1 . In New York City, eating on the subway is controversial. No law bans the practice, but a Democratic state senator introduced one last week. The proposed law would ban eating on the subway system and fine first time violators $250, according to the New York Times. Supporters of the bill argue that eating on the subway attracts rates. Other say the broader target should be those who carelessly drop litter in public places, rather than those who carefully sip their coffee and eat their bread on the way to work. They also argue that “street food” is an important part of New York’s culture and history. Banning its consumption in public areas such as the subway would have negative effects.
Street food and eating in public places is along-established cultural practice in cities like New York, Beijing and Paris. But commonly, it has been traditionally thought of as what the lower classes would do. Eating in public was (and in some places, still is) associated with uncivilized, poorer people. In the 19th century, eating in public was seen as a threat to morality and public health. Putnam’s (a popular magazine at the time) stated, “Eating in public may lead to a certain freedom of manner in little ladies and gentlemen. It was something people in the Victorian era did not want to encourage. A recent New York Times article drew a link between this moral panic about street food and concern over the growing populations of Irish German, Italian and Jewish immigrants who ran food carts in the 1800s. “To Victorian society, immigrant street peddlers were called ‘hucksters’, a name that still has a bit of moral judgment to this day.”
In Australia, street food is not something you see every day. Carts selling tasty snacks only come out for festivals or market days. However, eating in public places such as parks is encouraged. Outdoor barbeques at the beach or picnics in the countryside are common. While eating on public transport is discourages, it would unlikely lead to any sort of conflict in Australia. From an Australian perspective, street food is an exciting and tasty new dining opportunity, and not one I would associate with being uncivilized.
China’s street food scene is similar to that of New York City’s: It is a culturally entrenched practice and one that adds a lot of color and flavor to the scene of streets. But whether you love eating street food, or have to eat your breakfast on the run, it’s best to be considerate when enjoying a bite in public.
1. Supporters of “street food” are against the bill, because ________.| A．eating on the subway may attract undesirable pests like mice |
| B．consuming food on the way to work proves their carefulness |
| C．banning litter-dropping is more important for the environment |
| D．enjoying a bite in public areas is a part of the city’s culture |
| A．Only the uncivilized, poorer people were allowed to eat in public places. |
| B．Street food was seen as a threat in the 19th century because they were not heathy. |
| C．Eating in public was considered impolite for children in the Victorian era. |
| D．Immigrant street peddlers were encouraged and thus welcomed in the 1800s. |
| A．Eating in public like parks may be seen as ill-mannered. |
| B．Having food on the subway system may cause serious conflicts. |
| C．People may feel excited about being allowed to eat in public. |
| D．Tasting street food may bring much enjoyment whenever possible. |
| A．deep-rooted | B．eye-catching | C．well-known | D．far-reaching |
2 . With attractiveness in its structure (结构) and in its presence, the Eiffel Tower has become a great site of France and Gustave Eiffel's architectural wonder. Also known as La Tour Eiffel, the Eiffel Tower is climbed by millions of visitors every year. Do you know how tall the Eiffel Tower is? Standing at 1, 063 feet tall, this is the second tallest building in France after the Millau Viaduct, a road bridge across the river Tarn. Nicknamed La Dame de Fer, or the iron lady, this tower is a symbol of France even today.
The tower was built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance for the World Fair. This event was to mark the 100th celebration of the storming of the Bastille and the French Revolution. Ironically, at first, the tower was considered unpleasant by a lot of art enthusiasts. Several members from the arts community said it only ruined the empty skyline of the Paris city. French novelist Guy de Maupassant expressed his dislike for the tower by eating lunch every day at the tower's restaurant — his explanation was that it was the only place in Paris where one could not see the structure! Whatever may have been the opinion about the structure at the time, the fact remains that it became an object that attracted many people around the world.
The tower, weighing 10, 000 tons, includes several non-metallic (非金属的) parts as well. The metallic parts used in the structure weigh 7,300 tons, which, if melted (熔化), will fill up a 125-meter square with a depth of 6cm. At the time when the tower was built, the great structure amazed lots of engineers and common people. The Eiffel Tower needs 50~60 tons of paint every seven years to keep the rust (铁锈) away.
The structure decorates the Parisian skyline. Being one of the most visited sites in the world, the Eiffel Tower still remains an architectural wonder!
1. What does “the iron lady" refer to in paragraph 1?| A．Gustave Eiffel. | B．The Eiffel Tower. |
| C．Millau Viaduct. | D．The river Tarn. |
| A．impolitely | B．impossibly | C．unexpectedly | D．cautiously |
| A．170 tons. | B．220 tons. | C．5,500 tons. | D．10,000 tons. |
| A．To show how huge the Eiffel Tower is. |
| B．To show the Eiffel Tower is a good entrance. |
| C．To show the materials used to build the Eiffel Tower. |
| D．To show how difficult it is to clean the Eiffel Tower. |
3 . Bitcoin and other so-called cryptocurrencies （加密货币）have been all over the news lately. Apparently, the idea of money that's not tied to a specific bank—or a specific country—is appealing to many. But it's worth remembering that the banking system that we now all live with is just that： A modern invention. Not so long ago, money was almost always created and used locally, and bartering was common. （In fact, it still is common among many online local networks, like the Buy Nothing Project.）.
In the past, money's makeup varied from place to place, depending on what was considered valuable there. So while some of the world's first coins were made from a naturally occurring hybrid of gold and silver called electrum （银金矿），objects other than coins have served as currency, including beads, ivory, livestock, and cowrie shells. In West Africa, bracelets of bronze or copper were used as cash, especially if the transaction was associated with the slave trade there. Throughout the colonial period, tobacco was used to replace coins or paper bills in Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina, even though it was used elsewhere in the colonies and extensively throughout Europe and the U. K.
Today, on an island in the Pacific, a specific type of shell still serves as currency—and some people there are even hoarding（贮存）it, just like Bitcoin moguls, convinced that one day, it will make them wealthy beyond imagination. On Malaita, the most-populated island that's part of the Solomon Islands, shells are accepted at most places in exchange for goods.
"How much tuna（金枪鱼）you can get for your shells depends on their color and shape," Mary Bruno, a shop owner from the small town of Auki, on Malaita, told Vice. "One strip of darker shells might get you about two cans of smaller tuna, but the red ones are worth more. For the red ones, one strip might get enough tuna to feed a big family for a long time."
Just like a mint that creates coins, there's only one place on the island where the shells, which are polished and strung together to form 3-foot-long ropes, are made. The strips of red, white, and black shells all come from Langa Langa Lagoon, where artificial islands were long-ago built by locals to escape from the island-dwelling cannibals. Once marooned（困住）out on their islands, locals needed a currency to use among themselves, and so the shell currency was born.
Using shells for money was common throughout the Pacific islands as late as the early 1900s, but Malaita is unique in that they are still used today. And just like cryptocurrencies, there are those who think the islanders are smart to invest in this type of money, which is reported to have risen in value over the last three decades. It might seem strange to hoard a bunch of processed, strung-together shells, but what is a pile of dollars? Just a specially printed piece of paper and hemp that we've assigned value to—and probably less durable over time than those shells.
1. According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?| A．Money was created and was widely used in the world. |
| B．Tobacco was used as coins or paper bills in American in the past. |
| C．The ingredients of world’s first coins may be the combination of gold and silver. |
| D．Using shells for money has been out of date in the world. |
| A．a kind of money that can exchange |
| B．the leaves of a mint plant used fresh or candied |
| C．a place to produce and polish shells |
| D．a factory that produces currency |
| A．Reasonable. | B．Imaginary. |
| C．Convenient. | D．Inventive. |
| A．The History of Bitcoin |
| B．Shells Still Money |
| C．The Currency Is of Great Use |
| D．Some Shells |
4 . New York City is known as America’s economic and cultural capital. It’s a city where young people want to go, whether to take up a high-paying job on Wall Street, study, or struggle to pay rent while working in the arts.
It’s also the setting of some of America’s most popular TV shows and movies. The best known may be TV series “Sex and the City”. It features four women enjoying the comfortable life of chatting, shopping, clubbing and looking for their Mr. Right.
However, Dunham, 26, said TV shows only touch the surface. “TV shows never get how expensive things are in New York, Manhattan,” she said, adding that she knows a married couple who are in their 30s, have good jobs, and still share a couch because their apartment is so small.
To Dunham, reality in New York means getting a quick lunch at food stands, smelling the piles of rubbish every week on trash day and paying tolls to cross bridges and tunnels—things that TV series rarely show.
Elise Glick, 23, an artist living in Brooklyn, said that while New Yorkers can sometimes be unfriendly, it’s often because of their nature as driven, ambitious individuals. “People here are mostly young and single,” she said, “a lot of people are confident and know what they want.”
25-year-old legal(法律的) assistant Jin Jing agrees. During her three-month experience as a United Nations intern(实习生), Jin found New Yorkers to be friendly and helpful people. But she also learned that the TV show “Friends” were fantasy and unreal. “When I went to America, I realized that ‘Friends’ was not real life,” Jin said. “In New York, people have no time for friends. People have no time to hear you talk.” But she said she didn’t feel like a stranger, thanks to the diversity(多样性) all around her. “Most of the time, I forgot that I didn’t belong there, since there are people of different skin colors,” she said.
While Dunham admits that life in New York can be both good and bad, special moments help her fall in love with the city. She once paused to watch dancers and street musicians performing in a subway tunnel and found herself among many other busy New Yorkers attracted by their show. “People who were clearly in a rush to get home just stopped to watch because these guys were really good,” she said. “From businessmen to mothers—everyone was represented. In that moment we were all together before we went our separate ways.”
1. According to the passage, which of the following views doesn’t the writer agree with?| A．Life there is very busy. |
| B．New Yorkers sometimes are unfriendly because of their nature. |
| C．People find it impossible to make friends there. |
| D．The scenes in “Sex and the City” and “Friends” can hardly be found in New York. |
| A．tickets | B．money | C．fines | D．tax |
| A．People with different nationalities can be found in New York. |
| B．New York is a place where people can have a comfortable and relaxing life. |
| C．The living cost in New York is very low. |
| D．The street dancers and musicians are beggars, only asking money from passengers. |
| A．Unfriendly New Yorkers | B．Busy New Yorkers |
| C．New Yorkers’ Stories | D．New Yorkers’ True Life |
5 . Two years ago, Wendy Hasnip, 47, experienced a brain injury that left her speechless for two weeks. When she finally recovered, she found herself talking with what seemed to be a French accent. “I phoned a friend the other day, and she spent the first ten minutes laughing,” Hasnip said at the time. “While I have nothing against the French, this is not me.”
Hasnip suffered from foreign accent syndrome, a rare condition in which people find themselves speaking their own language like someone from a foreign country. The condition usually occurs in people who have experienced a head injury or a stroke—a sudden loss of consciousness, or movement caused by a blocked or broken blood vessel in the brain.
The condition was first identified during the Second World War in a Norwegian woman whose head was hit by shrapnel during an attack by the German military. The woman recovered but was left with a German-sounding accent, to the horror of fellow villagers who shunned her after that.
Researchers at Oxford University have now discovered that victims of foreign accent syndrome suffer from damage to several parts of the brain. The combined effect of that damage makes victims lengthen certain syllables, mispronounce sounds, and alter their normal voice. Those changes in speech add up to what sounds like a foreign accent, says one of the researchers, Jennifer Gurd, an expert in the scientific study of nerves and relevant diseases.
Another researcher, John Coleman, an expert in language, says victims of the syndrome don’t acquire a true foreign accent. Their strangely altered speech only resembles the foreign accent with which it has a few sounds in common.
1. When Wendy Hasnip spoke her native language with a French accent, she felt ___.| A．upset | B．excited | C．scared | D．satisfied |
| A．who were once hit by shrapnel during a military attack |
| B．who were once attacked by horrible fellow villagers |
| C．whose blood vessels were once blocked or broken |
| D．whose brain was once damaged in several parts |
| A．got rid of | B．laughed at | C．stayed away from | D．laid blame on |
| A．It can’t be cured at present. | B．It helps victims pick up a foreign language. |
| C．It will disappear in the end. | D．It is just a change in the length of syllables. |
6 . Growing Up in the Library
I grew up in libraries, or at least it feels that way. I was raised in the suburbs of Cleveland, just a few blocks from the brick-faced Bertram Woods branch of the Shaker Heights Public Library system. I went there several times a week with my mother. She and I would walk in together, but as soon as we passed through the door, we each headed towards our favorite sections. The library might have been the first place I was ever given autonomy.
Even when I was maybe four or five years old, I was allowed to head off on my own. Then, after a while, my mother and I would reunite at the checkout counter with our finds. Together we'd wait as the librarian pulled out the date card and stamped it with the checkout machine ― that giant fist thumping the card with a loud chunk-chunk, printing a crooked due date underneath a score of previous crooked due dates that belonged to other people, other times.
Those visits were dreamy, frictionless (没有摩擦的) periods that held the promise of leaving me richer than I’d arrived. It wasn’t like going to a store with my mom, which guaranteed a tug-of-war between what I wanted and what my mother was willing to buy me; in the library, I could have anything I wanted.
After we had finished checking out the books, I loved being in the car and having all the books we’d gotten stacked on my lap, pressing me under their solid, warm weight, their Mylar covers sticking a bit to my thighs. It was such a thrill leaving a place with things you hadn’t paid for; such a thrill expecting the new books we would read. On the ride home, my mother and I talked about the order in which we were going to read our books, a serious conversation in which we planned how to pace ourselves through this charmed period of grace until the books were due.
When I was older, I usually walked to the library by myself, lugging back as many books as I could carry. Occasionally, I did go with my mother, and the trip would be as engaging as it had been when I was small. Even when I was in my last year of high school and could drive myself to the library, my mother and I still went together every now and then, and the trip unfolded exactly as it had when I was a child, with all the same beats and pauses and comments and daydreaming, the same perfect rhythm we’d followed so many times before. After my mother passed away two years ago, I plunged into a deep shadow of grief for a long time. When I miss my mother these days, I like to picture us in the car together, going for one more magnificent trip to Bertram Woods, during which we talked, laughed ― as if she were still in my company, giving me inexhaustible strength
1. In this passage, the word “autonomy” (paragraph 1) is closest in meaning to “__________.”| A．vitality | B．freedom | C．inspiration | D．entitlement |
| A．they would plan to read their newly-borrowed books with feverish enthusiasm |
| B．they would have a serious conversation about which book attracted them the most |
| C．they would be anxious to recommend to each other the books they had borrowed |
| D．they would agree on buying the books they had just borrowed if they enjoyed them |
| A．One specific memory of a childhood trip to the library. |
| B．The fond childhood memories of her mother taking good care of her. |
| C．How her affection for going to the library has endured into her own motherhood. |
| D．Why her own child made up their mind to become a librarian after finishing college. |
7 . What does it say about the future of meat when the country’s largest processor of chicken, pork, and beef buys a stake(股份) in a start-up that aims to “perfectly replace animal protein with plant protein”?
Tyson Foods announced this week that it purchased a 5 percent stake in Beyond Meat, the Southern California-based food-tech start-up that made headlines earlier this year with its veggie burger that reportedly cooks and tastes like real beef.
To be sure, Beyond Meat’s meatless creations have yet to take the country by storm. Although the 100 percent plant-based burgers have achieved plenty of positive press since they appeared for the first time in May, so far they’re only available at Whole Foods stores in seven states. Even though the company’s “chicken” strips, “beef” pies, and meatless frozen dinners are available nationwide, Beyond Meat is hardly a household name.
That may be what makes the news of Tyson’s investment all the more noteworthy. While the two companies declined to give details about the deal, it’s doubtful that Tyson’s 5 percent stake made much of dent(凹陷) in the meat giant’s coffers(金库).The company posted $41.4 billion in sales last year; prior to the deal with Tyson, Beyond Meat had reportedly raised $64 million in project capital funding—about what Tyson earns before lunch on any given day.
Tyson is doing pretty great. The company reported record third-quarter earnings per share in August and says that it expects overall meat production to increase 2 to 3 percent during the next financial year. But like a big oil company shelling out cash to invest in wind power, Tyson’s toe-in-the-water move to team up with a start-up devoted to bringing more plant-based protein to American dinner tables seems to suggest the meat industry is starting to see which way the winds are blowing.
Sales of plant-based protein, which totaled an estimated $5 billion last year, continue to pale compared with the market for meat in America—but vegetarian alternatives to meat are booming, with sales growing at more than double the rate for food products overall. The steady drumbeat of news about the negative health impacts, environmental problems, and animal welfare concerns associated with meat consumption appears to be sinking in. According to a survey released in April, more than half of Americans surveyed said they plan to eat more plant-based foods in the coming year.
1. Beyond Meat’s veggie burger made headlines probably because __________.| A．it makes perfect use of animal protein |
| B．it uses high tech in the making process |
| C．it tastes as good as a genuine beef burger |
| D．it represents the diet trend in South California |
| A．It is the creator of the country’s first 100 percent plant-based burgers. |
| B．It has been well received as its products are available nationwide. |
| C．It is far from being a match to real food processing giants like Tyson. |
| D．It provides high-quality dining experience in selected Whole Foods stores. |
| A．seem unimportant |
| B．seem white |
| C．seem weak |
| D．seem faint |
| A．Meat will still take over the market in spite of other alternatives. |
| B．A major American meat company is betting on plant-based protein. |
| C．Tyson and Beyond Meat work together to build a global meat giant. |
| D．Plants have been found to contain protein that does more good to human beings. |
8 . For the first time in my life I have been dumped by a friend. I should have seen it coming: the phone calls not returned, the excuses about ‘not feeling very sociable right now’... Yet the letter suggesting that the time had come for us to move on still came as a shock.
Tula and I had been firm friends for nearly ten years. We met at a singing workshop and took on each other immediately. But life changed for both of us: I got married and she responded to her single status by developing a fresh set of social networks. Then she took a long holiday, reviewed her life and decided what to keep and what to throw out. In her letter she described our friendship as a ‘borderline’ case and suggested it should be time we ‘let each other go’.
I’m all for letting go of bad habits and boxes of old school exercise books. But surely close friends are not consumer goods to be discarded or replaced at the first hint of trouble? We are encouraged to believe that friends will be around forever. ‘You’ve got a friend,’ sang Carole King and ‘I'll be there for you’ promised the theme tune of Friends. Such sentiments have sunk deep into the collective unconsciousness, or into mine, at least.
Certainly, the statistics indicate that we need friends more than ever. Government figures predict that the proportion of married men and women aged from 45 to 54 will fall by a quarter in the next two decades. A recent British survey found that two-thirds of eighteen to 35-year-olds in Britain turn to friends before family for help and advice. Yes, the argument goes, in a fast-moving, ever-changing world, friendship is our rock, the one thing we can truly rely on.
But in his book, The Philosophy of Friendship, Mark Vernon suggests otherwise. He cautions that we place unrealistic burdens on friendship, that it's unreasonable to expect friends to fulfill family members’ roles. Worse still, he says, friendships are becoming harder to maintain. ‘There are lots of obstacles in the way we live today. It’s harder to put time and effort into knowing someone. Mobiles, email and so on, all these are secondary ways of communicating. There’s not the depth.’
So, what did I do with Tula’s letter? I re-read it many times, thinking over where I’d gone wrong. And then I wrote back. ‘Yes, you’re right.’ I wrote, ‘things have changed. But aren’t we good enough friends to hang in there?’ Since then we have exchanged a couple of emails. A walk has been suggested. It would be easy not to make the effort and let this friendship go but, as Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, said: ‘Stay is a charming word in a friend’s vocabulary.’ 1think she's right.
1. What can we learn about Tula and the writer from the first two paragraphs?| A．They became close friends ten years after their first meeting. |
| B．Nothing had happened to indicate their friendship might end. |
| C．Tula suggested the end of their friendship with a letter. |
| D．The writer took a long holiday after her marriage. |
| A．trouble in making friends | B．dependence on close friends |
| C．reluctance to end a friendship | D．belief in permanent friendship |
| A．We expect too much of friendship. |
| B．More and more people are choosing to be single. |
| C．Friendship is what we can rely on in today's society. |
| D．Technology makes it easier for us to know others well. |
| A．To prove that efforts to maintain a friendship may not be worthwhile. |
| B．To justify what she has done with the friendship with Tula. |
| C．To emphasize the importance of Little Women in history. |
| D．To illustrate the charming things existing in friendship. |
9 . The first thing we notice about new people are their faces. The next time we see these people, we remember them because we remember their faces. This seems like a simple process. However, scientists found that it is not such a simple process. The section of the brain that is responsible for face recognition seems to work differently for different people. Some people have great difficulty remembering and recognizing faces, while others almost never forget a face.
Normal babies are born with a natural ability to recognize faces. In fact, their face recognition abilities are much better than their parents. Babies are highly skilled at face recognition at six months. But by nine months, they lose this skill, By nine months, a baby’s face-recognition skills are about the same as an adult’s.
Unfortunately, some people are not born with this ability to recognize faces. The part of the brain that is responsible for face recognition doesn’t work for them. This condition is called face blindness. People with very severe face blindness cannot even recognize their own faces. In fact, people with this condition can sometimes be frightened when they look in the mirror. They don’t recognize their own face, so for a second they are startled when they see this unfamiliar face.
Face blindness is not always severe. Scientists believe up to 10 percent of the population may be affected by face blindness to some degree, yet many people with mild face blindness might not even know they have it. They have no reason to know they are different from anyone else until someone points it out. This is similar to people with color blindness.
Colorblind people can’t see the difference between certain colors such as red and green, until someone tells them that green and red are two different colors.
There is no cure for face blindness. So for the time being. people with face blindness need to find simple techniques to compensate for their problem. They can try to recognize people by their hairstyle, their voice, or their glasses. Hopefully, in the future as scientists learn more about this condition, they will find a cure.
1. The first paragraph is mainly about ____________.| A．the way to improve one’s face-recognition skills |
| B．the fact that some people have face-recognition problems |
| C．the simple process of the brain to recognize others’ faces |
| D．the importance of face recognition in human communication |
| A．At birth. | B．In adolescence. |
| C．Half a year old. | D．Nine months old. |
| A．confused | B．surprised |
| C．excited | D．depressed |
| A．People need to take it seriously. | B．It affects a great number of people. |
| C．It can be cured in the near future. | D．Certain techniques can make up for it. |
10 . School Clubs or Sports?
bha8102
Asked July 20, 2020
I am a high school freshman. Should I participate in high school clubs or sports? By clubs I mean clubs like Habitat for Humanity or Math Team. I have heard that taking up a sport in 9th grade can help you get into a better college. I am equally interested in both.
Replies
southernbelle16
Answered July 21, 2020
Get involved with extracurricular clubs. Sports don’t matter that much unless you:
a) play one continuously for years;
b) are going to college to play sports.
Clubs that involved academics, volunteer work and leadership are excellent. If you have time to play sports, then do that as well. Colleges want well-rounded people.
thinkingtoohard
Answered July 21, 2020
If you’re looking to get into a highly competitive college, yes! I wish someone had told me freshman year that by the time I was a senior, I should have founded at least one club, been a leader in two others, and done tons of volunteer work. I might be exaggerating a little bit but you get the idea ... check out what students have done to get accepted into their colleges. But make sure that your clubs/sports fit your interests. College admissions officers can easily tell when they’re just fillers.
bha8102
Asked July 22, 2020
I am interested in sports but not good at them. What if I involve myself in a club I am interested in but don’t become officer?
Replies
@intparent
Answered July 22, 2020
One of my kids got accepted to every place she had applied to two years ago, and she had no “named” leadership positions. However, she was a very strong contributor in some team activities. Leadership isn’t always about standing in front of the room with a title. It can be about leading your team in terms of performance, for example, or in helping younger teammates make progress.
I think the leadership title positions are overrated in the college admissions process. Colleges don’t want “lone wolves” who can’t get along with others. They want students who are sincere, try the best to do the things that are important to them, and perform at a high level in the things that they set their minds to. Pick the things that you love and put a lot of effort into them. If you have good grades and test scores, the rest will follow.
1. The user bha8102 asked the question on the forum mainly to ______.| A．share his/her feelings about becoming a high school freshman |
| B．get information on what it takes to get into a competitive college |
| C．express his/her opinions on extracurricular activities in high school |
| D．ask for advice about how to choose between school clubs and sports |
| A．volunteer work | B．activities that you’re not really interested in |
| C．advice from upperclassmen | D．leadership in a club |
| A．every high school freshman should join in school clubs |
| B．college admissions officers often favor a club leader or team captain |
| C．high school students should put all their energy into grades and test scores |
| D．the experience you get from participating in school clubs is far more important than a leadership title |
