1 . Some Strangest Festivals From Around The World
Through the years, people have found many ways to celebrate important occasions in their lives. If you’re looking for an interesting and off-the-beaten-path travel place, here are some most wonderful and unusual festivals from around the world.
Boryeong Annual Mud Festival, Boryeong rock
This festival takes place at the beach, with much mud (泥巴) resource from the sea. At this festival, people take part in a number of activities involving (涉及) mud, which not only brings back happy childhood memories but is good for the skin.
World Body-painting Festival, Pörtschach, Austria
This entire festival is not strange because of the activities that occur (发生) during it, but because of the way people look when it’s over. During this time, artists worldwide flood in and hold live body-painting activities. They are painting creative designs on willing participants (参与者).
Underwater Music Festival, Florida, America
Rather than being held at a typical concert hall, the underwater Music Festival takes place on the seabed. This special custom is unlike any others because it featured musicians playing music below water level. 100 feet deep in clear water, talented musicians wear diving (潜水) equipment, performing free concerts for sea creatures and humans alike.
Battle of the orange, Ivrea, Italy
This Italian town hosts one of the most unusual festivals. Each year in February, a battle (战斗) takes place among thousands of participants who have to throw orange at each other during a 30-minute fight. The aim is to try and knock down other participants by attacking them with oranges so that they cannot stand any longer.
1. What can tourists do at the Boryeong Annual Mud Festival?| A．Experience mud bath. | B．Join in fights with oranges. |
| C．Have their faces painted. | D．Enjoy live music underwater. |
| A．Battle of the oranges. | B．Underwater Music Festival. |
| C．World Body-painting Festival. | D．Boryeong Annual Mud Festival. |
| A．Lions. | B．Dolphins. | C．Elephants. | D．Pandas. |
2 . My name is Jimmy. One Thursday afternoon, when I was in senior one, a new boy came into my classroom. He was short and thin. He walked up to the teacher and told her, very seriously, that he was new. His name was Christian. He sat down, took a look at me, and then looked away. I didn’t think he was very nice and I was sure he wasn’t the type I would like to become friends with.
During that year, I didn’t talk to him much, but he smiled at me when our eyes met, always shyly. He never ate lunch with anybody, and he never talked to anybody but me.
But one day I joined those unkind kids who were making fun of him. We made fun of him though I thought it was wrong.
“Haven’t you got any friends?” a kid asked Christian, who had walked past us alone, head down.
“No, he hasn’t got any friends. He’s too stupid and shy,” I said. Then Christian looked up at me with the saddest dog eyes I had ever seen. I felt very sorry at that moment.
That night, I couldn’t sleep because I couldn’t get Christian’s face out of my mind. In the weeks that followed, he never met my eyes in class and never smiled at me. It was really hard for me to decide to write him a note asking him to forgive (原谅) me. But I thought I should.
The next day in class, I wrote him a note telling him how sorry I felt. About five minutes later, I turned and saw tears in his eyes. “You will never realize what your apology (道歉) has meant to me, Jimmy.” he said to me. “I hope we can become friends.”
We had lunch together that noon and we had the best talk I had ever had. Over the years at high school, we were close friends.
When I think back, I realize that, if I had not apologized, I would never have known what a lovely person Christian was.
Apologies can really change your life, so never miss the chance to tell somebody you are sorry.
1. What do we about know Christian from the passage?| A．He was tall and fat. | B．He was short and thin. |
| C．He was short and active. | D．He was lovely and fat. |
| A．He didn’t think Christian was the type he wanted to become friends with. |
| B．Christian wasn’t nice to people around him after he came to the new class. |
| C．Christian made friends with others. |
| D．Christian had the saddest dog eyes. |
| A．Happy. | B．Interested. | C．Sorry. | D．Bored. |
| A．To tell us it is important to make an apology when we hurt others. |
| B．To show Jimmy’s apology was unimportant to Christian. |
| C．To introduce Christian wasn’t lovely in fact. |
| D．To tell us it is unimportant to say sorry to others. |
3 . Visitor’s code of conduct
The Canada Agriculture and Food Museum is a national museum and open to all. Respectful use of the space, sources, and animals ensures a safe and enriching environment for all visitors.
Banned items
The possession or use of objects that are dangerous or banned by law is not permitted during museum visits or events. Backpacks, sports bags, and purses are subject to “bag searches” at all entry points. The following items are not permitted into the museum: any object that makes noise, any animal except service animals, any dangerous item, any weapon, pocket knife, and any object considered to be suspicious (可疑的) by security personnel.
Hours
The museum is open year round. Current hours of operation are from Wednesday to Sunday, 9:10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. , including statutory (法定的) holidays, except December 25. The museum offers free admission from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Please book your tickets in advance.
Admission
Adult: $12.25
Age 60+: $10.25
Youth (ages 3—17): $10.25
Member: Free
Filming and photos
The museum welcomes visitors to take either photos or video images of the museum’s animals, buildings, exhibitions, and grounds during opening hours. All photos are for personal use only, not professional. Please be respectful of the animals while using your cameras. Getting too close to get an image could cause stress to the animals and bring you into danger. For safety reasons and for the enjoyment of all visitors, all indoor photography or video recording must be done with hand-held devices only; no tripod (三脚架) or selfie sticks indoors.
Contact
Phone: 6139913044
Address: P.O. Box 9724, Station T Ottawa, ON K1G 5A3 Canada
1. What act is not permitted in the Museum?| A．Visiting the Museum with cameras. |
| B．Playing rock music on a recorder. |
| C．Going to the Museum with a guide dog. |
| D．Paying a visit to the Museum with a kid under 3. |
| A．On Tuesday at 10 a.m.. | B．On Sunday at 3 p.m.. |
| C．On National Day at 2 p.m.. | D．On Christmas Eve at 11 a.m.. |
| A．A course description. |
| B．A booklet of tour advertisement. |
| C．An introduction to foreign table manners. |
| D．A flyer of agricultural produce exhibition. |
4 . I was driving from Harrisburg last night, a distance of about eighty miles. It was late. Several times I got stuck behind a slow-moving truck on a narrow road with a solid white line on my left, and I was clinching(紧握) my fists with impatience.
At one point along an open highway, I came to a crossing with a traffic light. I was alone on the road by now, but as I approached the light, it turned red and I braked to stop. I looked left, right and behind me. Nothing. Not a car, no suggestion of headlights, but there I sat, waiting for the light to change, the only human being for at least a mile in any direction.
I started wondering why I refused to run the light. I was not afraid of being arrested, because there were clearly no police around, and there certainly would have been no danger in going through it.
Much later that night, the question of why I'd stopped for that light came back to me. I think I stopped because it's part of an agreement we have with each other.It's not only the law, but it's an agreement we have, and we trust each other to honor it: we don't go through red lights.
It's amazing that we ever trust each other to do the right thing, isn't it? And we do. Trust is our first tendency. We have to make a deliberate decision to mistrust someone or to be suspicious or skeptical. Those attitudes don't come naturally to us.
It's a very good thing too，because the whole structure of our society depends on mutual trust, not distrust. This whole thing around us would fall apart if we didn't trust each other most of the time. We do what we say we'll do; we show up when we say we'll show up；we deliver when we say we'll deliver; and we pay when we say we'll pay. We trust each other in these matters, and when we don't do what we've promised, it's far from the normal. It happens often that we don't act in good faith and in a trustworthy manner, but we still consider it unusual, and we're angry or disappointed with those badly-behaved people. Anyway I was so proud of myself for stopping for the red light that night.
1. The author stopped at the traffic light because ______.| A．there were passers-by crossing the road |
| B．some policemen were on duty just at that point |
| C．the trust between people influenced the author |
| D．there was potential danger |
| A．All the things would run normally. |
| B．The social system would be thrown into disorder. |
| C．Hie social traditions would be abandoned. |
| D．Strict rules and laws would be made. |
| A．Mutual Trust is the best policy. | B．A bird in hand is worth two in the bush. |
| C．Actions speak louder than words. | D．Among the blind the one-eyed is the king. |
5 . Online jobs have opened the door for many people to earn a living (谋生) or make some extra money from the comfort of their homes. This includes teens as well. If you’re looking for such a job, here are some choices you can consider.
Customer Service
If you are 16 years old and over, you have a chance to work with Uhaul as a customer service person. You just need to have a good pair of head-phones and high-speed Internet in order to do this job. Basic pay starts at $7.50an hour.
Sell Items Online
Selling items online is one of the easiest ways to make quick cash. Teens can turn it into a good business by selling things on Bonanza. You need to start sorting through (分类) items at your home that are no longer being used and list them for sale.
Take Surveys
Another easy task teens can do to earn money is to take surveys online. You don’t need any work experience to do this and can be as young as 13 years old to get started. Survey sites like VIP Voices, Swagbucks, Harris Poll, E-Poll, and Paid Viewpoint allow teens to start taking surveys for cash and gift cards. And your opinions should be expressed clearly in English.
Etsy
Do you love to make new things? You can open up an Etsy shop to share your works. Etsy is great for DIYers who can create new products. If you are under 18, you just need a parent who is willing to help manage your shop.
1. What does Bonanza allow teens to do?| A．Learn about computer science. | B．Make money out of their old items. |
| C．Test new products for customers. | D．Receive training in customer service. |
| A．Having a good knowledge of English. | B．Having a good pair of headphones. |
| C．Having some related work experience. | D．Having a wide range of interests. |
| A．They enjoy buying things online. | B．They are interested in history. |
| C．They have a creative mind. | D．They are good at collecting used things. |
6 . If you walk through the doors of one of the Smithsonian Institution’s museums in Washington, D.C., you may be greeted by an unusual guide. A Japanese tech company recently sent 25 humanoid robots to the Smithsonian. All of them are named Pepper.
Each Pepper stands 4 feet tall and has a computer screen attached to its body. Built by SoftBank Robotics, the robots are programmed to share information about the museum in which they are based.
“Pepper is basically an experiment,” Goslins, director of the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Museum, said. “The idea is to explore and see how a robot performs in this kind of environment.”
Museum visitors communicating with Pepper. The robot can tell stories and answer basic questions. People even take pictures and dance with it.
“The robot draws big crowds,” said Allison Peck, director of marketing at the Hirshhorn. “People just love Pepper.”
According to the Smithsonian Institution’s website: “Pepper gives our museum workers a new way to reach and serve visitors.” For example, Pepper teaches Swahili words to visitors of the “World on the Horizon” exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art.
Pepper also has the special ability to draw guests to less-visited areas of the Smithsonian’s museum. When Pepper is placed in a spot, crowds are attracted to that place.
When not educating museum visitors, Pepper stays in the Smithsonian offices, getting charged and programmed. After being charged, Pepper can run for about 8 hours at a time.
Pepper plays an important role, but the robot“ is not meant to take away human jobs at the museum, ” Goslins explained. “It is meant to give our visitors a more enjoyable experience while they are here with us.”
1. What do you know about Pepper?| A．It measures 4 feet in width. | B．It serves as a guide. |
| C．It is named after a robot. | D．It is made in the US. |
| A．Draw pictures. | B．Take pictures. |
| C．Ask questions. | D．Tell stories. |
| A．Reasonable cost. | B．Pepper’s appearance. |
| C．Workers’service. | D．Attractive scenery. |
| A．To please visitors. | B．To replace humans. |
| C．To perform programs. | D．To educate visitors |
7 . How to Save Money to Visit Shanghai Disneyland?
The “happiest place on Earth” is a top destination on many families’ bucket lists.But taking a vacation to Disney World can be difficult to do on a budget.There are some considerations that you can make to reduce the cost of your Disney World vacation.
1.Buy Souvenirs in Advance
Disney has influenced practically every industry,which makes it easy to find Disney items anywhere,from shopping centres and your local grocery stores to department stores.You can save a lot of money by purchasing items before your trip at these less-expensive places than at Disneyland.
2.Make an Autograph Book
An autograph book is seen as a must-have by many Disneyland enthusiasts and is a memory you can take home with you.These books can cost anywhere from $7.95 to $19.95 at the Disney Store and up to $30 for the latest-and-greatest autograph book at Disneyland,such as the park’s 60th anniversary edition.Other choices can get the job done for under $5.For example,you can buy a small photo album,cute pad or notebook.
3.Eat Breakfast Before You Arrive
Breakfast is almost as pricey as lunch or dinner if you eat inside the Disneyland Park.If you have a hotel with a free breakfast,take advantage of it.If you want to eat out,eat at a local restaurant that is inexpensive or has a kids’ menu.
4.Take Advantage of Discounts Offered to Special Groups
Disney offers a wide variety of discounts,including for military service members,college students,teachers,and youth groups.If you think you might qualify for a special discount or group rate,call the Disneyland Resort to book tickets.
1. It may take you more money to buy souvenirs at .| A．Disneyland | B．department stores |
| C．shopping centres | D．local grocery stores |
| A．$7.95. | B．$19.95. | C．$5. | D．$30. |
| A．You had better eat at Disneyland. |
| B．You can eat at a local restaurant. |
| C．You should prepare it well at home. |
| D．You can ask the hotel to supply it for free. |
8 . If you want to know something about British life, their spirit, and even their humor, watching some classic British films will certainly help. Here are some recommended to you.
Notting HillAfter the success of his film Four Weddings and a Funeral, writer and producer Richard Curtis captured the essence of being British in 1999’s Notting Hill. Set against the background of affluent (富足的) West London, the film became popular for its charming and funny portrayal(刻画) of a British nobody trying to impress a Hollywood star.
The Full MontyThis 1997 film is a Sheffield-based comedy about six unemployed men who form a group to make money for a better life. Despite its hummer, the film dives deeper into some serious issues surrounding working-class culture. The Full Monty is an uplifting film that gives an insight into the work and life of the working class in Britain.
TrainspottingDanny Boyle’s 1996 comedy-drama Trainspotting is about a group of Scots in the 1980s, based on the book by Irvine Welsh. With a cast of truly great actors including Ewan MeGregor, the tale impressed the audience globally. It rapidly became a critical success.
Monty Python’s Life of BrianFeaturing a jam-packed cast of comedic stars. Monty Python’s Life of Brian tells the story of a young man who is in a case of mistaken identity. The film reflects the unusual and wonderful British sense of humour. As a film guaranteed to entertain, Monty Pythons Life of Brian is not to be missed by those looking for an insight into what makes the British laugh.
1. What can the audience learn about by watching The Full Monty?| A．Hardships of comedic stars | B．Daily life of people in West London |
| C．Unique experiences of some Scots. | D．Life of the British working class. |
| A．A comedy film. | B．A science fiction film. |
| C．An action movie | D．A horror movie. |
| A．Notting Hill. | B．The Full Monty. |
| C．Trainspotting. | D．Monty Python’s Life of Brian. |
9 . Mr. Guo is a teacher from Xi’an. He asked his students to hand in their homework through a QR code(二维码). “We spent an hour or two in class learning how to generate (产生) the codes, and in the end everything gets easier” said Gao. “When students finish the homework, they keep it on WeChat. Then, each student makes his own QR code and gives it to me. So I can check their work everywhere using my computer or telephone.”
The QR codes can be sent to Mr. Guo by email, QQ and WeChat. When Guo scans(扫描)his students’ QR codes, their homework appears on his phone. He finds that their homework becomes more creative, with many pictures, music and even videos.
Guo’s students like the new way and think it is interesting. “We are living in the information age. Many students like to work with computers, which makes learning more fun,” said Tingting, a student of Guo’s.
“The paper is not easy to keep, but the code is easy to keep and share,” Guo said. “It is worth trying to use new technology in education. Education itself is a kind of creation. I don’t want my students to fall behind the times.”
However, some parents are worried. They are afraid that their children will spend too much time on computers and less time communicating with teachers. But in fact, it’s unnecessary. Students still need to look up information in books and write it down when they do their homework. They only use the code when they hand in their homework, which doesn’t take them too much time. Also for teachers, it allows them to check the Students’ work at any time. And it’s also an easy way to share homework with other students.
1. According to the passage, students can keep their homework on________.| A．WeChat | B．QQ | C．e-mail | D．blog |
| A．strange | B．boring | C．interesting | D．unnecessary |
| A．talk with teachers face to face |
| B．spend too much time on computers |
| C．not like the new way of handing in homework |
| D．find the QR codes too difficult to use |
| A．Teachers needn’t check homework any more. |
| B．Students needn’t hand in homework any more. |
| C．Using QR codes makes checking homework easier. |
| D．Some parents are worried about their children. |
10 . Longing for the most amazing places on the planet? You can do no wrong with these lakes across the globe.
Five Flower Lake
Set in the striking karst landscape of the Jiuzhaigou Valley in Sichuan province, China, Five Flower Lake is extraordinarily clear, with visibility to a depth of 40 metres. Five Flower is one of a series of blue-, green-and sky-colored lakes blocked by rock falls, but it differs from the others as its waters change color, looking sometimes yellow, sometimes green, but usually diamond blue. In winter, Five Flower never freezes; in summer, it never dries up. Local wildlife living in the surrounding mountain forests include the rare giant panda and the golden snub-nose monkey.
Crater Lake
The deep-blue waters of Crater Lake in Oregon, US, fill the outlet of an ancient volcano that collapsed 7,700 years ago. Its strangest occupant is the “Old Man of the Lake”, a nine-metre-tall tree stump(树桩), which has stood upright in the water for more than a century. No rivers or streams enter the lake. Water loss in summer is compensated by winter snow and rain, the entire body of water being replaced every 250 years.
Lake Ohrid
Ancient Lake Ohrid has been around for about five million years and crosses the mountainous border between Macedonia and Albania. It has unique plants and wildlife, including the Ohrid “plashica”, a fish native to the lake, whose scales(鳞片) are used to make Ohrid pearls.
Lake Maggiore
Surrounded on three sides by the Lipontine Alps and touching the plain of Lombardy to the south, Lake Maggiore is Italy’s longest lake. Considered part of the country’s lake district, it is shared with Switzerland. Characterized by a Mediterranean-style climate, temperatures here are mild all year. This has given rise to some of northern Italy’s most wonderful gardens, which appear to float like flower-decked boats on the water.
1. What makes Five Flower Lake different from other lakes?| A．Its agreeable climate. | B．The rare local wildlife. |
| C．Its color-changing waters. | D．The visibility of waters. |
| A．By artificial rain. | B．By snow and rain. |
| C．From nearby streams. | D．From an ancient tree. |
| A．Five Flower Lake. | B．Crater Lake. |
| C．Lake Ohrid. | D．Lake Maggiore. |
