1 . Covid-19 has brought a great deal of trouble for all of us since March 2020. During this time, mobile phones have been the solution for the boredom and restlessness caused from staying indoors. The most downloaded apps on play store 2020 are;
TikTok
TikTok was the most downloaded app. With over 111.9 million downloads, TikTok has seen a huge growth in 2020, twice more than what it got in 2019. 20% of its total downloads were from India and around 9. 3% of the total downloads were in the US.
Zoom
Zoom was the second most installed app in the overall downloads category. With nearly 94. 6 million installs, Zoom is the most used app for online meetings and virtual classrooms. 17% of its downloads were in the US and India. Offices and educational institutes were shut down and to continue working and studying from home, people relied heavily on Zoom for video conferencing and calling.
WhatsApp ranked third in overall downloads with more than 100 million downloads. It is one of the most popular and widely used chat applications; WhatsApp also supports communication between international phone networks.
It ranked fourth in the overall downloaded list. Facebook is the world’s most popular social networking application. Facebook builds technologies that give people the power to connect with friends and family, find communities and grow businesses.
1. What do we know about TikTok?| A．It is an India-based app. | B．It has most users in America. |
| C．It is used for growing business. | D．It has doubled its download than in 2019. |
| A．TikTok. | B．Zoom. | C．WhatsApp. | D．Facebook. |
| A．Communication. | B．Training. | C．Teaching. | D．Payment |
2 . The Palace Museum is limiting the daily number of visitors to 80,000 and recommending both individual visitors and tourist groups to book tickets in, advance online (booking address: https://gugong ktmtech.cn). foreign visitors are required to provide passport numbers during the online booking
ADMISSION
April 1st-October 31st 60 yuan
November 1st-March 31st. 140 yuan
●Free admission(入场费) for children under.2 meters in height.
●Free admission for disabled visitors.
●20 yuan for elementary, middle school, and undergraduate students with student I.D. (not including graduate and adult or continuing education students).
●50% discount for people over 60 years with valid certificate or proof of age (passport, etc.)'
●Women's Day (March 8): Half-price admission for female visitors.
●Children's Day (June 1): Free admission for children 14 years old and younger. 50% discount on admission for one accompanying parent. legal guardian, or adult,
For detailed information and instruction, please click here.
1. How many people can visit the Palace Museum daily at most?| A．Eight hundred | B．Eighty thousand. | C．Eight million | D．Eighty million. |
| A．A middle-aged woman visiting it on 13,Mar. | B．A middle-aged parent visiting it alone on lst, June. |
| C．A 65-year-old man visiting it on 7th,May. | D．A middle school student visiting it on 6th,Jan. |
| A．A website. | B．A magazine | C．A book. | D．A newspaper. |
3 . A young Dutch inventor is widening his effort to clean up floating(浮动的) plastic from the Pacific Ocean. He has developed a floating device(设备) to catch plastic waste moving into rivers before it reaches the oceans.
Boyan Slat was just 18 years old when he invented a system for catching waste in the ocean. He also set up an environmental group called “The Ocean Cleanup”. Its purpose is to develop the system. Last year, Slat showed the next step: a floating device called Interceptor. It takes plastic out of rivers. The device is powered by energy from the sun. “The 1,000 rivers are responsible for about 80% of plastic going into the world’s oceans,” said Slat. Three of the machines have already been used. Each machine costs about $ 775,660, but the cost might drop as production increases.
Since they were used, the machines have been doing very well, collecting the plastic bottles and all the rubbish in the rivers. According to Slat, it is necessary to close “the tap”, which means stopping more plastic from reaching the ocean in the first place. He wanted to clean them all in the next five years. “This is not going to be easy, but if we do get this done, we could truly make our oceans again,” said Slat.
The device is designed to be safe in rivers. Its nose is shaped to change directions to keep it away from larger floating things. It works by guiding plastic waste into an opening in the front of the device. The waste is then carried inside the machine where it is dropped into containers(容器). The device sends a text message to local operators that can come and empty it when it is full.
1. What do we know about Interceptor?| A．It hasn’t been used yet. |
| B．It can help sort waste. |
| C．It is mainly used under the sea. |
| D．It needs energy from the sun to work. |
| A．To empty the waste. |
| B．To serve as containers. |
| C．To ensure(确保) the device’s safety. |
| D．To send operators text messages. |
| A．A floating device for catching plastic waste. |
| B．A young well-known Dutch inventor. |
| C．A system for making rivers safe. |
| D．An environmental group called the Ocean Cleanup. |
| A．A diary. | B．A dictionary. |
| C．A travel brochure. | D．A magazine. |
4 . Spaghetti and meatballs is my favorite food. And reading is my favorite hobby. When you are deeply absorbed in a book, you stop paying attention to what’s going on around you. People describe it as being “lost in a book”. It’s a wonderful feeling, but it can be risky.
One day I was home alone doing two of my favorite things: Eating a huge plate of spaghetti and meatballs and reading. At the time, my family had a pet bird, a big white cockatoo named Luke. He was free to leave his perch (栖木)and fly around inside the house. Luke enjoyed “talking” to people, but he wasn’t trained to use real words.
As I was reading and eating, Luke was talking to me, but I was lost in my book. So Luke decided to get closer. He flew from his perch, and before I knew it, he’d landed right on top of my spaghetti and meatballs!
I was so surprised that I didn’t even have time to think. My reaction was the same as yours would be: I shooed (发出嘘声赶走)him off my food! This wouldn’t have been so bad except for one thing: When Luke had landed on my plate, he had grabbed (抓住)my spaghetti with both feet. So when Luke took off again, the spaghetti-still in his feet-went flying everywhere, landing on my shirt and hitting me in the face. Red sauce splattered (泼溅)up the wall and onto the ceiling. As I pulled noodles out of my hair, Luke flew back to his perch, dropping spaghetti sauce all the way.
He wasn’t hurt, except for his dignity-the sauce in his beautiful white feathers turned him orange for several weeks. So next time if you find a spy novel at the library with red, spots on two pages near the middle, you’ll know that I’ve read that book ,too!
1. What do we know about Luke?| A．He is lost in reading a spy novel. |
| B．He is good at communicating with people. |
| C．He is fond of eating Spaghetti and meatballs. |
| D．He is permitted to fly freely inside the house. |
| A．I reacted properly to Luke’s behaviour. |
| B．Luck was attracted by my Spaghetti. |
| C．Luck made the room in a mess. |
| D．I was addicted to my reading. |
| A．Puzzled. | B．Humorous. | C．Anxious. | D．Annoyed. |
| A．Love Me, Love My Dog | B．More Food Hurts the Body |
| C．Reading Can Be Dangerous | D．Fine Feathers Make Fine Birds |
5 . Of all the American blockbusters, some popular movies are rolled out for the teenagers. With the preparation of popcorns, you can choose one of them for your teen to watch with you or their friends.
1. Dead Poets Society
An English teacher, called Mr. Keating, guides his students, who hope to be lawyers and doctors, to poetry and free-thinking. With each student coping with some issues, he urged them to set up Dead Poets Society for reading and writing poems.
2. The Hunger Games
Based on a book by Suzanne Collins, the story set in Panem, a destroyed country in North America. Each year, boys and girls, coming from 12 districts of Panem, take part in Hunger Games. Broadcast alive, this competition is exciting because all the participants play the games against death.
3. The Breakfast Club
It begins with five students at the Shermer High School, Claire, a princess, John, a criminal, Andrew, an athlete, Brian, a bookworm and Allison, an unfortunate person, who are forced to spend 9 hours together on a Saturday. In spite of their differences, they find that their social problems are more similar than they think.
4. Eighth Grade
Kayla is a shy, socially anxious girl trying to get by the last few weeks of middle school. She earns the “most quiet” girl title in school, but at home, she posts online self-help and motivational videos that not many people watch. Kayla is raised by her single father Mark, who tries to disconnect Kayla from the social media.
1. Who helps teenagers form a Dead Poets Society?| A．Mr. Brain. | B．Mr. Keating. |
| C．Suzanne Collins. | D．Ms. Claire. |
| A．Eighth Grade. | B．Dead Poets Society. |
| C．The Hunger Games. | D．The Breakfast Club. |
| A．Teachers. | B．Teens. | C．Friends. | D．Parents. |
6 . When I was reading a post about taking someone to the movies, something happened a couple of years ago suddenly hit me.
I used to drink Cokes and they had a competition where there was a code inside the bottle cap. You might win something so long as you went to a website and entered the code. I won some free Cokes. But what astonished and delighted me was the Grand Prize I won then.
The Grand Prize was free movies for a year. They pointed out that one movie a week was what free movies for a year meant. All of the tickets were valid(有效的) for one year from the day I received them. So I must use them in the following year. I used quite a few taking friends to movies we all wanted to see.
But the best thing I did with them was that I donated 20 tickets (all I had left by that time) to the local Women’s Transition House, a place where women and children could go when avoiding a bad situation in general and get help to make a new start.
My workplace team had decided to help people in need, so we collected donations for that particular New Year’s Day. I knew that the Women’s Transition House provided some childcare for the women so they could go for job interviews and things like that.
I put those tickets in a box and wrote a note on the outside, asking the Women’s Transition House staff to give movie tickets to women there over the holidays to have some fun to do, with or without their children, which made me really happy.
1. How did the author get the tickets?| A．By visiting a website by chance. | B．By using some Cokes to get them. |
| C．By getting a code at the bottom of a bottle. | D．By winning the prize for drinking Cokes. |
| A．About 22. | B．About 32. | C．About 52. | D．About 365. |
| A．Lucky and caring. | B．Creative and careful. |
| C．Responsible and cheerful. | D．Thankful and generous. |
| A．The roses in their hands, the flavor in mine. |
| B．Good luck favors those who are always ready. |
| C．Actions speak louder than words. |
| D．God helps those who help themselves. |
7 . For those concerned about wrinkles（皱纹）in the skin, it might be a solution: a newly-invented “second skin” that can make aged skin look more youthful.
The wearable film（薄膜）developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (（MIT）) has shown promise in a series of experiments where it was used to wrinkles, under-eye- bags and dry skin.
When used to the face or body, the thin film reduced the appearance of wrinkles and under-eye bags, and helped keep moisture （水分）in dry skin, thus making the skin look like younger.
It is designed to be applied in the morning and removed at night. The "second skin” remained unharmed against normal daily wear, and the stresses of exercise and swimming, without falling off.
“You can rub it from the comer and remove it. But it doesn't do that under normal daily wear. We don't want something that falls off," an MIT researcher said.
While normal make-up can cover imperfection on the skin, the new coating changes the way skin behaves by giving it the moisture of young skin. It was developed with help from two companies: Living Proof a make-up firm, and Olivo Labs, a medical company. With more work, they believe the “second skin"' will be used to cover birthmarks, to protect the face from UV rays, or to treat skin diseases or wounds.
The most impressive results came when the researchers used the film to under-eye bags. By pressing the loose skin, the film improved the appearance of the under-eye bags to a level that had only been achieved before with operations.
1. How does the “second skin" make people look younger?| A．By removing make-up on the skin. | B．By helping the old skin fall off. |
| C．By making the skin less dry. | D．By protecting the face from the sun. |
| A．To mask birthmarks. | B．To treat skin diseases. |
| C．To protect wounds. | D．To better the under-eye bags. |
| A．people can wear the "second skin” on rainy days. |
| B．the "second skin" has been used to treat wounds. |
| C．the "second skin" is designed to fall off by itself at night. |
| D．two medical companies helped develop the "second skin". |
| A．A news report. | B．A science magazine. |
| C．A travel journal. | D．A make-up advertisement. |
8 . Community Service
Join Community Service camp and volunteers will receive 60 hours of community service credit this summer. Decide which community service program is right for you and try to have a lasting influence on other people's lives. Through their work with various non-profit volunteer organizations,
our teen community service volunteers will experience the joy of helping others while having the adventure of a lifetime.
River Preserve
River Preserve is a non-competitive summer camp getting children close to nature, which inspires campers to have a greater understanding of themselves, their environment and their fellow man.
Summer Leadership Camp
Each August, young men from across the country come to Military Academy Summer Leadership Camp to train, compete and learn. The summer camp experience is a rewarding opportunity for young people to learn leadership skills.
English Language Camp
In the camp, teens will build their confidence while also acquiring the basic skills of conversation, vocabulary and grammar. Our class sizes are small, allowing every child to receive the required personal attention from our fully qualified and professional teachers who all have a wealth of experience in coaching children from all over the world.
1. Which camp should a child choose if he likes nature?| A．Community Service. | B．Leadership Camp. |
| C．River Preserve. | D．English Language Camp. |
| A．those who want to be trained to be soldiers. |
| B．young people who want to develop leadership skills. |
| C．young people who want to compete with others. |
| D．those who are not good at expressing themselves. |
| A．competitive | B．brave and strong |
| C．confident | D．loving and caring |
| A．summer camps | B．nature protection |
| C．volunteer service | D．language and skills learning |
9 . A study of 3,884 students from primary schools to colleges found that examinations made 83.1 percent of primary students anxious, and more than 40 percent of high school children were out of sorts （身体不适）because of stress and anxiety.
Moreover, 75 percent of the high school respondents admitted that they had problems talking to their parents and more than 55 percent of them found it hard to associate with other people, according to the study.
It is not difficult to conclude that our children are not happy.
Today's kids are coming home from school weighed down with backpacks full of books and worksheets. They are spending hours at desk at night, seldom going outside to play and getting to bed late.
How can this be a good thing?
Homework is eating away children's time to play freely with neighborhood kids - and more importantly, their time to sleep.
Homework can enrich the education process. But like all things, too much of it may dampen （减 少）a student's enthusiasm for learning. To raise cheerful, contented and well-mannered children, parents need to put in a lot of time and effort. Their eyes should go beyond their children's preparations for tests. Children need a break too. So let them be in control of parts of the day.
1. What does the passage mainly talk about?| A．High school students suffer more than primary school students. |
| B．Most of the students have no problem talking to their parents. |
| C．The teenagers suffer from heavy workload. |
| D．The students are not happy at home. |
| A．They have to take their backpacks. |
| B．They have to stay up late. |
| C．They have to eat more. |
| D．They have more time to play outdoors. |
| A．They should spend more time with their children. |
| B．They need to ask their children to work hard. |
| C．They should not care about their children's test results. |
| D．They need to give children more free time. |
| A．Negative. | B．Supportive. |
| C．Unconcerned. | D．Uncertain |
10 . Many of the Earth's creatures die because of humans' choices. These choices have nothing to do with food or shelter or anything else that helps humans survive. What kills millions of animals all over the world is that humans want to make money by doing so.
People use parts of animals for everything from hats to handbags, from jewelry to ashtrays and to make powders that supposedly improve a person's life. Deciding that a species is endangered and protecting it by law are not always enough. People who kill wildlife illegally rarely get caught.
During the late 1980s, saving elephants became a popular cause. Wildlife protection groups made sure everyone saw pictures or films of elephants with their faces cut off for their ivory. These groups also proved that certain populations of elephants were decreasing. As a result, most people stopped buying objects made of ivory. Laws against poaching (偷猎) were made stronger. Many countries made importing ivory illegal. Killing elephants for their Ivory became more risky and less profitable (有利可图的).
However, concern for certain species will become weak after a while. In the late 1970s, people protested (抗议) against the killing of seal babies. Everyone was shocked to see young seals being killed in their icy habitat. The cruel activity stopped. But ten years later, the number of seal babies killed was higher than ever.
Other animal protection movements have come and gone, such as saving the whales and protecting dolphins. The whale population appears to have increased for now. And the laws are finally changed in America to protect the dolphins that swim with tuna fish in parts of the Pacific Ocean.
In the years to come, people's attention will probably turn to some other endangered species. Plenty of them urgently need attention. During this time, will the elephants be forgotten?
1. What leads to the disappearance of millions of wild animals?| A．The growing human population. |
| B．Humans’ hope for making a fortune. |
| C．Humans’ too much need for wild food. |
| D．Not having enough laws on wildlife protection.. |
| A．Wildlife protection groups did make great efforts. |
| B．Importing ivory in all countries is illegal. |
| C．Those who killed elephants all got caught. |
| D．Hunting was completely not allowed. |
| A．To show the effort to protect seal babies. |
| B．To show an increasing number of seal babies. |
| C．To show the decrease of worry about certain species. |
| D．To show people’s protest against the killing of seal babies. |
| A．Humans should choose some rare animals to protect. |
| B．Attention must be paid to saving some endangered wildlife. |
| C．Success has been achieved in quite a few cases of wildlife protection. |
| D．Concern and movements for animal protection should be always kept. |
