1 . Chinese sword play
Learn Chinese swordsmanship and practice Chinese sword play under the instruction of a professional in Ditan Park every Sunday afternoon.
Fee: 60 yuan(US$ 7.2)
Time/Date: 2 pm --- 3:30 pm, October 10.
Place: Meet at the south gate of Ditan Park, across the overpass north of the Lama Temple, Chaoyang District.
Tel: 8457-2772
See Lu Xun’s former residence
Visit the museum and former residence of Lu Xun, the father of Chinese modern literature, and learn about this period of Chinese history, from 1910 to the late 1930’s.
Fee: 50 yuan(US$ 6)
Time/Date: 2:30 pm --- 4:30 pm, October 16
Place: Meet in front of Lu Xun’s Museum, Fuchengmennei Dajie, Xicheng District
Tel: 6432-9341
Hike on Heifengkou Great Wall
Heifengkou Great Wall is about one and a half hours’ drive north of Beijing. The hike starts from the village at the foot of the mountain where the Great Wall meanders to the top.
Fee: 150 yuan(US$ 18) for adults, 100 yuan(US$ 12) for kids under 12.
Time/Date: 8:30 am —5:30 pm, October 16
Pick-up: Meet at 8:30 am in front of the Big Easy, at the South Gate of Chaoyang Park, returning by 5:30 pm.
Contact Lucy at lucy @ highclub. cn, or 6553-3920 for signing up.
Tai Chi class
This is a beginner’s level of Chen-style Tai Chi class, instructed by Paul Wang, who speaks excellent English and has a lot of experience teaching Westerners. He is the 12th generation master of Chen-Style Tai Chi, Tai Chi Sword, and Shaolin Temple longquan.
Time/Date: 10 am — 11:30 am, October 12, 19
Fee: 60 yuan(US$ 7.2)
Place: In front of Jintai Gallery, inside the West Gate of Chaoyang Park, Chaoyang District
Tel: 6432-9341
Contact Gina at linshujuan@chinadaily. com. cn.
1. The underline word “residence” in the second text possibly refers to ______ .| A．a work | B．a famous person | C．a park | D．a house |
| A．Ditan Park at 2 pm — 3:30 pm, October 10 |
| B．Fuchengmennei Dajie at 2:30 pm — 4:30 pm, October 16 |
| C．the South Gate of Chaoyang Park at 8:30 am |
| D．Chaoyang Park at 10 am — 11:30 am, October 12, 19 |
| A．learn Chinese sword play |
| B．hike on Heifengkou Great Wall |
| C．visit the museum and former residence of Lu Xun |
| D．take the Tai Chi class |
2 . When I was a kid growing up, I made friends with a man named Edwin E. Bailey. He ran the astronomical observatory（天文观测台） at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, USA. I would go to the Franklin Institute most Saturdays just to spend time with him. He was a good speaker and he seemed to know something about everything.
Sadly, he died of an illness several years ago. When he was in hospital, I went to visit him. In an effort to make small talk, I told him about all the places I had been to and how I had come to his bedside straight from the airport.
He then said with a slightly sarcastic manner（有点嘲讽的态度），“ You go all over the world to people who, ten years from now, won’t remember your name. But you haven’t left time for the people who really care about you.”
What he said hit me hard and changed my life. I decided to pay more attention to my family and friends, and not to let my time be used up by people to whom I make no difference.
Months ago a friend of mine got a call from the White House asking him to consult with (与……商议） the President of the United States．He said no because it was to be on a day he had promised to spend with his grandson at the seaside. The nation went on well without him, the President didn’ t miss him, but his grandson spent some valuable time with his grandfather.
1. What did the author think of Edwin?| A．He was hard-working | B．He was knowledgeable |
| C．He was quick to make friends | D．He was crazy about traveling |
| A．Edwin’s words | B．Edwin’s death |
| C．Edwin s traveling experiences. | D．Edwin s working experiences |
| A．Edwin |
| B．A friend of the author |
| C．The President of the USA |
| D．The grandson of the author’ s friend |
| A．Doing is better than saying | B．A true friend is hard to find |
| C．Living in the past won’t help | D．First things should be put first |
3 . As a CEO of a startup, you get used to hearing"no".You also face an endless continuation of what feels like shocking crises, like nearly running out of cash, losing a key customer,discovering a widespread product failure, or having to shut down operations because of a global pandemic. But it turns out that these disasters can actually be good for you. In fact,I'm not sure whether you can innovate without them. Here's what all our crises have taught me.
It's good to be uncomfortable. We once had a key customer request-a battery capability that we'd never developed before. The customer made it clear that if we couldn't develop this capability, they'd be less confident in our product. We wrestled with the risks, not least of which was the potential embarrassment if we couldn't meet the customer's needs. We knew we'd face many technical problems if we tried to go into operation. Yet we decided to try to satisfy the customer, even if it wasn't obvious at first how we could get it done. A few weeks later we delivered something beyond what the customer had asked for, and we've since grown this capability into a powerful sales tool and potential revenue stream-not to mention it strengthened our relationship with the customer.
Short-term failure is good. A few years ago, our company began to expand our manufacturing output in response to a customer's need. In the process we discovered something unusual we hadn't seen during smaller-scale production. Our team dived into failure analysis, and we finally put the problem down to a single material within the battery. We'd used this material for years, but now we needed a replacement. Once we made that change,the battery quality and reliability greatly improved.
It's okay to show weakness. One of my hardest days as CEO was the day when I found out I was pregnant.We were in the middle of raising a funding round, and I had been traveling nonstop for a year. Until that day, I had assumed that my role as CEO was to display strength and confidence. With the mounting pressure I was harder on myself than I needed to be, and now I had the added stress of being pregnant.I decided to acknowledge to my team that I was breaking down. They united together and found ways to operate more smoothly and communicate more effectively, supporting me to focus my time on most pressing goals. This gave me not only the space to plan for the company’s future,but also to prepare for my own new normal: leading while becoming a first-time mother.
1. What does the underlined word "them" in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Frequent rejections. |
| B．Financial crises. |
| C．Global pandemics. |
| D．Endless disasters. |
| A．Customers' requests should be carefully evaluated. |
| B．Meeting challenges can bring about extra benefits. |
| C．The company should keep launching new products. |
| D．Innovation is the only way to win fierce competition. |
| A．By drawing a comparison. |
| B．By giving an example. |
| C．By challenging assumptions. |
| D．By doing an experiment. |
| A．Learn to let go |
| B．Make it as a CEO |
| C．Think deep sometimes |
| D．Make friends with crises |
4 . Let’s face it.You’re likely reading this article in an effort to avoid some other tasks you’re procrastinating (拖延) to learn how to stop procrastination, but the clock is ticking. So why can’t you seem to get rid of that?
Though the psychological causes are still debated, there’s a human tendency to over or underestimate the value of a reward based on its temporal proximity (时间接近). This is often referred to as temporal discounting. For example, if I offered you$100 today or 110 in a month, most would take the hundred and run. But what if instead I offered you 100 dollars in a year or 110 in a year and one month, you might say to yourself if I can wait a year I can wait the extra month.
But the time and value difference are the exact same in each example. It turns out that human motivation is highly influenced by how near the reward is meaning the further away the reward is the more you discount its value. So being online is more appealing than preparing for your test. The problem is surfing the Internet provides many small quick and continuous rewards unlike your test scores which are a future one.
So how do you overcome the urge to put off so many tasks?
Unfortunately there is no definite answer, but try rewarding yourself with a timely snack or other enjoyable activities. The Pomodoro Technique makes use of a timer to work for 25 minutes straight and when you’ve done this give yourself the reward with a 5-minute break. Then start the working clock again, Gradually increasing the amount of work time you put in will improve your time management skills.
It’s been shown that creating a costly deadline is also an effective way to manage your working habits. And try to enjoy the process of achieving something instead of thinking only our minutes of suffering.
1. What does the underlined word “that” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．This article. | B．Procrastination. | C．An effort. | D．The clock. |
| A．interesting | B．accurate | C．understandable | D．influential |
| A．It helps them kill time faster. |
| B．It offers them more information. |
| C．It supplies instant rewards to them. |
| D．It strengthens the bond between friends. |
| A．Rewarding yourself with a future gift. |
| B．Increasing the amount of work time. |
| C．Ignoring the process of doing the task. |
| D．Paying dearly for your procrastination. |
5 . Fishing is a popular activity and every fisherman knows the rule: Keep the big ones, throw the smaller ones back. The idea behind it is simple —the larger fish are probably older. If you keep the smaller ones, they won’t be able to reproduce, and the fish population is in danger.
But fishing out the largest fish from a population has an unwanted effect: Over time, fewer adult fish get really big. If only the smaller fish reproduce（繁殖）, then future generations become smaller. This is an example of evolution（进化）in action.
One scientist, Dr. David Conover, has spent the last decade studying the effects of the “keep the big ones” rule and if they can be reversed（颠倒）.
To set up his experiment, Conover and his team caught hundreds of silverside fish and divided them into six groups. For two groups, Conover followed the “keep the large ones” rule and took out the biggest fish.
For two other groups, he removed only the small fish. For the last two groups, he removed fish at random (随意的).
After five years, he measured the fish in each group. In the two groups where the largest fish were regularly removed, the average(平均) fish size was smaller than the average size in the other groups. Here was evolution in action: If only small fish survive(生存) to reproduce, then future generations of fish will also tend(倾向) to be small.
For the second five years of his experiment, Conover changed the rules and took fish randomly(随意) from each group. At the end of the experiment, he found that the fish that were in the “keep the large ones” group for the first five years had started to get larger again, although he calculated(计算) it would take at least
12 years for the fish in that group to return to their original(原始的) size.
In other words, it takes less time to shrink(变小) than it does to recover(恢复).
1. The underlined word “it” (Line 2) refers to “_____”| A．the activity |
| B．the fish |
| C．the rule |
| D．the fisherman |
| A．It helps to protect fish numbers. |
| B．It helps to protect fish size. |
| C．It is the custom in most countries. |
| D．They will be punished if they don’t. |
| A．The “keep the big ones” rule made no difference to fish size. |
| B．The “keep the big ones” rule made fish smaller on average. |
| C．The “keep the big ones” rule made the fish bigger on average. |
| D．The “keep the big ones” rule affected all fish populations in the same way. |
| A．If small fish reproduce, the future generations will be smaller. |
| B．There was no largest fish in “keep the large ones” group for the first five years. |
| C．it would take 10 years for the fish to return to their original size. |
| D．It takes less time to become bigger than it does to recover |
| A．To encourage people to fish more carefully. |
| B．To urge governments to change the rules of fishing. |
| C．To describe the results of a scientific experiment. |
| D．To introduce the rules of fishing to readers. |
6 . Do you want to live another 100 years or more? Some experts say that scientific advances will one day enable humans to last tens of years beyond what is now seen as the natural limit of the human life span.
“I think we are knocking at the door of immortality(永生),” said Michael Zey, a Montclair State University business professor and author of two books on the future. “I think by 2075 we will see it and that’s a conservative estimate(保守的估计).”
At the conference in San Francisco, Donald Louria, a professor at New Jersey Medical School in Newark said advances in using genes as well as nanotechnology(纳米技术) make it likely that humans will live in the future beyond what was possible in the past. “There is a great effort so that people can live from 120 to 180 years,” he said. “Some have suggested that there is no limit and that people could live to 200 or 300 or 500 years.”
However, many scientists who specialize in aging are doubtful about it and say the human body is just not designed to last past about 120 years. Even with healthier lifestyles and less disease, they say failure of the brain and organs will finally lead all humans to death.
Scientists also differ on what kind of life the super aged might live. “It remains to be seen if you pass 120, you know; could you be healthy enough to have good quality of life?” said Leonard Poon, director of the University of Georgia Gerontology Centre. “At present people who could get to that point are not in good health at all.”
1. By saying“we are knocking at the door of immortality”,Michael Zey means_________.| A．they have got some ideas about living forever |
| B．they believe that there is no limit of living |
| C．they are able to make people live past the present life span |
| D．they are sure to find the truth about long living |
| A．the human body is designed to last past about 120 years |
| B．it is possible for humans to live longer in the future |
| C．it is still doubtful how long humans can live |
| D．people can live from 120 to 180 |
| A．a great effort |
| B．the conservative estimate |
| C．the idea of living from 200 to 300 years |
| D．the idea of living beyond the present life span |
| A．No Limit for Human Life |
| B．Living Longer or not |
| C．Science,Technology and Long Living |
| D．Healthy Lifestyle and Long Living |
7 . In advance of World Book Day on April 23, the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication released its 17th annual report on the study of Chinese people's reading habits on Monday.
Based on a survey that ranged from August 2019 to February 2020, the report showed 81.1 percent of adult Chinese surveyed have a habit of reading, whether in print or on digital devices, a slight increase of 0.3 percent from 2018. Wei Yushan, director of the academy, said the survey covered 55 cities and towns in the country and it can credibly represent the situation of the whole population.
In 2019, adult Chinese read on average 4.6.5 books in print and 2. 84 digital books, while in 2018 it was 4.67 and 3. 32, a small drop for both.
While the report said most Chinese feel they 're not satisfied with the amount of books they read in a year. 11.1 percent read more than 10 books in print, and 7.6 percent more than 10 e-books. As for children and young people under 17, "the results are more encouraging, according to Wei. The survey revealed they read 10.36 books a year on average, 1. 45 more than in 2018.
Audio(有声的) books are attracting more Chinese, as 30.3 percent of adults and 34.7 percent of minors had a habit of listening to audio books in 2019, increasing by 4.3 and 8.5 percent compared to2018. The report found mobile phones were the top choice of medium when Chinese people read. On average, adults spent 100.41 minutes a day on mobile phones, 15.54 minutes more than in 2018.
A closer look at the report shows people's priority when using the Internet was to socialize (60.2 percent), followed by getting news (59 percent) and enjoying video clips (56.9 percent). Only 20.5 percent of them used it to connect to books, newspapers or journals.
Still, there's good news in the data from younger readers. Wei said 94.3 percent of Chinese families with children under 8 had a habit of reading, and parents spent almost 25 minutes every day reading with their kids, 2.37 minutes more than 2018
1. What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?| A．The 17th World Book Day will be celebrated on April 23. |
| B．The report is released every year by the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication. |
| C．More than 80% of the adult Chinese prefer to read on digital devices than in print. |
| D．The survey was conducted throughout the country in2019. |
| A．Kids and teenagers |
| B．Adult |
| C．Students |
| D．The results |
| A．Chinese people spent more time reading audio books in 2018 than in 2019. |
| B．The report indicates Chinese readers' growing interest in online reading. |
| C．There was a drop in the number of books read by average adult Chinese in 2018. |
| D．More Chinese readers tend to read through the mobile phones. |
| A．Unclear | B．Positive |
| C．Skeptical | D．Casual |
8 . Medicine is not only a human invention. Many other animals, from insects to birds to nonhuman primates (灵长类), have been known to self-medicate with plants and minerals for infections and other conditions. Behavioral ecologist Helen of the Borneo Nature Foundation has spent decades studying the island’ s orangutans (红毛猩猩) and says she has now found evidence they use plants in a previously unseen medicinal way.
During more than 20,000 hours of formal observation, Helen and her colleagues watched 10 orangutans occasionally chew a particular plant (which is not part of their normal diet) into a juice and then rub it into their fur. They spent up to 45 minutes at a time rubbing the mixture onto their upper arms or legs. The researchers believe this behavior is the first known example of a nonhuman animal using an external pain-killer.
Local people use the same plant—Dracaena cantleyi (龙血树), an unremarkable-looking bush with stalked leaves—to treat aches and pains. Helens, co-authors studied its chemistry. They added chemicals from the plant to human cells that had been grown in a dish and had been artificially stimulated to produce cytokines (细胞因子), an immune system response that causes inflammation (炎症) and discomfort. The plant chemical reduced the production of several types of cytokines. The scientists reported the finding in a study published last November in Scientific Reports.
The results suggest that orangutans use the plant to reduce inflammation and treat pain. Such findings could help identify plants and chemicals that might be useful for human medications.
1. What does “They” in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Birds. | B．Local people. |
| C．The ten orangutans. | D．The researchers. |
| A．It can produce cytokines. | B．It is effective as a pain-killer. |
| C．It is a special looking bush. | D．It can lead to inflammation and discomfort. |
| A．Orangutans mainly live on the particular plant. |
| B．Orangutans are the first animals to use a pain-killer. |
| C．Helens findings can be of great use for human drugs. |
| D．Helens co-authors added the chemicals from human cells to the plant. |
| A．By analyzing data. | B．By sharing experiences. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By giving examples. |
9 . My old professor’s death sentence came in the summer of 1994. Doctors guessed he had two years left. Morrie knew it was less. But he had made a big decision, one he began to construct the day he came out of the doctor’s office with a sword hanging over his head. He would make death his final project. Since everyone was going to die, he could be of great value, right? He could be researched. Morrie would walk that final bridge between life and death, and record the trip.
The last class of my old professor’s life had only one student. I was the student. The class met on Tuesdays. The subject was “The Meaning of life”. It was taught from experience. No grades were given, but there were oral exams each week. You were expected to respond to questions, and you were expected to raise questions of your own. You were also required to perform physical tasks now and then, such as lifting the professor’s head to a comfortable spot on the pillow or placing his glasses on the bridge of his nose. Kissing him goodbye earned you extra credits. No books were required, yet many topics were covered, including love, work, community, family, aging, forgiveness, and finally, death.
I look back sometimes at the person I was before I rediscovered my old professor. I want to talk to that person. I want to tell him to be more open, to pay attention when your loved ones are speaking, as if it were the last time you might hear them. None of us can undo what we’ve done, or relive a life already recorded. But if Morrie taught me anything at all, it was this: there is no such thing as “too late” in life. He was changing until the day he said goodbye.
1. What can be learned about Morrie from Paragraph 1?| A．He was sentenced to death by the court. |
| B．He decided to face death positively. |
| C．He left the doctor’s office with a sword. |
| D．He decided to travel and record the trip. |
| A．Many students attended it. |
| B．Kissing the teacher was required. |
| C．Different aspects of life were involved. |
| D．Grades were given after each oral exam. |
| A．The person “I” used to be. | B．A loved person. |
| C．The professor. | D．A student. |
| A．To introduce an unforgettable class. |
| B．To encourage people to accept death. |
| C．To stress a teacher’s great influence. |
| D．To educate readers to treat teachers sincerely. |
10 . Tiny microbes (微生物) are at the heart of a new agricultural technique to manage harmful greenhouse gas. Scientists have discovered how microbes can be used to turn carbon dioxide into soil-enriching limestone (石灰石), with the help of a type of tree that grows in tropical areas, such as West Africa.
Researchers have found that when the Iroko tree is grown in dry, acidic soil and treated with a combination of natural fungi (霉菌) and other bacteria, not only does the tree grow well, it also produces the mineral limestone in the soil around its root.
The Iroko tree makes a mineral by combining Ca from the earth with CO2 from the atmosphere. The bacteria then create the conditions under which this mineral turns into limestone. The discovery offers a new way to lock carbon into the soil, keeping it out of the atmosphere. In addition to storing carbon in the trees' leaves and in the form of limestone, the mineral in the soil makes it more suitable for agriculture.
The discovery could lead to reforestation projects in tropical countries, and help reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the developing world. It has already been used in West Africa and is being tested in Bolivia, Haiti and India.
The findings were made in a three-year project involving researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh, Granada, Lausanne and Delft University of Technology. The project examined several microbiological methods of locking CO2 as limestone, and the Iroko-bacteria way showed best results. Work was funded by the European Commission under the Future&Emerging Technologies(FET)scheme.
Dr Bryne Ngwenya of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, who led the research, said："By taking advantage of this natural limestone-producing process, we have a low-tech, safe, readily employed and easily operating way to lock carbon out of the atmosphere, while improving farming conditions in tropical countries."
1. The passage is mainly introducing ______ .| A．some useful natural fungi and bacteria |
| B．the soil-enriching limestone created by scientists |
| C．a newly-found tree in West Africa |
| D．a new way to deal with greenhouse gas |
| A．Tiny microbes get along well with the Iroko tree in special soil. |
| B．CO2 can be broken down by natural fungi and bacteria. |
| C．The more greenhouse gas is, the more active tiny microbes become. |
| D．Most tiny microbes like living in dry, acidic soil. |
| A．Carbon dioxide. | B．Soil. |
| C．Carbon. | D．Limestone. |
| A．The action of the tiny microbes can increase the oxygen in the earth. |
| B．Researchers tend to use natural power to solve their problem. |
| C．Researchers have done the experiment on trees in Africa for three years. |
| D．West Africa is one of the most polluted areas all over the world. |
