2 . Resting her phone on a stand and making the light more suitable, 49-year-old Lyu Min started her livestreaming session — her daily job during the COVID-19 outbreak. Dressed in a qipao, a traditional Chinese dress, Lyu started the livestreaming session from her workshop at 10 in the morning, sharing the art of making Chinese knots with many handicraft (手工艺) lovers. Lyu, an inheritor (继承人) of the art of making Chinese knots, which is listed as an intangible (非物质) cultural heritage, became a livestreaming host.

“Though the sales of Chinese knots have dropped a lot, I’m still confident that I can get out of the trouble brought by the outbreak. I can make full use of this period to improve my skills and develop this traditional handicraft online,” she said. Lyu is quite new to the world of livestreaming, having bought all the necessary equipment (设备) after following her friends advice. She practises livestreaming every day and records a large number of educational videos. As face-to-face interaction is still impractical for many, even as the outbreak has been largely brought under control in China, she thinks livestreaming classes can meet more Chinese knot lovers’ needs to learn the handicraft.

She has integrated the anti-epidemic spirit into her works, expressing the determination (决心) and confidence of the Chinese people to win against the COVID-19. “I love Wuhan, where I showed my works in 2019. Chinese knots are popular among many local people, and I made lots of friends there,” Lyu said. She designed a special Chinese knot to express her thanks to the medics who were sent to support Wuhan several months ago.

She has more than 200 followers right now. There are more and more Chinese knot lovers on her online platform. She is using a length of colored string and determination to keep this traditional art of Chinese knots alive online and help more people understand the culture.

1. The underlined word “livestreaming” in Paragraph 1 is close to “_______”.

A．sending out while happening	B．equipment for recording videos
C．sending out after recording	D．equipment for making handicrafts

2. Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A．Lyu Min advised her friends to livestream traditional handicraft online.

B．Lyu Min’s friends provided the necessary equipment for her to livestream.

C．Chinese knots sell very well in Lyu Min’s workshop through the Internet.

D．More Chinese knot lovers want to learn the handicraft because of Lyu Min.

3. What does Lyu Min think of the future of Chinese knots?

A．Unexpected.

B．Hopeful.

C．Difficult

D．Doubtful.

4. What’s the best title for the passage?

A．Having online classes during the outbreak	B．Introducing an intangible cultural heritage
C．Livestreaming the art of making Chinese knots	D．Expressing thanks to the doctors and nurses

6 . Having struggling for years, I was admitted to a university. Proud of myself, I felt as if I had a rise in social status, just like Napoleon, who _______ in vanity (自负) after he climbed up the Alps, “I’m even higher than the Alps”.

As a result, the whole family regarded me as a bright _______ outshining the brightest star in the night sky. I was allowed to have my own _______ in everything. And soon I got used to wasting money at university. I drank, smoke and went to dances. I could enjoy milk and bread at _______.

The family was reunited in my vacation. Hardly had I sat down _______ took out a package of cigarettes. Of course I asked Dad to _______ one out first. He was a chain smoker. _______ he had announced hundreds of times that he would quit smoking, he never _______ his promise. When I was admitted to the university, he said with smiling “I’LL STOP SMOKING.” Well, I knew he _______ to save for my tuition, but it was just another “rubber check (空头支票)”, I ________.

________ I was mistaken this time. With a smile. Dad said. “It has been months ________ I stopped smoking.” I was frozen and ________ at him with astonishment. His face had become thinner. There were more wrinkles (皱纹) on his forehead than I had ________. Tears were about to rush out of my eyes, but I had to keep them ________ because Dad might be angered. Hard as our life was, Dad never shed tears. It was then that I was determined to give up smoking.

1.

A．claimed

B．reported

C．believed

D．cried

2.

A．sun

B．candle

C．moon

D．planet

3.

A．behavior

B．way

C．idea

D．order

4.

A．once

B．present

C．length

D．ease

5.

A．where

B．which

C．when

D．what

6.

A．let

B．pick

C．hand

D．hold

7.

A．So

B．Since

C．Before

D．Although

8.

A．kept

B．made

C．broke

D．showed

9.

A．stopped

B．started

C．meant

D．failed

10.

A．understood

B．thought

C．moved

D．recognized

11.

A．However

B．Normally

C．Therefore

D．Fortunately

12.

A．before

B．after

C．until

D．since

13.

A．laughed

B．wondered

C．stared

D．shouted

14.

A．appeared

B．imagined

C．judged

D．calculated

15.

A．back

B．in

C．away

D．out

7 . Looking at art should be like walking in the countryside. You may not know exactly where you are, what bird is making that strange sound, or what the hill ahead of you is called, but that’s part of the fun of it. You don’t need to know these things to feel the beauty of nature.

Of course, if you do know your birds, trees and local history, a walk can be more attractive. Yet such knowledge comes slowly. It is picked up through experience. A true knowledge of nature cannot just be given to you through an app on your phone. Imagine pointing your phone at the hill and getting plenty of information on screen. Would that enrich your dreamy walk or ruin (毁灭) it?

Braggarts enjoy an app that allows them to show off their knowledge, for example, about baroque (巴洛克风格的) paintings. In fact, apps in museums try to provide on-screen art history at once just to encourage people to read their phones instead of looking at paintings.

It is a mistaken idea that you need to be spoon-fed (灌输) amazing facts about a work of art in order to appreciate it. Our first experience of a work of art should be raw (自然状态的), unguided, and a bit puzzling, like following a path in the woods. Later, you might choose to do some personal research into the work. It can further increase your enjoyment and appreciation for it. Yet it is best done when you’re away from the art itself, so that even when you return, the work still feels fresh.

Anyone who thinks knowing some dates and details makes you better understand a work of art is wrong. We all need to put aside our screens and our supposed knowledge when we look at art. Let the paintings flow in;let your intuitions (直觉) fly off. Art is a journey in the wilderness or it is nothing at all.

1. What does the writer mainly want to say?

A．Art is best with the help of apps.	B．Art is best when hidden in mystery.
C．Art is nothing compared with nature.	D．Art is nothing when details and facts are known.

2. The underlined word “braggarts” refers to _______.

A．people who like showing off	B．people who like baroque paintings
C．those who are good at appreciating art	D．those who are good at painting with phones

3. What’s the main idea of Paragraph 4?

A．How to appreciate a work of art.

B．How to personal research into a work of art.

C．How to keep your feelings about a work of art fresh.

D．How to be spoon-fed amazing facts about a work of art.

4. What can we infer from the passage?

A．Because of apps, art will be ruined in the future.

B．A good piece of art is usually made about nature.

C．Research work and intuitions can both help understand art.

D．Museums are not supposed to allow the use of mobile phones.

8 . After more than a year of pandemic, after months of an aggressive vaccination campaign, the United States should finally be better prepared to protect itself against the coronavirus. Nearly all of our long-term-care residents are vaccinated. Tens of millions of other people have been vaccinated, and tens of millions more have some level of immunity from previous infection. With more people protected, a new surge could behave differently, but early signals from the states with rising case numbers suggest that this will not universally be the case.

Just look at Michigan, the leading edge of this new surge. Cases are going up quickly, and hospital admissions are moving in lockstep (步伐一致) —just as they have in past surges. This is a bit of a surprise. The United States is entering a new phase of the pandemic. Although we’ve previously described the most devastating (毁灭性的) periods as “waves” and “surges,” the more proper metaphor now is a tornado: Some communities won’t see the storm, others will be well fortified against disaster, and the most at-risk places will be crushed. The virus has never hit all places equally, but the remarkable protection of the vaccines, combined with the new attributes of the variants. has created a situation where the pandemic will disappear, but only in some places. The pandemic is or will soon be over for a lot of people in well-resourced (实力雄厚的), heavily vaccinated communities. In places where vaccination rates are low and risk remains high, more people will join the 550,000 who have already died.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky spent her weekly press conference on Monday pleading with the American people, noting “the recurring feeling I have of coming doom (厄运).” She asked the country to “work together to prevent a fourth surge.” Three distinct factors are now shaping this country’s pandemic experience.

First, the United States did a terrible job preventing transmission (传染) of the disease. The country’s level of excess death has been high, signaling that the pandemic’s true toll has been even steeper than the officially released COVID-19 deaths. Most other countries did not experience the same levels of consistent transmission. Most estimates place the number closer to 100 million, and possibly tens of millions more.

Second, the U.S. is vaccinating people quite efficiently. It has given out the largest absolute number of doses (药的一剂) in the world. Almost three-quarters of the U.S. population over 65 has received at least one dose of the vaccine, with nearly half now fully vaccinated. On a percentage basis, the U.S. has immunized nearly three times the number of people that Germany, Italy, and France have, and in two months, the U.S. will almost certainly have a very large percentage of vaccinated adults.

Third, the virus has had staggeringly unequal effects on the American population. For a person of a given age, the risk for certain racial and ethnic groups is several times that of a white person. Native American, Latino, Pacific Islander, and Black communities have suffered large and deadly outbreaks across the country. Racialized economic hierarchy (等级制度) as well as, perhaps, distrust of the medical establishment-are holding down vaccination rates in poorer places with less access to care. So some communities have both higher risk and fewer fully protected people.

This all makes for an extremely messy and volatile (不稳定的) current situation. The first two factors mean that some places, such as California, will see the pandemic’s worst pressures fade. But where the virus is already spreading quickly, the danger is still high, and the days are running out to slow transmission via vaccination. So far, the fatality (死亡) numbers have not turned upward. Now we can only wait to see if deaths will follow hospital admissions at the pace of past surges—or if something has changed.

1. It can be inferred from the case of Michigan that _________.

A．Michigan has an edge in bringing the pandemic under control

B．more patients are receiving proper medical treatment in hospitals

C．a new surge in cases and hospital admissions is unexpected and scary

D．a growing number of residents have been immune to the infection

2. The new phase of the pandemic is described as a tornado because _________.

A．the tornado that strikes during the pandemic makes people suffer more

B．the measures to fight the coronavirus produce uneven results in different areas

C．some poor communities are protected while some areas most at-risk are crushed

D．the crushing effects of the pandemic will last as long as the tornado effects do

3. What factors are shaping American’s pandemic experience?
①less access to medical care
②inaccurate estimates of death tolls
③distrust of governmental policies
④disadvantaged socio-economic status of ethnic groups
⑤a larger percentage of vaccinated adults
⑥efficient prevention of the transmission

A．①②③④⑤

B．①②③④

C．①②④⑤

D．①②③④⑥

4. Wat’s the author’s attitude towards the present situation of the pandemic?

A．Frustrated.

B．Optimistic.

C．Indifferent.

D．Desperate.

10 . Moving around Bogota can be a bit of a Jekyll-or-Hyde experience. On the one hand, the city is infamous (声名狼藉的)for having the world’s worst traffic. Yet, on the other, its cycling infrastructure is considered a good model of sustainable urban mobility, according to the Copenhagenize Index, which ranks bike-friendly cities. The Colombian capital generated a now-international movement in the 1970s called Ciclovia, which sees 1.5 million people cycle across 128km of car-free streets each Sunday morning.

So, when the pandemic reached its shores in mid-March, Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez, an avid cyclist herself, introduced one of the world’s first plans to encourage bike travel, using traffic cones to create 76 km of temporary lanes.

“Everyone started using a bicycle, and they already knew how to get around on one because we have this bike culture thanks to the Ciclovia,” says Carlos Pardo, a local cycling advocate and senior advisor at the New Urban Mobility Alliance. Pardo got involved at the beginning of the pandemic by partnering with a local bikeshare company to provide 400 free e-bikes to health workers. Now, he’s busy persuading the public that the government’s new bike lanes should become permanent fixture (固定设施).

“Some drivers say, ‘you took away our lane’, but we’re saying, we took one car lane and made a two-lane bidirectional bike lane,” he explains. “So, you’re duplicating the effectiveness of the space, and moving more people per hour, per direction.”

Biking has enjoyed a renaissance (复兴) around the world as urban citizens avoid public transport for the relative safety of a two-wheeled commute. Now, many advocates like Pardo are working with local governments in the hope of turning these pandemic-response measures into lasting changes—ones that are more plausible now than ever after lockdowns provided an unprecedented (空前的)opportunities to fast-track infrastructure trials. The results of these urban planning experiments could not only radically shape the way we commute across global cities, but also make them more adaptable to future shocks.

1. What can best illustrate the underlined sentence?

A．Much knowledge that is of help in learning about a new place.

B．A mixed feeling that is too confusing to express themselves.

C．An understanding that everything has both advantages and disadvantages.

D．An idea that human beings are born somewhere between good and evil.

2. What was NOT the cause of the popularity of cycling in Bogota?

A．The outbreak of the pandemic in mid-March.

B．The worldwide bike culture dating back to the 1970s.

C．The government’s support for the temporary bike lanes.

D．The local bike company’s contribution to health workers.

3. What factor is likely to stop the change of bike-friendly, slow streets?

A．The increasing number of cyclists.	B．Duplicated effectiveness of road use.
C．A well-rounded city expansion plan.	D．The growth of car ownership.

4. Which section of the newspaper includes articles of this sort?

A．Urban life.

B．Politics.

C．Sports

D．Advice column.