1 . My mother was a cook. Through her I learned to appreciate how a handful of ingredients could create delicious, nutritious meals on tight budgets. And in our home, nothing was ever wasted, as we shopped for food needs as opposed to wants.
I talk about all this because I’m absolutely shocked by the price of groceries. And, as someone who has been writing about the food industry for decades, and having weathered the economic depression when the price was also high—I have never seen things as bad as they are today.
Just recently, I couldn’t bring myself to purchase three small potatoes for almost $7. I saw cucumbers for $3.99 EACH. Some stores had grapes at a ridiculous $6.99 a pound. Add to that the alarming increase in everyday food, like coffee, milk and dairy, no wonder everyone is feeling the pinch(拮据).
I went shopping on the weekend, and came out with $186 worth of food in three grocery bags. I returned two items immediately. I purchased a liter of milk that had been marked down 50%—but I didn’t catch in time that the cashier forgot to ring in the discount, and charged me full price.
As I just feed my husband and myself, I can afford to purchase more organic proteins, like chicken. But I can also appreciate not every family can afford to do so, which is my major concern.
Can the increase of food prices be slowed down or even stopped? With the increasing consumer demand for foods not in season or readily available, plus people looking for fast convenience, I do believe the answer lies within us: We need to take back control over the foods we eat. Stop listening to all the hype (宣传) that convenience is better than cooking creativity, and just get back to basics.
People need to go back to basics, learn some fundamental kitchen essentials and truly be mindful of cooking practices. Just as an old saying goes, if you give someone a fish, they’ll eat for a day, but if you teach someone to fish, they’ll eat forever.
1. What might be the author?| A．A cook. | B．A writer. | C．A publisher. | D．A businesswoman. |
| A．They cost too much. | B．She took the items by mistake. |
| C．The cashier made a mistake. | D．She found they were of no use. |
| A．Puzzled. | B．Helpless. | C．Angry. | D．Worried. |
| A．Do more cooking at home. | B．Control food consumption. |
| C．Purchase more organic proteins. | D．Learn to fish if you like eating fish. |
2 . Standing Indian Campground
For those who want world-class whitewater rafting(漂流)
·Location: Located inside the Nantahala National Forest
·Campground Contact: (828)524-6441
·Park Hours: Open 24 hours
·Campground Website
Standing Indian Campground is one of several campgrounds located inside the Nantahala National Forest. Established in 1920, the Nantahala National Forest got its name from the Cherokee word meaning “Land of the Noonday Sun”. The half-a-million-acre forest is also one of four managed by the United States Forest Service and is settled deep within the mountains.
The National Forest is also home to three appointed Wilderness Areas and two Wild and Scenic Rivers. These famed rivers also offer world-class kayaking, canoeing, whitewater rafting, boating, water-skiing, fishing, and swimming. For hikers, the famous Appalachian Trail runs directly through the forest, so don’t be alarmed if you see a hiker walking on the trail. In addition, like many national forests in North Carolina, camping is free of charge at several spots in Nantahala National Forest. At this campground, you can also camp at a height of 3,880 feet under evergreens near the Nantahala River.
The campground also features several loops (环形) that are perfect for tent camping and large enough for RVs. In addition, Standing Indian is a convenient spot for travellers passing through, yet ideal enough for those who want to stay longer.
Campground Breakdown:
·88 Sites in Total
·Standard Nonelectric Premium Site: $20 per night
·Standard Site: $20 per night
·Group Standard Nonelectric: $75 per night, accommodates up to 25 people
·Double Site: $40 per night
Standing Indian Facilities: Picnic tables, fire rings, toilets, showers
1. What is the name “Nantahala National Forest” related to?| A．A service. | B．An Indian. | C．A word. | D．A mountain. |
| A．Skiing. | B．Rowing. | C．Hunting. | D．Surfing. |
| A．Double Site. | B．Standard Site. |
| C．Standard Nonelectric Premium Site. | D．Group Standard Nonelectric. |
3 . Some roboticists believe robots can actually solve some of our biggest social problems, including loneliness and dementia (痴呆).
In 2019, Japanese robotics company GrooveX introduced LOVOT, a robot that weighs as much as a baby and looks like a mix between a penguin and a bear. In fact, LOVOT is just one of the latest robots meant to help people who are suffering from issues such as loneliness and dementia.
LOVOT has a system of sensors that allows it to move freely around a room and respond to things. For example, they will get its belly rubbed or fall asleep when it’s held. Also, when LOVOT needs a hug, it will find its owner in the house and wait until it is picked up. All over the world, robots like LOVOT are being used for “robot-assisted therapy (治疗)”. For example, when a robot baby seal named PARO was given to an elderly Australian patient with dementia, the patient spoke for the first time since arriving at the nursing facility. In New Zealand, when dementia patients were given the chance to play with PARO or a real dog, they chose to play with PARO.
The invention of robots like LOVOT and PARO is no accident. Our society is quickly changing, and some countries are becoming “aging societies”. Sometimes, these older populations don’t have enough love or companionship in their life, and their age or health might mean they can’t care for a pet. That’s why LOVOT and PARO could be the perfect companions for both young and old folks, always ready to give love without ever asking or anything in return.
1. Which of the following is a feature of LOVOT?| A．It offers help to all people. | B．Its weight is as heavy as a bear. |
| C．It is recommended by GrooveX. | D．Its appearance is just like a penguin. |
| A．Helped by robots. | B．Destroyed by robots. |
| C．Trained by robots. | D．Completed by robots. |
| A．A robot baby dog that looks like a real dog. |
| B．A robot baby seal that helps the patients with dementia. |
| C．A robot baby bear that is used for “robot-assisted therapy”. |
| D．A robot baby animal that cured an elderly Australian patient with dementia. |
| A．Because they are robots. | B．Because they are attractive. |
| C．Because they lack company. | D．Because they are needed by the society. |
The Chinese war film The Battle at Lake Changjin
The film tells the story about how Chinese People's Volunteer soldiers held their ground during fierce cold and the enemy's more
Song Zhongping,
5 . Last week, social media posts about a cooking course for school kids, as part of a life skill program to be delivered nationwide this September, went viral (迅速传播) on the Internet. It quickly became the top trending topic on China’s Twitter-like Weibo, sparking heated discussions among netizens.
Based on a new national curriculum standard for compulsory education launched by China’s Ministry of Education (MOE), it outlines different cooking and nutrition courses for students in different grades.
It is recommended that first and second graders learn how to peel fruits and brew tea and acquire a basic knowledge of nutrition as well as the ability to take part in basic cooking at home. Students in grades five and six are expected to acquire basic cooking skills such as frying and stewing, and be able to prepare a nutritious meal for their own families.
Apart from essential skills such as cooking and housekeeping, the program is also designed to enrich their knowledge in production work as well as services.
Many netizens hailed the life skill program and expressed their happiness toward the changing pattern of education.
“This should have been done earlier. Children nowadays lack adequate physical activities and can barely distinguish wheat from rice crops,” commented a user on Douyin. So far the comment has gained 24,000 likes and received nearly 500 replies.
Some netizens, however, expressed their concern that as a non-core curriculum, the program cannot be fully carried out in schools, while others are worried that the program will merely put an extra burden on parents.
“Through the learning and experience, students will develop respect for labor, the ability to make innovations and apply knowledge and skills in real life, and a sense of social responsibilities. Schools should take the lead in teaching life skills, while families should play a supporting role.” said Gu Jianjun, a MOE official.
1. What can we learn about the life skill program from the passage?| A．Cooking and nutrition courses vary for students in different grades. |
| B．The program is designed only to enrich students’ cooking knowledge. |
| C．Students in grades one and two are required to prepare a nutritious meal. |
| D．Fifth and sixth graders are expected to learn how to peel fruits and brew tea. |
| A．Opposed. | B．Praised. | C．Promoted. | D．Concerned. |
| A．It should have been done earlier. |
| B．It will put an extra burden on students. |
| C．It will not be put into effect completely. |
| D．Children nowadays lack adequate physical activities. |
| A．Teaching life skills became popular among schools. |
| B．A new national curriculum standard went viral online. |
| C．A cooking course for school kids caused discussions online. |
| D．Learning cooking developed a sense of social responsibilities. |
6 . When I was a boy, we lived 4 miles outside of town. We lived next to the forest and I would spend hours every day playing in it with the oak (橡树) and maple trees as my companions. I would climb up their limbs, sit in their shade, and feel their peace.
That is why it was so hard for me when I found myself to be a lumberjack as a young man. It wasn't just the back breaking work, the long hours, and the low pay. It was also seeing day after day beautiful trees that had grown for half a century being sawed (锯) up and cut into flooring. Still, I couldn't help but think that they looked a lot more lovely as living trees reaching up to Heaven than as dead flooring lying under my feet.
One afternoon after a long day's work, I was feeling particularly down and depressed.I decided to take a walk in the woods like I had as a boy in hopes of lifting my spirits and calming my soul. As I walked along with my aching back and tired body, I longed for those happy childhood days. I dropped my head frustratedly and looked down at the dirt. That is when I saw it: a single, red oak acorn (橡子) that had somehow survived the hungry deer and squirrels all winter long.Then I remembered something I'd read once: “Eventually an acorn becomes a forest!” I smiled, bent down, dug up a handful of dirt, and planted that little acorn, feeling peace and joy warming my heart. Then I walked back home happy once again to be a part of God's green earth.
In this life we all start out as an acorn, but whether we become a forest or not is up to us. God gives us this glorious life here to grow, learn, laugh, love,share, smile, and help others to do the same.Embrace this gift of life. Use it to every day stretch your soul towards Heaven and create a mighty forest of love.
1. Which of the following can best describe the author's childhood?| A．Carefree |
| B．Dull. |
| C．Plain. |
| D．Miserable. |
| A．A person who plants trees. |
| B．A person who waters trees. |
| C．A person who cuts trees. |
| D．A person who protects the forest. |
| A．He climbed up an oak tree. |
| B．He planted a little oak acorn. |
| C．He came across a book he had ever read. |
| D．He found some hungry deer and squirrels. |
| A．Accepting the gift of life. |
| B．Taking a walk in the woods. |
| C．Experiencing a typical working day. |
| D．Refreshing the unforgettable memory. |
7 . Cycling has become more than a habit for “Granny Mave,” as Mavis Paterson is known. It has become essential for her very being, her very reason for living after all three of her adult children passed away within four years of each other — Sandy in 2012, Katie in 2013 and Bob in 2016.
It was in memory of her children that the 85-year-old grandmother set out on her latest endurance challenge in May, cycling 1,000 miles around Scotland, beginning from the Mull of Galloway, before heading north, tracing the outline of the country until she reached the Mull of Galloway again.
“If I didn’t have my bicycle, and this is terrible to say, I don’t think I would want to live,” she told CNN Sport.
Paterson cycled every day for a month around Scotland, navigating its undulating (起伏的) landscape, exposed roads and unpredictable weather. Every day, she woke up early and set out riding — covering up to 50 miles a day — and raising money for British-based charity Macmillan Cancer Support.
Cycling has provided some comfort, some way for her to cope with unimaginable loss. All along the route, Paterson recalled other cyclists coming out to keep her company, offering “terrific support,” some of them riding with her for several days at a time. Such support was a constant throughout Paterson’s odyssey (跋涉) across Scotland, ending in a crowd at the finish line who had gathered to cheer her on.
“I know people have got on their bikes and thought, ‘If that old lady can do it, I can do it.’ And also people who have been a bit depressed and thought, ‘Oh gosh, I shouldn’t be like this. Look at poor Mave, she’s lost all her children.’ So a lot of people have taken up cycling because of my cycle rides and just inspired people apparently,” she said.
1. Why did Paterson start her cycling around Scotland?| A．To keep exercise and improve her health. |
| B．To take up the hobby of her three children. |
| C．To recover from the death of her children. |
| D．To be the oldest lady to ride around Scotland. |
| A．It is highly profitable and well-received. |
| B．It requires great effort and determination. |
| C．It needs professional training and equipment. |
| D．It aims to raise money for the disabled people. |
| A．The support Paterson asked others for. |
| B．Some achievements Paterson achieved. |
| C．The challenges Paterson set for herself. |
| D．The friendship Paterson got along the way. |
| A．A cyclist. | B．A sponsor. | C．A hopeless mother. | D．An inspiration. |
We moved here a few days ago, and I don’t know anyone, not one person, at the new place. Dad says things will get better. He says I’ll take to city living just like I took to climbing trees and playing ball. I look out the window of our new apartment.
“This was a good move for us, Sonny,” Dad says, “You’ll see.”
“I miss the guys,” I say. “I miss Michigan. I miss” — I gaze up and down the street — “trees.”
“Los Angeles isn’t a bad place,” he says. Then he tells me about a park he saw down the street. “It has a couple of basketball courts. Get out there and sweat today. You’ve kept yourself inside too long.” I nod.
That afternoon, I grab my basketball and head down the street to find the courts. Dad was right about being kept inside too long. It’s about time to shake the cobwebs(蜘蛛网)off my basketball legs, see if I can still dribble(运球)with both hands, and remain a good shooter. I walk past all the shops with bars on their windows. This is home?
When I get to the courts, I see three guys shooting around. They’re playing some kind of one-on-one, taking turns with the third guy in. Two of them are taller than me, but one is about my size. I can tell that the short kid knows how to play by the way he handles the ball, dribbling well with either hand. But the other guys are too tall for him. One-on-one isn’t his game. He needs someone to pass to.
I go down to the other basket to shoot around. I’m pretty cold at first. But after I warm up, the old feelings come back — the proper knee bend, the feel of releasing the ball just right.
“Hi, there.”
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。
I stop and turn around, catching sight of the short kid.
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Without hesitation I accept his invitation to play in the upcoming League Cup.
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9 . Vitamin C for a cold? A good dose of Vitamin D on a sunny day? We all know that vitamins are critical for our health, but how did they get their names and when were they discovered in the first place?
American nutrition scientist Elmer McCullum conducted a variety of feed experiments with different animal populations and discovered that an “accessory” substance contained in some fats was essential to growth. That fat-soluble (脂溶的) substance became known as Vitamin “A” for “accessory.”
McCollum and others also conducted further experiments with rice-bran-derived nutrient, naming it Vitamin “B” after beriberi, which can cause heart failure and a loss of sensation in the legs and feet. Eventually, it turned out that the substance known as Vitamin B was a complex of eight water-soluble vitamins, which were each given individual names and numbered in order of discovery.
The custom of naming vitamins alphabetically in order of discovery continued. Today, four fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) and nine water-soluble vitamins (Vitamin C and the eight B vitamins) are considered essential to human growth and health. Only one vitamin bucked the oh-so-logical naming system: Vitamin K, discovered by Danish researcher Carl Peter Henrik Dam in 1929. The substance should have been in line to be called Vitamin F given its discovery date. But Dam’s research revealed that the vitamin is essential for blood coagulation (凝固) — known as Koagulation in the German journal that published his research — and his abbreviation for the vitamin somehow stuck.
It’s been decades since the last essential vitamin — Vitamin B12 — was discovered in 1948. It now appears unlikely that scientists will ever discover a new essential vitamin. But even if there’s no Vitamin F or G in our future, that doesn’t mean nutritional discovery has stopped completely. If the golden age of vitamin discovery was an appetizer (开胃菜) of sorts, scientists are devoted to the main course — a rapidly evolving understanding of the ways food shapes our lives, one microscopic substance at a time.
1. What can we learn from paragraph 2 and paragraph 3?| A．Vitamin A is a water-soluble substance. |
| B．Vitamin B was named after a kind of disease. |
| C．The eight B vitamins got names from their functions. |
| D．The subjects of McCullum’s experiments are home. |
| A．Created. | B．Destroyed. | C．Broke. | D．Followed. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Unclear. | C．Doubtful. | D．Confident. |
| A．How Do Vitamins Influence Our Health? |
| B．Who Discovered Various Vitamins for Us? |
| C．Why Is There a Vitamin K but No Vitamin F? |
| D．How Many Vitamins Are Still Left to Be Discovered? |
10 . Over the past decade, more and more travelers have been embracing the idea of slow travel. One of the most popular methods of slow travel, if you have the time, is by rail. Here are our picks for some of the best train rides in the world.
The Glacier Express
The Glacier Express takes more than eight hours to cross the 180-mile journey between Zermatt and St. Moritz in Switzerland at an average of 18 mph. The classic red train journey brings you to Europe’s mountains at their very best — with views of snow-covered forests and peaks included!
The Nilgiri Mountain Railway
Running through Tamil Nadu State, the train is the slowest in India due to an extremely steep gradient on the route. It takes nearly five hours to cover a distance of 46 km. Clearly nobody uses the NMR to get from A to B, but for the sheer joy of riding in a train that passes through 16 tunnels, 250 bridges and 208 steep curves on the richly biodiverse Western Ghats mountain range.
No. 6063/6064
With a length of 257 kilometers, the highly popular “small-and-slow train” route winds through the Qinling Mountains, linking 13 stations at the highest cost of 39.5 yuan. Villagers take the train to sell their vegetables in nearby counties to add to their families’ income. Helping poverty alleviation and carrying students to schools, the rail line, running for over 60 years, is a guarantee of and witness to the wish for a better life of the people along its route.
Royal Scotsman
With the full length of 1930 kilometers, the Royal Scotsman marries Edwardian elegance with the comforts of a five-star country house. The train includes elegant lounges, comfortable suites, and an open observation deck. The 9-coach train carries a just 36 passengers maximum with a passenger to staff ratio of 1:3. One of the coaches is the amazing Bamford Spa offering something of a palace on wheels.
1. Why do people choose the Nilgiri Mountain Railway?| A．To view the snow-covered forests. |
| B．To travel from one place to another. |
| C．To experience the amusement of riding. |
| D．To study the geography of the Western Ghats. |
| A．The Glacier Express. | B．No. 6063/6064. |
| C．The Nilgiri Mountain Railway. | D．Royal Scotsman. |
| A．Its luxury. | B．Its route. | C．Its history. | D．Its convenience. |
