1 . Hubei Province has long been a favorite Chinese tourist destination because of its natural scenery, historic cities, and beautiful mountains. Here are some of the best places to visit in Hubei Province.
Yellow Crane Tower
Yellow Crane Tower is known as one of the Three Famous Towers South of Yangtze River, together with Yueyang Tower in Hunan and Tengwang Pavilion in Jiangxi. The history of Yellow Crane Tower dates back to the Three Kingdoms period (220-280) in Chinese history. The tower was used as a watchtower by the King of Wu's army in the beginning.
Enshi Grand Canyon
Enshi Grand Canyon can be China's answer to the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the United States in beauty. The canyon runs 108 kilometers and occupies a land area of 3,000 square kilometers. The region where Enshi Grand Canyon is located used to be a vast sea with many limestone deposits 230 million years ago.
Shennongjia Scenic Area
It is famous for its varied plant species as well as mountains. Regarded as the “Lungs of Central China", the forest coverage reaches over 90 percent of the area. Due to the special climate, it is neither too hot in summer nor too cold in winter. Sometimes clouds stretch around mountains, rewarding tourists with unforgettable views. Besides, the area is home to some rare animals such as golden monkeys, white bears and antelope.
The Three-Gorge Tribe scenic spot
Located in the area of the Xiling Gorge in the city of Yichang, it has the beauty of landscape paintings. The spot is a “Protected Center of the Popular Culture and Art of the Three Gorges”. Since ancient times, a lot of famous scholars have produced a great number of excellent poems praising the beauty of this place, some of which are carved on the stones along the Yangtze River.
1. What is special about Yellow Crane Tower?| A．It has a long history. |
| B．It offers a scenic view. |
| C．It once served war's purposes. |
| D．It is the best-known tower in China. |
| A．To explain its popularity in China. |
| B．To help readers know more about it. |
| C．To prove the beauty of the Chinese canyon. |
| D．To show differences between the two canyons. |
| A．Enshi Grand Canyon. |
| B．Yellow Crane Tower. |
| C．Shennongjia Scenic Area. |
| D．The Three-Gorge Tribe scenic spot. |
2 . When it comes to sitting properly, we all know the correct way even if we don' t do it to the letter. No crossed legs, bottoms touching the back of the chair and feet on the ground. But even if you' re doing it right, sitting for long periods is shockingly bad for you. It has been described as the new smoking, linked to heart disease and even cancer. There is no doubt we should all try to do less of it. But perhaps we could also do it better.
A classic survey, published in 1953, described 100 different sitting postures adopted by 480 cultures around the world. Among the most common were sitting cross-legged, kneeling and the deep squat (深蹲), with feet flat on the ground and bottoms resting on or just above it. Even in Western cultures, these are preferred sitting positions among young children. But Westerners tend to prefer chair use from an early age, insisting children sit on seats in school.
One big problem with this desire for chairs is that they make sitting so, well, sedentary (久坐不动的). Consider the Hadza, a group of hunter-gatherer people in Tanzania. They spend around 9 hours a day sitting. However, they squat and sit on the ground in various positions, and this involves high levels of muscle activity. The supportive nature of chairs, with their high backs and armrests, removes this effort perhaps the reason that people love them.
So what' s the best way to sit? Josette Bettany-SaItikov at Teesside University, UK has found that kneeling can help keep the spine in a better position as does squatting. We might also take inspiration from traditional cultures like the Hadza. "Use a variety of postures and preferably not just still postures but some which allow movement," says Bettany-Saltikov.
Bettany-Saltikov believes that we should be rethinking what it means to do a desk job. "We still need to design workplaces that enable people to be productive while being lightly active, like with under-table cycling or walking desks," she says. For now, if your job is sedentary, don' t forget to stand up regularly and move around.
1. What does the author think of sitting properly for long?| A．It still does some harm. | B．It improves body shape. |
| C．It can prevent heart disease. | D．It may cause smoking-related illnesses. |
| A．Children should sit in their preferred manner. |
| B．Children should take their seats while sitting. |
| C．Children should practice sitting cross-legged. |
| D．Children should learn different sitting postures. |
| A．They sit for short periods of time. | B．They sit for the purpose of exercise. |
| C．They use some muscles while sitting. | D．They remain generally still while sitting. |
| A．Combine exercise and their work. | B．Improve their productivity at work. |
| C．Kneel or go cycling as often as possible. | D．Start exercising as soon as they leave work. |
3 . As more and more people speak the global language of English, Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic, other languages are rapidly disappearing. In fact, half of the 6,000-7,000 languages spoken around the world today will be likely to die out by the next century, according the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
In an effort to prevent language loss, scholars from a number of organizations — UNESCO and National Geographic among them — have for many years been documenting dying languages and the cultures they reflect.
Mark Turin, a scientist at the Macmillan Center, Yale University, who specializes in the languages and oral traditions of the Himalayas, is following in that tradition. His recently published book, A Grammar of Thangmi and Their Culture, grows out of his experience living, working, and raising a family in a village in Nepal.
Documenting the Thangmi language and culture is just a starting point for Turin, who seeks to include other languages and oral traditions across the Himalayan reaches of India, Nepal, Bhutan, and China. But he is not content to simply record these voices before they disappear without record.
At the University of Cambridge Turin discovered a wealth of important materials —including photographs, films, tape recordings, and field notes — which had remained unstudied and were badly in need of care and protection. Now, through the two organizations that he has founded — the Digital Himalaya Project and the World Oral Literature Project — Turin has started a campaign to make such documents, found in libraries and stores around the world, available not just to schools but to the younger generations of communities from whom the materials were originally collected. Thanks to digital technology and the widely available Internet, Turin notes, the endangered languages can be saved and reconnected with speech communities.
1. Many scholars are making efforts to ________.| A．promote global languages | B．rescue disappearing languages |
| C．search for languages communities | D．set up language research organizations |
| A．having detailed records of the languages | B．writing books on language users |
| C．telling stories about language speakers | D．living with the native speakers |
| A．The cultural studies in India. | B．The documents available at Yale. |
| C．His language research in Bhutan. | D．His personal experience in Nepal. |
| A．Write, sell and donate. | B．Record, repair and reward. |
| C．Collect, protect and reconnect. | D．Design, experiment and report. |
4 . Israeli researchers say they have created the world's first three-dimensional, or 3D-printed heart using a patient's own cells. They described the experiment as "a major medical breakthrough." Tal Dvir, the lead researcher on the project, said in a statement that it was the first time that human cells had been used with 3D printing technology to successfully create a whole heart. Dvir added that the "printed" heart contains blood vessels which are needed to pump blood. The development marks a step forward for 3D printing in the medical field.
The researchers took samples of fatty tissue from patients. This material was then used to develop “ink” for the 3D printing process. First, the researchers created patches of tissue from the patient’s own cells. Later, they used that same process to create a small version of a whole heart. Using the patient’s own cells is important to reduce the risk that the body’s system to fight infection will reject a transplanted organ.
The goal, the researchers said, is to treat heart disease. The World Health Organization reports that heart disease is by far the leading cause of death worldwide. For patients with severe heart disease, a heart transplant is currently the main treatment available. The researchers hope their invention can help ease the demand for heart transplant donors.
Dvir says that the newly-created heart represents great progress. However, more research and development is needed to produce a fully operating, transplantable organ. One of the biggest challenges for the engineering team will be finding a way to create a human-sized heart.
Dvir said his team planned to transplant heart models designed for animals, possibly within the next year. He added that, for human use, “simpler organs” will likely be produced before hearts. “Maybe, in ten years, there will be organ printers in the finest hospitals around the world,” Dvir said. He hopes such methods will be used “routinely” to produce organs in the future.
1. Why should patients’ own cells be used to create a 3D heart?| A．To avoid being rejected. | B．To make it suitable to print. |
| C．To fight infection. | D．To build up immune system. |
| A．To adopt printing technology. | B．To create human organs. |
| C．To treat heart disease. | D．To develop organ printers. |
| A．They will be developed to create organs routinely. |
| B．They will be widely used to treat different diseases. |
| C．They will be used to transplant organs for animals. |
| D．They will be applied to various fields in the world. |
| A．An artificial heart. | B．A major medical breakthrough |
| C．A scientific project | D．A great research team. |
5 . If you want to do your kids a favor, consider having them walk to school. Walking to school provides many benefits – improving academic performance, reducing anxiety, boosting spirits, better sleep, a sense of independence, having an opportunity to familiarize oneself with a neighborhood, to notice small details, to feel a sense of wonder at the surroundings. The list goes on.
Parental fears still exist, however. Parents are terrified of cars, of injury, of harsh weather, of encounters with strangers and wild animals. These fears prevent parents from letting their kids do something that's actually enormously beneficial to them, despite the fact that removing an opportunity to be active contributes to an increase in childhood obesity, which can have a greater negative impact on a child's life than the risk of being injured due to being active.
How do we go from being a society that does not encourage its children to walk independently to being one that does? Parents must face their own discomfort with letting go. Brussoni, an expert who researches children's outdoor and risky play, said "We want to move parents from focusing solely on protecting their child to building trust in their child’s abilities and strategies to support their child’s skills in navigating the streetscape."
Schools can play a role by encouraging children to walk to school. Brussoni offers additional suggestions: "They should promote a culture that walking to school is the norm, help educate parents on why this is important, and consider closing the streets around the school to cars before and after school."
Parents might do well to put themselves in their children's shoes. As adults, we know how good a morning walk feels to start off a day or to end one. Walking energizes us and cheers us up, and it can do the same for children. As we go through this pandemic that has shaken up all of our lives, it's a good time to practice new routines and establish new habits. Walking to school is a great place to start.
1. What can we infer about kids’ usual way of going to school?| A．They walk to school alone. | B．They are driven to school. |
| C．They ride bikes to school. | D．They are led to school by teachers. |
| A．Focus on their child’s safety. | B．Protect their child against injury. |
| C．Believe their child’s abilities. | D．Strike traffic rules into their child’s heart. |
| A．Schools. | B．Societies. | C．Governments. | D．Children. |
| A．To illustrate the roles of parents and schools. |
| B．To advise parents to have kids walk to school. |
| C．To promote a way of establishing a new routine. |
| D．To encourage kids to form a good habit. |
6 . "For years, we had seen a lot of old villages dying slowly before being torn down. It's such a shame. So I wanted to do something," says Zhang Lei, a professor from the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at Nanjing University.
Zhang's two design works for Librairie Avant-Garde, the Yunxi Library bookshop in Tonglu county's Daijiashan village and Chenjiapu Bookstore in Songyang county, both in East China's Zhejiang province, were opened respectively in 2015 and 2018. The villages have since seen increasing number of visitors. Hostels have been built and, as a result, property prices in the villages have soared. For instance, the annual rent of a house in Daijiashan village was 2,000 yuan ($306) in 2015, but has now grown to 8,000 yuan.
Similarly, Chenjiapu village used to be dying despite a history stretching back 600 years. The bookstore, however, means that holidays bring so many visitors that there are often traffic jams on the road leading to the village. "I never thought that a small bookstore could change the fate of a village," he says.
When Qian Xiaohua, founder of Librairie Avant-Garde headquartered in Nanjing, started opening bookstores in the countryside six years ago, he met with a lot of doubts and questions. After all, bookstores in cities, with much bigger populations, could barely survive due to online competition. Even more surprisingly, Qian prefers targeting old villages that are losing their young people, with just the elderly and children left behind. Those villages are usually located in picturesque surroundings, many with historical details. Qian, accompanied by architects, will then choose old buildings from the villages to be renovated into well-lit modern bookstores that remain true to their original structures and decorative aspects.
Since April 2014, Qian has opened five bookstores in the countryside. All have attracted large numbers of tourists and even young villagers to return home. Apart from their commercial success and subsequent economic revival of the villages, these bookstores have become new public spaces for locals, benefiting the development of rural areas in the long run.
1. What can we know about many old villages from Zhang Lei’s words in paragraph 1?| A．They were booming gradually. | B．They were being deserted. |
| C．They were under construction. | D．They were overdeveloped. |
| A．Risen. | B．Decreased. | C．Changed. | D．Overturned |
| A．Favorable. | B．Interested. | C．Hopeful. | D．Skeptical. |
| A．Old Villages Survive Amazingly | B．Rebuild Traditional Settlements |
| C．Bookstores Rewrite Old Villages | D．Knowledge Changes Villages |
7 . How to be Sociable - Virtual Class
How to Be Sociable is a 2.5 hour class by The School of Life which takes place regularly in our virtual classroom.
Why should I attend?
We all long to have sincere, intimate, warm-hearted and interesting meetings with friends and strangers but too often, we fail to connect as we would like to. This is a class expressly designed to teach us the skills to have the kind of social life we deserve. It shows us how to escape unfruitful and loneliness inducing small talk and how elegantly to start to have properly enriching connections with others. We are not only shown where we are going wrong, we’re given practical guidance and group rehearsals in winning strategies. Not least, we will laugh together as we learn.
What will I learn?
How to Be Sociable teaches:
What should our friendships be for?
What is charm and how do we acquire it?
How can one be at ease in social situations?
What makes a good conversationalist?
What makes a good listener?
Evening Classes - All timings are in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
6:15pm GMT session open
6:30pm GMT class begins
9:00pm GMT class ends
Morning Classes - All timings are in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
9:15am GMT session open
9:30am GMT class begins
12:00pm GMT class ends
Dates and times are available to book below. New dates for this class are added throughout the year.
For more information, please see our London FAQs or contact classroom @theschooloflife.com
CLASSROOM TESTIMONIALS(评价)
‘Really welcoming to those coming by themselves and very interesting theoretical information/discussions’
‘Really enlightening experience; thank you so much’
‘Excellent; good fun and thought provoking’
‘Fantastic experience; varied practical exercises; dynamic and engaging teacher; absolutely great.’
1. In which aspect do you benefit from the virtual class?| A．Sense of direction. | B．Practical life skills. | C．Social skills. | D．Winning matches. |
| A．6:15 am – 8:45 am. | B．7:00 am -9:30 am. | C．3:30pm –6:00 pm. | D．6:30 pm --9:00 pm. |
| A．To praise energetic teachers. | B．To introduce interesting activities. |
| C．To present useful exercises. | D．To confirm the class is worthwhile. |
8 . We often hear that 60 is the new 50. Just check out images of your grandparents or great-grandparents and notice their stooped (驼背的) bodies, their wrinkled faces when they were barely pushing 60. What a contrast with energetic, gym-going sexagenarians (60几岁的人) of today!
A research, overseen by gerontologist Taina Rantanen, compared adults born in 1910 and 1914 with those born roughly 30 years later. Both birth groups were examined in person at age 60 and again at 70 with the same set of six physical tests and five measures of cognition.
According to the research, the later-born group could walk faster, had a stronger hand grasp and could use more force with their lower legs. On cognitive tests, the later-born group had better verbal fluency, and scored higher on a test matching numbers to symbols. But not everything changed across the generations: measures of lung function were surprisingly not changing, and there was no improvement in the short-term-memory task of recalling a series of digits.
There are many reasons why people are aging better, including improved medical care and a drop in smoking, but the key factor shown in the study of physical function was that the later-born adults were more physically active and had bigger bodies, which suggests better nutrition. For brain function, the key seems to be more years of education.
Education is a powerful influence on aging and health, says Luigi Ferrucci, scientific director of the U.S. National Institute on Aging: “With more education, you are probably going to have a larger income, which means you are more likely to go to the doctor, and have good nutrition.” He also points out that the average life span is seven years shorter in a poor state such as Mississippi than in a wealthier one such as California. “Here we still have lots of people who cannot take the drugs they need because they cannot pay for them,” he says. In short, 60 may be the new 50 for many of us but not for all.
1. How does the writer begin the passage?| A．By imagining a scene. | B．By making a comparison. |
| C．By raising a question. | D．By presenting an image. |
| A．Everything didn’t change across the generations. |
| B．The later-born group could hardly grasp things more tightly. |
| C．The later-born group did worse in matching numbers to symbols. |
| D．There was a little improvement in short-term memory in both groups. |
| A．Improved medical care. | B．Education. |
| C．Better nutrition. | D．Energetic images. |
| A．Many reasons contribute to people’s better physical function. |
| B．Today’s energetic sexagenarians have much better images. |
| C．Education is the key to people’s aging better. |
| D．People today are aging better in many ways. |
9 . A report revealed that about 85% of the working mothers surveyed felt that their parenthood had affected their career “in a significant way”. Over 30% of them said that they went through a “long period of mental distress” before announcing their pregnancy at work, and 35% said their bosses immediately started looking for their replacements after learning about their pregnancy.
While Chinese women may no longer sacrifice their careers for their husbands, they are still expected to do so for their children. The study found that nearly half of the mothers left the labor force for at least one year after giving birth, among whom roughly 20% ended up becoming stay-at-home moms. When asked about the impact of motherhood on their identities and life goals, nearly 35% said that the most profound change was how they started to balance between family and work.
The adjustment, however, is not always by choice. Responding to a question about the distribution of child¬care labor in their home, almost 40% of the working mothers said that their husbands basically spent no time on parenting.” Moreover, over half of the husbands didn't use up their paternity leave(陪产假), whereas about 21 percent never took it at all.
Another key finding from the survey was that although it's illegal for Chinese companies to ask a woman about family plans, many employers still do. The unlawful yet prevalent practice has been a main factor influencing women's decisions about timing of motherhood. The survey showed that about 40% of the childless respondents delayed parenthood because of “the time it would take,” which they thought would have a negative impact on their promotion opportunities.
In theory, there has never been a better time than now for working mothers in China to shine. Faced with an aging population and shrinking workforce, Chinese officials encourage Chinese women to have babies while working at the same time.
1. What can be concluded from the first paragraph?| A．Some women choose to hide their pregnancy. |
| B．Pregnant working women will be replaced immediately. |
| C．Half of working mothers go through long-term depression. |
| D．Most working mothers are significantly affected by parenthood. |
| A．To help their husbands' career. |
| B．To become stay-at-home moms. |
| C．To sacrifice their careers for their children. |
| D．To be successful both at home and in company. |
| A．common | B．obvious | C．embarrassing | D．potential |
| A．Women have greater pressure than men. |
| B．Pregnancy and motherhood affect working women. |
| C．Balance between work and family is unavailable. |
| D．Working moms have less promotion opportunities. |
10 . Everybody knows that Coca Cola is red and Starbucks is green. Most of us can name companies and their own brand colors. What we may not know about is the science behind these companies' choices of these colors. Color psychology is the study of how colors affect people's feelings, actions, and decision-making. Companies use color psychology when they develop their brands and advertisements in order to encourage us to buy. In fact studies have shown that around 90 percent of people spend money depending on color and appearance. Because of this, companies use colors to influence how we feel about their products. For example, it’s no accident that many tech products use white; it's simple and clean. At the same time, cosmetics companies prefer colors like purple, black, or pink that mean love, comfort, and romance.
Companies often choose active colors that make you buy right now. Red, for example, is a high-energy, exciting color that moves people to take action. Yellow is the color of summer, and it’s bright and remarkable. In fact, most big companies have something to do with certain specific colors. Studies show that customers prefer brands that they know. Then those with a proper color plan, such as LEGO or Facebook are likely to perform more strongly on the market. Research has also shown that men and women like different colors. Men prefer blue, green, and black while women prefer like purple and pink.
1. What products are usually made white?| A．Food and drinks. | B．Clothes for women. |
| C．Computer and earphones. | D．Starbucks |
| A．They pay attention to the color plan. | B．They may be popular on the market. |
| C．They may be bright and remarkable. | D．They decide to choose red and yellow for the plan. |
| A．A coat in pink. | B．A pair of shoes in green. |
| C．A handbag in black. | D．A T-shirt in yellow |
| A．Few companies use color psychology. |
| B．Colors influence our shopping habits. |
| C．We should buy something according to it's color. |
| D．colors don’t affect people's feelings, actions, and decision-making. |
