1 . When he was two years old, Ben stopped seeing out of his left eye. His mother took him to the doctor and soon discovered he had cancer in both eyes. After possible treatments failed, doctors removed both his eyes. For Ben, vision was gone forever.
But by the time he was seven years old, he had developed a technique for feeling the world around him: he clicked with his mouth and listened for the returning echoes. This method enabled Ben to determine the locations of open doorways, people, parked cars, garbage cans, and so on. He was echolocating: bouncing his sound waves off objects in the environment and catching the reflections to build a mental model of his surroundings.
Echolocation may sound like an improbable feat for a human, but thousands of blind people have perfected this skill, just like Ben did. The event has been written about since at least the 1940s, when the word ''echolocation" was first invented in a science article titled “Echolocation by Blind Men , Bats, and Radar.”
How could blindness give rise to the amazing ability to understand the surroundings with one's ears? The answer lies in a gift on the brain; huge adaptability.
Mother Nature filled our brains with flexibility to adapt to circumstances. Just as sharp teeth and fast legs are useful for survival, so is the brain's ability to reset, which allows for learning, memory, and die ability to develop new skills.
In Ben's case, his brain's flexible wiring repurposed his visual cortex for processing sound. As a result, Ben had more neurons available to deal with listening information, and this increased processing power allowed Ben to interpret soundwaves in shocking detail. Ben's super-hearing proves a more general rule: the more brain area a particular sense has, the better it performs.
1. How did Ben “see” after he had his eyes removed?| A．By using a walking stick. | B．By asking others for help. |
| C．By inventing a new system. | D．By echolocating surroundings. |
| A．Skill. | B．Task. | C．Sense. | D．Invention. |
| A．He laughs best who laughs last. | B．Actions speak louder than words. |
| C．God shuts one door but he opens another. | D．Man becomes learned by asking questions. |
| A．Culture Shock. | B．Human Biology. |
| C．Scientific Technology. | D．Environmental Protection. |
2 . Located in the southeast of Canada and with a population of approximately 6 million, Toronto is a big and beautiful city, which has developed from a relatively unknown place over the past half century to the center of culture, trade and communication in Canada.
With its colorful ethnic mix, rich history and breathtaking buildings. Toronto offers non-stop adventures to the tourists. To get a sense of how big, various and magical Toronto is, the best place to start is the CN Tower. From this point, visitors can get a bird's-eye view of the city's amazing scenery and unique geography.
In addition to being an important center of culture, trade and communication in Canada, Toronto is also a major muti-ethnic city. It is the most populous city in Canada and its citizens come from countries around the world and from different kinds of ethnic backgrounds. Every day, in most places of the city, a hundred different languages can be heard on the streets, from Hindi to Greek to French. This, perhaps, explains why former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau once said that Canada is a mosaic（嵌合体）of cultures and languages rather than a melting pot.
Street signs in Toronto are mostly in English. Weekly and daily newspapers are published in various languages, and the city hosts the successful international film festival each September. It is also home to a popular baseball team the Toronto Blue Jays. Toronto has something for everyone.
Moreover, Toronto has been rated one of the most livable cities in the world by United Nations Human Settlements Programme for many years. At the same time, Toronto is one of the safest, richest cities in the world with the highest standard of living.
1. What's the purpose of the text?| A．To draw more tourists to Toronto. |
| B．To introduce something about Canada. |
| C．To introduce some famous sights of Toronto. |
| D．To tell us how Toronto develops from the past. |
| A．Toronto is in the center of Canada. |
| B．Toronto is a city with a history of half a century. |
| C．The street signs in Toronto are all written in English. |
| D．From the top of the CN Tower we can see the whole Toronto. |
| A．It's worth visiting. |
| B．It's just a common city in Canada. |
| C．There are too many foreigners in the city. |
| D．There aren't many places of interest to visit. |
| A．A personal diary. | B．A news report. |
| C．A tourist handbook. | D．A student's notebook. |
3 . Shuikou village, in East China's Zhejiang province, is home to 10,000 residents, and about 30 percent of them are engaged in the homestay business. The village has developed into one of the major rural tourism destinations in the Yangtze River Delta(三角洲)region over the years.
As cross-provincial tourism has resumed nationwide, locals in Shuikou are back in business and looking forward to a full recovery of the local tourism industry.
Homestay owner Zheng Yunfang has been busy answering customers' calls, taking down their information, while checking the booking status of her hostelry(旅馆)since early August. "Our 18 guest rooms were fully booked over the past few weeks, and we've received bookings up to November," says Zheng, who runs Ziming Mountain Villa(别墅)in Shuikou. Most of her guests have been to her place before, and they often bring in new guests during their visits. "By the look of things, business shouldn't be a problem in the second half of the year."
Just walking distance away from Zheng's villa, another local homestay owner, Song Chaofeng, has begun receiving visitors as well. He is starting to harvest the reward of an earlier promotion of his homestay on the short-video app Douyin, also known as TikTok.
As an experiment, Song made a video featuring local food and landscapes earlier this year and uploaded it online after a bit of simple editing. "It was a total surprise that several thousand people watched it the next day."
Tourist Qi Jia, from Shanghai, recently visited Song's place with her family after flipping(翻转)through Song's Douyin account. "My child loves playing table tennis here, and my parents love the distinctive rural-style breakfast; with fresh and nutritious food that is picked right from the field. It feels right to come here.
At the moment, Song says he will focus on maintaining the quality of his homestay operations and updating his fans online on the latest developments. "Hopefully, they can all come. here and experience what we have to offer."
1. What is the author's purpose in writing the passage?| A．To show us the homestay tourism recovery. |
| B．To tell guests how to book homestay guest rooms. |
| C．To know about Shuikou village in Zhejiang province. |
| D．To introduce the successful homestay examples. |
| A．a science magazine. | B．a travel website |
| C．a history book | D．a daily newspaper |
| A．Complex. | B．Uneasy. |
| C．Rewarding. | D．Ordinary. |
| A．No place like homestay as rural approach pays off |
| B．Douyin: The basic method of homestay operations |
| C．Two great successes in homestay business |
| D．Shuikou: The major rural tourism destination |
4 . Faced with a declining population and workforce, Japan has been increasingly turning to robots for help. Over the years, the robots have carried out a large number of human tasks, including building products and providing care for the elderly.
However, the robots currently being used by companies, like Walmart and Amazon, are only able to perform single, repetitive tasks, such as stacking boxes. Model-T, on the other hand, has a wider range of movement and is able to hold, pick and place objects of several different shapes and sizes into different locations, making it ideal for convenience and grocery stores, which sell a large variety of items.
Model-T robots are operated from a distant location by human “pilots” wearing a virtual reality (VR) headset and special gloves, which allow them to feel the product the robot is holding in their hands and guide it to the right shelf.
The VR-controlled robots are ten times cheaper than automated robots, because they don’t require advanced programming and are easier to develop and maintain. And their easy-to-use controls require little training. Tomohiro Kano, a general manager in charge of development at FamilyMart, believes this will enable the chain to recruit workers who would typically not work in stores.
Though Model-T appears to be getting rapidly through the experiments, it is not quite ready to enter the workforce. Besides being a lot slower than humans, it is also only able to lift packaged items, and cannot get hold of things such as fruits and vegetables. The company is working to improve the weaknesses and hopes to introduce a faster, more skillful Model-T within the next two years. They believe that in addition to the stores, the robots could also be useful in hospitals, allowing doctors to do operations from remote locations.
1. What is one of the features of Model-T according to the text?| A．It works much faster than humans. | B．It can easily hold all kinds of objects. |
| C．It can be operated from a distance away. | D．It is harder to produce than an automated robot. |
| A．The low price of Model-T. | B．The easiness to operate Model-T. |
| C．The low-level programming of Model-T. | D．The strict training for maintaining Model-T. |
| A．Model-T is now being massively produced. |
| B．Japan’s workforce will be reduced by Model-T. |
| C．The weaknesses of Model-T have been overcome. |
| D．Model-T may be used in wider fields in the future. |
| A．Technology. | B．Economy. | C．Lifestyle. | D．Environment. |
5 . Salad seeds（生菜种子）that went on a round trip to outer space and back grew at a slightly slower rate than the ones on earth, scientists have found, thanks to thousands of young people who helped conduct an out-of-this-world experiment.
The project started in 2015, when British astronaut （宇航员）Tim Peake took a million rocket seeds with him on his journey to the International Space Station （ISS）. The seeds spent six months there before they were sent back to Earth in 2016. In a message sent from the ISS, Peake said the science experiment was to find out if the conditions in space affected the seeds' ability to grow.
Around 600,000 pupils at 8,600 schools in the UK were then asked to grow the rocket seeds that had been to space, along with regular seeds that had never left the planet. Peake described the experiment as "one of the largest and most inspirational experiments of its kind".
The results of the study, which have just been published, found that the space seeds grew more slowly than the ones that had stayed on Earth. Researchers on the experiment said this was due to the stresses of space travel, such as the zero-gravity （零重力）atmosphere and high levels of cosmic rays（宇宙射线）,which slowed the growth of the plants.
Now researchers are hopeful that if the seeds are properly protected, it might be possible to grow plants during future space tasks to other planets. Dr Jake Chandler, from University of London, who led the study, said,“ The possibility of eating home-grown salad on Mars may be one small step closer.
1. Why did Tim Peake take seeds to ISS?| A．To explore the secret to gravity. |
| B．To have astronauts grow salad in ISS. |
| C．To promote young kids，interest in salad. |
| D．To test the space's influence on seeds growth. |
| A．Encouraged. | B．Disappointed. | C．Confused. | D．Concerned. |
| A．Health. | B．Science. | C．Educatn. | D．Business. |
| A．Space study, a hot topic |
| B．Salad growing, a hit among students |
| C．Your salad, grown on Mars, may soon be a reality |
| D．Man's exploration to Mars, a big step forward |
6 . Using Google's unique digital(数字的)technology, the stories of some English Heritage(遗产)sites around the country-from Tintagel Castle in Cornwall to Chesters Roman Fort on Hadrian's Wall-are brought to life and shared by way of the Google Arts & Culture platform.
 Stonehenge Skyscape | English Heritage's Stonehenge Skyscape enables people around the world to experience the skies above the stone circle, to learn about movements of the sun, moon and planets. Experience a live and special sunrise over Stonehenge, see the journey of the stars and the moon from within the stone circle and learn more about the design of Stonehenge and how its builders may have understood their place in the universe. |
 Osborne, Isle of Wight | Take a 360 video tour of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's palatial(豪华的)holiday home on the Isle of Wight in the company of English Heritage director Michael Hunter, including the Italian terraces(露台)with views over the Solent, which reminded Prince Albert of the Bay of Naples, and the Indian-inspired Durbar Room, designed to show Queen Victoria's position as Empress of India. |
 Audley End House and Gardens, Essex | Explore the story of one of the greatest houses of early 17th-century England, deep in the heart of the Essex countryside, and fly over the great formal gardens designed by Capability Brown. |
 Tintagel Castle, Cornwall | Explore this medieval(中世纪的)castle set high on Cornwall's north coast. Linked with the legend of King Arthur, for centuries this impressive castle and coastline has inspired the imaginations of writers, artists and even the brother of a king. Discover the Early Medieval history of a distant outpost(哨站)trading objects from Spain, North Africa and Turkey. |
1. Which heritage can you choose if you are interested in a unique sunrise?
| A．Stonehenge Skyscape. | B．Osborne, Isle of Wight. |
| C．Audley End House and Gardens, Essex. | D．Tintagel Castle, Cornwall. |
| A．Both were built for their kings. |
| B．Both were built in the same age. |
| C．Both are related to previous rulers. |
| D．Both are palatial holiday homes for the rulers. |
| A．History. | B．Travel. |
| C．Geography. | D．Culture. |
7 . If you don't use it, you lose it. At least, that's how the old saying goes. It refers to the idea that something which does not get used regularly quickly falls into a state of decline. Muscles, for example, will waste away without use. In order to resist this, people take regular exercise to keep their skills sharp.
Well, what about the brain? As we age, our brains can naturally begin to decline. In some cases, this can lead to certain mental conditions such as dementia(痴呆)，which I'm sure you will agree, no one wants. However, all is not lost because these days it's relatively easy to train your brain. Smart phones and apps have put programmes into our hands that can test, maintain and even improve our memories, mathematical skills and a lot of other mental abilities. With a little practice every day, we can keep our brains nice and sharp, right?
Well, no, actually. According to a report from the Global Council on Brain Health, even though many people thought it was important to play online games, such as puzzles and mind games, which are designed to improve brain health, the evidence of the benefits was “weak to non-existent”.
There are other ways to promote the old grey matter. It recommends seeking out new activities that challenge the way you think and are socially engaging，while leading to a healthy lifestyle. Among their suggestions are practising tai chi, taking photography classes, learning new technologies, gardening, art projects or volunteering.
There's more good news, too, James Goodwin, chief scientist at Age UK has said that brain decline is not inevitable (不可避免的）. As long as the activities are “new to you and require your concentrated attention”, they can provide benefits for brain health. So, hurry up, get out there and try something new. Maybe it's time to try that hobby you've always wanted to do. And as for me? I'm off to learn the piano.
1. From which is the text probably taken?| A．A biology textbook. | B．A healthy magazine. |
| C．A travel brochure. | D．A research paper. |
| A．Making more shopping. | B．Avoid brain decline. |
| C．Doing exercises alone. | D．Going out with friends. |
| A．Trying something new. | B．Using smart phone regularly. |
| C．Playing games online. | D．Doing what you are good at. |
| A．Advantages of trying something new. |
| B．Disadvantages of using smart phones. |
| C．Ways to keep our brain as sharp as possible. |
| D．How to spend time meaningfully at an old age. |
8 . Schuylerville High School students have a broad range of interests, which are reflected by the number of clubs and organizations in which our pupils participate. Here are some of the most popular clubs.
Environmental Club
Open to students in grades 9-12
Advisor: Mrs. Flores
The High School Environmental Club is open to all students interest increasing environmental awareness throughout the school. Activities include: recycling, environmental competitions, volunteering with green schools and outdoor events. This run student club collects and recycles paper products throughout the school building.
Freshman Class
Open to students in grades 9-10
Advisor: Mr. winslow
The freshmen class participates in several activities throughout the year to raise money for the class account. The class officers meet once a month to discuss business that affects the entire class. All members of the freshman class are encouraged to participate in some type of community service during the year.
Literary magazine
Open to students in grades 10-12
Advisor: Mr. Sgambati
Members of the Literary Magazine collect, edit and often contribute to the body of student work. Literary Magazine meetings will also give students the opportunity to share and receive feedback on the creative pieces that they re working on, as well as the chance to learn about writing practices and strategies.
Mock Trial Team
Open to students in grades 11-12
Advisor: Mrs. Lewis
Mock Trial is an after-school activity that helps students develop useful knowledge about the law. Students play out all the roles and use general rules of evidence and fact explanations in a school court. They will work with a real lawyer and an advisor to further understand the court process.
1. At which club can you take part in the community service?| A．Environmental Club. | B．Freshman Class. |
| C．Literary Magazine. | D．Mock Trial Team. |
| A．To encourage students to be lawyers. | B．To develop students’ writing skills. |
| C．To explain all kinds of facts at school. | D．To help students learn more about laws. |
| A．A news report. | B．A school website. |
| C．A research paper. | D．A science magazine. |
9 . Wherever we humans go, we leave behind a mess. That goes for space, too. An estimated 500,000 pieces of debris (碎片) litter the Earth’s orbit as a result of man’s explorations of space. Some satellites have been hit by fast-moving pieces of junk. The remains of old rockets can be the size of a bus, while other debris pieces are simply tiny spots of paint.
Today, our species is responsible for the junk dashing around Earth at high speeds, and if we don’t start actively removing the largest pieces, the risk of collisions will only grow worse. “Imagine how dangerous sailing the high seas would be, if all the ships ever lost in history were still floating on top of the water,” says Jan Wörner, ESA director general. “That is the current situation in orbit, and it cannot be allowed to continue.”
It’s almost as if we need a truck to remove all of failed satellites from our orbit. By 2025, the agency plans on launching the world’s first orbiting junk collector, a four-armed robot that tracks down space waste. The first-of-its-kind task, known as ClearSpace-1, will start collecting only a single piece of space junk to prove the concept works. The target in this case is called Vespa, a leftover from ESA’s Vega rocket launch in 2013. This piece of junk weighs roughly the same as a small satellitle and has a simple shape that should make it easy to grab with four robotic arms. Once it’s safely in the arms of the garbage collector, it will then be dragged out of orbit and allowed to burn up in the atmosphere.
In addition, an Australian company, Electro Optic Systems, has received a $ 3.5 million government fund to develop the world’s first laser tracking (激光跟踪) technology. It would replace existing radar (雷达) networks that currently monitor that part of space. The goal is to track small objects with great accuracy.
1. Why does Jan Wörner refer to ships on the high seas?| A．To explain the danger of space debris. | B．To describe the universe’s huge space. |
| C．To praise man’s explorations of space. | D．To compare the oceans with the universe. |
| A．ClearSpace-1 and Vespa |
| B．ESA’s Vega rocket launch and radar networks |
| C．the orbiting junk collector and the first laser tracking technology |
| D．truck to remove all of failed satellites and track small objects |
| A．Dangerous Space Exploration | B．Cleaning up Space Junk Pieces |
| C．Developing Space Technology | D．Launching A Four-armed Robot |
| A．An astronomy report. | B．A travel guidebook. |
| C．A science fiction. | D．An environmental magazine. |
10 . If you ever find yourself trapped in the wilderness without food, you'll have to figure out how to feed yourself. Many plants in the wild are edible, but many are also poisonous. So it is necessary to learn how to determine whether the plants you find can be eaten safely.
Avoid using this method without careful planning. Some plants can be deadly, and even if you follow these guidelines perfectly, there is always a chance that a plant will make you seriously ill. Prepare yourself for wilderness outings by learning about the local plants, and carry a guidebook to help you identify plants. Even if you are unprepared and cannot find food you know to be safe, remember that, depending on your activity level, the human body can go for days without food, and you’re better off being hungry than being poisoned.
Testing the plant in your mouth is dangerous, so go forward very slowly and carefully. First, hold a small portion of the prepared plant part against your lip for 3 minutes. Do not put the plant in your mouth. If you notice any burning, tingling (刺痛), or other reactions, discontinue testing. Second, place another small portion of the plant part on your tongue. Hold the plant on your tongue without chewing for 15 minutes. Discontinue testing if you notice any reaction. Third, chew the plant and hold it in your mouth for 15 minutes. Chew the plant well, and do not swallow. Discontinue testing if you notice any reaction. Fourth, swallow the small portion of the plant. Wait 8 hours. Do not eat or drink anything during this period except purified water. If you feel sick, immediately throw up what you eat and drink plenty of water. If activated charcoal (活性炭) is available, take that with the water.
1. What’s the meaning of the underlined world “edible” in paragraph 1?| A．Suitable for using as food. | B．Widely spread. |
| C．Existing in large quantities. | D．Not widely known. |
| A．Planning is unnecessary when using the method. |
| B．Not all plants in the wild can serve as food generally. |
| C．Suffering hunger can be more dangerous than testing plants. |
| D．Following the method perfectly can ensure safety. |
① wait and see ② chew it in the mouth③ put it on the tongue④ put it against lips ⑤ swallow it
| A．③④②①⑤ | B．④③②①⑤ | C．③④②⑤① | D．④③②⑤① |
| A．A student’s diary. |
| B．A science report. |
| C．A guide book for camping. |
| D．A doctor’ s notebook. |
