1 . Beep! Beep! Beep! I rolled over and turned off my alarm clock. It was still
I
I shivered (打寒颤) and
Our lives here are full of sweet
| A．rainy | B．dark | C．cold | D．snowy |
| A．curious | B．afraid | C．eager | D．able |
| A．coat | B．bite | C．leash | D．flashlight |
| A．temperature | B．condition | C．environment | D．weather |
| A．method | B．path | C．plan | D．calendar |
| A．check | B．forecast | C．test | D．provide |
| A．removed | B．needed | C．packed | D．washed |
| A．tried on | B．decided on | C．relied on | D．focused on |
| A．difficult | B．ideal | C．wrong | D．safe |
| A．water | B．mud | C．dust | D．frost |
| A．patience | B．balance | C．distance | D．promise |
| A．complained | B．smiled | C．suffered | D．doubted |
| A．pre-dusk | B．mid-night | C．pre-dawn | D．post-dawn |
| A．Actually | B．Suddenly | C．Effortlessly | D．Generally |
| A．avoided | B．regretted | C．stopped | D．continued |
| A．wonder | B．reality | C．signal | D．challenge |
| A．offered | B．refused | C．intended | D．failed |
| A．found | B．admired | C．reflected | D．lighted |
| A．discoveries | B．dreams | C．seasons | D．memories |
| A．Enjoy | B．Examine | C．Admit | D．Remember |
2 . I was born a bookworm. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t read: It was almost like breathing to me. My fictional worlds took me to all the places I needed to go and I experienced everything indirectly.
My father was in the military service when I was a child, so we moved every two years, but we insisted on going to bookshops wherever we lived. He would take me to the nearest bookshop every Saturday morning and wait patiently while I browsed (随便看看)—after all, the choosing of a new book is something that cannot be rushed. And so started my lifelong love affair with bookshops.
One day I was thinking up the setting for How to Find Love in a tiny bookshop when a feeling of calm, contentment, and excitement came over me. It was a feeling of perfect happiness. That was my light bulb moment: My book would be set in a bookshop, and I could explore what books meant to each of my characters and how they had shaped their lives.
The book isn’t just about discovering romantic love. It’s about finding the love of books: something that can sustain you throughout your life, and provide escape, entertainment, education, comfortd and wonder. And, as I learned from my own father, it’s a love you can share with everyone. There is nothing more satisfying than sharing something you have read with someone else, knowing they will love it as much as you do.
But if we are to keep bookshops alive, we need to use them, and to encourage the next generation to make them a part of their life and view bookshops as a treat, a pleasure, an adventure, a gateway, so they become something we can’t live without. Thus my challenge to you, fellow readers, is to go to your local bookshops as often as possible and come out with something that might change your life.
1. Why did the author often move when he was a child?| A．Because her father loved travelling. |
| B．Because her father was in the army. |
| C．Because her parents divorced. |
| D．Because her parents wanted to find a better school for her. |
| A．Distant. | B．Casual. |
| C．Inseparable. | D．Cooperative. |
| A．A moment of relief. | B．A moment of peace. |
| C．A moment of sudden shock. | D．A moment of sudden inspiration. |
| A．How books affect people’s lives. | B．Romantic stories of the author’s parents. |
| C．How bookshops become popular. | D．Touching stories between father and daughter. |
| A．Purchase her books. | B．Go frequent book shopping. |
| C．Share books with others. | D．Sponsor local bookshops. |
3 . In the UK, the government showed throwaway cups should be forbidden altogether by 2023 if they are not all being recycled. As a result, Starbucks said it would try out a 5p (5 pence) cup charge in 20 to 25 central London shops. “We will begin it next month and at first it will last for three months,” the company said, adding that it continued to offer a 25p (25 pence) discount to customers who brought their own reusable cups.
The government agrees plastic waste is a problem and will consider taxing disposable (一次性的) plastics. The committee’s chair, Mary Creagh, said, “The UK throws away 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year. Almost none are recycled. Coffee cup producers and shops haven’t taken action to change this. So we need to kick-start a change in recycling.”
The Liberal Democrats said they had been suggesting a charge on coffee cups since September 2016. The party’s spokesman, Tim Farron, said, “The result is clear that the tax works. The 5p charge on plastic bags has largely cut down the usage and helped protect our environment.”
The 5p tax is being against by the makers of paper cups. Mike Tuner, of the Paper Cup Alliance, said paper cups were the safest solution for drinks. “The paper cups we produce in the UK can be recycled, and are being recycled. We are trying to increase recycling rates. Taxing the morning coffee run won’t solve the problem, but it will hurt consumers,” he said.
Disposable coffee cups are technically recyclable, but most are not because the UK has just three machines that can split the paper and plastic parts for recycling. The committee has called on the government to require coffee cups from cafes without in-store recycling systems to carry “not recycled” marks to remind customers. Cafes with in-store recycling systems should print their cups with “recyclable in store only”.
1. About the throwaway cups, Starbucks will ________.| A．offer a half-price discount to customers with their own cups |
| B．support the idea of forbidding throwaway cups till 2023 |
| C．charge customers 5p per throwaway cup in some shops |
| D．stop to offer throwaway cups in its shops right now |
| A．Coffee cup makers will take action to recycle the water. |
| B．The use of the disposable plastics is a nationwide problem. |
| C．Coffee cup users pay much attention to the plastic problem. |
| D．The UK government will ban all disposable coffee cups by 2023. |
| A．More people will fight against the charge. |
| B．There will be little change in our environment. |
| C．Fewer people will use the disposable coffee cups. |
| D．There will be a competition between coffee shops. |
| A．will be supported by the makers of the paper cups |
| B．will affect the consumers instead of solving the problem |
| C．can give a hand to increasing recycling rates of the makers |
| D．can be the best solution for the government to cut down waste |
| A．There are not enough professionals in this area. |
| B．There is not enough professional equipment. |
| C．Consumers don’t have recycling knowledge. |
| D．Cafes don’t have recycling systems at all. |
4 . The Enemy Is in My Pocket
Yesterday I went to a phone store. There were no other
“How can I help you?” One of them asked me.
I replied, “I
“Um, let me check on that.” She walked to the other end of the
That moment had come after months of struggle. I
But one day, I began to wonder how important being online really is and if it made me a
So, I wanted to
I've only been doing this for a few days, but I have found myself obviously more
Where there is a
| A．students | B．customers | C．friends | D．managers |
| A．wonder | B．doubt | C．question | D．ask |
| A．restaurant | B．store | C．street | D．market |
| A．good | B．latest | C．certain | D．bad |
| A．saying | B．announcing | C．giving | D．concluding |
| A．Exactly | B．Finally | C．Eventually | D．Actually |
| A．never | B．often | C．sometimes | D．also |
| A．take charge of | B．come up with | C．keep in touch with | D．carry on with |
| A．leave | B．catch | C．miss | D．make |
| A．better | B．funnier | C．worse | D．stronger |
| A．started with | B．ended up in | C．went with | D．succeeded in |
| A．memory | B．attention | C．energy | D．money |
| A．amazed | B．glad | C．puzzled | D．angry |
| A．regret | B．arrange | C．enjoy | D．forget |
| A．stay | B．sell | C．change | D．explore |
| A．sleep | B．rest | C．work | D．play |
| A．checking | B．trading | C．answering | D．seeing |
| A．sensitive | B．attractive | C．positive | D．productive |
| A．problem | B．will | C．road | D．lesson |
| A．beside | B．before | C．without | D．by |
5 . It was January, the first day of the year. I decided to get the bank work out of the
Just then I saw his morning tea lying there,
I realized he was also missing the
| A．way | B．corner | C．question | D．reach |
| A．on purpose | B．by accident | C．after all | D．as usual |
| A．service | B．invitation | C．greeting | D．handshake |
| A．hopefully | B．curiously | C．sincerely | D．hesitantly |
| A．going through | B．filling up | C．checking out | D．printing off |
| A．computerized | B．canceled | C．popularized | D．broadened |
| A．symptoms | B．gestures | C．signs | D．marks |
| A．when | B．how | C．why | D．if |
| A．untouched | B．unprepared | C．unfolded | D．undisturbed |
| A．always | B．seldom | C．never | D．still |
| A．reward | B．push | C．pardon | D．scold |
| A．reason | B．need | C．opportunity | D．urge |
| A．looked up at | B．looked down upon | C．looked forward to | D．looked back on |
| A．precious | B．small | C．important | D．essential |
| A．coincidence | B．suggestion | C．affair | D．arrangement |
| A．impressed | B．attached | C．challenged | D．comforted |
| A．hearts | B．minds | C．bodies | D．souls |
| A．release | B．recommend | C．reveal | D．revise |
| A．preferred | B．promised | C．managed | D．expected |
| A．cautious | B．confident | C．optimistic | D．grateful |
6 . My family moved into our home nine years ago. We spent a lot of time and energy in the yard to get it looking like the way it does today. In front of the house, the rocks appear to be just thrown up onto the dirt as if someone were in a hurry to finish. We called this area our “rock garden”. Denise and I would also plant some flowers between the rocks, just to bring some color to the area.
Last summer I found, in the rock garden, a tiny little plant that I could not immediately identify. I knew I didn’t plant it and Denise said she didn’t either. We decided to let it continue growing until we could figure out what it was.
Weeks passed and as I made my way back to the strange plant, it appeared to be a sunflower. It looked thin and tall with only one head on it. I decided to baby it along and weed(除杂草)around it. As I pulled rocks from the area to get to the weeds, I noticed something unusual. The sunflower had not started where I saw it begin. It actually had begun under a big rock and grown under and around it to reach the sun.
That’s when I realized that if a tiny little sunflower didn’t allow a big rock to stand in its way of developing, we too have the ability to do the same thing. Once we believe in ourselves like that little sunflower, we can attain the same nourishment(养分)for growth as well.
Stand tall like the sunflower and be proud of who and what we are, then the environment will begin to support us. We will find a way to go under or around any “rocks” in order to achieve our goals.
1. What can we know from the first paragraph?| A．The author finished building his house hurriedly. |
| B．The family has lived in this house for 9 years. |
| C．The author’s house is made of rocks. |
| D．The family don’t like gardening. |
| A．see how long it could live |
| B．see how big it could grow |
| C．find out what it actually was |
| D．know if his wife had planted it |
| A．the strange plant turned out to be the sunflower |
| B．the sunflower grew under and around a big rock |
| C．the sunflower had only one head on it |
| D．the sunflower was very thin and tall |
| A．Confident. | B．Devoted. | C．Delicate. | D．Modest. |
| A．rocks cannot prevent us from success |
| B．the sunflowers are able to grow everywhere |
| C．we should take good care of the rock gardens |
| D．we can get over difficulties if we trust ourselves |
7 . The library of Pharaoh Ramesses II is said to have borne the inscription (碑文) “the house of healing for the soul”. Dylan Thomas, an English writer, reportedly liked to relax by reading Agatha Christie’s detective novels. As for the novelist Yiyun Li, it was War and Peace that helped her get through the toughest times; when she launched a virtual reading group of Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece in lockdown, 3,000 people signed up.
In recent years, a growing body of research has backed up the idea that books not only entertain, but also help us recover and grow. They offer companionship to the lonely, insight to the anxious, and release to those who feel trapped.
This feature has motivated Ann Cleeves to turn her attention to the old long-lasting bibliotherapy. She then co-sponsored such a program in northeast England, working with public health teams. Bibliotherapy is an approach using books and other forms of literature to improve a patient’s mental health. A review of several studies found such programs have a long-term effect on people’s well-being.
But Cleeves has a broader idea in mind. Writing for The Guardian, she described how reading and writing fiction helped her understand her own response and allowed her to escape into a different world. The reading coaches will match their patients with appropriate poetry and novels as well as non-fiction based on patients’ condition, and will introduce them to librarians and other readers. After all, what’s uplifting to one reader will seem twee (花哨的) to another and what one finds unpleasant may be reassuring to the next.
For Cleeves, it is happy to see people seek self-discovery in the world of books. Some may respond to children’s classic The Secret Garden; others will recognize themselves in Toni Morrison’s novels. An ancient idea has found fresh resonance (共鸣).
1. What did Dylan Thomas and Yiyun Li have in common?| A．They sought inspiration in foreign countries. |
| B．They turned to books for spiritual comfort. |
| C．They had a great influence on the world literature. |
| D．They once launched a reading group during tough times. |
| A．The healing power of books. |
| B．The support from public health teams. |
| C．The popularity of the program among people. |
| D．The lack of such a program in northeast England. |
| A．It can greatly improve public health. |
| B．It can bring a boom in book markets. |
| C．It can be used as a cure for depression. |
| D．It can bring in diverse forms of literature. |
| A．By suiting specific books to patients. |
| B．By helping librarians sort out all kinds of books. |
| C．By assisting readers in writing their own fiction. |
| D．By recording readers’ response to different books. |
| A．Virtual reading groups: the rising industry in lockdown |
| B．An inscription: the house of healing for the soul |
| C．Novel reading: two sides to mental troubles |
| D．Bibliotherapy: an old idea finds new life |
8 . How often one hears children wishing they were grown up, and old people wishing they were young again. Each age has its pleasures and its pains, and the happiest person is the one who enjoys what each age gives him without wasting his time in useless regrets.
Childhood is a time when there are few responsibilities to make life difficult. If a child has good parents, he is fed, looked after and loved, whatever he may do. It is impossible that he will ever again in his life be given so much without having to do anything in return. In addition, life is always presenting new things to the child — things that have lost their interest for older people because they are too well-known. But a child has his parents, he is not so free to do what he wishes to do; he is continually being told not to do things or being punished for what he has done wrong.
When the young man starts to earn his own living, he can no longer expect others to pay for his food, his clothes, and his room, but has to work if he wants to live comfortably. If he spends most of his time playing about in the way that he used to as a child, he will go hungry. And if he breaks the laws of society as he used to break the laws of his parents, he may go to prison. If, however, he works hard, keeps out of trouble and has good health, he can have the great happiness of building up for himself his own position in society.
1. According to the second paragraph, the writer thinks that _______.| A．only children are interested in life |
| B．life for a child is comparatively easy |
| C．a child is always loved whatever he does |
| D．if much is given to a child, he must do something in return |
| A．will have little time playing |
| B．has to be successful in finding a job |
| C．can still ask for help in time of trouble |
| D．should be able to take care of himself |
| A．People are often satisfied with their life. |
| B．Life is less interesting for old people. |
| C．Adults are freer to do what they want to do. |
| D．Adults should no longer rely on others. |
| A．life is not enjoyable since each age has some pains |
| B．young men can have the greatest happiness if they work hard |
| C．childhood is the more enjoyable time in one’s life |
| D．one is the happiest if he can make good use of each age in his life |
| A．examples of successful young men |
| B．how to build up one’s position in society |
| C．pleasures and pains of old people |
| D．what to do when one has problems in life |
9 . Heroes Stamp Design Competition
Welcome to the Heroes Stamp Design Competition! Children aged 4-14years are invited to design a stamp. Eight designs will be chosen for this stamp series from the Royal Mail. One of the designs could be yours. There are 120 great prizes on offer for area winners and runners-up. Plus, cash prizes for the winning schools too.
Stamp Designing
The stamp design will be based on your hero or heroes of the coronavirus pandemic. The past year has been very difficult for so many people. There are countless frontline workers and volunteers who have continued to work tirelessly to keep the country moving.
Being a stamp designer is a very skilled job. One of the jobs of a stamp designer is to reduce the size of a picture to fit the stamp. When designing your stamp, have a think about what kind of image of your hero or heroes would make a good miniature (微型的) design for a stamp. The final stamps produced will be about 3.7cm wide×3.5cm high.
Things to consider
Your stamp design must be drawn on the official competition entry form (报名表) which your teacher will give you.
Your design must be your own original work.
Drawings must be flat, so please don’t stick any materials or textures (纹理) to your design.
Please use lots of colour (no black and white images) in your design.
Please avoid using highlighter pens (荧光笔).
Good Luck
The closing date for the competition is 28th May. Please ask your teacher, or parent, for one of the official entry forms. You’re then ready to start designing! We can’t wait to see all of the amazing designs from gifted children across the country.
Good Luck!
1. Who would probably take part in the competition?| A．Students. | B．Doctors. |
| C．School teachers. | D．Professional designers. |
| A．It will begin on 28th May. |
| B．It is for a series of four stamps. |
| C．It asks competitors to honour heroes on their stamps. |
| D．It will provide each competing school with cash prizes. |
| A．About 3.5cm wide×3.5cm high. | B．About 3.7cm wide×3.7cm high. |
| C．About 3.5cm wide×3.7cm high. | D．About 3.7cm wide×3.5cm high. |
| A．It should be black and white. |
| B．It should be drawn with highlighter pens. |
| C．It should be flat with textures. |
| D．It should be drawn on a given form. |
| A．advertise for some newly issued stamps | B．send a notice about designing stamps |
| C．call on people to respect modern heroes | D．encourage people to be frontline workers |
10 . It is easy to get carried away in an argument.
While having a rational conversation with someone who has a different opinion might seem like a challenge, it is possible. One way is to approach the other person with empathy.
The Empathy Challenge is an exercise created by Zoe Chance, senior lecturer at the Yale School of Management. At Yale, Chance teaches a course called “Mastering Influence and Persuasion” where -students learn to communicate more effectively.
In her blog, Chance explains that it’s important to listen to people who disagree with you. “As they explain their position, you listen for their underlying values. Finally, you look for common ground as you reflect those values back. That’s it.”
Chance first took this challenge herself before asking her students to try. As she couldn’t understand why many people chose to vote for Donald Trump, she found three Trump’s voters and spoke with them.
Through asking questions, Chance was able to empathize with them and realize they had similar feelings. One man, an Orthodox Jew, explained that he supported Trump because Trump’s daughter and son-in-law are Jewish. The next man was a Russian immigrant passionate about freedom. The third was a lawyer who believed that authenticity(真诚) was important in political leaders.
Although Chance and Chose people had different political beliefs, they were able to relate to the life values of others. And that’s the point of the exercise-to understand others as fellow human beings.
1. Which of the following does the Empathy Challenge faces on?| A．Leadership skills. | B．Public speaking skills. |
| C．Communication skills. | D．Problem solving skills. |
| A．Defend their position. | B．Find common ground. |
| C．Reflect on their own values. | D．Meet the needs of others. |
| A．The challenge of performing empathy. |
| B．The importance of empathy. |
| C．How Chance practiced empathy. |
| D．How Chance helped people develop empathy. |
| A．Their life values. | B．Their career history. |
| C．Their family background. | D．Their childhood experience. |
| A．Respect different perspectives | B．Zoe Chance’s empathy |
| C．Vote for Trump | D．Chancels challenge |
