1 . An 85-year-old primary school constructed in 1935 in Shanghai has been lifted off the ground in its entirety and relocated using new technology called the “walking machine.” The project marks the first time this “walking machine” method has been used in Shanghai to relocate a historical building.
Urbanization（都市化）has continued to significantly threaten architectural heritage. In the capital Beijing, for instance, more than 1,000 acres of its historic hutongs and traditional courtyard homes were destroyed between 1990 and 2010.
In the early 2000s, cities including Nanjing and Bejjing-due to the critics’ protest about the loss of old neighborhoods-drew up long-term plans to preserve what was left of their historic sites, with protections introduced to safeguard buildings and restrict developers.
These conservation efforts have taken different forms. In Beijing, a near-ruined temple was transformed into a restaurant and gallery, while in Nanjing, a cinema from the 1930s was restored to its original form, with some additions providing it for modern use. In 2019, Shanghai welcomed Tank Shanghai, an arts center built in renovated（重修的）oil tanks.
“Relocation is not the first choice, but better than destroying,” said Lan, the Shanghai primary school’s project supervisor. “I’d rather not touch the historical buildings at all.” Building relocations he said however, are “a workable option.” “The central government is putting more emphasis on the protection of historical buildings. I’m happy to see that progress in recent years.”
Shanghai has arguably been China’s most progressive city when it comes to heritage preservation. The survival of a number of 1930s buildings and 19th-century “shikumen” （or “stone gate”） house have offered examples of how to give old buildings new life.
“We have to preserve the historical building no matter what, ” Lan said. “The relocation has challenges, but in general, it is cheaper than destroying and then rebuilding something in a new location.”
1. How did cities respond to the loss of historical sites?| A．They criticized the developers. | B．They rebuilt the historic hutongs. |
| C．They ended the significant threat. | D．They proposed the protection project. |
| A．All original form. | B．A new addition. | C．A cinema. | D．A temple. |
| A．Provide strong evidence. | B．Introduce different opinions. |
| C．Summarize previous paragraphs. | D．Add some background information. |
| A．Walking Machine: a New Technology | B．Rebuilding: a New Option for Relics |
| C．Old Building Torn down for Modern Use | D．Historical Site “Walks” to New Life |
2 . “Human activity has wiped out two-thirds of the world’s wildlife since 1970,” CNN reported on September 10, 2020. Later that month, the Guardian reported that “40 percent of the world’s plant species are at risk of extinction”. Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich and his colleagues argued that “the ongoing sixth mass extinction may be the most serious environmental threat to the persistence of civilization”. Around the same time, the Daily Mail warned that “human civilization stands a 90 percent chance of collapse within decades due to deforestation”.
These horrible calculations and projections come from authoritative-sounding reports issued by international agencies, conservation groups, and peer-reviewed scientific journals. But is the future of wild nature and human civilization really so poor?
Data from uncontroversial mainstream sources strongly indicate that both humanity and the natural world are likely to be flourishing rather than collapsing at the end of this century. Humanity is becoming an urban species, and that’s good for the environment, since urban dwellers generally use less electricity, produce less globe-warming carbon dioxide, and have smaller land footprints than people living in the countryside. By 2100, it is estimated that 85 percent of people will be city dwellers, which would leave only 1.2 billion still living in the countryside. That means more space for the wildlife and less pollution from the agriculture.
The global tree-covering area increased by 865,000 square miles between 1982 and 2016. The researchers found that gains in forest area in the mild, subtropical and northern climatic zones are offsetting declines in the tropics. The Maryland researchers owe much of that increase to “natural afforestation on abandoned agricultural land”. “Furthermore, forests in mountainous regions are expanding as climate warming enables trees to grow at higher altitudes,” they added.
Humanity does face big environmental challenges in the coming century. But the scientific and economic evidence shows that most of the trends are positive or can be turned in positive direction by human wisdom. Rather than an age of extinction, the 21st century promises to be an era of environmental renewal.
1. Why does the author mention the reports in Paragraph 1?| A．To give examples. | B．To introduce the topic. |
| C．To make a contrast. | D．To support his opinion. |
| A．No one will choose to live in the countryside. |
| B．More space will be available for the wildlife. |
| C．Neither humanity nor the natural world will develop quickly. |
| D．Urban residents will do more walking than those in the countryside. |
| A．The expanding and disappearance in forest area aren’t evenly matched. |
| B．The forest area in the mild, tropic and northern zones is increasing. |
| C．There are more forests in mountainous regions due to the climate warming. |
| D．The plan of “natural afforestation on abandoned agricultural land” is unfavorable. |
| A．The Bright Future of Humanity |
| B．The Challenges in the Coming Century |
| C．Better Environment, Better Future of Human |
| D．21st Century: An Era of Environmental Renewal |
3 . Today, we study literature from a young age—learning about our histories, faraway worlds and influential people. Whether we notice or not, these stories—both fiction and non-fiction—guide us throughout our lives. They allow us to see the world through another’s eyes, open up our world and teach us about every subject known to man.
Despite their importance, many people throw out their old books—laying waste the wisdom that lies on each page. In an effort to save this knowledge and share it with those less fortunate, a garbage man in, Bogota, Colombia has been saving thrown-away books for 20 years and sharing them with those in need.
“I hated to see all the books in the dustbins of wealthier neighborhoods. So I started to rescue them,’’ said Gutierrez. The first book he found was a copy of the classic novel Anna Karenina. The Tolstoy book was later joined by The Little Prince, Sophie's World, The Iliad and a number of novels. Today, he has collected around 25,000 books.
His growing collection didn’t go unnoticed. Gutierrez’s neighbors were soon borrowing the books to help with their children’s homework. “There was a lack of them in our neighborhood, so we started to help,”said Gutierrez.
The ground floor of Gutierrez’s home is now filled with books, from floor to ceiling. Over spilling with books, he opened it up as a free library, with the help of his wife Luz Gutierrez and their three children.
Word eventually spread around about Gutierrez and his books. Most of the books now come from donations. He now travels around the country, delivering free books to poor and remote districts. The library, named “The Strength of Words", has donated books to some 235 schools, institutions and community libraries across Colombia.
1. How does the author introduce the topic of the text?| A．By stating some facts. |
| B．By contradicting a theory. |
| C．By describing a scene. |
| D．By referring to documents. |
| A．A heavy financial burden. |
| B．A companion in difficult times. |
| C．The beginning of his charity campaign. |
| D．One of his greatest achievements in life. |
| A．A good book is a light to the soul. |
| B．A bad beginning makes a bad ending. |
| C．Actions speak louder than words. |
| D．One man's garbage is another man' s treasure. |
| A．Tolstoy books recovered from dustbins. |
| B．Literature now appeals to garbage collectors. |
| C．Free libraries popular with neighborhood kids. |
| D．Garbage man builds a library from rescued books. |
4 . It’s time for bed, the lights are out, and yet you’re wide awake. You do eventually manage to fall asleep, but even then, it’s a very shallow, restless sort of sleep.
Now more research suggests you needn’t look further than outside your window and at the moon for the cause of this sleeplessness. However, in a surprising twist, the findings weren’t entirely what the researchers expected. While we know that humans are a species ruled by light, the “lunar phase effect” (月相效应) affects sleep even when artificial sources of light are accounted for.
Rather than people staying up later and sleeping less during the full moon, it was just before the full moon that sleep was shorter and lighter. “It turns out that the nights before the full moon are the ones that have most of the moonlight during the first half of the night,” said Horacio Iglesia, a professor of biology at the University of Washington in The Guardian. The opposite was true just before the new moon — people tended to sleep more and go to bed earlier.
Ninety-eight participants across three Indigenous communities in Argentina wore wrist monitors tracking sleep patterns over the course of one to two months. While one community had no access to electricity, the second community had limited access, and the third community was located in an urban setting with full access to electricity.
The study also found that this lunar phase effect on sleep also appeared to have greater impact on people who had more limited access to electricity. In every community, participants’ peak (高峰) sleepless period occurred in the three to five days leading up to the full moon night, while the opposite was true for the new moon, the study authors found.
Wanting further insight, the researchers compared their data to the results of a similar study of 464 Seattle-based students at the University of Washington. The findings proved consistent.
This research supports the view that try as we may, we can’t ever fully get away from some forces of nature.
1. What makes it hard for people to fall asleep?| A．Visual distance. | B．Faded light. |
| C．Artificial light. | D．Bright moonlight. |
| A．Before the full moon. | B．During the full moon. |
| C．Before the new moon. | D．During the new moon. |
| A．The third community slept least during the new moon. |
| B．Lunar phase effect affected the first community more. |
| C．Peak sleepless period often happened at the same night |
| D．The result of the research differed from previous ones. |
| A．Shallow Sleep Does Harm to Health | B．The Moon Affects Our Sleep Cycles |
| C．People Live in Harmony with Nature | D．Sleep Patterns Differ from Each Other |
5 . Paris boasts a wealth of world-class museums and arehitectural masterpieces. From the world’s largest art museum to France’s most famous landmark, there is plenty to experience in the French capital.
The Louvre Museum
As the most visited art museum in the world and also the largest, the Louvre should be top of your list. It would take you no fewer than 100 days to visit the 35,000 works of art on display across 300 rooms – and that’s if you spend just 30 seconds looking at each one.
The Moulin Rouge（红磨坊）
The Moulin Rouge in Montmartre, with its iconic red windmill, was built in 1885. The venue pioneered the famous French cancan dance, and has now become one of the most famous cabarets in the world. Expect flamboyant handmade costumes of feathers and elegance at every turn.
The Eiffel Tower
Originally built to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution in 1889, the impressive Eiffel Tower has become the most iconic landmark(地标) of France. The first floor is home to the 58 Tour Eiffel restaurant while the second-floor observation deck provides spectacular bird’s eye views – the best in the city.
The top of the Arc de Triomphe
The Arc de Triomphe, a Neoclassical take on the ancient Roman areh, is one of Paris’s most iconic attractions. It’s worth hiking the 284 stairs to reach the platform on top of the areh as the views span right across the city, towering above the capital at 50m tall.
1. What can visitors expect to do while visiting Paris?| A．Watching the ballet. |
| B．Enjoying the local food. |
| C．Reaching the platform on top of the areh easily. |
| D．Fully understanding the Louvre within one day. |
| A．The Arc De Triomphe. | B．The Louvre Museum. |
| C．The Eiffel Tower. | D．The Mourin Rouge. |
| A．Museum-goers. | B．Hiking-lovers. |
| C．Dance-lovers. | D．Travel-devotees. |
6 . 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. |
| A．Significant employment challenges. | B．Potential social problems. |
| C．Special individual privileges. | D．Global health crises. |
| A．Approving. | B．Negative. | C．Critical. | D．Concerned. |
| 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 |
7 . 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. |
| A．Container. | B．Operation. | C．Medicine. | D．Scan. |
| 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. |
| A．Ambiguous. | B．Objective. | C．Supportive. | D．Uncaring. |
8 . Ian McKenna was in third grade when he learned that many kids at his Austin school weren't getting enough to eat at home. He wanted to help, but local volunteer organizations turned him away, saying he was too young. So he decided to find his own solution. For years, he had been gardening with his mother, and they often distributed their extra vegetables to the neighbors. “Why not give the produce to a soup kitchen? Then I thought, I'm good at gardening," says McKenna, now 16. “Why not plant a garden at school, so that kids in need could take food home?"
McKenna persuaded his school to set aside space for a garden; then he asked the community for donations of seeds and equipment. Other students donated their time. Within months, McKenna's garden was producing lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers and squash for students and their families. Now, seven years later, McKenna's Giving Garden project has expanded to five area schools in addition to his own backyard garden, and he has provided organic produce, enough for 25,000 meals, to Austin families.
For most of his gardening activities, McKenna wears the same T-shirt in different colors, with his personal motto on it: BE A GOOD HUMAN. To him, that means helping in any way you can, no matter what your age. "Even a smile might change someone's life," he says. “It lets them know that they are important. It can make their day."
When COVID-19 hit the U.S., McKenna redoubled his efforts, cooking up to 100 meals to distribute to the hungry on the weekends. When social distancing meant that volunteers couldn't work on community garden plots, he started offering online classes and a gardening hotline so families could grow at home. While gardening is his core focus, McKenna says he is always looking for new ways to help the hungry.
1. What caused Ian's decision to help the kids in his own way?| A．Being rejected by volunteer groups. | B．Being good at gardening. |
| C．A soup kitchen's support. | D．His mother's suggestions. |
| A．It helps students only. | B．It was started with joint efforts. |
| C．It is funded by schools. | D．It earns great profits every year. |
| A．Where there is a will, there is a way. | B．A small gesture makes a difference. |
| C．One good turn deserves another. | D．Love can break all the barriers. |
| A．Ian McKenna, Growing a Food Bank |
| B．Ian Mckenna, an Experienced Gardener |
| C．Giving Garden Project, an Impossible Mission |
| D．Giving Garden Project, a Universal Solution |
9 . A new study has found that animals feign（假装）death for long periods of time in order to escape capture from their predators. How long they are motionless depends on the circumstances, but they can wait out their predators for quite a long time when their lives are in danger.
Animals stay still to avoid capture for different lengths of time. “Most intriguingly, Charles Darwin recorded a beetle that remained motionless for 23 minutes. Antlions, our favorite study creature in this regard, set a record of 61 minutes,” says lead author Nigel R. Franks from the University of Bristol.
Antlions are members of large group of insects. Antlion larvae（幼虫）dig pits in loose soil and then aggressively attack ants and other small insects that fall into the sandy pits. In another study, researchers dug sandpits to understand the physics of how antlion larvae build their pits. As part of their research they needed to weigh the individual larvae. When they put them onto the microbalance scale to weigh them, they noticed that the larvae remained motionless for long periods of time. “This made it ‘piece of cake’ to weigh them but it aroused researchers’ curiosity, ‘What on earth were they playing at?’” Franks says.
The researchers found that the amount of time the antlions remained stationary after being disturbed was unpredictable and was often quite lengthy. In researching other animals, they found that how long they wait to move again can depend on factors such as hunger and temperature, but it always varies.
This unpredictability is absolutely crucial for their survival, Franks says. For example, if a bird visits these antlion pits and the larvae “play dead”. the birds will fly around the antlions to see if they move. “Imagine if antlions always remained immobile for 5 minutes. In such case, the predator could look for alternate prey（猎物）and then return to its original one when the time is up,” he says. “If that happened, it would be a short life for the predictable death-feigner.” But because the time is unpredictable, the birds leave and go find something else to eat. The predators turn their attention from the unmoving prey that no longer catches their eye to something nearby that is a better alternative.
1. What is the new study about?| A．Animals’ hunting skills. |
| B．Animals’ living conditions. |
| C．Animals’ self-protecting behavior. |
| D．Animals’ means of communication. |
| A．To introduce a new topic for discussion. |
| B．To offer supporting data for the discovery. |
| C．To make a comparison between the two studies. |
| D．To provide some background information on the study. |
| A．Unmoving. | B．Alarmed. | C．Energetic. | D．Peaceful. |
| A．By scaring away predators. |
| B．By distracting predators’ attention. |
| C．By staying still for an uncertain amount of time. |
| D．By waiting for predators to eat something else |
10 . China's historic 23-day Chang'e 5 mission has not only obtained precious rock and soil samples from the moon, but has also brought back a group of seeds that traveled the furthest in the nation's agricultural and forestry histories. More than 30 kinds of seeds, including that of rice, oats etc., were placed inside the multi-module Chang'e 5 spacecraft and orbited around the moon for about 15 days.
Scientists wished to check what would happen to the seeds after being exposed to extraterrestrial (地外的) forces in lunar orbit and also hoped that they could develop beneficial mutations (突变). This mission offered good opportunities to scientists, which enabled them to deepen their studies on the effect of cosmic rays on the growth and evolution of life on Earth.
Space-based mutation breeding refers to the process of exposing seeds to forces such as microgravity, vacuums and cosmic radiation during a spaceflight and then sending them back to Earth for further observation and planting. Researchers observe and examine several generations of plants grown from space-bred seeds and investigate their mutations-some are positive and desirable while others are negative. Those with positive mutations will be kept and analyzed, and will be introduced to farmers after their certification and approval.
Space breeding can generate mutations faster and more conveniently than ground-based experiments and can bring about some desirable traits that are otherwise hard to introduce. Compared with natural or conventionally bred types of plants, space-developed versions with positive mutations usually feature higher nutritional content, greater annual yields, shorter growth periods and better resistance to diseases and insect pests.
China conducted its first space breeding experiment in 1987, using a satellite to carry seeds into space. Since then, hundreds of kinds of seeds and seedlings have traveled with dozens of Chinese spaceships. Space breeding has helped to produce more than 200 new types of mutated plants in China that have been approved for large-scale cultivation, ranging from grains to vegetables and fruits. The Chang'e 5 robotic mission returned 1,731 grams of lunar rock and soil to Earth, marking a historic accomplishment 44 years after the last lunar substances were taken back.
1. Why were the seeds placed inside Chang'e 5?| A．To pick out the fittest for mutations. | B．To understand extraterrestrial forces. |
| C．To study the intensity of cosmic rays. | D．To expose them to a special environment. |
| A．It is not a time-consuming process. | B．Mutations develop in a random way. |
| C．It often brings about desirable effects. | D．Approval will be granted to mutated plants. |
| A．It is a custom to put seedlings on a spacecraft. |
| B．China was the first to do a space breeding experiment. |
| C．It is some time since seeds were last taken into space. |
| D．Space breeding has brought us commercial benefits. |
| A．Space-bred Seeds Offer Great Chances | B．Chang'e 5 Returns with a Big Package |
| C．Plant Mutations Result in a Better Life | D．Seeds from Space Mark a New History |
