1 . What is talent? Are you born with it? Or does it seem to develop over time? Before I start, I’d like to say that one thing everyone agrees on is that the most skilled musicians have worked hard to get there.
While it’s true that a few of us had enough “talent” to avoid extra practice to do just as well as those who did, those who worked hard easily beat us. It is, in fact, very likely that if some of us “talented ones” had actually been practicing and improving our skill, we would have achieved a whole different level.
Another aspect of talent seems to be heart and passion (酷爱). The people I see who are the most talented musicians are crazy about music. They eat, breathe, and live music and they make an extraordinary effort to make it part of their lives. As Remus Badea said, desire for the musician-to-be is significant for them to be successful. This desire is easily found in those considered to be talented. When you want and love something so bad, it drives you and your entire character can be shaped around it. Such determined passion seems to produce incredible skill and talent.
The third aspect (方面) of talent is having talent around you. When surrounded by talented musicians, it only seems natural that you start to catch up to their level Take a look at almost any group of musicians in history. The more talented people in the group the more talented the group is as a whole. A great example of this is the relationship between audio producer and artist. The artist turns up to the studio with their song, and as they work through recording it, the audio producer will often suggest various changes to the song to make it better.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 2?| A．Pride goes before a fall. |
| B．It’s never too old to learn. |
| C．Practice contributes to talent. |
| D．Talent determines achievements. |
| A．Passion. | B．Character . | C．Skill. | D．Talent. |
| A．To introduce what real talents are. |
| B．To explain how a song is composed. |
| C．To prove talents need team spirit. |
| D．To show the benefits of being with talents. |
| A．Music has no limits. |
| B．Musicians are born with talent. |
| C．Music favors the talented. |
| D．Musicians are created, not born. |
2 . Want to know what we can do to help make our city a better place to live in? Why not take part in “Clean & Green weekend”? Join us, and you can make new friends and help protect the environment at the same time.
Park Life
Do you like playing and relaxing in the park with your friends? If so, why not take the chance to come with us and tidy up the park when you go? To add some fun, there is a gift for the person who collects the most rubbish! Meet us at the south entrance to Taohe Park at 9 a.m. next Saturday if you want to join in.
The Air You Breathe
A great way to make the air we breathe cleaner is by planting lots of trees！It is a fact that trees slowly filter (过滤) a lot of pollutants (污染物) from the air. So come and help us plant some new ones in Fenhe Park at 2 p.m. next Sunday.
War on Graffiti(涂鸦)
Some people think graffiti is cool. Well, it is not! The best way to stop buildings from becoming totally covered in ugly graffiti is to fix it as soon as possible. And that is exactly what we are going to do. We are repainting the school walls from 1 p.m. on Saturday. You don’t have to bring any tools, just remember to wear some old clothes!
1. The main purpose of “Clean & Green Weekend” is to ________.| A．have a nice weekend | B．offer the chance to have fun |
| C．help students meet old friends | D．make our city more beautiful |
| A．draw pictures well | B．bring some tools with us |
| C．wear some old clothes | D．wear some new clothes |
| A．on a school notice board | B．in a fashion magazine |
| C．in a travelling magazine | D．on a hospital notice board |
3 . Being trapped in an elevator(电梯) can be one of the worst experiences of one’s life. Some people who have such experiences may be afraid to use elevator again. In fact, there are some useful tips to follow when people are in trouble with the elevator.
First, take deep breaths and keep calm. Too much fear will add to your panic(恐慌) and make you too nervous to think clearly. Tell yourself to be patient and believe that nothing is impossible.
Secondly, use the emergency(急救) call inside the elevator or your mobile phone to let people outside know your are stuck in the elevator. There is an emergency call on the wall of each elevator. You may use your mobile phone to give light and find it. The phone number can be found around it.
Thirdly, putting on messages on Wechat(微信) is also a good idea to allow more people to find you are in need of help. If help hasn’t come, knock the door hard to get attention from other people in the building.
Fourthly, move less and try to relax. Even if the workers have known your situation, it may take them a long time to repair the elevator and bring you back to safety. Instead of keeping moving all the time, you are advised to keep still and relax yourself as much as possible, or you will make yourself tired out. Make sure that you are fine when the door is open.
1. According to the passage, when in trouble with an elevator, you should________ first.| A．Keep calm and think clearly | B．do nothing but wait |
| C．shout out for help | D．try to break the door open |
| A．tired | B．kept |
| C．troubled | D．trapped |
| A．they can spend their time easily |
| B．their situations can be known by more people |
| C．they can become less nervous |
| D．they can make more friends |
| A．To introduce how to use an elevator. |
| B．To teach us how to save ourselves when trapped in an elevator. |
| C．To warn us not to take an elevator. |
| D．To tell us an elevator often goes wrong. |
4 . Remote technologies will play an increasingly-vital role in driving the education industry, as the COVID-19 pandemic(流行病) forced the world to go remote, according to an industry insider.
“Remote technology is continuing to empower (授权) online education, with large migrations online. With the continuous application of new technology methods such as big data and artificial intelligence, students’ learning outcomes have been significantly improved,” said Wang Yan, chief architecture officer at Zuoyebang(作业帮).
“Technology and outcomes are two major challenges that companies face when they transform from offline to online. The education industry is facing the largest traffic challenge ever,” Wang said.
To upgrade the infrastructure(基础设施), Zuoyebang has continued to upgrade its technology, changing from its original single cloud service to multiple cloud services and from mostly using third-party live broadcast systems to now relying on an independent system.
“For online classes, only live-streaming can achieve a real interacting(交互式的) effect, which can get both students and teachers more involved. It is impossible to achieve such outcomes through recorded and broadcast lessons,” he added.
The Beijing-based company developed a complete set of live-streaming architecture based on the ZRTC agreement. It can fully support classes, including one-on-one tutoring and six-to-six small interactive classes. In the five weeks from February 3 to March 9 last year, Zuoyebang has helped 275 teachers bring 1,832 classes to more than 33 million primary and middle school students across the country.
1. Which technique is most beneficial to students who have online classes?| A．broadcast lessons | B．live-streaming |
| C．face-to-face lessons | D．recorded lessons |
| A．Remote technology is a key driver for education. |
| B．The company has upgraded its technology to overcome its challenge. |
| C．The company that has livestreaming architecture can only support classical big classes teaching. |
| D．Zuoyebang has helped thousands of primary and middle school students to have online classes. |
| A．Worried | B．Negative | C．Opposed | D．Confident |
5 . In middle school, math was my least favorite subject. I understood history. I loved English. However, math never made sense to me, no matter how many times I worked through a problem. I wanted to be good at math, but I didn’t think it possible.
I started taking classes offered by Art of Problem Solving (AoPS) during the summer after my eighth-grade year. I had to admit that in my first class I felt like I was completely unqualified (不合格的) to be in the class, surrounded by so many smart kids. There were times when I felt lost in a sea of materials that I could never hope to understand. But slowly and surely, a few weeks later, AoPS taught me how to love the process of learning math. I went from being a kid who hated math classes to begging my parents to let me take an extra math class on Friday nights.
The most common wrong idea I hear is that people who are skilled at math come by their skills naturally. Many of my high school friends laughed at me for being a math nerd (书呆子). People thought that math came easy to me, when, in fact, the exact opposite was true. Math was not easy for me to learn. It was something I worked hard at.
Math is often viewed as a subject you either “get” or you don’t. But most of math is not about natural talent. If people approach math thinking they can’t be good at it, then they have set themselves up to fail. Just like any other skills, success comes with practice. There are many great mathematicians in this world, but we should remember they all had to start at the beginning just like we do.
The skills we learn from problem-solving in math can be useful in our lives. So don’t give up math. Just remember that you can learn math well if you have a right attitude towards it and work hard enough.
1. What can we learn about the author when he was in eighth grade?| A．He considered math a challenging subject. |
| B．He missed math classes on purpose. |
| C．He failed to study hard in math. |
| D．He showed little interest in any school subject. |
| A．Math was not interesting at all. | B．He should turn to others for help. |
| C．He wasn’t qualified for math classes. | D．Math learning could actually be attractive. |
| A．He was really good at math. | B．He made few friends at school. |
| C．He brought music joy to his classmates. | D．He should find a new way to learn math. |
| A．Using it in real life. | B．Attending after-school classes. |
| C．Learning from great mathematicians. | D．Practicing with a positive attitude. |
6 . Math holidays everyone should know
In recent years mathematicians and scientists have begun campaigns to mark certain dates in celebration of significant principles and here are a few to add to your calendar
Mole Day
Mole Day is celebrated yearly on Oct. 23 from 6: 02 a.m to 6: 02 p.m.. The idea of a celebratory day was put forward by a chemistry teacher in 1991 and has been honored every year since. It celebrates Avogadro's Number, which is a basic measuring unit in chemistry. Each Mole Day has a specific theme.
Pi Day
The grandaddy of mathematical and scientific holidays, however, falls every year on Mar. 14. The date, 3/14, represents the first three numerals in the calculation of pi, so the date is known annually as Pi Day.
Pi Day was founded in 1988 by a physicist. The observations spread to the point where on Mar. 12, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution declaring Mar. 14 as National Pi Day.
Fibonacci Day
Nov. 23 marks Fibonacci Day, a special day that celebrates the man known as Fibonacci who developed a mathematical idea called the Fibonacci Sequence, in which every number is the sum of the previous two numbers. So, for example. 11/23 marks the day because 1+1 equals 2, and then 1+2 equals 3（the date being the 23rd）.
Square Root Day
Square Root Day is a holiday that heartily honors those dates where the combination of day and month and year form square roots: e.g. 2/2/04 and 3/3/09. The last Square Root Day was 4/4/16. The holiday was created by a high school teacher Ron Gordon. Square Root Day has its own website where celebrants can gather before the next holiday.
1. How is Mole Day similar with Pi Day?| A．They both have themes. | B．They are yearly holidays. |
| C．They fall on the same day. | D．They are created by a teacher. |
| A．Mole Day. | B．Pi Day. | C．Fibonacci Day. | D．Square Root Day. |
| A．10/23/22. | B．11/23/23. | C．3/12/29. | D．5/5/25. |
7 . An international group of electronic music composers is taking beats from the dance club to jungles and forests and back, all to help save nature's greatest singers. A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean is a new album that includes the sounds of endangered birds. The album will come out next month, whose proceeds will go directly towards efforts to save birds.
The whole project was born out of this idea of trying to combine birdsong, electronic music and conservation. A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean was organized by activist, music producer, Robin Perkins. He invited artists from each of the endangered birds 'homelands to build their own songs around the birds’ songs. There are contributions from ten artists in eight different countries.
First single Black Catbird was created by The Garifuna Collective, from Belize. Al Obando, guitarist and producer of the group, always took in national parks and viewed birds when on the road with the band. “There are no trails, and there are no signs there to tell you about what you reseeing,” Obando says. “So we're trying to do something for the birds and nature tourism.”
Another musician who responded to Robin's call is Tamara Montenegro, an artist from Nicaragua. She was shocked to hear of the serious situation of the Guardabarranco after being approached: “This beautiful creature I grew up adoring also faced the influence of the systematic human activities”. In response, she created a song inspired by this bird and the challenges it faces to live naturally.
The new album is the second edition, following on from A Guide to the Birdsong of South America, produced by Robin in 2015. That first album has raised, to date, over $15,000 benefitting conservation projects in South America. As with the first album, all of the money from the sales of the new album will support specific organizations, including Birds Caribbean.
1. What does the underlined word “proceeds” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Profits. | B．Budgets. | C．Challenges. | D．Effects. |
| A．He created a hit single himself. |
| B．He was fond of observing birds. |
| C．He was the organizer of the new album. |
| D．He did a lot for birds in South America. |
| A．It was friendly to humans. |
| B．It was beautiful in appearance. |
| C．It was losing its living environment. |
| D．It was facing challenges from other birds. |
| A．To collect money for a project. |
| B．To popularize electronic music. |
| C．To recommend some famous artists. |
| D．To introduce a new album of electronic music. |
8 . When whales die and sink to the ocean floor, their bodies -known as whale falls -provide rich nutrients for other creatures of the deep.
Chinese scientists found a whale fall in the South China Sea during a recent scientific research voyage. It was the first time that Chinese researchers had run across this rare type of ecosystem. It was an important finding, showing China's progress in deep-sea exploration technology, Xie said, a professor at Sun Yat-sen University.
During the 22-day deep-sea exploration from March 10 to April 2. 60 scientists conducted 22 dives and successfully completed a number of scientific tasks. The research aimed to gather information about the key processes of typical seamount ecosystems in the Western Pacific: Ocean. The whale fall was found in a seamount 1,600 meters deep in the central South China Sea. Though the whale fall was only about 3 meters long, it was of great importance in understanding the sea ecosystems, Xie said.
There were dozens of white armored shrimp, red shrimp and several eels found near the whale fall. The eels were eating the tail muscles of the whale fall. This shows that the whale died not long ago and that the whale fall was still in the first stage of decomposition and thus had rare value for long-term observation, Xie said.
Like cold springs, whale falls are homes for creatures of the deep. In the northern Pacific Ocean, they have supported the survival of at least 12,490 kinds of organisms—classed in 43 species—and promote prosperity far beneath the surface, according to data from the university.
1. What do we know about the whale fall in the South China Sea?| A．It is found on March 10. | B．It is a rare sea ecosystem. |
| C．It is a kind of cold springs. | D．It is found 3 meters deep in the sea. |
| A．By giving data. | B．By giving examples. |
| C．By giving definitions. | D．By making a contrast |
| A．Change | B．Disappearance. | C．Richness. | D．Tourism. |
| A．A deep-sea exploration led by China. |
| B．A whale fall found in the South China Sea. |
| C．China's progress in deep-sea exploration technology. |
| D．The protection of deep-sea biodiversity resources in China. |
9 . Bangkok's future hangs in the balance. Rising sea levels, unchecked development and rapid urban population growth have left millions helpless to natural disasters — scientists warn the city Bangkok may not survive the century.
But it does have a secret weapon in its battle to resist the impact of a hotter planet — LANDPROCESS, a Bangkok-based landscape architecture and urban design company founded in 2011 by the landscape architect Kotchakom Vbrkaakhom. She wants to shift the orientation from growth to the actions on environment and land and promotes mindful development instead of mindless construction.
She made her name by creating the internationally acknowledged Chulalongkorn University Centenary Park, an 11-acre space in central Bangkok, which tilts（倾斜）downward at a 3-degree angle, allowing rainwater to flow through the grass and wetlands. Water that’ s not absorbed by the plants runs down to a pond at the base of the park, where it can be stored for use during dry spells. In case of severe flooding, the park can hold up to a million gallons of water.
In 2018, she created Asia’s largest rooftop farm, which imitates the region’s famed rice terraces（梯田）, preserving both water and soil. Uniquely, winding around the 22,400m2rooftop is a jogging path and a lawn.
Green space design of ecological cities emerged one after another, which not only expanded the design ideas of landscape industry, but also provided new strategies for people to deal with climate problems.
Later this year she will carry out plans to transform a vast, unused bridge crossing the Chao Phraya River into a park with bicycle lanes, bringing more green space. Kotchakom has even greater ambitions for her hometown — she wants to reuse the more than 1,000 canals that snake through Bangkok that are currently used for waste water. "Canals have so much life, so much potential to be public green space and a skeleton（框架）of the whole city," she explains.
LANDPROCESS has always listened to the needs of the society, and established a harmonious relationship between nature and human beings through design, so as to create a public landscape that can really give back to the society.
1. Why is Bankok’s future mentioned in paragraph 1?| A．To make a prediction of the city. |
| B．To provide some scientific knowledge. |
| C．To stress the urgency of solving problems. |
| D．To draw readers’ attention to climate change. |
| A．Its space. | B．Its green coverage. |
| C．Its landscape. | D．Its tilt design. |
| A．She collects rainwater for industrial use. |
| B．Her rooftop farm has made the best of urban spaces. |
| C．She will reconstruct the canals to recycle waste water. |
| D．She always designs sports facilities in her green parks. |
| A．A Productive Architecture Company |
| B．An Architect with Green Growth Mindset |
| C．Bangkok's Future Hangs in the Balance |
| D．Mindful and Mindless Construction in Bangkok |
10 . Chances are that you’ve seen a movie or played a video game that contains a cyborg（半人半机器的生物）. These half-man-half-machine beings have been a vision of many creative writers. But it seems that some people can’t wait for the future to arrive.
At the Body Hacking Conference in 2017, held in Texas, US, hundreds of science fiction fans from all over the world gathered to show off their body hacks. Rob Spence, 45, had his right eye removed after an accident. Soon after, he decided he wanted to replace it with something more interesting. The minute I learned that I was losing my eye, I began researching how I could turn it into a camera, he told Wired.
This is an extreme example, and body hacking doesn’t always take things so far. For example, around the world, many people are choosing to get NFC chips implanted in their hands. This is the same technology as used in smartphones, and it allows users to pay for things or even unlock their cars just by using their fingertips. The chip is the same size as a grain of rice and can be fixed and removed easily without much pain.
Hannes Sjoblad, founder of a Swedish body hacking group, believes that these implants are just the natural next step for smart technology that is already in wide use, such as smartwatches.
We are updating our bodies with technology on a large scale already with wearables. But all of the wearables we wear today will be implantable in 5 to 10 years, he told Business Insider.
Sjoblad believes that such implants will become a regular part of our lives. Indeed, his group was asked to put chips in the hands of employees at a company in Sweden, allowing them to do things like opening doors, paying for lunch, and using the copy machine in the office.
Who wants to carry a clumsy smartphone or smartwatch when people can have it in the finger-nail? he said.
1. A cyborg is mentioned in Paragraph 1 to _____.| A．share a new invention | B．introduce the topic |
| C．promote a game | D．stress technology |
| A．Rob Spence had his right eye replaced by a camera |
| B．Rob Spence thought it lucky to lose his right eye |
| C．Body Hacking Conference is just an attraction for the disabled |
| D．Body Hacking Conference is intended for science fiction writers |
| A．Body hacking is taking things 1oo far. |
| B．There will be no wearables in 5 to 10 years. |
| C．Compared with smartphones, implants are more convenient. |
| D．Implants are totally necessary for everyone in their daily life. |
| A．Life made easier through technology | B．Implants accepted worldwide |
| C．New choices are on the way | D．Body hacking brings a bright future |
