1 . The pupils of Grange town High have been busy getting to know their newest and tallest classmate, a 7-meter-tall giraffe outside their school
The giraffe is a huge sculpture made by a local artist. The school's headmaster noticed the sculpture in the artist's garden as he drove past one day. He thought it would be perfect for his school. “I knew everyone would love it,” he said, “because our basketball team is known as Grange town giraffes, and they wear giraffes on their shirts. So I asked them to write a letter to the artist, asking how much it would cost to buy the giraffe. He was very kind and got it ready to deliver in six weeks - all for nothing. It was expected to arrive on Sunday morning so that the pupils would see it when they got to school on Monday - at that time they had no idea that we were getting it.
The artist, Tom Bennett, was a university professor of chemistry before he left that job in 2006 and only took up metalwork a couple of years ago. “I've always drawn pictures,” he said, “I can even remember doing it on my first day at school - I drew a horse. I wanted it to be the best horse picture ever, but I don't think I succeeded.” Tom's first metalwork was a bicycle for two that he and his wife could go cycling on together. “It was a most uncomfortable bike ever created,” he said, “So I gave up making bicycles and went into sculpture instead.”
Meanwhile, the pupils at Grange town High are very happy with their new classmate. “We are going to hold a competition to give it a proper name.” said one girl. “Everyone likes the expression on his face, so perhaps that will give us some ideas.”
1. According to the text, the giraffe _______________.| A．was as tall as a basketball player | B．was given to Grange town High for free |
| C．was sent to Grange town High on Monday | D．was specially made for a basketball team |
| A．excited | B．nervous | C．worried | D．confident |
| A．He learned a lot about sculpture at university. | B．He visited Grange town High |
| C．He was good at drawing, especially horses. | D．He showed interest in art at an early age. |
| A．It was a difficult job to name a giraffe. |
| B．Tom Bennett is well-known as a sculptor. |
| C．A metal giraffe arrived at Grange town High. |
| D．The Grange town Giraffe is a strong basketball team. |
2 . The United Nations predicts worldwide temperatures over the next five years may at times rise to more than 1. 5 degrees Centigrade above pre-industrial levels. The U. N. 's World Meteorological (气象的) Organization,WMO, said the prediction suggests continued warming could present a challenge to climate change goals set in the 2015 Paris Agreement, which seeks to limit world temperature rises through major cuts in human-caused greenhouse gases.
The WMO said there was a 20 percent chance that the yearly average temperature will rise above 1.5 Celsius higher than the pre-industrial average levels in at least one year. The report identifies 1850-1900 as the pre-industrial period. That does not mean that the average would be crossing the long-term target of 1.5 Celsius that scientists have set as the limit for avoiding catastrophic（灾难性的)climate change.
Temperatures over the last five years have been the warmest on record,the WMO reported. Temperatures over the next five years are very likely to be within the range of 0.91 to 1.59 Celsius above pre-industrial levels, it predicted. Almost all of the world, except for parts of the southern oceans, are likely to be warmer than the recent past, which is defined as 1981 to 2010. Southern Africa and Australia, where fires last year destroyed millions of hectares (公顷)，will probably be drier than usual through 2024, the report said. Africa's Sahel region is likely be wetter,while Europe should see more storms.
Maxx Dilley, the WMO's director of climate services, told the Associated Press the predictions are worrisome. "It shows how close we're getting to what the Paris Agreement is trying to prevent,”he said. Still, Dilley added that it would not be impossible for countries to reach the target set in Paris, of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius, by the end of the century. Petteri Taalas, the WMO Secretary-General,added,"While COVID-19 has caused a severe international health and economic crisis, failure to cope with climate change may threaten human well-being, ecosystems and economies for centuries.”
1. What can we infer about the continued warming?| A．In an alarming trend. | B．Out of control. |
| C．At a steady speed of rising. | D．Within the range of permission. |
| A．Temperatures will have a sudden rise. |
| B．People in Africa should get more help. |
| C．Fires in Australia will last over 5 years. |
| D．Our living environment is getting worse. |
| A．Carefree. | B．Objective. |
| C．Concerned. | D．Ignorant. |
| A．Global impact of Climate change. |
| B．The most serious challenge we face. |
| C．The predictions about temperature rise. |
| D．The methods of coping with continued warming. |
3 . “Tomorrow we will see the Golden Gate Bridge,” said Peter. “I have never seen a golden bridge before.”
Peter's father smiled, but said nothing.
The next morning, his father took Peter to the bridge. Peter first saw it from far away. How big it looked! But then he saw the bridge was red!
“The bridge isn't golden!” he said. “Why is it called the Golden Gate Bridge?”
“It isn't named for its color,” said his father. “It is named for the Golden Gate.”
“What is the Golden Gate?” asked Peter.
“A gate is either an opening, or the thing that closes the opening,” said his father.
“ The Golden Gate is an opening in the land. Water from the sea comes through this opening into San Francisco Bay.”
“Oh,” said Peter. “And the bridge goes over the opening. But why is the opening called the Golden Gate?”
“Years ago men came to California to look for gold,” his father said. “Many came by ship. They came into the bay through that opening. For them it was a gate to gold. They named it the Golden Gate.”
“Well,” said Peter, “I still think the bridge should look golden.”
When getting home, he sent a letter to a California paper. he said:” Red is not the right color for the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge should look golden, the way most people think it does.”
Peter sent $14.78 with his letter. “The money is to help paint the bridge gold, ” he wrote.
Many people read Peter's letter in the newspaper and things began to happen! Some people sent money. A big company gave real gold to make gold paint. A paint company made the paint.
But some people still wanted the bridge to be red!
Will the Golden Gate Bridge ever be golden? It will, if enough people feel as Peter does. How do you feel about it?
1. Why did father smile when hearing his son’s words?| A．His son had never seen a red bridge before. |
| B．His son was too delighted to visit the bridge. |
| C．His son was about to see the bridge tomorrow. |
| D．His son misunderstood the color of the bridge. |
| A．The color of the bridge. |
| B．The shape of the bridge. |
| C．The location of the bridge. |
| D．The function of the bridge. |
| A．Astonished. | B．Puzzled. |
| C．Determined. | D．Frustrated. |
| A．A firm made a gold paint by using real gold. |
| B．The government painted the bridge golden. |
| C．Some people were against the change of the color. |
| D．Some people raised money for the golden bridge. |
4 . While traveling to a foreign land, or perhaps across the state, aren't you looking for something a little more adventurous, more luxurious (豪华) , and packed with facilities that you don't have at home?
Treehotel, Sweden
It was perhaps everybody's childhood dream to be able to have their own tree house. Now you can sleep in a specifically made hotel suite built atop a tree in the Harads Municipality in Sweden. The most unique rooms are the Bird's Nest, a room exactly shaped like a bird nest; the Mirror Cube, a hide-out with reflective outside walls. The rate of each room starts from about $800 per night.
The Manta Resort, Tanzania
The Manta Resort in Tanzania is one of the world's only hotels with rooms placed below the surface of the ocean. By opening the curtains of your windows, you'll be able to see hundreds of fish swimming peacefully around your room. Want to go for a swim? Climb out of your room and jump in the clear waters! For only $250 a night, you, too, can sleep with the fishes.
Book and Bed, Japan
Reading before sleeping is something that many people do. Book and Bed, a 30-room hotel in the heart of Tokyo takes advantage of this by conveniently placing a lot of books in shelves just an arm's reach away from your bed. The rooms at this hotel are small enough for a single adult. Reading yourself to sleep in one of their comfortable rooms will cost only about $40 a night.
Tianzi Hotel, China
The largest image hotel in the world is the Tianzi Hotel in Hebei Province, China. The hotel is a description of the three ancient Chinese gods of Fu, Lu, and Shou- the god of fortune, prosperity, and longevity, respectively. To enter it, simply open the door located in Shou's foot. The peach resting in the God of Longevity's left hand is a one-bedroom suite with a perfect view of the busy city. Rates at the Tianzi Hotel start as cheap as $11 a night.
1. What can we know about Treehotel?| A．It is made on a tree. | B．It is made of wood |
| C．It is called Mirror Cube. | D．It is named after a bird nest.the |
| A．Fishing in the sea | B．Swim in the ocean. |
| C．Read before sleep | D．Enjoy the busy city. |
| A．Treehotel | B．The Manta Resort. |
| C．Book and Bed. | D．Tianzi Hotel. |
5 . The sixth mass extinction of life on the Earth is unfolding more quickly than feared, scientists have warned. More than 30 percent of animals with a backbone — fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals — are declining in both range and population, according to the first comprehensive analysis of these trends.
Around a decade ago, experts feared that a new range wipeout of species was appearing. Today, most agree that it is underway — but the new study suggests that the die-out is already growing fast.
The loss of biodiversity has recently accelerated. Several species of mammals that were relatively safe one or two decades ago are now endangered, including cheetahs, lions and giraffes, the study showed.
There is no mystery as to why: our own ever-expanding species — which has more than doubled in number since 1960 to 7.4 billion — is eating, crowding and polluting its planetary cohabitants out of existence. By comparison, there are as few as 20,000 lions left in the wild, less than 7,000 cheetahs, 500 to 1,000 giant pandas.
The main drivers of wildlife decline are habitat loss, over-consumption, pollution, other species, disease, as well as hunting in the case of tigers, elephants, rhinos and other large animals prized for their body parts.
Climate change is thought to become a major threat in the coming decades, with some animals — most famously polar bears — already in decline due to rising temperatures and changing weather patterns.
1. What does the underlined word “underway” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．Doing. | B．On-going. |
| C．Increasing. | D．Keeping. |
| A．The extinction reasons of the wild animals. |
| B．The disappearance of the wild animals is approaching. |
| C．The extinction of the wild animals is becoming faster. |
| D．The rising temperatures lead to the extinction of the wild animals. |
| A．Protected. | B．Endangered. |
| C．Comfortable. | D．Wonderful. |
| A．Climate change. | B．Humans’ hunting. |
| C．Loss of living areas. | D．Various illnesses. |
6 . China now has 52 sites included on the UNESCO World Heritage list, some of which may give you some clues on your next travel plan.
Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor
The Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is located in Lin Tong County, near Xi’an city, capital of Shanxi province. A total of 8,000 life-size terracotta warriors, chariots and horses, and hundreds of bronze weapons have been unearthed from it. It is believed that it is a major archaeological find, called the eighth wonder of the world, paralleling Egypt’s pyramids.
Kulangsu, a Historic International Settlement
Kulangyu Island, known in the local dialect as Kulangsu, is located on the entry of the Jiulong River, facing the city of Xiamen , influenced by Western culture in the 19th century, especially music. With such a harmonious blend of Western music and Eastern culture, Gulangyu is naturally referred to as the “island of music”.
Qinghai Hoh Xil
Hoh Xil, located in the north-eastern end of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is China’s largest and the world’s third largest uninhabited area. Hoh Xil, with high altitude and fierce weather, no people to live there, is a paradise for wildlife and home to more than 230 species of wild animals including endangered species such as the Tibetan antelope.
Huangshan Mountain
Huangshan, known as “the loveliest mountain of China”, lies in the south of Anhui province in eastern China. The scenic area covers 154 sq km, famous for its peaks, rocks, pines, clouds and springs, with a rich cultural heritage.
1. Where will you go if you are interested in history during your stay in Xi’an?| A．Qinghai Hoh Xil. | B．Kulangsu. | C．Mausoleum. | D．Huangshan. |
| A．Its beautiful scenery. |
| B．Its value in Archeology. |
| C．Its unique natural living environment for wildlife. |
| D．Its mixture of Western music and Eastern culture. |
| A．A science fiction. |
| B．A history textbook. |
| C．A travel guidebook. |
| D．An entertainment magazine. |
7 . Uminur Kuchukova of Russia could have retired years ago. Yet the 61-year-old teacher keeps working at a school in the Siberian village of Sibilyakovo. She continues to teach for one reason: the school’s one and only student, a nine-year-old boy. Kuchukova is to leave next year for health problems, which means the school will close.
Sibilyakovo is like thousands of villages across Russia: Many people moved out of it after the closure of the local state-operated collective farm. Sibilyakovo is mainly home to Tatars, a Turkic group that is one of many minorities in Russia. In the 1970s, the village had a population of 550 and a primary school with four classes. Each class had about 18 children. Today the village’s population has shrunk to 39.
Kuchukova has taught at the school for 42 years. She has bought a home in the town of Tara, about 50 kilometers away and plans to retire there with her husband at the end of the school year. By then, she hopes, her only student will be old enough to travel to a neighboring village for classes. But the nearest school is a 30-minute boat ride across the Irtysh River followed by a 20-minute ride on a school bus.
Kuchukova does not think her student, Ravil, is ready yet for making such a trip every school day. “His parents don’t want to leave Sibilyakovo yet and it’s scary to send a little boy like him over the Irtysh. There are such big waves,” she says.
And even when she herself will finally retire and go to live in Tara, Kuchukova will not leave her past behind, saying, “My parents are buried here; a part of me is here.”
1. Why did so many people leave Sibilyakovo?| A．Because there was no good school. |
| B．Because it wasn’t comfortable to live there. |
| C．Because they wanted to make a living. |
| D．Because they hated working on the local farm. |
| A．Worried. | B．Hopeful. | C．Proud. | D．Guilty. |
| A．Responsible and caring. |
| B．Careful and positive. |
| C．Patient and determined. |
| D．Selfless and confident. |
| A．Kuchukova’s love for Tara. |
| B．Kuchukova’s plan for future. |
| C．Kuchukova’s memory of her parents. |
| D．Kuchukova’s bond with the village. |
8 . Created in the 1920s by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect who designed Waterloo Bridge, red public telephone boxes, which can be seen all over the UK, are regarded as one of the most typical symbols of this country.
However, public phones have had their day despite their lovely housings. While coin-operated and card-operated telephones are on the edge of extinction, mobile phones are playing a significant role in people's lives. Though they are more portable, flexible and extensively used, mobile phones have their weakness: battery life. Instead of trashing the phone booths, a project was then promoted to recycle and reuse them. To be consistent with the environment-friendly preference, people are allowed to rent and repurpose the red phone boxes. In this way, they are making an unusual come back. When you take a walk down Tottenham Court Road in London and find low-battery condition, there happens to be a green option for you. The abandoned the red phone boxes are being used as free charging stations powered by solar energy.
Inside the booths, which are newly painted green, there are various adaptors that can be connected to different brands and models of mobile phones. Just walk in, plug your phone in, and charge it up whenever it needs to be supplied with power. Most people would stay inside the boxes while they charge. Fully aware of this when launching the project, Solarbox can now reach a large quantity of audience by displaying ads on solid equipment. Its advertisers include well-known companies like Uber. Yet 30% of advertising space is reserved for local community projects.
Apart from converting phone booths into solar-powered charging stations, other forms of transformation can be found in and outside the UK. For example, there is medical equipment or minilibraries adapted from phone booths, while in America, thousands of phone booths have been transformed into wi-fi hot spots.
1. What do you know about the public phones boxes?| A．The public phones were abandoned. |
| B．The public phones have been replaced by mobile phones. |
| C．The public phones played a significant role in people's lives. |
| D．The public phones are regarded as typical symbols of this country. |
| A．Adapt. | B．Produce. | C．Unite. | D．Build. |
| A．New function. | B．Advertising profit. | C．People's affection | D．Companies support |
| A．The future of the public phone. | B．The revival of the phone boxes. |
| C．The rise and fall of the red boxes. | D．The ups and downs of the payphone. |
9 . Over all, Girls perform better than boys in school. It starts as early as kindergarten. By the time students reach college, women graduate at a higher rate than men. But there’s an exception. Boys match the grades of girls in elementary school, a new study has found. For them, the gender achievement gap doesn’t appear until adolescence — at which point they start doing worse as a group than girls.
More and more studies have shown that boys’ under-performance is not because of any internal reasons. Instead, it seems, it’s largely because of something external: their school environments and peer influences. The new study offers a clue about how much school environments affect boys’ academic achievement. Ms. Hsin found that the gender gap for boys in high school was smaller in schools that were less sports-focused, and where boys did better over all. Other studies have also stressed the importance of the school and social environments, especially for boys. For boys, these influences change in adolescence, Ms. Hsin found, a time when children become more aware of their gender identity and are more influenced by peers.
One working paper found that the best-performing students had a combination of behaviors typically considered male and female. It used nationally representative survey data about gender standard for about 12,000 high school students. The most traditionally girls and the most boys had the lowest grades.
Researchers have other suggestions. Show them role models who got where they are by doing well in school. Emphasize the importance of hard work and daily practice, and encourage both boys and girls to embrace a full range of fields, and not to feel limited by gender roles. Place high expectations on children, and give them opportunities to meet them.
1. When do the boys perform as well as the girl?| A．In college. | B．In kindergarten. |
| C．In elementary school. | D．In senior high school. |
| A．Their behaviors. |
| B．Their characteristics. |
| C．Their family influences. |
| D．Their school environments. |
| A．The boys did better over girls. |
| B．The children are more influenced by peers. |
| C．Social environments influenced boys more. |
| D．The gender gap for girls in high school was smaller in schools. |
| A．Children will benefit from role models. |
| B．Children can perform well by working hard. |
| C．Children should be limited by gender roles. |
| D．Children traditionally have the lowest grades in school. |
10 . Once upon a time, when you first attended a youth sporting event, your parents probably weren't expecting you to become a professional athlete.They signed up for a basketball, football or swimming course for you in the hope that you might learn lessons about winning gentlemanly, losing with dignity(尊严)and insisting on it when things get hard. Yes, playing games is good exercise, but it is the life lessons that matter most.
For many of us, instead of looking to improve our minds and spirits, we began judging progress only by the size of our muscles or the numbers on a weighing machine. The thought that athletic competition is about greater life lessons and the building of character has been further undermined(削弱)by headlines about professional athletes.
“And yet there's still strong evidence that sports strongly improve certain personal qualities,” says Angela Lumpkin, Professor of the Department of Health, Sport and Exercise Sciences at the University of Kansas. And that's true for athletes of any age.Amateur sports(业余体育运动)provide a safe place for competition. They also provide a practice ground for managing stress.
The advantages of taking part in a sport can seep(渗透)into your professional life, too. In basketball, for example, “Getting everyone to play the right role on the court is the key to success,” says Alan Arlt, the founder of the Life Time Fitness basketball program Ultimate Hoops. “That is certainly useful in the business world, where everyone understands their own role in the organization.” “In athletic events, you go through good and bad times often in the period of two hours,” says former NBA head coach Flip Saunders. “Do you have the calm manner to settle yourself down, or do you totally lose it and get thrown out of the game which hurts both you and your team？All of that oncourt experience has a real effect on how you deal with reallife situations.”
1. What would parents expect when their children joined in sports?| A．To win as many games as possible. |
| B．To improve their health. |
| C．To make more friends. |
| D．To get through difficulties. |
| A．People play sports to build their character. |
| B．People still hold the idea that sports can keep us fit. |
| C．People keep playing sports to improve minds and spirits. |
| D．People pay more attention to the news of professional athletes. |
| A．support Lumpkin's idea |
| B．introduce the next topic |
| C．show another piece of evidence |
| D．show the main idea of the paragraph |
| A．how to succeed in the future |
| B．how to keep calm in certain situations |
| C．how to deal with reallife situations |
| D．how to understand the role on the court |
