1 . Tom Sawyer Play Is an Adventure
A 35-minute hand-clapping, foot-stomping musical version of a Mark Twain favorite returns with this Tall Stacks festival.
“Tom Sawyer: A River Adventure” has all the good stuff, including the fence painting, the graveyard, the island and the cave. It is adapted by Joe McDonough, with music by David Kisor. That’s the local stage writing team that creates many of the Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati’s original musicals, along with the holiday family musicals at Ensemble Theatre.
This year Nathan Turner of Burlington is Tom Sawyer, and Robbie McMath of Fort Mitchell is Huck Finn.
Tumer, a 10th-grader at School for Creative and Performing Arts, is a familiar presence on Cincinnati’s stages. He is a star act or of Children’s Theatre, having played leading roles in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “The Wizard of Oz,” and is fresh from Jersey Production “Ragtime”.
McMath is a junior at Beechwood High School. He was in the cast of “Tom Sawyer” when it was first performed and is a Children’s Theatre regular, with five shows to his credit. This summer he attended Kentucky’s Governor’s School for the Arts in Musical Theatre.
Note to teachers: Children’s Theatre has a study guide demonstrating how math and science can be taught through “Tom Sawyer.” For downloadable lessons, visit the official website of Children’s Theatre.
1. Who wrote the music for “Tom Sawyer: A River Adventure”?A.David Kisor. | B.Joe McDonough. |
C.Nathan Turner. | D.Robbie McMath. |
A.They study in the same school. | B.They worked together in ”Ragtime“. |
C.They are experienced on stage. | D.They became friends ten years ago. |
A.Research funding. | B.Training opportunities. |
C.Technical support. | D.Educational resources. |
2 . Aron Ralston was a pretty normal guy, but he always had an extremely adventurous desire to travel and see the world. During his childhood, his family moved to Denver, Colorado, a place offering many opportunities to climb mountains, explore, and eventually become the adventurer he’d always wanted to be. Back in 2003, Ralston was climbing in the remote, mountainous area of Southwestern Utah, when the unthinkable happened: Aron got stuck in a crevice (裂缝) in the rocks and pinned by a big stone that weighed over 360 kilograms. The weight of the rock crushed his arm, and he was pinned by it. Aron took photos of his bad situation (which was going to get a lot worse), hoping rescue teams (救援队) would know where he was and came to remove the rock so that he could get out and home safe.
But rescuers never came. Aron waited for them for days till he lost his hope. He knew he had to do something. He was 18 meters above the floor of the valley where he was pinned in, and he had a pocketknife. He made what must have been one of the most difficult decisions of his life: to cut his own arm in order to survive. Aron cut the lower part of his arm off, having to wrench (扭动) his forearm against the big stone to break the bones, and then got himself down to the bottom of the valley, where he would begin to walk and search for help. Luckily, help arrived in the form of a helicopter (直升机) that spotted him, covered in blood. Aron had tied off the wound to keep himself from bleeding to death pretty successfully and would eventually make it out alive.
Ralston went on to become an inspiring speaker and continued to travel and climb mountains—he didn’t let an incident that forced him to cut his own arm off, stop him from doing what he really loved.
1. What can be inferred about Aron’s getting stuck?A.It was unavoidable. | B.It resulted from his being lost. |
C.It was unexpected. | D.It was caused by a moving stone. |
A.To send them to rescuers for help. | B.To keep a record of his adventure. |
C.To remind his friends of the danger. | D.To tell the doctors about his wound. |
A.He waited for the rescue to come. |
B.He cut the stone using his pocketknife. |
C.He moved off the stone using all his might. |
D.He cut his lower part of his arm and broke the bones. |
A.His cruelty and anger. | B.His effort and bravery. |
C.His talent and creativity. | D.His calmness and determination. |
3 . A team of psychologists led by Dr. Karen McComb at the University of Sussex in the UK have discovered an effective way for humans to communicate with cats through slow blinking (眨眼睛), similar to how cats interact with each other.
Dr. McComb and her team conducted two experiments to study this phenomenon. In the first study, owners were instructed by researchers Tasmin Humphrey and Andrew Wood to slowly blink at their cats from a distance while being recorded. Humphrey and Wood found the cats were more likely to respond with slow blinking of their own compared to when no interaction took place.
To follow up on these findings, McComb, Humphrey, and Wood designed a second experiment without considering the exsisting relationship between humans and cats. Researchers, including McComb, performed the same slow blinking action. Like in the first experiment, the cats in this study also responded more favorably to slow blinking by returning the gesture and more readily approaching an extended hand, according to Humphrey’s analysis.
The slow blink expression involves partially closing the eyes briefly, copying a relaxed, friendly facial expression in humans. McComb notes that for cats, it appears to signal good intentions as constant staring could be seen as threatening. Wood says that cats may have developed this language to acknowledge humans who react positively to the signal. Being able to effectively communicate acceptance in this subtle cat way seems to strengthen the bond between cats and their owners, McComb adds.
McComb, Humphrey and Wood hope their findings can provide insight into cat behavior and thinking. They also aim to apply this knowledge of cross-species communication to evaluate cat health in various places like veterinary (兽医的) clinics and shelters, according to Humphrey. A deeper understanding of how cats interpret and respond to humans can improve our ability to properly care for household and outdoor cat populations, McComb concludes.
1. How was the second experiment different from the first one?A.It recorded the interactive behavior of cats. |
B.It required cat owners to blink from a distance. |
C.It studied how cats communicate with each other. |
D.It focused on how cats react to strangers’ slow blinking. |
A.To attract their owners’ attention. |
B.To show friendliness to other animals. |
C.To respond to humans’ positive reactions. |
D.To send out a signal for help to their partners. |
A.Improving cat behavior and habits. |
B.Assessing health conditions of cats. |
C.Developing ways to treat cats’ diseases. |
D.Helping cat owners train their cats quickly. |
A.Humans can communicate with cats by blinking slowly. |
B.Extending hands to cats can strengthen the bond with them. |
C.Cats respond favorably to humans’ friendly facial expressions. |
D.Understanding cat signals improves humans’ ability to care for them. |
4 . You’ll make new friends in each stage of your life. Some of them will come and go, while others will last for the rest of your life.
If you are lacking in good friendships, it’s not too late. There are a lot of ways to make new friends that can stay with you for the rest of your life.
Sometimes it’s a good idea to let a friendship go, even if you’ve been friends for a long time. If one party isn’t making an effort to keep things going, it can lead to feelings of hurt and betrayal.
A.Look for people who share things with you. |
B.Friendship can help you get through mental and physical sufferings. |
C.There are many benefits of having strong friendships. |
D.It might be time to let things cool off and pursue other friendships. |
E.Lifelong friendships are what most people desire. |
F.This toxic friendship may bring you nothing but hurt. |
G.You can get built-in opportunities to spend time with each other. |
5 . Generation Z is different. As a whole, Americans born between the late 1990s and early 2000s are less likely to have work or look for it: their labour-force-participation rate is 71%, compared with 75% for millennials (born between 1980 and the late 1990s) and 78% for Generation X (born in the decade or so to 1980) when each came of age. As a result, they make up a smaller share of the workforce. With graduation ceremonies behind them, the latest group of diploma-holders are entering the job market. What they want from employers is also not quite the same as in generations past.
Although Gen-Z employees felt more lonely and isolated than their older colleagues at the start of the pandemic, the ability to work remotely has brought new possibilities. The benefits go beyond working in your pyjamas. Many are taking calls from beach chairs and hammocks (吊床) in more comfortable places or fleeing big cities in search for cheaper or larger homes.
This has big implications. Industries with jobs that cannot be done from home are falling out of favour with recent graduates. A study by ManpowerGroup, an employment company, suggests an inverse relationship (反比关系) between talent shortages and flexible working policies. The sectors which are either less able to offer remote work or have been slower to embrace it-including construction, finance and manufacturing-have faced some of the biggest skills gaps for all types of jobs.
That in turn has accelerated a pre-existing trend of young employees trading Wall Street for Silicon Valley. Now technology bosses are more willing than their opposite competitors in finance to let employees work from home (or anywhere else). Annual rankings of employer desirability by Universum, a graduate-staffing consultancy, bear this out. In 2008 the list of best employers graded by American graduates was dominated by big banks and the Big Four consulting firms. By 2021 seven of the ten highest spots were occupied by tech and media giants.
1. What does the underlined word “diploma-holders” in the first paragraph refer to?A.Employees. | B.Students. | C.Graduates. | D.Shareholders. |
A.They can’t afford to live in big cities. |
B.They want to spend their days on the beach. |
C.They want to work in a more flexible way. |
D.They prefer wearing pyjamas while working |
A.All walks of life are facing some of the biggest skills gaps. |
B.Industries with jobs that cannot be done from home are less popular. |
C.Industries with flexible working policies may suffer talent shortages. |
D.Construction, finance and manufacturing can’t offer remote work. |
A.To show that job-hopping among young employees is popular. |
B.To indicate that young people prefer to work in big companies. |
C.To weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of the two industries. |
D.To prove that tech firms are more attractive due to its flexible working ways. |
6 . Leek Town Warriors was a girls’ football team which used to get routinely defeated every time they turned out, until James Henry stepped in two years ago. He tended to transform the team’s fortunes and then took the job when the previous coach quit. With the help of his assistant Andy Austin, they started training hard in April 2020.
Some players had never kicked a football before joining the team, so training them took hours of hard work and patience. After a good few weeks, they got down to training and really started to take it in what the coach wanted. “I insist on doing the basic stuff well and letting the girls decide what they feel they need to work on.” James said.
James’ first season was ruined by the pandemic, which forced him and Andy to get creative with training. They organized team-building activities with the girls to help them bond on and off the field. James then spent the sessions they could hold focusing on the basics of football like passing and shooting, bringing the girls up to a good standard.
James watched the girls develop over the course of last year, and in September they played their first match of the new season. They won the game, and since then went on an unbeaten run of eight games. The team’s star player, 15-year-old Chelsea, has also impressed the audience individually, becoming the top scorer in the league with incredible 30 goals.
James said, “All the effort that the girls, us coaches and parents have put in to get this point has been enormous. If I hadn’t had the support of Andy helping me every week, this would have been an impossible task. So I’m incredibly grateful to have him on side. All we want is to bring more girls into the game and show that it’s not all about having the best players; it’s about hard work and giving everyone the chance to play.”
1. Why did James Henry take over the soccer team?A.Because he wanted to try his luck. |
B.Because he wanted to turn things around. |
C.Because the previous coach recommended him. |
D.Because he hoped to fulfill his champion dream. |
A.Lay stress on basic skills. | B.Develop players’ patience. |
C.Pick experienced players. | D.Make decisions for the girls. |
A.They became an unbeaten team in the new season. |
B.They stood out in James’ first season. |
C.They scored 30 goals in the new season. |
D.They won regularly and secured progress. |
A.Talent is the key. | B.Joint efforts matter. |
C.Every dog has his day. | D.Time and tide wait for no man. |
7 . Weald & Downland Living Museum
Fun fact
Over 50 historic buildings from across the Weald and Downland area have been dismantled (拆除) and then reconstructed across a lovely 40-acre site in the south downs national park.
The collection of buildings represents almost a thousand years of rural life in south-east England: furnished just as they would have been in the past-complete with the homes, farms and public buildings. There’s a sense of exploring a real village as you wander between them along green paths, stopping to climb the stairs of a 17th-century craftsman’s (工匠) cottage to lie on the straw bed or sheltering from a shower in a smoky, 14th-century hall.
Getting there
The Stagecoach 60 bus service from Chichester to Midhurst stops just five minutes away at Grooms Yard, Singleton. The nearest railway stations are Chichester (2 miles) and Haslemere (7 miles). The museum is on Town Lane in Singleton, reached via the A286 from Chichester to Midhurst. Parking is free and there are disabled parking spaces opposite the museum shop.
Value for money?
Yes. It’s not cheap but it’s a special experience that easily fills a day. Plus it’s a valuable cause worth supporting. Adults £14, children 5—17 and students £6.50, under-4s free, family £38 (two adults and two children) or £25 (one adult and three children).
Opening hours
Daily 10 a.m.—5 p.m. (last entry 4 p.m.).
1. What can visitors do in Weald & Downland Living Museum?A.Take a shower in the smoky hall. | B.Learn construction techniques. |
C.Experience rural life centuries ago. | D.Stay overnight at craftsman s cottage. |
A.£25. | B.£28. | C.£34.5. | D.£38. |
A.It charges parking fees. |
B.It allows visitors to enter until 5 p.m. |
C.It is inconveniently located for bus riders. |
D.It offers the disabled thoughtful service. |
8 . Some of the world’s most famous musicians recently gathered in Paris and New Orleans to celebrate the first annual International Jazz Day. UNESCO( United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) recently set April 30 as a day to raise awareness of jazz music, its significance, and its potential as a unifying (联合) voice across cultures.
Despite the celebrations, though, in the U.S. the jazz audience continues to shrink and grow older, and the music has failed to connect with younger generations.
It’s Jason Moran’s job to help change that. As the Kennedy Center’s artistic adviser for jazz, Moran hopes to widen the audience for jazz, make the music more accessible, and preserve its history and culture.
“Jazz seems like it’s not really a part of the American appetite,” Moran tells National Public
Radio’s reporter Neal Conan “What I’m hoping to accomplish is that my generation and younger start to reconsider and understand that jazz is not black and write anymore. It’s actually colorful, and it’s actually digital.”
Moran says one of the problems with jazz today is that the entertainment aspect of the music has been lost. “The music can’t be presented today the way it was in 1908 or 1958. It has to continue to move, because the way the world works is not the same,” says Moran.
Last year, Moran worked on a project that arranged Fats Waller’s music for a dance party, “Just to kind of put it back in the mind that Waller is dance music as much as it is concert music,” says Moran. “For me, it’s the recontextualization. In music, where does the emotion (情感) lie? Are we, as abstract as a Charlie Parker record gets us into a dialogue about our emotions and our thoughts? Sometimes we lose sight that the music has a wider context,” says Moran, “So I want to continue those dialogue. Those are the things I want to foster.”
1. What does the underlined word “that” in paragraph 3 refer to?A.Jazz becoming more accessible. |
B.The production of jazz growing faster. |
C.Jazz being less popular with the young. |
D.The jazz audience becoming larger. |
A.It will disappear gradually. |
B.It remains black and white. |
C.It should keep up with the times. |
D.It changes every 50 years. |
A.Exploring the Future of Jazz |
B.The Rise and Fall of Jazz |
C.The Story of a Jazz Musician |
D.Celebrating the Jazz Day |
9 . There are many differences in ways of thinking between East and West. Many of them are reflected in daily behaviour. In particular, Chinese people sometimes attach more importance to their appearance and social status than to their inner qualities, while Westerners think the opposite. However, Socrates (Ancient Greek philosopher) and Confucius share significant similarities that are universal.
Both philosophers share several teachings in common; for example, their understanding of the nature of knowledge and their opinions on education. Socrates believed “There is only one good, knowledge;and only one evil, ignorance.” Similarly, Confucius said, “Isn’t it a pleasure to study and practice what you have learned?” But both also acknowledge the limits of knowledge. Socrates said: “All I know is that I know nothing.” Similarly, Confucius said, “When you know a thing, to hold you know it; when you don’t know a thing, to allow you don’t know it-this is knowledge.”
However, there are important differences in their understanding of morality. Confucius believed each person should follow certain regulations according to virtue(德行). Everyone should play their role in a society where people are interdependent in order to achieve harmony in the whole society. For instance, when asked how to govern a country, Confucius stated “An emperor should act like an emperor, a subject should act like a subject.” Socrates, however, places self-knowledge over social knowledge.
Another difference between them is their attitude towards political domination(支配). Confucius believed the best way to govern a country isn’t through legal system, but through virtue. Socrates, by contrast, declared that “nothing is more important than justice”.
Why have East and West developed such different cultural values? A widely accepted theory holds that Eastern civilization was an agricultural civilization. Hence the need for a collective society and friendly relations with neighbors was strong. Western civilization, however, was nomadic(游牧的). Their mobility makes them less dependent on society after migration.
In spite of their differences, the two cultures have more in common than differences. The shared concern for moral values in the teachings of Socrates and Confucius also shows us more fundamental similarities between Eastern and Western cultures in their pursuit of virtuous lives.
1. What do the two philosophers share about knowledge?A.The learning of knowledge is easy. | B.The learning of knowledge is endless. |
C.A man without knowledge is foolish. | D.A man shall not pretend to understand. |
A.Nothing is more important than a legal system. |
B.I am not a Chinese, but a citizen of the world. |
C.Not everyone should play his own role in society. |
D.A man does what is proper to the position he is in. |
A.The difference in political atmosphere. | B.The difference in the length of history. |
C.The difference in economic development. | D.The difference in levels of social dependency. |
A.Reasons for similarities of Eastern and Western cultures. |
B.The introduction of great figures of two different cultures. |
C.Comparisons of the thoughts of the two great philosophers. |
D.The contributions of two great philosophers to civilization. |
10 . The first apes evolved 20 million years ago in the forests where they would go up a tree to get their food, and then come back down to move on to the next tree. Getting out of a tree presents all kinds of new challenges. Big apes can’t afford to fall because it could kill or badly injure them. Natural selection would have favored those with body structures that allowed them to descend safely.
Dartmouth researchers report in the journal Royal Society Open Science that apes probably evolved free-moving shoulders and flexible elbows to slow their descent from trees as gravity pulled on their heavier bodies. These flexible body parts passed on from ancestral apes would have allowed early humans to climb trees at night for safety and comedown in the daylight unhurt. When early humans transitioned from forests to open savannas (热带稀树草原), flexible shoulders and elbows were crucial for gathering food and using tools for hunting and defense.
The researchers used sports analysis and statistical software to study how primates(灵长目动物) like chimpanzees and small monkeys called mangabeys climbed in the wild. They found that chimps and mangabeys scaled(攀爬) trees similarly, with shoulders and elbows mostly bent close to the body. When descending, however, chimpanzees extended their arms above their heads to hold on to branches, much like a person using a ladder, to counteract(抵消) their heavier weight pulling them downward.
Luke Fannin, the lead author of the study, emphasized that their findings highlight the importance of “down climbing” in the evolution of apes and early humans. He explained, “Our research introduces the idea that down climbing played a significant role in shaping the structural differences between monkeys and apes, which eventually manifested in humans.”
“Our field has thought about apes climbing up trees for a long time, but we’ve been ignoring the second half of this behavior,” said Professor Jeremy DeSilva, “The findings are among the first to identify the significance of “down climbing” in the evolution of apes and early humans.
1. According to paragraph 1, apes would have been favored by natural selection if .A.they have sufficient food resources. |
B.they come down from trees securely. |
C.they master skills of climbing up trees. |
D.they cure themselves when they’re injured. |
A.The similarity of two primates in tree climbing |
B.The evolution of two primates’ adaptation to nature. |
C.The analysis of primates’ tree scaling and descending |
D.The application of different research methods and tools. |
A.Descending trees has been neglected by researchers for a long time. |
B.The study is the first to recognize the significance of down climbing |
C.The evolution of apes and early humans is a result of down climbing. |
D.Studies on climbing down trees are more likely to have new findings. |
A.Chimpanzees and Mangabeys: Researches in Natural Settings |
B.Apes and Humans: A Comparative Study of Climbing up Trees |
C.Shoulders and Elbows: Evolved as Brakes for Downclimbing Apes |
D.Apes’ Climbing Strategies: How to Use Different Body Parts Flexibly |