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 . Until now, scientists haven’t been able to study the new rock on the moon.The new samples from Chang’e 5 will change this. They’re from near Mons Rümker, a volcanic mountain where the rock is thought to be much younger-- about 1 billion years old.
There are a lot of reasons scientists are eager to study this younger rock, one of which is that it could help us more precisely date not only the moon, but many rocky planets and other objects.
Here’s how that works: Scientists date lunar rock by using something called a chronology curve（年代学曲线）, says Jollliff, a scientists at Washington University in St. Louis. Basically, they estimate the age of the rock by counting the number of craters（火山口） in the area the rock comes from; those increase as objects strike the rock over time. To make this estimation, scientists need to match the number of craters to a precise age. Right now, they only have data points for lunar rock that is 3 to billion years old. Modern techniques can date the new sample extremely accurately, and once scientists know its precise age, they can add a valuable data point to their chronology curve. The dating system will also help us more accurately estimate the age of all sorts of objects in space, like rocky planets and other moons.
Another reason scientists are keen to study this young volcanic rock is to find out more about how volcanism works on the moon. Jollliff says that it’s unclear why there was volcanic activity on the moon for such a long period of time. Most of the moon; s volcanic activity, he says, is thought to have occurred 3 or 4 billion years ago, when the moon was still pretty young. But since the moon does not have plate structure, which drives volcanism on Earth, it’s unclear what could have caused much later volcanic activity. “That’s something that you can find out of the samples by studying them in the lab,” Jollliff says.
1. What does the underlined word “this” in paragraph 1 refer to?| A．The fact of being unable to study the new rock. |
| B．The new rock from near Mons Rümker. |
| C．One of the reasons to study the moon;s new rock. |
| D．The study of the moon’s younger rock. |
| A．ensure there was volcanic activity on the moon. |
| B．more precisely date only the moon. |
| C．date lunar rock by using a chronology curve. |
| D．explore how volcanism works on the moon. |
| A．Scientistsare keen to study this young volcanic rock. |
| B．Scientists can’t know why volcanic activity exists on the moon. |
| C．The moon’s volcanic activity occurred 3 or 4 billion years ago. |
| D．It’s clear what could have caused much later volcanic activity. |
| A．How scientists study the younger rock. |
| B．Why the research is important. |
| C．Why the younger rock is worth studying. |
| D．What scientists do to study the younger rock. |
4 . The scientists who re-engineered the plastic-eating enzyme(酶) PETase have now created a new enzyme called “cocktail” , which can digest plastic up to six times faster.
PETase breaks down PET back into its building blocks, creating an opportunity to recycle plastic and reduce plastic pollution. PET is the most common thermoplastic(热塑性塑料) used to make single-use drinks bottles, which takes hundreds of years to break down in the environment, but PETase can shorten this time to days. The initial discovery set up the prospect of a revolution in plastic recycling, creating a potential low-energy solution to tackle plastic waste.
Now, the same trans-Atlantic team have combined PETase and its “partner”, a second enzyme called MHETase, to generate much bigger improvements: simply mixing PETase with MHETase doubled the speed of PET breakdown, and engineering a connection between the two enzymes to create a “super-enzyme”, increased this activity by a further three times.
The team was co-led by the scientists who engineered PETase, Professor John McGeehan and Dr Gregg Beckham. Professor McGeehan said: “Gregg and I were chatting about how PETase attacks the surface of the plastics and MHETase chops things up further, so it seemed natural to see if we could use them together. Our first experiments showed that they did work better together, so we decided to physically link them. It took a great deal of work, but it was worth the effort — we were delighted to see that our new enzyme is up to three times faster than the separate enzymes.”
The original PETase enzyme discovery indicated the first hope that a solution to the global plastic pollution problem might be within grasp, though PETase alone is not yet fast enough to handle the tons of PET bottles. Combining it with a second enzyme, and finding together they work even faster, means another leap forward has been taken towards finding a solution to plastic waste. PETase and the new combined MHETase-PETase both work by digesting PET plastic. This allows for plastics to be made and reused endlessly, reducing our reliance on fossil(化石) resources.
1. What can we learn about “cocktail” from the text?| A．It doubles the breakdown of plastics. |
| B．It takes hundreds of years to break down. |
| C．It contributes to breaking down plastic quickly. |
| D．It deals with the plastic waste three times faster. |
| A．A new study of PET. | B．The breakdown of PET. |
| C．The discovery of PETase. | D．The functions of PETase. |
| A．Co-leading the trans-Atlantic team. | B．Combining PETase and MHETase. |
| C．Attacking the surface of the plastics. | D．Talking about conducting experiments. |
| A．PET pollution is no longer a difficult problem to deal with. |
| B．New enzyme is speeding up our reliance on fossil resources. |
| C．MHETase-PETase makes the world free from plastic pollution. |
| D．Plastic-eating enzyme “cocktail” promises new hope for plastic waste. |
5 . “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. |
6 . A company called Compass Pools has some good news for height and swimming enthusiasts.Recently，the company announced their novel design—a first of its kind 360degree pool which is set to be placed on a skyscraper in London.The Infinity London will be the first and only building in the world to include this cuttingedge pool design.The pool will be laid on top of a 55story skyscraper and will allow people to float over 200 meters above the London skyline with unobstructed(没有障碍的) views of the city.
The entrance to the pool is hidden.People began to raise questions about how anyone would get inside the pool.Compass Pools explains：“Swimmers will access the pool through a rotating spiral(螺旋形的) staircase based on the door of a submarine，rising from the pool floor when someone wants to get in or out.”
But that is not the only unique technology of the pool.The designers found a way to make sure the wind doesn't blow the water down to the streets.They included a builtin anemometer(风力计) to monitor the wind speed.It is linked to a computercontrolled building management system which will also take care of the temperature of the water.
Alex Kemsley promises that this unique pool will surpass everyone's expectations.“It's quite a strange feeling to swim in the SkyPool at The Shard and have helicopters flying past at your level but this pool takes it a step further，”he says.“Putting your goggles(游泳镜) on and with a 360degree view of London from 220m up，it really will be something else—but it's definitely not one for the acrophobic(恐高的)！”
While the exact date of the construction is not clear yet，if things go well，it may begin in 2022.The location has yet to be confirmed too.
1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?| A．The Infinity London is the only building to swim in. |
| B．Swimmers can enjoy the views of London in the pool. |
| C．The pool is located on the first floor of a skyscraper. |
| D．Compass Pools has built many 360degree pools in the world. |
| A．How to get a view of London. |
| B．How to monitor the wind speed. |
| C．How to get into or out of the pool. |
| D．How to keep the water in the pool. |
| A．People who enjoy flying. |
| B．People who lose weight. |
| C．People who fear heights. |
| D．People who have poor sight. |
| A．It is not certain when people can swim in it. |
| B．The exact location of the construction is clear. |
| C．Swimmers can expect its designs easily. |
| D．It's impossible to monitor the temperature of the water. |
7 . When newspapers and radios report the damage caused by a hurricane (飓风)called Hazel,girls named Hazel are probably played a joke on by others.To keep out of trouble,the Weather Bureau says,“Any resemblance(相似)between hurricane names and the names of particular girls is only accidental.”
Some women became angry because hurricanes are given their names,but many other women are proud to see their names make headlines.They don’t even care that they are the names of destructive storms.Because more women seem to like it than dislike it,the Weather Bureau has decided to continue using girls’ names for hurricanes.
In some ways a hurricane is like a person.After it is born,it grows and develops,then becomes old and dies.Each hurricane has a character of its own.Each follows its own way through the world,and people remember it long after it has gone.So it is natural to give hurricanes names,and to talk about them almost as if they were alive.
1. What happens to the girls named Hazel when hurricane Hazel is reported?| A．They suffer from hurricanes. |
| B．The Weather Bureau looks for them. |
| C．Others often make fun of them. |
| D．They can’t find boyfriends. |
| A．the reporters |
| B．the headlines |
| C．some women who become angry |
| D．some women who are proud |
| A．stop naming hurricanes after women |
| B．go on naming hurricanes after women |
| C．name hurricanes after men |
| D．look for a new method to name hurricanes |
| A．Some women feel unhappy because hurricanes are given their names. |
| B．All the hurricanes are caused by women. |
| C．Many women want to be reported by TV and newspapers. |
| D．A hurricane grows and develops in the same way as a person. |
8 . Despite the common appearing of tablet computers and e-readers, we simply cannot break our addiction to paper. An estimated four billion trees are cut down every year to make paper or cardboard, an energy-consuming process with a vast environmental footprint. Now chemist Yadong Yin of the University of California, Riverside, and his colleagues have developed “rewritable” paper that could help control that impact.
Printed rewritable paper is made using Prussian blue nanoparticles (纳米粒子). The researchers coated conventional paper with nanoparticles of two chemicals: Prussian blue that gives blueprints their characteristic color, and titanium dioxide (二氧化钛), a substance used in sunscreens.
UV light makes the titanium dioxide nanoparticles donate electrons (电子) to their Prussian blue neighbors, shifting its color from midnight blue to milky white.
By shining that UV light through a transparent (透明的) screen marked with black text, the researchers “printed” blue text on a white background. The text lasts about five days and then naturally fades away: “Every morning I could just push a button, and a printer would give me a fresh newspaper to read over breakfast,” Yin says.
The paper can also be reset by heating and reused more than 80 times, a significant improvement over previous types of rewritable paper. “The key advantages are high reusability and stability, easy handling and low cost,” says Sean X. Zhang, a materials scientist at Jilin University in China, who was not involved in the study but has also worked on developing rewritable paper. By comparison, technologies such as electronic ink—used for Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite—involve moving charged black-and-white particles around, which requires electronics.
Since reporting their invention in Nano Letters early this year, the scientists have used a digital projector to replace their transparent screen. They are now working on increasing the number of times the paper can be reused. Zhang says a key difficulty will be persuading companies to develop the unconventional UV control needed for widespread use. Even though commercialization could be a few years away, Yin says, “We’ve had a lot of discussions with industry investors.”
1. What does the underlined “that impact” in the first paragraph refer to?| A．Human beings’ addiction to paper. |
| B．Common appearance of e-readers. |
| C．Green and sustainable environment. |
| D．A vast environmental footprint. |
| A．Working principles of the new invention. |
| B．Comparison between different papers. |
| C．Key benefits of the new invention. |
| D．The function of UV light. |
| A．expensive | B．unreliable | C．conventional | D．eco-friendly |
| A．Print, wipe, rewrite |
| B．The nanotech commercialized |
| C．The history of paper |
| D．Reduce, reuse, recycle |
9 . Embroidery(刺绣)is an important art form in Chinese culture.People often embroider handkerchiefs,bed covers,tablecloths and dresses.Shu embroidery is one of the most famous embroidery styles in China.It's known for its strong expression and smooth needlework.
The characteristics are greatly influenced by geographical environment,customs and cultures.Called the“Land of Abundance”,Sichuan province is rich in grain production.The people of this area also enjoy a slow lifestyle.So when embroidering,they are usually patient and willing to spend time pursuing the form’s complexity and elegance.This could also be a reason why Shu embroidery was listed as a national-level intangible cultural heritage in 2006.
Making beautiful Shu embroidery products is never easy.
It requires superb workmanship.Meng Dezhi,59,was born to a family of embroiderers.She was one of the most talented employees at the Chengdu Shu embroidery factory.Even so,the long and repetitive nature of the process often challenges her.And in winter,when her hands and feet are freezing,things become more difficult.But her love for the work has encouraged Meng to continue.Even for an experienced master like Meng,finishing a piece requires several days or even a few months.
“These experiences may sometimes discourage me,but the love for Shu embroidery always gives me motivation to continue,”said Meng.
Meng has also popularized the culture of Shu embroidery when the tradition was at risk of declining.
Many cheap products are made by modern machines.In 2005,the factory Meng worked in was forced to close.To make a living and pass along the traditional technique,Meng rented a small space of 10 square meters to teach Shu embroidery skills to the kids and young people.
“In the early days,I set up the company just for survival,but now I really feel that I have the responsibility to pass on Shu embroidery skills to young people.”“It is like sowing a seed—who knows which of them will become an inheritor(继承人)or guardian of our culture in the future?”she told China Daily.
1. What is special about Shu embroidery?| A．It mainly features images of animals. |
| B．It is complex and delicate in workmanship. |
| C．It affects local lifestyles in Sichuan province. |
| D．It’s developed from traditional Chinese paintings. |
| A．The nature of Shu embroidery. |
| B．The passion for Shu embroidery. |
| C．The influence of her family tradition. |
| D．The profits from Shu embroidery products. |
| A．Setting up a company for a living. |
| B．Renting a 10-square-meter space. |
| C．Making cheap products with modern machines. |
| D．Teaching Shu embroidery skills to the young generation. |
| A．Art Made with Modern Machines | B．The History of Shu Embroidery |
| C．Passing on Needlepoint Perfection | D．A Talented Shu Embroidery Employee |
10 . 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 |
