1 . On a September afternoon in 1940, four teenage boys made their way through the woods on a hill overlooking Montignac in southwestern France. They had come to explore a dark, deep hole said to be an underground passage to the nearby manor（庄园）of Lascaux. Squeezing through the entrance one by one, they soon saw wonderfully lifelike paintings of running horses, swimming deer, wounded wild oxen, and other beings—works of art that may be up to 20,000 years old.

The collection of paintings in Lascaux is among some 150 prehistoric sites dating from the Paleolithic period（旧石器时代）that have been documented in France's Vezere Valley. This corner of southwestern Europe seems to have been a hot spot for figurative art. The biggest discovery since Lascaux occurred in December 1994, when three cave explorers laid eyes on artworks that had not been seen since a rockslide 22,000 years ago closed off a large deep cave in southern France. Here, by unsteadily shining firelight, prehistoric artists drew outlines of cave lions, herds of rhinos（犀牛）and magnificent wild oxen, horses, cave bears. In all, the artists drew 442 animals over perhaps thousands of years, using nearly 400,000 square feet of cave surface as their canvas（画布）. The site, now known as Chauvet-Pont-1'Arc Cave, is sometimes considered the Sistine Chapel of prehistory.

For decades scholars had theorized that art had advanced in slow stages from ancient scratchings to lively, naturalistic interpretation. Surely the delicate shading and elegant lines of Chauvet's masterworks placed them at the top of that progression. Then carbon dates came in, and prehistorians felt shocked. At some 36,000 years old—nearly twice as old as those in Lascaux—Chauvet's images represented not the peak of prehistoric art but its earliest known beginnings.

The search for the world's oldest cave paintings continues. On the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, for example, scientists found a large room of paintings of part-human, part-animal beings that are estimated to be 44,000 years old, older than any figurative art seen in Europe.

Scholars don't know if art was invented many times over or if it was a skill developed early in our evolution. What we do know is that artistic expression runs deep in our ancestry.

1. According to the passage, where did the boys find the paintings?

A．In the woods on a hill	B．In a deep cave in France.
C．In a manor of Lascaux.	D．On an Indonesian island

2. According to the passage, figurative art in paragraph 2 is a form of art that_____________.

A．conveys concepts by using accurate numbers and forms

B．makes stories in contrast to scientific subjects

C．represents persons or things in a realistic way

D．expresses ideas or feelings by using shapes and patterns

3. It can be inferred from the passage that_____________.

A．the Chauvet's paintings had been sealed by a rockslide until 1994

B．the style of Chauvet's paintings is similar to that of the Sistine Chapel

C．Chauvet's images are the earliest figurative paintings that have been found

D．the main objects of Chauvet's images are part-human, part-animal beings

4. Which of the following is the best title of the passage?

A．Value of Paleolithic Artwork	B．Preservation of Figurative Art
C．Artistic Expressions of Nature	D．Searches for Cave Paintings

2 . Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

Is Student-loan Forgiveness Unforgivable?

Roughly 45 million Americans currently hold $1.6 trillion in student debt, with the average student-loan receiver owing between $20,000 and $25,000, according to the Federal Reserve. Among those actively making payments on their debt, the average monthly installment is between $200 and $300. And with 5.3 million more people unemployed than in February, right before the U.S. fell into the economic depression caused by pandemic (流行病), some people say that student-debt forgiveness could be beneficial to the economy.

“Student-debt cancellation feels like one of the most accessible executive actions to stimulate the economy at the moment,” says Suzanne Kahn, director of the Education. Kahn says the move would also help close the wealth gap between white Americans and people of color. Some 90% of Black students and 72% of Latino students take out loans for college versus just 66% of white students, according to an analysis from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

But others argue that sweeping student-loan forgiveness doesn’t help the people who need aid most. Americans with college degrees, as a whole, have been less influenced by the economic effects of COVID-19 than their non-college-educated counterparts. Besides, they raise concerns that if the government wipes out current student loans, future college students may have a motivator to take on debts, hoping they will also be forgiven. Colleges may in turn tend to raise their prices further.

What’s clear, according to the both sides of the aisle (过道), is that economic crises worsen the problem of student debt. The last time the U.S. dipped into a recession, state governments cut their investments in colleges and universities—which, in turn, raised their tuition prices and forced students to take on ever larger loans.

In recent weeks, the government has walked a fine line on the issue, offering support for a bill calling for $10,000 worth of student-loan forgiveness but turning down anything close to a plan to issue $50,000 per borrower through executive action.

That’s not sustainable in the long run. It remains to be seen if the government can arrive at a political solution that is.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. genuinely       B. pocket       C. mass-produced       D. seemingly       E. inspiration F. familiarize       G. group       H. encounter       I. customary       J. symbolic       K. motivation

A Deeper Meaning behind Souvenirs

“Nobody sits us down and tells us to collect objects when we’re young,” writes Rolf Potts, “it’s just something we do, as a way to    1    ourselves with the world, its possibilities, and our place in it.”

Few of us would call ourselves collectors, but most travelers     2    a seashell from a vacation, or bring a keychain. As Mr. Potts notes in a book called “Souvenir,” there is more to this     3    simple practice than meets the eye. For one thing, it can date back to the oldest described journeys, so it’s a    4    practice that goes back thousands of years. And academic researchers have classified souvenirs -- even    5    items like “I Love New York” T-shirts and plastic miniatures of Michelangelo’s David -- into various categories, likely unknown to many travelers.

Which categories do the things we’ve bought or found in our travels fall into? Further, what’s     6    behind our need to bring home souvenirs?

Over time, intellectual curiosity became the driving    7    for personal travel. Yet even as travelers began collecting historical and scientific souvenirs, not just religious items, the things they brought home stood for feelings for holy objects.

Scholars    8    these souvenirs into different buckets, including “markers” (location branded items like T-shirts and teacups), “pictorial images” (postcards and posters), and “    9    landmarks” (for example, Statue of Liberty key chains), with the latter two categories symbolizing, though not exclusive to, mass tourism.

In the end, “Souvenir” suggests that its meaning is not fixed because its importance to the owner can change over time and that its significance is closely related to the traveler’s identity. Mr. Potts himself has had plenty of souvenirs, things that remind him not merely of the places he’s been and the extraordinary     10    between him and local people, but of former life phases. “When we collect souvenirs,” he writes, “we do so not to evaluate the world, but to tell the self.”

4 . The inside story of how a “band of misfits” saved Lego

When executives at toymaker Lego first learned that adults were buying large quantities of their interlocking plastic bricks and getting together to build Lego creations of their own, “they thought it was very strange,” says Paal Smith-Meyer.

    1     “Leadership actually thought ‘adults’ were taking away from the brand.”

Thanks to a handful of employees who worked to change attitudes inside the company, Lego is no longer embarrassed by its adult fans.     2     The bygone slogans “Just Imagine... ” and “Play On” have been overshadowed by Lego’s newest marketing motto: “Adults Welcome”. Even superstar athletes and entertainers like Ed Sheeran, Dwight Howard, and David Beckham boast openly about their affection for Lego building sets.

Today Lego is the world’s largest and most profitable toymaker. The Lego brick was named “Toy of the Century” in 1999, and in 2014 Time magazine crowned it the “Most Influential Toy of All Time”, ahead of Barbie, G.I. Joe, and the Easy Bake Oven.

The enthusiasm and buying power of Adult Fans of Lego — or AFOLs, as they’re known in the industry — played a major role in the company’s rise to the top.     3    

Lego founder Ole Kirk Kristiansen always knew he wanted to market his products exclusively to kids. As the company grew over its first six decades, few imagined that its products could appeal as much to adults as to children.     4     Two decades ago, when Lego began making licensed sets inspired by hit movies like Star Wars and Harry Potter, it was adult fans who snatched up most of the merchandise.

Despite the benefits AFOLs brought to the brand, executives at the company’s corporate offices in Billund, Denmark had little interest in catering to adult customers. As fan mail and product ideas poured in from AFOLs around the world, the company posted its off-putting position: “We don’t accept unsolicited ideas.”

“Adult fans were often seen as a source of irritation,” says Jake McKee, a Lego executive from 2000 to 2006 who oversaw the company’s Global Community Development team.

A．But insiders say the road from “kids only” to “adults welcome” was a long, uphill climb.

B．AFOLs are also organizing unofficial Lego fan conventions and networking in online user groups.

C．Gone are the days when labels on Lego boxes stated that the contents were appropriate only for boys ages 7 to 12.

D．Attitudes began to shift in the late 1990s and early 2000s when the once-invulnerable toymaker started to struggle.

E．AFOLs were having a dramatic impact on Lego’s bottom line years before the company recognized their value.

F．“Before the late 1990s, the company didn’t think their adult fans had value,” says Smith-Meyer, who held a variety of senior posts at Lego from 2000 to 2014.

5 . Science may never know what memories play on the mind of the California sea hare, a foot-long marine snail, when it eats algae — a sea plant — in the tide pools of the Pacific coast.

But in a new study, researchers claim to have made headway in understanding the simplest kind of memory a creature might form.

David Glanzman, a neurobiologist at the University of California, believes the kinds of memories that trigger a defensive reaction in the snail are encoded not in the connections between brain cells, as many scientists would argue, but in RNA molecules (分子) that form part of an organism’s genetic machinery.

In an experiment to test the idea, Glanzman implanted wire into the tails of California sea hares, and gave them a series of electrical shocks. The procedure sensitized the animals so that when they were prodded (戳) in a fleshy spout called a siphon, they contracted their gills (鳃状呼吸器官) in a strong defensive action.

After sensitizing the sea snails, Glanzman extracted RNA from the animals and injected it into other sea snails to see what happened. He found the recipient sea snails became sensitized, suggesting the “memory” of the electrical shocks had been transplanted. When Glanzman repeated the experiment with RNA from sea snails that had been hooked up to wires but not shocked, the reaction behavior did not transfer.

Despite the result, the work has not found widespread acceptance. “Obviously further work needs to be carried out to determine whether these changes can happen without failure in a wide range of conditions,” said Prof Sherilynn Vann, who studies memory at Cardiff University. “While the sea hare is a fantastic model for studying basic neuroscience, we must be very cautious in drawing comparisons to human memory processes.”

Tomas Ryan, who studies memory at Trinity College Dublin, is firmly unconvinced. “It’s interesting, but I don’t think they’ve transferred a memory,” he said. “This work tells me that maybe the most basic behavioral responses involve some kind of switch in the animal and there is something in the liquid that Glanzman extracts that is hitting that switch.”

But Ryan added that different thinking about memory was badly needed: “In a field like this which is so full of accepted beliefs, we need as many new ideas as possible. This work takes us down an interesting road, but I have a huge amount of skepticism about it.”

1. Why were the sea hares given electrical shocks?

A．To rob them of their memory.

B．To see how they defend themselves.

C．To break the connection between nerves.

D．To make them sensitive to external stimulations.

2. What conclusion may Glanzman draw from the experiment?

A．Memory can be encoded and changed by people.

B．Only with strong stimulation can sea snails form reaction.

C．The memory giving rise to sea snail’s sensitization is held in RNA.

D．The sea snail’s defense is probably enabled by connectivity of brain cells.

3. According to the passage, the limitations of Glanzman’s experiment involve the following EXCEPT ________.

A．The recipient sea snail’s response may require further confirmation.

B．Variables (变量) in the experiments may not have remained the same.

C．Something else other than RNA in the extract may lead to the recipient’s reaction.

D．The sea snail “memory transplant” may not apply to more complex memory process.

4. The underlined word “skepticism” in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to ________.

A．criticism

B．doubt

C．relief

D．optimism

6 . Last year Miranda Lim found that taking care of three young children homebound by the pandemic meant she often had to work late into the evening to stay on top of her job. Concerned that the _________ hours were having a bad effect on her sleep, Lim started tracking her sleep time with an app on her mobile phone. She wasn’t quite _________ the results. “I saw my bedtime was _________ anywhere between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m.,” she says. “I was just horrified.” As a result, she immediately set up a daily alarm — not for waking up, but for _________ to bed at a reasonable hour.

It’s _________ why Lim would be a bit of an alarmist when threatened with a lack of a constant night’s sleep. As a sleep disorders physician at the VA Portland Health Care System, Lim is at the forefront of a global team of medical researchers who have in recent years been _________ the ways in which even moderate sleep shortage in middle age strongly link to Alzheimer’s disease later in life. She says, “Our big discovery was that the lack of sleep involves brain processes that may _________ into the disease.”

The finding that getting more and better sleep could offer the best, and _________ only, way to significantly reduce the risks of neuro-degeneration (神经退化) in older age is likely to further _________ an already hot sleep industry. Market research firm Infinium Global Research puts the current worldwide market for sleep __________ — including drugs, special bedding, and health care services — at an estimated $80 billion–plus, and predicts it will __________ to $114 billion over the next five years. Research firm BCC has been projecting a similar growth rate. Now Tim O’Brien, who heads life sciences content at BCC, says he’s watching for “a sudden leap”.

That leap would be driven not only by consumer’s __________ pursuit of better sleep-related health, but also by a stream of new __________ and technologies that are emerging to help achieve it, from sleep drugs to implantable medical devices to smart pillows. Fitbit’s companion app offers a range of insights and exercises aimed at __________ sleep, including sleep “scores” that break down different aspects of sleep, recommendations for when to get to bed and when to wake up, deep breathing and mindfulness exercises, and more. In addition, a big push into the market is being made by __________ a number of sleep-tracking and sleep-promoting features into the latest version of its “Nest Hub” smart speaker-and-screen device.

Nevertheless, some experts think the tech can help with slight pushes, but people still have to develop the healthy habits.

1.

A．uncertain

B．flexible

C．extended

D．fixed

2.

A．interested in

B．amazed at

C．replaced with

D．prepared for

3.

A．flying

B．bouncing

C．flashing

D．ringing

4.

A．heading off

B．paying off

C．putting off

D．giving off

5.

A．sensible

B．natural

C．understandable

D．surprising

6.

A．cutting down

B．comparing with

C．thinking about

D．figuring out

7.

A．transform

B．develop

C．explore

D．innovate

8.

A．ultimately

B．seemingly

C．possibly

D．slightly

9.

A．fuel

B．urge

C．peak

D．sue

10.

A．layers

B．trends

C．aids

D．tribes

11.

A．appeal

B．climb

C．resort

D．flow

12.

A．demanding

B．intensifying

C．foreseeing

D．existing

13.

A．therapies

B．options

C．experiments

D．schedules

14.

A．monitoring

B．affecting

C．hanging

D．boosting

15.

A．packing

B．removing

C．contrasting

D．mixing

7 . Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

Can Birdsong Make You Happier?

If you are able to step outside and hear many types of birds, you might also have a greater feeling of well-being. Two studies show that hearing diverse birdsongs may help increase our happiness.

One study was done by the researchers at California Polytechnic State University. The team studied the effects of birdsong on people walking through a park in the U.S. state of Colorado. Danielle Ferraro, who led the Cal Poly study, says that there could be an evolutionary reason why we like birdsong. The idea is that when we hear birdsong it could signal safety to us. There could be many other reasons too Ferraro states that in some areas around the world birdsong can also signal the arrival of spring and nice weather. Bird diversity, she adds, can also mean a healthy environment.

Similarly, scientists in Germany examined for the first time whether a diverse nature also increases human well-being across Europe. The researchers looked at the European Quality of Life Survey to study the connection between the different kinds of birds in their surroundings and life satisfaction. They looked at more than 26,000 adults from 26 European countries. “Europeans are particularly satisfied with their lives if their surroundings have a high species diversity,” explains the study’s lead author, Joel Methorst, a researcher at the Goethe University in Frankfurt. He and his team found that the happiest Europeans are those who can experience many different kinds of birds in their daily life, or who live in near-natural surroundings that are home to many species.

So, if birdsong is good for our mental health, how can we increase the different types of birdsongs we hear? Scientists also mentioned, “We would recommend planting native trees and flowers because we have a lot of pretty decorative plants in our cities. And they might look nice to us, but birds can’t necessarily use them. So, we think it important to have species that are native to the area to increase bird diversity.”

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8 . Motivating Employees under Unfavourable Conditions

It is a great deal easier to motivate employees in a growing organization than a declining one. When organizations are expanding, promotional opportunities, pay rises, and the excitement of being associated with a dynamic organization create feelings of optimism. When an organization is shrinking, the best and mobile workers are likely to leave voluntarily.     1     The minor employees remain because their job options are limited.

Morale (士气) also suffers during decline. People fear they may be the next to be made unnecessary. Productivity often Suffers, as employees spend their time sharing rumours and providing one another with moral support rather than focusing on their jobs.     2     Pay cuts, unheard of during times of growth, may even be imposed. The challenge to management is how to motivate employees under such special conditions.

    3     For example, if the job is running a small business or an autonomous unit within a larger business, high achievers should be sought. High achievers will do best when the job provides moderately challenging goats and where there is independence and feedback.

The literature on goal-setting theory suggests that managers should ensure that all employees have specific goals and receive comments on how well they are doing in those goals. Regardless of whether goals are achievable or well within management’s perceptions of the employee’s ability, if employees see them as unachievable they will reduce their effort.     4    

Since employees have different needs, managers should use their knowledge of each employee to personalize the rewards over which they have control. Some of the more obvious rewards that managers allocate include pay, promotions and the opportunity to participate in goal-setting and decision-making.

A．There is enough evidence to support the motivational benefits that result from carefully matching people to jobs.

B．For those whose jobs are secure, pay increases are rarely possible.

C．High achievers are motivated by jobs that are high in independence and responsibility.

D．Unfortunately, they are the ones the organization can least afford to lose—those with the highest skills and experience.

E．The answer to that depends on perceptions of goal acceptance and the organization’s culture.

F．Managers must be sure, therefore, that employees feel confident that their efforts can lead to performance goals.

9 . Trying to make a big decision while you’re also preparing for a scary presentation? You might want to ______ doing that. Most people prefer to have sufficient time to analyze a situation and consider the ______. Feeling stressed changes how people ______ risk and reward. A new article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science reviews how, under stress, people pay more attention to the ______ of a possible outcome. Pressure can result in ______ attention and the use of unconscious reasoning. It can force a decision-maker to sort the relevant factors from the irrelevant, and can ______ clear thinking with specific priorities. 

It’s a bit ______ that stress makes people focus on the way things could go right, says Mara Mather of the University of Southern California. “This is sort of not what people would think,” Mather says, “Stress is usually associated with disagreeable experiences, so you’d think that maybe I’m going to be more focused on the ______ outcomes.” But researchers have found that when people are under stress — by being told to hold their hand in ice water for a few minutes, for example, or give a speech — they start paying more attention to positive information and ______ negative information. “Stress seems to worsen their learning from negative feedback,” Mather says. This means when people under stress are making a difficult decision, they may pay more attention to the upsides of the alternatives they’re considering and less to the downsides. So someone who’s deciding whether to take a new job and is feeling stressed by the ______ might weigh the increase in salary more heavily than the worse commute (通勤)。

The increased focus on the positive also helps explain why stress plays a role in ______, and people under stress have a harder time controlling their urges. “The compulsion to get the reward comes stronger and they’re less able to ______ it,” Mather says. So a person who’s under stress might think only about the good feelings they’ll get from negative things like a drug, while the ______ shrink to the distance.

Stress also ______ the differences in how men and women think about risk. When men are under stress, they become even more ______ to take risks; when women are stressed, they get more conservative. Mather links this to another research that finds, at difficult times, men tend to face the situation, while women are likely to be more conservative.

1.

A．try

B．delay

C．deny

D．forbid

2.

A．requirements

B．reasons

C．chances

D．alternatives

3.

A．weigh

B．overlook

C．confuse

D．classify

4.

A．imperfection

B．risk

C．advantage

D．uncertainty

5.

A．conflicted

B．focused

C．unexpected

D．separated

6.

A．break off

B．hold up

C．account for

D．bring out

7.

A．surprising

B．fortunate

C．reasonable

D．pleasant

8.

A．conscious

B．immediate

C．negative

D．favorable

9.

A．neglecting

B．enhancing

C．analyzing

D．evaluating

10.

A．position

B．decision

C．qualification

D．schedule

11.

A．judgement

B．progress

C．relationship

D．addiction

12.

A．value

B．adopt

C．resist

D．maintain

13.

A．downsides

B．desires

C．defeats

D．benefits

14.

A．declines

B．increases

C．eliminates

D．worsens

15.

A．reliable

B．reluctant

C．qualified

D．willing

10 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1.

A．He found the best budget hotel ever.	B．He ended up at an unexpected destination.
C．He lost his way to the booked hotel.	D．It took him long to find the booked hotel.

2.

A．Background information isn’t necessary.

B．Information should be more vividly written.

C．Travelers don’t read the information carefully.

D．Information should be revised more often.

3.

A．Because it allows him to save time and expense.

B．Because he can get free advice from the local people.

C．Because it helps him discover some unusual things to do.

D．Because he can meet more travelers and share experiences.

4.

A．The limitation of guidebooks.	B．The importance of guidebook usage.
C．How to choose a right guidebook.	D．The real value of traveling.