1 . Rome can be pricey for travelers, which is why many choose to stay in a hostel (旅社). The hostels in Rome offer a bed in a dorm room for around $25 a night, and for that, you’ll often get to stay in a central location (位置) with security and comfort.
Yellow HostelIf I had to make just one recommendation for where to stay in Rome, it would be Yellow Hostel. It’s one of the best-rated hostels in the city, and for good reason. It’s affordable, and it’s got a fun atmosphere without being too noisy. As an added bonus, it’s close to the main train station.
Hostel Alessandro PalaceIf you love social hostels, this is the best hostel for you in Rome. Hostel Alessandro Palace is fun. Staff members hold plenty of bar events for guests like free shots, bar crawls and karaoke. There’s also an area on the rooftop for hanging out with other travelers during the summer.
Youth Station HostelIf you’re looking for cleanliness and a modern hostel, look no further than Youth Station. It offers beautiful furnishings and beds. There are plenty of other benefits, too; it doesn’t charge city tax; it has both air conditioning and a heater for the rooms; it also has free Wi-Fi in every room.
Hotel and Hostel Des ArtistesHotel and Hostel Des Artistes is located just a 10-minute walk from the central city station and it’s close to all of the city’s main attractions. The staff is friendly and helpful, providing you with a map of the city when you arrive, and offering advice if you require some. However, you need to pay 2 euros a day for Wi-Fi.
1. What is probably the major concern of travelers who choose to stay in a hostel?| A．Comfort. | B．Security. |
| C．Price. | D．Location. |
| A．Yellow Hostel. | B．Hostel Alessandro Palace. |
| C．Youth Station Hostel. | D．Hotel and Hostel Des Artistes. |
| A．It gets noisy at night. | B．Its staff is too talkative. |
| C．It charges for Wi-Fi. | D．It’s inconveniently located. |
2 . By day, Robert Titterton is a lawyer. In his spare time though he goes on stage beside pianist Maria Raspopova — not as a musician but as her page turner. “I’m not a trained musician, but I’ve learnt to read music so I can help Maria in her performance.”
Mr Titterton is chairman of the Omega Ensemble but has been the group’s official page turner for the past four years. His job is to sit beside the pianist and turn the pages of the score so the musician doesn’t have to break the flow of sound by doing it themselves. He said he became just as nervous as those playing instruments on stage.
“A lot of skills are needed for the job. You have to make sure you don’t turn two pages at once and make sure you find the repeats in the music when you have to go back to the right spot.” Mr Titterton explained.
Being a page turner requires plenty of practice. Some pieces of music can go for 40 minutes and require up to 50 page turns, including back turns for repeat passages. Silent onstage communication is key, and each pianist has their own style of “nodding” to indicate a page turn which they need to practise with their page turner.
But like all performances, there are moments when things go wrong. “I was turning the page to get ready for the next page, but the draft wind from the turn caused the spare pages to fall off the stand,” Mr Titterton said, “Luckily I was able to catch them and put them back.”
Most page turners are piano students or up-and-coming concert pianists, although Ms Raspopova has once asked her husband to help her out on stage.
“My husband is the worst page turner,” she laughed. “He’s interested in the music, feeling every note, and I have to say: ‘Turn, turn!’ Robert is the best page turner I’ve had in my entire life.”
1. What should Titterton be able to do to be a page turner?| A．Read music. | B．Play the piano. |
| C．Sing songs. | D．Fix the instruments. |
| A．Boring. | B．Well-paid. |
| C．Demanding. | D．Dangerous. |
| A．Counting the pages. | B．Recognizing the “nodding”. |
| C．Catching falling objects. | D．Performing in his own style. |
| A．He has very poor eyesight. | B．He ignores the audience. |
| C．He has no interest in music. | D．He forgets to do his job. |
3 . Over the past 38 years, Mr. Wang has pretended to be someone else many times,and has even learned to
The 60-year-old is not an actor, but a
In the 1990s, a group of thieves often sold stolen goods with the help of some beggars. To look into the
“I often
Wang, who is often in
Wang's
| A．teach | B．compare | C．assess | D．speak |
| A．lawyer | B．doctor | C．policeman | D．businessman |
| A．role | B．study | C．family | D．audience |
| A．minor | B．case | C．future | D．question |
| A．interviewed | B．joined | C．arrested | D．assisted |
| A．challenge | B．experience | C．appearance | D．freedom |
| A．vote | B．sympathy | C．permission | D．trust |
| A．invited | B．forced | C．helped | D．expected |
| A．drunk | B．deserted | C．bored | D．lost |
| A．guide | B．persuade | C．excuse | D．allow |
| A．refer to | B．note down | C．ask about | D．miss out |
| A．plan | B．agreement | C．direction | D．information |
| A．awkward | B．dangerous | C．unfortunate | D．strange |
| A．separate | B．recover | C．escape | D．hear |
| A．courage | B．honesty | C．kindness | D．optimism |
4 . Sitting in the garden for my friend’s birthday. I felt a buzz (振动) in my pocket. My heart raced when I saw the email sender’s name. The email started off: “Dear Mr Green, thank you for your interest” and “the review process took longer than expected.” It ended with “We are sorry to inform you…” and my vision blurred (模糊). The position—measuring soil quality in the Sahara Desert as part of an undergraduate research programme — had felt like the answer I had spent years looking for.
I had put so much time and emotional energy into applying, and I thought the rejection meant the end of the road for my science career.
So I was shocked when, not long after the email, Professor Mary Devon, who was running the programme, invited me to observe the work being done in her lab. I jumped at the chance, and a few weeks later I was equally shocked—and overjoyed—when she invited me to talk with her about potential projects I could pursue in her lab. What she proposed didn’t seem as exciting as the original project I had applied to, but I was going to give it my all.
I found myself working with a robotics professor on techniques for collecting data from the desert remotely. That project, which I could complete from my sofa instead of in the burning heat of the desert, not only survived the lockdown but worked where traditional methods didn’t. In the end, I had a new scientific interest to pursue.
When I applied to graduate school, I found three programmes promising to allow me to follow my desired research direction. And I applied with the same anxious excitement as before. When I was rejected from one that had seemed like a perfect fit, it was undoubtedly difficult. But this time I had the perspective (视角) to keep it from sending me into panic. It helped that in the end I was accepted into one of the other programmes I was also excited about.
Rather than setting plans in stone, I’ve learned that sometimes I need to take the opportunities that are offered, even if they don’t sound perfect at the time, and make the most of them.
1. How did the author feel upon seeing the email sender’s name?| A．Anxious. | B．Angry. | C．Surprised. | D．Settled. |
| A．criticise the review process | B．stay longer in the Sahara Desert |
| C．apply to the original project again | D．put his heart and soul into the lab work |
| A．demanding | B．inspiring | C．misleading | D．amusing |
| A．An invitation is a reputation. | B．An innovation is a resolution. |
| C．A rejection can be a redirection. | D．A reflection can be a restriction. |
5 . A Take a view, the Landscape(风景)Photographer of the Year Award, was the idea of Charlie Waite, one of today’s most respected landscape photographers.Each year, the high standard of entries has shown that the Awards are the perfect platform to showcase the very best photography of the British landscape.Take a view is a desirable annual competition for photographers from all comers of the UK and beyond.
| Mike Shepherd(2011) Skiddaw in Winter Cumbria, England | It was an extremely cold winter’s evening and freezing fog hung in the air. I climbed to the top of a small rise and realised that the mist was little more than a few feet deep, and though it was only a short climb, I found myself completely above it and looking at a wonderfully clear view of Skiddaw with the sun setting in the west. I used classical techniques, translated from my college days spent in the darkroom into Photoshop, to achieve the black—and—white image(图像). |
| Timothy Smith(2014) Macclesfield Forest Cheshire, England | I was back in my home town of Macclesfield to take some winter images. Walking up a path through the forest towards Shutlingsloe. a local high point, I came across a small clearing and immediately noticed the dead yellow grasses set against the fresh snow. The small pine added to the interest and I placed it centrally to take the view from the foreground right through into the forest. |
| A．Writers. | B．Photographers. | C．Painters. | D．Tourists. |
| A．They are winter images. |
| B．They are in black and white. |
| C．They show mountainous scenes. |
| D．They focus on snow—covered forests. |
| A．In a history book. | B．In a novel. | C．In an art magazine. | D．In a biography. |
6 . We live in a town with three beaches. There are two parts less than 10 minutes’ walk from home where neighborhood children gather to play. However, what my children want to do after school is pick up a screen — any screen — and stare at it for hours. They are not alone. Today’s children spend an average of four and a half hours a day looking at screens, split between watching television and using the Internet.
In the past few years, an increasing number of people and organisations have begun coming up with plans to counter this trend. A couple of years ago film-maker David Bond realised that his children, then aged five and three, were attached to screens to the point where he was able to say “chocolate” into his three-year-old son’s ear without getting a response. He realised that something needed to change, and, being a London media type, appointed himself “marketing director from Nature”. He documented his journey as he set about treating nature as a brand to be marketed to young people. The result was Project Wild Thing, a film which charts the birth of the World Network, a group of organisations with the common goal of getting children out into nature.
“Just five more minutes outdoors can make a difference,” David Bond says. “There is a lot of really interesting evidence which seems to be suggesting that if children are inspired up to the age of seven, then being outdoors will be on habit for life.” His own children have got into the habit of playing outside now: “We just send them out into the garden and tell them not to come back in for a while.”
Summer is upon us. There is an amazing world out there, and it needs our children as much as they need it. Let us get them out and let them play.
1. What is the problem with the author’s children?| A．They often annoy their neighbours. | B．They are tired of doing their homework. |
| C．They have no friends to play with | D．They stay in front of screens for too long. |
| A．By making a documentary film. | B．By organizing outdoor activities. |
| C．By advertising in London media. | D．By creating a network of friends. |
| A．records | B．predicts | C．delays | D．confirms |
| A．Let Children Have Fun | B．Young Children Need More Free Time |
| C．Market Nature to Children | D．David Bond: A Role Model for Children |
7 . As a child, I was proud of my southern origin. My own voice reflected my family’s past and present-part northern Mississippi, part Tennessee, all southern. There was no sound I loved more than my grandmother’s accent: thick, sweet, warm.
While growing up, I began to realize outside of our region, southerners were often dismissed as uncultured and ignorant. I was ready to leave behind my tiny town in West Tennessee, starting a new life and jumping at big chances in some far-off cities. In that embarrassing space between “teen” and “adult”, my accent was a symbol of everything I thought I hated about my life in the rural South. I feared it would disqualify me from being a noted magazine writer. I would have to talk less “country”. So I killed a piece of myself. I’m ashamed of it, but I’m more ashamed that I tried to kill that part of someone else-change Emily’s accent.
I met Emily in college. She was determined to work for the student newspaper, which was where I spent most of my waking hours, and we became friends. She, unlike me, accepted her roots. Early in our friendship, her mother asked where I was from, assuming it was somewhere up north. Then I felt my efforts paid off and even wanted to ignore the mistake.
Emily is two years younger and she cared about my opinion. I advised her to be more like me and hide her signature Manchester accent. I stressed that throughout our college years, often by making fun of her vowel (元音) sounds. I told myself I was helping her achieve her dream of working as a reporter. Now, I see that it was actually about justifying my hiding part of myself.
Grandma Carolyn used to tell me, “Girl, don’t forget where you come from.” Now I truly understand that. Many things have faded from memory, but this sticks in my mind with uncomfortable clarity. Now that I am grown and have left the South, it’s important to me.
1. What made the author want to leave her hometown?| A．Appeal of convenience in cities. |
| B．Her dream of becoming a writer. |
| C．Outside prejudice against southerners. |
| D．Her desire for the northern accent. |
| A．Upset. | B．Pleased. | C．Ashamed. | D．Surprised. |
| A．To prove herself right. | B．To help Emily be a reporter. |
| C．To make herself influential. | D．To protect Emily’s self-dignity. |
| A．Stay true to your roots. | B．Never do things by halves. |
| C．Hold on to your dreams. | D．Never judge a person by his accent. |
8 . When I mentioned to some friends that we all have accents, most of them proudly replied, “Well, I speak perfect English/Chinese/etc.” But this kind of misses the point.
More often than not, what we mean when we say someone “has an accent” is that their accent is different from the local one, or that pronunciations are different from our own. But this definition of accents is limiting and could give rise to prejudice. Funnily enough, in terms of the language study, every person speaks with an accent. It is the regular differences in how we produce sounds that define our accents. Even if you don’t hear it yourself, you speak with some sort of accent. In this sense, it’s pointless to point out that someone “has an accent”. We all do!
Every person speaks a dialect (方言), too. In the field of language study, a dialect is a version of a language that is characterized by its variations of structure, phrases and words. For instance,” You got eat or not? “(meaning “Have you eaten?” ) is an acceptable and understood question in Singapore Oral English. The fact that this expression would cause a standard American English speaker to take pause doesn’t mean that Singapore Oral English is “wrong” or “ungrammatical”. The sentence is well-formed and clearly communicative, according to native Singapore English speakers’ solid system of grammar. Why should it be wrong just because it’s different?
We need to move beyond a narrow conception of accents and dialects — for the benefit of everyone.
Language differences like these provide insights into people’s cultural experiences and backgrounds. In a global age, the way one speaks is a distinct part of one’s identity. Most people would be happy to talk about the cultures behind their speech. We’d learn more about the world we live in and make friends along the way.
1. What does the author think of his/ her friends’ response in paragraph 1?| A．It reflects their self confidence. |
| B．It reflects their language levels. |
| C．It misses the point of communication. |
| D．It misses the real meaning of accents. |
| A．To justify the use of dialects. |
| B．To show the diversity of dialects. |
| C．To correct a grammatical mistake. |
| D．To highlight a traditional approach. |
| A．Learn to speak with your local dialect. |
| B．Seek for an official definition of accents. |
| C．Appreciate the value of accents and dialects. |
| D．Distinguish our local languages from others’. |
| A．Everyone Has an Accent |
| B．Accents Enhance Our Identities |
| C．Dialects Lead to Misunderstanding |
| D．Standard English Is at Risk |
9 . My first job was at a fast-food restaurant called Carroll’s in my hometown. One spring day my next-door neighbor
One little
The pay was
It was great to
Besides
| A．allowed | B．invited | C．forbade | D．taught |
| A．topic | B．mistake | C．difficulty | D．opportunity |
| A．March | B．June | C．August | D．October |
| A．address | B．age | C．name | D．face |
| A．fired | B．interviewed | C．refused | D．accepted |
| A．low | B．high | C．enough | D．good |
| A．counter | B．door | C．park | D．toilet |
| A．damaged | B．ignored | C．enjoyed | D．missed |
| A．help | B．thank | C．recognize | D．encounter |
| A．hidden | B．secret | C．distant | D．major |
| A．woke up | B．gave up | C．turned up | D．looked up |
| A．surprised | B．ashamed | C．disappointed | D．frightened |
| A．worrying | B．lying | C．complaining | D．arguing |
| A．days | B．hours | C．months | D．years |
| A．food | B．service | C．payment | D．experience |
10 . Last year, my friend, Kydee Williams, and I started a non-profit project because we wanted to do charity work differently. Thus, The Pop-Up Care Shop was
TPUCS is a traveling shop of
From our experience, we learned smaller shelters, especially those in less-commercialized areas were often
While material things like food, clothes, money, and shelter can help people survive, what
| A．found | B．donated | C．born | D．purchased |
| A．cheap | B．free | C．value | D．messy |
| A．quit | B．chose | C．forbade | D．held |
| A．homeless | B．fearless | C．guiltless | D．restless |
| A．Ceasing | B．Highlighting | C．Starting | D．Monitoring |
| A．hard | B．fun | C．odd | D．core |
| A．crucial | B．unnecessary | C．impossible | D．logical |
| A．breaking down | B．giving back | C．keeping up | D．pulling through |
| A．ignored | B．emphasized | C．mentioned | D．estimated |
| A．harmful | B．relevant | C．opposed | D．open |
| A．shoppers | B．pioneers | C．officers | D．volunteers |
| A．reliable | B．selfless | C．creative | D．courageous |
| A．understand | B．satisfy | C．anticipate | D．illustrate |
| A．originally | B．slightly | C．truly | D．barely |
| A．identify | B．detect | C．reveal | D．make |
