1 . I recently visited California’s most-visited national park—Yosemite. Turns out, there is a lot you can do and see over a couple days. Here’s my suggested route, if you decide to make a quick weekend trip to see Yosemite’s wonders.
Day 1, Saturday6 a. m. : Hike the Four Mile Trail to Glacier Point. The 9. 6-mile round trip will take six to eight hours with rest stops, so plan accordingly. Leave early to beat the heat and enjoy the sunrise.
Pro tip: Don’t forget to look down-the view of the valley is truly jaw-dropping.1 p. m. : Hike to Vernal Fall. If you’re looking for lunch, a tasty and efficient spot is Curry Village Pizza Deck. Plus, your next adventure is on the Mist Trail from nearby Happy Isles for a quick 1. 6-mile round-trip visit to Vemal Fall. It’s a nice cool-down hike after your morning workout and offers easy access to year-round falls.
4 p. m. : Learn some history at Yosemite Valley Visitor Center. Every national park visit requires a stop at the visitor center to learn about park’s history and main features. Here, you can check out the Yosemite Village as well, but the real secret is the free bike share program. Download the app and grab a pair of wheels here for your evening exploration.
Day 2, Sunday6 a. m. : Drive up the picturesque Tioga Road. While your feet are recovering from yesterday’s mileage, take a leisurely drive up Tioga Road. Along the 45 miles to Tenaya Lake, take photos at the many viewpoints, but especially at Olmsted Point, which has a less-visited but very cool perspective on Half Dome. Have breakfast or lunch alongside the blue waters of Yosemite’s largest lake before heading back toward the valley.
3 p. m. : Complete your trip with a visit to Yosemite Climbing Museum in Mariposa. At a last stop, visit the charming historical town of Mariposa to check out the long-overdue Yosemite Climbing Museum opened in 2021. The famous climbing history displayed in the museum gave me a new appreciation for Yosemite, a place I can’t wait to return to.
1. Which of the following does the author suggest visiting in the morning?| A．Vernal Fall. | B．Yosemite Village. | C．Tenaya Lake. | D．Climbing Museum. |
| A．cycling for evening exploration | B．learning about park’s history |
| C．going around the Yosemite Village | D．downloading the free bike share app |
| A．Because it’s a less-visited place but with picturesque scenery. |
| B．Because it’s a place offering a better view of Half Dome. |
| C．Because it’s a rest stop for visitors to have breakfast or lunch. |
| D．Because it’s not such a place that is flooded with visitors taking photos. |
2 . In India, a group of young people are changing seniors’ lives by pairing them with volunteer “grandchildren”.
The organization, Goodfellows, was
Meant to
One grandpal calls herself the luckiest lady in the world, thanks to her volunteer grandchild a passionate writer who is
“Kersi uncle has been my grandpal for five months. We eagerly look forward to
In some
| A．accepted | B．discovered | C．started | D．assessed |
| A．loved | B．regretted | C．admitted | D．forgot |
| A．face | B．hide | C．suffer | D．address |
| A．society | B．reality | C．family | D．employment |
| A．in praise of | B．in search of | C．in honor of | D．in defense of |
| A．advisors | B．seniors | C．customers | D．volunteers |
| A．pair | B．guide | C．protect | D．compare |
| A．special | B．similar | C．broad | D．appropriate |
| A．designing | B．enjoying | C．acting | D．documenting |
| A．standing out | B．showing off | C．hanging out | D．taking off |
| A．important | B．tough | C．magical | D．joyful |
| A．cases | B．stages | C．places | D．moments |
| A．frightened | B．relieved | C．lonely | D．inspired |
| A．exploring | B．examining | C．advertising | D．changing |
| A．imagined | B．peaceful | C．appointed | D．free |
3 . ABCmouse
ABCmouse is one of the most well-known learn to read apps for children. With its expert-made curriculum, the program offers endless hours of content for children aged 2 to 8. The interactive app offers thousands of activities to help develop this essential skill, with lessons that expose students to math, arts, and science at age-appropriate levels too. The cost after free trial is around $15 per month. Families who purchase a full year’s subscription can get about 70% off the price.
Homer
Homer provides a personalized learning path for children aged 2 to 8. Children will learn reading, math, creative thinking, and problem-solving skills in a fun and engaging way. Instead of a one-size-fits-most approach, Homer customizes learning plans and allows students to take the lead in deciding what they want to work on. The price point is in line with similar apps at about $5 per month after a free trial, or roughly $60 for a full year or $100 for lifetime access.
Hooked on Phonics
Hooked on Phonics is an exceptional tool for homeschoolers, with a wide range of lessons, games, and fun activities. It is one of the most popular brands for teaching kids to read, and its integrated system makes it an ideal option for homeschooling students. Children are introduced to each new concept through a series of fun activities, videos, and even songs. The system is a little bit pricier than other apps, at about $16 per month after a trial month for roughly $1.
FarFaria
FarFaria invites children to join in on a magic al adventure that includes island hopping and the choice between reading the story or having it narrated completely with fun, magical animation. While the free membership offers one story a day, paid subscribers unlock access to unlimited adventures at roughly $8 per month. Readers can either read the books themselves or take advantage of the “read to me” option to have stories read aloud by professional narrators.
1. For an annual subscription to ABCmouse, how much does a family need to pay?| A．$54. | B．$105. | C．$126. | D．$180. |
| A．ABCmouse. | B．Homer. |
| C．Hooked on Phonics. | D．FarFaria. |
| A．Finance. | B．Science. | C．Culture. | D．Education. |
4 . Disneyland’s opening day, July 17, 1955, was a terrible experience. Rides broke down. Restaurants ran out of food and drink and drinking fountains were in short supply... All in front of a national audience of 90 million, then the largest live broadcast in television history on a day that would be known in Disney history as Black Sunday.
But Disney’s story actually started two decades earlier with what Walt Disney called “Daddy’s Day”. On Saturdays in the 1930s and 1940s, Disney would take his two daughters to ride the Griffith Park merry-go-round, which they’d enjoy while he sat on a bench dreaming of ways for families to have fun together. Disney disliked the amusement parks they often visited, seeing them as dirty, unimaginative places run by rude employees.
He thought he could do better. In 1939 he asked two animators (动画片制作者) at his movie studio to work on a plan for an amusement park. By 1952 the idea had expanded into a $1.5 million amusement park proposal that he presented to Burbank. The City Council, which feared such a project would create a carnival (嘉年华) atmosphere, rejected the proposal. Disney counted the rejection as fortunate setback. By now, his dream for a theme park had gone beyond the space available in Burbank. He searched locations throughout Southern California. A 160-acre orange garden, 22 miles south of Los Angeles, was soon selected.
The ABC television network offered $5 million in loans and investments if Disney agreed to produce and host a one-hour weekly show called "Disneyland". The deal amounted to months of free advertising for the park and allowed Disney to introduce TV audiences, particularly kids, to the park.
Disneyland opened then. The 5,000 expected guests increased to 28, 154, thanks to fake tickets. After the madness of opening day, Disney and his new park were criticized in the press. The media predicted a quick and early end. But the public didn’t listen. Visitors arrived in large groups, and within weeks Disneyland was a success.
Over sixty years later, Disneyland’s popularity continues to grow, with total overall attendance topping 700 million and showing no signs of slowing down.
1. What mainly led to Walt Disney’s plan to build his own amusement park?| A．His ambition to expand beyond the movie industry. |
| B．His animators’ suggestion on an entertainment plan. |
| C．His wish to create a better place for family recreation. |
| D．His daughters’ unpleasant experience in the Griffith Park. |
| A．brought good luck to Disney and his park |
| B．contributed to the difficulty of opening the park |
| C．was viewed as a financial obstacle to the design of the park |
| D．presented Disney with a favorable opportunity to rethink his plan |
| A．Everything went on smoothly before it opened. |
| B．It spent $5 million on advertising for its opening. |
| C．People’s enthusiasm for it increased despite criticism. |
| D．Only invited guests could get into it on its opening day. |
| A．Disneyland: How It All Began | B．Disneyland: An Overnight Success |
| C．Disneyland: How It Developed | D．Disneyland: A Park with a Long History |
5 . Glen Lake Elementary School in Minnesota had many fun activities during class breaks, but some students couldn’t join in. A
Wyatt Feucht and Rhys Riley believed that every student
This did not
For John Buettner, a student in a wheelchair, the new equipment meant
Julien expressed how
| A．lack | B．leak | C．combination | D．presence |
| A．opposed | B．depressed | C．unable | D．absent |
| A．advocated | B．deserved | C．grasped | D．involved |
| A．how | B．what | C．why | D．whether |
| A．barely | B．mostly | C．firmly | D．apparently |
| A．distract | B．discourage | C．convince | D．annoy |
| A．mission | B．circumstance | C．display | D．survey |
| A．expanding | B．consuming | C．obtaining | D．collecting |
| A．reached out to | B．took charge of | C．subscribed to | D．got along with |
| A．wages | B．profits | C．possessions | D．belongings |
| A．because | B．when | C．after | D．until |
| A．other than | B．rather than | C．more than | D．more or less |
| A．laughing | B．touching | C．envying | D．crying |
| A．fond | B．proud | C．modest | D．approved |
| A．potential | B．appealing | C．bright | D．distant |
6 . Most of you are probably familiar with various stories of searching alien life, but have you heard about the scientist who was responsible for detecting the first traces of intelligent life lurking throughout our galaxy? This is Frank Drake’s story.
At the age of 8, his father one day told Drake there are other worlds in space, which astounded him. He had no idea that such a thing was a possibility-he thought Earth was it. So he wondered, what are they like? Are the people the same as us? Do they look the same way we do? What’s their planet like? And of course, at that time, there was no way that those questions could be answered in the slightest.
Later on, when he was in college, he chose the elementary astronomy course. In the course, he went to the campus observatory, and one of the things he observed was the planet Jupiter. Even through a small telescope, it was just very clear that it was another world but not a picture in a book or something, which made Drake deeply absorbed. Frank Drake is mostly known for developing the Drake equation (德雷克方程式), which is a mathematical equation developed to estimate the number of detectable alien civilizations in the Milky Way.
People always say that the search for alien life has failed. “You’ve been searching for 60 years and you haven’t found anything. So doesn’t that say that intelligent life is very rare?” “That’s wrong, because the amount of searching we’ve done has hardly touched the number of possibilities that are out there. We’ve only covered a tiny. tiny fraction of all the possibilities,” Drake said, “When you spend your entire life on the things you love, you live a better life than most people,” he added.
1. What does the underlined word “astounded” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Touched. | B．Motivated. | C．Puzzled. | D．Amazed. |
| A．His observation of the Jupiter through a telescope. |
| B．His success in developing the famous Drake equation. |
| C．His knowing of the fact that there are other worlds in space. |
| D．His choice of the the elementary astronomy course in college. |
| A．It is totally a failure | B．The alien life is rare. |
| C．It has a long way to go. | D．There are many possibilities. |
| A．Curious and brave. | B．Creative and intelligent. |
| C．Talented and diligent. | D．Passionate and persistent. |
7 . International Letter-Writing Competition for Young People 2024
Since 1971, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) has inspired young writers aged 9-15 to write letters on a given theme to win exciting prizes. The competition is an excellent way of making young people aware of the important role postal services play in our societies. It develops their skills in writing and their ability to express thoughts clearly. A group of international judges invited by the International Bureau judge the letters and select the winners.
The UPU has launched its 53rd International letter-writing Competition for Young People this year.
Competition theme
In 2024, participants will be encouraged to reflect on the future of the world under the theme: “At 150 years old, the UPU has served people around the world for more than eight generations. The world has changed enormously since then. Write a letter to future generations about the world you hope they inherit (继承).” The theme encourages young people to voice their thoughts on current global challenges and propose innovative solutions. It also allows youths to draw upon the principles of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, providing a framework for their visions of a better world.
Competition rules
• Entries must be in the form of a letter and contain the necessary parts of a letter (heading, greeting, body, complimentary close, signature line and postscript).
• Letters must be strictly in agreement with the topic and contain no more than 800 words in the original language.
• At the national level, the competition is organized by UPU member countries. Entries must reach the UPU International Bureau no later than May 5th.
For more information, please contact us at communication@upu.int.
1. What can competitors learn from the competition?| A．The history of the UPU | B．The skills of communication. |
| C．The importance of postal services. | D．The meaning of expressing thoughts. |
| A．The enormous change in the world. | B．The world for the future generations. |
| C．Global challenges and innovative solutions. | D．Sustainable development for a better world. |
| A．Write the letters in right format. | B．Hand in their entries on May 6th. |
| C．Write a letter of at least 800 words | D．Send their entries to the official email. |
8 . The road to a Nobel Prize, the most respected scientific award in the world, is growing ever longer, with almost half of winners now waiting more than 20 years from making a Nobel-worthy discovery to receiving the prize.
One analysis shows that the average time between publishing the work and receiving one of the science prizes has nearly doubled in the past 60 years. Across the three science prizes, chemistry now has the longest “Nobel lag”- an average of 30 years over the past decade- and physiology or medicine has the shortest, at 26 years.
Alfred Nobel’s will stated that the prizes should be awarded “to those who, during the previous year, shall have given the greatest benefit to mankind.” In reality this has only happened a few times. But in the first half of the twentieth century, it was common for Nobel prize winners to be in their 30s and that is unheard of now, says Santo Fortunato, now a computational social scientist at Indiana University.
There are a number of possible reasons for this, says Yian Yin, a computational social scientist at Cornell University. It could be that the overall number of breakthroughs is increasing each year, so awards cannot keep up with the number of people who deserve to be recognized, he says. It is also the case that the importance of some works, which Yin describes as “sleeping beauties” are only realized years or decades later. Besides, the lengthening gap could be a sign that there has been a decrease in “disruptive” science -important studies or discoveries that change the paradigm (范式) of their field. This could be causing the Nobel committees to focus more on the past.
Fortunato points out that, if the gap continues to grow, outstanding scientists could miss out on the award owing to the Nobel Committee’s rule banning posthumous prizes (追授奖项). “It has to stop at some point,” he says, adding that a rethink of the posthumous-awarding ban would allow more people’s work to get the recognition that it deserves.
1. Why does the writer mention the numbers in the first two paragraphs?| A．To explain a rule. | B．To present a fact. |
| C．To give an opinion. | D．To make a prediction. |
| A．Experts who are in their thirties. |
| B．Teachers who study computer science. |
| C．Researchers whose name has not been heard of. |
| D．Scientists whose discovery benefits humans most. |
| A．The change in standards. | B．The requirement of the award. |
| C．The increase in breakthroughs. | D．The tradition of the committees. |
| A．Reconsidering the current rule. | B．Establishing a better committee. |
| C．Stopping the award presentation. | D．Recognizing more people’s work. |
9 . A few years ago, LaQuista Erinna’s son, Jackson, was diagnosed with autism (自闭症). Erinna had always noticed Jackson was
“We went almost two years with no haircuts. People would always comment on how
Ultimately, Erinna found a
However, things went
Jackson
At last, Ree managed to get Jackson to sit down. She talked to him throughout the entire process and turned the haircut into a
“It just
It
| A．relevant | B．gentle | C．sensitive | D．attached |
| A．preference | B．command | C．route | D．haircut |
| A．intense | B．abnormal | C．distant | D．appealing |
| A．adorable | B．long | C．curly | D．dirty |
| A．conventional | B．internal | C．initial | D．emotional |
| A．neighbor | B．barber | C．librarian | D．detective |
| A．slightly | B．creatively | C．merely | D．personally |
| A．painfully | B．smoothly | C．wrong | D．fast |
| A．reliable | B．unfortunate | C．significant | D．random |
| A．refused | B．hesitated | C．happened | D．attained |
| A．side with | B．live off | C．give up | D．step aside |
| A．try | B．blame | C．return | D．wait |
| A．performance | B．game | C．experiment | D．comfort |
| A．touched | B．confused | C．scared | D．committed |
| A．proved | B．explained | C．meant | D．owed |
10 . How has global warming changed your life? Perhaps you experience hotter summers. But for reindeer herders (驯鹿游牧民), the influence goes far beyond that.
Living in the Arctic region spreading from Russia to Sweden, local reindeer herders make a living by herding. For generations, they have been living in harmony with the cold winters with their deep understanding of snow and ice types, weather patterns and animal behaviors. This allows them to predict and prepare for winters.
However, the warming Arctic is messing up these traditional signals, making herders’ traditional ways of predicting weather less useful. In 2014, during the winter migration (迁徙) southward with their reindeer in North Russia, something unexpected happened. Heavy rainfall formed an ice shield above the lichen (地衣), normally covered by soft snow. Unable to access the lichen beneath the ice, the reindeer suffered from hunger, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of them.
The warming climate goes beyond threatening reindeer herders’ livelihood; it also threatens their culture. “We are an Arctic people, and our culture is written in snow. But climate change means the snow will get less and less,” Henrik Blind, a member of Sami herding family in Sweden, told The Guardian. In his language, there are over 300 words to describe snow. But with less snow, the Sami culture faces the risk of losing elements of its cultural identity.
Despite these challenges, herders have been cooperating with scientists to better deal with climate change. For example, for scientists, the difference between various types of snow is hard to tell. But local people who live with snow every day can see what scientists fail to see. At the same time, satellite data from modern scientists could help predict disasters for the local people. To combine these two different knowledge systems together, the US National Science Foundation set up the Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledge and Science this September. The goal is to recognize the value of indigenous (土著) knowledge alongside modern research methods.
“We must realize we can’t over-consume our planet. This is urgent. We need to listen to all the indigenous people who know how to live in harmony with the planet,” Blind told The Guardian.
1. What led to the deaths of many reindeer during their winter migration southward in 2014?| A．A disease outbreak after heavy rainfall. |
| B．Food shortage due to ice-covered lichen. |
| C．Attacks by other wildlife. |
| D．Unexpectedly strong snowstorms. |
| A．By reducing language diversity | B．By threatening their cultural elements. |
| C．By changing traditional eating habits. | D．By challenging ice type descriptions. |
| A．To spread indigenous customs. | B．To test modern research methods. |
| C．To predict global natural disasters. | D．To bridge their knowledge gap. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Opposed. | C．Worried. | D．Uninterested. |
