1 .

In Africa, the honeyguide birds can respond to human calls to lead people to honey—what scientists describe as a mutualistic interaction,   or one that benefits both creatures. The birds tweet and fly from tree to tree to guide honey seekers to hidden bee nests, typically inside trees. Then, humans open the trees to find honey, and the birds can dine on beeswax, their favorite food.
Dogs have an excellent sense of smell, which is why the folks at Penn Vet Working Dog Center are training dogs to identify the smell of cancer using tissue and blood samples from people who suffer. The scientists hope to develop a way for dogs to screen samples first, then perform follow-up testing on the samples the dogs flagged—a system for spotting cancer in its early stages.
Having a snake wrapped around your neck isn’t necessarily what you usually expect. But Monty, a 13-year-old snake has been helping customers relax with neck massages(按摩). It’s unlikely he was trained to do the job and is just pulsating like any other snake would when   around a person’s neck. Regardless, this special snake books out a few weeks in advance.
The Guide Horse Foundation has been training miniature horses (those standing 34 inches or less) as assistance animals for the visually damaged since 1999. Miniature horses are ideal service animals for people who feel uncomfortable with dogs or who want a guide animal with a longer life span. The horses typically live from 30 to 40 years.

1. According to the text, which animal can help you relax?

A．A snake.	B．A dog.
C．A honeyguide bird.	D．A miniature horse.

2. Miniature horses could serve _________.

A．blind people who dislike dogs	B．blind people who can live longer
C．animal lovers who search for honey	D．animal lovers who suffer from cancer

3. The text is about animals’ _________.

A．special training	B．great potentials
C．unique jobs	D．high intelligence

2 . My work started in 2003 at my local animal shelter’s Adoption Department. It seems like such a long time ago. In the 13 years that have passed, more than 50,000 animals have passed the doors of the shelter. Most of them, I do not remember. But occasionally there are animals who stand out. Tabby was one such animal.

Tabby was one of the many homeless dogs. What’s more, she was blind and deaf. Tabby’s chances at adoption seemed remote at best. But one day a woman named Loretta came to the shelter. Her son, Gary, who suffered from epilepsy (癫痫) had seen Tabby’s picture on the shelter’s website. They were interested in meeting her! Most boys would want a puppy, a dog who could grow with him and run through grassy fields on summer days. Tabby would never be able to do that. But as they say, "love is blind". After meeting her, they decided to adopt Tabby!

If Tabby’s story had simply ended with her successful adoption, it would still have been something very special indeed but it was what happened after her adoption that some might label as "magical" or perhaps even miraculous. As Gary and Tabby did everything together, they became so "in tune" with one another that Tabby began to telegraph Gary’s seizures (疾病发作) before they occurred, giving his family a warning that one was about to strike. What’s more, Gary seemed to be having fewer and fewer seizures since Tabby’s arrival.

How could it be? There are some things that happen in this world that challenge all logic and understanding. Sometimes, the best that we can do is to accept a miraculous thing, which we didn’t attempt to explain. Because when you try to explain it, you lose the beauty and wonder of it all.

1. Which sentence can be used to describe Tabby?

A．She was so lovely that she could be easily adopted.

B．She suffered a lot from the disease-epilepsy.

C．She was so strong that she could run very fast.

D．She was homeless and couldn’t see or hear.

2. What does the underlined word "miraculous" in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Amazing.

B．Typical.

C．Interesting.

D．Special.

3. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Gary learnt about Tabby from a magazine.

B．Gary was cured in the company of Tabby.

C．Tabby could indicate a seizure before it struck.

D．Most boys would have the same decision as Gary.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Love is Blind: a Miraculous Dog	B．Give Me Food: My Dear Master
C．Love is Everywhere: a Poor Dog	D．Take Me Home: My Dear Boy

3 . The traditional Chinese lunar calendar divides a year into 24 solar terms (节气). The Spring Equinox (春分), as the fourth term of the year, starts on March 20 and ends on April 3 this year. Here are things you may not know about the Spring Equinox.

Swallows flying north

The ancient Chinese people divided the fifteen days of the Spring Equinox into three “hou’s”, or five-day parts. As the old saying goes, swallows fly back to the North in the first hou; thunder cracks the sky in the second hou; lightning occurs frequently in the third hou. It vividly reveals the climate feature during the Spring Equinox.

Egg-standing games

Standing an egg upright is a popular game across the country during the Spring Equinox. It is an old custom that dates back to 4,000 years ago. It is believed that if someone can make the egg stand, he will have good luck in the future.

Flying kites

The Spring Equinox is a good time to fly kites. In ancient times, people did not have good medical resources. To pray for health, they wrote their medical issues on a paper kite. When the kite was in the air, people would cut off the string to let the paper kite float away, symbolizing the flying away of diseases.

Eating spring vegetables

Eating spring vegetables during the Spring Equinox is a commonly practiced custom in many regions of China. Spring vegetables refer to seasonal vegetables that differ from place to place. The ancient teachings in the Chinese classic, Huangdi Neijing, suggest that people eat seasonal foods to help preserve health and bring good luck.

1. Which of the following is NOT mentioned about the Spring Equinox?

A．Time division.	B．Climate feature.
C．Customary activities.	D．Historical stories.

2. What would ancient Chinese people do to pray for health?

A．Stand eggs.	B．Fly kites.
C．Eat spring vegetables.	D．Observe the immigration of birds.

3. Who are the target readers of the text?

A．The general public.	B．Chinese farmers.
C．Culture researchers.	D．Weather reporters.

4 . What defines (定义) a generation? Often, experts say, members of a generation are defined by the events that shaped their lives as young adults.

“World events like wars, pandemics (大流行病) and racial unrest can be especially formative,” says Meg Jay, a psychologist and author of “The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter — and How to Make the Most of Them Now”. Because our 20s are often when we have our first jobs and first relationships and first moves and first real-world experiences, these big events become important parts of our life stories.

In 2020, it was a pandemic.

For the last three months of 2020, the Monitor followed twelve 2l-year-olds from around the world. We wanted to understand how this global health crisis is encoding itself in the cultural DNA of a generation coming of age in its shadow. Their lives and circumstances as they rolled into 2021 varied wildly. But the lives of the 2l-year-olds we met had many obvious similarities. Separately, for instance, the internet was their collective lifeline to the world. In Mexico, an art student isolating in her family home posted a daily piece of art to Instagram to remind herself that time had not stopped altogether. In Germany, a labor organizer negotiated contracts and planned strikes via Zoom.

By the end of 2020, many of the world’s 21-year-olds had lost jobs; others wondered if they’d ever find one. In the U. S, youth unemployment doubled between July 2019 and July 2020. Also, the pandemic opened fault lines, and stressed old ones. In India, Jordan, and South Africa, our 21-year-olds wondered how they’d collect enough money for mobile data for online studies. In Mexico, Canada, and Germany, 21-year-olds reflected on loneliness as a privilege — that they were alone because they could isolate, their lives not dependent on doing otherwise.

We found a generation suspended (悬停) between the world they’d grown up in and uncertain arrival of their future.

1. According to Meg Jay, what determines the future of the people in their twenties?

A．Their fundamental changes of working circumstances.

B．Their great efforts of coping with uncertainties in life.

C．Their first experiences of the major events then.

D．Their deep reflections on the attitudes to life.

2. What does the underlined words “fault lines” in paragraph 5 probably mean?

A．Significant employment challenges.	B．Potential social problems.
C．Special individual privileges.	D．Global health crises.

3. What’s the writer’s attitude towards today’s 20s?

A．Approving.

B．Negative.

C．Critical.

D．Concerned.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．The World Children Have Grown up in Defines a Generation

B．A Young Generation Was Suspended But Ready to Start

C．A Great Pandemic Has Brought Various Global Crises

D．World Events Changed the Lives of Young Adults

5 . It's a typical morning: you wake up, take a shower, brush your teeth, and then prick(刺)your arm with a tiny needle. Wait, what? Unless you have a serious disease such as diabetes,you probably haven't ever tested your own blood. But in the future, that might change.

The company Cor already sells a system for home blood testing. You stick your arm using a supposedly painless cartridge. Then you stick the cartridge into a device that looks like the base for an electric toothbrush. A few minutes later, an app on your phone offers you updated information, including your current health status and tips on what to eat and how to exercise.It's true that blood provides abundant information about a person's health. Specific tests can reveal if a person is infected with a disease or at risk for a variety of problems. But most people don't test their own blood often. Healthy young adults get blood tests approximately every five years. Cor and similar companies are trying to change the situation. They think people deserve access to more information about their health.

But not everyone is convinced."The best-case scenario(情景)here is that you lose much money and then you're reminded to get more sleep and to eat more fruits, vegetables and fish,"Pieter Cohen of Harvard Medical School told The New York Times. Plus, the results of a home blood test might be wrong. It's hard to get accurate results from a tiny amount of blood. One company, Theranos, said it could perform medical blood tests on a fingerprick's worth of blood.But the company was soon stuck in a controversy((争议)and accused of cheating because its technology didn't work as promised. Thus, there's still a long way to go before the technology becomes advanced.

1. What's the function of Paragraph 1?

A．To express feelings.	B．To raise a question.
C．To make a prediction.	D．To introduce the topic.

2. What does the underlined word "cartridge" probably mean?

A．Container.

B．Operation.

C．Medicine.

D．Scan.

3. Why does Cor promote home blood testing?

A．To collect people's health information.	B．To offer people proper suggestions.
C．To help people track their health.	D．To cure people of blood diseases.

4. What is the author's attitude towards home blood testing?

A．Ambiguous.

B．Objective.

C．Supportive.

D．Uncaring.

6 . The Bureau of Labor Statistics recommends some high-paying jobs.

Construction and Building Inspector

Construction and building inspectors inspect construction sites and buildings to make sure that the structures meet all requirements. Many construction and building inspectors have a certificate from a local or community college, although others have a two-year associate's degree instead.

Salary: about $ 70,710 per year

Web Developer

Web developers design and develop websites. They create the look of the site and handle the website's performance, speed, and capacity. Web developers might work for computer system design companies, or for marketing firms or departments, or be self-employed. While some web developers have an associate's degree in web design, others have a certificate in web development instead.

Salary: about $ 63,760 per year

Architectural and Civil Drafter

An architectural and civil drafter creates drawings of the structural features of buildings, or creates maps of civil engineering projects. Most drafters have training in computer-aided design and drafting (CADD), engineering, mechanical drawing, and other design and engineering skills. This training can be from a certificate program, a two-year program, or even a four-year program.

Salary: about $ 56,830 per year

Sheet Metal Worker

A sheet metal worker constructs and/or installs products made of thin sheet metal. This work might involve measuring and marking dimensions on sheets, drilling holes in sheets, carrying large sheets, and so on. Sheet metal workers learn their work through a certificate program from a technical school.

Salary: about $ 50,400 per year

1. Which job provides the highest income according to the text?

A．Construction and Building Inspector.	B．Web Developer.
C．Architectural and Civil Drafter.	D．Sheet Metal Worker.

2. What is special about web developers?

A．They inspect websites.	B．They are good at marketing.
C．They can be self-employed.	D．They need CADD training.

3. What common requirement do the jobs have?

A．Engineering skills.

B．Computer knowledge.

C．A certificate or a degree.

D．Technical school experience.

7 . These days' experience, like many other things, are becoming increasingly expensive. One has to get to pay a lot to get, even an ordinary one.

Not long ago, I wanted to invite my friends to a lunch. What we really need was a good and a quiet place for a talk, not a big meal. So I chose one and told my friends to go there.

After I ordered, I was asked whether I would eat a 100 yuan or 200 yuan lunch, I said, "200 yuan." I didn't realize until I was asked to pay after lunch, that "200 yuan" means "200 yuan for person each."

There were five people that day, and all of us were surprises by the 200 yuan meal. The bill came at last: it was 1260, 1000 for the five of us, plus the money for drinks, fruits and air conditioning. I paid the bill without a word.

What could I say? It was not their fault. It was my own fault that made me pay the largest bill in my life.

However, it was not so bad: we had a good lunch and at a quiet place. Besides, the experience will help in my later years.

To support my idea, I have developed my own way of thinking about the price: 200 yuan for the lunch and 1260 for the experience. This paid experience has made me ten times wiser.

1. According to the passage , now one has to pay ________   .

A．more for a lunch in a restaurant	B．more to get an ordinary lunch
C．more for some experience	D．increasingly high price

2. I ordered a lunch________.

A．so as to have a big lunch	B．so that we could have a good meal
C．in order to introduce my friends to the restaurant	D．to have a talk in a good place

3. I thought I ordered a meal that would cost________.

A．me 100 yuan	B．me 200 yuan
C．us 200 yuan each	D．me 1260 yuan

4. I paid the largest bill in my life because________.

A．the restaurant cheated the customers	B．I was very rich
C．I was unknown to the restaurant	D．I knew little about the market prices

5. The last sentence of the passage expressed________ .

A．my thanks to the experience	B．my happiness to be 10 times wiser
C．my anger at the experience	D．my pleasure to have a good lunch

8 . I’m a talker. I am keen on debating, gossiping and teasing when I have people to talk to. Under lockdown, however, I’ve only had my partner, Peter.

We not only lived, worked and travelled together, we mostly socialized together, too. Under the first UK lockdown, our already closeness began to feel uncomfortable. While talking to Peter, I could see his attention drift.

For the first time in our 10 years together, we needed to be alone. I tried to manufacture this by going on walks on my own, but a short walk wasn’t doing the job. I had hiked in remote spaces all over the world but always in a pair or group — for safety reasons. I considered my options and hit upon an idea: the semi-solo hike.

Could we do a circular hike but walk in different directions? This would give us the space and peace of a solo hike — done by a person alone. It felt like a promising way out, and he agreed to give it a try.

We started with a four-mile loop (环路) from Reeth. At the start, we parted ways. At first, I was aware of how close we were, which lessened the appeal. As I gained ground, however, I found myself very much alone. I set my own pace, and I decided to take my time.

I sat on a rock and breathed out. That moment — with the weak sun through the clouds and the breeze blowing — felt extraordinary to me. I was born and raised in London and had never imagined leaving until I met an outdoorsman. Now, my former life as a city girl felt crazy. In remembering what I had gained, I felt the tension leave me. There, in the chilly air, I no longer needed to talk. The semi-solo hike gave us a shared experience with added room to breathe.

I didn’t see Peter on the way but reunited back where we started, both pleased.

The semi-solo hike is admittedly silly in theory, but for me it has been a lifeline. It has given me the gift of time alone and, in a year of constant closeness, the joy of reuniting.

1. What motivated the author to adopt the semi-solo hike?

A．Peter’s disinterest in her words.

B．Her habit of venturing into the wild.

C．The lack of privacy under lockdown.

D．Her desire to engage in outdoor exercise.

2. How does the semi-solo hike work?

A．Their routes coincide sometimes during the hike.

B．They depart in a separate way to different destinations.

C．They hike in each other’s company throughout the journey.

D．They start and return to the same place by a different route.

3. Which of the following can describe the author’s feelings when she sat on a rock?

A．Fearless and refreshed.	B．Free and relaxed.
C．Tense and depressed.	D．Upset and embarrassed.

4. What message does the author convey with this text?

A．An appropriate distance creates beauty.

B．There are more solutions than difficulties.

C．Access to nature is better than social circles.

D．Hiking helps improve interpersonal relationships.

9 . In the long history of humans, women’s stories have often been overlooked. Yet as modern society has allowed women to speak for themselves, more and more women are standing up to choose how to live their lives. Here are five powerful films that just might inspire you to re-imagine what it means to be a woman.

Hi, Mom (2021)

Directed by Chinese comedian Jia Ling, this heartwarming comedy, about a woman who accidentally meets her mother during time travel, became a hit with audiences this year, leading the mainland box office right after Chinese New Year.

Leap (2020)

This 2020 film about the Chinese national women’s volleyball team presents their history from 1981, when they won the Women’s World Cup, to the year 2016. Actress Gong Li stars as the legendary volleyball player Lang Ping, and Peter Chen from Hong Kong is the director.

Coco Avant Chanel (2009)

The life of Coco Chanel serves as a guide to all women wishing to establish their own careers. Audrey Tautou, famous for her iconic performance in Amelie, stars as the glorious French fashion designer. It is French director Anne Fontaine’s most famous film.

The Joy Luck Club (1993)

Based on the novel The Joy Luck Club, Chinese director Wang Ying tells the stories of four Chinese women and their daughters who were all born and lived in the US. Their conflicts also reflect the collision between traditional Chinese culture and American culture.

The Story of Qiu Ju (1992)

Directed by Zhang Yimou, the 1992 film describes a peasant woman Qiu Ju who lives in a rural area of China and fights for justice. It is a screen adaptation of writer Chen Yuanbin’s novel The Wan Family’s Lawsuit.

1. Why does the author select the above 5 movies?

A．To arouse attention to women.

B．To speak highly of great mothers.

C．To support women’s fight for equal rights.

D．To introduce the history of women movies.

2. How does Coco Avant Chanel differ from the other 4 movies?

A．It inspired a lot of women.

B．It is set in a foreign country.

C．Its actress became world-famous for her role.

D．Its director has a different culture background.

3. Which film concerns generation gap?

A．Hi, Mom	B．Leap
C．The Joy Luck Club	D．The Story of Qiu Ju