1 . Fu Cong, a Chinese-born pianist, died on Monday at a hospital in London, where he had lived for many years.
A lover of classical music from a young age, Mr. Fu began taking piano lessons when he was 7. He made his first stage appearance in 1952. The concert caught the attention of officials in Beijing, who selected him to compete and tour in Eastern Europe. Mr. Fu soon moved to Poland, where he studied at the Warsaw Conservatory (音乐学校) on a scholarship. To prepare for the fifth Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1955, he practiced so hard that he hurt his fingers and was nearly cut from the first round of the competition.
Mr. Fu was one of the first Chinese pianists to achieve global fame when he took third place in the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1955. He also won a special prize for his performance of Chopin's mazurkas. Almost overnight, he became a national hero. To China, Mr. Fu's recognition in a well-known international competition was evidence that the country could stand on its own artistically in the West. Chinese reporters came to interview Mr. Fu, while many others went to his father, Fu Lei, for advice on child-raising.
In 1981, a volume of letters written by his father, was published in China. Full of advice, encouragement, life teachings and strict paternal love, the book Fu Lei's Family Letters became a best-seller in China. Besides influencing a generation of Chinese, Mr. Fu's words resonated (引起共鸣) long after his death with the person for whom they were intended.
“My father had a saying that 'First you must be a person, then an artist, and then a musician, and only then can you be a pianist,'" Mr. Fu Cong once recalled in an interview. "Even now, I believe in this order-that it should be this way and that I am this way.”
1. What is paragraph 2 mainly about?| A．Fu Cong's achievements in music. | B．Fu Cong's stage performances. |
| C．Fu Cong's experiences of learning music. | D．Fu Cong’s efforts for competitions. |
| A．It earns Chinese arts a place in the West. |
| B．It promotes the spread of Chinese culture. |
| C．It proves Chinese people's love for music. |
| D．It enables Chinese art education to be recognized. |
| A．Fu Lei's Family Letters. | B．Young people of China. |
| C．Fu Cong and his family. | D．Readers of Fu Lei's Family Letters. |
| A．It's easy to be an artist. |
| B．It requires various qualities to be a pianist. |
| C．Everyone should develop an interest in art. |
| D．Talent is of greatest importance for a pianist. |
2 . As more and more people speak the global language of English, Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic, other languages are rapidly disappearing. In fact, half of the 6,000-7,000 languages spoken around the world today will be likely to die out by the next century, according the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
In an effort to prevent language loss, scholars from a number of organizations — UNESCO and National Geographic among them — have for many years been documenting dying languages and the cultures they reflect.
Mark Turin, a scientist at the Macmillan Center, Yale University, who specializes in the languages and oral traditions of the Himalayas, is following in that tradition. His recently published book, A Grammar of Thangmi and Their Culture, grows out of his experience living, working, and raising a family in a village in Nepal.
Documenting the Thangmi language and culture is just a starting point for Turin, who seeks to include other languages and oral traditions across the Himalayan reaches of India, Nepal, Bhutan, and China. But he is not content to simply record these voices before they disappear without record.
At the University of Cambridge Turin discovered a wealth of important materials —including photographs, films, tape recordings, and field notes — which had remained unstudied and were badly in need of care and protection. Now, through the two organizations that he has founded — the Digital Himalaya Project and the World Oral Literature Project — Turin has started a campaign to make such documents, found in libraries and stores around the world, available not just to schools but to the younger generations of communities from whom the materials were originally collected. Thanks to digital technology and the widely available Internet, Turin notes, the endangered languages can be saved and reconnected with speech communities.
1. Many scholars are making efforts to ________.| A．promote global languages | B．rescue disappearing languages |
| C．search for languages communities | D．set up language research organizations |
| A．having detailed records of the languages | B．writing books on language users |
| C．telling stories about language speakers | D．living with the native speakers |
| A．The cultural studies in India. | B．The documents available at Yale. |
| C．His language research in Bhutan. | D．His personal experience in Nepal. |
| A．Write, sell and donate. | B．Record, repair and reward. |
| C．Collect, protect and reconnect. | D．Design, experiment and report. |
3 . “I had no intention to adopt a cat that day. I just liked being around animals.” Miranda says. But when she saw Nala in her metal cage, “We made eye contact and I couldn't resist（抗拒）her big blue eyes.” At that point, “Nala was so small. I asked the shelter if I could hold her. Once had Nala in my arms, Nala looked up at me and licked（舔）my face.” And that was when she knew she had to take this kitty home.
Still, Miranda never imagined Nala would become an Insta-star. “I started Nala’s Instagram account in 2012 as a way to share photos with my close friends and family in Thailand,” she explained. The possibility of Nala gaining attention beyond that small group of people hadn’t occurred to her until it happened.
Miranda says, “Each time Nala’s photo was featured on Instagram’s popular page, her account would gain 1,000 new followers.” From there, Nala’s popularity snowballed. Large nationwide brands messaged Miranda about hiring Nala to do ads. “This took us by surprise because we couldn’t believe that a big brand wanted to pay them to take photos with their products next to Nala.”
Nala started life out in a shelter, just waiting to be loved like many other animals that were abandoned. Today that dream has surely come true. Nala has over 4 million followers on Instagram, which earned her the title “Guinness World Records Most Popular Cat on Instagram.”
In addition to managing her Insta fame, Nala is being asked to test various cat food brands. More importantly, “Nala is our chance to share the love to help create a better life for other animals, so they can grow well and bring joy to the world like Nala has.”
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．Visits to a shelter. | B．Love at first sight. |
| C．Power of blue eyes. | D．Duty to adopt cats. |
| A．To meet Nala’s needs. | B．To help Nala be a sta. |
| C．To share Nala’s pictures. | D．To attract public attention. |
| A．Satisfied | B．Amazed. | C．Upset. | D．Disappointed |
| A．Being well treated like many of her kind. | B．Starting life in the shelter. |
| C．Gaining chances to earn money. | D．Being raised by Instagram fans. |
4 . Naturally, American schoolchildren love holidays. And they get a lot of them each year. Besides having national holidays such as Thanksgiving and Presidents’ Day off from school, students get longer breaks in the spring and during the summer holidays. In fact, kids in the US only go to school for about 180 days a year. To students, holidays are perfect. However, parents think there are advantages and disadvantages.
On the one hand, school holidays allow families to spend time together. Many American parents take time off from work during June, July or August to travel with their children on vacations either in the US or in a foreign country. On the other hand, schoolchildren get much more time off school than parents get vacation time. This means that parents with young children may have to pay more in babysitting or daycare costs. As well, the long summer holidays mean that students sometimes get bored.
Besides going on trips with their parents, American students enjoy taking part in different kinds of activities during the holidays. For example, some kids enjoy summer camps and outdoor adventure holidays. Such trips are great for adventurous students. They also have a lot to offer students who aren’t usually interested in traditional PE activities. You can do courses in survival skills, for example. Students learn how to make a camp in the forest, which wild food they can eat and how to find their way back to the center.
Students who are not excited about summer camps and outdoor adventure may take part in courses in computer game design, filmmaking and photography during the holidays. Finally, the traditional school trip to foreign countries is always popular. Students can practice their foreign language skills and experience everyday life in a different culture.
1. How long are kids in the US at school every year?| A．About 180 days. | B．About 280 days. | C．About 200 days. | D．About 300 days. |
| A．Some kids. | B．Different traditional PE activities. |
| C．Parents. | D．Summer camps and outdoor adventure. |
| A．Both parents and students think school holidays are perfect. |
| B．Parents can take care of their young children during all the holidays. |
| C．Students enjoy taking part in different kinds of activities during holidays. |
| D．Students don’t like to have school trips to foreign countries during holidays. |
| A．School Trips in the US | B．School Holidays in the US |
| C．School Activities in the US | D．Outdoor Adventure in the US |
5 . I was on the phone with a friend the other day, and she was sharing how she was overwhelmed (难以忍受的).She had too much going on — too many to-dos at work and at home, too many projects calling for her attention and too many employee issues that required her input. She felt unable to focus on anything long enough to bring it to an end.
As we talked it through, I was reminded of my computer when it freezes because it has so many windows open. Sometimes, I'm working on too many things, and my computer stops, as if paralyzed (瘫痪的),as if overwhelmed.
If our computer freezes when we’re handling too many tasks at once, then it’s no surprise that we would too. There’s too much data flowing around, too many ideas circulating, too many problems waiting to be solved. Too many windows open.
We need to learn to close some windows, to acknowledge that we can’t focus on everything at once, and that we'd be more effective if we focused on one thing at a time. We need the faith that we can step away from the projects we closed out right now.
Sometimes it feels like we have no choice, that everything is a crisis at this moment and nothing can be dropped, or even postponed. But there is usually something that can be put off or someone who can step in and take away some of our burden. We can manage expectations. We can choose. We can be more realistic about what we can get done, by when and how well.
We don't expect our electronics to run as well when too many windows are open. Why should we expect that of ourselves? We need to close a few windows to overlook a few projects and to perhaps even power down for a few minutes so that we’re fresh and able to effectively handle all that comes our way.
1. How does the author introduce the topic?| A．Raising questions. | B．Relating an experience. |
| C．Offering a report. | D．Giving a definition. |
| A．We can concentrate on everything at a time. |
| B．We can drop or postpone nothing in our life. |
| C．We can turn to someone to get rid of our burden. |
| D．We can power down and leave all things unsolved. |
| A．Running electronics well. | B．Leaving many computers open. |
| C．Managing many things at a time. | D．Handling the computer effectively. |
| A．Why we are overwhelmed. |
| B．What we expect to manage. |
| C．How to run a frozen computer well. |
| D．How to handle overwhelming tasks properly. |
6 . You are given many opportunities in life to choose to be a victim or creator. When you choose to be a victim, the world is a cold and difficult place.“They” did things to you which caused all of your pain and suffering.“They” are wrong and bad, and life is terrible as long as “they” are around.Or you may blame yourself for all your problems, thus internalizing(内化)your victimization.The truth is, your life is likely to stay that way as long as you feel a need to blame yourself or others.
Those who choose to be creators look at life quite differently.They know there are individuals who might like to control their lives, but they don't let this get in the way.They know they have their weaknesses, yet they don't blame themselves when they fail.Whatever happens, they have choice in the matter.They believe their dance with each sacred(神圣的)moment of life is a gift and that storms are a natural part of life which can bring the rain needed for emotional and spiritual growth.
Victims and creators live in the same physical world and deal with many of the same physical realities, yet their experience of life is worlds apart.Victims relish(沉溺)in anger, guilt, and other emotions that cause others--and even themselves---to feel like victims, too.Creators consciously choose love, inspiration, and other qualities which inspire not only themselves, but al1around them.Both victims and creators always have choice to determine the direction of their lives.
In reality, all of us play the victim or the creator at various points in our lives.One person, on losing a job or a special relationship, may feel as if it is the end of the world and sink into terrible suffering for months, years, or even a lifetime.Another with the same experience may choose to first experience the grief, then accept the loss and soon move on to be a powerful creative force in his life.
In every moment and every circumstance, you can choose to have fuller, richer life by setting a clear intention to transform the victim within, and by inviting into your life the powerful creator that you are.
1. What does the word “they” in Paragraph 1 probably refer to?| A．People and things around you. | B．Opportunities and problems. |
| C．Creators and their choices. | D．Victims and their sufferings. |
| A．seem willing to experience failures in life | B．possess the ability to predict future life |
| C．handle ups and downs of life wisely | D．have potential to create something new |
| A．To define victims and creators. |
| B．To evaluate victims against creators. |
| C．To explain the relationship between victims and creators. |
| D．To suggest the transformation from victims to creators. |
| A．strong attachment to sufferings in life pulls people into victims. |
| B．people need family support to deal with challengers in life. |
| C．it takes creators quite a long time to get rid of their pains. |
| D．one's experiences determine his attitude toward life. |
7 . For many years doctors have warned us about the dangers of stress (压力) and have given us advice about how to cut down our stress levels. Everyone agrees that long-term stress, for example having to look after someone who has a chronic (慢性的) illness, or stressful situations where there is nothing we can do, for example being stuck in a traffic jam, should be avoided whenever possible. However, some medical experts now believe that certain kinds of stress may actually be good for us.
Dr Marios Kyriazis, an anti-ageing expert, points out that what he calls "good stress” is beneficial to our health and may, in fact, help us stay young and attractive and even live longer. Dr Kyriazis says that “good stress” can strengthen our natural defences which protect us from illnesses common among older people, such as Alzheimer's and heart problems.
According to Dr Kyriazis, running for a bus or having to work to meet a deadline are examples of “good stress”, that is situations with short-term or low stress. The stress usually makes us react quickly, and gives us a sense of achievement — we did it! However, in both situations, the stress damages the cells(细胞) in our body or brain and they start to break down. But then the cells own repair mechanism “switches on”and it produces proteins which repair the damaged cells and remove harmful chemicals that can gradually cause disease. In fact, the body's response is greater than is needed to repair the damage, so it actually makes the cells stronger than they were before.
“As the body gets older, this self-repair mechanism of the cells starts to slow down,” says Dr Kyriazis.“The best way to keep the process working efficiently is to ‘exercise’ it, in the same way you would exercise your muscles to keep them strong. This means having a certain amount of stress in our lives.”Other stressful activities that Kyriazis suggests as being good stress include redecorating a room in your house over the weekend, packing your suitcase in a hurry to reach the airport on time, or shopping for a dinner party during your lunch break.
So next time your boss tells you that she wants to see the report finished and on her desk in 45 minutes, don't worry; just think of it as “good stress” which will benefit your long-term health!
1. What is Dr Kyriazis' opinion probably based on?| A．How to get a sense of achievement. |
| B．How to cut down our stress levels. |
| C．The benefits of doing physical exercise. |
| D．The relationship between stress and health. |
| A．The daily stress. | B．Long-term stress. |
| C．The increasing stress. | D．Short-term or low stress. |
| A．Being stuck in a traffic jam. |
| B．Packing for a trip at the last minute. |
| C．Being late for work for several days. |
| D．Looking after a patient with heart trouble. |
| A．Stress beats success | B．Stress attracts illness |
| C．Get stressed, stay young | D．Less stress, better health |
8 . The best hope for ending the COVID19 pandemic is a vaccine. There is no shortage of candidates. The World Health Organization is tracking 34 in various stages of development. How well they will work though, is another matter. On September 9th Astra Zeneca, a drug firm, announced it was pausing its trials after a participant fell ill. Such pauses are common in vaccine development, a discipline in which effort does not always bring reward. In 1987 the first trial of an HIV vaccine began in Maryland. Three decades later, the cupboard remains bare.
The news about COVID-19 in two new papers is more encouraging. The first written by a team of scientists at deCODE genetics, an Icelandic company, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, reports antibody levels in 1,200 Icelanders who had been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and recovered. More than 90% tested positive for antibodies twice — once immediately post infected and again four months later. People who had suffered more serious disease, such as those who had been hospitalized, developed higher levels of antibodies. So did men and older people, both of whom are at greater risk of more severe illness.
The four-month lifespan is cheering for two reasons. Antibodies that hang around are more likely to offer immunity. That means a vaccine that provokes (驱使；刺激) their production should provide reasonably long-lasting protection. They are also easier to find.
In the second study, scientists led by Tao Dong, an immunologist at the Medical Research Council (MRC), in Britain, went hunting for T-cells. These get less press than antibodies, but play an equally vital role in battling infections and securing long-term protection. Their importance is vividly demonstrated by HIV, which targets and kills them.
Al Edwards, an immunologist turned biochemical engineer at the University of Reading who was not involved with either paper, is cautiously optimistic. The immune response to the disease seems to be working roughly as expected, he says. If that continues, then vaccines developed to trigger long-lasting immunity should work at least in theory.
In practice, it is still too early to celebrate. Dr. Edwards warns that immunology has never been a predictive science. There is no test that can show definitively that a vaccine will work short of actually trying it in the real world.
1. What can we infer from the first paragraph?| A．Scientists have made great achievements in HIV vaccine. |
| B．The vaccine is the only way of ending the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| C．The COVID-19 is bound to be developed by a drug firm in no time. |
| D．While many people work on the vaccine, it is hard to develop a vaccine successfully. |
| A．Antibodies that hang around can offer immunity. |
| B．A vaccine will not work short of actually trying it in the real world. |
| C．The higher levels of antibodies are, the more serious disease people will suffer. |
| D．T-cells are less important than antibodies in battling infections and securing protections. |
| A．T-cells | B．HIV |
| C．Antibodies | D．Long-term protection |
| A．Negative | B．Indifferent |
| C．Disapproval | D．Cautious |
9 . For sports fans, nothing could be better than watching a live event on TV or at a sports field. But there’s nothing worse than that event being called off because of bad weather. Bad light, a water-logged court or too much heat can cause matches to be postponed. But according to the latest research, extreme weather might be disturbing the sporting calendar more than ever in the future.
In one sport, golf, major tournaments like The Open, are already predicted to be victims of our changing climate. In the UK, an organization called The Climate Coalition says that golf courses such as St Andrews could be under water by the end of the century if sea levels rise even slightly. It told the BBC that its research predicts "cancelled football matches, flooded cricket grounds and golf courses sinking into the sea."
The threat to sporting events from climate change has been further highlighted in a new report, officially approved and licensed by the Rapid Transition Alliance. Writing about this for the BBC, Matt McGrath says that "By 2050, it's estimated that almost one in four English football league grounds can expect flooding every year." This will mean fewer matches played, less opportunity to watch the beautiful game and reduced government taxation from ticket sales.
Cricket also faces huge challenges globally as temperatures rise in places like India, Australia and the West Indies. The report says that stadiums in Adelaide and Perth will see a 60% increase in days with temperatures over 40 degrees centigrade over the next decade.
Of course, we know that the solution lies with reducing our carbon footprint. We could travel less to attend sports events, and reduce our waste when we do go. But this latest report finds that sports leaders are generally failing to address the issue seriously. However, because sport is universally popular and can be very influential, maybe it should be players, teams and their sponsors as well as fans who should promote a wide low carbon message to help protect sporting fields—before it’s 'game over'.
1. What is the latest research above mainly concerned with?| A．the forbidden sporting events | B．the influential climate change |
| C．the severe environmental pollution | D．the rising sea level |
| A．Football fans cannot afford the entrance fee. |
| B．Overheat will largely affect the cricket calendar. |
| C．The golf games will thoroughly disappear due to rising sea level. |
| D．Sports leaders will face bigger challenges to lead their teams to win. |
| A．the constant increase in sea level | B．the fading popularity of sport events |
| C．the changing attitude of sponsors. | D．the effective reduction of carbon footprint |
| A．inform the readers of the worsening global climate change |
| B．require governments’ protection of sporting fields |
| C．promote awareness of low carbon life on sports |
| D．urge financial support from sponsors |
10 . Nothing draws attention to your new product like using it to send fast food into space. In June, Arizona-based World View demonstrated the potential of its pioneering stratollite--a sort of mini satellite that uses a balloon to take goods into the stratosphere (平流层)--by partnering with
KFC to ferry a 5-ounce piece of fried chicken 77,000 feet into the desert sky. “We took a chicken sandwich, launched it into space for 17 hours, and when it came back, it was perfect,” says World View CEO Jane Poynter.
Poynter’s final goal is to send tourists to the edge of space, tied to the company’s balloons, and to make the final frontier more accessible for research. Stratollites are inexpensive, compact, and easy to operate, ideal for monitoring weather patterns and providing military reconnaissance （侦察） or emergency communications during natural disasters. They can also do what traditional satellites can’t: spend months above a specific location without moving.
Though Poynter did not formally train as an engineer, she has spent her career in leading space research. The British native trained her skills as a technical manager while part of Biosphere 2, an Arizona research facility built to test a self-enclosed, self-sufficient ecosystem. Its creators hoped it could one day be adapted for use in space. She spent two years in the early 1990s sealed inside with seven others, experiencing everything from oxygen failures to colleagues’ emotional breakdowns.
Poynter met her future husband, Taber MacCallum, on the project, and afterward, the couple formed Paragon Space Development. They began devising biospheres that could support plant and animal life in orbit （太空轨道）.
“We showed it’s possible for animals to live in an environment they are not used to: microgravity,” Poynter says.
In 2014, Poynter and Maccallum achieved another first. They led the engineering team that helped former Google exec Alan Eustace skydive from the edge of the stratosphere. That’s when it hit them: The balloon-parachute system they designed for Eustace could be modified for tourism and research. So they formed World View, with MacCallum serving as chief technical officer.
The company has a contract with NASA to determine if the system could someday be used to gather data on Mars. “Taking stratollites and flying them on other planets,” Poynter says, “that’s definitely a part of the big dream.”
1. Stratollites are different from traditional satellites in that they can _______.| A．stay motionless in space |
| B．move about in a bigger area |
| C．provide emergency communications |
| D．survive better in a situation without gravity |
| A．It was adapted from a spaceship that used to work in space. |
| B．It was intended to become an ideal place for space research. |
| C．The participants all experienced some kind of emotional breakdown. |
| D．The participants were isolated from the outside world for some time. |
| A．Poynter and Maccallum have helped Alan Eustace to skydive. |
| B．Maccallum will serve as a chief technical officer in World View. |
| C．The system designed for Eustace can be used for more purposes. |
| D．Poynter and Maccallum hope to achieve more firsts in their career. |
| A．Partnering with NASA to do research on other planets. |
| B．Using balloons to send tourists or researchers into space. |
| C．Giving people more opportunities to try extreme sports in space. |
| D．Working with food companies to send food to astronauts in space. |
