1 . Award-winning food writer Sasha Martin started her blog in 2010. Her plan was simple: to prepare a meal from every country in the world. Over the next four years, she cooked over 650 dishes from 195 countries. In this interview, Martin describes her experience of cooking the world.
Was “cooking the world” a way to travel without leaving home?             

That’s right. I think the idea that exploration is for everyone is really important. There are so many people who dream of travel. But I think that you really can go on adventures without leaving home. With food, if you have the right ingredients, you can create the flavor of another place. It’s like armchair travel, but it’s faster and easier. I call it “stovetop travel.”

What did you hope to teach your daughter by cooking the world?

I wanted her to feel that she had a place in the world where she belonged. But I also feel it’s important for children to grow up knowing people from other countries-their global neighbors.        I call them neighbors because the world is so small now. I remember going on Facebook in its early days. I noticed there were people from different parts of the world commenting on posts, even arguing with each other. I feel that in that environment, young people need to be able to respect and understand each other.

So food is a great way to create that common ground?

Yes. I wanted to share recipes that were bridges to other cultures. A lot of celebrity TV chefs tend to choose the most shocking recipes. But I think you need a bridge first. Then people won’t put up a wall in their mind about that culture. They won’t just think, “Gross! Those people eat such odd things!”

1. What seems to be the name of Martin’s blog?

A．Cooking the World.	B．Armchair Travel.
C．Knowing Your Neighbors.	D．Cultures in Food.

2. Why is food a great way to create common ground according to Martin?

A．It makes the world colorful.	B．It is a universal topic.
C．It creates cultural connections.	D．It offers a sense of belonging.

3. Who might Martin’s blog be intended for?

A．Ordinary people.	B．People travelling abroad.
C．Celebrity TV chefs.	D．Parents with young children.

4. Which of the following Chinese recipes might not be shared on Martin’s blog?

A．Gong Bao Chicken.

B．Dim Sum.

C．Sichuan Hot Pot.

D．Stinky Tofu.

5. Which might best express your comment on Martin’s blog?

A．“Gross! Do they really eat such odd food? “

B．“Wow! You’ve been to so many amazing places!!”

C．“Awesome travel tips for getting around the world!”

D．“Incredible! I cooked black pudding by myself! Thanks!”

6. Where does this passage probably come from?

A．Talk Show.

B．Features.

C． Breaking News.

D．World Screen.

2 . Elephants born without tusks(长牙) normally make up just 2 to 6 percent of the herd population. However, that is not the case at Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, where 33 percent of female elephants born after the country’s civil war ended in 1992 are tuskless. While that might be just a coincidence(巧合), Joyce Poole, an elephant behavior expert, has another theory.

The researcher thinks we may be witnessing an unnaturally evolution of the species due to the hunting of the elephants for their valuable tusks. Unlike our permanent teeth, tusks of elephants grow throughout the animal’s life, becoming longer and thicker with age. For decorative purposes, poachers usually first target older males due to their impressive tusks, and females are not spared either. As a result, in areas where hunting goes unchecked for long, the number of tuskless females increases. This allows them to gain a biological advantage, resulting in a larger than average population of female offspring (后代)with no tusks.

Poole believes this phenomenon explains the rise in the number of tuskless females at Gorongosa National Park. The researcher says before the war, the park was home to over 4,000 elephants. However, by the time the conflict ended in 1992, about 90 percent of the elephants had been slaughtered for tusks to help finance weapons and meat to feed the soldiers. Of the less than 200 survivors, over 50 percent of the females had no tusks. Hence, it is not surprising that the park’s tuskless elephant population has grown greatly.

So far, the hunting has largely influenced female elephants. Poole explains, “Very few males are tuskless because males require tusks for fighting. Without tusks, males have a much harder time breeding and do not pass on their genes(基因) as often as tusked ones.” If the hunting of males for tusks continues at this pace, it could result in a generation of elephants with much smaller tusks.

1. How does the writer draw readers’ attention to the topic?

A．By comparing figures.

B．By offering explanation.

C．By giving an example.

D．By introducing an expert.

2. What might be the reason for the increase of tuskless females?

A．Illegal hunting.	B．Pure coincidence.
C．Natural evolution.	D．Effective protection.

3. What does the underlined word “slaughtered” in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．Raised.

B．Protected.

C．Killed.

D．Trained.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．The future of African elephants.

B．The protection of African elephants.

C．The increasing number of tuskless elephants.

D．The genetic consequence of hunting elephants.

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

A．Health.

B．Science.

C．Education.

D．Finance.

3 . Earlier this month, 6-year-old Isaac went on vacation to Fort Walton, Florida, with his family. While they were there, his mother Garrett learned about LuLu, a restaurant that offers food to customers with food allergies(过敏).

At LuLu, Isaac could eat a salad and a bowl of chicken soup with rice. “Isaac looked at me as if asking, ‘Is this OK?’ ” Garrett said. Once his mom gave the OK, Isaac enjoyed for the first time the experience of eating at a restaurant. “That look on his face was like, ‘This is the coolest thing I’ve ever done,’ ” Garrett added.

Garrett and her family rarely eat out because of Isaac’s food allergies. When they do, she cooks something for Isaac at home before they leave and brings it with her to the restaurant. “It’s not fun and it feels unfair,” she said.

Their night at LuLu marked a celebration for Isaac. Garrett shared the moment on the restaurant’s Facebook page. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving Isaac this wonderful experience,” she wrote in her post.

Barnett, the restaurant’s manager, said, “When customers tell the staff that someone in their group has a food allergy, I assist with the order by passing it to the kitchen, ensuring it’s cooked in a separate station and delivering the finished food to the guests. We have been improving this process over the past ten years since our allergy program was started.”

On Garrett’s Facebook post, LuLu thanked Garrett for sharing her story. “Thank you for sharing your experience with us,” the restaurant wrote in a comment, “We are excited to see your son so happy!” Garrett is hoping her post’s popularity will persuade other restaurants to be more considerate. “LuLu takes it seriously as we take it – nothing could make us happier than that,” she said.

1. What does the underlined word “This” in paragraph 2 refer to?

A．Eating chicken soup with rice.

B．Eating at a restaurant.

C．Eating with her mom.

D．Being on vacation with her family.

2. What will Barnett do when guests with allergies come to dinner?

A．He will personally assist with the order.

B．He will deliver the menu to them.

C．He will introduce the allergy program.

D．He will cook dinner in a separate station.

3. What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A．The popularity of her post made Garrett excited.

B．Garrett is unsatisfied with other restaurants.

C．LuLu thanks Garrett for eating in the restaurant.

D．Garrett hopes more restaurants will follow LuLu’s steps.

4. From which is the text probably taken?

A．A biology textbook.	B．A health magazine.
C．A research paper.	D．A travel brochure.

4 . The cultures of the East and the West are really different from each other a lot. This is because the culture systems are two separate ones on the whole.

The origin (起源) of the Eastern culture is mainly from two countries: China and India. Both of the two cultures are developed by rivers — the Yellow River in China and the Hindu River in India. They helped the two cultures develop for centuries and form their own styles.

When the two mother rivers gave birth to the Eastern culture, another famous culture was up on the Mesopotamian Plain — the Mesopotamian Civilization. This civilization later on developed into the cultures of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. And these two are well-known as the base of the European culture. Like the Chinese culture, the European culture also crossed waters. When the British settled down in America, their culture went with them over the Atlantic Ocean. So the American culture doesn’t have much difference from the European culture.

At the same time, some other differences add to the cultural differences. Take the language system for example. In the East, most languages belong to the pictographic (象形) language while the western languages are mostly based on the Latin system. Other causes like human race differences count as well. But what’s more, due to the far distance and the steep areas between the East and the west, the two cultures seldom communicate until recent centuries. So they grew up totally in their own ways with almost no interference from the other.

The differences are everywhere. They are obvious and make people’s ways of thinking and their views of the world different. But different cultures make the world of 21st century more colorful. The cultural difference should not be the obstacle (障碍) to the civilization of human being. It ought to be the driving force of our going farther.

1. What is the text mainly about?

A．The origin of cultures.	B．Culture differences.
C．Language systems.	D．Colorful world.

2. Why is the American culture similar to the European culture?

A．Both of the two cultures have a very long history.

B．They have the same mother rivers as the Chinese culture.

C．The early settlers from Britain brought their culture to America.

D．Both the British and the American live along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.

3. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “interference” in paragraph4?

A．difference	B．influence
C．confidence	D．environment

4. Where is the passage most likely from?

A．A diary.	B．A magazine.
C．A novel.	D．A guidebook.

5 . Artificial intelligence (AI人工智能) technology may soon be a useful tool for doctors. It may help them better understand and treat diseases like breast cancer in ways that were never before possible.

Rishi Rawat teaches AI at the University of Southern California’s (USC) Clinical Science Center in Los Angeles. He is part of a team of scientists who are researching how AI and machine learning can more easily recognize cancerous growths in the breast. Rawat provides information about cancer cells to a computer. He says this data helps the machine learn. “You can put the data into them and they will learn the patterns and the pattern recognition that’s important to making decisions.”

David Agus is another USC researcher. He believes that “machines are not going to take the place of doctors.” “Computers will not treat patients, but they will help make certain decisions and look for things that the human brain can’t recognize these patterns by itself.”

Once a cancerous growth is removed, doctors still have to treat the patient to reduce the risk of cancer returning. The form of treatment depends on the kind of cancer. Currently, researchers take a thin piece of tissue (组织), put it on a small piece of glass and add color to better see the cells. That process could take days or even longer. Scientists say artificial intelligence can do something better than just count cells. Through machine learning, it can recognize complex patterns, or structures, and learn how the cells are organized.

The hope is that machines will soon be able to make a quick identification of cancer that is free of human mistakes. The University of Southern California researchers are now only studying breast cancer. But doctors predict artificial intelligence will one day make a difference in all forms of cancer.

1. What can we infer from the passage?

A．Computers will replace doctors one day.

B．AI technology help doctors treat diseases mainly through counting cells.

C．Cancer once cured will not come back again.

D．Breast cancer patients will benefit a lot from the AI technology application.

2. Where can you most probably see the article?

A．Medical instructions.	B．Textbook.
C．Newspaper.	D．Science fiction.

3. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．Artificial intelligence to make doctors better.

B．Great benefits from artificial intelligence.

C．New discoveries about cancer.

D．The process to recognize cancer cells.

6 . There’s nothing magical about the number 10,000. In fact, the idea of walking at least 10,000 steps a day for health goes back many years to a marketing campaign started in Japan for the sale of a pedometer (计步器). And, in the years that followed, it was accepted in the US as a goal to build up good health. It’s often the default setting (默认设置) on fitness trackers, but what’s it really based on?

“The original basis of the number was not scientifically determined,” says researcher I-Min Lee of Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She was curious to know how many steps you need to take a day to maintain good health and live a long life, so she and her workmates designed a study that included about 17,000 older women. Their average age was 72. The women all agreed to wear devices to track their steps as they went about their day-to-day activities.

It turns out that women who took about 4,000 steps per day got an increase in longevity (长寿), compared with women who took fewer steps. In fact, women who took 4,400 steps per day, on average, were about 40 percent less likely to die during the follow-up period of about four years compared with women who took 2,700 steps. The findings were published Wednesday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Another surprise: The benefits of walking maxed out at about 7,500 steps. In other words, women who walked more than 7,500 steps per day saw no additional increase in longevity.

Janz, who released the new national exercise recommendations last November, says the message that comes from this study was encouraging. “I think it’s really good news for women who may not be particularly active.” says Janz. “All they have to do is walk. To me, this study suggests there are more benefits to light activities than we were previously thinking there might be.”

1. How did the idea of walking 10,000 steps a day come into being?

A．It was made up by a group of elderly ladies.

B．It was indeed the result of a scientific research.

C．It actually came from a business advertisement.

D．It was based on a test by both Japan and the US.

2. Which is an ideal choice for women walkers according to the study?

A．2,700 steps.	B．4,400 steps.
C．10,000 steps.	D．17,000 steps.

3. Which of the following does Janz agree with?

A．Light activities benefit people most.

B．The study is not as satisfying as expected.

C．Women should be more active than before.

D．The result of the study is a little surprising.

4. In which part of a newspaper can you read the passage?

A．Health.	B．Culture.
C．History.	D．Tourism.

7 . Lightning is a powerful force of nature. In fact,   a lightning strike carries millions of volts（伏特）of electricity. Scientists say a bolt of lightning strikes somewhere on Earth every second. That is a lot of energy!

Think how wonderful it would be if we could capture lightning and sell it in a bottle. Sadly, that is not something you or I can do, at least not yet.

The phrase "to catch lighting in a bottle” means capturing something powerful or difficult. Then you are able to control it and perhaps show it to the world. This is where the "bottle” part is important.

We can also use "to catch lightning in a bottle" to describe an extremely difficult or unlikely success. In the world of sports , players and teams have also been known for catching lightning in a bottle. Anything physical that is "lightning in a bottle "can be described as a rare achievement. Climbing the top of Mount Everest is considered a rare achievement of endurance（忍耐力）.

Language experts do not know exactly where this expression comes from. Some say it may have started with Benjamin Franklin---the American diplomat, businessman and inventor. Benjamin Franklin is known for a scientific experiment involving electricity and lightning. As the story goes, Franklin once flew a kite in a lightning storm. He had hoped that lightning would strike the kite as it flew high in the sky. He thought the electricity would travel down the string to a metal key at the bottom. Then the plan was to catch the electricity in a glass jar, but that didn't happen. However, it did lead to the invention of the lightning rod and the understanding of positive and negative charges.

So, you can’t catch real lightning in a bottle. But hopefully, during your lifetime you'll have the experience of catching a little of your own lightning in a bottle・

1. How does the author start the passage?

A．By comparing different views.

B．By giving an example.

C．By presenting some facts.

D．By stating his own experience.

2. The reason why Benjamin Franklin did the scientific experiment was that he aimed to

A．catch the electricity

B．fly a kite in a lightning storm

C．invent the lightning rod

D．understand positive and negative charges

3. Which kind of magazine is this passage probably from?

A．Entertainment.	B．Language.
C．Science.	D．Sports.

8 . Is it possible to build muscle and meanwhile lose fat?Please allow us to bring the following two facts to your attention first.

Fact 1：Losing fat requires a caloric deficit(亏损)，which means consuming less calories than your body needs so that stored body fat is used for energy instead.

Fact 2：Building muscle requires a caloric surplus(盈余)，which means consuming more calories than your body needs so that new muscle tissue can be created.

And it’s this realization that leads those of us who want to build figure and lose fat ideally at the exact same time to wonder just how we’re supposed to make it happen?

The 4-week Online Workout Course professionally designed by Super Fitness will perfectly resolve the conflict，making it possible for you to both build muscle and lose fat.

Targeted groups：

●Male and female willing to be athletic.

You’re promised to：

●Simply follow us along and keep your ears open to the tips and suggestions we keep giving while working out. The videos are follow-along. We’11 also immediately reply to any doubts or questions.

●Be able to lose two pounds of fat per week and get super fit.

●Save a lot of time by taking on-line course. No gym means no traffic!

●Save a ton of money with 25％off at the Year End Promotion.

You’re only required to：

●Eagerness for a perfect figure.

●Willingness to tolerate some discomfort.

Contact Super Fitness by clicking here!

1. What’s the purpose of mentioning the conflict of building muscle and losing fat?

A．To bring out the course.	B．To clear confusion.
C．To stress importance.	D．To warn the danger.

2. How many pounds of fat in all does the course promise to lose?

A．2.	B．4.
C．6.	D．8.

3. Where is the text 1ikely to be taken from?

A．A newspaper.	B．A website.
C．A fitness book.	D．A biology magazine.

9 .

1. Admission and School Policies The enrollment(注册) of a pupil to the School is subject to the School’ s Admission and Entry policies and other policies and procedures revised by the School from time to time.	4. Fees School Fees are listed on the Fee Schedule and vary from time to time. A full term’s tuition must be paid for any term during which the pupil is in attendance regardless of the number of days attended. If tuition fees have not been paid, the Refundable Deposit shall be used to pay the tuition fees and the parents/guardians remain responsible for the rest. The School reserves the right to exclude(开除) a pupil if tuition or other fees are not paid in full by the due date.
2. Withdrawal by Parent/Guardian If a parent/guardian desires to withdraw a child for any reason from the school, that parent/ guardian shall give a minimum of six weeks written withdrawal notice to the School. Notice received during a school holiday will be considered to have been received on the first day of the following term.
3. Refundable Deposit(押金) When a pupil is offered a place the parent/ guardian shall immediately pay the required Refundable Deposit. This is to secure enrollment at the School until the termly or annual fees have been paid. The Refundable Deposit is refundable, and shall be without interest and without taking into account changes in exchange rates.	5. Termination by the school The school may terminate(终止) this agreement when permanent exclusion or removal is required. The School shall not take such action without good cause and full consultation with parents/ guardians and the pupil. Parents/ guardians have the right to appeal on a decision to permanently exclude a pupil.

1. How long in advance should a written withdrawal notice be given?

A．A whole holiday.	B．At least six weeks.
C．A whole term.	D．At least one day.

2. What do we know about tuition fees?

A．They must be fully paid.

B．They stay the same every year.

C．They vary with the number of days attended.

D．They can’t be paid with the refundable deposit.

3. In which section of a school’s brochure might the text appear?

A．Study Tips.	B．Application Procedures.
C．Terms and Conditions.	D．Frequently Asked Questions.

10 . It’s July. You’re in a boat gliding through calm water off the Finnish coast, on your way to visit a sauna (桑拿), pick berries, and sleep in a tent. At your side is a “happiness guide,” one of a small group of Finns employed by a national tourism agency to teach international visitors something about why the Scandinavian country ranks at the top of a report ranking nations on happiness.

“One of the uniquely Finnish experiences which contributes to our well-being is our special relationship with nature, especially our forests,” says Hetta Huittinen, a spokesperson for Business Finland, which started Rent A Finn, a new contest that will bring travelers to Finland this summer for a free trip with a Finnish guide.

In Finnish law, the public has the right to wander; in natural areas, even on privately owned land, it’s legal for anyone to make temporary use of the land. You’re allowed to go anywhere and pick berries and mushrooms or whatever you find there, or even stay overnight in a tent without asking permission. Most Finns also spend long time outside in the summer as they rent or borrow cottages in the countryside; the law requires a minimum of five weeks of annual leave.

“People actually are both happier and healthier when they see trees, when they’re walking to work,” said John Helliwell, one of the authors of the World Happiness Report, adding that the slow pace of walking and connecting with others also has a benefit. When I first tried to contact someone for this article, he couldn’t talk because he was headed to the sauna.

It might be difficult for visitors to collect much wisdom from a two-or three-day trip, but Business Finland hopes that the winners chosen to travel will learn something by diving into nature with a Finn.

1. The author gives a vivid picture of Finland in paragraph 1 to ________.

A．show the Finns are the happiest

B．enjoy the scenery of Finland

C．advise people to live in Finland

D．prove Finns are friendly to visitors

2. Which of the following is true of Rent A Finn?

A．It focuses on the protection of nature.

B．Guided tours are provided with no cost.

C．Travelers can rent a guide for a small charge.

D．It allows travelers to go anywhere by themselves.

3. What can people do according to Finnish law?

A．Use the land permanently.

B．Stay in a tent with permission.

C．Enter the others’ cottages freely.

D．Have at least five weeks off each year.

4. Where is the text most likely from?

A．A textbook.	B．A diary.
C．A report.	D．A guidebook.