1 . A bicycle may be seen by most people as just another vehicle(交通工具), but for many Londoners, cycling is a way of life. According to a UK government survey in 2020, about 570,000 bike journeys were made every day in London. In fact, almost half of the vehicles that pass over London Bridge each day are bikes.
London introduced a public bike-sharing system in 2010. “There can be no doubt that our trusty bicycles have changed that way people get around our great city,” Johnson told The Guardian.
In London, bikes are used for more than just taking short trips to and from the subway. NO matter where you want to go in the city, riding a bike is usually the quickest and easiest choice.
And it’s not just shared bikes that the government is encouraging people to ride. In many companies across the UK, the UK government’s Cycle to Work scheme(计划) allows workers to buy a brand new bike without having to pay any tax (税). This means that it’s common to see many people cycling to and from work, and some employers even provide showers and lockers in the workplaces for their workers. More importantly, a cycle-friendly boss may let you off for being late if you ride a bike to work.
Not only is it great for the environment and our body, cycling is also good for the mind. According to National Geographic, “Bike riding can improve people’s happiness.”
1. How does the author show the popularity of cycling in London?| A．By using numbers. | B．By giving examples. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By using famous sayings. |
| A．Disappointed. | B．Concerned. | C．Supportive. | D．Uninterested. |
| A．Free bike-sharing services. | B．Showers and lockers in workplaces. |
| C．Shorter working hours. | D．Tax-free bikes. |
| A．Cycling, a healthy way of life. |
| B．How cycling has become popular in London. |
| C．Why Londoners are encouraged to ride bikes. |
| D．London’s public bike-sharing system. |
2 . Girls can easily get sad. If your friend is feeling blue and calls you, what will you do? Here are some tips on how you can make her smile again.
Listen to her. When people feel sad, they often have the feeling of needing to be heard. So, listen carefully to what she is saying and do nothing else. Your friend will surely thank you for being the shoulder she can cry on.
Once you are done with listening, you can offer some advice or remain silent and let her feel everything and let it all out by crying. As a friend, you might think you should give her some advice. But if you have no idea about what to say, just remain silent and be there for her.
In order to be able to help your friend in need, don't be sad yourself. How can you help your friend when you are also feeling down.
A hug can make a difference in the world. It makes you feel warm and special. A hug makes you feel safe. So give your friend a hug when she needs it the most.
Spend more time with your friend who wants to be happy. Do things together like washing dishes, cleaning, or going out for fun. The more time you spend together, the stronger your friendship will become.
Sometimes, it is much better that you avoid a crying friend in your life. But by doing so, you are also keeping your friend at a distance and will make her wonder if you are her true friend. If you are there when she needs you, your friendship will be much stronger.
1. The writer wrote this passage mainly to tell us ________.| A．why girls can easily get sad | B．what to do when we are sad |
| C．how to make new friends with girls | D．how to make a sad female friend happy |
| A．We should ask her why she feels sad. |
| B．We should say something nice to her. |
| C．We should spend time listening to her. |
| D．We should give her some good advice. |
| A．hugging a sad friend can make you feel warm |
| B．your sad friend may feel much better if you are sad |
| C．it's not a good idea to be silent facing a sad friend |
| D．giving a hug to a sad friend is very helpful |
| A．We should spend more time with our friends. |
| B．We should help our friends with their housework. |
| C．We ought to spend time with our friends every day. |
| D．We ought to ask our friends to take part in activities. |
3 . Four Free Mobile Apps to Help You Learn English Faster
Have you realised that you can put your smartphone to really good use for learning English? Here are 4 free mobile apps that will help you do just that.
Hello English
It covers all the aspects of language learning, including vocabulary, translation, grammar, spelling, speaking and reading skills. It uses interactive games to teach different English lessons and offers new audiobooks, the latest news, and books. However, you should already understand basic English structures and the alphabet, for the app can't help you learn English from scratch（从零开始）.
Duolingo
If you want to learn English from scratch, then this is the app you are looking for, Duolingo uses interactive games to help you learn English. For beginners, the app focuses on helping you learn verbs, phrases and sentences.
Lingbe
If you are ready to practise your spoken skills in the real-world communication, you'll need Lingbe. It's a community-based app where people help each other and share their native languages. It connects you with real people on call who are native English speakers.
HelloTalk
HelloTalk is similar to Lingbe as it connects you with native speakers to help improve your language skills. However, it adds a few extra functions that might interest you. You can view the information about users to find a match that interests you. Additionally, you can also send text and audio messages, and even make video calls with other people.
If you are a beginner, start from Duolingo and then use Hello English to have a good command of the language. For fluent spoken English learners, you can try out Lingbe or HelloTalk.
1. What should you already understand to use Hello English?| A．Good reading and writing skills. |
| B．Basic listening and speaking tips. |
| C．Different English lessons and books. |
| D．English letters and basic structures. |
| A．Hello English. | B．Duolingo. |
| C．Lingbe. | D．HelloTalk. |
| A．Read the latest news. |
| B．Enjoy the interactive games. |
| C．Practise your spoken English. |
| D．Talk with native speakers face-to-face. |
4 . The Forbidden City is well known for being full of Chinese cultural and historical relics. But Masters in the Forbidden City（《我在故宫修文物》）does not just focus on the stories of the past.
Instead, the documentary movie, which came out in Chinese cinemas on Dec. 16, focuses on ordinary people-the restorers（修复者）of relics and antiquities（古董）.
The stories are told at a slow and relaxed pace, reflecting the restorers’ work. Restoration of cultural relics and antiques can be time-consuming, and sometimes boring. Yet these restorers’ patience and peace of mind are especially precious in a society where everything is changing so fast.
“If you choose this job, you have to stand hours of work sitting on a chair. You need to be quiet and get used to being quiet,” says Wang Jin, an ancient clock repair expert.
A touching part of the documentary is the spirit of craftsmanship（工艺）in the restorers. “Years of humdrum work requires not only skill, but also faith and spirit,” China Daily commented. “Looking for preciseness and perfection, devoting yourself to work, patience, endurance（忍耐）, loneliness…All these qualities come from the craftsman spirit. ”
But unlike the popular idea of serious experts who sit around being serious, the documentary shows off the enthusiasm of the restorers. They play their guitars and make jokes about each other after a long day of restoration work.
One scene that has been very popular with Internet users features a young female restorer riding a bicycle through the empty Forbidden City on a Monday. While she is doing this, a narrator says, “The last person to do this was Puyi, the last emperor of the Oing Dynasty.”
Masters in the Forbidden City has proved wrong many people’s ideas about antique restorers, allowing them to realize that they are not old, dull professors, but people in their 40s, 30s and even 20s who can be quite pleasing to the eye.
1. According to the text, what’s the main purpose of the documentary Masters in the Forbidden City?| A．To show people how antiques are restored |
| B．To display relics seldom seen by ordinary people |
| C．To draw attention to Chinese antique restorers’ lives |
| D．To praise the craftsmanship of Chinese antique restorers |
| A．He often gets tired with his work | B．There is no need to do restoration work fast |
| C．Antique restorers need to be patient and peaceful | D．It takes years of hard work to adapt to antique restoration |
| A．Boring | B．Different | C．Relaxing | D．Unusual |
| A．To remind the audience of the last Qing emperor |
| B．To show the strange hobbies of young antique restorers |
| C．To encourage the young to consider a career in antique restoration in the future |
| D．To show that the documentary breaks from the old, dull image of antique restorers |
5 . Edmund Halley was an English scientist who lived over 200 years ago. Some scientists had already observed comets then, and Halley studied them carefully. The orbit (轨道) of one special comet was a very hard mathematical (数学的) problem. He couldn’t work it out. Neither could other scientists who dealt with such problems.
However, Halley had a friend named Newton, who was an excellent mathematician. Newton thought he had already worked out that problem, but he could not find the papers on which he had done it. He told Halley that the orbit of a comet had the shape of an ellipse (椭圆).
Now Halley set to work. He worked out the orbits of some of the comets that had been observed by scientists. He made a surprising discovery. The comets that had appeared in the years 1531, 1607, and 1682 all had the same orbit. Yet their appearances had been 75 to 76 years apart.
This seemed very strange to Halley. The different comets followed the same orbit. The more Halley thought about it, the more he thought that there had not been three different comets, as people thought. He decided that they had simply seen the same comet three times. The comet had gone away and had come back again.
It was an astonishing idea! Halley felt certain enough to make a prediction of what comet would happen in the future. He decided that this comet would appear in the year 1758. There were 53 years to go before Halley's prediction could be tested. In 1758 the comet appeared in the sky. Halley did not see it, for he has died some years before. Ever since then that comet has been called Halley's comet, in his honor.
1. Halley made his discovery ________.| A．by using the work of other scientists | B．through his own careful observation |
| C．by doing some experiments secretly | D．by figuring out some hard problems |
| A．1607 | B．1682 | C．1705 | D．1811 |
| A．Halley and other scientists | B．the orbit of a comet |
| C．Newton and Halley | D．Halley and his discovery |
| A．The orbit of a comet was a round shape. |
| B．Halley did not live up to the year 1758. |
| C．Halley was an Australian mathematician. |
| D．Halley worked out the comet’s orbit first. |
6 . What is the greatest threat to mankind? Maybe different people come up with different answers. However, there is no denying the fact that the only threat to humankind, apart from humankind itself, is, without any doubt, the nature. Natural disasters are the result of natural environmental processes that have a damaging effect on people. Natural disasters can come in many forms: such as geological events like earthquakes, tsunamis or mud-rock flows, climatic events like storms, hurricanes or tornadoes and fire events like forest fires and wildfires.
The damage done by natural disasters is mainly as a result of our inability to predict exactly when they will happen. Although great progress has been made in designing and developing forecasting models for some natural disaster, complete certainty is still impossible. Even to be pessimistic there is a possibility that human beings will never achieve accurate prediction of the happening of all natural disasters.
What's more, even though we were able to predict these disasters from nature, preventing them is equally impossible. So we only have two ways to both prevent injuries or deaths and reduce economic losses to the least. These two methods are to prepare before a natural disaster comes to hit, and to manage the necessary resources and public services after a natural disaster strikes.
These two things have always been at the leading position of the projects of both national governments and international organizations. In the United States, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is responsible for the "preparedness, response and recovery planning" of both man-made and natural disasters.
Most natural disasters cannot be prevented, and both emergency preparation and good disaster management are the best ways to deal with them. Although natural events may appear to serve no purpose but simply to punish and destroy, natural disasters, a perfect symbol of the great power of the nature, are display of our planet's evolution and its state of change.
1. Which can't be regarded as a similarity between tornadoes and earthquakes?| A．They can not be prevented. |
| B．They are both geological events. |
| C．They cause damage to people. |
| D．They are both the result of natural environmental processes. |
| A．it is very difficult to predict when exactly they will happen |
| B．our forecasting equipment is too old for many natural disasters |
| C．we don't do enough preparation before natural disasters strike |
| D．we don't have the necessary public services to use after natural disasters strike |
| A．natural disasters can not be predicted at all |
| B．human beings are pessimistic to the future |
| C．being well-prepared can avoid economic losses |
| D．good preparation and disaster management are advisable. |
| A．a symbol of the power of nature | B．the greatest threat to mankind |
| C．Natural disasters and mankind | D．reduce losses to the least |
7 . As spring arrives, farmers around the world are making decisions about what crops to plant and how to manage them. In the U. S., farmers typically have big data to help make these decisions. These data have a clear upside. They make farms more productive. In the U.S., the past five years have seen a series of good harvests for both corn and soybean. A big part is generated by effectively using data to produce more food from the same amount of land, seed and fertilizer.
In the poorer parts of the world, however, the picture is much different. Many farmers are guided only by their history with the land and their community's traditions. Their skills and knowledge are impressive, but they suffer from a poverty of data. They rely on technical advisors for advice from governments and academic centers who often have very little knowledge of the local area. For seeds and fertilizers and other materials used in the field, they rely on companies that lack data on how their products will perform in the local conditions.
About 10 years ago, East African officials and their development partners started to explore why so few smallholder dairy farmers made profits from growing demand from urban consumers. Surveys of farmers in the region suggested poor access to veterinary(禽畜的) care and breeding assistance. An effort to provide these services has helped farmers get more milk.
Data would matter little if farming was easy and the paths to productivity were obvious. But in reality, agriculture is a complex mix of many factors, including climate, biology, chemistry, physics, economics and culture—all of which vary from region to region. In this situation, good data is necessary.
1. How has big data benefited American’s farmers?| A．By producing more seeds and fertilizer. |
| B．By helping the farmers to make decisions. |
| C．By informing the farmers to plant crops earlier. |
| D．By increasing the amount of land for farming. |
| A．Big data. | B．Farming skills. | C．Technical guidance. | D．Farming materials. |
| A．To show that East Africa relies heavily on diary farming. |
| B．To illustrate cooperation between countries was a great success. |
| C．To serve as an example of how data helps farmers in poor areas. |
| D．To prove that city people in East Africa didn't like drinking milk. |
| A．Many changeable factors have influence on farming. |
| B．The American farmers can't decide what they will plant. |
| C．East African dairy farmers were experienced in raising cows. |
| D．The technical advisors in poor areas know the local areas well. |
8 . Seal Island is a 200-meter-long island in South Africa, which is surrounded by 55 to 57 degrees Fahrenheit waters and covered with over 60,000 seals and some birds. This island has been home to many birds and seals. You may think this island is a paradise. In fact, the island is not famous for the seals or birds. However, the real stars are the great white sharks that leap out of the water to catch the seals they are hunting.
You may think that there is no way for a 15-foot long, 3,000-pound shark to hurl its body out of the water and catch a seal in midair. Actually, these sharks are called “Air Jaws”.
Over the years, the seals have gotten smarter. Now, they go out in groups of seven and eight to feed. They swim down on the sea floor, which gives them extra camouflage (掩饰). When they have to swim near the water surface, they swim in a zigzag (之字形的) pattern. But with all these tricks, they can still be outwitted (以智取胜) by the sharks. Usually, the sharks will take one seal away from its group and force it to swim on the surface, where it is easy to hunt. Sometimes, the seal is lucky and gets away, but most of them die in the process of trying to survive.
Every year, tourists go to see these amazing animals leap out of the water, sometimes flinging (抛) their whole bodies into the air when they want to catch the seals. Some people even want to go into shark cages to see the action from below! This is the reason why this island attracts thousands of tourists around the world every year.
1. What probably makes Seal Island famous?| A．The large number of seals in the water. |
| B．The way the great white sharks hunt. |
| C．The beautiful scenery of the island. |
| D．The special position of the island. |
| A．To save energy. |
| B．To warm themselves. |
| C．To look for food. |
| D．To avoid the white sharks. |
| A．White sharks are dangerous animals. |
| B．The seals are cleverer than the white sharks. |
| C．The sharks are successful in hunting the seals. |
| D．It is easier for the sharks to hunt the seals on the sea floor. |
| A．To explain why Seal Island is famous. |
| B．To show how white sharks hunt seals. |
| C．To advise us to visit Seal Island. |
| D．To ask us to protect animals. |
9 . Recently whenever I turned on my computer or my mobile phone, news about the great effect of Hurricane Harvey（哈维飓风）on thousands of people caught my eye. I saw many unfortunate events. However, there was also lots of bright news that showed the goodness of mankind. As a reporter, I reported many human-interest stories when doing my job, That’s why the story about the guys in the bakery（面包店）caught my eye.
When the workers at a Mexican bakery chain in Houston were trapped inside the building for two days, they didn't sit there feeling sorry for themselves. They used their time wisely after flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey. While waiting for the eventual rescue that came on Monday morning, the four workers decided to make as many loaves of bread as possible for people around the neighborhood. They talked to their manager about their plan over the phone and the manager agreed.
The flood water rose in the street outside. They took advantage of their emergency power supply to bake bread. They used more than 4,200 pounds of flour（面粉）to create hundreds of loaves and sheets of sweet bread. Although the water kept rising, they continued baking to help more people. By the time the manager managed to get to them, they had made so much bread that they took the loaves to lots of emergency centers across the city for people affected by the floods.
The store manager, Brian Alvarado, told The Independent, “They've done more than they should have done. And what they had done has lit a light for people. I feel lucky to have them work in the bakery.”
Whenever a disaster occurs, nobody should feelforlorn. Instead, we should stay hopeful and take positive action to save ourselves and help others. Our acts of kindness will make a big difference to the people in the world as well as the world itself.
1. Why did the story in the bakery draw the author’s attention?| A．It was helpful in choosing a good job. |
| B．It made him/her interested in baking. |
| C．It could bring him/her much money. |
| D．It showed the goodness of mankind. |
| A．They tried to get people out of water. |
| B．They set up emergency centers to help. |
| C．They offered to make bread for people. |
| D．They let homeless people live in the bakery. |
| A．He found them lucky. | B．He was proud of them. |
| C．They were experienced. | D．They were shy but brave. |
| A．Hopeless. | B．Confident. | C．Serious. | D．Angry. |
10 . Apps can help any users, even those who are not students, get more organized and improve their work. Whether or not you are a student, here are some apps worth considering.
Quizlet
Quizlet is a study aid app. It is filled with flash cards on many subjects to study. Quizlet has links to subjects like: Arts & Literature; Languages & Vocabulary; Math & Science; History & Geography; Professional & Careers. The app has a mix of text, images and audio recordings, including pronunciation of words in different languages. Quizlet has games to play and tests to take. Cards are available on the app even when you are not connected to the Internet. Quizlet is available as a free app from Apple’s iTunes store.
Free Graphing Calculator App
The Free Graphing Calculator lets the user create up to four graphs(图表) at once, and lets users adjust the graphs for the best views. You can change measurements within the image easily using the app. The mathematics and science guide within the app can explain some important math or science ideas. The Free Graphing Calculator is free. Users can pay to remove the advertising.
PomoDone App
The PomoDone app can help divide time into blocks for work and for breaks. The app on the computer helps keep track of time blocks for each activity. The app will say when it is time to take a break and when it is time to get back to work. PomoDone can work with other apps and help the user keep track of one’s activities over long periods of time. The app is available for computers from the PomoDone website. The app is free. Paid extra features are available.
1. What kind of work can you use Free Graphing Calculator App to do?| A．Keep track of time blocks. |
| B．Remove the advertising for free. |
| C．Make a graph clearer. |
| D．Study Arts & Literature. |
| A．Free Graphing Calculator App. | B．Quizlet. |
| C．PomoDone App. | D．All of them. |
| A．They can be used to study English freely. |
| B．They can be used to divide time into blocks. |
| C．They can be used to explain some important maths. |
| D．They can be used to help users for free. |
