1 . London’s four wonderful hotels
Here’s a pick of four wonderful hotels, each different in terms of size, style and location, but all performing to an exceptional standard.
The Goring Hotel
Since first opening in 1910, it is London’s oldest family-owned luxury hotel with the second-largest privately-owned garden in London after Buckingham Palace. The rooms of this hotel are smaller than those of many other London’s top hotels. There are 12 interconnecting rooms, which are ideal for families.
The Beaumont Hotel
This 1926 building, formerly a parking garage, has been transformed into one of London’s hottest hotels. Its art collection, personal service, elegant rooms and hot restaurant make it a favorite on our London list. There’s also an impressive 2. 5 staff to every person and a 24-hour doorkeeper to make sure that guests’ needs are met around the clock.
The Bulgari Hotel
This hotel has some of the largest accommodations in the capital. It’s very modern and huge with six floors below and nine above ground. It feels big, but there are only 85 rooms and suites spread over six floors, indicating how spacious (宽敞的) they are. The Bulgari Hotel has many child-friendly rooms and activities to keep the kids busy:a swimming pool, a cinema, PlayStations, Xbox and lots of other games. The Bulgari spa is spread over two stories. And the doorkeeper can also arrange babysitting.
The Rosewood Hotel
Rosewood is within walking distance of many of the city’s main attractions. From the outside, the building is large and impressive with an elegant courtyard designed for horse-drawn carriages (四轮马车). There is also a great spa and fitness center. As for activities for kids, there are food activities, art and wildlife. The doorkeeper can arrange trips to the London Zoo.
1. Which of the following does the Goring Hotel provide?A.Spacious rooms. | B.Babysitting service. |
C.A large private garden. | D.A spa and fitness center. |
A.Enjoy games. | B.Watch wildlife. |
C.Take part in food activities. | D.Take a horse-drawn carriage. |
A.The Goring Hotel. | B.The Bulgari Hotel. |
C.The Beaumont Hotel. | D.The Rosewood Hotel. |
2 . There is nothing like a coast redwood. It is the planet’s tallest tree, up to heights of more than 320 feet into the sky. With trunks that grow to more than 27 feet wide, they can live for over 2,000 years. Some of them living today were alive during the time of the Roman Empire (帝国).
Coast redwoods have survived through thousands of years of natural floods, droughts, tsunamis and fires. They can thrive (茁壮成长) and recover from damage as long as they can count on rainwater and coastal fog banks that roll in every morning. And it is those critical water sources that are disappearing as temperatures continue to rise. The damp conditions the trees like are rarer than they used to be. Coast redwoods now occupy less than 10 percent of their original range.
Their loss will have some consequences, particularly in the vast amount of carbon they store. Redwoods can store 2,600 metric tons of carbon per hectare, more than double the absorption rate of the Pacific Northwest’s conifer trees (针叶树), according to a new research published in Forest Ecology and Management.
David Milarch, an arborist from Michigan, says he feels sorrowful about the disappearing redwoods. He spends his days tracking down the healthiest coast redwood specimens (样本) he can find, cloning them in his own lab, and then planting them in carefully chosen places where they can thrive. Milarch’s goal is both to strengthen the coast redwood gene pool with clones of the strongest individuals, and to store loads of carbon. It’s a complicated mission with a simple philosophy: save the big trees, and they’ll save us.
Milarch explains that we need a practical and measurable solution to fighting against climate change. He believes the redwoods are the answer. However, scientist Mark Maslin cautions against viewing tree planting as a magic bullet, since even fast-growing trees take a long time to grow and be mature enough to reach their maximum carbon-trapping time which climate change cannot afford. As a global society, the most important thing we should do now is to reduce our overall carbon emissions if we want to have any impact on the planet’s climate crisis.
1. What causes the decrease of coast redwoods?A.Forest fires. | B.Soil pollution. |
C.Climate warming. | D.Human overcutting. |
A.To show the importance of redwoods to the environment. |
B.To introduce the approach to reducing carbon pollutants. |
C.To state the role of the Pacific Northwest’s conifer trees. |
D.To explain the difficulty of protecting coast redwoods. |
A.By seeking ideal specimens to clone. |
B.By exploring ways to raise their adaptability. |
C.By improving water sources in coastal places. |
D.By creating a wet growing environment for them. |
A.Scientists need to find ways to make redwoods grow faster. |
B.Growing redwoods is an efficient solution to climate change. |
C.Protecting redwoods can be much costlier than Milarch thought. |
D.Reducing carbon emissions should be a priority (优先考虑) in solving climate crisis. |
You may think you cannot live through summer without air conditioners. But in ancient China, hand fans were almost the only help for people
Chinese people started to use hand fans over 2,000 years ago. The fans came
Shaped like
Meanwhile, men, especially the literati (文人), used zheshan. The literati liked them because they could paint and write poems on them.
David Beckham, an English footballer, was born in London in 1975,
His talent was obvious from an early age and he signed with Manchester Union
Beckham has many interests off the soccer field and
5 . A new smartwatch app warns users who are deaf or hard of hearing about nearby sounds, such as microwave beeps or car horns.
“The main motivation came from my own experience, and conversations that my colleagues and I have had with deaf and hard of hearing people over several years,” says Dhruv Jain, who presented the system, called SoundWatch, at the virtual ASSETS conference on October 28.
Jain, who is hard of hearing, uses SoundWatch at home to avoid sleeping through a smoke alarm. “On a nature walk, it’ll tell me that there’s birds chirping (吱喳叫), or there might be a waterfall nearby,” he says. “Those sounds make me feel more present and connected to the world.”
Sound awareness apps for smartphones exist. But Jain prefers the immediate sound notifications (提示) on his wrist, rather than in his pocket — and surveys of people who are deaf or hard of hearing show he’s not alone.
The SoundWatch app pairs an Android smartwatch and phone. The watch records surrounding noises and sends that data to the phone for processing. When the phone detects a sound of interest, the smartwatch vibrates and displays a notification.
Jain, a computer scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues designed the app to identify 20 noises. In experiments, SoundWatch correctly identified those 20 sounds 81.2 percent of the time. When set to listen only for urgent noises — a fire alarm, door knock or alarm clock — the app was 97.6 percent accurate. Eight deaf and hard of hearing people who used SoundWatch around a university campus gave the app broadly favorable reviews, but noted that the app misclassified some sounds in noisy outdoor settings.
Jain and colleagues are now working on a version of SoundWatch that users can train to recognize new sounds, such as their own house alarm, using just a few recordings.
1. From which section of a website is the text most probably taken?A.Tech. | B.Health. | C.Environment. | D.Culture. |
A.It came from real-life experiences. | B.It was the first sound awareness app. |
C.It will vibrate when noises are recorded. | D.It can make users hear the real sounds. |
A.To tell the convenience of the app. | B.To illustrate how the app works. |
C.To state the importance of the app. | D.To show when the app detects sounds |
A.It can distinguish all sounds. | B.It is sensitive to urgent noises. |
C.University students praise it highly. | D.A new version has replaced the previous one. |
6 . American people like to say “Thank you” when others help them or say something kind to them. People of many countries do so, too. It is a very good habit.
You should say “Thank you” when someone passes you the salt on the table, when someone walking ahead of you keeps the door open for you, when someone says you have done your work well, or you have bought a nice thing, or your city is very beautiful. “Thank you” is used not only between friends, but also between parents and children, brothers and sisters.
“Excuse me” is another short sentence they use. When you hear someone say so behind you, you know that somebody wants to walk past you without touching you. It’s not polite to break others when they are talking. If you want to speak to one of them, say “Excuse me” first,and then begin talking. You should also do so when you begin to cough or make any noise before others.
Let’s learn to say “Thank you” and “Excuse me”.
1. From the passage we know “Thank you” is .A.widely used in the world | B.used more often than “Excuse me” |
C.used only by American | D.used only between friends |
A.cough | B.make some noise | C.go first | D.all of the above |
A.Thank you | B.That’s very kind of you | C.Excuse me | D.I’m sorry |
A.to be happy | B.to learn from Americans | C.to help others | D.to be polite |
Gail Devers, an American athlete and also a three-time Olympic gold medalist in track and field, got her first one in 1992.
In the years leading up to the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Devers experienced a series of
Thirty years went by. Today, Devers wants to raise awareness for the disease and
She also says, “My Graves’ disease has made me who I am. Therefore, I always tell people that if I had my life to live over, I would ask for this disease again,” she says. “I believe I’m stronger at
Every girl dreamed when she was young and Cindy was no exception. Her favorite ballet was Swan and Lake and she had read dozens of books from the library or in the bookstore on how to become a ballerina. She anxiously hoped that one day her dream would come true. She had taken ballet lessons and all her teachers confirmed that she was a good student and full of potential, which made her look forward to the future.
One day she saw an advertisement that a famous ballerina troupe (剧团) would be performing in her hometown. Her thoughts ran wild, “I must meet up with the leader of the troupe and show him my skills,” she murmured to herself. She dressed herself in her ballerina costume and managed to avoid the guards and hid in the dressing room to wait, with her heart pounding. It was uncertain whether she could see the leader.
Luckily, the leader entered and she timidly knocked at the door.
She bravely approached him and handed him a bunch of red roses. And in her excitement, she pricked (刺) her finger on the thorns but she did not make a big thing about the pain. The leader observed her action, nodding his head slightly, as she told him her dream. “All right, you dance and I will give you my judgment.”
But half way through the dance he stopped her and said with an impish (恶作剧的) smile Cindy didn’t notice, “I’m sorry you’re not good enough!” On hearing this, Cindy was too ashamed to ask the leader the reason and ran crying away, as fast as her legs could carry her without a brief stay. Shaking his head in disappointment, the leader said to himself, “Persistence matters more than talent.”
Three years passing, she was still chasing her dream. Then one day she heard that the same ballet troupe was performing in her town again. Bitter memories of the leader’s harsh words came flooding back to her. This time she was determined to find out why the leader had told her she was not good enough when all her teachers thought otherwise.
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。
The leader glanced at Cindy in peace, “I remember how you had pricked yourself but you carried on bravely.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
At the thought, she ran after the leader immediately.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
9 . 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. |
10 . Now more companies are experimenting with the concept of connected clothes. Among the pioneers is London based Cute Circuit, which has been creating fashionable smart clothing since 2004. The company’s latest innovation is the “Sound Shirt”, which allows deaf people to “feel” live music by transforming the tunes into touch sensations (感受) in real time.
The fashionable jacket uses software that changes the music into data and wirelessly sends it to the 16-micro motors fitted inside the clothing’s fabric (布料). The devices shake with the intensity (强度) of the music being played, allowing the wearer to feel each instrument individually. For example, violins can be felt on the arms, while the deeper, heavier bass notes can be felt close to the stomach. The series of touch like sensations across the wearer’s body enable him or her to feel the entire music, resulting in a musical experience.
To ensure the shirt is comfortable, the designers chose to leave out wires and instead wove conductive textiles (导电纺织品) into the garment’s fabric. Francesca Rosella, chief creative officer of Cute Circuit, explains, “There’re no wires inside, so we’re only using smart fabrics — we have a combination of micro-electronics and very thin and flexible and conductive fabrics. All these little electronic motors are connected with these conductive fabrics so that the garment is soft and stretchable.”
Cute Circuit, which has been testing the Sound Shirt for three years, expects to make it available to the general public shortly. Priced at $3,673, the smart jacket won’t be cheap. However, twin sisters Herman and Heredia Breanne, who lost their hearing at a young age, believe the hi-tech garment is a worthwhile investment, especially for deaf people with a passion for dancing. “It’s almost like feeling the depth of the music,” says Herman. “It just feels as though we can move along with it.”
1. Why does the writer mention smart clothing in the first paragraph?A.To show the development of technology. |
B.To introduce the topic of the passage. |
C.To demonstrate the latest trend of music. |
D.To summarize the main idea of the whole passage. |
A.The software used in the shirt. |
B.The musical instruments felt by the wearers. |
C.The way the shirt functions. |
D.The experience the wearer gains with the shirt. |
A.Affordable and fashionable. | B.Cheap and comfortable. |
C.Interesting but useless. | D.Expensive but comfortable. |
A.The shirt will be popular with deaf dancing-enthusiasts. |
B.They will invest in the “Sound Shirt” industry. |
C.The shirt should be marketed as soon as possible. |
D.They love music very much. |