1 . Libraries are romantic places. The romance is that of reading, and the wealth of human imagining and learning that is contained in them. Access to the knowledge and literary art poetry, fiction, drama)in a library is precious -and particularly valuable to young minds and people of any age with an interest in education.
It would be hard to find anyone who actively disapproves of libraries. But when it comes to reality, Britain’s libraries are on less solid ground. The number of books borrowed in the year ending in March.2021 was 72.9m,down 56%on the previous year. Physical visits also collapsed, from 214.6m to 59.7m.
Of course, this is the behaviour that one would expect during a pandemic. Many libraries were closed during this period, while people were discouraged from unnecessary mixing. Book sales climbed to their highest in a decade in 2021, which suggests that some former users of libraries may have bought books instead.
Private libraries at home, whether large collections or single bookshelves, appear to be developing well. But the hope must be that visits and loans at public libraries will soon return to their former level too. Like any other service, libraries need users. And while booksellers might in one sense be regarded as competitors, in fact the vast majority of those involved in the trade, from publishers to poets, are library lovers.
This has something to do with the romantic idea of the reader as explorer, with every book a door to a new store of feeling or understanding. But it also involves the recognition that if books are to form part of our life, there must be space in public for them. Books can be treasured possessions, but there is also something special about a copy that arrives in your hands having passed through those of others -and that will go on being passed between strangers who share your curiosity.
1. What has happened to British libraries?| A．They have been in a bad state. | B．They have become romantic places. |
| C．They have got great appeal for artists. | D．They have suffered great loss of users. |
| A．People avoid close contact in public. | B．Many libraries have been pulled down. |
| C．People have access to affordable books. | D．More people disapprove of public libraries. |
| A．Books are personal belongings. | B．Libraries are a paradise for adventurers. |
| C．Books should be attached importance to. | D．Libraries contribute to human connection. |
| A．Libraries will fade out of stage. | B．Libraries will hold a promising future. |
| C．Booksellers benefit from libraries’ collapse. | D．The pandemic has boosted British book sales. |
2 . Research shows people have a tendency to seek out information during uncertain times — it’s a natural coping mechanism (机制). But is continuous information-seeking on social media, sometimes called doomscrolling (末日刷刷刷), helpful during a pandemic, or any time?
Research on the effects of bad news on mood suggests exposure to negative COVID news is likely to be dangerous to our emotional well being. For instance, one study conducted in March 2020 involving more than 6,000 Americans found that the more time participants spent consuming COVID news in a day, the unhappier they felt.
These findings are striking but leave a few key questions unanswered. Does doomscrolling make people unhappy, or are unhappy people just more likely to doomscroll? How much time spent doomscrolling is a problem? And what would happen if, instead of doomscrolling, we were “ kindness scrolling ” — reading about humanity’s positive responses to a global crisis?
To find out answers to these questions, researchers conducted a study where they showed hundreds of people real-world content on either Twitter or YouTube for two to four minutes. The Twitter feeds and YouTube videos featured either general news about the COVID, or news about kindness during COVID. Researchers then measured these participants’ moods using a questionnaire, and compared their moods with participants who did not engage with any content at all.
People who were shown general COVID-related news experienced lower moods than people who were shown nothing at all. Meanwhile, people who were shown COVID news stories involving acts of kindness didn’t experience the same decline in mood, but also didn’t gain the boost in mood they’ d predicted. These findings suggest that spending as little as two to four minutes consuming negative news about COVID-19 can have a negative impact on our mood.
Researchers are still working on what people can do to look after themselves, and make time on social media more pleasurable.
1. How did the author introduce the topic of the text?| A．By asking a question. | B．By telling a story. |
| C．By listing lots of figures. | D．By answering a question. |
| A．To figure out why people like doomscrolling. |
| B．To find out what news has bad effects on emotion. |
| C．To figure out the answers to the few key questions. |
| D．To find out what news people like about doomscrolling. |
| A．No news may lead people to low mood. |
| B．General COVID-related news may cause low spirits. |
| C．COVID news of kindness may boost mood. |
| D．2-4 minutes of COVID-19 news viewing doesn’t affect mood. |
| A．The research time. | B．The results of the study. |
| C．The study institution. | D．The number of participants. |
3 . The morning had been a disaster. My tooth was aching, and I’d been in an argument with a friend. Her words still hurt, “ The trouble with you is that you won’t put yourself in my place. Can’t you see things from my point of view? ” I shook my head stubbornly-and felt the ache in my tooth. I’d thought I could hold out till my dentist came back from holiday, but the pain was really unbearable. I started calling the dentists in the phone book, but no one could see me immediately. Finally, at about lunchtime, I got lucky.
“ If you come by right now, ” the receptionist said, “ the dentist will fit you in. ”
I took my purse and keys and rushed to my car. But suddenly I began to doubt about the dentist. What kind of dentist would be so eager to treat someone at such short notice? Why wasn’t he as busy as the others?
In the dentist’s office, I sat down and looked around. I saw nothing but the bare walls and I became even more worried. The assistant noticed my nervousness and placed her warm hand over my icecold one.
When I told her my fears, she laughed and said, “ Don’t worry. The dentist is very good. ”
“ How long do I have to wait for him? ” I asked impatiently.
“ Come on, he is coming. Just lie down and relax. And enjoy the artwork, ” the assistant said.
“ The artwork? ”I was puzzled.
The chair went back. Suddenly I smiled. There was a beautiful picture, right where I could enjoy it: on the ceiling. How considerate the dentist was! At that moment, I began to understand what my friend meant by her words.
What a relief!
1. Which of the following best describes the author’s feeling that morning?| A．Upset. | B．Nervous. | C．Cheerful. | D．Satisfied. |
| A．The laughing assistant of the dentist. |
| B．The surroundings of the dentist’s office. |
| C．The dentist’s being as busy as the other dentists. |
| D．The dentist’s agreeing to treat her at very short notice. |
| A．Because the dentist came at last. | B．Because she could relax in the chair. |
| C．Because she saw a picture on the ceiling. | D．Because the assistant kept comforting her. |
| A．Strike while the iron is hot. | B．Put oneself in other’s shoes. |
| C．A friend in need is a friend indeed. | D．Have a good word for one’s friend. |
A UPS driver
Chad Turns delivers for UPS in the small town of Dauphin. On Tuesday, Turns drove into a parking lot for
Waiting for him on a table was a large card
Turns was so touched that he pulled out his handkerchief to wipe his
Dauphin resident Jenny Shickley organized
“He tries his best
Shickley said Turns, who has delivered in the town for several years, is a man who
Turns is also known for
5 . Famous Israeli gastronome (美食家) Michal Ansky is a professional taster and a Master Chef judge. So when she was invited to the world’s first public blind taste test setting lab-grown chicken into competition against a conventionally raised product, she was confident that she would be able to tell the difference.
Surrounded by cameras at a restaurant bar, she tasted from two dishes, labeled A and B. A team of lawyers looked on, tasked with making sure that the tasting truly was blind. Even the chef who sautéed (嫩煎) the meat in sunflower oil—no salt, no seasonings—didn’t know which was which. Both were flavorless, Ansky noted, but she would bet her reputation that sample A was the real thing. It had a richer, more “chickeny” taste.
The tasting was hosted by a meat-tech startup SuperMeat at its in-house restaurant, The Chicken. Ever since 2013, when the first lab-grown hamburger was presented to the public with a $330,000 price tag, alternative-meat companies have been inching closer to a product that is just as tasty and nearly as affordable as the real thing, but without the climate impacts. One new study found high-income countries could cut agricultural emissions (排放物) by almost two-thirds by moving away from animal-based foods.
But one question remains: Would consumers be able to tell the difference? SuperMeat decided to put its product to the test without the deep frying and sauces that are usually used to mask a lack of flavor. Sample B had less flavor, so Ansky reasoned that it had to be the one grown in a lab. She was so convinced of her decision that when SuperMeat founder Ido Savir announced that it was in fact A that was lab-grown, she corrected him. “No,” she said. “A is the real chicken.”
A day later, I spoke to Ansky about the tasting. “It’s one of the only times in my life that I’m really happy that I was wrong,” she admitted.
1. What do we know about the taste test?| A．It was hosted by a chicken-themed restaurant. |
| B．Food samples were made with different flavors. |
| C．Michal Ansky was invited to the test for her reputation. |
| D．Lawyers were involved to ensure the authority of the activity. |
| A．lab-grown chicken tastes as good as raised chicken |
| B．meat eaters turn a blind eye to the taste of chicken |
| C．even a world-famous gastronome can make mistakes |
| D．chicken should be cooked well to appeal to customers |
| A．More chickeny taste. |
| B．More affordable price. |
| C．Less artificial flavor. |
| D．Less carbon footprint. |
| A．She wanted to ease her embarrassment. |
| B．She saw a milestone in the food industry. |
| C．She changed people’s opinion of her job. |
| D．She believed in the power of making mistakes. |
6 . Jose Alberto Gutierrez’s life would never be the same again after finding a copy of Anna Karenina in the trash (垃圾) 20 years ago. It happened while he was driving his garbage truck through wealthier neighbourhoods and seeing books abandoned by the rich. It ignited his desire to start rescuing books from the trash. Eventually, he turned his book collection into a community library.
In Colombia’s capital city of Bogota, libraries tend to be far away from poorer communities. The option of buying new books is non-existent for poor families and having access to a library of books is a luxury. Gutierrez grew up poor, and his family could not afford to educate him beyond primary school. Nevertheless, his mother was a passionate reader and read stories to him every night. Her love for books left a deep impression on Gutierrez, who never let a lack of formal education stop him.
Today, his community library, “The Strength of Words”, occupies most of his home and is piled from floor to ceiling with fiction and non-fiction titles. Everything from school textbooks to storybooks can be found in his collection of over 20,000 books!
The Strength of Words library is open every weekend, and children in Gutierrez’s neighbourhood are allowed to look through the book collection. Adults are also welcome to expand their vision and develop new skills for a better life.
Today, the Gutierrez family doesn’t merely want to start libraries in neighbourhoods. They want to create more safe spaces for school children to spend their time reading. This is important for kids living in Bogota where many young people waste time in the streets.
Gutierrez’s journey to give treasure back to his local community is an amazing example of how every one of us can improve the lives of those around us by identifying needs, investing time and finding a simple solution. How might we take a leaf out of Gutierrez’s book?
1. What does the underlined word “ignited” mean in paragraph 1?| A．Satisfied. | B．Ignored. | C．Excited. | D．Expressed. |
| A．It aims to recycle and reuse the garbage. |
| B．It is sponsored by wealthier communities. |
| C．It is in the charge of his passionate mother. |
| D．It makes knowledge accessible to poor kids. |
| A．We should value Gutierrez’s spirit of paying back. |
| B．We can follow Gutierrez’s example to help others. |
| C．We should go to visit Gutierrez’s library personally. |
| D．We can donate deserted books to Gutierrez’s library. |
| A．From Trash to Treasure | B．The Books of Gutierrez |
| C．From Home to Community | D．The Strength of Reading |
I was watching some little kids play soccer. These kids were only five or six years old. The teams were pretty evenly (平均地) matched. I will just call them Team One and Team Two. Nobody scored in the first period. They fell over their own feet, they fell over the ball, they kicked at the ball and missed it, but they didn’t seem to care. They were having fun.
In the second quarter, the Team One coach pulled out what must have been his first team and put in the uniforms, except for his best player who now guarded the goal. The game took a dramatic turn.
Team Two gathered around the little guy who was now the Team One goalkeeper. He was an outstanding athlete, but he was no match for three or four who were also very good. Team Two began to score. The little guy gave it everything he had, recklessly (不顾一切地) throwing his body in front of incoming balls, trying bravely to stop them. Team Two scored two goals quickly. With all the strength, he covered the boy who now had the ball, but that boy kicked it to another boy twenty feet away, and by the time he re-positioned himself, it was too late—Team Two scored a third goal.
After the third goal,the little kid changed. He could see it was no use. The little boy needed help so badly, and there was no help to be had. He got the ball from the net and handed it to the coach and then he cried. He just stood there while huge tears rolled down both cheeks. He went to his knees and put his fists to his eyes—and he cried, helpless and broken-hearted.
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。
When the boy went to his knees, I saw the father start onto the field.
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“Daddy,” the boy cried.
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8 . Plastic is man-made and can be produced from natural materials like coal and oil. Plastic is really useful and we use it every day. But what happens after we throw it away is causing a big problem for our planet. It’s thought that more than five trillion pieces of plastic are in the world’s oceans and it can take years for them to break down.
Why is plastic a problem?
The problem with plastic is that most of it isn’t biodegradable(可生物降解的). It doesn’t rot, like paper or food, so instead it can exist for hundreds of years. Each year, 400 million tons of plastic is produced and 40% of that is single-use plastic, such as carrier bags, drinks bottles and crisp packets. More than 8 million tons of plastic enters the world’s oceans each year. It can be blown into the sea from ships and beaches, or carried there by river. Some also gets flushed(冲走) down the toilet.
Another issue is that not all plastic can be recycled. This might be because of the way it is made up or because it is too expensive or difficult to do. Some coffee cups, for example, have a waterproof plastic lining which can make them difficult to recycle. Every day seven million cardboard coffee cups are thrown away but only one in 400 are recycled.
How does plastic harm animals?
Experts think that by 2050, the amount of plastic in the ocean will weigh more than the number of fish in the ocean. All animals, whether they live on land or in the sea, can be impaired by plastic. They can get trapped in bigger items such as carrier bags or food packaging.
Birds, fish and shellfish can mistake plastic for food when it has broken down into smaller pieces. One in three sea turtles, and around 90% of seabirds, have eaten it. They can’t digest(消化) plastic so their stomachs can become full, meaning they don’t have room for actual food. Each year, 100,000 animals in the sea are killed by plastic.
1. What is the function of the first paragraph?| A．To attract readers. | B．To lead in the main topic. |
| C．To define the main concept. | D．To summarize the passage. |
| A．By using data. | B．By describing the processes. |
| C．By explaining definitions. | D．By making comparisons. |
| A．Helped. | B．Hurt. | C．Scared. | D．Ignored. |
| A．Ways to solve the plastic problem. | B．The importance of animal protection. |
| C．Reasons for upgrading plastic material. | D．Environmental damage caused by plastic. |
9 . Fujian Tulou
Fujian Tulou is a type of Chinese rural buildings of the Hakka and Minnan people in Fujian. Built on a stone base, the Tulou’s thick walls were packed with dirt and wood. The first Tulou appeared during the early Song Dynasty (960-1279). Its design mixes the traditions of Feng shui, showing a perfect combination of unique traditional architecture with picturesque scenery.
Hongcun Village
Located in Northeast of Yixian County, this village is famous for its long history, deep culture and splendid environment. Hongcun Village was built in the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). As the village looks like an ox,this village is also called “Ox-shaped Village”. Leigang Mountain is the ox head, the dark green trees its horn, the folk houses the body; the lakes are the stomach and four ancient bridges near the village are the legs.
Courtyard of Family Qiao
Located in Qiaojiabao Village, Qixian County, the Courtyard of Family Qiao was built in the late 1700s by the then influential Qiao family. Looking from the pavilion(亭子) on the southwest corner is a great way to have a bird’s-eye view of the entire complex. Beyond the gate is a wall on which is carved(雕刻) Chinese characters. Various kinds of red lanterns hanged in courtyards. It has been featured in many famous Chinese movies and TV series, including the well-known film Raise the Red Lantern.
Kang Baiwan’s Manor
Located in Kangdian County of Gongyi City, Kang Baiwan’s Manor was built during the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) by the landlord Kang Yingkui. It consists of dozens of parts such as a housing section, ancestral hall and garden section. The manor features various kinds of fine carvings, including brick, wood and stone in different vivid shapes. It now has 36 exhibition rooms, boasting a large number of well-preserved antiques.
1. Which was built in the earliest time?| A．Fujian Tulou. | B．Hongcun Village. |
| C．Courtyard of Family Qiao. | D．Kang Baiwan’s Manor. |
| A．It contains various fine carvings. | B．It is decorated with red lanterns. |
| C．It was built on a big stone. | D．It has an ox-like shape. |
| A．They show how people live with nature. | B．They combine tradition with environment. |
| C．They offer the beauty of rich families’ homes. | D．They can be seen in many famous Chinese movies. |
1. Why is the bag used?
| A．To carry the textbooks. |
| B．To lock students’ phones. |
| C．To be rewards for students. |
| A．12. | B．18. | C．30. |
| A．They were lost on phones. |
| B．They were busy with study. |
| C．They tended to communicate on their phones. |
| A．He feels terrified. | B．He doesn’t care. | C．He agrees with it. |
