1 . Li Bai is regarded as the greatest romantic poet of the Tang Dynasty and a representative of the High Tang culture, combination of realistic Northern culture represented by Confucian philosophy and romantic Southern culture represented by Taoist philosophy. But he could neither realize his Confucian ideal to serve the country nor find spiritual freedom in Taoism, so he could only chant poetry and drink wine to drown his sorrow as described by Du Fu in Eight Immortal Drinkers. Here we see the tragedy of a genuine staying lonely on earth like an angel fallen from Heaven. His poetry is marked by male greatness in the Waterfall in Mount Lu Viewed from Afar, in which we see the mountain cloud from down below and the Silver River, Chinese name for the Milky Way, fall from on high, and heaven and earth seem to merge into one, that is the Chinese way of communion with nature. In his poetry, we can find his love of nature, of freedom, of the people, of his friends, in short, of truth, good and beauty.
Li Bai is best known for the extraordinary imagination and striking Taoist imagery in his poetry, as well as for his great love for liquor. Like Du Fu, he spent much of his life travelling, although in his case it was because his wealth allowed him to, rather than because his poverty forced him. He is said to have drowned in the Yangtze River, having fallen from his boat while drunkenly trying to embrace the reflection of the moon.
1. What is this passage mainly about?| A．The introduction to a famous poet in Tang Dynasty — Li Bai. |
| B．The differences between romantic and realistic culture. |
| C．The extraordinary characteristics of Li Bai’s poems. |
| D．The travelling experiences while Li Bai made poems. |
| A．he is a representative of the combination of realistic and romantic culture |
| B．he could not put his ability to good use in serving his country at that time |
| C．he had a depressed mental state and only drunk wine and chanted poetry |
| D．he made the poems in which complaints and dissatisfaction could be shown |
| A．beautiful nature and feelings | B．criticism of social realism |
| C．relationship between different classes | D．cruelty of the officialdom |
| A．the Silver River ran down from the high mountain | B．Li Bai loved the beauty of nature badly |
| C．Li Bai’s poems were written down by a man | D．the cloud was like waterfall from high heaven |
2 . New York Walking Tour
♦Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Walking Tour
Start this exciting guided 4-hour tour by getting early Reserve Line Access boarding on the ferry to Liberty Island. Once there, go inside the base of the statue and head to the observation decks for an awesome view of New York City and its surroundings. Then come back on the ferry to Ellis Island to learn about the history of immigration to America that took place here between 1892 and 1954.
♦Central Park Walking Tour
Walk through Central Park’s most picturesque highlights on a 2-hour tour with a professional photographer. Remember your New York City adventure with unforgettable images of you with family or friends as you circle the towers at Belvedere Castle, walk through paths with flowers in the Conservatory Garden, or feed the swans by the Loeb Boathouse.
♦New York City Architecture Walking Tour
Learn about the history of the buildings that define the New York City skyline on a 3-hour walking architecture tour. Walk down the famous 42nd Street corridor with a longtime New York resident and architectural expert, stopping along the way to learn about Midtown Manhattan’s most iconic structures like the Chrysler Building, Ford Foundation, Grand Central Station and the New York Public Library.
♦Greenwich Village Walking Tour
Greenwich Village is one of New York City’s most beautiful and famous neighborhoods. Take a guided 3-hour walking tour of this legendary Lower Manhattan space. Hear about the famous artists who once lived here, from Edgar Allan Poe to Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and countless others. Walk the winding streets and visit popular Washington Square Park, reliving more than 200 years of history.
1. Why do tourists visit Ellis Island?| A．To know about American immigration history. | B．To explore the surroundings of the island. |
| C．To get a whole view of New York City. | D．To observe Statue of Liberty closely. |
| A．Central Park Walking Tour. | B．Greenwich Village Walking Tour. |
| C．New York City Architecture Walking Tour. | D．Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Walking Tour. |
| A．Take unforgettable pictures. | B．Come across Bob Dylan. |
| C．Visit New York Public Library. | D．Learn about well-known artists. |
3 . This was the first real task I received in my new school. It seemed simple: go on the Internet and find information about a man named George Washington. As I searched the name, I found that there were two famous people having the same name who looked completely different! One invented hundreds of uses for peanuts(花生), while the other led some sort of army across America. I stared at the screen, wondering which one my teacher meant. I called my grandfather for a golden piece of advice; let the coin decide. I flipped(掷) a coin and Ah! Tails (背面)! My report would be about the great man who invented peanut butter, George Washington Carver.
Weeks later, I stood in front of the classroom and proudly read my homework. But things started to get strange. I looked around the room, only to find my classmates with big smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes and my stone-faced teacher. I was completely lost. “What could be causing everyone to act this way?”
Oh well, I dropped the paper and sat down at my desk, burning to find out what I had done wrong. As a classmate began his report, it all became clear, “My report is on George Washington, the man who started the American War of Independence.” The whole world became quiet! How could I know that my teacher meant that George Washington?
Of course, my subject result was awful. Sad but fearless, I decided to turn this around. I talked to the headmaster Miss Lancelot, but she said firmly: No re-dos; no new score. I felt that it was not fair, and I believed I deserved a second chance. So I threw myself heartily into my work for the rest of the school year. Ten months later, I sat in the headmaster’s office again, but this time a completely different conversation. I smiled and flashed back to the terrible moment at the beginning of the year as the headmaster told me I was good enough to skip(跳过) the 6th grade and started the 7th grade next term.
1. The task I received was to find information about ________.| A．uses for peanuts |
| B．American War of Independence |
| C．George Washington |
| D．my headmaster Miss Lancelot |
| A．I was too proud of my homework |
| B．I mistook what the homework was about |
| C．the whole world suddenly became quiet |
| D．the teacher’s face turned to a stone |
| A．the headmaster didn’t like the writer at all |
| B．the writer’s classmates felt sad at his mistake |
| C．the writer knew little about American history |
| D．the writer’s grandpa was a very wise man |
| A．Seeing is believing. |
| B．Where there is a will, there is a way. |
| C．One is never too old to learn. |
| D．A friend in need is a friend indeed. |
4 . No human has set foot on the Moon since 1972. Now, after more than four decades of inactivity, interest in putting humans back on the Moon is finally heating up again. But who will get there first?
CHINA
On 14 December 2013, China successfully landed its Jade Rabbit rover(探测车)on the Moon. It is now working on its next exploration mission. Named Chang’e 4, the mission is scheduled to touch down in the Aitken Basin near the end of 2018. If successful, it will be the first landing on the Moon’s far side.
RUSSIA
Russia plans a manned Moon landing in 2030. It is currently working on a project whose idea is that the landers will explore the south pole of the Moon, exploring for resources such as minerals and water ice to be used to provide for a human outpost(前哨站).
INDIA
Following the success of its Chandrayaan-1 in 2008, India announced a follow-on mission. Chandrayaan-2 was meant to cooperate with Russia. But when the Russians failed to deliver the promised lander in 2013, India decided to go it alone. Chandrayaan-2 is about to be sent up in 2018.
U. S. A.
In December 2018, NASA plans to send up the Exploration Mission 1, an uncrewed test of their Orion astronaut capsule in which the craft will circle around the Moon before returning to Earth. All being well, a crewed capsule will follow in 2023. Should the mission prove a success, the astronauts will be the first humans to see the far side of the Moon with their own eyes since Apollo 17 in 1972.
1. What will China do in its next space mission?| A．Improve its Jade Rabbit rover. |
| B．Work with other countries. |
| C．Land Chang’e 4 on the Moon. |
| D．Explore the south pole of the Moon. |
| A．It couldn’t find a partner. |
| B．It didn’t get the lander as planned. |
| C．The Russians refused to work with India. |
| D．It planned to launch Chandrayaan-2 in advance. |
| A．Russia. | B．China. | C．India. | D．U. S. A. |
5 . Confused by food nutrition labels? You’re not alone. Now, researchers have suggested an alternative: labelling the amount and type of exercise needed to burn off the calories.
Current food and drink labels display nutritional information such as the amount of calories and fat. However, researchers led by Prof. Amanda Daley at Loughborough University say that these labels are having a limited effect on changing buying habits. Instead, they propose a labelling system called ‘physical activity calorie equivalent or expenditure’ (PACE) (体育活动热量当量), which shows how many minutes or miles of physical activity are needed to burn off the calories. For example, a small bar of milk chocolate contains 230 calories, which would take about 42 minutes of walking, or 22 minutes of running, to burn off.
They pooled the data from 14 previous studies which compared the impact of PACE labelling with that of other types of food labelling, or with no food labelling at all. They calculated that PACE labelling could cut a person’s daily calorie intake by up to 200 calories. “Public health agencies may want to consider the possibility of including policies to promote PACE food labelling as a strategy that contributes to the prevention and treatment of obesity (肥胖) and related diseases,” said the researchers.
The UK’s Royal Society for Public Health has already called for PACE labelling to replace the current system. However, not everyone is convinced. A spokesperson for the eating disorder charity Beat said: “We believe that anti-obesity campaigns that focus on weight instead of health are ineffective and that recommending more exercise is an ineffective and over-simplistic approach to a complex problem. Most urgently, public health campaigns must consider people’s mental as well as their physical health, moving from obesity-shaming to evidence-based campaigns that build confidence and support healthy eating.”
1. What additional information can you get from PACE labels compared with the current ones?
| A．Exercise advice | B．Fat content |
| C．Nutrition facts | D．Calorie content |
| A．collected | B．distributed | C．deleted | D．proved |
| A．Obesity is a physical problem and can be solved by increasing exercise. |
| B．Obesity is related to eating habits and can be tackled by cutting calories. |
| C．Obesity is no simple problem but can be settled by focusing on weight. |
| D．Obesity is complicated and should be tackled physically and mentally. |
| A．PACE: A new labelling option |
| B．Nutrition: A basic step towards health |
| C．Labelling: A smart advisor for shopping |
| D．Excise: An effective treatment for obesity |
6 . While some customs like setting off fireworks and counting down the last few seconds seem universal, many countries have their own unique New Year’s Eve traditions.
Denmark: Break plates
A Danish tradition is to throw plates and dishes against friend’s and neighbor’s front doors. It’s a bit of a popularity contest as the bigger the pile of broken china is the next morning, the more friends and good luck you’ll have in the coming year.
Germany: Pouring lead
In Germany, people melt small pieces of lead in a spoon over a candle, then pour the liquid into cold water. The shapes from the lead pouring are supposed to reveal what the year ahead will bring. If the lead forms a ball, luck will roll one’s way, while the shape of a crown means wealth; a cross means death and a star will bring happiness.
Spain: Twelve grapes of luck
In Spain, one New Year’s tradition is to eat 12 grapes, one for each month of the coming year, to secure prosperity (繁荣). You need to eat one grape with each bell strike at midnight. The tradition dates from 1909 when farmers in Alicante came up with this idea to sell more grapes after an exceptional harvest.
Philippines: Round food, round clothes, round everything
In the Philippines, the start of the new year is all about the money. The locals believe that surrounding themselves with round things (to represent coins) will bring money or fortune. As a result, clothes with dots are worn and round food is eaten.
1. What is believed to bring good luck for the coming new year in Denmark?| A．A red candle. | B．Round food. | C．Broken china. | D．A lead cross. |
| A．A way to make coins. | B．An act to keep power. |
| C．A desire to be popular. | D．An idea to gain profit. |
| A．Fashion. | B．Travel. | C．Culture. | D．Entertainment. |
7 . Research is done all the time and most of it goes straight by us, but sometimes we come across some results that are too interesting not to share. It can be fun to find out about new facts, but sometimes you come across things you’d rather not have known. Luckily, we’ve got some fun facts for you today! It turns out that your hand can tell you a lot about your personality. It’s really quite strange. This research mostly focuses on your fingers.
The secret lies in your ring finger and index finger（食指）. It can say a lot about what kind of man you are. Yes, this test only applies to men because the length of these fingers indicates the level of testosterone（睾酮）in men. There are three types: A, B and C.
A. The ring finger is longer than the index finger
We’re talking about handsome men here. They’re charming and can get along with everyone. Yet they are a little more aggressive and are quick to take risks. This also means that these people often make more money than their colleagues with a shorter ring finger.
B. The ring finger is shorter than the index finger
Men with these hands are very confident and can even be a little self-loving. These people have no trouble being alone often and don’t like being disturbed. When it comes to love, they do not take a risk out there a lot. They’re not the ones to make the first move.
C. The ring finger and index finger are the same lengths
Maybe this says enough already. Men with these hands are good mediators（调停者）, devoted and loving. Everything is balanced with these people. They’re calm and everything seems to run smoothly, as if it’s all organised.
1. Why does the author think the hands are strange?| A．We know nothing about them. | B．Both the hands are different. |
| C．They can let out the personality. | D．Some facts about them are fun. |
| A．The length of the fingers. | B．The existence of testosterone. |
| C．The ability to handle things. | D．The requirement of patience. |
| A．They are attractive. | B．They are confident. |
| C．They are devoted. | D．They are aggressive. |
| A．The new use of the fingers | B．The latest research into the hands |
| C．The three categories of the fingers | D．The secret of ring and index fingers |
8 . A recent study showed that the experiences children have in their first few years are important. These experiences affect the development of the brain. When children receive more attention, they often have higher IQs. Babies receive information when they see, hear and feel things, which makes connections between different parts of the brain. There are a hundred trillion connections in the brain o£ a three-year-old child.
Researcher Judit Gervain tested how good newborns are at telling different sound patterns. The researchers produced images o£ the brains of babies as they heard different sound patterns. For example5one order was mu—ba—ba. This is the pattern "A -B— B”. Another order was mu—ba—ge. This is the pattern "A-B—C”. The images showed that the part of the brain responsible for speech was more active during the "A—B-B” pattern. This shows that babies can tell the difference between different patterns. They also were sensitive（敏感）to where it occurred in the order.
Gervain is excited by these findings because the order of sounds is the base of words and grammar, "Position is key to language," she says. "If something is at the beginning or at the end, it makes a big difference： 'John caught the bear' is very different from 'The bear caught John.
Researchers led by scientist Patricia Kuhl have found that language delivered by televisions, audio books, the Internet, or smartphones——no matter how educational—— doesn't appear to be enough for children's brain development. They carried out a study of nine-month-old American babies. They expected the first group who'd watched videos in Chinese to show the same kind of learning as the second group who were brought face-to- face with the same sounds. Instead they found a huge difference. The babies in the second group were able to distinguish （辨别）between similar Chinese sounds as well as native listeners. But the other babies-regardless of whether they had watched the video or listened to the audio-learned nothing.
1. Why are early experiences so important to children according to the study?| A．They can show connections in their brains. |
| B．They can increase new information of IQs. |
| C．They can offer children more attention, |
| D．They can help to develop their brains. |
| A．By recognizing babies5 different appearances. |
| B．By producing images of new words for babies, |
| C．By testing how babies' brains learn to speak language. |
| D．By checking babies' brains to identify different sound patterns. |
| A．Grammar is important in learning languages, |
| B．Different orders of sounds have different meanings. |
| C．The order of words comes from its grammar meaning. |
| D．Different languages have different grammar rules. |
| A．Learning Chinese is of great benefit to babies' brains. |
| B．Babies are better than adults in learning a foreign language. |
| C．Face-to-face communication can improve babies' brains. |
| D．Babies learn a lot from television, audio books or the Internet. |
9 . Every Bachelor of Arts major faces the dilemma about the language they have to take to meet the foreign language requirement. JMU offers a variety of languages, from French to Ancient Greek and Italian. Any of them would be great, but Spanish is the most beneficial language to learn.
Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world, with around 460 million native speakers. It’s the official language of over 20 countries, and in the United States, there are 41 million speakers. These statistics give you the perfect reason to learn Spanish as an international language.
One of the best reasons to learn Spanish is that it makes one more employable. There’s a place for Spanish in every career field. Doctors will have patients that speak Spanish, financial traders will buy stocks from Latin American companies and journalists will provide content written in Spanish.
Spanish is known as the starting block for learning other Romance languages. Many of the words and phrases used in Italian, French and Latin are similar to each other. For example, the Italian word for "thank you" is "grazie". and the Spanish word for "thank you" is“gracias". The Portuguese word for "hello" is "ola "，and the Spanish word for "hello" is “hola”.
There are so many amazing resources available for learning Spanish. A popular method that most people use is the app Duolingo because it’s convenient and great. A similar method is listening to a podcast (播客)，like Coffee Break Spanish that tailors podcasts for different Spanish levels. Both of these options don't break the bank either because they' re free.
JMU also offers opportunities to practice Spanish speaking. The Spanish Club meets every week to discuss culture, practice speaking Spanish and plan events. The Foreign Language Department organizes language tables where students can practice conversational Spanish with other students. Sigma Delta Pi is a Spanish honor society for students who study Spanish.
1. What 's the difficulty for the Bachelor of Arts students?| A．Meeting all the requirements of their school. |
| B．Choosing the foreign language they should take. |
| C．Knowing about the benefits of learning Spanish. |
| D．Finding the best ways to learn a foreign language. |
| A．good Spanish speakers can get better jobs |
| B．every career has strict rules for its workers |
| C．Spanish has wide applications in different fields |
| D．employable people are often multi-language speakers |
| A．Romance languages are some ancient languages |
| B．a word has many different meanings in Spanish |
| C．there is quite much polite speech in Spanish |
| D．Italian speakers can learn Spanish easily |
| A．Popular customs in Spain. |
| B．Some online Spanish resources. |
| C．Some ways of learning Spanish. |
| D．The advantages of learning Spanish. |
10 . Every week in China, millions of people will sit in front of their TVs watching teenagers compete for the title Character Hero, which is a Chinese-style spelling bee. In this challenge, young competitors must write Chinese characters by hand. To prepare for the competition, the competitors usually spend months studying dictionaries.
Perhaps the show’s popularity should not be a surprise. Along with gunpowder and paper, many Chinese people consider the creation of Chinese calligraphy(书法) to be one of their primary contributions to civilization. Unfortunately, all over the country, Chinese people are forgetting how to write their own language without computerized help. Software on smart phones and computers allows users to type in the basic sound of the word using the Latin alphabet. The correct character is chosen from a list. The result? It’s possible to recognize characters without remembering how to write them.
But there’s still hope for the paint brush. China’s Education Ministry wants children to spend more time learning how to write.
In one Beijing primary school we visited, students practice calligraphy every day inside a specially decorated classroom with traditional Chinese paintings hanging on the walls. Soft music plays as a group of six-year-olds dip brush pens into black ink. They look up at the blackboard often to study their teacher’s examples before carefully attempting to reproduce those characters on thin rice paper. “If adults can survive without using handwriting, why bother to teach it now?” we ask the calligraphy teacher, Shen Bin. “The ability to write characters is part of Chinese tradition and culture,” she reasons. “Students must learn now so they don’t forget when they grow up.” says the teacher.
1. What can we learn about the Character Hero?| A．It’s open to people of all ages and all walks. |
| B．It’s the most-viewed TV programs in China. |
| C．It aims to spread Chinese culture to the world. |
| D．It draws great public attention across the country. |
| A．Chinese people don’t refer to dictionaries very often. |
| B．Chinese people no longer use brush pens or practice calligraphy. |
| C．Chinese people are using the Latin alphabet instead of the characters. |
| D．Chinese people needn’t write by hand as often with the help of technology. |
| A．necessary for adults to survive in China |
| B．a requirement made by the Education Ministry |
| C．helpful to keep Chinese tradition and culture alive |
| D．an ability to be developed only when you are students |
| A．A news report. | B．A science report. |
| C．An advertisement. | D．Children’s literature. |
