1 . Spaghetti and meatballs is my favorite food. And reading is my favorite hobby. When you are deeply absorbed in a book, you stop paying attention to what’s going on around you. People describe it as being “lost in a book”. It’s a wonderful feeling, but it can be risky.
One day I was home alone doing two of my favorite things: Eating a huge plate of spaghetti and meatballs and reading. At the time, my family had a pet bird, a big white cockatoo named Luke. He was free to leave his perch (栖木)and fly around inside the house. Luke enjoyed “talking” to people, but he wasn’t trained to use real words.
As I was reading and eating, Luke was talking to me, but I was lost in my book. So Luke decided to get closer. He flew from his perch, and before I knew it, he’d landed right on top of my spaghetti and meatballs!
I was so surprised that I didn’t even have time to think. My reaction was the same as yours would be: I shooed (发出嘘声赶走)him off my food! This wouldn’t have been so bad except for one thing: When Luke had landed on my plate, he had grabbed (抓住)my spaghetti with both feet. So when Luke took off again, the spaghetti-still in his feet-went flying everywhere, landing on my shirt and hitting me in the face. Red sauce splattered (泼溅)up the wall and onto the ceiling. As I pulled noodles out of my hair, Luke flew back to his perch, dropping spaghetti sauce all the way.
He wasn’t hurt, except for his dignity-the sauce in his beautiful white feathers turned him orange for several weeks. So next time if you find a spy novel at the library with red, spots on two pages near the middle, you’ll know that I’ve read that book ,too!
1. What do we know about Luke?| A．He is lost in reading a spy novel. |
| B．He is good at communicating with people. |
| C．He is fond of eating Spaghetti and meatballs. |
| D．He is permitted to fly freely inside the house. |
| A．I reacted properly to Luke’s behaviour. |
| B．Luck was attracted by my Spaghetti. |
| C．Luck made the room in a mess. |
| D．I was addicted to my reading. |
| A．Puzzled. | B．Humorous. | C．Anxious. | D．Annoyed. |
| A．Love Me, Love My Dog | B．More Food Hurts the Body |
| C．Reading Can Be Dangerous | D．Fine Feathers Make Fine Birds |
2 . Alia Baker is a librarian in Iraq. Her library used to be a
She had asked the government for
One day, the bombing stopped and the
| A．meeting | B．working | C．personal | D．religious |
| A．worried | B．angry | C．doubtful | D．curious |
| A．practical | B．precious | C．reliable | D．expensive |
| A．permission | B．confirmation | C．explanation | D．information |
| A．large | B．public | C．distant | D．safe |
| A．Fortunately | B．Surprisingly | C．Seriously | D．Secretly |
| A．intended | B．pretended | C．happened | D．agreed |
| A．put | B．opened | C．passed | D．threw |
| A．hid | B．exchanged | C．burnt | D．distributed |
| A．approached | B．erupted | C．continued | D．ended |
| A．restaurant | B．library | C．city | D．wall |
| A．neighbors | B．soldiers | C．friends | D．customers |
| A．sold | B．read | C．saved | D．moved |
| A．occupied | B．bombed | C．quiet | D．busy |
| A．dreamed of | B．believed in | C．cared about | D．looked for |
3 . I have dreamt of taking a trip to Hawaii since I graduated but the best thing always needs waiting. I took a trip with my friends to Haleakala National Park which lies in Hawaii.
When we arrived at Haleakala National Park we were suggested to watch the early morning sunrise. I was lost in the sightseeing that afternoon so I could hardly wait to meet the sunrise. In the next morning we all jumped out of the bed very early at 3 o'clock and walked to the rocks by the seaside. In the first half an hour we imagined how wonderful it would be when the first light came out through the thick clouds and how soft it would be when the light touched our skin so we waited and waited. However another half an hour later I gradually lost my patience since there was nothing but the chilly darkness and I felt that I was frozen to death. But my friends were still extremely cheerful.
Nearly another one hour later “Amazing!” a word burst out from Judy and we all shouted to welcome the light orange greatness which is really unbelievable. Until today I dare say that it is the most impressive（印象深刻的）sunrise in my life. However waiting in the morning darkness is also the one I can not wipe out forever.
Waiting sometimes is really a hard thing for most of us as it needs patience and strong-willed determination but what about the result after that? It might turn out to be pleasingly unbelievable and satisfied. So it is really worthwhile to wait for the best.
1. When did they see the first light of the sunrise?| A．About 3 o'clock. | B．About 4 o'clock. |
| C．Nearly 5 o'clock. | D．Nearly 6 o'clock. |
| A．Total. | B．Cold. |
| C．Terrible. | D．Interesting. |
| A．Excited all the time. | B．Afraid all the time. |
| C．Firstly excited then afraid. | D．Firstly excited then impatient. |
| A．Sometimes it is worthwhile to wait for the best. |
| B．Hawaii is a good place to enjoy the sunrise. |
| C．I enjoyed the most flaming sunrise in my life. |
| D．My friends and I took a trip to Hawaii. |
4 . Journey Back in Time with Scholars
Classical Provence(13days)Journey through the beautiful countryside of Provence，France，with Prof. Ori Z. Soltes. We will visit some of the best-preserved Roman monuments in the world. Our tour also includes a chance to walk in the footsteps of Van Gogh and Gauguin. Fields of flowers, tile-roofed(瓦屋顶)villages and tasty meals enrich this wonderful experience.
Southern Spain(15days)
Spain has lovely white towns and the scent(芳香)of oranges，but it is also a treasury of ancient remains including the cities left by the Greeks，Romans and Arabs. As we travel south from Madrid with Prof. Ronald Messier to historic Toledo，Roman Merida and into Andalucia, we explore historical monuments and architecture.
China’s Sacred Landscapes(21days)
Discover the China of “past ages,” its walled cities，temples and mountain scenery with Prof. Robert Thorp. Highlights(精彩之处)include China’s most sacred peaks at Mount Tai and Hangzbou’s rolling hills，waterways and peaceful temples. We will wander in traditional small towns and end our tour with an exceptional museum in Shanghai.
Tunisia(17days)
Join Prof. Pedar Foss on our in-depth Tunisian tour. Tour highlights include the Roman city of Dougga，the underground Numidian capital at Bulla Regia, Roman Sbeitla and the remote areas around Tataouine and Matmata，uique for underground cities. Our journey takes us to picturesque Berber villages and lovely beaches.
1. What can visitors see in both Classical Provence and Southern Spain？
| A．Historical monuments. | B．Fields of flowers. |
| C．Van Gogh’s paintings. | D．Greek buildings. |
| A．France. | B．Spain. | C．China. | D．Tunisia. |
| A．White towns. | B．Underground cities. | C．Tile-roofed villages. | D．Rolling hills. |
5 . Race walking shares many fitness benefits with running, research shows, while most likely contributing to fewer injuries. It does, however, have its own problem.
Race walkers are conditioned athletes. The longest track and field event at the Summer Olympics is the 50-kilometer race walk, which is about five miles longer than the marathon. But the sport’s rules require that a race walker’s knees stay straight through most of the leg swing and one foot remain in contact (接触) with the ground at all times. It’s this strange form that makes race walking such an attractive activity, however, says Jaclyn Norberg, an assistant professor of exercise science at Salem State University in Salem, Mass.
Like running, race walking is physically demanding, she says, According to most calculations, race walkers moving at a pace of six miles per hour would burn about 800 calories(卡路里) per hour, which is approximately twice as many as they would burn walking, although fewer than running, which would probably burn about 1,000 or more calories per hour.
However, race walking does not pound the body as much as running does, Dr. Norberg says. According to her research, runners hit the ground with as much as four times their body weight per step, while race walkers, who do not leave the ground, create only about 1.4 times their body weight with each step.
As a result, she says, some of the injuries associated with running, such as runner’s knee, are uncommon among race walkers. But the sport’s strange form does place considerable stress on the ankles and hips, so people with a history of such injuries might want to be cautious in adopting the sport. In fact, anyone wishing to try race walking should probably first consult a coach or experienced racer to learn proper technique, she says. It takes some practice.
1. Why are race walkers conditioned athletes?| A．They must run long distances. |
| B．They are qualified for the marathon. |
| C．They have to follow special rules. |
| D．They are good at swinging their legs. |
| A．It’s more popular at the Olympics. |
| B．It’s less challenging physically. |
| C．It’s more effective in body building. |
| D．It’s less likely to cause knee injuries. |
| A．Getting experts’ opinions. |
| B．Having a medical checkup. |
| C．Hiring an experienced coach. |
| D．Doing regular exercises. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Objective. |
| C．Tolerant. | D．Conservative. |
6 . The connection between people and plants has long been the subject of scientific research. Recent studies have found positive effects. A study conducted in Youngstown，Ohio，for example, discovered that greener areas of the city experienced less crime. In another，employees were shown to be 15% more productive when their workplaces were decorated with houseplants.
The engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT)have taken it a step further changing the actual composition of plants in order to get them to perform diverse，even unusual functions. These include plants that have sensors printed onto their leaves to show when they’re short of water and a plant that can detect harmful chemicals in groundwater. ＂We’re thinking about how we can engineer plants to replace functions of the things that we use every day,＂explained Michael Strano, a professor of chemical engineering at MIT.
One of his latest projects has been to make plants glow(发光)in experiments using some common vegetables. Strano’s team found that they could create a faint light for three-and-a-half hours. The light，about one-thousandth of the amount needed to read by，is just a start. The technology, Strano said, could one day be used to light the rooms or even to turn trees into self-powered street lamps.
In the future，the team hopes to develop a version of the technology that can be sprayed onto plant leaves in a one-off treatment that would last the plant’s lifetime. The engineers are also trying to develop an on and off＂switch＂where the glow would fade when exposed to daylight.
Lighting accounts for about 7% of the total electricity consumed in the US. Since lighting is often far removed from the power source(电源)-such as the distance from a power plant to street lamps on a remote highway-a lot of energy is lost during transmission(传输).Glowing plants could reduce this distance and therefore help save energy.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．A new study of different plants. |
| B．A big fall in crime rates. |
| C．Employees from various workplaces. |
| D．Benefits from green plants. |
| A．To detect plants’ lack of water |
| B．To change compositions of plants |
| C．To make the life of plants longer. |
| D．To test chemicals in plants. |
| A．They will speed up energy production. |
| B．They may transmit electricity to the home. |
| C．They might help reduce energy consumption. |
| D．They could take the place of power plants. |
| A．Can we grow more glowing plants? |
| B．How do we live with glowing plants? |
| C．Could glowing plants replace lamps? |
| D．How are glowing plants made pollution-free? |
7 . Returning to a book you’ve read many times can feel like drinks with an old friend. There’s a welcome familiarity - but also sometimes a slight suspicion that time has changed you both, and thus the relationship. But books don’t change, people do. And that’s what makes the act of rereading so rich and transformative.
The beauty of rereading lies in the idea that our bond with the work is based on our present mental register. It’s true, the older I get, the more I feel time has wings. But with reading, it’s all about the present. It’s about the now and what one contributes to the now, because reading is a give and take between author and reader. Each has to pull their own weight.
There are three books I reread annually .The first, which I take to reading every spring is Emest Hemningway’s A Moveable Feast. Published in 1964, it’s his classic memoir of 1920s Paris. The language is almost intoxicating (令人陶醉的)，an aging writer looking back on an ambitious yet simpler time. Another is Annie Dillard’s Holy the Firm, her poetic 1975 ramble (随笔) about everything and nothing. The third book is Julio Cortazar’s Save Twilight: Selected Poems, because poetry. And because Cortazar.
While I tend to buy a lot of books, these three were given to me as gifs, which might add to the meaning I attach to them. But I imagine that, while money is indeed wonderful and necessary, rereading an author’s work is the highest currency a reader can pay them. The best books are the ones that open further as time passes. But remember, it’s you that has to grow and read and reread in order to better understand your friends.
1. Why does the author like rereading?| A．It evaluates the writer-reader relationship. |
| B．It’s a window to a whole new world. |
| C．It’s a substitute for drinking with a friend. |
| D．It extends the understanding of oneself. |
| A．It’s a brief account of a trip. |
| B．It’s about Hemingway’s life as a young man. |
| C．It’s a record of a historic event. |
| D．It’s about Hemingway’s friends in Paris. |
| A．Debt |
| B．Reward. |
| C．Allowance. |
| D．Face value. |
| A．He loves poetry. |
| B．He’s an editor. |
| C．He’s very ambitious. |
| D．He teaches reading. |
8 . Some parents will buy any high-tech toy if they think it will help their child, but researchers said puzzles help children with math-related skills.
Psychologist Susan Levine, an expert on mathematics development in young children at the University of Chicago, found children who play with puzzles between ages 2 and 4 later develop better spatial skills. Puzzle play was found to be a significant predictor of cognition(认知) after controlling for differences in parents’ income, education and the amount of parent talk, Levine said.
The researchers analyzed video recordings of 53 child-parent pairs during everyday activities at home and found children who play with puzzles between 26 and 46 months of age have better spatial skills when assessed at 54 months of age.
“The children who played with puzzles performed better than those who did not, on tasks that assessed their ability to rotate(旋转)and translate shapes,” Levine said in a statement.
The parents were asked to interact with their children as they normally would, and about half of children in the study played with puzzles at one time. Higher-income parents tended to have children play with puzzles more frequently, and both boys and girls who played with puzzles had better spatial skills. However, boys tended to play with more complex puzzles than girls, and the parents of boys provided more spatial language and were more active during puzzle play than parents of girls.
The findings were published in the journal Developmental Science.
1. In which aspect do children benefit from puzzle play?| A．Building confidence. | B．Developing spatial skills. |
| C．Learning self-control. | D．Gaining high-tech knowledge. |
| A．Parents’ age. | B．Children’s imagination. |
| C．Parents’ education. | D．Child-parent relationship. |
| A．They play with puzzles more often. |
| B．They tend to talk less during the game. |
| C．They prefer to use more spatial language. |
| D．They are likely to play with tougher puzzles. |
| A．A mathematical method. | B．A scientific study. |
| C．A woman psychologist | D．A teaching program. |
9 . Pangolins (穿山甲), the world’s only mammals with scales (鳞片), have existed on earth for about 60 million years. Pangolins are very sensitive creatures and most of them don’t like staying indoors. In the wild, they’re slow to reproduce and give birth to only one baby at a time. Pangolins are alone and shy — nearly impossible for even the most devoted field researchers to catch sight of.
However, over recent ten years, their wild population has decreased greatly. More than a million pangolins are believed to have been taken from the wild in Asia and Africa. In the first eight days of April 2019 alone, authorities caught two 14-ton shipments of pangolin scales in Singapore, representing about 72,000 animals and worth a combined $90 million. In February, Malaysian seized a 33-ton shipment of mostly whole, frozen pangolins.
“The present scale of trade could drive this species to extinction,” said an Indian official.
If the illegal pangolin trade continues at such high levels, it’s thought that another 10 years might see them die out altogether. The trade is caused by a series of factors, but the fact that the local government doesn’t make strict laws against it plays a major role.
Another big challenge facing pangolins is that so few people know what they are and why they’re in such danger. As National Geographic Photo Ark photographer Joel Sartore says, “You won’t save what you don’t love.”
1. According to Paragraph 1, pangolins ______.| A．are rare mammals | B．like living indoors |
| C．are outgoing but sensitive | D．are easily found in the wild |
| A．People in Africa like hunting pangolins. |
| B．Strict laws against it haven’t been made. |
| C．Pangolins’ population is increasing rapidly. |
| D．Pangolins have existed on earth for a long time. |
| A．Uncaring. | B．Puzzled. |
| C．Supportive. | D．Worried. |
| A．Pangolins are hunted in Asia. |
| B．Pangolins are facing extinction. |
| C．People are trying to save Pangolins out of love. |
| D．Many countries are taking action to protect Pangolins. |
10 . When I was in my first year of high school, I had a terrible time when every area of my life was a disaster. I felt so hopeless and alone that I thought everything was impossible.
On one such day, I was walking from class across the school to catch the school bus home, with my head down, fighting tears of total hopelessness, when a young man came down the sidewalk toward me. Though I had never seen him before, I did not want him to see that I was in such low spirits, so I turned my head away and hoped to hurry past. I thought he'd walk on by, but he moved until he was directly in front of me, waited until I looked up, and then smiled.
Looking into my eyes, this stranger spoke in a quiet voice："Whatever is wrong will pass. You're going to be OK, just hang on." He then smiled again and walked away.
I can't explain the effect of that man's unexpected kindness and caring! He gave me the one thing that I'd lost completely—hope. I looked for him in our school to thank him, but never saw him again.
That was thirty years ago. And I've never forgotten that moment. Over the years, whenever I see someone who is in trouble, I will always think of that young man and try to give a flash of hope in the dark wherever I can. I carry things for people when they are too heavy for them, sit with naughty babies in the waiting room while their mothers are busy, or talk to tired couples at the checkout line or it could be anything.
If you keep your head up, your heart will show you the place that needs hope.
1. Where did the writer meet with the young man？
| A．In the school. | B．In the school bus. | C．In the classroom. | D．In the library. |
| A．had known the young man for a long time |
| B．made friends with the young man afterwards |
| C．was grateful to that young man very much |
| D．avoided meeting the young man since then |
| A．show his sympathy to those who are badly ill |
| B．give others hope of life when they are in trouble |
| C．realize his promise made to the young man |
| D．get respect from those who were helped by him |
| A．the young man always tried his best to help those who were in trouble |
| B．it was the young man's smile and words that made the author feel hopeful |
| C．the author had never been praised by others before he met with the young man |
| D．the author traveled to a lot of places to look for the young man but failed |
