2 . VATNAJÖKULL NATIONAL PARK, ICELAND

Vatnajökull National Park is home to one of the largest glaciers in the world and two active volcanoes. A popular place to explore ice caves, you can experience here the breath-taking views of waterfalls, frozen rivers and herds of reindeer through cave tours, glacial hikes and jeep safaris.

Best time to visit: May to September.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL RUINS OF LIANGZHU CITY, CHINA

Dating back to 5,300 years ago, the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City is considered as an important representation of early urban civilization based on rice plantation. The city ruins show the contributions made by the Yangtze River Basin to the origins of Chinese civilization.

Best time to visit: March to May & October to mid December.

BAGAN, MYANMAR

Located on the banks of the Ayeyarwady River, Bagan is the capital of the ancient Burmese empire and features a stunning range of Buddhist art and architecture. Visitors can get the best views at sunrise by taking a hot air balloon ride and witness hundreds of architectural treasures as far as the eye can reach.

Best time to visit: November to February.

JAIPUR CITY, INDIA

The walled city of Jaipur is one of the most colourful cities in the world and part of India's famous Golden Triangle. The city is not only famous for its pink coloured buildings, but also the houses, shops, restaurants and hotels which give you a feast for colors.   Besides, you can enjoy the city's layout, busy streets and large public squares.   

Best time to visit: November to March.

1. Which of the following is best recommended in April?

A．Bagan.	B．Jaipur City.
C．Vatnajökull National Park.	D．Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City.

2. What is special about Bagan?

A．It features views of volcanoes.

B．It is heavy with religious culture.

C．It has a history of over 5000 years.

D．It's known for colorful architecture.

3. In which part of a magazine can you most probably read this text?

A．Geography.

B．Culture.

C．Science.

D．Environment.

4 . Black Valley, 63 kilometers from downtown Chongqing, is one of the best preserved natural wonders around the municipality. The national 5A-level scenic spot is a popular summer resort for sightseeing, forest adventures, outdoor camping, hunting and angling.

Located in Heishan town, Wansheng Economic Development Zone, the scenic spot spans over 103 square kilometers, 97 percent of which are covered by primitive forests. With over 110,000 negative oxygen ions in each cubic centimeter of air, it is dubbed as a natural oxygen bar and “the most beautiful healthcare-themed valley.”

Black Valley is also known as “the natural gene bank of Chongqing and Guizhou regions” for the diversity of its rare plants and wildlife, including Cathaya argyrophylla, Davidia involucrata, Trachypithecus francoisi and clouded leopards.

Scenic spot level: AAAAA

Address: Heishan town, Wansheng Economic Development Zone, 63 kilometers from downtown Chongqing Opening hours: 8:30 am - 3:30 pm (peak season from November to February), 9:00 am-3:00 pm (off season from March to October)

Ideal sightseeing season: from May to September

Ticket price: 60 yuan ($8.72) during off season and 100 yuan during peak season, sightseeing bus and cable not included.

Notes:

1. It is recommended that tourists start from the higher southern area for a downward journey.

2. The average temperature is 18.1 degrees.

3. It’s a good idea to experience the local folk culture of the Miao ethnic group, especially when you choose to visit in May when the traditional Caishan Festival of Miao ethnic group is celebrated.

1. What can we know about Black Valley?

A．It lies in downtown Chongqing.

B．Plants and wildlife are rarely seen there.

C．A visit there costs at most 100 yuan.

D．The air is very high in negative oxygen ions there.

2. A best time for a visitor and lover of the folk culture to Black Valley is in

A．January.

B．March.

C．May.

D．July.

3. Which section is the text taken from in a newspaper?

A．Culture.

B．Travel.

C．Nature.

D．Wildlife.

5 . The native Americans, the people we call the “Indians”, had been in America for many thousands of years before Columbus arrived in 1492. Columbus thought he had arrived in India, so he called the native people “Indians”.

The Indians were kind to the early settlers. They were not afraid of them and they wanted to help them. They showed the settlers the new world around them. They taught them about the local crops like sweet potatoes, corn and peanuts. They introduced the Europeans to chocolate and to the turkey and the Europeans did business with the Indians.

But soon the settlers wanted bigger farms and more land for themselves and their families. More and more immigrants were coming from Europe and all these people needed land. So the Europeans started to take the land from the Indians. Naturally, when the whites started taking all the Indians’ land, the Indians started fighting back.

But the whites were stronger and cleverer. Slowly they pushed the Indians into those parts of the continent that the whites didn’t want- the parts where it was too cold or too dry or too mountainous to live comfortably. By 1875 the Indians were living in special places called “reservations”. But even here the whites took land from them- perhaps the whites wanted the wood, or perhaps the land had important minerals in it, or they even wanted to make national parks there. So even on their reservations the Indians were not safe from the whites.

There are many Hollywood films about the fight between the Indians and the whites. Usually in these films the Indians are bad and the whites are good and brave. But was it really like that? What do you think? Do you think the Indians were right or wrong to fight against the whites?

1. Why did Columbus call the native people “Indians”?

A．Because he thought he had arrived in India.

B．Because he liked Indian culture very much.

C．Because he knew they were from India.

D．Because he was an Indian himself.

2. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A．The Indians gave up their land willingly.

B．The settlers wanted to buy land from the Indians.

C．The whites even wanted more land on Indians’ reservations.

D．The Indians were stronger and cleverer than the white settlers.

3. We can learn from the last paragraph that______.

A．the Indians are usually beautified in the films

B．the author is doubtful about what the films show to us

C．films about fights are the most popular ones in the market

D．films about the fight between the Indians and the whites are very limited

4. The passage is most probably taken from the ______ column of a newspaper.

A．entertainment

B．history

C．economy

D．industry

6 . China's Yungang Grottoes (石窟) will complete the scanning of all the caves in five years, paving the way for the creation of digital versions that can withstand weathering and other real-world damage.

So far, the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Shanxi Province has completed three-dimensional scans of one-third of its Buddhist grottoes, according to the Yungang Grottoes Research Institute. “We're racing against time,” said Ning Bo, director of the institute's digitalization office, “Weathering is like cancer to grottoes, eating away at the sculptures year by year. Few technologies can prevent such progressive damage.”

Using three-dimensional laser (激光) scanning and multiplanar (多平面) reconstruction, the institute is working to capture the shapes, colors and other fine details of the grottoes and create millimeter-level digital archives for future study and preservation. “We hope to preserve the grottoes in digital form as much as possible, so people in the future will still have access to the information even if the grottoes fade away.” Ning said, adding that the digitalization will also allow the public to “visit” the grottoes more easily on their computer screens.

The digitalization project, which began in 2003 at the grottoes, still faces challenges posed by the caves' enormous sizes, complicated structures and exquisite sculptures, according to the institute. “The Yungang Grottoes were built into a mountain, and so our team is actually scanning structures as huge as a mountain. Besides, the inner structures vary wildly from exotic domes to traditional Chinese architecture.” said the director.

The Yungang Grottoes, located in the city of Datong, has 45 major caves and more than 59,000 stone statues. With a grotto complex stretching about 1 km from east to west, it is one of the largest ancient grottoes in the country.

1. What does Ning Bo mean by saying “racing against time”？

A．Scanning the grottoes is an urgent task.

B．It is not an easy job to scan the grottoes.

C．He is dying because of a severe disease.

D．There is a deadline required by UNESCO.

2. Why is the Yungang Grottoes being scanned?

A．To keep them from being damaged.

B．To carry out a scientific experiment.

C．To preserve them for future generations.

D．To make them accessible via the Internet.

3. What is Paragraph 4 mainly about?

A．The influence of the project.	B．The difficulties facing the team.
C．The beauty of the grottoes.	D．The structures of the statues.

4. In which section of a newspaper may this text appear?

A．Education.

B．Technology.

C．Culture.

D．Opinion.

7 . Online Bachelor's Degrees and Programs

The overview

Colleges offer online degrees in a range of fields. Click on a degree program to explore what courses you take, how long the program takes to complete, career options and average salary. For example, to earn an online health science bachelor's degree, you would take courses in public health, health communications and epidemiology(流行病学).

The benefits

Pursuing an accredited(官方认可的)online bachelor's degree can help you take the next step in your career. Through your program, you'll attend online lectures, study from home manage a busy schedule and interact virtually with professors and classmates.

The applicants

An online college degree may appeal to those who want more flexibility in completing their education, or who want to take classes while working full time or parenting. Choosing where to register online will likely be challenging, but below you'll find tools, advice and other resources to make your search easier.

Best online bachelor's programs

U. S. News evaluated several factors to rank the best online bachelor's degree programs, including graduation rates and support services available remotely.

School name	Tuition per credit	Application deadline	Financial aid available
University of Georgia	$ 326	May 1	Yes
Georgia Washington University	$ 615	June 10	No
University of Arizona	$ 525	July 12	Yes
North Carolina University	$ 900	February 15	Yes

To see the full ranking list, please click here.

1. What will you do after attending online degree programs?

A．Get a degree for free.	B．Attend lectures in a hall.
C．Take some related courses	D．Talk with teachers face to face.

2. Which university is the last one to end the application?

A．Georgia Washington University.	B．University of Georgia.
C．North Carolina University.	D．University of Arizona.

3. Where are you likely to read the text?

A．On the Internet.	B．In a magazine.
C．In a textbook.	D．In a newspaper.

8 . On a scale of 0 to 10, I’d say my happiness ranks at about 6. I’m glad to know I’m a 6, because, as a famous management saying puts it, “You can't manage what you don’t measure.” If you want to improve an aspect of your life, you need to be able to assess progress toward your goal-and that means measuring it.

The goal of this column is to help you manage and improve your happiness. A number of people have asked me whether quantitative happiness measures are really accurate and reliable-and it’s a reasonable question. So let’s take a look behind the curtain. But not just for intellectual curiosity; as you will see, understanding the measurement of happiness can itself make you better at improving your own well-being-and avoid some critical errors.

The best method scientists have to understand with confidence how something affects something else is a randomized, controlled trial. Think of the tests currently under way to find a vaccine for COvID-19. They take a long time because the drug companies with trial vaccines are conducting experiments that randomly assign people to a treatment group they get the vaccine and a control group (they get a placebo), and then waiting to seif the drug is effective and safe by comparing the two groups after enough time has passed.

In the research on happiness, this usually isn’t possible. Want to know if people are truly happiest in Denmark, as some studies suggest, and test it with a randomized experiment? You would need to randomly take two groups out of their homes, move one group to Copenhagen, and the other to, say, Dayton, Ohio- but make sure they think it might be Copenhagen and never get the truth. Follow up a few years later to see who is happiest. Obviously, that’s ridiculous. So with randomized controlled trials largely not available to them, happiness researchers instead rely on self-reported happiness surveys, where large groups of people anonymously report their levels of life satisfaction. Then, the researchers use fairly complex statistical techniques to mimic（模拟）a controlled experiment in order to show how different aspects of people’s lives affect-or at least are associated with-their happiness.

1. What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 1 probably refer to?

A．An aspect of life.

B．One's goal.

C．Happiness.

D．Progress.

2. Why is the test of CovID-19 vaccine mentioned in Paragraph 3?

A．To introduce a latest medical breakthrough.

B．To show the difficulty in finding the vaccine.

C．To illustrate the process of randomized experiments.

D．To prove the impossibility of randomized researches on happiness.

3. Why is it hard to conduct research on happiness with randomized experiments?

A．The experiment takes a long time.

B．It is difficult to analyze the data collected.

C．It is impossible to carry out the process strictly.

D．The subjects are unwilling to share their feelings.

4. Where is this text taken from?

A．A magazine.

B．A diary.

C．A science report.

D．A textbook.

9 . It’s easy to assume that a vacation to Bali will cost a small fortune. There are plenty of accommodations, food and local transportation, and even the spas offer massages and treatments at value prices. However, you can easily spend a week or two in Bali for under $2,000, without having to sleep on the beach. Here are a few things to consider when planning Bali on a budget.

What is the best time to visit Bali on a budget?

If you’re on a budget, consider visiting Bali during the lower, wetter season, which runs from October through March. The crowds will be fewer, and both hotel rates and flights from abroad are often cheaper, except during the holiday period between mid-December and early January, when crowds swell. The only trade-off for the lower prices is the wet season. This time of year isn’t always ideal for sunbathing, and serious rainfall can make outdoor activities, such as whitewater rafting and visiting waterfalls and rice terraces, less than appealing. That said, even during rainy season, it doesn’t usually rain all day long. Expect bursts of sunshine between the storms.

What is the cheapest way to get around Bali?

The absolute cheapest way to get around Bali is by local bus, but it can take a long time. There are also tourist buses, including hop-on, hop-off options, that travel between different hubs across the island. Bali is well-served by taxis, both of the car and motorbike variety, and the prices tend to be affordable by international standards. Most drivers will offer you a fixed rate for full-day hires or to get from point A to point B, rather than using a meter.

Remember to bargain; doing so is particularly easy when a driver is on his own rather than at a taxi stand.

How much does food cost in Bali?

If you’re into fine dining, you can end up spending a large chunk of your budget on food. Eating at the average restaurant geared towards tourists is the best way to have a meal in Bali on a budget. A good meal should cost you around 100,000 rupiah (around $7), but if you’re willing to subsist mostly off of local specialties such as nasi goreng (fried rice) and eat at local restaurants, you can expect to pay around 30,000 rupiah ($2) to get fed. Best of all, most hotels and guesthouses in Bali come with free breakfast, and many offer heavier options of noodles and meat that may keep you full until lunch.

1. Which of the following situation can be best described by the underlined word trade-off in paragraph 2?

A．Jack got a reward after he returned the lost bag to its owner.

B．Lily spent much money buying some handicrafts at the local fair.

C．Wendy cancelled her trip in order to prevent the spread of the virus.

D．Sam was scolded by his parents for what he did in school last night.

2. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．It’s better for outdoor enthusiasts to visit Bali during the off season.

B．Passengers had better fix the price with drivers before the taxi pulls out from the station.

C．If on a tight budget, one is advised to visit Bali at the end of December every year.

D．It’s relatively economical to eat merely at average restaurants tailored to visitors.

3. In which column of a magazine can you most probably find this passage?

A．City and Transport.	B．Travel and Recreation.
C．Nature and Environment.	D．Food and Health.

10 . Have you ever noticed little specks (斑点) in the iris (the colored part) of your eyes? The specks, which occur in about 60% of the population, are clusters (组,族) of abnormal melanocytes (黑素细胞).Experts suspect that, like skin freckles, they may develop in response to sun exposure."We think that the pathway involved in iris freckles formation could be quite similar." Christoph Schwab, MD, wrote in an email to Health.

To investigate this theory, Dr.Schwab teamed up with other ophthalmologists (眼科医生) and dermatologists (皮肤病专家) to examine the skin and eyes of more than 600 people.Seventy-six percent of the participants possessed at least one eye freckle.They tended to be older than folks who had no eye freckles.And they were also more likely to report a high number                    of sunburns during their lifetime, and have sun-damaged skin and age spots.The researchers also noted that the participants were recruited（招募） from public swimming pools.They may have led outdoorsy lifestyles, with greater exposure to UV light than the average person.

While eye freckles themselves are usually not dangerous to health, they may serve as a warning sign for sun-related health problems, the researchers concluded."The presence of iris freckles also indicates sun damage to the skin, a risk factor for several different kinds of skin cancer.Within this context, there is certainly a need for further studies investigating the association between skin cancer and iris freckles, they wrote.

"The investigation of iris freckles in several eye diseases could lead to new knowledge regarding their pathogenesis (病原)," says Dr.Schwab.

For now, Dr.Schwab urges caution: If someone exhibits iris freckles, especially at a young age, I would reconsider current sun protection strategies."To keep your skin safe and your eyes freckle-free, remember to apply plenty of SPF even when it's cloudy, and wear shades or a hat to protect your eyes from the sun.

1. What is to blame for eye freckles?

A．Skin freckles.

B．Sun exposure.

C．Personal lifestyles.

D．Abnormal melanocytes.

2. More research on eye freckles might _______.

A．prove more population owns them	B．find out the reasons for them
C．prevent people from skin cancer	D．find the link between skin and eyes

3. What should you do to keep your eyes freckle-free?

A．Take more exercises.	B．Apply plenty of SPF.
C．Work in public swimming pool.	D．Wear shades or a hat outdoors.

4. Which section of a magazine does this text probably come from?

A．Health.

B．Society.

C．Education.

D．Technology