1 . About City Cruises - Red River Rover（24hr）
As the River Thames weaves its way through the heart of London there is history around every bend.
See and experience the sights and splendor of this great city from the relaxed comfort of a modern, all-weather, wheelchair-friendly City Cruises RiverLinerTM with open upper deck and spacious lower saloon with panoramic （全景的）windows. During your cruise you will have live commentary（解说）from the experienced crew giving you lots of insights you wouldn't find in the guide books.
The Hop on Hop off Pass allows you to make unlimited use of the river services between the piers（码头）of operation:
Westminster Pier: Houses of Parliament
Abbey Waterloo Pier: London Eye London Aquarium
Tower Pier: Tower of London, Tower Bridge
Greenwich Pier; Greenwich, Maritime Museum, Cutty Sark
Important Information
You should arrive at least 15 minutes before departure time.
Passenger numbers are difficult to predict each day and can vary on account of public holidays, weather condition, events, etc. City Cruises cannot guarantee that you will get the sightseeing sailing that you have booked—please ensure that you arrive in reasonable time.
All boats have seating and are fully heated.
All boats offer open space areas with great views. Many have open decks offering a better view.
Free live commentary is in English on each sightseeing cruise.
Free audio guides are available in 8 languages: Italian, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, English and Japanese.
1. What can we learn about City Cruises RiverLinerTM?| A．It doesn't provide services on windy days. |
| B．It is not accessible to disabled passengers. |
| C．It ignores the great history of River Thames. |
| D．It enables you to learn further about the sights. |
| A．Westminster Pier. | B．Greenwich Pier. |
| C．Tower Pier. | D．Abbey Waterloo Pier. |
| A．passengers sensitive to cold should wear more clothes |
| B．passengers can view landmark sights of London on board |
| C．passengers should book visits to get the guaranteed sailing |
| D．passengers can watch live commentaries in various languages |
2 . Tourist Guide to the National Gallery
Opening hours: Daily 10: 00 am- -6: 00 pm; Friday 10: 00 am- 9: 00 pm
Closed: 2426 December
Reasons to visit:
With over 2, 300 paintings in the collection, there are hundreds of reasons to visit the Gallery. Here are some to get you started...
Get into great art. From Leonardo da Vinci to Vincent van Gogh: See priceless works of art for free.
Get creative. Brush up your skills, and create your own great works of art...
Learn about art. Discover more about paintings...
Regulations:
Talk in a low voice when you use your cellphone in the gallery
Please do not touch the paintings or other exhibits. Do not take pets in or cross the barriers.
Consume food and drink in designated areas only i.e. not in rooms that contain paintings.
Follow our no smoking policy in any part of the building.
Follow our no photograph policy in exhibitions where a sign is displayed.
Access:
The National Gallery aims to make access to the paintings enjoyable and welcoming to the widest possible public. There are a range of facilities to help you see the collection, visit exhibitions and come to events.
The Gallery offers British Sign Language-interpreted talks on paintings for visitors who are deaf, and special art sessions(展期) for visitors who can't see.
Address: The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square London WC2N 5DN
Click here to find more information.
1. What are visitors allowed to do in the National Gallery?| A．Make a phone call. | B．Take a dog in. |
| C．Smoke a cigarette. | D．Take photos. |
| A．Young visitors. | B．Deaf visitors. |
| C．Blind visitors. | D．Old visitors. |
| A．In a newspaper. | B．On a poster. |
| C．In a magazine. | D．On the Internet. |
3 . A trip to a bank’s ATM machine is usually a common affair, but for Jose Nunez Romaniz. his visit on Sunday is one that he will remember for the rest of his life. The 19-year-old was helping his grandfather buy a pair of socks online when he noticed his account balance was low. So he drove to the nearest Wells Fargo to make a deposit. Little did he know, he was about to make an incredible discovery.
When he arrived to make his deposit, Jose noticed a clear plastic bag on the ground filled with cash. It turned out to be $135,000 worth of $50 and $20 bills. When he first saw it, he stared at it for a few seconds, not knowing what to do. He was very shocked. He had never seen so much money. After taking a moment to collect himself, Jose did what he knew was the right thing: he called the police. They soon discovered that the money had accidentally been left behind by a worker tasked with refilling the ATM.
Jose’s childhood dream has been to work in law enforcement himself as a crime scene investigator and he currently studies criminal justice at Central New Mexico Community College. Local businesses have offered Jose rewards. He has received git cards from local restaurants, sports gear, and season tickets for University of New Mexico football team of ESPN radio. He was also given a $500 scholarship from an electric company. And, perhaps best of all, the police chief invited Jose to apply for a job as a public service aid for the department. It was also the best gift for Mother’s Day. “She called me and almost started crying... She told me I did the right thing and that she was proud of me.”
1. Why did Nunez Romaniz go to the nearest Wells Fargo?| A．His grandfather asked him to go there. |
| B．His grandfather was waiting there. |
| C．He was hoping for un incredible discovery. |
| D．He needed to increase his account balance. |
| A．Jose. | B．The police. | C．A staff of the bank. | D．A customer. |
| A．He became very wealthy. | B．He got a job chance. |
| C．His school gave him a scholarship. | D．He was admitted to college. |
| A．Honest and kind. | B．Wise and generous. |
| C．Brave and strong. | D．Modest and smart. |
4 . Should swimming lessons be compulsory (强制的) in schools?
Guangdong province is set to make swimming lessons compulsory in primary schools staring from 2020, proposing the courses should be given from the fourth grade. Do we need to make swimming compulsory in schools? Forum (论坛) readers share their opinions.
White Bear (Poland)
In Poland swimming lessons are not compulsory, but most of the schools have them. I think that when it is only possible-there should be the swimming lessons for kids. It is a lifesaving skill.
Mister Panda (France)
I come from France where swimming lessons in school are compulsory (dating back to Charlemagne!). I even got my lifesaving certificate in school.
Boilermaker (Expert in China)
There are swimming lessons in my city, but I was very disappointed in how they were taught. The kids spent 45 minutes of the one hour lesson practicing strokes on dryland. They only spent 15 minutes in the water. All of the children panicked and sank immediately to the bottom. Then all of the parents scolded the children, telling them they weren’t paying attention to the teacher and that they were failures.
Yunzhang (China)
It is a pity that many Chinese: athletes have won world championships in swimming while most schools don’t have the swimming facilities. Swimming is an essential lifesaving skill that everyone should have access to. The earlier, the better. The government needs to put money into the popularity of the sport.
1. Who is doubtful about the effect of swimming lessons?| A．White Bear | B．Minter Panda | C．Boilermaker | D．Yunzhang |
| A．Swimming lessons are made compulsory in high schools in Guangdong. |
| B．Swimming lessons are not compulsory in Poland, but most schools have them. |
| C．In France only a few schools have swimming lessons. |
| D．Most of the readers think swimming is an unnecessary skill. |
| A．Pitiful | B．Positive | C．Concerned | D．Opposed |
5 . You’re doing homework online for a science class. A question comes up: Do newborn human babies see the world in black and white? Do you guess or search for the answer? Searching online for the answer may get you a better grade on the homework. But a study suggests it won’t necessarily help you learn.
Psychologist Amold Glass gave his students a series of quizstyle online homework assignments. The day before a lesson, students answered homework questions about the upcoming material. They answered similar questions in class a week later and again on the exam. If you read about a topic again and again, you’re not likely to remember it very well. But if you test yourself again and again, you will have better performance in the end. So the students in Glass’s classes should have performed better on each set of questions in the homework series, and then best of all on the exam.
For many years, students had improved through each set of questions and did best on the exam. But later, many students are doing more poorly on the exam than before. Glass wonders “What a bizarre result that is? How can it be? ” His students tend to blame themselves, thinking, “I’ m not smart enough,” or “I should have studied more.” He suspects something else is going on, so he think about what has changed over those 11 years. One big thing is the rise of smartphones. So it is easier today to quickly go online and find the answer to just about any homework question. But students can’t use phones during an exam. And that might explain why they aren’t doing as well on the tests.
To test this, Glass and Kang asked students in 2017 and 2018 whether they came up with their homework answers themselves or looked them up. Students who tended to look up answers also tended to do better on homework than their exams.
1. What can we infer from the first 2 paragraphs?| A．Doing homework online is a trend. | B．Childish question is hard to answer. |
| C．Thinking over a question helps you a lot. | D．It is necessary to find an effective learning method. |
| A．Students get enough knowledge from tests. |
| B．Questions on tests were chosen from homework. |
| C．Students performed better on tests than on homework. |
| D．Questions on tests had nothing to do with homework. |
| A．Final. | B．Strange. | C．Possible. | D．Obvious. |
| A．Bad Effects of Online Knowledge | B．Technology is not Always Good for Us |
| C．What Is the Best Way to Get Knowledge | D．Guessing Answers or Searching Them Online |
6 . It was a hot Summer day a few years ago. I had just pulled into the local gas station to fill my tank. After pumping the gas I started to walk inside to pay. That is when I noticed them. Two elderly women stood back from their car. There was a mixture of shock, fear, and horror on their faces. I looked and saw what they saw. Five yellow jackets had started to build a nest around their gas cap. My eyes widened. I shared the ladies’ fear.
Yellow jackets had never been friends of mine. Several times these bad tempered wasps（黄蜂） had attacked me while I was mowing my lawn giving me multiple stings（叮咬）each time I ran over their ground nests. They are the reason why I never repair my lawn in shorts anymore. The worst time, however, happened when I was a young boy. A friend of mine and I were running and playing in my backyard. I must have stepped on one of their hidden nests again because before I knew it both of us were being chased and stung over and over by the yellow jackets while we ran away screaming. I ran to my Mom with tears in my eyes. She immediately ran a cold bath and put us both in it to ease the pain and itching（发痒） before giving us medicine to fight all the poison in our little bodies from the stings.
Still, I knew I couldn’t let fear stop me now. I reached into my back pocket for a paper towel I had there, tore out the nest and stepped on it while the angry wasps buzzed around me. Both of the ladies thanked me and I said, “You’ re welcome! ” with a smile and a happy heart.
1. Why were the two elderly ladies scared in the oil station?| A．They couldn’t find the way back home. | B．They couldn’t afford the things they wanted. |
| C．They were afraid of being stung by some pests. | D．They were afraid of being forced out of the room. |
| A．Wear a mask. | B．Apply some medicine. | C．Wear shorts. | D．Wear thick and long clothes. |
| A．Lucky. | B．Miserable. | C．Exciting. | D．Instructive. |
| A．By spraying some medicine. | B．By destroying their homes. |
| C．By covering their nests with paper. | D．By burning down them. |
7 . Beijing is no stranger to Western food. American restaurants like McDonald’s and KFC have brought more Western dishes to the local food scene in recent years. Now, two new restaurants have joined them.
In August, Taco Bell and Shake Shack opened their doors to eager customers in Beijing. Taco Bell is a popular American fast food restaurant that features Mexican food. Hard and soft-shell tacos are a staple(招牌) of the menu; they are generally served with beef, lettuce and tomato. And of course there are burritos-chicken, beef or beans wrapped in a tortilla(墨西哥薄馅饼). However, there are new menu items that are special to the Beijing location, such as the Yang Berry Freeze and Avocado Oolong Tea.
Shake Shack, known for its traditional American-style hamburgers and milkshakes, is also serving up dishes that won’t be found in branches outside of the capital. Harry Wang, who studied in the US, visited the restaurant soon after it opened. “The last time I had Shake Shack was more than a year ago when I was in the United States.” Wang said, “The food is pretty similar to what we had in the United States, but there is a milkshake exclusive to Beijing.”
The milkshake Wang referred to is the Hutong Hawthorn. The shake mixes hawthorn, a traditional Chinese snack, into a milkshake, a common ice cream drink in Western fast food. The Beijing Shake Shack also offers roasted chestnut ice cream.
Both restaurants also reflect elements of Chinese culture in their decorations. Shake Shack’s windows feature cartoons showing hutong life, and Taco Bell has a picture of a palace from the Temple of Heaven on one of its walls.
From the design to the menus, the two restaurants are “adding a touch of local flavor”, noted China News.
1. Why are McDonald’s and KFC mentioned in the first paragraph?| A．To show the popularity of Western food in Beijing. |
| B．To lead up to the topic of new Western restaurants in Beijing. |
| C．To compare the differences between McDonald’s and KFC. |
| D．To express the author’s personal love for Western food. |
| A．It is a traditional Mexican restaurant. |
| B．It has the same menu around the world. |
| C．It is a popular Mexican food restaurant in China. |
| D．It is a fast food restaurant serving Mexican food. |
| A．Special. | B．Ordinary. | C．Important. | D．Acceptable. |
| A．They try to keep the original characteristics in all locations. |
| B．They will probably have more customers than KFC. |
| C．They make changes to the menu for Chinese people’s tastes. |
| D．They like to work together with Chinese restaurants. |
8 . The 21st International Environmental Children’s
Drawing Contest Application Guideline
When you grow up, what kind of natural environment would you like to live in？It’s not only humans that are living on the Earth. We share this planet with animals, birds, fish, insects, trees and plants. What will the earth be like in the future？Think of an Earth where all creatures can live together, and draw a picture from your imagination.
Theme
Our Earth in 2030
Age
Children aged 7 through 15
Time
October 1, 2020 to May 31, 2021
Requirements
1. Paper size: 257x364mm or smaller.
2. Draw with any type of paint, pastel, etc. you like.
3. Please print out the application form, fill in your information（in English only）.
4. Please be sure that the drawing must be drawn by yourself.
5. Applications must be sent in groups, such as a school, should be sent in a single packet.
6. Please note that drawings with text（such as posters）will not be allowed to enter the contest.
Mailing address
Please mail your drawings to: International Environmental Children’s Drawing Contest Office
Winners announcement
August 2021（to be posted on this website）
Prizes/ Awards
48 winners will receive special memorabilia. And all the works that win the contest will have opportunities to be published in the magazine.
1. When can you hand in your drawing work？| A．May 28,2020. | B．November 1, 2020. |
| C．August 12, 2021. | D．October 1, 2021. |
| A．Paper size must be smaller than 257x364mm. | B．Applications should be sent personally. |
| C．Only pastel can be used in the drawing. | D．The drawings must come from yourself. |
| A．In a research paper. | B．In a science book. |
| C．In a nature magazine. | D．In a tourist brochure. |
9 . Thanks to the progress of artificial intelligence(AI), robots have won against human players in a number of games, such as chess, Go game and even mahjong. And now, AI-powered robots are showing their talent in professional curling(冰壶).
Recently, a robot team named Curly has drawn much attention as it successfully beat two South Korean national curling teams. Researchers from Korea University in South Korea, and the Berlin Institute of Technology in Germany developed the robot.
Curling is a challenging sport that requires a mix of precision and strategy. In the game, a player called the “thrower” gently slides the stone and releases it before a boundary called the “hogline”. The stone slides down to the target, known as the “house”. An opposing team does the same, so both teams accumulate stones in the same house. At the end of the round, the team with a stone closest to the center of the target gets a point.
This requires the players to figure out the force and angle needed to slide a heavy stone in order to land it in the house or make it into another position. Players also have to form a strategy to prevent the opponent from getting their stones closest to the center of the house. And apparently, Curly has made progress in mastering these skills.
Curly is a team of two robots: One is responsible for observing the position of the stones at the scoring end, while the other does the throwing. But how was this robot programmed to achieve this?
Researchers built a simulation(模拟) of a curling game for the robots to play around. In the simulation, the researchers approximated the physics of the real world as best as they could, considering various conditions, such as the ice surface and the positions of stones. Then, there is curling strategy. The robots were trained in different situations to deal with various throws. The researchers found that Curly adapted to many variables(变量) of the game the same way a person would.
This shows that a robot can observe the real world and act accordingly in a precise and strategic manner, which is a sign of a promising future for the ever-expanding use of AI.
1. What do we know about the team of robots named Curly?| A．It can play different kinds of sports. |
| B．It defeated human players in sports games. |
| C．It is more advanced in sports than other robots. |
| D．It was developed by researchers from South Korea. |
| A．The way to play curling. | B．The use of AI in sports competitions. |
| C．The ways Curly can be improved. | D．The reasons why Curly was invented. |
| A．It could consider different conditions. | B．It could develop new game strategies. |
| C．It could build a simulation of a game. | D．It could copy what human players do. |
| A．Worried. | B．Unconcerned. | C．Annoyed. | D．Hopeful. |
10 . The UK is filled with unbelievable palaces and historic castles. Now you can take 360 degree virtual (虚拟的)tours of the attractions by just clicking(点击)your mouse at home.
Buckingham Palace
The Queen's palace offers 360 degree virtual tours of rooms including the Throne Room, Grand Staircase and the White Drawing Room. There are clickable “information points" which when clicked can explain the history of the rooms. CLICK HERE
Palace of Holyrood House
The Queen's official palace in Edinburgh is packed with history. The palace is usually open year round to the public, but for those who can't visit for whatever reasons, you can take virtual tours of some of the amazing rooms including the Morning Drawing Room and Royal Dining Room. CLICK HERE
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace offers 360 degree virtual tours of some of its beautiful state rooms from the grand Drawing Rooms and Saloons to the Great Hall. You can choose to listen to the audio (声首) guide which not only gives you a quick look inside, but offers lots of exciting details. CLICK HERE
Edinburgh Castle
Here is a great visual trip to Edinburgh Castle. You can visit the historic ruins and have some wonderful views of Edinburgh itself. You can also zoom in (拉近)or out to get an idea of the museums and interesting places to explore, as well as 3D models of the castle. CLICK HERE
1. What do the four places have in common?| A．They are the Queen's palaces. |
| B．They provide online virtual tours. |
| C．They are open to the public all year round. |
| D．They have clickable "information points”. |
| A．It has become ruins. | B．It offers audio guides. |
| C．3D models of it are provided. | D．History of the castle is unknown. |
| A．A website. | B．A travel guidebook. |
| C．A newspaper. | D．A medical magazine. |
