1 . If you're British or live in a Commonwealth nation, Christmas doesn't end on December 25.The day after Christmas is known as Boxing Day, and the relaxing holiday is a chance to allow the celebration for one more restful day.
But its name has nothing to do with the sport of boxing, and unlike the popular idea, did not appear from a need to return unwanted gifts or clean up trash produced by Christmas gifting.
There are several theories as to how that charitable tradition became known as "boxing".Some historians link the use of the term to boxes of donations that were laid in churches during the pre-Christmas season of Advent in the early days of Christianity during the second and third centuries A.D.The day after Christmas, the boxes were opened and the money was given away to the poor.
Another possible story for Boxing Day has to do with a tradition that formed in 19th century Victorian England, where servants sacrificed（牺牲）time with their own families to cater to their employers on Christmas.On the day after Christmas, employers would give the servants a rare day off and send them home with leftovers from the family's Christmas feast for their service.
Though the reasons are lost to history, Boxing Day charity eventually fell out of tradition---and was replaced with physical and material pleasures.Today, the holiday is linked with sports, with major football rugby, and cricket matches and horse races taking place on December 26.
December 26 is also a big shopping day throughout the UK and the Commonwealth.The holiday kicks off what is known as " Boxing Week" , during which retailers（零售商）try to move old stock and shoppers compete for one last bargain of the year.In recent years, though, the American tradition of Black Friday---massive sales that take place the day after Thanksgiving each November---has become popular in the United Kingdom and has largely overshadowed Boxing Week.
1. What kind of festival was Boxing Day probably in the beginning?| A．A charitable festival. | B．A religious festival. |
| C．A sports festival. | D．A business festival. |
| A．Take care of. | B．Depend on. |
| C．Put up with. | D．Pick up. |
| A．It has become an online shopping day. |
| B．It has been replaced by Black Friday. |
| C．It only covers popular sports events. |
| D．It has become less important than before. |
| A．When Did Boxing Day Come into Being? | B．Why Did People Celebrate Boxing Day? |
| C．How Is Black Friday Celebrated in the UK? | D．Why Is Black Friday Popular in the UK? |
2 . Japanese officials say they are pleased with the quality of the asteroid (小行星) material collected by a spacecraft and returned to Earth.
Last week, officials from Japan described the samples (样品), which were collected from the Ryugu asteroid in July 2019. Ryugu sits more than 300 million kilometers from Earth. Japan’s unpiloted Hayabusa2 spacecraft removed the material after making a hole into the asteroid.
The space agency said the July 2019 mission (任务) aimed to collect samples from below the surface of Ryugu. During an earlier operation in February 2019, Hayabusa2 collected material from a different part of the asteroid. The second collection effort resulted in sample pieces as big as 1 centimeter. The black material looked similar to charcoal and was very hard. It did not break apart when picked up or poured into another container.
Earlier this month, space officials described the samples Hayabusa2 removed on its first mission as smaller, sandy pieces. They were collected from the surface of Ryugu. Hayabusa2 was launched in December 2014 and arived near Ryugu in June 2018. The Japanese space mission aims to use the samples to learn more about how our solar system formed.
To get the second set of samples in July, Hayabusa2 used an impactor to knock the asteroid’s surface. The aim was to collect material unaffected by space radiation or other environmental conditions. The size differences suggest different hardness of the bedrock of the asteroid. One possibility is that the place of the second touchdown was a hard bedrock and larger particles broke and entered the container.
Hayabusa2 is now on another mission to a smaller asteroid, called 1998KY26. The Japanese government expects the aircraft to take 11 years to reach that asteroid. Hayabusa2’s new mission aims to study possible ways to prevent large meteorites (陨石) from hitting Earth.
1. What are these asteroid materials used to do?| A．Study how the solar system was born. | B．Determine the movement of asteroids. |
| C．Study the environment on the asteroid. | D．Uncover when the asteroid was formed. |
| A．To discover new planets. | B．To fetch more materials in space. |
| C．To travel around the solar system. | D．To explore ways to protect the earth. |
| A．They were collected in the same place. | B．They both were black and hard. |
| C．They came in different shapes. | D．They were of equal weight. |
| A．Japan Makes Progress in Studying Solar System |
| B．Japan Is Pleased with Latest Asteroid Samples |
| C．The Secret of an Asteroid Comes to Light |
| D．The Earth Faces Threats from Space |
3 . The winners of The Cultural City of East Asia in 2021 have been chosen, with four cities in China, Japan and South Korea winning the title, the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced on Sunday.
Shaoxing of East China’s Zhejiang Province, Dunhuang in Northwest China’s Gansu Province, Suncheon in South Korea and Kitakyushu in Japan were selected through votes held in their respective countries in 2020. Choosing Dunhuang and Shaoxing at the same time marks the first time that one country has selected two cities in the program.
These four cities are major cultural landmarks in their respective countries. Dunhuang was a major stop on the ancient Silk Road and is best known for its nearby Mogao Grottoes, which contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art from a period extending 1, 000 years. Suncheon is an eco－city in South Korea that is a major agricultural and industrial center and also known for Suncheon Bay. Kitakyushu city was formed in 1963 through a combination of five big cities centered around the ancient city of Kokura. It is also where the already delayed 12th meeting of the three countries’ culture ministers will be held in 2021. Suncheon and Kitakyushu also won The Cultural City of East Asia in 2020.
These four cities are active centers for art and cultural communication. According to the announcement, the four cities will work closely together to promote cultural development and prosperity in East Asia through sustained cultural cooperation and close exchanges, and will jointly support the preparation and hosting of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 and the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing in 2022.
The “The Cultural City of East Asia” program was created based on an agreement reached at a meeting of ministers of culture from Japan, China, and South Korea in 2013. Every year one or two cities in each country are selected with the aim to develop their ties through culture and arts; those cities host a variety of cultural and artistic events to introduce traditional and modern arts and culture as well as different lifestyles to visitors.
1. What’s special about the selection of The Cultural City of East Asia in 2021?| A．All the cities were on the list for the first time. |
| B．All the cities are well－known all over the world. |
| C．Two cities of one country were selected in a year. |
| D．Three countries work together to make the selection. |
| A．Shaoxing. | B．Dunhuang. | C．Suncheon. | D．Kitakyushu. |
| A．The culture of the four cities. | B．The mission of the four cities. |
| C．The history of the four cities. | D．The comparison of the four cities. |
| A．To preserve local traditional arts, culture and lifestyles. |
| B．To support the preparation and hosting of the Olympics. |
| C．To strengthen the city relationship through culture and arts. |
| D．To host various cultural and artistic events to attract visitors. |
4 . As COVID-19 hit and the world went into varying levels of lockdown (封锁), it became difficult for researchers to know what was happening in the ocean. But now, you can join the eOceans platform to help researchers gather data on oceans and ocean ecosystems in real-time.
Downloading the eOceans app on your smartphone and logging what you see when you are on the coast or in the ocean, including any animals, people, pollution or even an empty beach, you can help researchers monitor the world’s oceans. The app lets you note your observations as well as upload photos. This information is then linked to your geographical location and is made accessible to scientists studying that region. Using eOceans data, researchers can remotely monitor how oceans and coastal communities worldwide are happening, including in the context of the pandemic (疫情).
In reality, observations recorded through eOceans are already providing valuable insights. During Australia’s lockdown, for example, the largest group of turtles in the country’s history was spotted by researchers using eOceans data. And in Hawaii, data from the app suggests that clearer waters are associated with a reduction in tourists during the pandemic.
Negative impacts of the pandemic on the ocean have also been picked up through the app, including an increase in pollution from personal protective equipment, as well as pandemic-related interruptions to marine (海洋的) recovery following a 2019 oil leak in Brazilian waters. In future, data from eOceans could help enable early detection of hazards (危害), such as oil leaks, so that they can be dealt with sooner, says Christine Ward-Paige, founder and chief scientist at eOceans.
“Till now, more than 1,000 people have already joined the eOceans platform,” says Ward-Paige. “But more data on wild life spotted along coastlines, as well as information on how people are using these spaces, are still needed.”
1. How can people help researchers monitor the ocean through the eOceans platform?| A．By downloading and observing some data of hazards. |
| B．By spotting and marking the previous marine recovery. |
| C．By collecting and uploading timely oceanic information. |
| D．By detecting and reporting your present geographical location. |
| A．An oil leak occurring in Australian waters. |
| B．The largest turtle found in Australia’s history. |
| C．A factor contributing to clearer waters in Hawaii. |
| D．A boom of tourism appearing during the pandemic. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Optimistic. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Anxious. |
| A．Keeping an eye on the ocean. | B．Caring about the ocean pollution. |
| C．Showing love to coastal creatures. | D．Monitoring the quality of seawater. |
5 . The traditional working day doesn't benefit night owls(夜猫子),with people who prefer to stay up late twice as likely to underperform at work as early birds ;a new study from Finland has6uggested.
Early risers tend to work better early in the morning, while evening types are the opposite. The researchers asked 5,881 individuals born in 1966 in northern Finland about their working life and health and questioned them about their sleep patterns in 2012 when they were 46 years old. The study participants were monitored over a period of four years.
Ten percent of the men and 12% of the women were "evening types", 72% of whom worked in day jobs,the researchers found. A quarter of people classified as evening types rated their own performance at work as poor. This was a significantly higher proportion(比例) than among early birds.
"If evening types have to work in the early morning, they won't rate their work ability as high as morning types. The opposite would be true as well. If normal business hours were 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., the early morning types would feel worse than evening types," said Kristen Knutson, an associate professor at Northwestern University.
Suzanne Hood, an associate professor at Bishop's University in Qucbec, Canada, said that night owls shouldn't be alarmed by the findings.
"Rating job performance doesn't necessarily tell you about the quality of the work in real terms," noted Hood. "Also, the study was observational—it doesn't mean that being a night owl makes you less able to work."
"For example, the employee who seems like a slow starter in the morning might be the person who's most able to work effectively into the evening to meet an important deadline," said Hood. "If there is some opportunity for flexibility in scheduling, allowing employees some control over what time of day they complete their work may help to optimize(优化) performance and productivity."
1. What do we learn about the study from Finland?| A．It lasted from 1966 to 2012. |
| B．It was conducted mainly in the lab. |
| C．72% of participants were early birds. |
| D．A minority of participants were night owls. |
| A．Objective. | B．Worried. |
| C．Supportive. | D．Unconcerned. |
| A．Starting early in the morning. |
| B．Choosing different work schedules. |
| C．Following normal business hours. |
| D．Finishing one's work later than usual. |
| A．Night Owls Tend To Perform Badly At Work |
| B．Early Birds Are More Likely To Gain Advantages |
| C．Are You A Night Owl? Blame It On Your Genes |
| D．Which Do You Prefer, Morning Type Or Evening Type? |
6 . Although the vast majority of people have admitted to considering having an emergency fund to fall back on in case of a financial disaster, once their paycheck comes through, they have many duties higher on their list of importance that need paying off. However, one Australian financial advisor has given clear and important reasons why an emergency fund should always be at the top of your priorities.
Canna Campbell explains how to create this fund and how it differs from your other savings accounts. She said, “Your emergency fund should be treated differently to your current account and savings.” Campbell went on to explain that the money put into this account should be decided according to how much you are paid in your job and if you were to lose it, the money you would need to keep yourself out of the minus.
In addition, people need to consider situations where they might have housing damage or a medical emergency arising, resulting them in requiring immediate assistance that insurance will not cover. For this reason, Campbell added that there is no “ ‘one size fits all,’ everyone is different.” She insisted that it“boils down to your situation, lifestyle, responsibilities and what helps you sleep well at night. "
As for how to do it, Canna gave instructions too,“Work out how you can start setting money aside in a separate account, and build this separate savings account as quickly as possible, without cutting your living expenses.”
She finally added, “So keep it simple. However, it can be worth temporarily going without a few luxuries in order to find the extra cash flow to put into your emergency fund account. Going without a few items in the short term definitely outweighs the stress as it gives you peace of mind knowing that you have a safety net to protect you.”
1. Which of the following shows what most people do about creating an emergency fund?| A．Prevention is better than cure. | B．Lightning never strikes twice in the same place. |
| C．Time and tide waits for no man. | D．To say is one thing and to do is just another. |
| A．The benefits of an emergency fund. | B．The size of an emergency fund. |
| C．The types of an emergency fund. | D．The necessity of an emergency fund. |
| A．The emergency fund can replace insurance. | B．The emergency fund brings more fun. |
| C．The emergency fund is really very simple. | D．The emergency fund can lessen stress. |
| A．What Just Goes at the Very Top of Your Priorities? |
| B．How Does Emergency Fund Obtain the Peace of Mind? |
| C．Emergency Fund for Financial Security and Stability |
| D．Canna's Advice on Reducing a Financial Disaster |
7 . Think about all those successful people in your life that you know. How many of them build their success overnight? How many of them didn’t care about their goals? How many of them gave up after the first failure?
Most of the people we know to be successful were very persistent and devoted to their dreams. In other words, they work hard towards their dreams and keep trying, even if their goals aren’t easy to achieve. They didn’t give up just because they faced barriers and problems. They might even get encouraged by them.
Persistence really matters. It can help build your character. Nothing builds your character more than overcoming failures and problems in life. You get tougher and can handle anything life might throw at you. Each time you win your urge to give up, you make your mind and personality a bit stronger. Each of those wins will build your character to be healthier and to handle more stress.
When you are committed to something, you are willing to learn what it takes to be successful. You will be required to learn new skills and solve new kinds of problems. When you are persistent about your goals, you will have to learn new ways of doing things. Sometimes you might notice that to solve a particular problem, you need to learn more about it. When you study more about the topic, you discover new exciting subtopics to know about. As you think more in-depth into that problem, you will be exposed to new ideas and thoughts. Persistence is the driver behind your ability to learn what you need to know.
When you keep building your persistence and willpower, you will face many failures. Things don’t always end up as you have planned. With persistence, you will learn how to solve those problems and get back up after a failure. You will learn that failure is not the end of the world. Life goes on, and so can you. Each time you decide to overcome your failure, you will learn something new, and you will be a bit stronger than before. Those changes won’t show daily, but slowly they will start to stack up. If you look back and analyze your process, you will discover that you handle the stressful situation more efficiently, and after failures, you won’t go into despair. You rather know how to handle each failure as you have accumulated experiences from them and handle challenging situations.
Persistence is a basic quality to develop in life because it is closely related to personal development and improvement. As you already know, it is not easy, but it is worthy of your effort.
1. The underlined word “them” in Paragraph refers to________.| A．dreams | B．successful men | C．most of the people | D．barriers and problems |
| A．Persistence builds your character. |
| B．Persistence teaches you how to manage failures. |
| C．Persistence improves your skills and abilities. |
| D．Persistence helps you handle a stressful situation. |
| A．People with persistence seldom suffer from failures. |
| B．Learning new skills will make you more persistent. |
| C．Persistent people are easier to get out of a bad mood. |
| D．Successful people usually have stronger personalities. |
| A．explain the importance of being persistent | B．analyze the character of successful people |
| C．offer some suggestions about being persistent | D．show how to deal with problems and face failures |
8 . When I was a kid, my sister and I would fight all the time over nearly everything. But as we grew older, our bond strengthened by sharing secrets, offering advice and trading clothes. Having a sister by my side while growing up taught me many lessons about the unique bond.
And now, thanks to an 8-year long study that’s making the rounds on the Internet again, science is confirming what I know is true. In the study, researchers discovered that having an older or younger sister can help ease the anxiety for kids between the ages of 10 and 14 years. They also found that people with sisters can “learn how to make up and to have control over their emotions again, which are skills that undoubtedly serve children well.
The revival of this study actually comes on the heels of another newer study, which shows that it’s not just the older kids and parents who influence and shape children as they grow. It turns out that younger siblings(兄弟姐妹) do too, and what’s more, they may also give their older siblings a greater chance of developing empathy (同情).
The Canadian study followed 452 pairs of siblings, all between a year-and-a-half and 4 years old. The researchers found that having a younger sibling increased the older sibling's level of empathy.
This research confirms that sisters are pretty amazing in making the world a much lovely place. As the mom of two boys, I often wonder what kinds of lessons they will learn from their younger sister. Perhaps they will be the same lessons I learned from mine that cooler heads always win. This study gives me hope that all those endless arguments between my kids may actually be laying the groundwork for conflict-settlement skills.
1. What can we learn from the study?| A．Children under four develop empathy fastest. |
| B．It is normal for siblings to quarrel. |
| C．Having siblings is not always a headache. |
| D．Having sisters is helpful to mental health. |
| A．Result | B．Beginning. |
| C．Reappearance. | D．Significance. |
| A．They love their mom very much. |
| B．They have a higher level of empathy. |
| C．They often quarrel with one another. |
| D．They have learned the same lessons as the the author. |
| A．Siblings have a unique bond. |
| B．Siblings have something in common. |
| C．Having siblings is good to children. |
| D．Children having siblings are considerate. |
9 . This year's hottest destination is Mars. On 23 July, China launched the Tianwen-1 mission to the Red Planet — one of three spacecrafts' planning to head there in 2020. This is China's second interplanetary mission, but the first that the nation has launched on its own. The other, Phobos-Grunt, was a cooperation with Russia that didn't make it out of Earth's orbit after blasting off in 2011.
The new mission, called Tianwen, translated as "questions to heaven" — consists of an orbiter, a lander and a rover, the last of which will be named via a public competition. "It's very ambitious because it's a four-part mission: there's the launch, getting into orbit, the landing and the rover, and every single step has to go right, says space consultant Laura Forczyk. All those steps must work on the first try, an achievement no other space program me has accomplished on a Mars mission because of the difficulty of landing there.
If all goes well, Tianwen-1 will arrive at Mars in February 2021 and the lander and rover will touch down two or three months later. They will take pictures from the surface, measure the soil composition, make radar observations of the planet's underground structure and observe Mars's magnetic field. Due to the harsh environment on Mars, the rover is expected to last about 90 Martian days. It weighs around 240 kilograms, about the same as China's Yutu-2 rover, which is currently roaming the moon. "The Chinese mission to the far side of the moon has been hugely successful, so they are building on that success now," says Forczyk.
The orbiter, which will relay data from the lander and rover back to scientists on Earth, also carries a suite of scientific instruments. It has two cameras and a spectrometer (光谱仪), which it will use to create a map of the mineral composition of Mars's surface, as well as radar and detectors to examine particles in the Martian atmosphere. It will also look for deposits of water ice that could be helpful for future explorers.
Tianwen-1 won't be alone in Mars orbit. The United Arab Emirates has just launched its first mission to Mars, and NASA's Perseverance rover is set to launch on 30 July. These missions are all leaving now because Mars is at its closest point to Earth, which happens once every two years.
1. Which statement is true according to the first two paragraphs?| A．On 23 July, three countries launched space crafts to Mars. |
| B．Every step of Tianwen mission can be completed at several attempts. |
| C．The mission, Phobos-Grunt, cooperated with Russia was a great success. |
| D．Tianwen mission shows the pioneering efforts of China's space exploration. |
| A．Travelling around. | B．Floating past. | C．Wandering aimlessly. | D．Moving swiftly. |
| A．act as a detector to examine particles on the earth |
| B．search for a substance useful for future exploration |
| C．send information back to the earth collected from Mars |
| D．identify the position of minerals possibly lying on Mars |
| A．China's Successful Space Explorations |
| B．China Launching Missions to Mars |
| C．Tianwen, the First Interplanetary Mission |
| D．Mars, the Hottest Destination to Explore |
10 . Have you ever loved a destination but couldn’t figure out why — or even a way ——to express your feelings? That’s my dilemma with Morocco.
In August, I traveled in a country that had long been, on my wish list. I rode a camel, got lost in Medinas, and ate more couscous (粗麦粉) than was humanly possible.
I loved the trip. Our friendly guide introduced us to the helpful locals. I made friends with my tour mates and my roommate (which, on a tour, is a huge blessing). I loved being lost in the smell of different spices, and the chaos of millions of people and the dark red of the Sahara were all I wanted them to be.
There were many moments when I felt like a fish out of water and things didn’t go my way. But I take pleasure in those moments because it’s when you are pushed out of your comfort zone that you grow. Morocco lived up to all my expectations, but for some reason, my experience has been hard to express. Why?
One constant in my travels is that of a touchstone, one defining point where the trip all comes together and acts as a prism (三棱镜) for everything the journey represented . In Costa Rica，it was getting lost in a jungle. In Thailand, it was meeting those five people who changed my life.
I’m so inconsistent about Morocco because I lack that touchstone. There’s no “whoa” moment. But I have thousands of little ones - staring at a million stars in the blackness of the desert, discovering new foods with some amazing Australians on my tour, and befriending the fish sellers.
1. What does the author regard as a huge blessing?| A．Going on a guided trip. |
| B．Having a helpful guide. |
| C．Being warmly received by the local people. |
| D．Getting along well with the fellow travelers. |
| A．To prove Morocco lacks the touchstone. |
| B．To show his reliance on the touchstone. |
| C．To compare Morocco with Costa Rica and Thailand. |
| D．To share his experience in Costa Rica and Thailand. |
| A．The lack of big moments. |
| B．The little “whoa” moments. |
| C．Meeting with five Thai people. |
| D．Making friends with Australians. |
| A．Unpleasant travel in Morocco. |
| B．Finding a touchstone on travel. |
| C．Reflection on traveling in Morocco. |
| D．Lack of special moments in Morocco. |
