1 . Candy comes in many flavors. Some taste like fruit. Some taste like flowers. Some are chewy, like taffy (太妃糖) and gum. Hard candies are, well. hard! So, they last a long time.
But, in spoken English, there are some types of candy that you cannot eat. For example, you can’t eat eye candy. Eye candy is a person-man or woman-who is very good-looking. So, looking at this person is a treat for the eye, just like candy is a treat for the taste buds.
Do you hear of candy coat? Of course it is not a coat made of candy. But you can say I don’t candy coat the truth. What does candy-coating something mean? Well, some pills are covered with a coat of thin, sweet candy. The coating makes swallowing the pill easier, and it may hide a bad taste. So, candy coating a difficult truth or situation means you don’t directly discuss its bad parts.
After talking about candy you may want to eat some candies. However, some people dislike things that are very sweet, especially adults. But even if you do not like candy, you can still be called a kid in a candy store. This expression means a person is very happy to do something or to simply be somewhere. Imagine a child going from one candy display to the next, not knowing which candy to choose!
Talking about children brings us to another expression: as easy as taking candy from a baby. Think about a small, helpless baby holding a piece of candy. Taking it would be very easy—mean, but easy. So, use this expression when you are talking about something that may be simple to do, but probably not right.
1. What kind of girl can be described as “eye candy”?| A．Beautiful | B．Optimistic |
| C．Hardworking | D．Warmhearted |
| A．Making. | B．Taking. |
| C．Selling. | D．Testing. |
| A．Hard candies. | B．Candy coat. |
| C．A kid in a candy store. | D．As easy as taking candy from a baby. |
| A．Candy. Enjoy It or Avoid It | B．Various Candies in English |
| C．The Best Candy in the World | D．Candies’ Different Flavors |
2 . Like you and your pet dog, plants are living things: they eat, drink, and grow. Unlike you and your dog, they can't run away, use fists or teeth, or hide under the covers when they're threatened. But they can fight back.
Why would a plant need to fight back? To avoid being eaten, of course! Plants have several ways of protecting themselves. A plant can grow in a hidden or hard-to-get-to place. Think of plants you've seen growing on steep, rocky cliff (悬崖). Or, a plant could make only some parts of itself attractive to hungry insects and animals. For instance, if a plant produced really tasty leaves, herbivores (creatures that eat only plants) might eat the leaves instead of the seeds, which the plant needs for making more plants. Some plants have sharp or slippery (滑的) parts that discourage insects and other animals from getting too close, like the thorns(刺) on a rosebush.
But the most interesting way that plants fight back is by using chemicals. Plants take minerals from the soil and combine them into chemicals that do a lot of work. For example, plants produce chlorophyll(叶绿素), which helps convert sunshine and water into the sugars that plants eat.
They also produce chemicals to help protect themselves. One kind of tobacco plant releases a chemical into the air whenever small bugs begin to eat it. The chemical signals large bugs, saying "Dinner's ready!" The big bugs come to eat the little ones and save the plant.
Most plants use chemicals in a more direct way against their enemies. In other words, plants make poison.
1. What does the underlined word "convert" mean?| A．Change | B．Separate |
| C．Form | D．Produce |
| A．Some plants hide under the covers when faced with threat. |
| B．A plant grows in a hard-to-get-to place to draw people's attention. |
| C．Some plants produce tasty leaves to protect their seeds. |
| D．Plants produce chemicals to meet the needs of big bugs. |
| A．Different effects that different plant poisons cause on plant eaters. |
| B．Different kinds of plants in the world. |
| C．Why plants make poison? |
| D．How to protect plants? |
| A．Plant information. | B．Plant enemies. |
| C．Plant poisons. | D．Plant protection. |
3 . Following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP), also named COVID-19 by WHO, there is a general fear of the unknown virus as its full effects remain to be seen. Fever, coughing, sore throat, difficulty breathing —the NCP’s symptoms are similar to the common cold or the flu, but it’s potentially more dangerous.
Viruses could be deadly, like HIV and Ebola. But what are viruses? How can they cause so much trouble?
Viruses are non-living organisms (有机体) approximately one-millionth of an inch long. Unlike human cells or bacteria, they can’t reproduce on their own. Instead, they invade the cells of living organisms to reproduce, spread and take over.
Viruses can infect every living thing – from plants and animals down to the smallest bacteria. For this reason, they always have the potential to be dangerous to human life. Sometimes a virus can cause a disease so serious that it is fatal. Other viral infections trigger no noticeable reaction.
Viruses lie around our environment all of the time, waiting for a host cell to come along. They can enter our bodies by the nose, mouth, eyes or breaks in the skin. Once inside, they try to find a host cell to infect. For example, HIV, which causes AIDS, attacks the T-cells of the immune system.
But the basic question is, where did viruses first come from? Until now, no clear explanation for their origin exists. “Tracing the origins of viruses is difficult”, Ed Rybicki, a virologist (病毒学家) at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, told Scientific American, “because viruses don’t leave fossils and because of the tricks they use to make copies of themselves within the cells they’ve invaded”.
However, there are three main hypotheses (假说) to explain the origin of viruses. First, viruses started as independent organisms, then became parasites (寄生者). Second, viruses evolved from pieces of DNA or RNA that “escaped” from larger organisms. Third, viruses co-evolved with their host cells, which means they existed alongside these cells.
For the time being, these are only theories. The technology and evidence we have today cannot be used to test these theories and identify the most plausible explanation. Continuing studies may provide us with clearer answers. Or future studies may reveal that the answer is even murkier (含糊不清的) than it now appears.
1. What can we learn about viruses from the text?| A．Viruses have nothing to do with the common cold. |
| B．Viruses are really small living organisms. |
| C．Viruses can’t reproduce unless they find a host cell. |
| D．Viruses enter our bodies mainly through the mouth, nose and hair. |
| A．They evolved from the fossils of large organisms. |
| B．They evolved from parasites into independent organisms. |
| C．They evolved from the T-cells in animals. |
| D．They evolved along with their host cells. |
| A．reasonable | B．common |
| C．creative | D．unbelievable |
| A．Viruses live longer in human host cells than in animals’. |
| B．Viruses will become more like bacteria as they evolve. |
| C．It may take a long time to understand the origin of viruses. |
| D．The author is optimistic about future virus research. |
4 . A serious and widespread desert locust outbreak in some parts of Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan and Eritrea has caused panic in the agriculture and aviation sectors.
The invasion, which has lasted for over a month despite efforts by respective governments to control it, has led to the destruction of crops and pastures (牧场) threatening food security in the region despite a promising harvest following successful rainfall.
The outbreak has also caused panic in the aviation sector, following a recent incident where an Ethiopian Airline passenger plane was forced by a swarm (群) of locusts to divert from landing in Dire Dawn Airport in east-central Ethiopia to Bole International Airport in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization or FAO, a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security, the present outbreak is the worst in 25 years.
The UN agency attributed the invasion to unusual weather and climate conditions, including heavy and widespread rains since October 2019. It warned a further increase in locust swarms is likely to continue until June due to the continuation of favorable ecological conditions for locust breeding.
The locusts have already destroyed 175,000 acres of farmland in Somalia and Ethiopia, according to the FAO.
The desert locust is the most dangerous of the nearly one dozen species of locusts. A typical desert locust swarm can contain up to 150 million locusts per square kilometer, according to the IGAD. An average swarm can destroy as many food crops in a day as is sufficient to feed 2,500 people.
1. What is the result of the desert locust outbreak on East Africa?| A．It has led to a disease outbreak. |
| B．It has caused the weather to change. |
| C．It has created fear in agriculture and aviation. |
| D．It has threatened the safety of the people there. |
| A．Take a different route. |
| B．Take off from an airport. |
| C．Split off from a new place. |
| D．Slide away from somewhere. |
| A．Locust breeding is slower and slower. |
| B．There will possibly be a decrease in locust swarms. |
| C．It is related to unusual weather and climate conditions. |
| D．The ecological conditions are bad for locust breeding. |
| A．By describing a process. |
| B．By comparison. |
| C．By statistics. |
| D．By analyzing cause and effect. |
5 . Both of my parents worked fulltime when I was a little girl，so my grandmother would stay at our house during the day. We would watch game shows in the living room. Our favorite was The Price Is Right. We would call out our answers along with the contestants.
When I got older and started going to school，we couldn’t watch our game shows regularly. That was okay with me，though，because the one thing I liked better than watching game shows with my grandmother was helping her bake cakes. Watching her in the kitchen was amazing：she never seemed to need the recipes（食谱）but everything she made tasted delicious.
At first I would just sit in the kitchen and watch，even though I didn’t understand what she was doing. As I got older，she let me help with the easy parts，such as measuring the sugar. The day she let me separate the eggs，I felt like I had found complete pleasure.
At last，my parents decided that I could take care of myself，and my grandmother stopped coming over every day. The love of baking，however，stayed with me. I started baking by myself，and even if the cookies ended up burnt sometimes，more often they turned out pretty well. I tried out new recipes，and whenever I got to a thorny part，I would call my grandmother for advice. Sometimes I would call her just to talk too. I felt like I could talk to her about anything.
My grandmother passed away ten years ago，but I still think of her every day. Last week，I found a recipe book she made for me. It included her recipes for brownies，cookies，and my favorite，lemon pie. As I looked through the pages，I thought I could hear her voice. She was the one who taught me not just about baking，but about life.
1. The passage is mainly developed by .| A．analyzing causes | B．making comparisons |
| C．following the time order | D．examining differences |
| A．found it interesting | B．turned out to be a troublemaker |
| C．hoped to make a living by baking | D．regretted missing the game shows |
| A．Basic. | B．Common. |
| C．Special. | D．Difficult. |
| A．To describe her childhood memories. | B．To show her good baking skills. |
| C．To remember her grandmother. | D．To talk about her happy family life. |
6 . Bradley McConachie, a 33-year-old Australian is actually a student in international relations completing his PhD through Griffith University. He came to Beijing for a cooperative research at Beijing University two years ago. Such an academic life was colorful with a chance offered by the cultural exchanges project, “I'm in China".
Bradley was lucky to win the most "likes" for his photo story about his life in China and became one of 20 winners to visit locations by the project this summer. All the winners’ experiences were filmed to produce a reality show, My Chinese Working Day, which will be broadcast by mid-September.
Bradley was chosen to work as a recreational manager for a Chinese wedding. The film crew took them to many “amazing sites" and the staff at the resort taught them a lot about how to incorporate modern Chinese features while still keeping traditional customs.
“I would have to say two things stick out as the most memorable： the helicopter ride and talking with the staff at the hotel about how they organize weddings here in China," he said. That was Bradley's first time to be in a helicopter, and he was too absorbed with the “stunning" view of the coastline.
“I think it is so important to show other Australians the different landscapes China has to offer. I think so many Australians, when they think about China, imagine the historical sites of Beijing and the exciting things to see in Shanghai but have no idea about other beautiful places, like Sanya or the many other places people have been taken to in this TV series. It was nice to experience these little touches. I was happy to be a part of that experience!” Bradley said.
1. What made Bradley's life more colorful?| A．Obtaining his PhD. |
| B．The cultural exchanges project. |
| C．The research about Beijing University. |
| D．The interest in international relations. |
| A．He produced the reality show. |
| B．His life in China was interesting. |
| C．He was one of the top 20 winners. |
| D．He liked photo stories most. |
| A．Fantastic. | B．Confusing. |
| C．Agreeable. | D．Extreme. |
| A．It's difficult to produce moving TV series. |
| B．Beijing and Shanghai are historical sites. |
| C．Sanya is worth visiting for foreigners. |
| D．Many Australians know little about China. |
7 . I was in the seventh grade, and we had moved to New Jersey in November. By then, everyone already had had their own friends, and no one wanted to talk to a new girl. To make things worse, they put me in ''Section L''. I found out later that everyone called Section L ''Loserville''. It was sort of an open secret that it was the section for troublemakers and not-so-smart kids. When I found out, I wanted to scream. I had always been a good student and had amazing friends, and now everyone thought I was a loser!
I did text my friends in Illinois almost every night, especially my best friend, Ana. At first my friends wanted to hear all about it. But then some stopped texting back once I said something about how miserable I was. One night when I was texting with Ana, I complained about another friend who had just done that. Anas texts came really fast for the next few minutes and they surprised me. She said that she was tired of hearing about how bad everything was in New Jersey, too. She said she did not want to hurt my feelings but that I needed to stop feeling so sorry for myself all the time, and I had to try to make things better.
The next day, I thought a lot about what Ana had said. She was right!
I wish I could say that everything changed overnight after that, but it didn't, I was still stuck in ''Loserville'', and some people were still mean (苛刻) to me, even though I tried to just stay out of their way.
But what did change was me — I stopped feeling so sorry for myself and did something about making friends. I signed up to make sets for the school play. I met a lot of new people there, and suddenly I had friends to say hi to in the halls!
I still miss Illinois sometimes, but life in New Jersey isn't so hard anymore. Even though I couldn't change my situation, I could change my attitude — and that made all the difference.
1. ''Loserville'' is a section for ________.| A．smart students | B．low achievers |
| C．class leaders | D．new comers |
| A．Ana didn’t text back to her | B．she was a good student |
| C．her friends hurt her feelings | D．she was unfairly treated |
| A．She managed to go back to Illinois. | B．She ended the friendship with Ana. |
| C．She began to make friends with others. | D．She fought back with her classmates. |
| A．Everlasting Friendship | B．Say Goodbye to ''Loserville'' |
| C．An Incident at School | D．Unhappiness in ''Loserville'' |
8 . Smoking in your own home in Thailand may now be considered a crime, if the smoke is considered harmful to other people in the house.
The new law, Family Protection and Development Promotion Act, aiming at controlling smoking at home which might be hazardous for others' health living under the same roof，was initiated by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security and was announced in the Royal Gazette on May 22, 2019. It came into force on August 20.
According to the center for research and knowledge management for tobacco control, at the Faculty of Medical Science of Mahidol University, there are about 4.9 million households where one or more family members smoke. An average of 10.3 million people have unwittingly（不知不觉地） become passive smokers because they’ve been breathing smoke at home. Scientific studies show that passive smokers are at greater risk of being affected by cancer. Of 75 child patients from houses where smoking is practiced, 76% of them were found to have nicotine traces in their urine（尿液）, with 43% of them having nicotine content exceeding（超过） permissible levels.
Smoking at home also “may lead to physical or emotional violence” because of aggressiveness when there is a lack of smoking, and might as well ruin relationships between smokers and non-smoker family members.
According to the new law, anyone who thinks they are affected by domestic smoking can report to government departments concerned so that officials will be sent to investigate and take legal action against the smokers. Once convicted(证明有罪的), the court may order a person to receive treatment to quit smoking in an attempt to protect the person's family.
1. What does the underlined word “hazardous” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．risky | B．beneficial |
| C．influential | D．dangerous |
| A．by listing figures | B．by giving examples |
| C．by comparing the differences | D．by explaining the reasons |
| A．smoking anywhere in Thailand is considered a crime. |
| B．passive smokers are more likely to have lung cancer . |
| C．76% of the children in Thailand have nicotine traces in their urine. |
| D．smoking at home may hurt other family members both physically and emotionally. |
| A．anybody must report to the officials once they are affected. |
| B．officials will take legal action against all the people concerned . |
| C．smoking in one’s own home in Thailand may now be considered a crime. |
| D．the court may order a smoker to stop smoking to protect all nonsmokers . |
9 . To me, life without music would not be exciting. I realize that this is not true for everybody. Many people get along quite well without going to the concert, and listening to the record. But music plays an important part in everyone's life, whether he realizes it or not. Try to imagine, for example, what films or TV plays would be like without music. Would the feelings, the moving plot, and the greatest interests, be so exciting or dramatic? I'm not sure about it.
Now, we have been speaking of music in its more common meaning----the kind of music we hear in the concert hall. But if we look at some parts of music more closely, we discover them in our everyday life too----in the rhythm of the sea, the melody of a bird in the woods and so on. So music surely has meaning for everyone, in some way or other. And, of course, it has special meaning for those who have spent all their lives working on playing or writing music.
It is well said, “Through music a child enters into a world of beauty, expresses himself from his heart, feels the joy of doing things alone, learns to take care of others, develops his mind and makes his body strong.”
1. What does the writer say more about in the text?| A．Life full of music. | B．The importance of music. |
| C．Life without music. | D．The development of music. |
| A．go to the concert instead of enjoying music |
| B．get along quite well without music |
| C．don't realize the importance of music |
| D．think music would be less exciting than films |
| A．flying | B．living |
| C．looking | D．singing |
| A．is very necessary for our everyday life |
| B．is very important, especially for children |
| C．can make our life exciting and dramatic |
| D．can enter another beautiful world |
10 . A meteorite（陨石）moved quickly across the sky and exploded(爆炸）over central Russia on Feb. 15, raining fireballs over a vast area and causing a shock wave that smashed windows, damaged buildings and injured 1,200 people.
People heading to work in Chelyabinsk heard what sounded like an explosion, saw a bright light and then felt the shock wave, according to a Reuters journalist in the industrial city 1 , 500 km east of Moscow.
The fireball, travelling at a speed of 30 km per second according to Russian Federal Space Agency （Roscosmos） , had blazed（熊熊燃烧）across the horizon（地平 线），leaving a long white trail that could be seen as far as 200 km away.
Car alarms went off, thousands of windows were broken and mobile phone networks were interrupted for a short time. The Interior Ministry said the meteorite explosion, a very rare sight, also released a great explosive sound.
“I was driving to work. It was quite dark, but it suddenly became bright as if it were day," said Viktor Prokofiev, 36, a resident（居民）of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains. felt like I was blinded by headlights（车前灯）.”
The meteorite, which weighed about 10 tonnes and may have been made of iron, entered Earth's atmosphere and broke apart 30 km—50 km above ground, according to Russia's Academy of Sciences.
“The energy released（(释放）when it entered the Earth's atmosphere was equal to a few kilo tonnes," the academy said, “the power of a small atomic weapon exploding. ”
No deaths were reported but the Emergencies Ministry said 20, 000 rescue and clean-up workers were sent to Ural Region after President Vladimir Putin told Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov to ease and help the victims.
The Interior Ministry said about 1,200 people had been injured, at least 200 of them were children, and most from broken pieces of glass.
1. What do we learn about the meteorite from the passage?| A．It is a very huge ball made of iron. |
| B．It quickly broke apart on the ground. |
| C．It exploded over Russia's Ural Region. |
| D．It's similar to an A-bomb in weight. |
| A．broke | B．melted |
| C．burned | D．cleared |
| A．Moscow is 1,500 kilometers away from the east of Chelyabinsk |
| B．many houses were destroyed, with lots of people reported missing |
| C．Viktor Prokofiev became blind after seeing the rare sight |
| D．the shock wave briefly influenced mobile phone networks |
| A．"Meteorite Rush” Begins in Russia |
| B．President Putin Orders Assistance |
| C．Meteorite Hits Russia, 1,200 People Hurt |
| D．Meteorite Flies Quickly Across Russia |
