1 . Thanksgiving is a harvest festival celebrated primarily in Canada and the United States. Traditionally, it is a time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude in general. If you spend Thanksgiving in London, you won’t be short of places, events and activities to celebrate this annual holiday. Here are some of the best things to do in London on Thanksgiving.
Eat a Traditional Thanksgiving Meal
The Big Easy is the best choice when it comes to traditional food, so you’d better book a table and head for it. The popular restaurant chain with branches across the city offers different choices from pit-smoked turkey to candied sweet potatoes, as well as good old-fashioned cheese for kids.
Cheer for Your Favourite Football Team
If you’d like to watch football games on Thanksgiving, the Hippodrome Casino in crowded Leicester Square is just the place. It will be free but busy, so head down early to get a spot.
Give Thanks on Thanksgiving
If you want to give back to the community on Thanksgiving, there are many activities you can get involved in to help those less fortunate than you. Soup Kitchens are a great way to help, supporting those who don’t enjoy turkey like you. The Soup Kitchens at the church are always looking for volunteers, especially during the colder months. Get in touch to see how you can help and give thanks.
1. What can you do if you want to have a traditional Thanksgiving meal?| A．Order food online in advance. | B．Go shopping in nearby markets. |
| C．Go straight to the Big Easy restaurant. | D．Cook and enjoy turkey at a church. |
| A．The church. | B．The beach. |
| C．The Big Easy. | D．The Hippodrome Casino. |
| A．By spending time with strangers. | B．By booking a dish for your friend. |
| C．By working as a volunteer to help others | D．By donating some money to the poor. |
“See you at Open House (学校开放日) tonight, Amy,” Evelyn shouted from the school bus window. “Don’t forget to ask your mom if I can come over tomorrow!” “OK!” I called back. I wished I could feel excited about my first Open House at my new school, but I was worried. What would other kids say when they found out my parents can’t hear?
And I wanted Evelyn to visit, but then she’d see how different my house was. My parents use a video phone so they can use sign language to communicate with callers. We also have a light on the wall that flashes when the phone or doorbell rings. Would Evelyn think my house was strange?
That night, Dad drove us to the brightly lit school. We stopped in front of the bulletin board in the hall. “Look at Amy’s picture!” Mom said, too loud! She does that when she’s excited, because she can’t hear herself. Some older kids turned to stare at us and I wanted to hide.
I led my family into my classroom and looked around. Evelyn was not there yet. Ms. Jennings walked over to us. I introduced her to my family and explained that my parents are deaf. “Oh,” she said. “Well, how do you say welcome in sign language?” “Like this.” I swept my open right hand in toward my body, palm up. She repeated the motion. “Thank you,” Mom said, smiling. “Nice to meet you.” Ms. Jennings looked surprised. “You speak very well,” she said. In sign language, I repeated what Ms. Jennings had said in case my parents hadn’t read her lips.
“Was it difficult teaching Amy to talk?” Ms. Jennings asked. “Not really,” Dad said in sign language, and I translated so Ms. Jennings understood. “She went to daycare with other hearing kids.”
Some of my classmates were watching us and whispering. Then I noticed Evelyn and her mom standing by the door. “Hi, Amy,” Evelyn waved to me and approached us. “I didn’t know your parents are deaf.”
注意：
1. 所续写短文词数应为150左右；
2. 续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好。
I couldn’t think of anything to give a response, feeling embarrassed.
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“My new neighbor with a fantastic garden uses sign language too.” Evelyn explained.
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On October 17, 2021, a village in Henan Province celebrated the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Yangshao Culture,
There are many
The site
From October to December 1921, a Swedish scholar Johan Gunnar Anderson, led
4 . Many organizations learned in the past year that remote work can be highly effective, with 83% of employers surveyed saying that the shift to remote work has been successful for their company, according to a PwC study. In addition, 54% of workers want to continue working remotely after the pandemic. Now that it’s clear where the work is done is not as important as people once thought, the other dimension of flexibility that workers desire for is the freedom to determine when the work is done. A 2019 study by the International Workplace Group found that 80% of workers would turn down a job that did not offer a flexible work schedule for one that did, and 76% of workers said they’d consider staying at their current employer if they could work flexible hours.
According to a Microsoft Work Trend Report, the 9-to-5 workday is disappearing, as the increase in remote work has allowed for more flexible hours. Employees are increasingly working asynchronously completing tasks on their own schedules, which may be different from those of their colleagues. Asynchronous work is now essential to being part of a modern, digital economy, staying competitive in the war for talent, and building a globally distributed workforce.
Tsedal Neeley, a Harvard Business School professor, says, “Companies have to profoundly rethink what it means to be part of a modern work structure. This idea of 9-to-5 or face-time culture is actually not helpful for a digitally advanced economy.” She highlights that underlying face-time culture is the need to monitor or see people in order to feel like work is advancing. However, this assumption that being productive requires seeing people do the work is not only limiting, but also ridiculous, as technology and automation are increasingly used to get work done and are inherently not as observable. Asynchronous work, she adds, is “a completely new mindset in line with a digital economy.”
1. What job would most workers accept according to the studies in Paragraph 1?| A．They can enjoy the flexibility of working hours. |
| B．They are free to decide how the work is done. |
| C．They can work in a remote place as they wish. |
| D．They work from 9 am to 5 pm during the workdays. |
| A．On their own. | B．In the meanwhile. |
| C．With ease. | D．At different times. |
| A．Face-time culture is part of a modern work structure. |
| B．Face-time culture helps monitor the advanced economy. |
| C．Asynchronous work fits in well with a digital economy. |
| D．Asynchronous work limits the technology and automation. |
| A．To persuade people to keep up with times. |
| B．To introduce a new work mode to people. |
| C．To report social effects on public choices of work. |
| D．To discuss the advantages and disadvantages of remote work. |
5 . Here come four new books with great poetry, from which the novices are to get inspired by the imaginative and celebratory poems when they start to take an eager look at this new and unknown field.
Cloud Soup
Bake a weird cake, pay a visit to the deep and take a closer look at the clouds in this fun collection of poems by Kate Wakeling, with unusual illustrations by Elina Braslina. Their previous collection, Moon Juice, won the CLiPPA Best Children’s Poetry Award, and this sequel is just as funny and imaginative.
Shaping the World: 40 Historical Heroes in Verse
This collection, chosen by Liz Brownlee, brings together 40 brilliant “shape poems” inspired by some of the remarkable people who have shaped our world. Inside, you’ll find poems about Greta Thunberg, Rosa Parks and Albert Einstein—each with a biography, a quote and a fascinating fact.
Take Off Your Brave
Be surprised and inspired by this book of poems written by four-year-old Nadim, with artwork by Yasmeen Ismall. Taking you inside a child’s world of glitter, magic boxes and rainbows, this book proves that poetry is for everyone and might inspire you to try writing some poems yourself!
My Sneezes Are Perfect
This thought- provoking collection of poems was written by Rakhshan RizWan with Yusuf Samee, a mother-and-son team and illustrated by Benjamin Philips. Bringing together observations, meditations and memories, it explores sorts of things, including animals, family, food and what it’s like moving to a new country.
1. Who has ever won a prize for writing poetry?| A．Kate Wakeling. | B．Liz Brownlee. |
| C．Nadim. | D．Rakhshan RizWan. |
| A．The life of celebrities. | B．The making of a great poet. |
| C．The migration to a new country. | D．The exploration to the deep ocean. |
| A．Poetry beginners. | B．Ambitious parents. |
| C．History lovers. | D．School teachers. |
6 . Star Wars fans would be familiar with the good relationship between humans and droids (机器人) in the movies. In the movie Solo: A Star Wars Story, Lando Calrissian risked his life to rescue his co-pilot, a female droid L3-37. In real life, a humanoid robot, Sophia, has recently been granted (给予) citizenship in Saudi Arabia. Increasingly, people are ready to see robots as resembling humans. Given this phenomenon, I believ it is necessary to consider giving robots certain rights humans enjoy.
Experts have argued that since robots have now acquired human-like qualities, it is appropriate to consider if they should have rights just as humans. Sophia has a human like face and utilizes artificial intelligence to respond to speech and express emotions. For such a lifelike being that is potentially capable of expressing emotions, does it not deserve the right to be loved and respected?
Robots should also be given legal and moral protection as harming a robot may be similar to harming humans. Since people tend to form attachments to social robots, it becomes possible for companies to control the hardware and software to exploit this emotional attachment. There is a danger that data that is stored in the robot could be uploaded to the cloud. There would then possibly be situations in which the government or private sector retrieves (检索数据) the information stored in a robotic toy or social robot. With these uncertainties, it is clear why robots should be protected, just as humans.
An even more irresistible reason to grant human rights to the robots is the protection of societal values. We should stop a young child from kicking or tearing a toy robot apart because it resembles a real life. Giving robots certain rights will ensure that societal standards are set.
Still, many have roundly argued that no matter how sophisticated (老练的) they may be, robots are still machines. It is therefore quite ridiculous to treat them as living beings and grant them rights. However, with the advancement in technology, it is a matter of time before robots are fully anthropomorphized (赋予人的特征), and we would have to consider granting them rights.
In conclusion, deciding whether robots deserve human rights is by no means an easy task, but now is the time to start the conversation on this and seriously consider the possibility.
1. Why does the author mention the two examples in the first paragraph?| A．To remind readers of the importance of robots. |
| B．To discuss the necessity of rescuing robots. |
| C．To set readers thinking about an issue about robots. |
| D．To describe the relationship between humans and robots. |
| A．Robots should be legally and morally protected. |
| B．There is possible information risk. |
| C．Humans are doing harm to robots. |
| D．Robots should be given more emotional attachment. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Favorable. |
| C．Negative. | D．Uncaring. |
(①=Para. 1 ②=Para. 2 ③=Para. 3 ④=Para. 4 ⑤=Para. 5 ⑥=Para. 6)
| A．①—②③④⑤—⑥ | B．①②—③④⑤—⑥ |
| C．①—②③—④⑤⑥ | D．①—②③④—⑤⑥ |
7 . It’s called the Bank of Happiness, but it has nothing to do with money. Founded a year ago in Estonia’s capital Tallinn, it’s a forum in which more than 2,000 members from Estonia and other countries connect to offer or receive services free of charge.
The site carries more than 500 ads in English, German and Estonian from people offering or seeking all kinds of things, including teaching and tips on cooking. The website is also translated into French and Spanish.
Founder Airi Kivi says the goal is to make people think and act with their hearts. “After the worldwide outbreak of the pandemic, I thought, ‘Wow, our bank is perfect for the crisis and a lot of people are unemployed and they can use it to harvest what they need.’”
So how does it work? It’s simple: You sign up using your real name and post what you are offering or what your need is, as long as it doesn’t involve money or products.
Masseuse Terge Reintem says she signed up when she was unemployed because she needed to improve her skills by learning from others. But she stayed on even after finding a new job because she says it feels good to volunteer. “If I discover a new technique, I want my bank customers to first experience it,” Reintem says, adding they are often nicer than the paying ones.
Member Veronika Davel says she infringed the rules with her first request when she asked for a product: a computer. But she did it unknowingly. Later, she began offering services of her own on the bank’s website. “The main thing I really could offer was English,” Davel explains. “There was a young girl who needed to have better English for her job and I gave her a hand.”
The site has many more offers of help than requests for it. That’s as it should be, Kivi says, adding that the bigger reward comes from giving.
1. How can the Bank of Happiness benefit its members?| A．They can help each other at no cost. | B．They can place ads for their products. |
| C．They can travel to many countries for free. | D．They can read much news about happiness. |
| A．Obeyed. | B．Broke. | C．Made. | D．Bent. |
| A．To improve her skills. | B．To win more customers. |
| C．To enjoy the helpfulness. | D．To learn new techniques. |
| A．By using specific data. | B．By giving examples. |
| C．By referring to common knowledge. | D．By using comparison and contrast. |
8 . Tima Abudhi is a 55-year-old mother of five. When growing up, she remembers watching her neighbors
As the mangroves
“Replanting the mangroves is not
Today, the women of Kizingitini no longer have to
Mangrove forests can
| A．cut away | B．settle down | C．set out | D．get up |
| A．moved | B．disappeared | C．died | D．rose |
| A．contribution | B．choice | C．disaster | D．luck |
| A．encouraged | B．motivated | C．forbade | D．persuaded |
| A．neighbor | B．community | C．beach | D．village |
| A．selling | B．assessing | C．closing | D．running |
| A．increased | B．gained | C．produced | D．decreased |
| A．difficult | B．easy | C．worthwhile | D．suitable |
| A．return | B．calm | C．withdraw | D．remove |
| A．hard | B．enough | C．long | D．cheap |
| A．struggle | B．stop | C．prepare | D．determine |
| A．attempt | B．witness | C．afford | D．refuse |
| A．unemployment | B．resignation | C．participation | D．ignorance |
| A．gender | B．wealth | C．income | D．age |
| A．cancel | B．keep | C．accelerate | D．slow |
When she was five years old, Lin Qiaozhi was deeply affected by her mother's death. At age 18, she chose to study medicine instead of following the traditional path of
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Beijing Culture’s time-travel comedy Hi, Mom, which opened the Lunar New Year holiday in distant second place behind Wanda Picture’s Detective Chinatown 3, has suddenly risen to the front of the pack.
The sudden shake-up reflects the extent to which Hi, Mom has become China’s clear favorite among the Lunar New Year offerings.
The film stars Chinese comedy veteran Jia as a devoted daughter
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