1 . How to Use a Modern Public Library
Has it been a while since your last visit to a public library? If so, you may be surprised to learn that libraries have changed for the better. It’s been years since they were dusty little rooms with books. They have transformed themselves into places where you can develop your love of knowledge meet interesting people, or find out how to start a business.
Check out a book. While libraries still loan out(出借)books, you’ll find it easier to get a copy of whatever you’re looking for, thanks to a cooperative network of area libraries. Via such networks, libraries share their books with each other through the use of delivery vehicles. Once the book you’ve requested is delivered to the nearest branch, they will inform you by e-mail, so you can pick it up.
Check out other items. The library is now a multimedia zone, loaded with information in many formats(载体形式). You can borrow movies on DVDs, music on CDs, and popular magazines. Some libraries even loan out toys and games. If a popular magazine you want isn’t offered and the library keeps a list of such requests, they may bring it in when enough interest is shown.
Join targeted reading groups. Libraries will often hold reading-group sessions targeted to various age groups. Perhaps you’d like to learn a language or improve your English. The library may sponsor a language group you could join. If you have difficulties reading, ask about special reading opportunities. Your library might be able to accommodate you. And you might find it relaxing to bring your small kid to a half-hour Story Time while you sit quietly in a corner with a good book.
Start a business using the help of your local library. If you want to have a business of your own, your local library can become a launch space for it. In library books and computers, you can find information on starting a business. Many libraries will help you with locally supplied information about business management shared through chambers of commerce(商会)and government agencies, and they will offer printing, faxing and database services you need.
1. Public libraries connected by a cooperative network benefit readers by______.| A．sharing their books on the Internet |
| B．giving access to online reading at a library branch |
| C．sending a needed book to a library branch nearby |
| D．making the checkout procedures diverse |
| A．A magazine and an e-book. |
| B．A game and an oil painting. |
| C．A music CD and a kid’s toy. |
| D．A DVD and a video player |
| A．the kid to learn a new language |
| B．the parent to enjoy quiet reading |
| C．the kid to overcome reading difficulties |
| D．the parent to meet their program sponsor |
| A．providing relevant information and supporting services |
| B．offering professional advice on business management |
| C．supplying useful information of your potential buyers |
| D．arranging meetings with government officials |
| A．To point out the importance of public libraries. |
| B．To encourage people to work in public libraries. |
| C．To introduce the improved services of public libraries. |
| D．To call for the modernization of public library systems. |
2 . The Winners Club is a bank account specially designed for teenagers. It has been made to help you better manage your money.
·No account keeping fees!
You’re no millionaire so we don’t expect you to pay large fees. In fact, there are no account keeping or transaction fees!
·
You want your money to grow. The Winners Club has a good rate of interest which gets even better if you make at least two deposits without taking them out in a month.
·Convenient
Teenagers are busy — we get that.
·Magazines included
Along with your regular report, you will receive a FREE magazine full of good ideas to make even more of your money.
The Winners Club is a great choice for teenagers.
| A．Perfect Service Systems |
| B．Excellent interest rates |
| C．And it is so easy to join |
| D．You may never need to come to a bank at all |
| E．The Winners Club is set up for you to save money |
| F．It’s a club with impressive features for teenagers |
| G．Some fantastic stories are also offered for Winners Club members |
3 . Earth Hour is organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature. It's a big event usually at the end of March every year. On this evening, people “go dark”.
It's true that turning off lights for just one hour saves only a small amount of power.
But on another level, a large number of people’s acting together sends a powerful message to governments and companies.
The logo(标识) of Earth Hour is “60+” .The number 60 is for the 60 minutes of Earth Hour.
| A．But this is only the beginning. |
| B．Earth Hour represents every hour of every day. |
| C．After all, everyone has to answer for what they have done. |
| D．Besides turning off the lights, people get involved in other events. |
| E．It pushes them to take urgent measures by making changes to policies. |
| F．That is, they switch off all unnecessary lights at the same time for one hour. |
| G．The plus invites people to continue their action even after Earth Hour is finished. |
4 . If knowledge is power, then books are fuel and libraries are power stations! Here are four amazing libraries that can get you positively charged.
New York Public Library—New York
Opened in 1911, New York Public Library was the largest marble building in the world. Over the years the library has a collection of 53 million items, including rare first edition books, 300 million pages of historical newspapers and around 40 ,000 restaurant menus dating back to 1850!
Chetham's Library— Manchester
Founded in 1653, Chetham's Library is a free public library with the longest history in the UK. The building itself is even older —built in 1421, it's one of the most well—protected medieval buildings in England!
With 100 ,000 + books lining the shelves, the special atmosphere of the library attracts students and scholars alike to attend guided tours offered throughout the year.
The Library of Congress Washington, D. C.
Located on Capitol Hill, the Library of Congress is considered the national library of the US and the second largest library in the world. The library has around 168 million items, adding 10 ,000 to this number every day.
Need to catch up on the news? The Library of Congress, which was founded in 1800, holds the world’s largest newspaper collection, with some dating back as far as 1659!
The British Library—London
The British Library was founded in 1973. With around 170 million items spread across 750 km of shelving, it's the largest library in the world. And this number is continually growing and 8 km of shelving has to be added every year! This is partly because the British Library must receive a copy of every publication produced in the UK and Ireland, by law.
1. Where can you visit the oldest library?| A．In New York. | B．In London. |
| C．In Manchester. | D．In Washington, D. C. |
| A．Its large area. |
| B．Its various functions. |
| C．Its building materials. |
| D．Its newspaper collection. |
| A．The legal rule. | B．The public's help. |
| C．The printing skills. | D．The librarians' efforts. |
5 . Ant Forest, a green initiative by the world’s leading payment and lifestyle platform Alipay, received the “U.N. Champions of the Earth” award, the UN’s highest environmental honor. It was given to Ant Forest for motivating half a billion people to adopt an eco-friendly and greener lifestyle, greatly contributing to ecological protection with the help of digital technology.
Alipay achieved this by inspiring its users to do environmentally-friendly things, such as walking, using public transportation, going paperless in the office and more to earn “green energy points”. These points can then be used to water and grow their own virtual young trees. After the virtual young trees have grown up on line, Ant Forest will plant real trees somewhere in China.
The number of Ant Forest users has reached 350 million, reducing 3 million tons of carbon dioxide. “Such programs are quite attractive to me. I feel satisfied to see a real tree planted just by doing some simple things such as riding bicycles and buying tickets online,” said an interviewee.
This initiative of Ant Forest is in line with the Chinese government’s strategy of a “Green Economy”. The country is taking aggressive actions in expanding its green coverage. Now, its efforts are paying off, with improved biodiversity and a healthier economic growth. Rare animal species have been spotted and forest parks are now popular attractions of tourism.
The planet is at a critical point which could result in natural disasters. It seems clear that unless governments, businesses and people form a focused team, it’s difficult to stop global warming. Fortunately, Ant Forest shows that it is possible to make joint efforts while relying on digital technology. And more initiatives are using technology to contribute to a sustainable future of the planet.
1. What was Ant Forest given the award for?| A．It brings convenience to people’s lives. |
| B．It is run by the world’s leading payment platform. |
| C．It technically assists many people to protect ecology. |
| D．It has made the greatest contribution to global development. |
| A．How Alipay makes profits. |
| B．How Ant Forest is carried out. |
| C．What a low-carbon life is like. |
| D．Why Alipay takes up the initiative. |
| A．350 million people have planted real trees. |
| B．Promoting tourism can help save animals. |
| C．China keeps a balance between economy and ecology. |
| D．The expansion of green coverage mainly results from Ant Forest. |
| A．By criticizing natural disasters. |
| B．By stopping the global warming. |
| C．By providing a platform to make joint efforts. |
| D．By encouraging people to donate money to plant trees. |
Confucius Institute is a non-profit public institute which aims at promoting Chinese language and culture and supporting local Chinese teaching internationally through affiliated Confucius Institutes. Its headquarters is in Beijing and is under the Office of Chinese Language Council International or Hanban in Chinese.
Over the past three decades, Chinese economy is booming. The world is watching China and many foreigners have realized the importance of seeking cooperation, so they want to do business with Chinese people and learning our language works better, Confucius institute provides the place to learn mandarin.
As the world is crazy about Chinese, more and more foreigners have interest in our language and culture. With the purpose of promoting our language and culture, Confucius institute program was set up in Korea in 2004, now the Confucius institute is all around the world. The foreigners practise Chinese so hard. They learn how to pronounce and write, even use the chopsticks.
The Confucius institute program works well. There is a biggest competition for the foreigner to show their Chinese. When we watch the show, we will realize they can speak Chinese so well and admire them so much, because it is so hard to learn. Some foreigners not only speak mandarin well, but also know much about Chinese culture.
The Confucius institute program works to promote Chinese language and culture and the achievement is great. Today, the world is learning Chinese.
1. What is the aim of Confucius Institute? (no more than 15 words)2. Why are many foreigners watching China and want to seek cooperation? (no more than 1o words)
3. What do more and more foreigners have interest in? (no more than 5 words)
4. What does the underlined word “admire” in Paragraph 4 mean? (1 word)
5. What do you think the future of Confucius Institute? (no more than 20 words)
7 . 
When senior leaders at toymaker Lego first learned that adults were buying large quantities of their plastic bricks and getting together to build Lego creations of their own, “they thought it was very strange,” says Smith-Meyer.
“Before the late 1990s, the company didn’t think their adult fans had value,” says Smith-Meyer. “Leadership actually thought adults were having a negative impact on the brand.” Thanks to a handful of employees who worked to change attitudes inside the company, gone are the days when labels on Lego boxes stated that the contents were appropriate only for children ages 7 to 12. Lego’s newest marketing motto is “Adults Welcome.”
Today Lego is the world’s largest and most profitable toymaker. The enthusiasm and buying power of adult fans of Lego played a major role in the company’s rise to the top. But insiders say the road from “kids only” to “adults welcome” was a long, uphill climb.
Lego founder Ole Kirk Kristiansen always knew he wanted to market his products completely to kids. When Kristiansen started The Lego Group in 1932, he made wooden toys that were intended for children. In 1946, he began making plastic toys. In 1958, he and his son developed the first coupling bricks, the basic design of which hasn’t changed much over the years. They’re even used together with bricks made today.
As the company grew over its first six decades, few imagined that its products could attract as many adults as children. Then attitudes began to shift in the late 1990s and early 2000s when Lego posted its first-ever loss in 1998. By 2003, when it reported a $238 million loss, the company was looking seriously at bankruptcy (破产). “Those were Lego’s dark days,” McKee says.
In the wake of the crisis, “Everyone suddenly wanted to see what designs I’d been working on with adult fans,” McKee says. In August 2005, when Lego CEO Jorgen Vig Knudstorp attended a fan meeting, he saw for himself the sea of adult supporters. “I see a future where we will be working more closely together,” he recalls. The booming partnership would eventually produce some of the company’s most popular and profitable themes, including Lego Creator and Lego’s Ambassador Network, and the company’s first-ever official fan conference: 2021’s Lego Con.
“Lego used to treat their adult customers like goods; today, they treat them like partners,” McKee says.
1. What did Ole Kirk Kristiansen do in 1932?| A．He developed the first coupling bricks. | B．He and his son invented wooden toys. |
| C．He began making plastic toys. | D．He set up his toy company. |
| A．was faced with a business crisis | B．started treating them like goods |
| C．got financial support from them | D．found its products less attractive to kids |
| A．Lego was forced to replace wooden toys with plastic ones. |
| B．Lego’s basic design of the first coupling bricks are still in use. |
| C．Lego’s partnership with gifted kids produced popular themes. |
| D．Lego has targeted adults as potential customers since it was founded. |
| A．The world’s largest and most profitable toymaker. |
| B．Lego’s shift from “kids only” to “adults welcome”. |
| C．Lego’s dark days of the creation of plastic toys. |
| D．The brief but awesome history of Lego. |
8 . Bird pattern carved on Yubi in Chinese, comes alive and circles around, while an audio guide introduces the cultural relic and the bird’s connotation (寓意). Such is the experience of watching a cultural relic through a pair of augmented reality (AR) glasses at the Liangzhu Museum.
The museum displays various burial objects found in the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City in Hangzhou, showcasing the civilization of prehistoric rice agriculture and a state-level society between 3,300 B.C. and 2,300 B.C. The site was included on the UNESCO World Heritage List in July 2019, providing profound and compelling evidence that Chinese civilization started 5,000 years ago.
Using AR to tell Liangzhu’s ancient story and let the young people sense and feel close to cultural relics through modern technology is an important task at the museum, making it a pioneer in using modern technology and a hot place for tourists.
“I found that most students were very curious about it, and it could inspire students to have the desire to learn more,” said Chen Xi, the AR glasses provider. “I’ve never seen this before. The illustration of the ancient wild birds above is not that clear. But with the AR glasses, I know what the ancient wild bird exactly looks like and how it is different from what we see on TV,” said Rong Mei, a visitor in her twenties. “Compared with traditional ways of appreciating a cultural relic, AR glasses guide has virtual images which help people visually understand the information behind the relic, such as in which life scenarios was the relic used, its function and its cultural connotation,” said Zhou Liming, director of the Liangzhu Museum.
From digitalization to intelligentization (智能化), the Liangzhu Museum took more than five years. It started to collect the digital information of the ruins and relics since 2015. It paves the way for the museum to deliver Liangzhu’s story through multimedia approaches to attract more people, especially the youth, as modern technology bridges the gap between young people and cultural relics.
1. What is the crucial significance of Liangzhu cultural relics?| A．Unearthing various prehistoric burial objects. |
| B．Representing the world’s earliest rice culture. |
| C．Enriching the UNESCO World Heritage List. |
| D．Confirming China’s 5,000-year-old civilization. |
| A．To inspire the curiosity of students. |
| B．To show the aim and effects of using AR glasses. |
| C．To highlight hi-tech brings people close to cultural relics. |
| D．To present opinions of appreciating cultural relics vary. |
| A．The discovery of the cultural relics. |
| B．The restoration of the ruins and relics. |
| C．The process of forming intelligentization. |
| D．The reconstruction of the Liangzhu Museum. |
| A．Stories behind the AR Glasses |
| B．Adventures in Liangzhu Museum |
| C．A New Chapter for Liangzhu Museum |
| D．An Encounter with the Prehistoric China |
9 . Every experience makes us grow — nowhere is this more true than at North Country School (NCS). The NCS experience includes both classroom and experiential learning. Their courses help every child unlock their hidden potential and passions.
NCS was eye-opening for Sam Shi. He discovered his passion for biology as he learned about the wildlife and ecosystems (生态系统) within the Adirondacks. “The hands-on, placed-based teaching styles were extremely interesting,” he says. “A whole new type of appreciation occurs when you learn about living things while actually being surrounded by it.”
NCS students grow and learn effectively thanks to the direct experience they get. Led by talented teachers, they aren’t just learning by doing — they’re knowing by doing.
Shi got a taste of this as early as his first day in the Design and Build class with Larry Robjent. “No NCS class works like your standard, textbook classes,” he says. “Larry laid out our year-long project of deconstructing an on-campus bridge and plans to build a new one. A year-long project, where we actually got to work outside, with our hands, and build something practical. No chance you’d find that anywhere else.”
Shi described everything about that class as “special”. He got to be creative. Most importantly, he studied physics and engineering in practical ways. “At the end I got to stand alongside my classmates and admire the product of our efforts, something that would remain a piece of NCS for many years to come,” he shares.
Such breakthroughs happen daily at NCS. “The journey of discovering how to trust my abilities is a life lesson that has remained with me and likely always will,” says Shi. “The teachers always encouraged me to try new things and to trust myself.”
With such courses, it is no wonder NCS students gain confidence, creativity and knowledge. As Shi says, “I had no idea how cool this place would be, and certainly didn’t expect my study there to impact my life as obviously as it did and continues to do.”
1. What are courses like at North Country School according to the passage?| A．They only focus on experiential learning. |
| B．They can help inspire students’ personal growth. |
| C．They are mainly for gifted students. |
| D．They attract many talented teachers. |
| A．Repairing. | B．Creating. | C．Taking apart. | D．Blowing up. |
| A．A passion for biology. |
| B．A knowledge of building a bridge. |
| C．A curiosity about new things. |
| D．A sense of self-confidence. |
| A．He feels gratitude to his school. |
| B．He wouldn’t have become what he is now without being educated at NCS. |
| C．What he has learned at NCS will affect him all through his life. |
| D．The time he spent at NCS is worth remembering. |
10 . Club sports provide both a competitive and social sporting experience to any Purdue student. Whether you are looking to continue to be part of a sport you love or looking for new experiences, there is a club for you at every skill level.
The Purdue University Baseball Club
The Purdue University Baseball Club is a student-run organization that participates in intercollegiate(大学间的)athletic competition. We provide students an opportunity to continue their baseball career at a collegiate level.
President: Jack Fitzhugh
Email: jfitzhu@purdue.edu
The Purdue Gymnastics Club
The Purdue Gymnastics Club is a group of normal everyday students who, like yourself, want to stay active while at school. We practice during evening hours four times a week during the fall and spring semesters. We own and operate equipment for four women’s and six men’s events.
President: Maya MeDonald
Email: medon127@purdue.edu
The Purdue Triathlon Club
The Purdue Triathlon Club’s mission is to get together multi—sport athletes who want to train in a social environment and promote interest and participation in triathlons(铁人三项), duathlons(铁人两项), running, swimming and cycling events on the Purdue University campus. We encourage and support members while training together. We travel to races in the spring and summer together and host two races during the school year. We end our year at the Collegiate Nationals in April.
President: Katalin Kovach
Email: kovach 10@ purdue.edu
The Purdue Men’s Club
The Purdue Men’s Club Volleyball allows Purdue undergraduate and graduate students to play volleyball at a competitive, intercollegiate level. Tryouts are held at the beginning of each semester and teams are divided based on skill level. Players come from all over the country, not just the Midwest. The first and second teams travel to tournaments across the Midwest and to the NCVF National tournament each spring. The club is an NCVF and MIVA recognized program and consistently finishes in the top competitive divisions of the region and nation.
President: Ben Bednarczyk
Email: bbednarc@ purdue.edu
1. Who can you contact if you want to participate in a baseball game?| A．Maya MeDonald. | B．Katalin Kovach. | C．Jack Fitzhugh. | D．Ben Bednarczyk. |
| A．It operates equipment for 10 events. |
| B．It is open every day throughout the semester. |
| C．It includes both students and professional athletes. |
| D．It is a student-run organization. |
| A．It aims to popularize three sports. | B．It hosts races annually in April. |
| C．It divides members based on skill level. | D．It allows athletes to train in multiple sports. |
| A．The Purdue Triathlon Club. | B．The Purdue Gymnastics Club. |
| C．The Purdue Men’s Club Volleyball. | D．The Purdue University Baseball Club. |
| A．Students’ Textbooks. | B．School Magazines. |
| C．Travel Agencies. | D．Campus Network. |
