2 . Rocky was a 65-pound dog. Rita was his eleven-year old owner. When Rocky was given to her, Rita immediately liked him. Whenever she was not in school,the two were always together and within touching distance. The family would lovingly call the pair “R and R”.

But Rocky had one shortcoming. He feared water very much because of a terrible experience. When he was at the age of seven weeks long before he met Rita,he was nearly drowned by a naughty boy who had been blamed by his father.

One late afternoon, Rita's mother took R and R to a shopping area near a lake. Rita was running along the wooden bridge over the water,enjoying the beautiful scenery around. Suddenly a boy on a bicycle hit Rita. She let out a cry of pain and fell into the lake.

Rita's mother was at the entrance of a store not far away. She rushed to the lake shouting for help. Rocky seemed to forget his fear and jumped into the water to save his owner. Rocky immediately swam to Rita and held her by the shoulder's clothes with his mouth. Rita's face was quickly out of the water and she could cough.Luckily,the water was calm,they were not far from the bank,and Rocky finally reached a depth where his feet were on solid ground. He pulled Rita hard until her head was completely out of the water, and then he stood beside her, licking (舔) her face.

Rita and her family firmly believed that it was only the big dog's love for the little girl that caused him to take action that might be life-dangerous.

1. From the text, we know __________.

A．Rita was once blamed

B．Rocky was eleven years old

C．Rita spent her spare time with Rocky

D．Rocky lived in Rita's home since his birth

2. Which of the following best describes Rocky?

A．Brave.

B．Honest.

C．Unkind.

D．Dangerous.

3. When did the accident happen?

A．At noon.

B．At night.

C．In the morning.

D．In the afternoon.

4. According to the time, which of the following is the right order of the event?
① Rocky came into Rita's life.② Rocky was nearly drowned.
③They were playing near the lake. ④ Rocky saved Rita from the water.

A．①②④③

B．②①③④

C．③①②④

D．④③②①

3 . Despite the lack of new releases due to the outbreak of COVID-19, there was no shortage of good films in 2020. We've rounded out the top 4 films. Check them out!

Soul

In the first Pixar cartoon to have an African-American lead character. Jamie Foxx provides the voice of a music teacher who dreams of making it as a jazz pianist. But just after a successful interview, he falls down a manhole and finds himself in a soul world where human spirits are assigned their personalities. And things get even stranger from there.

Nomadland

When Fern loses her husband and can't afford to live in a house, she packs her few belongings into a camper and drives off into the Nevada desert. She encounters a large community of senior citizens who have also been forced to live on the road, supporting themselves with short-term- jobs along the way. What makes Nomadland unique is that while Fern is played by an Oscar-winning actress, nearly all she meets are real people who relate their own experiences. Written and directed by Chloe Zhao, the film is a combination of documentary and fiction.

The Croods: A New Age

The prehistoric family from 2013's hugely enjoyable cartoon, The Croods, directed by Joel Crawford, makes a welcome return, so we can expect more crazy adventures and unusual animals. In the much-delayed- sequel, they meet another family, the Bettermans, whose advanced lifestyle and technology make the Croods look even more primitive than they did already. There's conflict but they learn to appreciate each other's differences.

Wolfwalkers

The year's finest cartoon film comes from Cartoon Saloon, an Irish studio specialising in stylised hand-drawn 2D art. Its latest production is set in the mid-17th Century, when English soldiers are trying to occupy the wild woods. One hunter's daughter meets with a girl wolfwalker and they make joint efforts to rescue the forest. It's a heartwarming story of friendship and an inspiring adventure about two girls finding themselves Wolfwalkers stands proud as new classic.

1. What is the film Soul about?

A．pianist's dream coming true.	B．A musician's romantic journeys.
C．A music teacher's unusual experiences.	D．An African-American actor's success story.

2. Which movie will you go to if you are interested in the wandering life?

A．Soul.

B．Nomnadland.

C．The Croods: A New Age.

D．Wolfwalkers.

3. In which column of the website could we read this text?

A．Science.

B．History.

C．Entertainment.

D．Medicine.

4 . Ms. Blake wanted to leave the San Francisco Bay Area. Her parents had bought a house on a large plot of land near a gateway to Yosemite National Park. Benjamin could stay with them while she worked at a supermarket in town. He could run around in the hills. What she hadn’t quite accounted for, though, is how the hills are becoming hotter, drier and more dangerous.

A year after they moved came the first of an annual series of wildfires, and an asthma diagnosis (哮喘诊断) for Benjamin. One year, they had to leave from their home for a few days. Another year, they bought air-conditioners so they could keep the windows shut when the air got thick and smoky. This year, just as it seemed like Benjamin’s asthma was relieving, came the Creek Fire in the hills nearby. The air turned white with smoke. The boy had what appeared to be a mild asthma attack.

Ms. Blake struggles to explain to him why he can't be outside exploring. She worries when he goes to school. She wonders how much longer the family will be able to insure their home if rates climb higher — and what they’ll do if insurance becomes unavailable at any price. “It seems every year there’s some major fire,” Ms. Blake said. “We're smoked out. It's hard to breathe. It's always a worry that you' re going to have to flee or you1 re going to lose your home.” She said she had spent in the neighborhood of $1,000 this year to equip her home. “To protect my son of course I’m going to do that,” she said. “But it' s fundamentally unfair.”

1. What can be learned from Paragraph 1-2?

A．Benjamin likes living in San Francisco Bay Area

B．Benjamin didn’t have an asthma before moving.

C．Ms. Blake stayed with her son while working.

D．Ms. Blake could explain how the hills are becoming drier.

2. Why did Ms. Blake buy air-conditioners?

A．To help cure Benjamin’s asthma.

B．To keep the air cool in hot summer.

C．To keep the air drier in the house.

D．To keep the windows shut when necessary.

3. What is the direct factor to Benjamin’s asthma?

A．Some dry brush and dead trees caused fire.

B．Series of wildfires attacked his living area.

C．The weather became hotter and drier.

D．The air got thick and smoky in the San Francisco Bay Area.

4. How did Ms. Blake feel about the series of wildfires?

A．Anxious and angry.

B．Concerned and confused.

C．Unconcerned and uninterested.

D．Positive and hopeful.

5 . According to a survey, the waste of food on the dining table occupies 10% of the total grain output. Last week Meituan co-published a proposal with a number of business organizations, calling on restaurants to stop food waste and help develop new eating habits for customers. “Restaurants should use official accounts on social media and live-streaming to promote and advocate food-saving actions,” the proposal said.

Meituan and the organizations are advocating that merchants offer guidance for consumers, including reminding them during the ordering process about the taste of the ingredients, portion sizes and other information about the dishes, to help them avoid food waste due to misleading information.

Catering associations in more than 18 provinces have also joined the campaign to remove food waste. The Wuhan Catering Association proposed an “N-1” ordering code for restaurants in which a group of 10 diners would only order enough for nine people. More food is only brought to the table if required. It has inspired people to rethink their relationship with food and waste.

On Friday, the China Cuisine Association announced that it had teamed up with Ele. me, a food delivery platform, to launch a “ half-dish plan", encouraging restaurants to provide customers with the option to order smaller portions. Besides, customers are encouraged to take their leftovers home.

To reduce food waste on social media platforms, some popular video platforms have stepped up content reviews of food-related live streams and implemented regulation of online eating shows. Now, if users search certain keywords, such as “eating show" or “competitive eaters", a cautionary message pops up to remind them to cherish food and keep a reasonable diet.

1. What is the purpose of the proposal mentioned in the passage?

A．To monitor food sales on social media and live-streaming.

B．To expand the business and competitive ability of Meituan.

C．To encourage restaurants to take measures to reduce food waste.

D．To promote cooperation between Meituan and other organizations.

2. How is Paragraph 3 developed?

A．By doing a survey.	B．By offering analysis.
C．By making comparisons.	D．By giving an example.

3. What is the suggestion for consumers in the passage?

A．Purchasing their favorite food.	B．Buying proper amounts of food.
C．Following some competitive eaters.	D．Leaving their leftovers in the restaurant.

4. What does the underlined phrase “pops up” in the last paragraph mean?

A．Appears unexpectedly.	B．Spreads widely.
C．Moves quickly.	D．Fades slowly.

6 . To improve a high schoolers chance of getting into a top university, the summer programs allow young students to explore fields of interest and get a taste of college life.

Telluride Association Summer Program (TASP)

TASP is a six-week program allowing high school freshman from around the world to grow their sense of interpersonal awareness and community responsibility. It's completely free, including the cost of tuition, books and even travel.

Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science (MITES)

This week-long program aimed at all US high school students can help them develop the skills necessary for future job in engineering while learning about the value and reward of acquiring advanced technical degrees. MITES is free—the only expense is the transportation to and from MIT.

Clark Scholar Program (CSP)

High school students coming from across the globe are offered the unique opportunity to gain hands-on research experience in mathematics field while working one on one with teaching staff over four intense weeks. Everything is free for chosen applicants except their meals.

JCamp

The seven-week one brings high school freshman and sophomores from various backgrounds together for participating in sessions and workshops led by notable journalists where students can get hands-on training in journalism. JCamp is free if selected-participants only need to pay for the board.

1. What can be expected of MITES?

A．It is accessible to worldwide students.	B．It lays a foundation for career prospect.
C．It makes no extra charge for transportation.	D．It awards students advanced technical degrees.

2. Which program is suitable for a UK high schooler with up to 5 spare weeks?

A．TASP.

B．MITES.

C．CSP.

D．JCamp.

3. What is the shared goal of the programs?

A．To seek for one-on-one instruction.	B．To develop a sense of social duty.
C．To get participants better prepared for college.	D．To advertise some majors of the top universities.

7 . A shocking 53.6 million tons of electronic waste were discarded（丢弃）last year, a new UN-backed report has revealed. The report shows that e-waste is up 21%from five years ago. This isn't surprising, considering how many more people are adopting new technology and updating devices regularly to have the latest versions, but the report also shows that national collection and recycling strategies are nowhere close to matching consumption rates.

E-waste contains materials including copper（铜）, iron, gold and silver, which the report gives a conservative value of $ 57 billion. But most are thrown away or burned rather than being collected for recycling. Precious metals in waste are estimated to be worth $ 14 billion, but only $4 billion-worth is recovered at the moment.

While the number of countries with national e-waste policies has grown from 61 to 78 since 2014, there is little encouragement to obey and a mere 17% of collected items are recycled. If recycling does occur, it's often under dangerous conditions, such as burning circuit boards to recover copper, which "releases highly poisonous metals" and harms the health of workers.

The report found that Asia has the highest amounts of waste overall, producing 24.9 million metric tons (MMT), followed by Europe at 12 MMT, Africa at 2.9 MMT, and Oceania at 0.7 MMT.

But whose responsibility is it? Are governments in charge of setting up collection and recycling points, or should companies be responsible for recycling the goods they produce? It goes both ways. Companies do need to be held accountable by government regulations and have incentives to design products that are easily repaired. At the same time, governments need to make it easy for citizens to access collection points and deal with their broken electronics in a convenient way. Otherwise, they may turn to the easiest option-the landfill.

1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?

A．What e-waste refers to.

B．Where e-waste is collected.

C．Why e-waste is increasing rapidly.

D．How many kinds e-waste includes.

2. What do the statistics in paragraph 2 show?

A．The functions of policies.

B．The great damage to environment.

C．The change of consumption rates.

D．The urgency of recovering e-waste.

3. What is the problem with recycling e-waste at present?

A．It does harm to the workers' health.

B．It lacks national policy support.

C．It hardly makes profits.

D．It takes too much time.

4. How should the problem be solved according to the passage?

A．New technology should be used to update old devices.

B．Governments and companies should take responsibilities.

C．Non-poisonous metals had better be used in e-device.

D．Citizens must play a key role in recycling e-waste.

8 . Like fine food, good writing is something we approach with pleasure and enjoy from the first taste to the last. And good writers, like good cooks, do not suddenly appear full-blown. Quite the opposite, just as the cook has to undergo a particular training, mastering the skills of his trade, the writer must sit at his desk and devote long hours to achieving a style in his writing, whatever its purpose is — schoolwork, matters of business, or purely social communication.

You may be sure that the more painstaking the effort, the more effective the writing, and the more rewarding.

There are still some faraway places in the world where you might find a public scribe to do your business or social writing for you, for money. There are a few managers who are lucky enough to have the service of that rare kind of secretary who can take care of all sorts of letter writing with no more than a quick note to work from. But for most of us, if there is any writing to be done, we have to do it ourselves.

We have to write school papers, business papers or home papers. We are constantly called on to put words to papers. It would be difficult to count the number of such words, messages, letters, and reports put into mails or delivered by hand, but the daily figures must be extremely large. What is more, everyone who writes expects, or at least hopes whatever he writes will be read, from first word to last, not just thrown into some “letters-to-be-read” files or into a wastepaper basket. This is the reason we bend our efforts toward learning and practicing the skills of interesting, effective writing.

1. In this passage, good writing is compared to fine food because ______.

A．both are enjoyable

B．both are hard to learn

C．both are necessary to life

D．both take a long time to prepare

2. According to the passage, some managers don't have to do any letter writing because ______.

A．they rely on quick notes	B．they have excellent secretaries
C．they have a computer to do it	D．they prefer making phone calls

3. According to the author, if your letter is thrown into some "letter-to-be-read" file ______.

A．it will receive immediate attention	B．it will be dealt with by the secretary
C．it is likely to be neglected	D．it is meant to be delivered soon

4. The purpose of the author in writing this passage is ______.

A．to explain and persuade	B．to comment and criticize
C．to interest and entertain	D．to argue and demonstrate

9 . That morning, I dropped our eldest at kindergarten and returned home to let our two younger children play while I worked on my medical report. It was a wonderful chance to work from home, but it hit me that my career in hospital wasn't making a difference in anyone's life. I needed something that would stretch my limits and push me to grow. My career enabled me to work from home. I could work from home, and become a foster mother, providing safety for a child who needed it desperately.

On Monday morning. I picked up the phone and dialed the number I had Googled for the nearest Department of Children's Services. The man on the other end was receptive to my questions and explained the next step of training, involving eight weeks of classes designed to prepare and educate foster parents. We continued through all the classes, the home visits, background checks, and seemingly endless steps.

Five long months after we were approved, the phone rang. In the middle of the night, I woke my husband and rushed to East Tennessee Children's Hospital. Our placement was waiting for us in the emergency room, sick and lack of nutrition. It didn't take long for us to realize the full depth of her suffering. Six months later, her half-brother came to us by our request. We now had five children under our care.

On August 12, 2016, our family of seven walked into a small courtroom. The children's lawyer and social worker were there. With just a few words, our adoption was finalized. These two amazing children weren't going home, because they were already home. We are their forever family, and they are our forever children. We may not be able to change the entire world, but we have changed the world entirely for our new children.

1. How did the author feel about her hospital work?

A．Lacking of motivation.	B．Filled with challenge.
C．Highly motivating.	D．Unusually Demanding.

2. What led the author to decide to adopt children?

A．She felt sympathetic for abused children she knew.

B．She wanted to make a difference in other people.

C．She felt confident about her ability to raise children.

D．She experienced training to raise children properly.

3. What does the underlined word "placement" in Para 3 refer to?

A．The child to be adopted.	B．The need to get trained.
C．The approval of adoption.	D．The official at the hospital.

4. Why did the author appear at the courtroom?

A．To put the adopted kids elsewhere.	B．To receive another adopted child.
C．To make the adoption officially legal.	D．To begin the kids' adoption in her home.

10 . For children, communication with older adults is important when visits with grandparents are called off because of the pandemic(流行病).

Even before COVID-19 sent older adults into hiding, grandparents and great-grandparents could often seem like strangers to kids. Contact might include gifts of toys meant for someone a little younger, forced piano performances by parents, and really bad jokes. So, coming up with what to say to those out -of-touch people through a camera can be hard. It can be a lot of pressure for kids.

Yet keeping up with older relatives has mental and physical health benefits for everyone. According to studies, older adults who participate in programming between generations show more happiness, better self-care. And a strong relationship between grandparents and grandchildren can lessen depressive tendencies(抑郁倾向) in both adults and kids.

Having an actual relationship with a grandparent can also help children develop qualities that make all-around great citizens. “Children are born to be me, me, me,” says Tina-Anne Praas of SKIP, an Ontario-based organization. “But seeing a person who has experienced life stages pulls them away from that thinking. They can gain some worldly points of view.”

Being close with a grandparent can also help children develop communication skills, especially when they’re able to learn about and compare their experiences with a grandparent’s. And it doesn’t carry the pressure of talking to a parent.

Tina-Anne Praas adds that students who were worried about life after graduation eagerly listen to older adults sharing their own experiences from the same time of life, 50-plus years ago. One student says, “My interactions(互动) with my grandparents encouraged me to become a physician.”

1. What causes much stress for kids?

A．Playing the piano in public.

B．Communicating with grandparents online.

C．Buying gifts for other younger children.

D．Being out of touch with parents for a long time.

2. What does the underlined phrase “that thinking” refer to in paragraph 4?

A．Seeing an experienced person.

B．Kids’ own ideas about the world.

C．Children’s care of themselves only.

D．Keeping contact with grandparents.

3. What is Tina-Anne Praas’ attitude towards communication between generations?

A．Supportive.	B．Doubtful.
C．Uncertain.	D．Worried.

4. Grandchildren benefit from older relatives by____.

A．listening to stories online

B．watching what they do daily

C．forming new ideas about themselves

D．communicating and interacting with them