Written Chinese has also
The air is thin and we have to rest several times on the short hike from camp. To our left, snow-covered mountains
In the evening, I drink a cup of tea and watch the stars. I think about the antelopes and what Zhaxi told me.
2 . SHOULD WE FIGHT NEW TECHNOLOGY?
This morning, I saw the shocking headline: “Passenger Dies When Car Crashes in Driverless Mode”. In the article, a lot of people said that the public should oppose the idea of developing driverless cars. They said that some advances in technology were unnecessary and could even be dangerous. Therefore, we should stop accepting technology just because it is new. The newspaper reported that the car company had already apologized for the accident, but the families of the deceased (死者) said it was not enough. Nevertheless, the company still claimed that most people would be travelling in driverless cars one day soon.
On the one hand, there are many different groups of people around the world who live happily in the absence of technology. Probably the most well-known are the Amish, a group of Christians living in rural America. They do not own or drive cars, watch TV, or use the Internet. They have lived mainly as farmers since the 18th century, and they will probably be living the same way in the distant future. They advocate a simple life with a focus on hard work, family, and community. They think that is better than caring about luxuries or following the lives of the rich and famous. It could even be argued that the Amish’s quality of life is better since they live in and appreciate the natural environment rather than living in large, polluted cities.
On the other hand, new technology has provided people everywhere with many benefits over the years. For example the latest weather-tracking computer programs give people lots of warnings about potential natural disasters, which saves many lives. Moreover, the Internet has made it possible for friends and family to keep in touch easily even if they are on opposite sides of the world. It has also made finding opportunities in life much easier, as it allows people to make larger networks of friends through using social media.
Personally, I have benefited quite a lot from technological advances. I found my career as an Al designer through a social media network. My health monitor, which I wear all the time, has also helped me get into the best shape of my life. Of course, when new technology changes the way we live, it can be a scary prospect. Nevertheless, I will always look on the positive side of change and accept it rather than resist it.
1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?| A．The relatives of the victim would never accept the apology. |
| B．Many people took a negative attitude to this new technology |
| C．A person died in an accident while driving his brand-new car. |
| D．The company was very concerned about the future of this new technology. |
| A．To persuade us to follow their natural living style. |
| B．To tell us the Amish prefer a harmonious and peaceful life. |
| C．To prove people can still live better without new technology. |
| D．To advocate a simple life with family and community by hard work. |
| A．future | B．advance | C．resistance | D．positivity |
| A．The author wanted to praise the advantages of new technology. |
| B．The author wanted to show his supportive idea of new technology. |
| C．The author wanted to criticize the disadvantages of new technology. |
| D．The author wanted to arouse people’s concern about new technology. |
3 . Are we getting more stupid? According to Gerald Crabtree, a scientist at Stanford University in the US, we are.
You may not want to hear this, but Crabtree believes that human intelligence reached its peak more than 2,000 years ago and ever since then has been going downhill. “If an average Greek from 1,000 BC were transported to modern times, he or she would be one of the brightest among us,” Crabtree told The Guardian.
At the heart of Crabtree’s thinking is a simple idea. In the past, intelligence was critical for survival when our ancestors had to avoid dangerous animals and hunt for food. The difference of being smart or stupid is often life or death. However, after the spread of agriculture when our ancestors began to live in dense farming communities, the need to keep their intelligence in peak condition gradually reduced.
This is not hard to understand. Most of the time, pressure is what keeps us going — you need the pressure from your teachers to finish your homework; the pressure of looking pretty encourages you to lose weight when summer comes. And the same is true of our intelligence — if we think less, we become less smart.
These mutations (变异) are harmful to our intelligence and they were all developed in the past 3,000 years. The other evidence that Crabtree holds is in our genes. He found that among the 2,000 to 5,000 genes that we have that determine human intelligence, there are two or more mutations in each of us.
However, Crabtree’s theory has been criticized by some who say that earl humans may have better hunting and surviving abilities, but people today have developed more diverse intelligence. For example, spearing (用矛刺) a tiger doesn’t necessarily require more brainpower than playing chess or writing a poem. Moreover, the power of modern education means a lot more people have the opportunity to learn nowadays.
“You wouldn’t get Stephen Hawking 2, 000 years ago. He just wouldn’t exist,” now Thomas Hills of the University of Warwick, UK, told Live Science. “But now we have people of his intellectual capacity doing things and making insights (洞察力) that we would never have achieved in our environment of evolutionary adaptation (进化适应).”
1. What is Crabtree’s recent finding according to the article?
| A．The Greeks from 1,000 BC could have been the smartest in human history. |
| B．Our ancient ancestors had no better surviving abilities than we do nowadays. |
| C．Humans have been getting steadily more intelligent since the invention of farfing. |
| D．Mutations in genes that decide human intelligence have affected the development of intelligence. |
| A．were forced to be smart due to natural selection pressures |
| B．had much more genes that determine human Intelligence |
| C．relied more on group intelligence than individual intelligence |
| D．developed diverse intelligence to adapt to the hard realities |
| A．people today are under much more pressure than early humans |
| B．it’s unreasonable to compare hunter’s and a poet’s intelligence |
| C．modern education is far more advanced than ancient education |
| D．human intelligence nowadays is different from that of the distant past |
| A．He is for Crabtree’s theory. |
| B．He is against Crabtree’s theory |
| C．He is worried about Crabtree’s theory. |
| D．He is confused about Crabtree’s theory. |
4 . “Yes, he must be a poor artist,” thought Miss Martha, a middle-aged single lady who had a bakery. A regular customer attracted her attention. He spoke English witha strong German accent. His clothes were worn and wrinkled in places. But he looked neat, and had very good manners. Once Miss Martha saw a red and brown stain on his fingers.
Every time he bought two loaves of stale(陈旧的) bread. Fresh bread was five cents a loaf. Stale ones were two for five. Never did he call for anything but stale bread.
Genius often has to struggle before it is recognized Her heart ached to add something good to eat to his purchase, but she did not dare offend him. She knew the pride of artists.
One day the customer came in as usual. While Miss Martha was reaching for loaves, there was a fire engine with great noise outside. The customer hurried to the door to look, as any one will. Suddenly inspired, Miss Martha seized the opportunity and quickly inserted a generous quantity of butter into the loaves to do a pleasant favor for him.
Had she been too bold? Would he take offense? She imagined the scene when he should discover her little secret. Would he think of the hand that put the butter? Would he invite her to look at his artwork?
The other day in his friend’s company, the man came, with his face red and hair terribly messy. He clinched his two fists and shook them angrily at Miss Martha,“ Stupid!” he shouted with extreme loudness “You had spoiled it . You are poking your nose into other's business!”
The other man said, “That’s Blumberger, an architectural draftsman. He’s been working hard for three months drawing a plan for a new city hall. He always makes his drawing in pencil first. When it’s done he rubs out the pencil lines with handfuls of stale bread. That’s better than India rubber. Well, until today! That butter isn’t well. Blumberger’s plan isn’t good for anything now.”
1. Miss Martha assumes that the man is .| A．a genius painter who cannot afford fresh bread. |
| B．a talented artist who shows interest in her. |
| C．hardworking architect who is yet to be recognized |
| D．a proud customer who has very good manners. |
| A．pity | B．curiosity | C．love | D．guilt |
| A．Because his friend let out his secret. |
| B．Because the butter interrupted his plan. |
| C．Because the loaves ruined his reputation. |
| D．Because Miss Martha destroyed his draft. |
| A．One Good Act Being Well Awarded |
| B．A Good Deed Coming to No Good |
| C．The Talented Receiving Nothing |
| D．Love Leading to Misunderstanding |
Qi Baishi is a world-famous art master in China.
He was born in
All the works
6 . A six-year-old kid walked into a candy store with his dad and was surprised by so many candies on offer. “It’s amazing. What should I
“Come on, son, we don’t have much
“These are all my
Some of us are that boy. The world is that candy store. We have a great number of choices available to us, but if we don’t make a(n)
| A．think | B．make | C．say | D．choose |
| A．time | B．money | C．interest | D．power |
| A．secrets | B．favorites | C．ideas | D．needs |
| A．Hold on | B．Come over | C．Go on | D．Hurry up |
| A．tired | B．busy | C．fair | D．patient |
| A．carefully | B．quietly | C．quickly | D．nervously |
| A．Luckily | B．Certainly | C．Finally | D．Hopefully |
| A．got hold of | B．walked out of | C．searched for | D．checked with |
| A．cried | B．waited | C．returned | D．understood |
| A．fun | B．fear | C．peace | D．nothing |
| A．plan | B．decision | C．guess | D．ending |
| A．important | B．simple | C．common | D．good |
| A．right | B．great | C．difficult | D．wrong |
| A．doubt | B．explain | C．know | D．expect |
| A．danger | B．game | C．difference | D．fact |
7 . Born in California and representing the United States before switching to China, teenager Gu Ailing will be most likely to be one of the faces of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
The 17-year-old is a freeskier (自由式滑雪运动员) and grade-A student with an American father and Chinese mother. She grew up and still lives in the United States, but in June 2019 she made the “quite difficult” decision to compete for China. She wrote on Instagram that she was “proud of my heritage and equally proud of my American upbringings (培养)”.
As for the decision to compete on behalf of China, she said it is a “valuable opportunity to help inspire millions of young people in China where my mom was born”.
Gu graduated from a San Francisco high school last year and is focusing on her Beijing 2022 training. It is reported that she scored 1,580 points out of a maximum 1,600 in the SAT (美国大学入学考试), and has been offered a place at Stanford.
Gu started on the snow at the age of 3, was competing in national competitions at 9 and won her first World Cup event at 15. She won two gold medals and a silver for China at the 2020 Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne, Switzerland. On Jan. 30th, 2021, Gu made her debut (首次亮相) at the X Games in Aspen, Colorado and won two golds and a bronze.
“My goal is to win Olympic gold,” she told the official Olympic website. “It’s the top achievement. And that would be rewarding for all the work that I’ve done to achieve greatness in the sport.”
1. In the first paragraph, the underlined part “switching to” means in Chinese ________ .| A．打开 | B．关闭 |
| C．突变 | D．转变 |
| A．She grew up in China. | B．She is an average student. |
| C．She will graduate from a high school. | D．She decided to compete for China. |
| A．Helpful and knowledgeable. | B．Modest and hard-working. |
| C．Clever and ambitious. | D．Creative and confident. |
| A．Gu Ailing—An American Freeskier | B．Gu Ailing—A Stanford Graduate |
| C．Gu Ailing—A talented Chinese Freeskier | D．Gu Ailing—An Olympic Champion |
8 . Chinese Teapot Escaping from British Museum Goes Viral
Chinese state media has praised a viral video series telling the story of a jade teapot coming to life and fleeing the British Museum to make its way back home.
The set of three short videos, entitled Escape from the British Museum, shows the teapot turning into a young woman in a green dress, who then engages a London-based Chinese journalist to help her reunite with her family. It appears to have struck a chord (弦) in China after first being released by independent vloggers on Douyin. By Monday evening, it had reportedly received more than 310 million views. The plot line taps into growing Chinese criticism of the British Museum after reports last month that more than 1,500 priceless objects, including gold jewelry, semi-precious stones and glass, were missing, stolen or damaged.
In August the state media Global Times called for the return of Chinese artifacts from the museum “free of charge” in the wake of the controversy. “The huge holes in the management and security of cultural objects in the British Museum exposed by this scandal (丑闻) have led to the collapse of a long-standing and widely circulated claim that ‘foreign cultural objects are better protected in the British Museum’,” it said. It strongly supported the video series for touching on a “powerful message” about the importance of cultural heritage and reflecting “Chinese people’s desiring for the repatriation of the Chinese cultural relics.”
State broadcaster CCTV also gave the short films a glowing review saying: “We are very pleased to see Chinese young people are passionate about history and tradition... We are also looking forward to the early return of Chinese artifacts that have been displayed overseas.”
The museum scandal made headlines around the world and reawakened earlier demands by the Chinese media to restore the country’s relics. The new three-part show has triggered a wave of nationalism among viewers, with many praising the creative plot that reduced them to tears by showing how the teapot experienced the happiness of returning to China to see pandas and watch a flag-raising ceremony on Tiananmen Square.
1. What excuse does Britain give for keeping other nations’ cultural objects in its museum?| A．It has taken possession of these objects by all lawful means. |
| B．These objects are safer and taken better care of in its museum. |
| C．It is requested by other nations to protect their cultural objects. |
| D．These objects may come to life, flee their countries and go viral. |
| A．Repair. | B．Reflection. | C．Reserve. | D．Return. |
| A．China had already demanded the restoration of its cultural relics before the scandal. |
| B．The museum’s awful management and security systems are involved in the scandal. |
| C．The Britain Museum is under pressure to return the cultural relics to China sooner or later. |
| D．A London-based Chinese journalist has contributed a lot to the viral three-part video series. |
| A．To appeal to Britain to return China’s cultural objects. |
| B．To introduce a viral video series about a fleeing jade teapot. |
| C．To arouse readers’ concern about Chinese cultural objects abroad. |
| D．To praise Chinese young people’s passion for history and tradition. |
9 . A 15-year-old student has been praised a hero. Because he had
Sheng said he was
Then Sheng measured the man’s pulse (脉搏) and found it was
“I can’t stop or ask others to replace me in case of any
Sheng said he didn’t feel tired during the
| A．striked | B．saved | C．delivered | D．destroyed |
| A．appeared | B．studied | C．competed | D．exercised |
| A．leaving | B．staying | C．returning | D．attending |
| A．context | B．comment | C．package | D．effort |
| A．weak | B．strong | C．positive | D．powerful |
| A．sight | B．hike | C．architecture | D．aid |
| A．credit | B．training | C．damage | D．strength |
| A．suffered | B．changed | C．requested | D．cheated |
| A．politely | B．hardly | C．calmly | D．awkwardly |
| A．left | B．slided | C．affected | D．arrived |
| A．brochures | B．prizes | C．risks | D．comments |
| A．confident | B．unique | C．curious | D．suitable |
| A．meeting | B．lecture | C．drought | D．process |
| A．broken | B．painful | C．official | D．specific |
| A．demand | B．master | C．regard | D．track |
10 . Endangered polar bears are breeding (繁殖) with grizzly bears (灰熊), creating “pizzly” bears, which is being driven by climate change, scientists say.
As the world warms and Arctic sea ice thins, starving polar bears are being forced ever further south, where they meet grizzlies, whose ranges are expanding northwards. And with that growing contact between the two come increasing hybrids (杂交种).
With characteristics that could give the hybrids an advantage in warming northern habitats, some scientists guess that they could be here to stay. “Usually, hybrids aren’t better suited to their environments than their parents, but these hybrids are able to search for a broader range of food sources,” Larisa DeSantis, an associate professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University, told Live Science.
The rise of “pizzly” bears appears with polar bears’ decline: their numbers are estimated to decrease by more than 30% in the next 30 years. This sudden fall is linked partly to “pizzly” bears taking up polar bears’ ranges, where they outcompete them, but also to polar bears’ highly specialized diets.
“Polar bears mainly consumed soft foods even during the Medieval Warm Period, a previous period of rapid warming,” DeSantis said, referring to fat meals such as seals. “Although all of these starving polar bears are trying to find alternative food sources, like seabird eggs, it could be a tipping point for their survival.” Actually, the calories they gain from these sources do not balance out those they burn from searching for them. This could result in a habitat ready for the hybrids to move in and take over, leading to a loss in biodiversity if polar bears are replaced.
“We’re having massive impacts with climate change on species,” DeSantis said. “The polar bear is telling us how bad things are. In some sense, “pizzly” bears could be a sad but necessary compromise given current warming trends.”
1. Why do polar bears move further south?| A．To create hybrids. | B．To expand territory. |
| C．To relieve hunger. | D．To contact grizzlies. |
| A．Broader habitats. | B．More food options. |
| C．Climate preference. | D．Improved breeding ability. |
| A．A rare chance. | B．A critical stage. |
| C．A positive factor. | D．A constant change. |
| A．Polar bears are changing diets for climate change. |
| B．Polar bears have already adjusted to climate change. |
| C．“Pizzly” bears are on the rise because of global warming. |
| D．“Pizzly”bears have replaced polar bears for global warming. |
