1 . The State of Colorado has four of the best parks out of the 58 national parks in the United States. The parks have some of the best scenery of all the national parks.
Black Canyon (峡谷) of Gunnison National Park
This park offers the most breathtaking views from up in the mountains into the canyons below. While exploring the canyons, you will find that the walls drop nearly straight down into the narrow valleys of the snake-like rivers below. Visitors are offered more than 100 camping sites, and a lot of bird species and many animals are native to the area.
Rocky Mountain National Park
It is the only national park in the north central region in the state of Colorado. Elevations in this park are anywhere from 8,000 feet to 14,259 feet at the top of Longs Peak. While traveling throughout this park you will notice two very different climates because of the difference the upper peaks of the Rocky Mountains make. You can enjoy 359 miles of hiking trails, a lot of places for camping, horse-back riding and beautiful scenery.
Mesa Verde National Park
This is probably the most interesting national park, offering a fascinating trip back in time to 600 AD up to 1300 AD. This park was declared a protected national park in 1906 because of the cliff dwellings(住所) that were found throughout the area, which were once home to American Indians. Many of these dwellings can be walked through, while you imagine what each room may have been used for so many years ago.
Great Sand Dunes (沙丘)National Park
The Great Sand dunes National Park lies in south central Colorado, about 127 miles from Pueblo. This park has the tallest sand dunes in all of North America and has trails for hiking. The natural sandy beaches around the small rivers and lakes are good for swimmers.
1. What's the most breathtaking thing in the Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park?| A．The animals. | B．The walls. | C．The rivers. | D．The camping sites. |
| A．go sightseeing | B．boat | C．ride a horse | D．camp |
| A．the Rocky Mountain National Park |
| B．the Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park |
| C．the Great Sand Dunes National Park |
| D．the Mesa Verde National Park |
| A．Persuading people to visit Colorado while in America. |
| B．Showing people which park is the best of the four in Colorado. |
| C．Introducing the best four parks in Colorado to people. |
| D．Telling people some traveling information in Colorado. |
2 . Diwali（Deepavali）is a festival of lights observed in October or November each year in Canada. During the festival, various community groups, businesses, schools and associations celebrate it in different ways. Some companies have Diwali dinners and some communities organize gatherings that feature firework displays, dances, street lighting, and plays.
Many women wear fine jewelry and silk outfits to celebrate Diwali. Some women and girls use Mehendi, a dye decoration which can last a limited time, on their palms, and then they will finally get colorful hand paintings. Many homes that celebrate Diwali have various types of sweets, salty and spiced food as well as Diwali herbs （香料）. Various lights, candles and sparklers are lit inside and outside homes, particularly in courtyards, on Diwali. Diwali is not a nationwide public holiday in Canada but it is a prevalent festival celebrated in many towns and cities. There may be traffic jams and parking places may be full in areas where events are held to celebrate Diwali. Some Indian businesses may close early on Diwali.
Diwali is called the "Festival of Lights" and is celebrated to honor Rama, a hero who once fought and won a battle against the demons（恶魔）. In the past, people lit their houses to celebrate his victory over demons（light over darkness）. At the same time, every household did careful and complete cleaning at home in advance. It is believed that the goddess of happiness and good fortune, Lakshmi travels around the Earth on this day and enters the house that is pure, clean, and bright.
Diwali celebrations may vary in different communities but its spiritual meaning is generally "the awareness of the inner light". As the word “Deepavali” means “a row or cluster of light”, the festival symbolizes the victory of righteousness and the lifting of spiritual darkness.
1. What can we learn about Diwali from the first two paragraphs?| A．It is celebrated on a fixed day. |
| B．It centers on various local food. |
| C．People stay up late to prepare for It. |
| D．People from all walks of life enjoy celebrating it. |
| A．Popular. | B．Free. |
| C．Serious. | D．Funny. |
| A．To pray for good journey. |
| B．To expect joy and good luck. |
| C．To create a romantic atmosphere. |
| D．To welcome their friends to visit. |
| A．Showing respect for others. |
| B．Staying straight and positive. |
| C．Valuing your family members. |
| D．Improving your living environment. |
| A．To stress the importance of a public holiday. |
| B．To tell an interesting story about a Canadian festival. |
| C．To briefly introduce a traditional festival in Canada. |
| D．To show different holiday celebrations in Western cultures. |
3 . Earth Hour is organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature. It's a big event usually at the end of March every year. On this evening, people “go dark”.
It's true that turning off lights for just one hour saves only a small amount of power.
But on another level, a large number of people’s acting together sends a powerful message to governments and companies.
The logo(标识) of Earth Hour is “60+” .The number 60 is for the 60 minutes of Earth Hour.
| A．But this is only the beginning. |
| B．Earth Hour represents every hour of every day. |
| C．After all, everyone has to answer for what they have done. |
| D．Besides turning off the lights, people get involved in other events. |
| E．It pushes them to take urgent measures by making changes to policies. |
| F．That is, they switch off all unnecessary lights at the same time for one hour. |
| G．The plus invites people to continue their action even after Earth Hour is finished. |
4 . Ostara, upon which Easter is based, is the Pagan celebration of the vernal equinox (春分).
The holiday is named after Eostre, a spring goddess of the Germanic tradition. There isn’t much written record of Eostre, and it is thought she was worshiped by tribes who used oral tradition rather than written words to record history. Eostre was a symbol of fertility—she may have been the original source of the association of eggs with springtime celebrations. She may also be responsible for the Easter rabbit—the spring equinox was a time when hares would come out and mate. A female hare can even conceive (受孕) while pregnant with another one—this remarkable fertility became a symbol of the season. Therefore, we get “Eostre rabbits” in the spring.
Growth and awakening are important parts of Ostara celebrations. Because the day marks the coming of the planting season, modern Pagans store seeds to later transfer outdoors after frost has disappeared. Caring for the seedling is like worshiping the goddess. Besides, drawings replace the pretty colors of new flowers.
For Pagans, Ostara is a time for spiritual awakening and rebirth. Walking meditation is a common practice and special attention is paid to the signs of nature coming back to life. New beginnings are coming, and there is much soul-searching and clearing away negative energy. This spiritual cleaning is also reflected in the practice of spring cleaning.
Whether you’re Pagan or not, you might have noticed many of your own springtime celebrations in Ostara celebrations, and there’s a reason why Pagan customs have been practiced pretty much in the same way because so much of it is simply human nature. Who could resist a springtime walk in a forest? Is there anyone who isn’t inspired by nature’s annual new beginning? So whatever your own tradition, honor the season with a spiritual cleaning and rebirth—to make room for beautiful things to come.
1. What can be inferred from the passage?| A．Ostara has a longer history than Easter. |
| B．Only Pagan celebrate Ostara nowadays. |
| C．Ostara is a celebration intended for females. |
| D．Most Ostara celebrations are not held outdoors. |
| A．Growth. | B．Drawings. |
| C．Flowers. | D．Spiritual awakening. |
| A．They can help to clean people’s spirit. |
| B．They are in need of some special attention. |
| C．It is common to hold the activities worldwide. |
| D．Written record of them is not talked about a lot. |
| A．They have the same origin and history. |
| B．It is human nature to pursue beautiful things. |
| C．Pagan customs have been spread to the world. |
| D．Pagans are good at learning from other cultures. |
5 . Standing in my office 25 years ago was an unknown young astronomer with a half-smile on her face. She had come with an impossible request that my team modify (修改) our thoroughly tested software to make one of our most important scientific instruments do something it had never been designed for, and risk breaking it. All to carry out an experiment that was basically a waste of time and couldn’t be done-to prove that a massive black hole lay at the center of our Milky Way.
My initial “no way” gradually gave way in the face of her cheerful but firm determination. Andrea Ghez, one of three winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics，impressed me with her work on providing solid evidence of a supermassive black hole with the mass of four million suns living at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
That determination and the willingness to take calculated risks has always characterized Andrea. For 25 years she has focused almost completely on Sagittarius (人马座) A *—the name of our own local supermassive black hole. It is remarkable that an entire field of study has grown up in the quarter century, of searching for and finding evidence of these monsters thought to lie at the heart of every large galaxy.
Andrea did her work at the W. M. Keck Observatory’s twin telescopes on Maunakea, Hawaii, in the calm and clear air almost 14000 feet above the Pacific Ocean. She started using the very first instrument fixed on Keck Observatory’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRC), now gracing the lobby at our headquarters.
Andrea is fond of pointing out that one of the reasons for her success has been this tight and rapid loop (循环) between the needs of the astronomers and the engineers who respond to the challenge.
This is my friend and longtime colleague, the one who refused to take “no” for an answer: Andrea Ghez, winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics.
1. Which words best describe Andrea Ghez?| A．Determined and creative. | B．Confident and adaptable. |
| C．Brave and kind. | D．Cooperative and generous. |
| A．Because of Andrea’s determination. |
| B．Because of Andrea’s final success. |
| C．Because Andrea provided an experimental evidence. |
| D．Because Andrea modified their tested software. |
| A．The Noble Prize for physics. | B．Friendship between colleagues. |
| C．How Andrea won the Nobel. | D．What makes Andrea different. |
| A．A research paper. | B．A website about scientists. |
| C．A science fiction. | D．A daily newspaper. |
6 . Answering the Community Needs of Our City
The Siver City Council recognizes that citizens have certain needs. To better meet your needs, we have made several changes to community facilities in 2020. The followings shows how we have tried to make your life better.
Transport
☆Three stations for the suburbs have been added to the western train service.
☆20 new buses for the southern line were purchased in January.
☆50 per cent of city bus-stops have been upgraded.
Communication
☆Broadband cableis now available to ll parts of the city.
☆All of the new Government buildings are smart-wired for better computer service!
Medical Facilities
☆The new state-of-the-art Nightingale Hospital was opened in June.
☆To overcome a shortage of trained medical staff at Dover Hospital, 10 doctors have been employed from overseas.
☆Some facilities at Station Street Hospital have been upgraded.
Education
☆Textbooks will be free to all primary students in 2020!
☆Rental for private schools has been reduced.
Protection and Security
☆Extra police now patrol(巡逻)the tourist areas.
☆50 new police officers graduated in July and have taken up duties in the city area.
Entertainment/Recreation
☆The new Central Community Building opened in May.
☆5,000 new fiction books were bought for the Silver City Library.
1. What’s the notice mainly about?| A．The work carried out by the people of Silver City. |
| B．The facilities available in Silver City. |
| C．Some improvements in Silver City. |
| D．Information for interested tourists. |
| A．Travel books are provided in the new library. |
| B．More bus lines and stops are bought in Silver City. |
| C．Free medical treatment is available at Station Street Hospital. |
| D．There are more police officers on duty now. |
| A．the community | B．the local government |
| C．the Silver City Library | D．a travel agency |
7 . Can a fish be depressed? This question has been on my head ever since I spent a night in a hotel across from a sad-looking fish. His name was Bruce Lee.
The pleasant woman at the front desk assured me that he was well taken care of. Was I incorrectly assuming his laziness was a sign of being upset?
When I sought answers from scientists, I assumed that they would find the question ridiculous. But they did not. New research has been totally shifting the way that scientists think about fish cognition (认知)，building a case that pet and owner are not nearly as different as many assume. The neurochemistry (神经化学）is so similar that it’s scary, said Julian Pittman，a professor. We tend to think of them as simple living things, but there is a lot we don't give fish credit for.
Dr. Pittman likes working with fish, in part, because they are so obvious about their depression. A zebrafish gets dropped in a new tank. If after five minutes it is hanging out in the lower half, it’s depressed. If it’s swimming up top, then it’s not.
Is depression the right word? There's the obvious issue that we cannot ask animals how they feel, says Dr. Diego A. Pizzagali . Neither fish nor rats can catch the entire range of depression as we know it.
There is a heated debate about whether anxious or depressed is a more appropriate term. But what has convinced Dr. Pittman, and others, over the past ten years is watching the way the zebrafish lose interest in just about everything: food, toys, exploration, just like clinically depressed people who are withdrawn. The same is true of fish.
One of the things we're finding is that fish are naturally curious and seek novel things out, said Dr. Braithwaite. In other words, your goldfish is probably bored. To help get rid of depression, she urges introducing new objects to the tank or switching up the location of items.
1. What is Paragraph 3 mainly about?| A．Fish are considered simple living things. |
| B．Pet and owner are always assumed the same. |
| C．Scientists have learnt a lot about fish cognition. |
| D．Fish and human beings have something in common. |
| A．Quiet and shy. |
| B．Happy and excited. |
| C．Interested and careful. |
| D．Disappointed and surprised. |
| A．They need oxygen from the air. |
| B．They are not born to be curious. |
| C．They lack new things to explore. |
| D．They can’t locate the positions of items. |
| A．Fish Depression Is not a Joke. |
| B．Fish Can Be a Boring Pet. |
| C．Fish Need Better Care More. |
| D．Fish Cognition Does not Exist. |
8 . The new year always brings predictions. You know who gets them right?
BLUETOOTH
In his futuristic 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury anticipated Bluetooth, describing wireless earphones that allowed for "an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk" to be transferred through the air. Imagine how thrilled he would have been with a Bluetooth toaster! That was the idea behind Griffin's Connected Toaster, which warned you via smartphone when your toast was done. At $ 100, this baby cost a lot of bread, which may be why it was discontinued just two years after launch.
SMART WATCH
The Apple Watch lets you chat, play games, and watch videos on a device fastened to your wrist. Cool, huh? The Jetsons thought so… in 1962 — when Steve Jobs was still in second grade!
WI-FI
Nikola Tesla called it! In 1909, the famous electrical engineer told the New York Times, "It will soon be possible to send wireless messages all over the world so simply that any individual can carry and operate his own equipment." No doubt he was thinking of the Kérastase Hair Coach brush, which measured brushing speed and employed a micro-phone to listen to your hair, all to compute an overall hair-quality score sent to your smartphone. (Alas, it too is gone.)
GPS
Writer Arthur C. Clarke (2001: A Space Odyssey) saw a world in which no one got lost. In 1956，he wrote that satellites “could make possible a position-finding grid (铁网) whereby anyone could locate himself by means of a couple of dials on an instrument about the size of a watch.” Clarke didn't mention that his system might also track another person, such as a criminal. Last year, the New York City police arrested a robber who was wearing a GPS ankle monitor — because he was still on probation (缓刑) for a prior crime.
1. Which of the predictions is the earliest?| A．BLUETOOTH. | B．SMART WATCH, |
| C．WI-FI. | D．GPS. |
| A．Too expensive. | B．Out of date. |
| C．A little awkward | D．Energy-consuming. |
| A．A GPS ankle monitor. |
| B．A robber-arresting instrument. |
| C．A watch that could see the world. |
| D．An instrument that could locate a person. |
9 . The sea could be the food bowl of the future. In Jervis Bay, south of Sydney, seaweed, which is rich in fibre and omega 3, is grown and harvested.
Pia Winberg is a marine scientist who runs Australia's first food-grade fanned seaweed company. Her crop is grown alongside mussels (贻贝)and is used as an additive in pasta (意大利面)and other products.
Seaweed is also raised in large tanks, where it absorbs carbon dioxide waste from a wheat processing factory. The business is small, but could help to reduce the ecological footprint of traditional farming.
“We used ten percent of seaweed instead of wheat in breads and pastas, we've eliminated a million hectares of land, we've eliminated all of the carbon dioxide emissions associated with that, and we've also reduced the pressures on very precious fresh water.” said Pia Winberg.
Spiny sea urchins (多刺海胆虫)are another blue economy resource. They can destroy marine habitats, but a recent competition for environmental start-ups in Australia, saw them not as a pest but a delicacy (美味).
Martina Doblin, CEO of Sydney Institute of Marine Science, said, “By 2050 we will have some ten billion people on the planet, and about half the food they eat will come from the ocean. So, we really do need to pay attention to the way that we manage the blue economy-generating wealth from the ocean but in a sustainable (可持续的)way.”
Farming at sea has its challenges. Infrastructure (基础设施)has to be sound, as do supply chains and biosecurity. But get these things right, and the ocean might just be the next great economic frontier.
1. What is the function of the first paragraph?| A．To lead to the main topic. |
| B．To describe a new kind of seaweed. |
| C．Tell how important the food safety is. |
| D．To explain the meaning of blue economy. |
| A．Ocean exploration has made little progress so far. |
| B．More and more people will die of hunger in the future. |
| C．More work is needed for a better use of the natural resources. |
| D．Sea farming will be a good way to solve the coming world food problem. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Objective. | C．Tolerant. | D．Negative. |
| A．How to Protect the Marine Animals |
| B．Measures to Develop Blue Economy |
| C．Farming the Sea for the Future of Food |
| D．Traditional Farming is Gradually Disappearing |
10 . The secret to happiness is keeping busy, research has found.
Keeping the mind occupied with tasks — no matter how meaningless — keeps off negative emotions, the study found.
However, the bad news is that humans are seemingly born to be lazy in order to save energy, according to Professor Christoper Hsee, a behavioral scientist at Chicago University.
In a study, 98 students were asked to complete two surveys. After they had completed the first, they were made to wait 15 minutes to receive the next one. They were given a choice of either handing in the first survey nearby or at a more distant location they had to walk to. Whichever option they chose, they received a chocolate bar. It turned out that approximately two-thirds (68 students) chose the lazy option. Those who had taken the walk reported feeling happier than those who had stayed put.
Prof. Hsee concluded that keeping busy helped keep people happy. He said the findings, reported in the journal Psychological Science, had policy implications.
“Governments may increase the happiness of idle citizens by having them build bridges that are actually useless,” he proposed.
At the individual level, he advised, “Get up and do something. Anything. Even if there really is no point to what you are doing, you will feel better for it.” He added, “Incidentally, thinking deeply or engaging in self-reflection counts as keeping busy, too.”
“You do not need to be running around. You just need to be engaged, either physically or mentally.”
1. Keeping busy can make people happy because________.| A．it can help people get rid of laziness | B．it can make people sleep better |
| C．it can help get rid of negative emotions | D．it can give people a sense of achievement |
| A．The finding may contribute to politics. |
| B．The officials have taken Prof. Hsee’s advice. |
| C．In the study half students handed in the first survey nearby. |
| D．Governments can increase citizens’ happiness by building bridges. |
| A．Everybody is born to be happy. |
| B．Only by keeping working all the time can you gain happiness. |
| C．Prof. Hsee’s finding was published in Psychological Science. |
| D．Keeping busy goes against human nature. |
| A．To explain what happiness is. |
| B．To advise people not to sit around. |
| C．To advise people to do what they like to. |
| D．To show people how to take life correctly. |
