1 . The 187-foot-tall Tower of Pisa is famous all over the world mainly because it leans (倾斜). For many years, people believed that the tower’s designer intended it to lean. As it turns out, though, the tower’s lean is an accident caused by poor planning. The Tower of Pisa was constructed (建造) on a riverbed of sand and clay (黏土) that was not strong enough to support a building so tall and heavy.
Construction of the tower began in 1173. Because Pisa experienced several wars, the tower wasn’t completed until 1350. Only a few years after the construction started, people could see that the first three floors of the tower were already leaning. As the next three floors were added, builders purposefully built them with one side higher than the other to try to correct the lean. This resulted in the tower leaning in the opposite direction
Fortunately for the people of Pisa, the long delays (耽搁) during construction gave the structure time to settle and the ground to become compacted (结实的). This mad the foundation (地基) stronger over time, which is the main reason why the tower never fell over. For hundreds of years, the tower was indeed falling. It would lean one more inch about every 20 years. In the end, in 1990, it was closed to the public for fear that a large group of people at the top would weigh enough to make it fall down.
From 1990 to 2001, engineers from around the world helped balance the tower After several unsuccessful attempts at a solution, engineers finally came up with a plan that worked. They slowly removed ground under the high side of the tower. When they had finished, they had returned it to the position it held in about 1838—the tower had been straightened by nearly 16 inches. Except a sudden great disaster, such as a earthquake, engineers believe the tower is safe for another 300 years now.
1. What does the author try to explain about the Tower of Pisa in Paragraph 1?| A．Why it leans. | B．Why it was built. |
| C．Why it is famous. | D．Why it stopped leaning. |
| A．It was completed in 1173. | B．It began to be built in 1350. |
| C．It was seen leaning after 1173. | D．It was repaired every 20 years. |
| A．The special structure. | B．The timely protection. |
| C．The skill of the builders. | D．The long time of building. |
| A．When does the Tower of Pisa lean? |
| B．Is the leaning Tower of Pisa falling? |
| C．When was the leaning Tower of Pisa built? |
| D．How did the leaning Tower of Pisa get its name? |
2 . By the time Joy Ryan, a US grandma, turned 85, she had never seen the ocean or mountains. For Joy, trips to the local fishing area with her husband were about the farthest place she had ever gone, even if she loved watching the Travel Channel.
But one day Joy’s grandson, Brad Ryan, discovered that he and his grandma had a common interest in their love for traveling, when they began to visit the American great outdoors together.
Brad said, “When I learned my grandma had never seen the great wildernesses of America—deserts, mountains and oceans, I thought there was something I needed to do.” It was after taking his grandma out of Ohio on a visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that he came up with the idea of visiting all the 63 US national parks with her to create inspiring memories.
Going to all the 63 US National Parks is a huge achievement even for a much younger adventurer (冒险家). Brad said his grandmother’s physical strength (体力) grew with their trips. For example, his grandma went water rafting (漂流) at 91, with class three rapids and when walking at the New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia, she broke the record by almost a decade!
It wasn’t always like this, however. Joy was so wobbly (不稳的) on her first trip, challenged by her balance. A group of college students clapped their hands when she reached the top of a path they were following.
Joy broke her age limitation (限制) and at the age of 93, she made history as the oldest living person to visit every US National Park. Joy believes it’s the mix of hopefulness, willpower, and the good health that gives her strength.
1. With whom did Joy Ryan visit all the 63 US national parks?| A．Her grandson. | B．Her husband. |
| C．Her daughter. | D．Her student. |
| A．She had a love for traveling. |
| B．Water rafting is dangerous for the old. |
| C．There is no age limitation for water rafting. |
| D．She had developed a strong body from traveling. |
| A．Her memory. | B．Her balance. |
| C．Her physical strength. | D．Her sense of direction. |
| A．Brave and hopeful. | B．Humorous and outgoing. |
| C．Hard-working and helpful. | D．Thoughtful and self-confident. |
3 . With the approaching of New Year, more and more visitors will come to China. Don’t know where you should go? Here are some places recommended for you.
Shanghai Expo Culture Park
The Shanghai Expo Culture Park will soon open its northern section to the public, in which the major attractions include a traditional garden that is similar in design to Shanghai’s famous Yuyuan Garden and a 400-meter avenue exhibiting the history of the area, while in the southern section lies a grand theater.
Macao Tower AJ Hackett Bungee Jump
The Macao Tower, 338 meters tall, is the world’s 10th highest tower, with a variety of activities, such as eating and entertainment. One of the activities which enjoy good fame is the bungee jump. The AJ Hackett Macao Tower Bungee Jump is 233 meters high, making it a Guinness World Record as the highest commercial (商业的) bungee jump in the world. Raise your arms and off you go!
Harbin’s Frozen World
For those who have never been to Harbin, there is an almost endless list of things to do. At Harbin Ice—Snow World, you can not only see the world—famous ice architecture, but also have great fun! You can have hotpot at the restaurants which are made of ice, enjoying the product of both ice and fire, go down the world’s longest ice slide (滑梯) and join in the popular Ice and Snow Electronic Music Festival to welcome 2024.
The winter is cold and the night is long, so why not go to the theatre? Harbin was listed by the United Nations as a “music city” in 2010. Harbin Grand Theater is where artistic souls defrost (化霜) a little to share their love of art.
1. Where should visitors go if they want to do extreme sports?| A．Shanghai Expo Culture Park. | B．The Macao Tower. |
| C．Shangha’s Yuyuan Garden. | D．Harbin Ice—Snow World. |
| A．Attend a famous music festival. | B．Play with both ice and fire. |
| C．Turn water into instant ice. | D．Learn to make ice architecture. |
| A．They have a high tower. | B．They have a long ice slide. |
| C．They have a grand theater. | D．They have traditional architecture. |
4 . Did you know that honeybees aren’t the only insects capable of producing the sweet, sticky, and brown-to-golden-colored natural product we know as honey? There is perhaps the most unusual insect able to change nectar(花粉) into honey called the honeypot ant. Belonging to a kind of ant species, honeypot ants are specialized workers that act as living storage for their fellow ants when food is scarce. Most species of honeypot ants are found in dry regions in Australia, the USA, Mexico and on the African continent, where finding food sources can be tough, so the production and storage of honey is believed to be an adaptation to survive in these rough environments.
Worker ants constantly feed honeypot ants nectar collected from various plants. The only job of honeypot ants is to wolf down nectar. At one point, the honey ants’ abdomens(腹部) become so big that they are unable to move and ready to spill(溢 出) ant honey, so they just hang from the roof of their nest until their fellow ants are in need of food.
Honeypot ants are such a valuable resource that other ant groups will sometimes attack and steal them. In Australia, the locals also prize the honey-filled insects and will dig around for them. In the1990 documentary Trials of Life, David Attenborough himself was filmed putting a honeypot ant into his mouth.
So how does honeypot ant honey compare to honeybee honey? According to one study, researchers find that there are two obvious differences between them. Although the two varieties look very similar at first glance, the honeypot ant honey is sweet, but not quite as sweet as the treat we humans are used to, and has a sour taste that cannot be detected in the honeybee honey.
1. What does the underlined word “scarce”in the first paragraph mean?| A．Free. | B．Lacking. |
| C．Cheap. | D．Sufficient. |
| A．In the desert. | B．In the zoo. |
| C．On the river. | D．By the sea. |
| A．When they are able to move freely. |
| B．When they want to breathe fresh air. |
| C．When they are ready to spill ant honey. |
| D．When they want to refuse to feed fellow ants. |
| A．A method of judging the quality of honeybee honey. |
| B．The importance of protecting the precious honeypot ants. |
| C．The efforts for the locals to stop honeypot ants being attacked. |
| D．The other difference between honeypot ant honey and honeybee honey. |
5 . Mobile phones and iPads are now wonderful tools for learning and teaching English. With the help of the thousands of education and language apps available online, students can make effective use of them to learn in an interactive environment. Given below is a list of some of the best apps for learning and teaching English.
Grammar Up
Grammar is the heart of any language and, thus, the Grammar Up app is one of the most highly recommended apps for English learners. This app is specifically designed for people who want to improve their grammar, vocabulary and word selection. It consists of more than 1,800 multiple－choice questions grouped under twenty different grammar categories.
iFPoems
iFPoems is a fantastic app for poetry lovers. This app consists of a great collection of poems from famous poets around the world. It also allows users to save their favorites along with recording their own readings of the poems.
iBooks
iBooks is a complete book library for the iPad users. It includes the iBookstore and allows users to download and read books. The app features a beautiful bookshelf, on which you can browse various books or even add notes to your favorite paragraphs in the book. You can also create your own texts and upload them into the app.
SpeakingPal
Recommended as one of the best apps for English educators and learners, SpeakingPal allows you to record your speech and compare it with a native English speaker. This amazing app combines video with automatic speech recognition software that tests your English speaking skills. You just have to speak with a video character and get immediate response on how well you speak English.
1. What do these apps have in common?| A．They can be found online. |
| B．They are free of charge. |
| C．They improve users’ grammar. |
| D．They’re designed by teachers. |
| A．Download books for free. |
| B．Write notes on it with pens. |
| C．Save notes and texts. |
| D．Create a bookstore. |
| A．It offers video call service. |
| B．It evaluates users’ speech. |
| C．It offers talks with a native speaker. |
| D．It includes English speaking contests. |
6 . Since I became a teenager, I have thought a lot about my own future job and set goal for it. It’s very necessary and important for me now to decide what I want to become.In the past, I used to want to be an engineer because I’m good at drawing and building stuff, but my thought has changed through time. I end up all of my choices as a manager who manages the whole system in the service hotel.I have planned that I will study hard in high school, then finish IGCSE and IB with a high score. After that, I will move to a good school in USA to learn about business and the economy in my country.
During my life in university, I properly will apply to work for some small stores and hotels to have the feeling of how things work in the real life. Firstly, the reason I like to be a hotel manager is I find it interesting to use techniques to persuade more people to stay at the hotel. Secondly, I see that the development in business is the fastest growing in sectors of industry besides the primary and the secondary, so I can make a lot of money. Thirdly, it’s the range of community; it has a very high range to meet different people with different nationalities.
Fourthly, I want to have more confidence and become a good leader with skill, for example, I still can’t control and persuade people to listen to me sometimes when I’m in charge of PE’s lesson. The last reason why I strongly chose to be a hotel manager is because of my pressure from my family. They are the second generation of successful 3 stars hotels’ managers. They like me to become what I’m going to do when I become a manager.
1. Why did the author want to be an engineer at first?| A．Because he wanted to follow his parents’ expectation. |
| B．Because he was good at silence subjects at school. |
| C．Because he thought being an engineer was respected. |
| D．Because he did very well in drawing and building staff. |
| A．earning a lot of money |
| B．coming across different people |
| C．learning the special culture in the USA |
| D．using techniques to persuade more people to stay |
| A．His family experienced a lot of success. |
| B．The family never consider the author’s interest. |
| C．The family can support him to be a hotel manager. |
| D．His family have operated the hotels for many generations. |
| A．My future job. | B．My college life |
| C．My family business. | D．My experience in a hotel. |
7 . Museums allow visitors to learn about a variety of subjects, including art, history, science, animals, nature, and more.There are great museums around the world worth exploring.
Solomon R.Guggenheim Museum, New York City, USA
The building itself was designed by admirable architect Frank Lloyd Wright.The exhibits inside constantly change, so you could experience Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, modem contemporary art.And the exhibition of this year is about contemporary art and China.
Musee du Louvre, Paris, France
Not only is the Louvre an art museum, but it is also a royal palace, and includes parts of a medieval castle hidden in its basement.Inside the Louvre, you can find Classical sculptures, Egyptian relics and Mesopotamian cultural relics, as well as Italian Renaissance(文艺复兴)paintings.
Design Museum, London, England
This museum opened November 2016 and is dedicated to contemporary design in every form.British architectural designer John Pawson remodeled he former Commonwealth Institute in Kensington.It has three times the amount of space of its original location in Shad Thames, and can offer a wider range of exhibitions.
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy
Galleria degli Uffizi is Italy's richest and most celebrated art gallery.It was the governing dynasty's administrative center.It is home to famous art pieces like Gentile da Fabriano's Adoration of the Magi, Botticelli's Primavera and The Birth of Venus, Piero della Francesca's twin portraits of The Duke and Duchess of Urbino, and Michelangelo's Doni Tondo.
1. Where can you enjoy Chinese art?| A．Design Museum. | B．Musee du Louvre. |
| C．Galleria degli Uffizi. | D．Solomon R.Guggenheim Museum. |
| A．Ancient relics. | B．Contemporary art. |
| C．Michelangelo's works. | D．Contemporary design. |
| A．John Pawson. | B．Frank Lloyd Wright. |
| C．Piero della Francesca. | D．The Duke and Duchess of Urbino. |
8 . Next-generation fitness equipment and robots help you cook dinner. Those are a few of the countless new products expected to be shown next week at CES, the annual tech conference that typically sets the tone for the biggest trends of the year. Home automation, health and 5G will once again be hot topics, but many companies will also introduce pandemic-specific features to reflect our increased time at home.
Each year, reporters, exhibitors and investors typically explore Las Vegas showrooms filled with giant TVs, smart cars and robots, but CES will be online only for the first time in its 54-year history due to Covid-19.
The Consumer Technology Association, the nonprofit behind the four-day event starting Monday, said 1,800 exhibitors from around the world will fill its "digital venue" this year—a number that's down significantly from 4,000 in-person exhibitors last year. The move will allow tech companies from countries which have never attended before to take part in the online exhibition, but could also make it harder for smaller companies to get noticed without a physical showroom.
Registered attendees will be able to stream and re-watch keynotes from companies such as Verizon (VZ) and General Motors (GM), tune in to breakout sessions — about how, for example, technology is playing a role in vaccine deployment—and search through a registry of exhibitors to watch new product presentations.
It'll lack some of the signature ingredients of the trade show, such as hands-on time with the latest small machines and networking. But the technology that makes our lives more connected and convenient will still gain popularity.
1. What are the new products mainly connected with?| A．People’s daily life. | B．Everyday busy work. |
| C．The popularity of 5G. | D．Countless housework. |
| A．It takes place every two years. | B．It attracts fewer exhibitors this year. |
| C．It is held mainly on the Internet. | D．It prohibits small companies to attend. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Disappointed. | C．Doubtful. | D．Casual. |
| A．A brochure. | B．A textbook. | C．A newspaper. | D．A guidebook. |
9 . Captured(捕获的) carbon dioxide(CO2) could be used to extract(提炼) useful metals(金属) from recycled technology such as smartphone batteries rather than just being buried underground. The technique could help make it more economical to capture the greenhouse gas before it enters the atmosphere.
“If you also extract metals by filling CO2, you add value to a process that is known to be costly,” says Julien Leclaire at the University of Lyon, France.
CO2 is the main cause of modern climate change, so many people have attempted to develop technologies to capture it when it comes from power plants and other major sources. The gas can then be stored underground. The problem is that such carbon capture and storage (CCS) is expensive. “No one wants to pay the price for it,” says Leclaire.
To make CCS more appealing, Leclaire’s team has found a use for the gas.
His team collected CO2 from a car gas, cooled it, then pumped it into a mix of chemicals. The CO2 combined with the mix to make many molecules(分子) of various shapes and sizes.
The team found that this process could sort out mixtures of metals, because one metal would dissolve(溶解) in the liquid while another would form a solid. In a series of experiments, they successfully separated three kinds of metals-all of which are used in batteries, smartphones and computers.
If the process can be widely used, it could be a more environmentally friendly way to recycle batteries and other electrical equipment, says Leclaire. This is normally done using highly reactive chemicals, which are potentially polluting. Replacing them with CO2 should lead to a much lower environmental pollution, he says.
Other researchers and companies are trying to change captured CO2 into useful materials like plastics, which are normally produced from petrol, but this is chemically difficult. Leclaire says his approach is more in line with how CO2 behaves naturally. “Instead of copying what we know how to do better and cheaper with oil, let’s find things you can only do with CO2,” he says.
1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?| A．Extracting useful metals from recycled technology is widely used now. |
| B．Useful metals in the atmosphere are used to make smartphone batteries. |
| C．Abandoned smartphone batteries may have been buried underground before. |
| D．The greenhouse gas CO2 could be cleaned up after entering the atmosphere. |
| A．CO2 is the main cause of modern climate change. |
| B．CO2 can be used to recycle many resources. |
| C．Captured CO2 can be changed to useful gas. |
| D．CO2 is harmful to people’s health. |
| A．It could end the use of plastics. |
| B．It could reduce environmental pollution. |
| C．It could make more metals available to humans. |
| D．It could help reduce the cost of battery production. |
| A．The Ways to Make Smartphone Batteries |
| B．The Reason for Capturing Greenhouse Gas |
| C．Collecting CO? Is Starting to Make New Progress |
| D．Captured CO2 Could Be Used to Help Recycle Useful Metals |
10 . Find Your Chicago Architecture Tour
Chicago is known around the world for its architecture. Whether you tour downtown or a neighborhood, our guides will tell you the stories behind the buildings.
Must-see Chicago
Must-see Chicago is a fast-paced, 90-minute tour to Chicago featuring(以…为特色) some of its most famous buildings, including the Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower and more! Get a brief overview of more than a dozen buildings—as well as Chicago landmarks like Millennium Park, the Loop and the Chicago River.
Duration: 1.5 hours
Price: $ 26 public, free for CAC members
Architecture Highlights
Discover the exciting diversity(多样性) of Chicago architecture, which traces the city’s development from its founding through present day. We cover about 30 miles of Chicago design, passing through the Loop and the Gold Coast, as well as Hyde Park and other areas of the South Side. We’ll see two university campuses and several parks.
Duration: 3.5 hours
Price: $ 55 public, free for CAC members
Historic Treasures of Chicago’s Golden Age
Learn about the great architectural landmarks of Michigan Avenue and State Street, with views inside beautiful buildings from the 1890s〜1930s. The most memorable parts include the amazing interiors(内部) of the Palmer House Hotel and the Chicago Cultural Center.
Duration: 2 hours
Price: $ 26 public, free for CAC members
Elevated Architecture: Downtown “L” Train
Explore Chicago’s amazing architecture from the unique view of elevated trains and station platforms. Learn the history behind the famous “L” system and hear how it has shaped the development of buildings within the Loop. The city’s first elevated train started making trips in 1892. Now considered one of Chicago’s most wonderful features, the “L” offers impressive views of downtown.
Duration: 2 hours
Price: $ 26 public, free for CAC members
1. Which tour can you choose if you want to see Millennium Park?| A．Must-see Chicago. |
| B．Historic Treasures of Chicago’s Golden Age |
| C．Architecture Highlights. |
| D．Elevated Architecture： Downtown “L” Train. |
| A．$55 | B．$ 110 | C．$ 165 | D．$ 220 |
| A．The Chicago River. | B．The Gold Coast. |
| C．The elevated trains. | D．The Palmer House Hotel. |
