1 . Chinese Teapot Escaping from British Museum Goes Viral

   

Chinese state media has praised a viral video series, Escape from the British Museum, which tells the story of a jade teapot coming to life and escaping from the British Museum to make its way back home.

In the video series released online on Sept 5^th, a female vlogger plays the role of an ancient Chinese jade teapot, while her male partner acts as a journalist who helps it return to China.

The plot line taps into growing criticism of the British Museum after reports last month that more than 1,500 priceless objects, including gold jewelry, gems and glass items, were missing, stolen or damaged, which made headlines around the world. Also, the jade teapot’s reaction reflected the “casual attitude of the British Museum toward Chinese cultural relics, as many of them are crammed into just one cabinet for exhibition”. Problems in the management and security of cultural objects in the British Museum exposed have led to the doubts about a long-standing and widely-spread claim that foreign cultural objects are better protected in the British Museum.

The video series stirred up the emotions of Chinese people after first being released by independent vloggers on Douyin by showing how the teapot experienced the happiness of returning to China to see pandas and watch a flag-raising ceremony on Tiananmen Square. Many netizens expressed their eagerness for cultural artifacts overseas to return home with dignity and honor.

In August the state media Global Times also called for the return of Chinese artifacts from the museum “free of charge” in the wake of the controversy. It strongly supported the video series for touching on a “powerful message” about the importance of cultural heritage and reflecting “Chinese people’s strong and emotional desire for the repatriation of the Chinese cultural relics”.

State broadcaster CCTV gave the short films a glowing review saying “We are very pleased to see Chinese young people are passionate about history and tradition. We are also looking forward to the early return of Chinese artifacts that have been displaced overseas.”

1. What is the writing purpose of paragraph 3?

A．To discuss the problem in management.	B．To introduce the content of the video series.
C．To express criticism to the British Museum.	D．To provide background of the video series.

2. What does the underlined word “repatriation” (Para. 5) probably mean?

A．Return.

B．Reserve

C．Repair

D．Reflection.

3. What can we learn about the video series from the text?

A．Chinese netizens expressed anger towards it.	B．The Chinese media showed appreciation for it.
C．The British Museum took it quite seriously.	D．The viewers were eager to learn history from it.

4. Where may the text be taken from?

A．A guidebook.	B．A story book.
C．A news report.	D．A book review.

2 . I went to South Africa for the first time as a lone travelling female with a love for wildlife when I just graduated from high school.

During my six-month stay there, I spent the last 4 weeks at GVI Karongwe. The GVI members were so helpful and were so kind and lovely too when I was there. It was one of the easiest and best-organised programs I spent my time on.

Every day we collected information on a variety of animals for research. I have to say it changed my life in so many ways and actually guided me on my path to the job I am doing now.

The first week was pretty busy with training to prepare us for our job in the bush (灌木) and teach us about mammals (哺乳动物), birds and other animals, tracks and signs as well as how to use the equipment (设备), take care of the cars and clean and cook for a house of more than 20 people. The training made a world of difference to anyone who was nervous about being new to the South African wilderness and wanted to do the job well. I also made friends with people from all over the world and they were of all ages and backgrounds, united by the common goal to contribute to wildlife protection in South Africa, which was so amazing!

GVI programs provide a fantastic way to learn and contribute to the community and wildlife in a hands-on way. It has put me on the path of wildlife research for the rest of my life!

1. Why did the author go to South Africa at first?

A．To do a voluntary job there.	B．To visit the wild animals there.
C．To join in the GVI program there.	D．To carry out research there.

2. What did the author think of the training provided at the first week?

A．It was necessary and important.	B．It was relaxing and creative.
C．It was difficult.	D．It was too long.

3. What can we learn about the GVI program in South Africa?

A．It offers free training and accommodation.	B．It helped the author choose her career.
C．Its members all have rich knowledge of wildlife.	D．Its purpose is to encourage visits to South Africa.

4. What is the author’s purpose in writing the text?

A．To give a positive review of the GVI program.	B．To tell us the importance of animal protection.
C．To tell us what she learned in South Africa.	D．To share her experiences in South Africa.

3 . Ru Ling loves spending time in skywells. To her, these courtyards of old houses are the perfect place to be in on a hot and humid day. From 2014 to 2021, Ru lived in a century-old wood-framed home in the village of eastern China’s Anhui province. She moved there for a change of life after living and working in air-conditioned buildings for many years.

A skywell, or “tian jing”, is a typical feature of a traditional home in southern and eastern China. They are relatively common in historic residences in Sichuan, Jiangsu, Anhui and Jiangxi. In today’s rapidly urbanizing (城市化) China, fewer and fewer people live in skywell dwellings—air-conditioned flats in multi-storeyed buildings and tower blocks are the main forms of homes.

But a revival (复苏) of interest in traditional Chinese architecture is leading some of historic buildings with skywells to be restored for modern times. Meanwhile, as a government push has made low-carbon innovations in the building sector a trend, some architects are drawing inspiration from skywells and other traditional Chinese architectural features to help keep new buildings cooler.

Ancient “green wisdom” such as skywells continues to inspire today’s climate adaptive design and innovations in passive cooling, according to Wang Zhengfeng, a researcher at the Institute for Area Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Passive cooling is a method that incorporates design and technology to cool a building without the use of power.

However, Wang points out some challenges for bringing skywells into modern designs. The mechanisms of courtyards facilitating natural lighting, ventilation and rain collection are well known, but applying these principles needs to be site-specific. Because traditional skywells had different shapes, sizes and features, adding skywells into modern buildings requires designers to be sensitive to their project’s context (环境) and situation, she explains. When asked about why skywells have appealed to modern Chinese people, Wang says that the courtyard is also designed to serve as a gathering space for families or communities. “Perhaps changes in the lifestyle could also lead to nostalgia among people living in concrete and glass forests.”

1. What is the purpose of the first paragragh?

A．To introduce Ru Ling’s love for skywells.

B．To inform readers of the benefits of skywells.

C．To lead in the topic of popularity of skywells.

D．To support the idea of living in skywells.

2. What is the main idea of Paragraph 3?

A．Features and importance of the historic residences.

B．Appreciation for traditional Chinese architecture.

C．Reasons for the comeback of traditional skywells.

D．Great efforts to restore the past glory of skywells.

3. The underlined word “incorporate” can be best replaced by ______.

A．combine

B．collect

C．invent

D．replace

4. What may influence the application of skywells in modern designs?

A．Lack of enough money and experience.	B．Dependence on natural surroundings.
C．People’s specific requirements.	D．The fast speed of urbanization.

4 . The pandemic has affected nearly all aspects of modern life, from the clothes we wear to the food we eat. There is one thing, however, that has remained almost unchanged: the emojis we send.

According to data from the Unicode Consortium (统一码联盟), nine of the 10 most-used emojis from 2019 also ranked among the top 10 this year. The tears of joy emoji ranked No.1, despite members of Gen Z deeming it uncool.

“It speaks to how many people use emojis. If emojis were a purely Gen Z thing, then you wouldn’t see it so highly ranked,” said Alexander Robertson, an emoji researcher at Google. “Because of the large number of people using emojis, even if one group thinks something is lame, they have to be a really big group to affect these statistics.”

And it makes sense that Gen Z would think that certain emojis aren’t fashionable. It’s part of the “teenager experience of creating a sense of subculture where there’s a right way and a wrong way of behaving.” Plus, there is a range of laughter that can be expressed: There’s light chuckling. There’s acknowledgement laughter, which is just a marker of empathy. Using emojis, such as the skull face (“I’m dead”) or crying face ( uncontrollable tears of laughter), can help to illustrate that range.

“It basically indicates that we have what we need to communicate a broad range of expression, or even very specific concepts,” Mr Robertson said. “You don’t necessarily need a Covid emoji.”

“We did see a rise in the use of the virus emoji. But it wasn’t made remotely into the most-commonly used ones because we still had plenty to laugh about and plenty to cry about, whether it was because of the pandemic or not,” said Lauren Gawne, a senior lecturer in linguistic at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.

“Even in the midst of this massive global pandemic that preoccupied so much of our time,” She added. “We still spent a lot of time wishing each other happy birthday or checking or laughing about some new and unexpected elements of this slow-burning weirdness.”

1. Why does the tears of joy emoji ranked No.1 despite the dislike from the Z generation?

A．The emoji is a purely Z generation thing.

B．The Z generation are too young to influence the rank.

C．Though they dislike it, the Z generation vote for it ultimately.

D．The Z generation take up a very small portion in emoji users.

2. What does the underlined “it” in paragraph 6 refer to?

A．the virus emoji	B．a Covid emoji
C．the use of the virus emoji	D．the rise in the use of the virus emoji

3. Why wasn’t the virus emoji popular according to Lauren Gawne?

A．The massive global pandemic has come to an end.

B．The pandemic has little influence on people’s daily life.

C．We have a broad range of expression for communication.

D．Some new and useful emojis are created to replace the virus emoji.

4. What is probably the best title for the passage?

A．The Pandemic and the Emoji.

B．Gen Z, the Emoji Generation.

C．The Emoji of the Year.

D．The Rise of Virus Emoji

5 . In 2005, Rachel O’Neill, of Rockwood, Michigan, was working full-time as an assistant in an engineering company. While _______ in a local charity, she’d never done any global volunteering. But after a travel in Africa for her fiftieth birthday, followed by a trip to Malawi, she said, “I felt I had to do something more.”

She was struck by the heavy work done by girls to _______ their families. “I wanted a way to honor them,” she says. She _______ a few women at her local church to make 1,000 simple _______, which were _______ to girls in Malawi.

Rachel _______ her goal that first year. As word spread, donations _______ in. “Dresses started coming every day from all over the country!” Rachel says. In 2008, without any _______ , she started a nonprofit organization called Little Dresses for Africa, with a goal of getting simple homemade dresses for girls(and pants for boys)in _______ communities, where people hardly change their ________ for a year.

So far, more than 10 million dresses have been donated to children in 97 countries, including the United States, though Africa remains a focus. The nonprofit runs a distribution center in Malawi and works ________ with community leaders there to distribute donated dresses and pants, which have proven the key to keeping girls in school.

“Nearly half of Malawi’s population is under age 14,” Rachel says, “We are ________ meeting their needs. For dress designs and donating information, go to littledressesforafrica.org. We only ask people to make high-quality, colorful clothes. ” She also asks for money to ________ shipping costs, estimated at $2 a dress. ________ donations have allowed Little Dresses for Africa to address other needs, including building more than 85 wells and two primary schools. “I couldn’t have done any of this on my own,” Rachel says, “But when you step out in ________ , miracles(奇迹)may happen.”

1.

A．active

B．internal

C．elegant

D．primitive

2.

A．load

B．preserve

C．support

D．form

3.

A．interrupted

B．prevented

C．persuaded

D．warned

4.

A．dresses

B．cakes

C．books

D．trousers

5.

A．led

B．donated

C．floated

D．leaked

6.

A．set

B．achieved

C．lost

D．had

7.

A．flooded

B．froze

C．dived

D．took

8.

A．experiment

B．exposure

C．evidence

D．experience

9.

A．simple

B．harmonious

C．royal

D．poor

10.

A．customs

B．hairstyles

C．clothes

D．possessions

11.

A．violently

B．directly

C．severely

D．hurriedly

12.

A．apart from

B．far from

C．absent from

D．tired from

13.

A．cover

B．charge

C．shelter

D．remove

14.

A．Urgent

B．Distinct

C．Generous

D．General

15.

A．trouble

B．danger

C．faith

D．silence

6 . The Internet’s carbon footprint is as bad as air travel. While it is difficult to measure precisely, estimates place it at over two percent of global greenhouse gas emissions(排放)—the same as the air travel.

Information may appear to spread around the world unseen to our eyes, but it actually passes through enormous data centers placed strategically about the globe, which store, organize and deliver everyone’s data. These centers are extremely energy intensive. In the EU, they consume close to three percent of its total energy usage and also require lots of water to prevent their computers from overheating. In the US, about a fifth of data centers draw water from already stressed water sources.

A typical spam email(垃圾邮件)emits around 0.03g of CO₂ emissions, though longer messages read on a laptop can go all the way up to 26g. Now multiply that by 333 billion(roughly the number of emails that get sent every day in 2022). That puts all those work emails into perspective. One study found if every British adult sent one less “thank you” email a day, it would save 16, 433 tons of carbon a year. It even predicted that the ICT industry could account for up to a fifth of the world’s energy consumption by 2025.

However, there are measures that we can take to reduce our digital carbon footprint. For instance, you can unsubscribe from marketing and other spam emails and only subscribe to newsletters that you still regularly read. Have regular data checks where you delete old contact lists and other documents that no longer have any use. Keep a clean inbox and delete emails you no longer need.

1. Why does the author make a comparison in the beginning?

A．To present the digital carbon footprint.

B．To emphasize the importance of air travel.

C．To advise people not to travel by airplane.

D．To inform the disadvantages of the Internet.

2. What can we infer about data centers?

A．It enjoys a wide popularity.

B．It has various kinds of functions.

C．It causes large energy consumption.

D．It has quite a complex mode of operation.

3. What’s the purpose of mentioning the figures in Paragraph 3?

A．To draw the readers’ attention.

B．To illustrate a certain information.

C．To highlight the change of CO2 emission.

D．To stress the importance of reducing CO2 emission.

4. What’s the author’s attitude towards reducing digital carbon footprint?

A．Neutral.	B．Optimistic.
C．Unfavorable.	D．Concerned.

7 . This question has fascinated behavioural scientists for decades: why do we give money to charity?

The explanations for charitable giving fall into three broad categories, from the purely altruisic (利他的)— I donate because I value the social good done by the charity. The “impurely” altruistic— I donate because I extract value from knowing I contribute to the social good for the charity. And the not-at-all altruistic— I donate because I want to show off to potential mates how rich I am.

But are these motives strong enough to enable people to donate as much as they would want to? Most people support charities in one way or another, but often we struggle to make donations as often as we think we should. Although many people would like to leave a gift to charity in their will, they forget about it when the time comes.

Many people are also aware that they should donate to the causes that have the highest impact, but facts and figures are less attractive than narratives. In a series of experiments, it was found that people are much more responsive to charitable pleas that feature a single, identifiable beneficiary(受益者), than they are to statistical information about the scale of the problem being faced. When it comes to charitable giving, we are often ruled by our hearts and not our heads.

The good news is that charitable giving is contagious—seeing others give makes an individual more likely to give and gentle encouragement from an important person in your life can also make a big difference to your donation decisions— more than quadrupling them in our recent study. Habit also plays a part— in three recent experiments those who volunteered before were more likely to do donate their time than those who had not volunteered before.

In summary, behavioural science identifies a range of factors that influence our donations, and can help us to keep giving in the longer term. This is great news not just for charities, but also for donors.

1. What can we learn about people who do charitable giving?

A．Most people support charity as often as they think they should.

B．Some people don’t want to leave a gift to charity until the time comes.

C．Those who donate because they can gain an advantage are purely altruistic.

D．Some people send money to charity simply to tell others they are wealthy.

2. In which way will people donate more willingly?

A．Not revealing the names of the donors.

B．Showing figures about the seriousness of the problem.

C．Telling stories that feature a single, recognizable beneficiary.

D．Reminding people to write down what to donate in the will in advance.

3. What does the underlined sentence in paragraph 5 mean?

A．People will learn from others and follow the suit.

B．Many people are familiar with charitable giving.

C．Charitable giving helps the beneficiary in all aspects.

D．Charitable giving can bring a lot of benefits to donors.

4. What is the writing purpose of the passage?

A．To persuade more people to donate.

B．To explain the science behind why people donate.

C．To criticize some false charitable giving behaviours.

D．To explore approaches to making people donate more.

8 . It is difficult to name a female architect more iconic than Zaha Hadid, whose name can be translated from Arabic as glorious. She passed away five years ago at the age of 65, but the impact she has left on the world of architecture is profound.

Hadid was born into an upper-class Iraqi family in 1950. At the very beginning, she wanted to become a mathematician and studied science at the American University of Beirut, But at some point she realized that she preferred shapes to numbers. And she turned her concentration to architecture and went to London where she met the famous Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas.

“There are 360 degrees, so why stick to one?” Hadid once said. Despite her abundance of amazing ideas, before the beginning of the 90s, not a single building based on her blueprints had been built. Her highly expressive style, while initially criticized and believed to be crazy, is now regarded as pioneering work. Her striking contemporary architecture, inspired by natural landforms, has graced the skylines of major metropolitan cities.

“Women are always being told, ‘you’re not going to make it; It’s too difficult. You can’t do that Don’t enter this competition; You’ll never win it’,” Hadid said. “They need confidence in themselves and people around them for support.”

Never one to be boxed in by conventions, Hadid proved society wrong. She received her first prize, the “Gold Medal Architectural Design” for her British Architecture in 1982. From then on, the awards kept rolling in. But the true triumph for Hadid came in 2004. Her project for the London Olympics Aquatic Center won her the Pritzker Architecture Prize. She became the first woman and first Muslim to earn the award, making a name for herself and paving the way for female architects.

Hadid’s genius lives on in the array of many other spectacular buildings she has left behind in the world. Among them are the Guangzhou Opera House, the Beijing Daxing International Airport, as well as the Al Wakrah Stadium in Qatar where the 2022 FIFA World Cup will be held.

Hadid may be gone, but her global influence on a new generation of female architects is here to stay.

1. What made Hadid quit science to learn architecture?

A．Her talent in architecture.

B．Her interest in architecture.

C．Her difficulty in learning science.

D．Her encounter with Rem Koolhaas.

2. What can we learn about Hadid’s works?

A．Her architecture was inspired by mathematics

B．Her British Architecture won her the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

C．Her architecture style was too bold to be accepted at the very beginning.

D．Her works can only be found in European countries and the Middle East.

3. What does paragraph 4 mainly about?

A．The talk between Hadid and her colleague.

B．The reason why women fail to be architects.

C．The prejudice from society against women.

D．The difficulty Hadid faced being an architect.

4. What is the most profound impact Hadid has left on the world?

A．She formed a unique style.

B．She broke away from the convention.

C．She received various architecture awards

D．She encouraged other women architects.

9 . Historical accounts often described the now-extinct California grizzly bears as huge beasts ready to attack humans and livestock at any time. But according to a new paper, scientists say the truth might have been less dramatic: The bears ate a mostly vegetarian diet and were smaller than previously described. California grizzly bears once roamed in the Golden State. But European settlers often hunted, poisoned and trapped the creatures. Over time, because of these human activities, the California grizzly population declined. The last reliable sighting of a California grizzly bear occurred 100 years ago in 1924, and the animals disappeared completely sometime after that.

Researchers wanted to get a better understanding of the factors that accelerated the bears’ extinction. They also hoped to gain more insight into the creatures’ behavior, size and diet. To do so, they turned to documents and California grizzly specimens in natural history collections. They measured the animals’ skulls and teeth and analyzed their bones and pelts. The researchers found that California grizzly bears were much smaller than the 2,000 pounds often reported at the time. Historical accounts might not necessarily have been wrong, but they might have only included the largest bears. In addition, analyses of the animals’ bones and skins suggest the bears were primarily eating plants, which stands in contrast to their fear some hyper carnivorous (超级食肉的) reputation. “The bears likely increased meat consumption due to landscape changes coupled with the arrival of livestock,” says study co-author Alexis Mychajliw. However, researchers found the animals still ate a majority vegetarian diet and killed far less livestock than historical accounts suggested.

By digging beyond the bears’ reputation, the researchers gained a more accurate understanding of the California grizzly’s biology and natural history. And since scientists and land managers often rely on historical accounts when reintroducing animals to their former habitats, the study serves as a reminder that those old newspapers and journals do not tell the whole story.

1. What does the underlined word “roamed” in paragraph 1 mean?

A．Disappeared.

B．Declined.

C．Fought.

D．Wandered.

2. What did the researchers discover about California grizzly bears?

A．They mainly fed on livestock.

B．Their diet consisted mostly of plants.

C．They ate a balanced diet of plants and meat.

D．The absence of livestock changed their dietary habit.

3. What can we learn about historical accounts of animals from the last paragraph?

A．They are unique.	B．They are one-sided.
C．They are accurate.	D．They are comprehensive.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．The natural habitats of California grizzly bears.

B．The extinction process of California grizzly bears.

C．The reveal of the truth of California grizzly bears.

D．The significance of the arrival of California grizzly bears.

10 . Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD, 创伤后应激障碍) is a mental disorder that develops among people who have experienced or observed traumatic things such as wars, disasters or other violent events. At the heart of PTSD is a memory that cannot be controlled. It can affect the everyday lives of its sufferers in forms such as flashbacks, nightmares and anxiety.

A new study done by researchers from Yale University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City suggests that patients with PTSD process their traumatic memories differently than regular memories.

The researchers did brain scans of 28 PTSD patients. I hey asked the patients to listen to recorded narrations of their own memories. Some of the recorded memories were neutral, some were simply “sad”, and some were traumatic.

They found that when the patients listened to the sad memories, the hippocampus (海马体), which is responsible for forming memories, was activatea. But when they listened to the traumatic memories, a different area, called the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC. 后扣带回皮质), was engaged. The PCC is not a memory region. Instead, it regulates internal experiences, such as daydreaming.

The more severe PTSD symptoms are, the more active the PCC is. “The brain doesn’t look like it’s in a state of memory; it looks like it is a state of present experience.” Daniela Schiller, one of the authors of the study, told The New York Times. “That means people with PTSD feel as though they’re experiencing the traumatic event again in the present moment, rather than thinking back on it like atypical memory.”

The new finding might hold hope for new PTSD therapies (治疗). Future therapies are expected to focus on helping PTSD patients return their traumatic memories to the hippocampus so that they can treat them as regular and non-disruptive (非破坏性的) memories. Changing the ways of thinking could help the brain reduce the feeling of immediate threat caused by trauma, according to Ilan HarRaz-Rotem, one of the paper’s authors.

1. What is the core issue regarding PTSD according to the text?

A．An uncontrollable memory.	B．Brain damage.
C．Anxiety disorders.	D．Nightmares.

2. What happened when PTSD patients listened to their traumatic memories, according to the study?

A．Their hippocampus was closed.

B．Their internal experiences were blocked.

C．Their PCC area became active.

D．Their regular memory function improved.

3. According to Schiller when individuals with severe PTSD listen to traumatic memories, their brains will be in a state of ________.

A．memory recall	B．daydreaming
C．current experience	D．boredom

4. What could be a possible future therapy for PTSD patients based on the study’s findings?

A．Controlling the hippocampus.

B．Removing the feeling of threat.

C．Normalizing their traumatic memories.

D．Changing their brain structure.