1 . It’s always exciting to receive a letter in the mail. Even today, when the world is digitally connected, receiving an actual letter in your mailbox from a distant land is a great way for children to make new friends.
The Peaceful Pen Pals Project is a beautiful initiative that combines global connection and self-expression. The project is part of the nonprofit Kids for Peace, founded by Jill McManigal and Danielle Gram in California, in 2006. Letter writing is most certainly hands-on and helps strengthen relationships throughout the world.
The Peaceful Pen Pals Project is open to all children, ages 2 through 17. To date, there are 1500 children from 17 countries participating in the program. Each child is assigned a pen pal of a similar age. This establishes a point of connection right off the bat for the children and promotes a stronger bond. If the letter writers are in the same grade, they can chat about their schools, teachers, and what they are studying. They can also compare and contrast what different states or countries learn about and how the dynamics of the classroom are, whether socially or academically.
Children may be more inclined to write about their issues if they feel like they are speaking to a peer in a similar situation. They also write about the local weather, who the letter writer lives with, and their favorite things to do at home. This will give the pen pal a good sense of the writer’s home life, and they may relate to certain aspects, such as their parents, the number of siblings, or if they share a room. Although pen pals may live in different countries, they may find common ground according to this information.
“Hearing first-hand stories from an international pen pal can encourage teens to take someone else’s perspective and to think outside of themselves,” writes Rebecca Fraser-Thill on Very Well Family. “It can also encourage interest in geography, politics, and history, and promote many key skills, including reciprocation, empathy and mutual concern.”
1. What is the purpose of paragraph 2?| A．To prove the importance of making friends. |
| B．To briefly introduce the Peaceful Pen Pals Project. |
| C．To present the history of the nonprofit Kids for Peace. |
| D．To encourage kids to communicate with others by letters. |
| A．Visit different countries with their parents. | B．Learn foreign languages online. |
| C．Share their lives by writing letters. | D．Solve difficult problems for their pen pals. |
| A．It is necessary for every teenager to have a pen pal. |
| B．Writing letters helps teenagers to make more friends. |
| C．Communicating by letters benefits teenagers in many aspects. |
| D．Teenagers make great progress in their studies by writing letters. |
| A．The benefits of having a pen pal from another country. |
| B．New ways for kids to communicate with their friends. |
| C．Letter writing is becoming popular among kids worldwide. |
| D．The Peaceful Pen Pals Project connects kids around the world. |
2 . Inside а tiny shop in Manchester, Adam Birce carefully carves at а woodblock. He looks carefully at each piece to ensure they fit and match before gently setting them together. Adam Birce, the owner of Four Strings, restores stringed instruments like violins, and his passion is restoring and appreciating what has already been crafted and loved.
Birce started playing the violin in grade school and grew to truly appreciate it. He played semiprofessionally out of high school and later got his degree in music at Virginia Commonwealth University as a violinist. After graduating, he landed a job selling violins. “As fate would have it, I was asked by my employer to learn to fix violins 15 years ago,” he says. “I soon moved off on my own to do restoration.” Since 2014, he has been on a mission with Four Strings to offer excellent fine-instrument restoration services to the community.
Violin restoration isn’t a self-taught skill. Each summer for the past decade, Birce has traveled to the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts for up to two weeks to study under famous violin restoration expert Hans J. Nebel. Here, students learn everything from delicate edging repair to violin identification. “A lot of the work itself is learning as you go,” Birce says. “It’s a lot of problem-solving and critical thinking, like coming up with a woodworking plan.
“How long а job takes varies. Most are about 3-6 months for major work, unless a full top-to-bottom restoration is needed, which can take even longer,” Birce explains. “I leave that up to the client if they want to commit to that.” One of his longest jobs was working on a Scottish violin from the early 1800s that had been water-damaged. “I had to use every skill in my toolbox to fix it,” Birce laughingly recalls. “It was a very onerous job.”
If there’s one thing to be learned from Birce’s passion, it’s that each violin is unique in its own right. He compares the fine instruments market to the fine arts market. “A lot of these instruments are fine art,” he says. “I kind of say this is a Picasso I’m playing or a Degas. I’ve worked on a few, which is always a joy.”
1. What does paragraph 2 mainly talk about?| A．The special features of Four Strings. | B．The procedures of violin restoration. |
| C．Birce’s life experience with the violin. | D．Birce’s influence in the music industry. |
| A．It’s effortless. | B．It’s self-taught. | C．It’s extremely dull. | D．It’s highly professional. |
| A．Creative. | B．Well-paid. | C．Dangerous. | D．Demanding. |
| A．Birce prefers art to music. | B．Birce has a deep love for his job. |
| C．Birce wants to be as famous as Picasso. | D．Birce has become a master of violin restoration. |
3 . Fast food chains have tried for years to appeal to customers who care about their health. They have added lighter food to their menus, such as salads and yogurt. Of course, the lighter food goes with the usual burgers, fried chicken and shakes.
Menus have changed over the past three decades. According to a recent study, fast food menus are less healthy than they were 30 years ago. The study suggests the problem is getting worse. The fat, salt content and size of fast food meals are the problem. They are often the reason for the rising obesity (肥胖) rate among adults in the United States. The researchers found that the average main dish weighed more in 2016 than in 1986. It also had more calories and more sodium (钠). One expert said, “The restaurants have not done enough. The big picture is that there have been some positive changes, but they are small. Overall, the changes have gotten worse.”
The average fast food dessert had more calories in 2016. It also weighed more than the average fast food dessert thirty years earlier. Restaurants are counting on bigger sundaes and cookies to increase the amount spent on each order. For example, McDonald’s recently introduced “donut sticks” dusted with sugar. Six sticks have 280 calories. But you can also order 12 sticks for less than the cost of two single orders.
The researchers found that, over the 30 years, there were more calories in items like chips, soup, and French fries. Sodium content rose even though portion(一份) size did not grow much. When consumed together as a single meal, the study found that the average main dish and side order account for nearly 40 percent of a 2000-calory daily diet.
1. Why do fast food chains provide lighter food?| A．To match the fast food. | B．To attract more customers. |
| C．To reduce the cost of each meal. | D．To improve the health of customers. |
| A．They take in more calories from fast food. |
| B．They have little time to exercise regularly. |
| C．They eat much more dessert after every meal. |
| D．They eat fast food more frequently than before. |
| A．Showing the way of restaurants’ making cookies. |
| B．Presenting the popularity of restaurants’ new food. |
| C．Stressing the increase in restaurants’ food varieties. |
| D．Explaining the intention of restaurants’ adding dessert. |
| A．Fast Food Is Still Killing Us | B．Don’t Eat Any Fast Food Now |
| C．Try to Eat More Lighter Food | D．People Are Becoming Fatter and Fatter |
1. What does the speaker do?
| A．A medical doctor. | B．A fitness instructor. | C．A swimming coach. |
| A．Focusing on only muscle training. |
| B．Doing too many types of workouts. |
| C．Keeping the same routine all the time. |
| A．Once a week. | B．Twice a week. | C．Three times a week. |
5 . What will people die of 100 years from now? If you think that is a simple question, you have not been paying attention to the revolution that is taking place in bio-technology(生物科技). With the help of new medicine, the human body will last a very long time. Death will come mainly from accidents, murder and war. Today’s leading killers, such as heart disease, cancer, and aging itself, will become distant memories.
In discussion of technological changes, the Internet gets most of attention these days. But the change in medicine can be the real technological event of our times. How long can humans live? Human brains were known to decide the final death. Cells are the basic units of all living things, and until recently, scientists were sure that the life of cells could not go much beyond 120 years because the basic materials of cells, such as those of brain cells, would not last forever. But the upper limits will be broken by new medicine. Sometime between 2050 and 2100, medicine will have advanced to the point at which every 10 years or so, people will be able to take medicine to repair their organs. The medicine, made up of the basic building materials of life, will build new brain cells, heart cells and so on, in much the same way our bodies make new skin cells to take the place of old ones.
It is exciting to imagine that the advance in technology may be changing the most basic condition of human existence, but many technical problems still must be cleared up on the way to this wonderful future.
1. According to the passage, human death is now mainly caused by ________.| A．diseases and aging | B．accidents and war |
| C．accidents and aging | D．heart disease and war |
| A．Medicine | B．the Internet | C．brain cells | D．human organs |
| A．heart disease will be far away from us |
| B．human brains can decide the final death |
| C．the basic materials of cells will last forever |
| D．human organs can be repaired by new medicine |
1. 表达祝贺；
2. 肯定她的演讲；
3. 希望她能够分享提高英语口语的方法。
注意：
1. 写作词数应为80左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Dear Amy,
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
China has made all the preparations for further space
Sending civilians into space
8 . A Goodwill employee finds $42,000 in donated clothing and returns it to the owner.
The discovery came during a regular day on the job as Andrea Lessing, a goodwill employee, was performing her routine quality examination on closing items on the sales floor. As she pulled out two sweaters tied together from a donation box, she felt something heavy left. She first assumed the items were just books. When she pulled the sweaters apart, to her astonishment, she found lots of envelopes filled with $100 bills. The cash was in $100 bills and totaled $ 42,000 dollars.
Andrea Lessing is used to discovering unique treasures in the varied collection of donated items her store receives daily. She always tries to be a good example to her daughter, so she immediately did the right thing and reported the cash finding. Luckily, the store's manager was then able to locate and return the money to the donator who had mistakenly placed the cash in the wrong box.
Andrea, mother of a six year old girl, admitted it was hard for her to do with that much money. Some might have thought that it was Andrea's lucky day, having a small fortune. However, the temptation to keep the cash by herself was just a passing thought. Andrea's honest nature inspired her to do the right thing.
Without hesitation, she handed the cash over to the store's manager so they could find the right owner. Andrea was not expecting a reward, but the owner of the money surprised her with a 1000 reward. Andrea was teary eyed and overcome with joy as her “good deed” flowed right back to her. She plans to spend part of the reward money on a memorable birthday party for her daughter.
1. What happened to Andrea Lessing?| A．She collected donated clothing as rubbish. | B．She lost some cash while working. |
| C．She found unique treasures in donated items. | D．She failed to be a good example to her daughter. |
| A．She is an honest and strong willed mother. | B．She can't resist the great temptation of money. |
| C．she has already been promoted as the manager. | D．She refused the reward from the owner of the cash. |
| A．Upset. | B．Excited. | C．Worried. | D．Proud. |
9 . Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) said they have completed the most detailed virtual reality (VR) map of the universe ever created. The map permits users to “travel through space and time”. With the help of VR headsets, users can visit places in the universe virtually. The software program is called the Virtual Reality Universe Project, or VIRUP.
The researchers said they combined the largest data set of information about the universe to create the 3D experience.People can see the virtual universe through VR equipment or with 3D glasses in a theater. Jean-Paul Kneib, the director of EPFL’ s astrophysics laboratory (天体物理学实验室) , said that one of the best parts of the project was putting together parts of the data set “into one framework”. “You can see the universe at different scales一nearby us, around the Earth,around the solar system, at the Milky Way level,” Kneib said.
VIRUP produces images that can appear as close as one meter or seemingly at an infinite (无限的) distance. It aims to get many kinds of visitors. This includes both scientists looking to get a virtual picture of the data they collect and people seeking a new way to explore the universe. There are different versions of the software. A smaller version is aimed at the public and a larger one is meant for scientists or astronomy experts.
The project combines information from eight databases. It includes at least 4,500 known exoplanets (外星行星) ,tens of millions of galaxies (星系) and hundreds of millions of space objects. More than 1.5 billion light producing objects from the Milky Way alone are included. The researchers expect to continually add data, meaning the virtual experience will keep getting better with time. Future databases could include space rocks called asteroids in our solar system or farther objects in our galaxy.
Yves Revaz, an astrophysicist of the EPFL, called the system “a very efficient way of visiting all the different scales that compose our universe.” Revaz added: “A very important part of this project is that it’s a first step toward treating much larger data sets which are coming.”
1. What can people do through the software program?| A．Visit the Milky Way for real. |
| B．Travel to the past through time. |
| C．View the universe with VR equipment. |
| D．Explore the formation of the solar system. |
| A．It allows users to download 3D images. |
| B．It combines different databases into a whole. |
| C．It is accessible to both astronomy experts and common people. |
| D．It guides scientists to adjust the distance for detecting objects. |
| A．The limitations of the project. | B．The signifcance of the project. |
| C．The different versions of the project. | D．The huge data source of the project. |
| A．Negative. | B．Positive. | C．Uncaring. | D．Doubtful |
10 . When I was a child growing up in Ohio, the butterflies would sometimes pass through on their way to Mexico. And it was wonderful to see football fields full of them—and I wanted to revisit that on a larger scale (规模). I knew I had to go to see the migration (迁徙) in Mexico.
But I was on a budget. I didn’t want to rent a car in Mexico or take a bus to Valle de Bravo, the starting point for most butterfly journeys, so I called the guys at The Muddy Boot, travel experts in Mexico who can make almost anything happen at a reasonable price.
And so, on January 2, I found myself in The Muddy Boot van (面包车), being driven for two hours from Mexico City to Valle de Bravo, a lovely town on a volcanic lake which is a central point for the butterfly journeys. I booked a two-night stay at the Hotel Rodavento, an all eco-friendly hotel with individual wooden houses spreading throughout the forest and around a lake.
The first reserve I visited was Piedra Herrada, a popular destination, as it is only 40 minutes away from Valle de Bravo. The climb up is tiring. It is advisable to hire a horse. But the horse cannot take you all the way, and there is some hiking in thin air, so you must be patient, drink a lot of water, and be in reasonably good shape.
The walk is more than worth it though. As I struggled to catch my breath, I looked up and lost my breath again. At first glance, the trees had turned into different shapes, but on closer look, every inch of them was covered with butterflies.
A few flew through the air (Most of them were not warm enough). As the sun rose, they began to come alive. Soon the air was filled with flying butterflies, transforming the forest into something magical and straight out of a fairy tale.
1. Why did the author choose to take The Muddy Boot van?| A．She didn’t like a car. | B．She preferred to travel alone. |
| C．She wanted to save some money. | D．She hoped to reach the destination earlier. |
| A．It is a very high mountain. | B．It is far from Valle de Bravo. |
| C．It is full of wild animals. | D．It is only accessible by riding a horse. |
| A．Becoming healthier. | B．Breathing in fresh air. |
| C．Finding trees of different shapes. | D．Seeing the butterfly migration. |
| A．A news report. | B．A scientific paper. |
| C．A travel diary. | D．A commercial advertisement. |
