1 . The minimalist lifestyle needs to be considered only after we own more than we need. Nowadays, the rapid development of the society has brought a lot of wealth and material possessions, which has become a burden for many. In addition, the fast-paced life we have today makes us busier than ever. Therefore, I think a minimalist lifestyle is necessary to help people ease their burden and focus on the best part of life.
Although I'm not a strict practitioner of minimalism, I do benefit a lot from a simpler life. When I got employed in 2018, I wasted my salaries on lots of clothes, shoes, cosmetics, books and food to enrich my life. However, piles of things made my room messy and a lot of stuff things had to be thrown away unused.
About one year ago, I laid my hands on a book named Danshari, which encourages people to cut out or throw away unnecessary things. Following the instructions, I started to change my lifestyle and surprisingly found out that my life is much better with less.
Another bad habit I have worked hard to change is spending too much time on my phone and iPad as a means to free myself from the work stress. A lot of my valuable time was wasted on various time-killing apps which didn't do much good to my self-improvement.
Adopting a simple life can be a bit challenging and needs constant effort. Here are some tips I find helpful. First, concentrate on things that are really important and meaningful. Second, access to information should be simple and well-targeted; reading books is a good alternative to meaningless social interaction and time-killing apps. Third, purchase fewer goods with better quality and tidy up your room regularly.
A minimalist lifestyle isn't equal to austerity (朴素).It's a habit we can form to simplify our life. With less desire both materially and mentally, there will be more room for self-improvement, happiness and inner fulfillment.
1. What does the underlined part mean in Paragraph 3?| A．recommended | B．remembered |
| C．wrote | D．read |
| A．Buying a lot of things we like. |
| B．Concentrating ourselves on the jobs. |
| C．Forming a habit of simple life. |
| D．Spending more time using apps. |
| A．Wealth Is Less | B．Mess Is Simple |
| C．More Is Happiness | D．Less Is More |
2 . Think of Japan in the spring and the image that comes to mind is likely the country’s famous cherry blossoms, also known as “Sakura” — white and pink flowers, blooming across cities and mountains.
The flowers, which experience a “peak bloom” that only lasts a few days, have been loved in Japan for more than a thousand years. Crowds celebrate with viewing parties, flocking to the most popular locations to take photos and have picnics underneath the branches.
But this year, cherry blossom season has come and gone in the blink of an eye, in one of the earliest blooms on record. Scientists warn it’s a symptom of the larger climate crisis threatening ecosystems everywhere.
Yasuyuki Aono, a researcher at Osaka Prefecture University, has gathered records from Kyoto back to 812 AD from historical documents and diaries. In the central city of Kyoto, cherry blossoms peaked on March 26, the earliest in more than 1,200 years, Aono said. And in the capital Tokyo, cherry blossoms reached full bloom on March 22, the second-earliest date on record.
The peak bloom dates shift every year, depending on numerous factors including weather and rainfall, but have shown a general trend of moving earlier and earlier. In Kyoto, the peak date stayed around mid-April for centuries, but began moving into early April during the 1800s. The date has only dipped into late March a handful of times in recorded history.
“Sakura blooms are very temperature sensitive,” said Aono. “Flowering and full bloom could be earlier or later depending on the temperature alone,” he said. “The temperature was low in the 1820s, but it has risen by about 3.5 degrees Celsius to this day.”
This year’s seasons in particular influenced the blossom dates, he added. The winter was very cold, but the spring came fast and unusually warm.
1. What is the best title of the passage?| A．Cherry blossom celebrations. |
| B．Warning of a climate crisis. |
| C．A strong love for cherry blossom. |
| D．Cherry blossom season coming earlier. |
| A．Blocking. | B．Flooding. | C．Running. | D．Following. |
| A．The peak blossom dates fall on a fixed date. |
| B．The cherry blossom rarely peaks in March. |
| C．The peak bloom dates mainly depend on weather and rainfall. |
| D．Cherry blossom peaks around mid-April in Tokyo. |
| A．To inform people the date of cherry blossom. |
| B．To show a study on cherry blossom dates. |
| C．To present a Japanese tradition of cherry blossom celebration. |
| D．To make people aware of the influence of climate change on cherry blossom. |
3 . Each year, the women of Olney and Liberal compete in an unusual footrace. Dressed in aprons (围裙) and headscarves, they wait at both towns’ starting lines. Each woman holds a frying pan with one pancake inside. At the signal, the women flip (轻抛) pancakes and they’re off!
This “pancake racing” tradition is said to have started on Shrove Tuesday, 1445, in Olney. Shrove Tuesday is the day before the Christian season of Lent (大斋戒) begins. During Lent, many people decide to give up sugary or fatty foods.
Legend says that in 1445, an Olney woman was making pancakes to use up some of her sugar and cooking fats before Lent. She lost track of time and suddenly heard the church bells ring, signaling the beginning of the Shrove Tuesday service. Realizing that she was going to be late for church, she raced out the door still wearing her apron and headscarf and holding her frying pan with a pancake in it. In the following years, the woman’s neighbors imitated her dash to church, and pancake racing was born.
The rules are simple. Racers must wear the traditional headscarf and apron. They must flip their pancakes twice - once before starting and once after crossing the finish line. After the race, there are Shrove Tuesday church services. Then Liberal and Olney connect through a video call to compare race times and declare a winner.
In both towns, the races have grown into larger festivals. Olney’s festival is an all-day event starting with a big pancake breakfast. Liberal’s festival lasts four days and includes a parade, a talent show, and contests that feature eating and flipping pancakes. Although the women’s race is still the main event, both towns now hold additional races for boys and girls of all ages.
1. How did pancake racing start?| A．A woman in Olney created it. |
| B．Women made pancakes before Lent. |
| C．A woman dashed to church with a pancake. |
| D．People followed the suit of an interesting incident. |
| A．They can wear fashionable headscarves and aprons. |
| B．They must flip their pancakes once in the race. |
| C．They must flip their pancakes at the beginning of the race. |
| D．They can flip their pancakes in the middle of the race. |
| A．People can show their talent in Olney festival. |
| B．People can enjoy a one-day holiday in Liberal. |
| C．The race is not only intended for women now. |
| D．People can have a big pancake breakfast in both towns. |
| A．The origin of pancake racing. |
| B．The history of pancake racing. |
| C．The development of pancake racing. |
| D．The introduction to pancake racing. |
4 . 2020 was a really tough year. It affected our lives in many ways and made other serious issues even more difficult to address. There was also social and political unrest in the United States and other places around the world.
All of this added up to some big, stressful year called 2020. In fact, 2020 is a song filled with low, depressing notes.
In English, “low notes” are unpleasant things that happen during an event, any event. So if something ends on a low note, it ends in an unpleasant way. For example, once I took a fun vacation. But it ended on a low note. On the last day, all my money was stolen. Then my flight home was delayed. So, I had to sleep in an airport for two days!
However, we also have another phrase-- a “high note”! In English, a “high note” is something pleasant or gratifying.
So, to end something on a high note is to end it with something pleasant. It can also mean to end something at the best possible point -- for example, at the point when something is most successful.
Anything can be a high note, if you choose it to be. For example, 2020 was a disaster. But for me it ended on a high note. One cold night in late December, I saw on owl in a tree near my house. I love owls but had never seen one so close before! That was a high note for me.
Hopefully, all of us were able to end 2020 on a high note.
1. Which of the following does NOT show the writer’s attitude towards the year of 2020?| A．It’s a year that is filled with low notes. |
| B．It’s a year that ends on a high note. |
| C．It’s a year full of easy issues. |
| D．It’s a year full of unforgettable memories. |
| A．Humorous. | B．Enjoyable. | C．Permanent. | D．Concerned. |
| A．Because it ended on a high note. |
| B．Because it is a song with something pleasant. |
| C．Because the author loves owls that have high notes. |
| D．Because the author love owls and saw one so close. |
| A．The usages of “high notes” and “low notes”. |
| B．Examples about “high and low notes”. |
| C．The change of “low notes” and “high notes”. |
| D．Some serious issues about “high and low notes”. |
5 . Last weekend was terrible for awards ceremonies. The BAFTAS,defined by a painful monologue（独角戏）from Joanna Lumley, was watched by 500,000 fewer people than last year. Meanwhile,the number of 18﹣to 49-year-olds watching the Grammys has reached an all-time low.
Don't expect the Oscars to fare any better；they have lost millions of viewers since 2014. Add to the fact that comparatively few people have watched most of the nominated films and you have got a ratings time bomb.
Viewers are deserting awards shows in groups and something needs to be done. But what？Reorganize them to celebrate really popular work？That's what the Oscars put forward last year when it suggested a best popular film category﹣and it was swiftly booed（喝倒彩）out of town.
Another option would be to shorten the length of the ceremonies, but this won't work either. The Oscars recently announced plans to hide several categories in ad breaks,and the anger in some quarters（the cinematographers, makeup artists and editors who this year won't get their moment on the small screen）has been obvious.
What else can they do？ Fewer songs？ Shorter speeches？ An In Memoriam section that consists of the words： "People die： get over it"？
Fortunately, I have the perfect solution： don't televise awards shows. Just don't do it. Awards shows are the opposite of good television. They're too long and too boring because of regular and repeated patterns and too self﹣important. And by God, we should have learned by now not to give celebrities any more attention than they already have. It just makes them think that we want to hear them giving out half﹣baked opinions about Donald Trump and Brexit.
I'm not suggesting that the awards shows shouldn't happen. I'm just saying that the awards should be announced in the form of a press release at the end of the ceremony, followed by a handful of You Tube clips showing some nice outfits and a couple of speeches. That's how most of us consume them now anyway.
1. Why does the writer mention the BAFTAS and the Grammys？| A．To introduce the topic of the article. |
| B．To support the topic of the paragraph. |
| C．To attract the readers' attention. |
| D．To make comparison with the Oscars. |
| A．The best popular film category. |
| B．The best actress. |
| C．The reorganized Oscars. |
| D．The deserted awards show. |
| A．Awards shows are better if shortened. |
| B．Awards shows are excellent television. |
| C．Awards shows are important to us. |
| D．Awards shows should be shown in another form. |
| A．The bright future of awards shows. |
| B．What terrible awards shows. |
| C．Stopping the television of awards shows. |
| D．Boycott attention to celebrities. |
6 . Now, Amazon has opened a brick﹣and﹣mortar bookstore in downtown Bethesda, and I am not thrilled. One reason is that there is no cafe area. But the biggest reason I am profoundly disappointed is that the new Amazon store does not accept cash. I refuse to use a credit card to pay for small purchases, such as books. I prefer to use cash.
Much has been written about the "unbanked" people who are too poor to afford a credit card or a debit card（借记卡）and who don't have a smartphone. No﹣cash policies are discriminatory against people of low income. In Massachusetts, it is illegal for retail establishments to discriminate against cash﹣paying customers. Several lawmakers in the district are thinking of adopting similar laws.
I am not a person of low income. I do have a credit card, and I occasionally use it. But it is my choice, for lifestyle and money management reasons, to use my credit card only for large purchases. I have decided not to own or use a smartphone, which means that I cannot use apps to make purchases.
For all their convenience, credit cards do come with problems. There are privacy concerns, because credit card purchases can be tracked. There are risks that those using credit cards may become victims of identity theft. And a cashless economy is dependent on functioning computers and uninterrupted power sources. Computers can be hacked, and power outages occur. In these circumstances, a cashless economy simply won't function.
My decision not to patronize stores that discriminate against cash﹣paying customers means that the only bookstore in downtown Bethesda will not be getting my business. In refusing to patronize such businesses, I am standing up for the "unbanked" who can't afford credit cards or smartphones and also for people like me who simply choose to use cash.
1. Why is the author disappointed at the new bookstore mainly？| A．Because there is no cafe area. |
| B．Because there are only e﹣books. |
| C．Because it rejects cash payment. |
| D．Because it doesn't accept credit cards. |
| A．The drawbacks of no﹣cash policy. |
| B．The credit risks of a cashless economy. |
| C．The convenience of credit card payment. |
| D．The privacy concerns of online shopping. |
| A．Sponsor. | B．Shop in. | C．Purchase. | D．Flee from. |
| A．Angry. | B．Worried. | C．Optimistic. | D．Enthusiastic. |
7 . It is possible that interstellar（星际的）space explorers could face problems communicating with all the arrivals, their spoken language having changed in isolation（与世隔绝）along the way.
Therefore, a new paper by two American scholars Andrew McKenzie and Jeffrey Punske recommends that such crews include members with knowledge of what is likely to occur and how to adapt. They co-authored the article “Language Development During Interstellar Travel”, in which they discuss the concept of language change over time.
In a recent interview, McKenzie gamed it out.
“If you’ re on a spaceship for 10 generations; new concepts will emerge, new social issues will come up, and people will create ways of talking about them,” McKenzie said, and these will become the vocabulary particular to the ship. People on Earth might never know about these words. And the further away you get, the less you’re going lo talk to people back home.
So if we have Earth English and spaceship English, you will have to learn a little Earth English to send messages back, or to read the information that came with the spaceship.
“Also, keep in mind that the language back on Earth is going to change, too. So they may well be communicating like we’d be using Latin-communicating with this version of the language nobody uses.”
The authors also point out that an adaptation in the form of sign language will be needed for use with and among crew members who, genetics tell us，are sure to be born deaf.
“Every new spaceship will essentially offload linguistic（语言学）immigrants to a foreign land. Given the certainly that issues such as whether they will be discriminated will arise, and the uncertainty of exactly how they will progress, we strongly suggest that any crew exhibit strong levels of linguistic training in addition to simply knowing the required languages. There will be need for an informed linguistic policy on board that can be maintained without referring back to Earth-based regulations.”
If a study of the linguistic changes aboard ship could be performed, it would “add to its scientific value,” McKenzie and Punske conclude.
1. What does the underlined phrase “game it out” mean?| A．Offer a new concept. | B．Make a further study. |
| C．Give a detailed explanation. | D．Lose the game completely. |
| A．They will forget Earth English. | B．They will be using sign language. |
| C．They may have their own language system. | D．They may make adaptations to Earth English. |
| A．Through Earth-based linguistic policy. | B．Through adequate language training. |
| C．By knowing the required language. | D．By referring to informed rules. |
| A．Why space travelers change their language. |
| B．How language is changed in the future time. |
| C．The language challenge during interstellar travel. |
| D．New concepts of language created in a spaceship. |
8 . Call it a surprise: Hurricane Michael strengthened unusually quickly before hitting the Florida panhandle, a long and thin landmass surrounding the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, on October 10,2018, and remained abnormally strong as it swept into Georgia. The storm made landfall with strong winds of about 250 kilometers per hour, just shy of a category 5 storm, making it the strongest storm ever to hit the area, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Hurricane Center, or NHC.
Warm ocean waters are known to fuel hurricanes violence by adding heat and moisture (湿气);the drier air over landmasses, comparatively, can help reduce a storm's strength. So hurricanes nearing the Florida panhandle tended to weaken. But waters in the Gulf that were about 1 degree to 2 degrees Celsius warmer than average for this time of year, as well as abundant moisture in the air over the eastern United States, helped to strengthen Michael. Despite some wind conditions that scientists expected to weaken the storm, it strengthened steadily until it made landfall, which the NHC noted "defies(违背)traditional logic", The fast-moving storm weakened only slightly, to a category 3, before sweeping into Georgia.
Although it is not possible to attribute(把......归因于)the generation of any one storm to climate change, scientists have long predicted that warming ocean waters would lead to more fierce tropical cyclones(热带飓风)in the future. More recent attribution studies have confirmed that prediction, suggesting that very warm waters in the tropical Atlantic helped to fuel 2017's powerful storm season, which caused hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Hurricane Harvey, fueled by unusually warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico in August 2017 ,also underwent a rapid intensification(增强),strengthening from a tropical storm to a category 4 hurricane within about 30 hours. And in 2018 scientists reported that Hurricane Florence, which hit the Carolinas in September 2018, was probably warmer and wetter due to warmer than average sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean.
1. What do we know about Hurricane Michael from Paragraph 1?| A．It swept from Georgia to Florida. |
| B．It was powerful beyond expectation. |
| C．It reached up to a category 5 storm. |
| D．It was the strongest in American history. |
| A．The reason why Hurricane Michael became so violent. |
| B．The function some wind conditions performed. |
| C．The key role warm ocean waters played. |
| D．The way to reduce a storm's strength. |
| A．Hurricane Irma. | B．Hurricane Maria. |
| C．Hurricane Harvey. | D．Hurricane Florence. |
| A．To show the dangers of global warming. |
| B．To explain the result of strong hurricanes. |
| C．To provide some evidence of the prediction. |
| D．To show scientists' concern about the future. |
9 . In the world of Chinese archaeology (考古学), a sign of a dig's importance is the sight of Zhou Mingsheng at work. A field technician who has worked at archaeological sites all around China. Master Zhou is credited with the gentlest touch in his profession. Born into a farming family, he is a “national-level craftsman” with a talent for using simple tools to get relics (遗物) that would crumble in other hands, says his current boss, Wang Xu, director of an archaeological site at Shuanghuaishu, a Neolithic (新石器时代的) settlement near the Yellow River in the central province of Henan.
It is not beauty that attracts visitors to Shuanghuaishu. At 5, 300 years old, the settlement is the work of a culture too simple to have left behind many buried treasures. The single most precious find, to date, is a finger-length sculpture of a silkworm. Nor is the setting lovely: an area surrounded by deafening insects, between a highway and two power stations. Rather, the site's importance is historical. For since the birth of Chinese archaeology in the 1920s, it has been inseparable from claims that China has the oldest unbroken civilisation on Earth.
Leading archaeologists say that the site has the right combination of location, age and distinctive cultural elements to be the capital of an early Chinese kingdom. That would make it a bridge between China's written history and the era of the Yellow Emperor, who is said to rule over these central plains almost 5,000 years ago, though many foreign scholars doubt his existence. Chinese media call the site proof of China's 5,000 years of history.
Foreigners complain about a lack of written records, Mr Wang notes. Perhaps they are missing symbols that will one day be understood, for instance in patterned pottery. Outsiders "can't keep using Western standards to apply to Chinese ruins," he argues.
1. What does the underlined word “crumble” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Result. | B．Break. | C．Wait. | D．Shine. |
| A．It is of great historical significance. | B．It has various precious treasures. |
| C．It has appealing scenery. | D．It is easily accessible. |
| A．Ambiguous. | B．Tolerant. |
| C．Disapproving. | D．Sympathetic. |
| A．Chinese history amazes the world | B．Chinese archaeology catches on |
| C．China follows its tradition | D．China digs its past |
10 . Diving under the ice first started over 100 years ago when divers still used heavy suits to stay dry while getting their oxygen from ships on the surface. Today, divers use lightweight flexible suits and SCUBA (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) gear that allow them to do much more under the water, while using modern technology to stay in communication with the surface and document what they find.
Though Antarctica may seem like a desert place, under the ice, cold water creates some of the most nutrient-rich waters in the world’s oceans. There are beautiful creatures of all shapes and sizes that a diver can get close to. The water is too cold, and most animals that have adapted to the cold conditions are smaller than their cousins in warm places.
Diving under the water requires more experience than your average tourist on holiday. Kelly recommends that only very experienced divers attempt the cold waters. Everything is more difficult in the cold.
It’s also important to watch out for seal attacks, which are highly uncommon but have become more of a concern in recent years, with one reported death in 2004. Kelly recommends at least one diver carry a stick while in the water.
In spite of the risks, the waters under the Antarctic seas offer incredibly novel and great experiences that most people could never imagine. Besides whales, seals and penguins, lucky divers will get to see a great variety of underwater wildlife, including beautiful worms, sponges, corals and kelp.
Surprisingly, while the world above the water in Antarctica is often shades of white and gray, and everything seems still, under the surface there is an amazingly colorful world.
1. When diving under the ice first started, divers ________.| A．breathed the air from ships on the sea | B．wore very light suits to keep warm |
| C．communicated with the surface by phone | D．got their oxygen from the water under the ice |
| A．Being a desert place, Antarctica lacks nutrition in its cold water. |
| B．Divers can take a close look at various beautiful creatures under the ice. |
| C．Only very experienced divers are recommended to attempt the cold waters. |
| D．Divers are advised to carry sticks to protect themselves from seal attacks. |
| A．The creatures in Antarctica | B．Travel in Antarctica |
| C．Diving under the ice in Antarctica | D．The colorful world under the ice |
