1 . When Chef Enrique Olvera opened his restaurant, Pujol, 13 years ago, his only goal was to have the best restaurant in the neighborhood. Olvera's budget was so small that he had to do all the things himself. But Pujol is now widely thought of as Mexico's finest restaurant and the 36th best in the world. He reached his position by making his cuisine 'fancier and fancier, and more complex' over time. Pujol now serves a tasting menu of sophisticated food that wouldn't look out of place even at New York's Momofuku Ko. To decode his rocket soar in world cuisine circus, Olvera insists on mixing elaborate, cutting-edge techniques with a strong emphasis on local ingredients to create a cosmopolitan cuisine that's at once international yet unmistakably Mexican, matching the direction of Mexico City itself.
A visit to the 48-seat Pujol reveals a space-age kitchen containing 27 cooks, with one making his fifth attempt to reshape the egg liquid and another coloring potatoes. Pujol tolerates any grotesque attempt a chef could imagine and the restaurant is the trial site for its staff. That makes Pujol a hot place to attract free labor. The chef has also thought more about bringing Mexican cooks home from the U.S. Many are returning to move past the glass ceiling that exists in America. “Despite the number of Mexicans working in U.S. restaurants, you rarely see a Mexican head chef in a New York kitchen,” said Olvera. “Then why not come back here to attract diners here for the most local but also novel dishes?”
And for foreign diners, Mexican restaurants have another wonder to offer. Just think that merely 30 dollars can sustain you for a 4-course feast in an ordinary Mexican restaurant and no one could resist the temptation. To achieve such high cost performance, Olvera states that you have to keep looking for and exploring with the simple ingredients from which to accomplish amazing dishes. “You always cherish where you come from, but there’s also the need for new sensations. Keep exploring with new ideas until you get a better dish.” After all, it’s the soul of modern cuisine.
1. Why has Pujol become so successful?| A．Because Olvera aimed low in the first place. |
| B．Because Olvera forms the habit of doing things by himself. |
| C．Because Olvera attracts excellent cooks from the U.S. |
| D．Because Olvera combines cooking skills with local characteristics. |
| A．forceful. | B．weird. | C．abstract. | D．painful. |
| A．Because Pujol provides them with high titles and salaries. |
| B．Because they find it hard to rise to senior positions in U.S. restaurants. |
| C．Because they cook Mexican food better than American food. |
| D．Because they refer to the high cost performance of the restaurants. |
| A．Momofuku Ko is a famous food critic. |
| B．Olvera relies totally on foreign cutting-edge cooking techniques. |
| C．Eating in ordinary Mexican restaurants is expensive. |
| D．One key to success in today’s restaurant business is continuous innovation. |
2 . After weeks of lockdown, the French are more eager than ever to get away from the breathless cities. But the busy traffic will also serve as a reminder of another annual summer trend here. The French have the unfortunate distinction of being the European champions for abandoning pets that have become too cumbersome for their summer trips. Animal shelters up and down the country are evidence of this unique and sad tradition.
Betty Loizeau has run a shelter just north of Toulouse for more than 20 years. “Owners call up to say where their pets can be found, or drop them off in boxes outside the shelter under the cover of darkness. The excuses they typically give are that they’re going on holiday, having a baby, moving house, or they have a new partner with allergies, ...”
For shelters like this one, it is the busiest time of the year. Between 100,000 and 200,000 pets are abandoned in France each year, with 60% of these incidents occurring over the summer. The figure is close to 16,000 in the UK.
“Pets are increasingly seen as an impulsive(冲动的) buy,” says Marina Chailland, a doctor who has studied the social relationship between the French and their pets.
“A certain breed(品种) of cat or dog is fashionable and owners want one, just like a new smartphone,” 
she says. “Of course, when it goes out of fashion they desert it for an upgrade a couple of years later, when a new breed is considered fashionable.” She also points to the issue of pets being given as gifts as a reason why so many are abandoned. “Often parents will get pets for their children and when they grow up and lose interest in them, out goes the pet.”
Over the summer, owners discover that hotels charge extra for animals or even ban them completely. This explains why you will often see frightened, lost, dogs wandering near freeway service stations or beach resorts.
1. What does the underlined the word “cumbersome” in para. 1 refer to?| A．Disturbing. | B．Enjoyable. |
| C．Disappointing. | D．Impressive. |
| A．In fact, the French don’t like pets at all. |
| B．There are various excuses for people abandoning pets. |
| C．Between 100,000 and 200,000 pets are abandoned in the UK each year. |
| D．Pets are admitted into the hotel for free in summer. |
| A．In spring. | B．In summer. |
| C．In fall. | D．In winter. |
| A．To explain why the French abandon the pets. |
| B．To explain how the French like a smartphone. |
| C．To explain why the French dislike pets. |
| D．To explain how costly a smartphone is in France. |
3 . You probably have a first-aid kit at home for your family-but what about your family pets? You need to be ready if your furry friend faces an emergency at home. What's more, as the weather gets warmer, more pet owners take their pets with them when they leave the house-on vacation, to the park, jogging, hiking and even swimming. That can be fun for you and your pet, but there's a chance that your pet will get hurt there, as well. So, it's important to know some of the basics of first aid for your pet if necessary.
If your pet is exposed to long periods of heat and sunlight, she will be easy to get heat exhaustion or heatstroke. Signs of heat exhaustion are breathless, anxiousness, dry gums and red skin most easily seen on the ears.
If either of these occurs, cool the pet right away and, as always, get her to the vet. Put the animal in a shaded or air-conditioned area, and wet the body with cool water. Rubbing isopropyl alcohol on the belly and fanning the area will help drive away the heat. If a pet is suffering from heatstroke, don't try to give her water. Get her to the vet immediately.
If you see an animal that's been hit by a car, or you hit one accidentally, first be cautious of all oncoming traffic before trying to reach the animal. Approach carefully. Even a severely injured animal can bite you.
As someone helps with directing traffic, cover the animal with a blanket or towel. If the animal cannot stand on her own, there's a good chance that there are neck, back or head injuries, so try to gently transfer the animal to a flat surface. Then transport that flat surface to the nearest vet. Picking up or hand-carrying the animal may worsen the injuries.
1. If a pet suffers from heatstroke, what should you do?| A．Freeze her in an air-conditioned area. | B．Wet her body with cold water. |
| C．Make her drink some alcohol. | D．Bring her to her vet at once. |
| A．By sending her to the vet on a flat surface. | B．By carrying her in your hands to the vet. |
| C．By running to help her immediately. | D．By picking her up in a gentle way. |
| A．drive | B．move | C．feed | D．trap |
4 . Salvador Dali (1904-1989) was one of the most popular of modern artists. The Pompidou Centre in Paris is showing its respect and admiration for the artist and his powerful personality with an exhibition bringing together over 200 paintings, sculptures, drawings and more. Among the works and masterworks on exhibition the visitor will find the best pieces, most importantly The Persistence of Memory. There is also L'Enigme sans Fin from 1938, works on paper, objects, and projects for stage and screen and selected parts from television programmes reflecting the artist's showman qualities.
The visitor will enter the World of Dali through an egg and is met with the beginning, the world of birth. The exhibition follows a path of time and subject with the visitor exiting through the brain.
The exhibition shows how Dali draws the viewer between two infinities (无限). "From the infinity small to the infinity large, contraction and expansion coming in and out of focus: amazing Flemish accuracy and the showy Baroque of old painting that he used in his museum-theatre in Figueras," explains the Pompidou Centre.
The fine selection of the major works was done in close collaboration (合作) with the Museo Nacional Reina Sofia in Madrid, Spain, and with contributions from other institutions like the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg.
1. Which of the following best describe Dali according to Paragraph 1?| A．Optimistic. | B．Pessimistic. | C．Productive. | D．Conventional. |
| A．A successful screen adaptation. | B．One of his masterpieces. |
| C．An artistic creation for the stage and screen. | D．One of the best TV programmes. |
| A．By popularity. | B．By qualities. | C．By size and shape. | D．By time and subject. |
| A．Collaborations. | B．Projects. | C．Artworks. | D．Exhibitions. |
5 . "Can I get a light?" This question is among the most common between smokers. What if this question was to come from an unusual source? In April 2014, the National Health Promotion Foundation uploaded an anti-smoking advertisement onto YouTube. The anti-smoking ad has quickly been known as the "most powerful anti-smoking ad."
The anti-smoking video, called the "Smoking Kid," features children walking up to adult smokers asking for a light. The children in the ad are actors but the adults smoking are unsuspecting participants in the project.
The video begins with the statement "adults know that smoking is harmful, but don’t remind themselves of this fact " Once a "smoking kid" approaches the adults, every adult asked is shocked that a child with a cigarette in hand is asking for a light. The first adult starts by saying, "I’m not giving it to you," and the video goes on to state "every adult filmed said no and reminded the children that smoking is bad."
Before going away, the kid hands each adult a booklet after being turned down for a light. The booklet says, "You worry about me, but why not about yourself?" Each adult looks around for the child as their faces are filled with confusion and discomfort.
The video shows that a few of the smokers quickly threw away their cigarettes or put their cigarettes away, showing that this experiment was affective at that moment.
The most influential element in the ad isn't the use of children or the responses from the smoking adults. It comes down to something much simpler than that. Why is it that we worry about other people, forgetting to worry about ourselves?
1. The underlined word "unsuspecting" (in Para. 2) probably means “______”| A．uninformed | B．unwilling | C．unfortunate | D．unacceptable |
| A．They pay no attention to children's request. |
| B．They reject kids，request and educate them. |
| C．They look around for children's parents. |
| D．They quickly throw children's cigarettes away. |
| A．unusual | B．shocking | C．influential | D．encouraging |
| A．advice people to give up smoking |
| B．advice adults to keep away from smoking |
| C．advice parents to tell their children not to smoke |
| D．reject a child asking for a light |
6 . At Englands University of Plymouth, Professor Eduardo Miranda has been programming pairs of robots to compose music. Miranda's robots have simple “ vocal cords”(声带)and are programmed to sing and to listen to each other. The robots' unique warbling sounds (颤音) do not perfectly match the human voice, but each machine is exactly sharing music with the other in a new and unique way.
Each robot is equipped with speakers, software that mimics the human voice, a mouth that opens as it “sings,” a microphone for ears, and a camera for eyes. The robots also move. Miranda hopes that by studying his robot vocalists, he can discover something about how and why humans create, perform, and listen to music.
When the robots sing, first one robot makes six random sounds. Its partner responds with more sounds. The first robot analyzes the sounds to see if their sequences (序列)) are similar. If they are, it nods its head and commits the sounds to memory, and the second robot notices and “memorizes” the musical sequence, too. If the first robot thinks the sounds are too different, it shakes its head and both robots ignore the sounds. Then the process continues.
Miranda set up an experiment in which he left the two robots alone in his study for two weeks. When he returned, his little warblers had, by imitating each other, not only shared notes but combined them. The product of their cooperation was far from symphonic, but the robots had begun to combine the notes into their own self-developed “songs”.
With the help of his warbling robots, one of Miranda's goals is to create music that no human would ever compose. Miranda believes the robots are ideal for this purpose because they would not be influenced by any existing musical styles or rules.
1. Which is closest in meaning to the underlined word “mimics” in Paragraph 2?| A．Substitutes. | B．Interrupts. |
| C．Controls. | D．Copies. |
| A．They interacted with each other. |
| B．They ignored the unique sound. |
| C．They learned to sing better than humans. |
| D．They committed random sounds to memory. |
| A．Sing as well as humans do. | B．Create new styles of music. |
| C．Memorize a variety of music. | D．Promote traditional musical forms. |
| A．Future robots. | B．Special songs. |
| C．Music by robots. | D．Experiments by Miranda. |
7 . From Mozart to Metallica, tons of people enjoy listening to various types of music while they paint, write, or draw. Many believe that music helps boost creativity, but an international study conducted by English and Swedish researchers is challenging that belief. Their findings indicate music actually stymies creativity.
To come to their conclusions, researchers had participants complete verbal insight problems designed to inspire creativity while sitting in a quiet room, and then again while music played in the background. They found that background music “significantly damaged” the participants’ ability to complete tasks associated with verbal creativity. The research team also tested background noises such as those commonly heard in a library, but found that such noises had no impact on subjects’ creativity. The tasks were simple word games. For example, participants were given three words, such as dress, dial, and flower. Then, they were asked to find a single word associated with all three that could be combined to form a common phrase or word. The single word, in this case, would be “sun” (sundress, sunflower, etc). Participants completed the tasks in either a quiet room, or while exposed to three different types of music; music with unfamiliar lyrics, instrumental music, or music with familiar lyrics.
“We found strong evidence of damaged performance when playing background music in comparison to quiet background conditions,” says co-author Dr. Neil McLatchie of Lancaster University.
Dr. McLatchie and his colleagues theorize that music interferes with the verbal working memory processes of the brain, blocking creativity. Also, as far as the library background noises having seemingly no effect, the study’s authors believe that was the case because library noises create a “steady state” environment that doesn’t disrupt concentration. It’s worth mentioning that even familiar music with well known lyrics damaged participants’ creativity, regardless of whether or not it caused a positive reaction, or whether participants typically studied or created while listening to music.
“To conclude, the findings here challenge the popular view that music strengthens creativity, and instead demonstrate that music, regardless of the presence of semantic (语义的) content (no lyrics, familiar lyrics or unfamiliar lyrics), consistently disrupts creative performance in insight problem solving,” the study reads.
1. Why are Mozart and Metallica mentioned at the beginning?| A．To prove they are very creative. | B．To introduce the topic of the text. |
| C．To show the importance of music. | D．To offer some background information. |
| A．Blocks. | B．Boosts. |
| C．Inspires. | D．Strengthens. |
| A．man | B．store |
| C．work | D．birth |
| A．The tasks were very difficult for participants to finish. |
| B．All participants were exposed to two different types of music. |
| C．Music with famous lyrics didn’t harm participants’ creativity. |
| D．Library background noises hardly affected participants’ creativity. |
8 . The negative health effects of sleep shortages during the week can’ t be changed by marathon weekend sleep sessions, according to a new study.
Researchers have long known that routine sleep deprivation(缺乏) can cause weight gain and increase other health risks, including diabetes. But there are still some people who hope that shutting off the alarm on Saturday and Sunday will repay the weekly sleep debt and remove any ill effects.
The research, published in Current Biology, ruins those hopes. Despite complete freedom to sleep in and nap during a weekend recovery period, participants in a sleep laboratory who were limited to five hours of sleep on weekdays gained nearly three pounds over two weeks and experienced metabolic disruption(代谢紊乱) that would increase their risk for diabetes over the long term. While weekend recovery sleep had some benefits after a single week of insufficient sleep, those gains were wiped out when people returned right to their same sleep schedule the next Monday.
“If there are benefits of catch-up sleep, they’ re gone when you go back to your routine. It’ s very short-lived,” said Kenneth Wright, who oversaw the research. “These health effects are long-term. It’ s kind of like smoking once was—people would smoke and wouldn’ t see an immediate effect on their health, but people will say now that smoking is not a healthy lifestyle choice. I think sleep is in the early phase of where smoking used to be.”
Wright said that the study suggests people should prioritize sleep—cutting out the optional “sleep stealers” such as watching television shows or spending time on electronic devices. Even when people don’t have a choice about losing sleep due to child-care responsibilities or job schedules, they should think about prioritizing sleep in the same way they would think about a healthy diet or exercise.
1. What had the researchers already known before doing the new research?| A．The actual benefits of weekend recovery sleep. |
| B．Harm to health caused by the lack of routine sleep. |
| C．People’ s habit of shutting off the alarm during holidays. |
| D．The relationship between body weight and sleep amount. |
| A．call on smokers to completely abandon smoking |
| B．advise people to go to sleep when they want to smoke |
| C．show people have known the harm brought by smoking |
| D．show people will someday notice the bad effects of sleep deprivation |
| A．Putting tasks in order of importance. |
| B．Getting more than enough of something to deposit it. |
| C．Cutting down something that is not necessary any more. |
| D．Treating something as being more important than others. |
| A．Weekend catch-up sleep is a lie. |
| B．Bad sleep habits are harmful to health. |
| C．Smoking is not the worst thing to health. |
| D．A new study has an unexpected discovery. |
Sounds familiar? Yes, these features can be seen in the characters of Ode toJoy. Andy (Liu Tao), for instance, partly embodies the iron maiden role. She's super smart, rational and direct. She moves from the US to Shanghai and takes the position of CFO at a top Chinese company. Fan Shengmei (Jiang Xin) can be seen as the “mother” in the series. Despite the fact that she s in charge of her own family issues，she takes her friends under her wing and stands up for them. Qu Xiaoxiao (Wang ziwen), the sexy and beautiful girl born with silver spoon, perfectly illustrates what is bitter-sweet relationship between friends and lovers. With that being said. Ode to Joy doesn't lack creativity. It assigns the “child” role to two characters-the straightforward, naive Qiu Yingying (Yang Zi), and the good-tempered, hard-working Guan Ju'er (Qiao Xin).
But this category of TV series has its risks. Having five main characters means the drama isn’t story-driven but character-driven. “It’s not something you often see in Chinese TV dramas，” Yuan Zidan, Ode to Joy’s screenwriter, told Changjiang Daily. “But we want to challenge the norms.”
1. Which of the following is NOT the reason why the audiences like Ode to Joy?
| A．Many famous actors and actresses starred in Ode to Joy. |
| B．Female audiencc can find themselves in its characters. |
| C．The lives of the characters can be traced back to real life..D It describes the real hidden life of those who are struggling in big cities. |
| A．iron maiden | B．child |
| C．mother | D．sex object |
| A．illustrate | B．classify | C．indicate | D．recognize |
| A．Ode to Joy is the first TV series to show a group of women’s life in the city. |
| B．Ode to Joy is not a traditional Chinese drama because it is character-driven. |
| C．The characters in Ode to Joy are the same with those in Sex and City and Desperate Housewives. |
| D．Andy fully illustrates the iron maiden who is both masculine and career-oriented. |
However, research has proved this method inefficient and ineffective. The truth is, the human brain simply cannot consciously remember process and use hundreds of or thousands of grammar rules. Real speech is too fast.
Native speakers do not learn grammar in this way, but rather intuitively (凭直觉地) and unconsciously. They learn in a complete way, not by attempting to memorize individual grammar rules. As a result, native speakers use correct grammar fluently and easily.
Fortunately, it is possible for English learners to learn grammar this way. Language teacher Blaine Ray has developed a unique "intuitive" approach to teach English grammar. Her system uses "point of view" stories to teach the patterns of English grammar, allowing students unconsciously to acquire correct grammar without ever studying grammar rules.
In this system, the teacher first tells a simple story from one point of view. It may be told about the past, then repeated, but beginning with "since he was a child"; then repeated again, but this time about the future.
Listening to these stories allows students intuitively and effortlessly to learn English grammar and makes them be able to use it correctly when they speak.
Point of View Stories is a creative new way to study English grammar, and offers hope to millions of frustrated English learners.
1. Which of the following ways is approved by the author?
| A．Remembering grammar rules. |
| B．Taking grammar tests. |
| C．Analyzing grammatical structure. |
| D．Applying language to situations. |
| A．Talking to native speakers when learning. |
| B．Learning English grammar in a complete way. |
| C．Using correct English grammar. |
| D．Learning English grammar from a teacher. |
| A．native speakers learn English grammar by listening to stories |
| B．Blaine Ray’s method gets students to grasp correct grammar unconsciously |
| C．Blaine Ray teaches grammar rules by asking students to tell stories |
| D．it’s hard for students to speak correct English in the new system |
| A．criticize the traditional way of learning grammar |
| B．introduce a new way to study English grammar |
| C．ask students to learn English grammar by listening to stories |
| D．tell us how the native speakers learn English grammar |
| A．because the analytical approach can let them learn English grammar effortlessly |
| B．because the analytical approach makes them be able to use English correctly when they speak. |
| C．because the analytical approach can’t let them memorize and then apply a great number of rules. |
| D．because Real speech is too fast. |
