1 . My Favorite Books
Jeffrey Archer, a well-known novelist and playwright in the UK , has spent a very famous and much admired 45-year-long writing career creating bestsellers such as Not A Penny More , Not A Penny Less, Kane and Abel and Paths of Glory. Here he lists his all-time favorite reads.
Sredni Vashtar
BY SAKI （H. H. MUNRO） ,Dover Publications ,150
I put Munro's short stories equal with R. K. Narayan's. They are my favorite short-story writers. Both write beautifully， but they are also pretty good stories. It’s that rare combination of both. This book is a gem（佳作），as is Narayan's Malgudi Days.
The Count of Monte Cristo
BY ALEXANDRE DUMAS, Rupa Publications , ₹ 295
This is a masterpiece. It’s too long by modern standards? of course. If Dumas was around today， he'd write books of 400 pages. With no television, no other distraction, he wrote books of 1，500 pages. And the surprising thing is that he wrote The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers in the same year! You couldn't do that today!
Reunion
BY FRED UHLMAN，Farrar ，Strausand Giroux ，₹ 864
A wonderful insight into two young Germans---one Jewish, one aristocratic — in 1939, when they're both at school. This is a very fine book, which would help anyone understand the problems the Jews were facing in the late 1930s.
A Tale of Two Cities
BY CHARLES DICKENS, Penguin Classics , ₹ 250
I think this is probably a book I have reread the most number of times. I love the idea of him (Dr Manette)sacrificing his life for something bigger and more glorious than himself. Quaintly old-fashioned in the modern world—I love it. This was Dickens' most successful book, possibly because it was story, story, story, and impossible to put clown!
1. Who does "I" refer to in the text?| A．Alexandre Dumas. | B．Fred Uhlman. |
| C．Charles Dickens. | D．Jeffrey Archer. |
| A．Reunion. | B．A Tale of Two Cities. |
| C．Sredni Vashtar. | D．The Count of Monte Cristo. |
| A．₹ 150. | B．₹ 295. | C．₹ 864. | D．₹ 250. |
2 . Art Institute of Chicago
Overview
Explore the Art Institute, Chicago’s world-class art museum and the second-largest in the United States, with this Fast Pass Admission ticket. Situated in Grant Park, the museum is listed as one of Chicago’s must-see sights owing to the incredible range of impressionist, post-impressionist, modern and contemporary works.
What to Expect
Start your visit any time during the museum’s regular hours of operation. Once inside, download the new Art Institute of Chicago mobile app, using the museum’s free Wi-Fi. Explore the Art Institute’s unsurpassed collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces (杰作).
Explore JourneyMaker, a new digital tool that allows your family to create its very own tour of the museum, located at the Ryan Learning Center.
Then head over to the museum’s celebrated Modern Wing, a quick stroll (溜达) across an eye-catching bridge from the main building. Inside you’ll have the chance to admire one of the world’s premier collections of modern and contemporary art, including celebrated creators like Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Jackson Pollock, Marc Chagall and Gerhard Richter.
Continue your visit with a look at the museum’s range of European and American decorative art items, Asian art and a collection of architectural, graphic (书画的) and industrial design.
Cancellation (取消) Policy
The admission is 30 dollars. If you cancel at least 7 days in advance of the scheduled departure, there is no cancellation fee. If you cancel between 3 and 6 days in advance of the scheduled departure, there is a 50 percent cancellation fee. If you cancel within 2 days of the scheduled departure, there is a 100 percent cancellation fee.
1. What makes Art Institute of Chicago a must-see sight?| A．Its special location. |
| B．The unique buildings. |
| C．The large range of its works. |
| D．The Fast Pass Admission ticket. |
| A．Download a mobile app. |
| B．Explore Journey Maker. |
| C．Take part in art activities. |
| D．Explore the website of the museum. |
| A．15 dollars. | B．20 dollars. |
| C．25 dollars. | D．30 dollars. |
3 . Beijing—Chengdu Train
Altogether about 5 pairs of trains are running between Beijing and Chengdu at present. Among them, a few pairs are high speed trains, which run between Beijing West Railway Station and Chengdu East Railway Station with duration of 8 to 10 hours; the rest few pairs are normal types between Beijing West Railway Station and Chengdu Railway Station and the whole journey takes about 21 to 32 hours.
High Speed Trains
Basic Facts:
·Duration: about 8—10 hours
·Distance: about 1,874—2,391 kilometers (1,165—1,485 miles)
·Top speed: 300 km/h (186 mph)
·Operated at: Beijing West Railway Station, Chengdu East Railway Station
·Stations along the way: Shijiazhuang, Handan East, Anyang East, Zhengzhou East,
Huashan North, Xi'an North, Guangyuan, Mianyang
Beijing to Chengdu High Speed Train Schedule:
(Last Update on Nov 12, 2020)
| Train No. | Departure - Arrival | Travel Time |
| G89 | 06:53—14:38 | 7h45m |
| G571 | 09:22—18:54 | 9h32m |
| G307 | 09:38—19:36 | 9h58m |
| G349 | 15:13—22:58 | 7h45m |
Beijing—Chengdu Train Ticket Price:
(Last Update on Nov 12, 2020)
| Business Class Seat | First Class Seat | Second Class Seat |
| CNY 2,417 / USD 350 | CNY 1,246 / USD 181 | CNY 778 / USD 112 |
Note: Children under the height of 1.2 for free ; Children with height between 1.2 and 1.5 meters half price ; Children above the height of 1.5 full price.
1. Where will you get off if you take a normal type train from Beijing to Chengdu?
| A．Chengdu Railway Station. | B．Chengdu East Railway Station. |
| C．Beijing West Railway Station. | D．Mianyang Station. |
| A．G571. | B．G307. |
| C．G89. | D．G349. |
| A．USD 224. | B．USD 280. |
| C．USD 336. | D．USD 1945. |
4 . Go to North pole on The polar Express！
Between November 24th and December 30th each year, you and your kids can enjoy The Polar Express Train Ride in the Sea World Orlando！
This amazing journey takes you and your children to the North Pole on the actual train that has appeared in The Polar Express movie. You will have your yellow ticket checked by the conductor（售票员）, dance with cooks who will serve tasty drinks and treats, Interact（互动）with the characters from the movie, along with enjoying Chris Van Allsburg’s reading of the classic children s book The Polar Express.
Upon arrival at the North Pole, Santa Claus will climb into the train and visit each family. Each child will receive a bell from him as the first gift of Christmas.
After singing many sweet Christmas songs, kids will return to real life with a completely new sense of Christmas joy.
To make the ride more exciting, kids may put on costumes（戏装）, just like the children on the train in the movie!
It is a long way from Orlando to the North Pole, but The Polar Express Train Ride can take you there and back in a little over an hour. Ticket price is $32 for one seat. Children under the age of 2 may ride for free if they do not take a seat. A ticket at half price is required if the child takes a separate seat.
1. When can visitors enjoy The Polar Express Train Ride in the Sea World Orlando?| A．All year around. | B．Only in winter. |
| C．Usually in autumn. | D．Just before Christmas. |
| A．Go to the South Pole by train. | B．Watch a movie with the same. |
| C．Serve tasty drinks and treats. | D．Enjoy Chris Van Allsburg's reading. |
| A．$32. | B．$64. | C．$80. | D．$96. |
5 . London is a real treat for museum lovers and museums are a popular destination among London's many attractions. Below is a list of London's top museums.
London Transport Museum
Travel through the museum, which hosts exhibitions （展品展示）about transport with the social and cultural history of London. Inside, you'll find more than 80 vehicles covering 200 years of London's history, including a red Routemaster bus and the world's first underground steam train. There are great posters and artworks too!
Price: Adult ticket: £18.50 per ticket, child ticket: Free. Save £1.50 when purchasing tickets online in advance.
Opening time: 10:00 -18:00 daily.
British Museum
Spend hours wandering the world-famous British Museum, which exhibits the works of man from prehistoric to modern times, collected from around the world. Don't miss the Rosetta Stone and the mummies in the Ancient Egypt collection.
Price: Free. A donation of £5 is recommended. Entrance fee for special exhibitions and some events.
Opening time: 10:00 - 17:30 daily. Open late on Fridays until 20:00.
Natural History Museum
As well as the dinosaur exhibition, the Natural History Museum keeps a collection of the biggest, tallest and rarest animals in the world. See a life-sized blue whale and a 40-million-year-old spider.
Price: Free. Entrance fee for some of the special exhibitions and events.
Opening time: 10:00 - 17:50 daily. Open late on the last Friday of each month. Closed 24 - 26 December.
The Design Museum
The Design Museum is the world's leading museum devoted to contemporary design in every form. Check out the regular exhibitions showcasing the rich creativity found in all forms of design, and its importance to our world.
Price: Adult ticket: £10.00, child ticket: £5.00 （children under 6 go free）.
Opening time: 10:00 - 18:00. Open except Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
1. Which museum attracts fans of Ancient Egypt most?| A．British Museum | B．Natural History Museum |
| C．London Transport Museum | D．The Design Museum |
| A．It is free of charge. |
| B．It closes on Christmas Day. |
| C．It collects special animals in the world. |
| D．It exhibits rarest mummies in the world. |
| A．Free | B．£5 | C．£10 | D．£15 |
6 . At almost every Olympic Games, one athlete is named as the greatest star, and good-natured debates follow for years to come. Usually, there's no certainty about who is really the most memorable one.
But in 1948. everyone who attended the London Olympic Games agreed on who was the greatest legend: Fanny Blankers-Koen, a 30-year-old Dutch housewife.
Before the Games, many people suggested she was too old to succeed, while others said she should stay at home with her children. When she arrived at the track, she pointed at one of them and said simply, “I'll show you.”
And she did it.
Fanny Blankers-Koen won the 100m race with ease. With an Olympic gold medal to her name, she wanted to give up and return home because she missed her children so much. But her husband, Jan Blankers, who was also her coach, asked her to stay. The hurdles（跨栏） gold came next, followed by a championship in the 200m, which she won by 0.7 seconds--a huge margin（差额）that has not been matched since.
Blankers-Koen celebrated those victories with a big shopping tour, and only arrived back at the stadium ten minutes before the start of the 4x100m match. Without any warming up, she ran the last leg. When she started to run, the Dutch were in the third. But Blankers-Koen won the race by a foot.
If she hadn’t been limited（限制） by the IOC rules to four events, she could have won two more golds. IOC rules forced her to drop two of her strongest events, the long jump and high jump, both of which she held the world record.
On her return to Netherland, Queen Juliana gave her a bicycle, saying she wouldn’t have to run so much.
But she kept running until she finished her sport life as an athlete in 1955 with a 58th record and went to three more Olympics as a coach.
In 1999 when she was honored the greatest female athlete of the 20th century, Blankers-Koen asked, “Is it really me？” When she got a positive answer, she jumped up and did a little dance.
1. Which match did Fanny Blankers-Koen take part in without preparations before its start？| A．The hurdles. | B．The 4x100m. |
| C．The 200m. | D．The long jump. |
| A．She was content with her victory. |
| B．She was not sure whether she could win or not. |
| C．She wanted to stay with her children. |
| D．She was too tired to take part in more events. |
| A．1. | B．4 | C．6. | D．58. |
| A．The Challenges Faced by Women Athletes |
| B．The Medals Won by Fanny Blankers-Koen |
| C．The Memorable London Olympic Games in 1948 |
| D．The Story of a great Athlete, Fanny Blankers-Koen |
7 . Ray Kurzweil is an inventor and futurist with some interesting ideas on how humans will soon be able to live much longer than the average 78 years they do now. If Kurzweil is right, this is a question we’ll have to ask ourselves in the near future.
The first challenge is how to stop our bodies from getting old and dying. Kurzweil doesn’t see this as a problem. With gene technology we’ll soon be able to “turn off” genes that cause ageing and disease. This technology is getting cheaper and advancing at an incredible rate. Kurzweil believes that from every year after 2023, we’ll be adding more than a year to the average life expectancy. He also expects that within the next 20 years, we will have ‘nanobots’ in our blood. These tiny robots will automatically keep our bodies healthy and free from diseases by finding damaged cells and destroying them.
Of course, if we’re all going to live longer, then there are going to be more of us on this already overcrowded Earth. Many people think there are likely to be problems with resources such as food and energy. Kurzweil doesn’t agree. He says that the same technologies used to increase our life expectancy will also be used to help with food production and energy needs. For example, he says, sunlight can potentially give us 10,000 times more energy than we currently use. We just need to develop the technology to capture it and make it cheaper. There are also new technologies that can recycle water extremely cheaply. This means that dirty water can be made clean again at a very low cost. When you consider that 80% of disease in the developing world is because of dirty water, you can see how this technology might help change the world.
But what are we going to do with all this extra time? Won’t we all get bored? Again Kurzweil says ‘no’. For a start, we won’t be stuck in old bodies. We’ll stay young for years. This will mean we’ll be able to experiment with many more things than we can now. We’ll also see huge developments in virtual reality technology that will keep us entertained for years.
The future according to Ray Kurzweil looks good — and we might just be around to see it.
1. What does Ray Kurzweil think of human beings’ future?| A．Encouraging. | B．Shocking. | C．Discouraging. | D．Uncertain. |
| A．2. | B．4. | C．3. | D．5. |
| A．Electronic technology. | B．Mining technology. |
| C．Farming technology. | D．Gene technology and nanotechnology. |
| A．Medical advances | B．Fun in the future |
| C．Who wants to live forever? | D．Solutions to the Earth’s problems |
8 . Poor sleep and junk food contributes to poor performance at school among primary school children, a leading nutritional expert has warned. Her speech comes after a report showing that one in five Irish teachers has reported their young pupils are suffering from a lack (缺乏) of sleep and basic nutrition.
Nutritional expert Dee Daly, who runs classes teaching healthy eating habits for the whole family, said: “If you haven’t slept well, it affects your appetite (胃口) and you are more likely to reach for sugary foods and carbohydrates (碳水化合物). Studies in the US and UK have shown that this in turn creates difficulties in terms of behavior, concentration and performance in the classroom.”
An international study recently found that in Irish 22% of primary teachers reported their pupils were suffering from a lack of basic nutrition and 4% said this was completely limiting their teaching. And the study also found that about 66% of 10-year-old pupils in Irish were suffering from a lack of enough sleep, which is almost 14% above the international average in 60 countries.
TVs and computers in children's bedrooms are being blamed for sleep disturbance (干扰), with 54% of 10-year-olds here reporting that they have both in their rooms.
She recommends a combination of "sleep hygiene” and proper nutrition.
“Your bedroom should be like a bet cave-cool, dark and quiet. Blue light from computers, iPads and TV screens keeps your brain awake for longer and children shouldn't be texting under the covers on their mobile phones.”
She stresses the importance of creating a sleep pattern where children calm down before they go to bed and eat a proper breakfast with a balance of proteins and complex carbohydrates to set them up for school.
1. When a pupil has a poor sleep, he will probably___________.| A．dislike any carbohydrate |
| B．behave much better at school |
| C．have poor concentration in class |
| D．have good performance in the classroom |
| A．22% | B．44% | C．52% | D．66% |
| A．It is better to put a computer or iPad in the bedroom. |
| B．Children should be prevented from texting at home. |
| C．We should let the pupil live in a cat cave. |
| D．We should keep the bedroom dark and quiet. |
| A．A combination of good sleep and proper breakfast is important for pupils. |
| B．Parents should buy enough sugary foods and carbohydrates for children. |
| C．It is better to contact with teachers regularly. |
| D．TV screens are not very suitable for pupils. |
9 .
(1) WANTED Are you hard-working?Do you like to meet people?If your answer is “Yes”, then we have a job for you as a waiter. Call AL Hotel at 556779! | (2) SUMMER JOB Do you like to talk with people? Do you like to write stories? If you want to work for our magazine as a reporter, please call Karen at 558366. |
(3) HELP WANTED Do you like babies? Can you look after one baby for two days? If you are sure to take good care of it, call us at 766588. $80 or more.Today! Hurry! | (4)CLEANER WANTED Can you make a large house clean and tidy? If you hope to get the job paid at $20 once, call us this evening. 18:00-20:00 Tel:633800 |
| A．TV show | B．newspaper | C．story book | D．radio program |
| A．558366 | B．633800 | C．556779 | D．766588 |
| A．$240 | B．$200 | C．$160 | D．$120 |
10 . A Member of COMFORT DELGRO
Comfortable airport & city transfers:
Maxi Cab (scats 6 passengers)
Booking Hotline:+65 6542 8297
...or book at the Airport Shuttle counter at Terminal I or Terminal 2
Maxi Cab Service Rates
Transfer to Airport/other destination ＄35
Hourly Service (per hour - minimum 2 hours) ＄35
Applicable additional charges:
－Between midnight to 6 am, an additional $12 per transfer or per hour
－For en-route stop to final destination, an additional $5 per stop apply otherwise $20
－Administrative changes of 10% of total fare for all Credit Card payments
Exclusive private tours in 6-neater Maxi Cabs. 4 seater Mercedes Limo Cabs and normal cabs
Flexible pick up times and locations
Extension of additional attractions and restaurants upon request.
Tours start from just $105 per vehicle
Bookings
Call: +65 6542 5831 or+ 65 6542 8297
www.citycab.com.sg
1. If a tourist goes to the airport in a Maxi Cab at 5 a.m. and pays by credit card, he/she has to pay _____for an hour's ride.
| A．$7 | B．$38.5 |
| C．$55 | D．S51.7 |
| A．has to register at www.citycab.com.sg |
| B．can choose the time and place to collect the group |
| C．may apply to the Singapore Tourism Board |
| D．must first pay at least $105 as deposit |
| A．Maxi cab driver can stop on the way on request with extra charges. |
| B．The cabby tour cam show you around Singapore in the night time. |
| C．A Maxi Cab taxi tourist guide isn't allowed to add scenic spots on route. |
| D．Specially-trained it taxi drivers operate various tours around Singapore. |
