1 . Then, just as we were beginning to lose hope, the storm stopped as suddenly as it had begun. The animals were safe, and the roof was still nailed on. “All’s well that ends well,” said my mother.
It can be inferred from what the mother said that ________.| A．they had no damage at all | B．everything went beyond their expectation |
| C．everything was under control | D．the family could have suffered a greater loss |
2 . But Tom broke and ran and that’s the last thing you do with a cougar.
What do we know about cougars?| A．They are afraid of noises. | B．They hesitate before they hit. |
| C．They are bigger than we think. | D．They like to attack running people. |
What does Craig-Martin think of the teaching of the arts in UK schools?
| A．It is particularly difficult. | B．It increases artists’ income. |
| C．It opens children’s mind. | D．It deserves greater attention. |
Why did the author decide to send Spot and Stripe back to the zoo?
| A．They frightened the children. | B．They became difficult to contain. |
| C．They annoyed the neighbours. | D．They started fighting each other. |
Traditional Chinese dragon boat races were held in Milan, Italy on Saturday, attracting the participation of more than 500 people.
Among the seven teams was one composed entirely of Italians. The Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Italy organized the event to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, which has become a way for the Chinese community to express their longing for their homeland and family. It also offers an opportunity for local people to learn about traditional Chinese culture.
(blob:https://v-hls.chinadaily.com.cn/cddfe3d6-9b07-45b6-9f18-bb974dcd449b)
The dragon boat race was held in Italy to _________.
| A．express the local Chinese’s longing for their home |
| B．strengthen the ties between Italians and Chinese |
| C．honor the ancient poet Qu Yuan |
| D．celebrate the Chinese traditional festival |
6 . The shark was not an accident. He had come up from deep down in the water as the dark cloud of blood had settled and dispersed in the mile deep sea. He had come up so fast and absolutely without caution that he broke the surface of the blue water and was in the sun. Then he fell back into the sea and picked up the scent and started swimming on the course the skiff and the fish had taken.
Sometimes he lost the scent. But he would pick it up again, or have just a trace of it, and he swam fast and hard on the course. He was a very big Mako shark built to swim as fast as the fastest fish in the sea and everything about him was beautiful except his jaws. His back was as blue as a sword fish’s and his belly was silver and his hide was smooth and handsome. He was built as a sword fish except for his huge jaws which were tight shut now as he swam fast, just under the surface with his high dorsal fin knifing through the water without wavering. Inside the closed double lip of his jaws all of his eight rows of teeth were slanted inwards. They were not the ordinary pyramid-shaped teeth of most sharks. They were shaped like a man’s fingers when they are crisped like claws. They were nearly as long as the fingers of the old man and they had razor-sharp cutting edges on both sides. This was a fish built to feed on all the fishes in the sea, that were so fast and strong and well armed that they had no other enemy. Now he sped up as he smelled the fresher scent and his blue dorsal fin cut the water.
When the old man saw him coming he knew that this was a shark that had no fear at all and would do exactly what he wished. He prepared the harpoon8 and made the rope fast while he watched the shark come on. The rope was short as it lacked what he had cut away to lash the fish.
1. Which of the following books is the excerpt from?| A．Charlotte’s Web | B．The Old Man and the Sea |
| C．Tow Sawyer’s Adventure | D．Robinson Crusoe |
| A．To show what a shark is like | B．To draw readers’ attention |
| C．To demonstrate the coming danger | D．To introduce a sea monster |
7 . A small bowl bought at a yard sale in Connecticut for just $ 35 has been identified as a rare 15th-century Chinese antique.
The blue-and-white bowl was made by China's royal court during the Ming dynasty. It is now expected to sell for up to $500,000, according to Sotheby's auction(拍卖)house in New York, where the auction will take place next month.
The purchase was made last year near New Haven, Connecticut. “I was just hanging around there aimlessly. But when I saw this bowl, I didn't even bargain over the $35 asking price,” the owner said. Shortly after the purchase, he sent photos of the bowl to auction specialists, who identified it as an item of historical significance.
Upon closer inspection, the artifact was found to have originated from the period of Yongle Emperor, who ruled from 1403 to 1424 - a period noted for its distinctive porcelain (瓷器)techniques. It's now valued between $300,000 and $500,000, with the top estimate nearly 14,300 times the amount it was purchased for.
“I was deeply attracted by the techniques. You can see why this bowl is so highly-valued from the very smooth porcelain body, silky glaze(上釉)and special blue coloring, which were never reproduced in later dynasties,” McAteer, an auction specialist, said.
“The Yongle Emperor improved the porcelain techniques and elevated the importance of porcelain from being an ordinary bowl into a true work of art. This small bowl has both practical and artistic value, ”McAteer said.
1. What can we infer about the bowl's owner?| A．He found the bowl by accident. |
| B．He hesitated during the purchase. |
| C．He doubted whether the bowl was real. |
| D．He bought the bowl because it was cheap. |
| A．The blue color on it. | B．The long history it has. |
| C．The people who made it. | D．The unique techniques used. |
| A．Forsaw. | B．Promoted. |
| C．Assessed. | D．Acknowledged. |
| A．An Amazing Bowl | B．A Special Yard Sale |
| C．The Return of Porcelains | D．A Man Making Fortune |
8 . The idea of billions of people going through a few masks a week during this pandemic definitely rings alarm bells, but a team of researchers in Melbourne may have the solution.
They’ve discovered that adding millions of discarded face masks to road-paving (铺路) mixtures would actually lower the cost of the road, while preventing billions of them from landfills. Just one kilometer of road would need three million masks, and the polypropylene (聚丙烯) plastic used to make single-use surgical face masks also increased the flexibility and durability of the road.
The new material is a mixture of about 2% torn masks, with recycled concrete aggregate (RCA)—a material obtained from waste concrete and other minerals from destroyed buildings. This recycled material was found in the study to be ideal for two of the four layers generally required to create roadways. Paving a kilometer of two-way road with the RCA and three million face masks would result in a change of 93 tons of waste from landfills.
The final product then is more resistant to wear than asphalt (沥青), as well as being cheaper too, provided there was a method for collecting masks. The research team did a cost-analysis and found that, at $26 per ton, the RCA was about half the cost of mining raw materials, and as much as a third of the cost of shipping the used masks to a landfill.
The widespread application would be ideal for large infrastructure (基础设施) projects. For example, Washington has the 11th worst roads in terms of unaddressed repairs in the U.S. If the damaged roads in Washington state were repaired with the RCA/mask mixture, it would reuse nearly 10 billion masks, sparing American landfills hundreds of millions of tons of trash.
It’s said that the team is looking for private industry partners or governments willing to give their plastic mask road an opportunity for a large-scale test.
1. What does the underlined word “discarded” mean in paragraph 2?| A．Recycled. | B．Produced. |
| C．Mixed. | D．Abandoned. |
| A．2% torn masks, concrete and tons of trash. |
| B．Polypropylene plastic and building materials. |
| C．Single-use surgical masks and recycled concrete aggregate. |
| D．Waste concrete and other minerals from destroyed buildings. |
| A．To tell us what the team has found. |
| B．To prove this material is cost-effective in paving roads. |
| C．To explain repairing roads costs a lot of materials. |
| D．To praise the hard work the team has done. |
| A．The material used to pave roads is made of masks. |
| B．Generally speaking, it requires two layers to create roadways. |
| C．It remains to be tested whether the solution is practical. |
| D．The damaged roads in Washington were repaired with the RCA. |
9 . The Internet plays a big part in human life. We use it for work and pleasure. We use it to learn a new language. We find advice on it. We use it to connect with family and friends. We use it to stay in touch with events we care about. The list goes on and on.
Well, that train has left the station. This expression means there is no going back to an Internet-free life. But can using the Internet too much be bad for our health? It might be, researchers say. A new study finds that heavy Internet use may be connected to high blood pressure in an unlikely group: teenagers.
High blood pressure makes your heart and blood vessels work too hard. Over time, this extra pressure increases your risk of a heart attack. High blood pressure can also cause heart and kidney disease. It is also closely linked to a brain disease.
The Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan did the study. 335 young people, from 14 to 17 years old , took part in it. 134 of the teens were described as “heavy Internet users.” And researchers found that out of these 134 teens,26 had high blood pressure. The researchers say the study is the first to connect heavy web use with high blood pressure. Other research has connected heavy Internet use with anxiety, depression and obesity.
The lead researcher is Andrea Cassidy Bushrow. She said, “Using the Internet is part of our daily life, but it shouldn’t ruin us.” Ms. Cassidy Bushrow adds that it is important for teens to take regular breaks from their computers or smartphones and do some kind of physical activity. She also suggests that parents limit their children’s use of the Internet to two hours a day, five days a week.
1. The expression “that train has left the station” in Para. 2 is used to show________.| A．the Internet develops rapidly | B．no one can escape from the Internet |
| C．the Internet can provide whatever we want | D．there is no going back to an Internet free life |
| A．Causes of high blood pressure. | B．The harm of high blood pressure. |
| C．The disadvantages of Internet use. | D．Ways to prevent high blood pressure. |
| A．teenagers shouldn’t use the Internet |
| B．the Internet will ruin human life in the future |
| C．smartphones are more harmful than computers |
| D．regular breaks are necessary when using the Internet |
| A．Heavy Internet users are mostly teenagers | B．How to prevent teenagers from the Internet |
| C．Too much Internet use may be bad for teenagers | D．Every coin has two sides—so does the Internet |
10 . When you hear the beginning of your favorite song from the radio, suddenly your neck is covered in goose bumps.
It's such a thing that a group of scientists call “skin excitement”—a feeling of cold caused not by a drop in temperature or sudden scare, but by the sense of beauty. “Skin excitement” can come from a song, a painting, a moving movie scene, or even a beloved memory-pretty much anything that causes the giving out of pleasure-soaked dopamine in your brain. But it does not come for all of us.
Your favorite music uncovers a lot about your personality，and so does how you respond to that music. Studies suppose that as few as 55 percent of people experience “skin excitement” when listening to music. And if you count yourself among this group, the goose bumps on your skin aren't the only giveaway—scientists can read it in your brain, too. In a new study published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Harvard researchers performed brain scans on 10 students who said they reliably got cold when listening to music, and 10 students who didn't. They found that the cold-prone brains may really be excited by stronger emotions.
Cold-prone brains are generally more likely to show stronger emotional intelligence than no-cold brains. Cold-prone minds tend to have unusual active imagination, reflect more deeply on their emotions, and appreciate nature and the beauty of music and art to a stronger degree than no-cold brains.
So, what type of music causes the chills? It seems that the type is not so important; participants in the new study reported getting cold from songs of every kind. And any song connected with a strong emotional memory of the listener can produce the most reliable results. For me, that's the song Sailing to Philadelphia by Mark Knopfler, which I listened to as a kid in the car with my dad, on the way to the summer camp.
1. What can we learn about “skin excitement” in the text?| A．It helps to produce doparmine. | B．It is caused by the pain in the skin. |
| C．It can be experienced by every music listener. | D．It is the human body's reaction to something nice. |
| A．The percentage of music lovers in students. |
| B．The solutions to the goose bumps on one's skin. |
| C．The differences between cold-prone and no-cold brains. |
| D．The relationship between one's music preference and personality. |
| A．Beautiful and intelligent. | B．Emotional and dishonest. |
| C．Imaginative and sensitive. | D．Brave and strong-minded. |
| A．Responses to Music Vary among People | B．A Feeling of Cold Is Caused by Horrible Music |
| C．Your Favorite Music Reveals Your Personality | D．Favorite Music May Bring Forth Goose Bumps |
