1 . When it comes to travel, sometimes wandering is one of the most exciting things you can do. In a time when travellers are both more adventurous and eco-conscious than ever, it’s no surprise that there’s a wealth of new vocabulary to describe how we travel, when we travel and how the experience makes us feel. Here are eight of our favourite travel words that you may not have heard before.

We’ve kicked off a blog with the staycation, “a holiday in one’s own country”. The term first became popular in the mid-2000s, when the global financial crisis meant people had less income to spend on flash holidays and instead searched for cheaper local choices. Since 2020, the staycation is experiencing a revival (复兴). Benefits of staycations include cheaper travel costs, no spending hours in the airport and, of course, no need to worry about whether your passport expired (过期) last year.

Once upon a time, if you wanted to meet new people on your travels, you could stay at a hostel or with a host on Airbnb. Now, you can couch surf. And not just in “the staying at various friends’ houses until you find a new place to rent” sense: couch surfing is quickly becoming a hot new travel trend. Travellers can now choose to couch surf all across the world via a website which treats travel as a cultural exchange, allowing people to connect with willing hosts and crash on their sofas.

Given that single-use and climate strike were selected as the Collins 2018 and 2019 Words of the Year respectively, it’s clear that the climate crisis is very much on everybody’s mind. This desire to make more sustainable choices is also affecting the way we spend our vacation days. Ecotourism is another popular travel trend, defined as tourism that is designed to contribute to the protection of the environment. Examples of ecotourism include ditching short-haul flights, staying at eco-friendly resorts, or booking a staycation.

1. When did the staycation become popular firstly?

A．About in 2018.

B．About in 2019.

C．About in 2005.

D．About in 2010.

2. How many new travel words are mentioned in the text?

A．Two.

B．Three.

C．Four.

D．Six.

3. What does the text mainly focus on?

A．The eco-friendly travel ways.	B．The cheap ways to get around.
C．The changing words of travel.	D．The spread of history and culture.

4. What is probably continued with the text?

A．The other new travel words.	B．Ways to protect environment.
C．Other examples of ecotourism.	D．Experiences of reaching culture.

2 . The green revolution in the 1960s was one of the greatest achievements in human history. By promoting more productive varieties of wheat and, especially, rice, scientists in India, Mexico, China and the Philippines doubled Asia’s rice yields from 1965 to 1995.

But the world has reached a crossroad again. By one estimate, the world will need to produce almost a third more rice by 2050. Yet rice production has increased by less than 1% a year over the past decade.

This has many explanations. Urbanization and industrialization have made labour and farmland scarcer (稀缺的). Overuse of chemicals and irrigation have poisoned soils and dried up groundwater. But the biggest reason may be global warming that often leads to extreme conditions. Heavy rains and droughts last year in India, the world’s biggest rice exporter, led to a reduced harvest and an export ban. Floods in Pakistan, the fourth-biggest exporter, wiped out 15% of its rice harvest. Rising sea-levels are causing salt to enter the Mekong Delta, Vietnam’s “rice bowl”.

It is getting worse. Rice is not just a victim of climate change, but also a contributor to it. It is a bigger source of greenhouse gas than any foodstuff except beef. If you count the destruction of forestland for rice fields, that footprint is even bigger.

Therefore, governments need to attract producers and consumers away from rice. India and Indonesia are promoting millet, which is more nutritious and uses much less water. Canceling subsidies (补贴) that favour rice over other crops would make such efforts more effective. India, for example, purchases rice from farmers, often at above-market rates, then distributes it as food aid to the poor. It should make its interventions more rice-unfriendly, by replacing subsidies and free rice with income support for farmers and the poor. That would encourage farmers to choose the best crop for their local conditions — much of India’s agricultural north-west would switch from rice to wheat overnight. Poor Indians would be free to choose a more balanced diet. As a result, it would correct a market unfavorable to environment and health.

1. What can we know about the green revolution in Asia?

A．It has remarkably reduced the use of water and chemicals.

B．It once increased rice production by more than 3% a year.

C．It has popularized more productive crops, especially wheat.

D．It has been mainly led by scientists from America and Europe.

2. What is the most serious threat to rice production according to the text?

A．Worsening global warming.	B．Unnecessary bans on rice export.
C．Lowering prices for the crop.	D．Urbanization and industrialization.

3. What does the author suggest the Indian government do?

A．Expand the planting of rice.	B．Give rice farmers more subsidies.
C．Replace rice with better local crops.	D．Distribute rice as food aid to the poor.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．Achievements of the Green Revolution	B．Efforts to Promote More Suitable Crops
C．Consequences of the Green Revolution	D．Ideas to Fix the Current Global Rice Crisis

3 . Think of the Mississippi Delta. Maybe you imagine cotton fields and blues music. It has been all that. But for more than a century, the Delta has also been a popular destination for immigrants. Recently, I was assigned to learn more about one immigrant group in particular: the Chinese in Greenville, a small city along the Mississippi River. There I met Raymond Wong, whose family has long been part of the community.

The first wave of Chinese immigrants came to the Mississippi Delta soon after the Civil War, and the pace picked up by the early 1900s. The Chinese originally came to pick cotton, but they quickly started opening grocery stores, mostly in the African-American communities where they lived. The stores sold meat, fresh vegetables, canned goods, anything you might need. Nothing Chinese about them, except the owners.

“On my street alone, there were at least four grocery stores. I’m talking about a small street,” Wong recalls. “I was raised in a grocery store. All my family — six of us — lived in a couple of rooms at the back of our store. As soon as I could count money I had to work in the store.”

In 1968, Wong’s father opened a Chinese restaurant called How Joy in Greenville, one of the first in the town. At the time, nobody knew what Chinese food was. “But the restaurant existed for 40 years. I worked there, too,” Wong says.

Wong remembers a time of big excitement when he was young: The family finally could afford to buy a house in a white neighborhood. Then suddenly, that conversation stopped.

“When people found out that we were moving in, they started throwing bottles in the driveway,” Wong says. “We ended up building a house directly behind the grocery.”

And the future? It’s probably not in the Delta. Wong remembers the question his son asked when he was still in high school: “Dad, do you want me to take over the store when you retire?” Wong’s response was immediate: “No. I want you to do better than me.” That’s the story of the typical Delta Chinese.

1. What did the Delta Chinese originally do shortly after the Civil War?

A．Working in cotton fields.	B．Running restaurants.
C．Importing Chinese food.	D．Opening grocery stores.

2. What can we learn from paragraph 3?

A．Raymond Wong had a fun and carefree childhood.

B．The store owners’ children were very talented in math.

C．There was intense competition among the grocery stores.

D．The Wongs was the most successful family in Greenville.

3. The Wongs stopped buying the house because ______.

A．the house owner raised the price	B．their business failed unexpectedly
C．they did not have enough money	D．the white people did not accept them

4. How do the typical Chinese feel about their life in the Delta?

A．Excited.

B．Insecure.

C．Unconcerned.

D．Optimistic.

4 . When I was a child, I always wanted to be a superhero. I wanted to save the world and make everyone happy. But I knew that I’d need superpowers to make my dreams come true. So I used to embark on these imaginary journeys to find intergalactic (星系之间的) objects from planet Krypton, but didn’t yield much result. When I grew up and realized that science fiction was not a good source for superpowers, I decided instead to embark on a journey of real science, to find a more useful truth.

I started my journey in California, with a UC Berkeley 30-year longitudinal study that examined the photos of students in an old yearbook, and tried to measure their success and well-being throughout their life.By measuring the students’ smiles, researchers were able to predict how fulfilling and long-lasting a subject’s marriage would be, how well they would score on standardized tests of well-being, and how inspiring they would be to others.

Another aha moment came from a 2010 Wayne State University span research project that looked into pre-1950s baseball cards of Major League players. The researchers found that the span of a player’s smile could actually assist to predict the span of his life. Players who didn’t smile in their pictures lived an average of only 72.9 years, while players with beaming smiles lived an average of almost 80 years.

British researchers found that one smile can generate the same level of brain stimulation as up to 2,000 bars of chocolate. Wait — The same study found that smiling is as stimulating as receiving up to £16,000 in cash. That’s like $25,000 a smile. It’s not bad. And think about it this way: 25,000 times 400 — children smile as many as 400 times per day — quite a few kids out there feel like Mark Zuckerberg every day.

So whenever you want to tap into a superpower that will help you and everyone around you live a longer, healthier, happier life, smile.

1. Why did the author shift to pursuing scientific research?

A．Because he discovered galactic objects during childhood.

B．Because he realized sci-fi couldn’t bring superpowers.

C．Because he dreamed of global happiness since youth.

D．Because he embarked on these fictional journeys.

2. What can we infer from Paragraph 4?

A．Every child smiles 400 times per day.

B．Kids who smile are as rich as Zukerberg.

C．Smiling is equal to eating 2,000 bars of chocolate.

D．Smiling can gain stimulation alike receiving cash.

3. What’s the author’s attitude towards the effect of smiles on people?

A．Positive.

B．Doubtful.

C．Neutral.

D．Indifferent.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．The journey to find the truth.

B．The hidden power of smiling.

C．The secret to a long and healthy life.

D．The significance of superhero studies.

5 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入 1 个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Does music have the power to help us sleep better? According to a recent research, it does. Using an experiment in     1     62 young adults listened to five nights of happy music, five nights of sad music, and five nights of pink noise, researchers found that people reported sleeping better and feeling more positive    2     (little) negative, and more satisfied with life on mornings after listening to music while falling asleep.

These benefits    3     (find) when comparing listening to music with listening to pink noise. Given that pink noise is thought    4     (help) deepen sleep, the additional beneficial effects of music beyond pink noise are    5     (impress).

Does the type of music matter? There were no    6     (difference) in sleep quality and well-being when comparing happy and sad music.     7     (important), all of the music was selected with the goal of being calm and relaxing. And although this study focused    8     young adults, other research has found effects on older adults, suggesting music might be helpful across the lifespan.

Why would music have these beneficial effects? So far, little research     9     (test) the reasons why music improves sleep quality but suggested reasons include relaxation, a distraction from unwanted thoughts,     10     masking of unpleasant background noise.

6 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

When our youngest sister was born, my little brother Tom was six and I was eight. I had always been the “Big Sister” and he had always been “The Baby”.

Our sister’s arrival was a complete surprise to both of us. In those days no one worried much about sibling rivalry (兄弟姐妹间的较劲), and no “experts” told us how to deal with another child in the house. We had wise and loving grandpa and mom, however.

I was excited about the baby and loved to hold her and help care for her. Tom’s feelings were quite different! He just looked at her and left, preferring to spend the evening in his room. When I went to his room to talk to him and try to get him to play games with me, he just looked away. “Why did they have to get that baby?” Tom asked.

Later that night, Grandpa came over to see the new baby. As he held her, he said to Tom, “You know, she’s a lot like the baby lamb I’m raising on the bottle. I have to take care of her and feed her often, just the way your mom does with the baby.” Tom said, “I’d rather have the lamb.”

Grandpa heard and said, “Well, if you’d rather have a lamb, maybe we could trade your little sister for it. I’ll give you a day to think it over, and if you still want to trade tomorrow, we’ll do it.” I thought I saw him wink at Mom, but I knew I must have been mistaken because Grandpa never winked at anyone.

After Grandpa left, Mom read to Tom for a long while. Tom kept looking at the baby, and Mom asked him to hold our little sister while she went to the bathroom. When Mom came back. Tom was gently touching the baby’s smooth black hair, and as he held her hand, she took hold of his finger.

注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

“Mom, look! She’s holding my hand!” Tom smiled.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“She’s a day older now. I think she’s worth five lambs now,” Tom said.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7 .

YOUTH CLUB Free Membership for You It’s our tenth birthday this year. Now we are offering (提供) free membership (会员资格) to two lucky people. If you want to be one of those lucky people, you have to tell us your answers to these questions. ◆ Why do you want to keep healthy? ◆ How do you keep healthy? ◆ What’s your favourite sport? Swimming, tennis, basketball, table tennis or weight training? Fill in the form and send a photo of yourself to Peter Brown. His email address is youthclub@ 26.com.

1. When was Youth Club started?

A．Seven years ago.	B．Ten years ago.
C．Five years age.	D．Six years ago

2. How many kinds of sports are mentioned in the passage?

A．Three

B．Four

C．Five

D．Six

3. After reading the passage, we can know Peter Brown’s ________.

A．date of birth	B．telephone number
C．favorite sport	D．email address

8 . It’s a great feeling when someone gives you a compliment (赞美), isn’t it?    1    When you compliment someone, he/she will become open and begin to talk with you. How do you give an appropriate compliment, though? It’s important to be sincere and specific about your praise.

When someone does an activity or a task particularly well, let him/her know about it by saying “You did a great job!”     2     For example, “That was a great presentation! I particularly liked the funny examples you used.”

    3    You can use “I like” or “I love” to start compliments, especially if someone wears a new coat or has a new haircut. For example, “I love your hair today” or “I like your skirt”.

When you’ve bought something new, it feels great when other people are excited about it. For example, if you take out your new mobile phone and a colleague says, “What a cool phone!”, it makes you feel like you made the right decision to buy it.

    4    

Compliment someone on their personalities and you'll make a new friend. For example, if you like how happy a coworker is, you can tell him/her, “You are always so happy. It makes my day better.”    5     If you like how organized another colleague is, tell him/her, “I really appreciate how organized you are. I would love to be as organized as you.”

A．It’s a useful way to start a conversation, too.

B．Everyone likes compliments about their appearance.

C．Be careful with compliments about appearance, though.

D．So, try giving someone a compliment and see their reaction.

E．Return the favor by complimenting others on nice things they own.

F．To make the compliment more meaningful, make it more specific.

G．Use compliments like this for any quality that you appreciate in a person.

9 . Researchers in Australia have identified enzymes (酶) in the body of certain beetle larvae (甲虫幼虫) that can degrade or break down plastic. In a study published in Microbial Genomics, they write that these “superworms” could help reduce plastic waste in the future.

“Superworms are like mini recycling plants, cutting up the polysyrene (聚苯乙烯) with their mouths and then feeding it to the bacteria in their stomach,” said Chris Rinke from the University of Queensland in Australia. “The breakdown products from this reaction can then be used by other microbes to create high-value chemicals.”

In the study, scientists divided beetle larvae into three groups, feeding one group wheat bran, one polystyrene and one nothing. Over three weeks, they monitored their growth. “We found that superworms fed a diet of just polystyrene not only survived, but even had marginal weight gains,” said Rinke. “This suggests the worms can get energy from the polystyrene, most likely with the help of their stomach bacteria.”

On the other hand, the plastic-fed worms gained much less weight and were overall much less healthy than the bran-fed ones, though better off than the starvation group. After three weeks, some larvae were also set aside to grow into beetles, according to the study. About 93% of the bran-fed larvae formed adult worms, while about 67% of the plastic-fed larvae and 10% of the starved larvae formed adult worms.

The researchers investigated the superworm’s stomach bacteria to find the specific enzymes linked to plastic degradation, writes Fionna M. D. Samuels for Scientific American. The enzyme that degrades the polystyrene appears to live with the stomach bacteria, not the worm itself.

Polystyrene is one of the most common plastics used today. But it’s not very chemically reactive, and breaking it down with industrial recycling methods takes high heat. So, researchers have been looking for plastic-degrading enzymes and bacteria for years.

Further research will still need to be done to figure out how to employ these worms, bacteria and enzymes in recycling facilities.

1. What does Chris Rinke compare superworms to?

A．Small plants.

B．Beetle larvae.

C．Stomach bacteria.

D．High-value chemicals.

2. What does the underlined word “marginal” mean in Paragraph 3?

A．Few.

B．Tiny.

C．Obvious.

D．Normal.

3. What is the sixth paragraph intended to show?

A．The damage of plastic to life.

B．Possible causes of plastic pollution.

C．Researchers’ efforts over the years to recycle plastic.

D．The necessity of finding out a way to degrade plastic.

4. What is the purpose of the text?

A．To report a new way to recycle plastic.	B．To call on people to reduce plastic waste.
C．To explain how larvae can degrade plastic.	D．To introduce the findings of a new research.

10 . This is an unbelievably moving and beautiful film. It shows a father’s _________ at its very best. It is a tear-jerker and I must admit that I am moved to tears.

It is a story _________ in 1939 at the start of World War II. Guido, a cheerful Italian-Jewish waiter, gets _________ to Dora, who is not Jewish. They are in love and have a _________ named Giosuè. As they are preparing for Giosuè’s fifth birthday, Guido and Giosuè are arrested (逮捕) and _________ to a concentration camp. Dora begs to _________ with them even though she is not Jewish. She is sent to the _________ part on the other side of the camp.

To hide the awful _________ from his son, Guido pretends (假装) they are at a holiday camp and are playing a game. In the _________, they have to win points. He __________ his son that the goal is to get 1,000 points — and the prize is a real tank in which they can leave. Here he is talking about the tanks __________ the allies (同盟者) that he hopes will eventually come to save them from the concentration camp when they win the war. He pretends Giosuè can get points for things such as not crying, not saying he is hungry, not asking for his mother, and so on. __________, Guido hides Giosuè, all the while pretending it is a game and they are playing hide-and-seek.

I won’t tell you how the film ends. You will have to watch it for yourself. Many reviewers have __________ this film, and said that it is a must-see. I completely __________, as it is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen — one that I will __________ forget.

1.

A．love

B．hate

C．honesty

D．bravery

2.

A．put

B．set

C．judged

D．broke

3.

A．worried

B．limited

C．reduced

D．married

4.

A．daughter

B．son

C．mother

D．father

5.

A．taken

B．established

C．decorated

D．survived

6.

A．escape

B．protest

C．run

D．go

7.

A．Guido’s

B．Giosuè’s

C．men’s

D．women’s

8.

A．privacy

B．truth

C．fault

D．gender

9.

A．camp

B．point

C．game

D．holiday

10.

A．tells

B．says

C．talks

D．speaks

11.

A．picking out

B．paying off

C．belonging to

D．focusing on

12.

A．Regularly

B．Secondly

C．Eventually

D．Surely

13.

A．admitted

B．designed

C．recommended

D．maintained

14.

A．agree

B．disagree

C．shock

D．apply

15.

A．forever

B．appropriately

C．ever

D．never