took his notebook and went out. Just behind the schoolhouse was Mr. Finney’s barn. Quite close to the barn was a garden. And in the garden, Henry saw a turnip (萝卜).
“Well, I know what that is,” he said to himself and he wrote the word turnip on his notebook. Then he tried to tell what it was like, what it was good for, and what was done with it.
Within half an hour, he had written a very neat composition on his notebook. He then went into the house, and waited while the teacher read it.
The teacher was surprised and pleased. He said, “Henry Longfellow, you have done very well. Today you may stand up before the school and read what you have written about the turnip.”
Many years after that, some funny little poems about Mr. Finney’s turnip were printed in a newspaper. Some people said that they were what Henry Longfellow wrote on his notebook that day at school.
1. Some students were not pleased probably because________.| A．the teacher would not read their compositions | B．they did worse than other students at school |
| C．they didn’t know what to write about the composition | D．they would have no time to enjoy themselves at all |
| A．Henry was a lazy boy | B．students wrote compositions on different topics |
| C．other students was cleverer than Henry | D．Henry would like to stand outside alone |
| A．To write a composition. | B．To punish him seriously. |
| C．To have a good time. | D．To help Mr. Finney. |
| A．No one liked it. | B．Its topic was very strange to people. |
| C．Henry wrote it especially for a newspaper. | D．It was better than other students’ compositions. |
| A．actions speak louder than words | B．good works come from discovery of life |
| C．all things are difficult before they are easy | D．a friend without mistakes is never found |
4 . While I was jumping rope, my smartphone took a fall to the floor which created cracks (裂缝) on my screen. However, the music kept playing. 30 minutes later, I could see only one-tenth of my screen while the rest was black. The next morning, I decided not to use it for 24 hours. I felt a sense of calm that day, which led to my not using it for one week. One week ended up becoming 60 days in total without my smartphone.
Here are some advantages I noticed in this challenge.
-You'll become “bored”
Without my phone, I became bored, but my mind went through all kinds of topics, Boredom (无聊) is a perfect way to create new ideas on a business or project. When you are bored, you allow your mind to relax to reach all possibilities.
-You'll be able to reduce your “work” hours
A survey found that adults checked their smartphones 85 times a day, or once every 10 minutes. As I learned in my challenge, by not having my smartphone, I fell into deep work more easily, so I completed my tasks in a shorter time.
-You’ll improve your mental health
Without my phone, I avoided reading negative news and comments. While that helped make a big improvement in my mental health, the biggest reason for it was truly communicating with people. It brought me more connections with humans in the real world. I went to more dinners with friends and asked more questions to strangers.
1. What happened to the writer’s smartphone?| A．It was lost. | B．It had no sound. |
| C．Its music stopped playing. | D．Its screen was mostly black. |
| A．For 24 hours. | B．For one week. | C．For one month. | D．For sixty days. |
| A．to create new ideas | B．to start a business |
| C．to set up a project | D．to relax the body |
| A．more terribly | B．more quickly | C．more carelessly | D．more comfortably |
| A．Chatting on the phone. | B．Reading negative news. |
| C．Communicating in the real world. | D．Avoiding meeting friends and strangers. |
5 . London Shops
The Craft Store is a lovely little store for those who like making things by themselves. A great number of tools can be used for everything from candle making to making your own dress! Once you get into this store, you will be attracted by all the things you can do.
Phone: (020)7636-0611 Address: 3080 Wonderland Road
The London Shop is a small shop in Baker Street which sells high-quality goods for the choosy tourists. It has a series of the usual tourist items, including lovely Rose teapots, cups and lots of teas. For the collectors there are model cars of every model from Rolls-Royce to Mini.
Phone: (020)7935-1441 Address: 198 Baker Street
Nothing New is a great store for those who love old things with a bit of history. Even if you can’t afford the prices, it’s a great place to travel around and look at the old clothes and jewellery. You might even be able to pick up old musical instruments, but that depends on luck and your budget (预算)!
Phone: (020)7038-3718 Address: 1 Farringdon Street
Active is a great store to suit all budgets. On the first floor there are informal and sports clothes for those who don’t want to spend much money on looking good. On the second floor there is equipment for the serious sportsman who wants quality and style.
Phone: (020)7487-3370 Address: Long Tall Sally 19-25 Chiitem Street
1. Who will like the Craft Store best?| A．People who are not rich. | B．People who love old things. |
| C．People who like designing clothes. | D．People who like hands-on practice. |
| A．198 Baker Street. | B．1 Farringdon Street. |
| C．3080 Wonderland Road. | D．Long Tall Sally 19-25 Chiitem Street. |
| A．Active. | B．Nothing New. |
| C．The Craft Store. | D．The London Shop. |
6 . Every school has students who stand out for their abilities and their eagerness to learn. In Mexico, a school created a program to work with them. In 2019. both teachers Lotta Andersson and John Rennie got the idea to provide learning opportunities for students with a hunger for knowledge. They are English coordinators (协调员) in the school. “We want to have a program to inspire students who really have the abilities and the interests to learn more and continue accepting challenges,” Andersson said during a recent interview.
Students in the program, which was called Learning Challenges, met with the teachers about once a month. Andersson and Rennie would help us choose research topics. We then worked with the teachers to find books, interview subjects and Internet sources, While in Learning Challenges, I gave presentations on European culture and the fashion industry.
When asked what skills students had formed in the program, which ended in June 2020because of the limits of a common disease. Andersson said, “They had learned to ask questions, be more open-minded and see things from different angles (角度). Also, they mastered the skills-reflecting more, acting actively, and learning not to put limits on themselves.”
A student, Yihane Abed, conducted research on the sun, the moon, stars, planets, etc, while in Learning Challenges. “The skills I developed were teamwork and the ways to do research and give a good presentation,” she said.
Andersson and Rennie continue to help students pursue their love of learning. “The program doesn’t exist formally, but as an important part of the culture at school, it is still needed,” Andersson said. “There is much more difference, not only for students who need extra help, but also for those who are higher achievers.”
1. What’s the purpose of creating Learning Challenges?| A．To help some students learn more. |
| B．To guide students to work out effectively. |
| C．To raise students’ interest in visiting Europe. |
| D．To encourage English students to help others. |
| A．Methods that students used in the program. |
| B．Abilities that students got from the program. |
| C．Difficulties that students met in the program. |
| D．Topics that students selected from the program. |
| A．The universe. | B．Teamwork |
| C．The fashion industry. | D．Travelling. |
| A．Tough. | B．Formal. |
| C．Necessary. | D．Traditional. |
7 . What is life? Like most great questions, this one is easy to ask but difficult to answer. The reason is simple: we know of just one type of life and it’s challenging to do science with a sample size of one. The field of artificial life-called ALife for short — is the systematic attempt to spell out life’s fundamental principles. Many of these practitioners, so-called ALifers, think that somehow making life is the surest way to really understand what life is.
So far no one has convincingly made artificial life. This track record makes ALife a ripe target for criticism, such as declarations of the field’s doubtful scientific value. Alan Smith, a complexity scientist, is tired of such complaints. Asking about “the point” of ALife might be, well, missing the point entirely, he says. “The existence of a living system is not about the use of anything.” Alan says. “Some people ask me, ‘So what’s the worth of artificial life?’ Do you ever think, ‘What is the worth of your grandmother?’”
As much as many ALifers hate emphasizing their research’s applications, the attempts to create artificial life could have practical payoffs. Artificial intelligence may be considered ALife’s cousin in that researchers in both fields are enamored by a concept called open-ended evolution (演化). This is the capacity for a system to create essentially endless complexity, to be a sort of “novelty generator”. The only system known to exhibit this is Earth’s biosphere. If the field of ALife manages to reproduce life’s endless “creativity” in some virtual model, those same principles could give rise to truly inventive machines.
Compared with the developments of Al, advances in ALife are harder to recognize. One reason is that ALife is a field in which the central concept — life itself — is undefined. The lack of agreement among ALifers doesn’t help either. The result is a diverse line of projects that each advance along their unique paths. For better or worse, ALife mirrors the very subject it studies. Its muddled (混乱的) progression is a striking parallel (平行线) to the evolutionary struggles that have shaped Earth biosphere.
Undefined and uncontrolled, ALife drives its followers to repurpose old ideas and generated novelty. It may be, of course, that these characteristics aren’t in any way surprising or singular. They may apply universally to all acts of evolution. Ultimately ALife may be nothing special. But even this dismissal suggests something：perhaps, just like life itself throughout the universe, the rise of ALife will prove unavoidable.
1. Regarding Alan Smith’s defence of ALife, the author is .| A．supportive | B．puzzled | C．unconcerned | D．doubtful |
| A．Shocked. | B．Protected. | C．Attracted. | D．Challenged. |
| A．ALife holds the key to human future. | B．ALife and AI share a common feature. |
| C．AI mirrors the developments of ALife. | D．AI speeds up the process of human evolution. |
| A．Life Is Undefined. Can AI Be a Way Out? |
| B．Life Evolves. Can AI Help ALife Evolve, Too? |
| C．Life Is Undefined. Can ALife Be Defined One Day? |
| D．Life Evolves. Can Attempts to Create ALife Evolve, Too? |
8 . Sitting in the garden for my friend’s birthday. I felt a buzz (振动) in my pocket. My heart raced when I saw the email sender’s name. The email started off: “Dear Mr Green, thank you for your interest” and “the review process took longer than expected.” It ended with “We are sorry to inform you…” and my vision blurred (模糊). The position—measuring soil quality in the Sahara Desert as part of an undergraduate research programme — had felt like the answer I had spent years looking for.
I had put so much time and emotional energy into applying, and I thought the rejection meant the end of the road for my science career.
So I was shocked when, not long after the email, Professor Mary Devon, who was running the programme, invited me to observe the work being done in her lab. I jumped at the chance, and a few weeks later I was equally shocked—and overjoyed—when she invited me to talk with her about potential projects I could pursue in her lab. What she proposed didn’t seem as exciting as the original project I had applied to, but I was going to give it my all.
I found myself working with a robotics professor on techniques for collecting data from the desert remotely. That project, which I could complete from my sofa instead of in the burning heat of the desert, not only survived the lockdown but worked where traditional methods didn’t. In the end, I had a new scientific interest to pursue.
When I applied to graduate school, I found three programmes promising to allow me to follow my desired research direction. And I applied with the same anxious excitement as before. When I was rejected from one that had seemed like a perfect fit, it was undoubtedly difficult. But this time I had the perspective (视角) to keep it from sending me into panic. It helped that in the end I was accepted into one of the other programmes I was also excited about.
Rather than setting plans in stone, I’ve learned that sometimes I need to take the opportunities that are offered, even if they don’t sound perfect at the time, and make the most of them.
1. How did the author feel upon seeing the email sender’s name?| A．Anxious. | B．Angry. | C．Surprised. | D．Settled. |
| A．criticise the review process | B．stay longer in the Sahara Desert |
| C．apply to the original project again | D．put his heart and soul into the lab work |
| A．demanding | B．inspiring | C．misleading | D．amusing |
| A．An invitation is a reputation. | B．An innovation is a resolution. |
| C．A rejection can be a redirection. | D．A reflection can be a restriction. |
9 . Young kids’ brains are very sensitive (敏感的) to their moms’ voices, science has shown. But as kids grow into teens, everything changes. Teenagers’ brains are now more sensitive to strangers’ voices than those of their own moms’, new research shows.
The researchers studied the brains of 7- to 16-year-olds as they listened to things said by their moms or by unfamiliar women. The words were gibberish: teebudieshawlt, keebudieshawlt and peebudieshawlt. Using such meaningless words allowed the scientists to study the voices, not what they were saying. As the kids listened, certain parts of their brains became active. This was especially true in brain areas that help us to find rewards and pay attention.
Daniel Abrams, a researcher at Stanford University, says that younger kids’ brains respond more strongly to their moms’ voices than to strangers’. However, in adolescence (青春期), we show the exact opposite.
“These areas in the adolescent brains don’t stop responding to moms’ voices,” Abrams explains. “It’s just that unfamiliar voices become more worthy of attention. Here’s why: As kids grow up, they widen their social connections beyond their family. So their brains need to begin paying more attention to that wider world.”
But moms’ voices still have special power, especially in times of stress, a 2011 study with girls showed. Levels of stress dropped when these girls heard their moms’ voices on the phone.
The brain seems to adapt to new needs that come with adolescence. “As we grow up, our survival depends less and less on our moms’ support.” says Leslie Seltzer, a biological anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Instead we rely more and more on our friends and others doser to our own age.”
“So while both teens and their parents may sometimes feel annoyed, that’s OK,” Abrams says. “This is the way the brain is wired, and there’s a good reason for it.”
1. What does the underlined word “gibberish” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Question. | B．Story. | C．Saying. | D．Nonsense. |
| A．They need more connections. | B．They desire real understanding. |
| C．They are tired of their moms. | D．They have more energy to spare. |
| A．Exciting. | B．Unpleasant. | C．Comforting. | D．Strange. |
| A．It deserves scientific prevention. | B．It is normal and understandable. |
| C．It is discouraging and problematic. | D．It negatively affects their growth. |
10 . Attractions for Kids with Dinosaur Fever
While there are plenty of movies and books that can teach your little one all about dinosaurs, the following children’s attractions will allow them to come face-to-face with their favorite dinosaurs and learn in an interactive, fun environment.
1. Dinosaurs Alive at Cedar Point
Sandusky, OH
See the “age of dinosaurs” come to life with interactive exhibits based on real fossil evidence. At the Dinosaurs Alive section of Cedar Point park, visitors can walk among more than 50 life-sized dinosaurs which move and roar. See these gigantic lizards (蜥蜴) up close and learn more about the most fearsome period of the earth’s history.
2. The Chicago Children’s Museum
Chicago, IL
The Chicago Children’s Museum is filled with plenty of activities for kids of all ages, but one of the coolest has to be the Dinosaur Exhibition. At this exhibit, children can spend time digging for dinosaur bones at an excavation (挖掘) site, looking at dinosaur fossils, and learning what life is like for real archaeologists (考古学家).
3. Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Pittsburgh, PA
In addition to plenty of exhibits about wildlife, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History has one of the finest dinosaur fossil collections in the world. Visitors can see experts work with real dinosaur fossils in the PaleoLab. Make sure to snap a photo in front of Dippy, the scarf-loving dinosaur guarding the front of the museum!
4. The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis
Indianapolis, IN
From the dinosaurs exploding out of the side of the building to the fossils within, the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis is filled with fun things to do. Kids can touch a real T-rex bone and see reconstructed dinosaur skeletons up close.
1. Who are the attractions mainly intended for?| A．Children. | B．Parents. | C．Archaeologists. | D．Volunteers. |
| A．Dinosaurs Alive at Cedar Point. | B．The Chicago Children’s Museum. |
| C．Carnegie Museum of Natural History. | D．The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. |
| A．Touch a real T- rex bone. | B．Take a photo in front of Dippy. |
| C．See reconstructed dinosaur skeletons. | D．See experts work with fake dinosaur fossils. |
