1 . Are you a fan of outdoor adventures? Do you enjoy scenic views to relax? Look no further, as the following destinations offer all that and more.
Athabasca Falls
Alberta, Canada
Water from the Canadian Rockies flows down into the waterfalls of Jasper National Park, creating a flow with wild energy. The falls are wheelchairs accessible, with a paved path taking admirers to a number of viewpoints. If visitors leave the path, they can explore both the upper and lower regions of the trail.
Akaka Falls Trail
Hakalau, Hawaii
A short half-mile hike is big on sights and low on hard activity. The well-kept ring like trail guide visitors around to see a number of waterfalls, including the 442-foot main attraction, and beautiful local flora (植物群) among the famous landscape. Though there are no hills to climb, there are a number of stairways to go.
Nugget Falls
Juneau, Alaska
Located in Tongass National Forest about 12 miles from Juneau, the Mendenhall Glacier has produced Nugget Falls, a fan-like waterfall that leads into a lake. A series of short hikes allows for different views of the waterfall and icy surrounds, which are also known for frequent brown bear sightings.
Yosemite Falls
Yosemite Valley, California
Yosemite National Park is one of the oldest national parks in America and home to the fifth tallest waterfall in the world. Hikers can reach it by taking a 1-mile trail from the lodge or the 7.2-mile round-trip Yosemite Falls Trail route. Late spring is best, with the highest water flow. In the winter, the temperatures dip below freezing. A park admission fee applies.
1. Where can visitors expect to see frequent brown bear sightings?| A．Athabasca Falls. | B．Akaka Falls Trail. | C．Nugget Falls. | D．Yosemite Falls. |
| A．Winter. | B．Spring. | C．Summer. | D．Fall. |
| A．In a travel magazine. | B．In a novel. | C．In a history book. | D．In a diary. |
2 . Mammoth Cave National Park, in the state of Kentucky, is a unique and historical natural wonder. It has the world’s longest cave system. There may be another 600 miles of cave passageways that have yet to be explored. In addition, more than 200 caves that are disconnected from the larger system can be found in the park.
The underground caves were created naturally by the process of limestone (石灰岩) erosion. Rain and rivers slowly dissolve (溶解) and shape soft limestone. The system is still being shaped today. Not only are they an amazing destination to visit, but the system also provides drinking water for about 40% of the US population.
The caves’ first explorers were Native Americans, who mined (采矿) the upper levels of Mammoth Cave. Later, the sites were left in great shape and began to draw public interest.
Mammoth Cave was made into a national park thanks to strong support. Back in the 1920s, the Southern Appalachian National Park Commission was set up in 1925. After years of work, as well as building roads and public facilities, the park was completed on July 1, 1941.
The park now receives around 2 million visitors a year, with about a quarter taking a tour of the caves—everything from a cultural tour to the more adventurous tours on offer. The cave supports more than 130 wildlife species (物种). The park is also much more than just a cave; the forest around has a diverse (多种多样的) range of species. There are miles of trails open for horseback riding, with canoe trails and great fishing spots. There are also more than 1,300 flowering species in the forest, and animals like wood warblers, thrushes, and bald eagles can regularly be seen.
1. What can we learn about Mammoth Cave from the first two paragraphs?| A．It was made by ancient people. | B．It has the length of 600 miles. |
| C．It is made up of 200 connected caves. | D．It has a large underground system. |
| A．Explorers mine the upper levels. | B．The government searches for drinkable water. |
| C．Water dissolves limestone. | D．People build roads and public facilities. |
| A．More than 1,300 flowers grow in the caves. |
| B．The park offers visitors diverse experiences. |
| C．Most visitors come to the park just for caves. |
| D．Two million people have visited the park till now. |
| A．Planning cave tours around the world |
| B．Exploring the world’s longest cave system |
| C．Learning about the explorers of Mammoth Cave |
| D．Predicting the future of Mammoth Cave National Park |
3 . When Steven Spielberg was a kid growing up in the 1950s in Arizona, watching westerns on his family’s 20-inch black-and-white TV, he would climb right up to the screen, as if to surround himself with the image. He also wished he could see these moving pictures in color. So he searched through his family’s collection of slides quickly, having learned that by holding one film or another up to the television screen he could turn grayed-out western skies blue, or the ground to a realistic-looking green. Sometimes his mom walked in, and saw him holding these slides up to both of his eyes, right next to the TV set. Often, she would say, “You’re going to burn your eyes out!”
Spielberg’s mom, like all the other 50s moms who said the same thing, was wrong about that. But we all know what she must have been thinking: Who is this child?
If you’ve seen even just one Steven Spielberg movie in the past 50 years or so — Jaws, Schindler’s List, E. T-you have some sense of who this child grew up to be. And when you see his new film, The Fabelmans, a work of astonishing vividness that’s drawn from his own family’s story, you’ll know even more. Movies have been around for roughly 130 years; Spielberg’s career has covered more than a third of that. Yet The Fabelmans hardly feels like a late-career movie. It’s a bridge for a new beginning.
Not every 75-year-old filmmaker makes a movie like this. Of the ambitious young guys who remade Hollywood in the early 1970s, Spielberg is one of the few still making vital pictures at a consistent (一致的) clip. Yet his career is extraordinary in any context. He’s made some box-office disappointments, but naming a badly made Spielberg film is hard, probably because there isn’t one. No living filmmaker can match his devotion to craftsmanship, to finding new ways of showing us things we think we’ve seen a million times before.
1. How did Spielberg’s mom feel when she saw her son’s behavıor in front of the TV set?| A．Proud but upset. | B．Surprised but supportive. |
| C．Worried and confused. | D．Annoyed and desperate. |
| A．He is devoted to filming ordinary things from new angles. |
| B．He showed great interest in filming at a very young age. |
| C．His career covers more than a third of the movie history. |
| D．All his films are probably well-made despite some box-office disappointments. |
| A．It’s the most outstanding film he has ever made in his career. |
| B．It has been related to part of his growing experience. |
| C．It represents a totally brand-new type of film theme. |
| D．It established Spielberg as the most influential filmmaker. |
| A．To introduce a giant in film-making. |
| B．To demonstrate how to dare to be different. |
| C．To indicate curiosity makes success. |
| D．To recommend a pioneering new film. |
4 . “Hello Mother, Dad, and Blanche,” a quiet voice, has clearly been played many times over. “How’s everything at home? I’m recording this from Dallas…” The disc is small, seven inches across, dated October 1954. The old label shows that the speaker’s name is “Gene”. Gene suggests in his minute-long message that he is traveling and tells his family not to worry about him.
This forgotten sound is one of the world’s early “voice mails”. During the first half of the 20th century, these “voice mails” and other messages were recorded largely, pressed onto metal discs and vinyl records (黑胶唱片) and mailed in places all over the world. When Thomas Edison invented the phonograph (留声机) in 1877, he expected a device that could reproduce music and even store languages.
The gramophone, a later form of the phonograph developed by Emile Berliner in 1887, provided a first possibility for recorded sound being used for long distance communication. The practice of sending “voice mails” really got going across the world in the 1930s and 1940s. Back then, families could listen to the messages on repeat — gathering together around the record player whenever one arrived. They could play it proudly again anytime there were guests, but with each play, the needle would scrape away at the grooves (凹槽) until the message could hardly be heard any longer.
Today at Princeton University, professor Thomas Levin is trying to store these sounds of the past. Linguists (语言学家) are particularly interested in “voice mails” because it provides some of the earliest-ever recorded samples of how regular people spoke — their conversational vocabulary, their pronunciation and accents, their sentence structure and their intonation (语调).
1. Why did Gene record his voice in the disc?| A．To let his family know he was OK. | B．To prepare for his experiment. |
| C．To test an old vinyl record. | D．To keep a memory. |
| A．People couldn’t listen to the music in it. |
| B．It couldn’t keep voice in the records very clear. |
| C．The recorded sound would be damaged by the needle. |
| D．The needle of the gramophone must be changed often. |
| A．To research the earliest-ever recorded voice. |
| B．To prove recorded samples are true. |
| C．To learn from famous historical linguists. |
| D．To reproduce the sound of the past. |
| A．The Early Days of Recorded Sound | B．The Importance of “Voice Mails” |
| C．The Development of Our Language | D．The History of “Voice Mails” |
5 . Art is a universal language. Music is a universal language. Love is a universal language. Now, it’s the turn of sand to be mentioned in such terms. In her work, sand artist Kseniya Simonova mixes art, music and love to create her own medium which can be understood and appreciated by everyone.
Simonova said she fell in love with sand art by accident. “I never thought I could perform; I was always a classical artist,” shared Simonova. “I just started it as a hobby and I never thought it would become what it is now.” In 2009, Simonova won the “Ukraine’s Got Talent” TV contest. Since then her fame has increased rapidly, and she has become a real sensation.
The art Simonova creates is amazing; however, the medium she uses is quite common. It is ordinary river sand. “In sand art, it is an idea and its visualization that is important. What I do is create a tale in my mind. The sand is a very convenient medium that is very flexible and responds to speed well. It can show what is going on in my head.”
The images created by the artist last only for a few seconds. However, Simonova is not worried by the momentary nature of sand art. “I know that my creations live only for a while, but I believe that to be completely normal because art reflects life. We live every moment of our life, and we can’t go back and do it again. The same is the case with what I do,” Simonova concluded.
Sand art helps the artist to see the world in a new way, painting ever-changing life in every grain of sand.
1. How does Simonova feel about her achievements in sand art?| A．Confident. | B．Amused. |
| C．Confused. | D．Surprised. |
| A．The medium. | B．The story. |
| C．The theatre. | D．The audience’s response. |
| A．It mirrors our life. | B．It is a kind of regret. |
| C．It encourages repetition. | D．It alarms many sand artists. |
| A．Love is a universal language |
| B．Sand art: a new form of performance |
| C．Kseniya Simonova: painting the world with sand |
| D．Sand artists: impressing the world with awesome work |
6 . Strawberry U-Pick at the Boyd Farm
Strawberry U-Pick Season is starting! For now, we are open Monday to Friday from 10 a. m. to 3: 30 p. m. and every weekend from 9 a. m. to 5: 30 p. m. !
Not only do we have our u-pick strawberry fields, we also have fresh produce, prepicked strawberries, snacks and other farm goodies for you to buy. We also have lots of fun activities for the family—hayride with the cows, horse ride, animals to pet and feed, swings, slide, sand pile, corn hole, corn pile and more!
AdmissionAdmission is $5/person (3 and under free)
Admission includes:
◆Access to u-pick fields
◆Access to swings, corn hole, sand pile, slide, corn pile and petting zoo
◆1 pound of free-to-take-home strawberries
Admission does not include:
◆Hayride with the cows—$5/person
◆Horse ride—$3/person
◆Animal feed—$2/cup
Important information
★Please don’t leave children unattended in strawberry fields and please don’t walk on the plant beds.
★We recommend bringing something to carry berries home to cut down on waste, but we will have plastic bags if needed.
★Usually strawberry season runs through April. This is entirely weather dependent, however.
★We recommend sunscreen / hat / water / closed-toed shoes!
★Pets are not allowed in the fields due to Food Safety regulations.
1. When is the Boyd Farm open to the public in April?
| A．9 a. m. Monday. | B．5 p. m. Tuesday. |
| C．4p. m. Friday. | D．10 a. m. Sunday. |
| A．Hayride. | B．Horse ride. |
| C．Corn pile. | D．Feeding animals. |
| A．Bringing their pets. | B．Wearing open-toed shoes. |
| C．Playing in strawberry fields. | D．Taking their own strawberry containers. |
7 . ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK TOUR
Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) spans over 415 square miles. It contains more than 300 miles of hiking roads and one of the most amazing sights and landscapes (风景) that Colorado has to offer in summer and winter. It’s a perfect place to take a day vacation just for yourself.
Ride by the Iconic Flatirons and the City of Boulder
Your tour kicks off in Boulder which is hidden in a classical little valley near the Flatirons. This community is home to over 100,000 people and features booming tech, food industries, and world-class University of Colorado.
Have a Tasty Picnic Lunch at Rocky Mountain National Park
There’s nothing better than enjoying a meal with the Rocky Mountains in the background. With the unbelievable beauty of the area, it offers plenty of opportunities for taking photos. People have chance to see local wildlife. It’s no wonder that nearly 3 million people visit this national park every year.
Go for a Scenic Ride down Trail Ridge Road
There’s no better way to discover the Rocky Mountains than taking a scenic (风景优美的) ride down Trail Ridge Road. Stretching for 48 miles, it gives you the chance to enjoy the Rocky Mountains in leisure.
Finish with a Ride Through Estes Park
Taking a ride through Estes Park is the best way to end this tour. This town is well known for being the main base of RMNP and provides an unbelievable view of Prospect Mountain.
1. Where does the tour begin?| A．In Boulder. | B．In Prospect Mountain. |
| C．At Trail Ridge Road. | D．In Estes Park. |
| A．Cook a meal with family. | B．Ride a horse. |
| C．Take photos. | D．Hunt wildlife. |
| A．A sports website. | B．A news report. |
| C．A travel magazine. | D．A geography textbook. |
8 . Look, I’m not a happy crier. I might cry at songs about leaving and missing someone; I might cry at books where things don’t work out; I might cry at movies where someone dies. I’ve just never really understood why people get all choked up over happy, inspirational things. But Michelle Obama’s kindness and empathy (同情) changed that. This book had me in tears for all the right reasons.
This is not really a book about politics, though political experiences obviously do come into it. It’s a shame that some will dismiss this book because of a difference in political opinion, when it is really about a woman’s life. About growing up poor and black on the South Side of Chicago; about getting married and struggling to maintain that marriage; about motherhood; about being thrown into an amazing and terrifying position.
I hate words like “inspirational” because they’ve become so overdone and cheese (俗气的), but I just have to say it — Michelle Obama is an inspiration. I had the privilege of seeing her speak at The Forum in Inglewood, and she is one of the warmest, funniest, smartest, down-to-earth people I have ever seen in this world.
And yes, I know we present what we want the world to see, but I truly do think it’s genuine. I think she is someone who really cares about people — especially kids — and wants to give them better lives and opportunities.
She’s obviously intelligent, but she also doesn’t gussy up her words. She talks straight, with an openness and honesty rarely seen. She’s been one of the most powerful women in the world, she’s been a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School, she’s had her own successful career, and yet she has remained throughout that same girl — Michelle Robinson — from a working class family in Chicago.
I don’t think there’s anyone who wouldn’t benefit from reading this book.
1. What is the main focus of Michelle’s book?| A．Her political experiences and opinions. | B．Her personal life and experiences. |
| C．Her achievements as a powerful woman. | D．Her efforts to motivate others. |
| A．It is overused and insincere. | B．It reminds them of cheese books. |
| C．It is associated with political opinions. | D．It is inapplicable to Michelle Obama. |
| A．Forgets. | B．Regret. | C．Beautify. | D．Swallow. |
| A．Bossy and aggressive | B．Humble and honest. |
| C．Distant and image-loving. | D．Ambitious and career-driven. |
9 . Common Mistakes New Runners Make
Running is a great way to get in shape and just about everyone can do it. However, many make a number of common mistakes, which can interfere (妨碍) with training or lead to injury.
·Doing too much too soon
One of the biggest mistakes new runners make is doing too much too soon. Slowly easing into a training program will help reduce the risk of injury, so you can continue on with your new running routine
·
Beginners might think they need to run every day (or nearly every day) to meet their fitness or weight-loss goals, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Running is a high-impact activity which can be really hard on your body. So it’s important to give your body a rest between workouts.
·Not wearing the right equipment
•Running through pain
| A．Not taking rest days |
| B．If you’re just starting out |
| C．Comparing yourself to others |
| D．Running can be uncomfortable at times |
| E．It’s important not to use the same muscles |
| F．While it may be true that you don’t need expensive equipment to take up running |
| G．Experts suggest increasing your running distance by no more than 10% each week |
10 . In his 1936 work How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie wrote: “I have come to the conclusion that there is only one way to get the best of an argument — and that is to avoid it.” This distaste for arguments is common, but it depends on a mistaken view of arguments that causes problems for our personal and social lives — and in many ways misses the point of arguing in the first place.
Carnegie would be right if arguments were fights, which is how we often think of them. Like physical fights, verbal (言语的) fights can leave both sides bloodied. Even when you win, you end up no better off. You would be feeling almost as bad if arguments were even just competitions — like, say, tennis tournaments. Pairs of opponents hit the ball back and forth until one winner comes out from all who entered. Everybody else loses. This kind of thinking explains why so many people try to avoid arguments.
However, there are ways to win an argument every time. When you state your position, formulate (阐述) an argument for what you claim and honestly ask yourself whether your argument is any good. When you talk with someone who takes a stand, ask them to give you a reason for their view and spell out their argument fully. Assess its strength and weakness. Raise objections (异议) and listen carefully to their replies. This method will require effort, but practice will make you better at it.
These tools can help you win every argument — not in the unhelpful sense of beating your opponents but in the better sense of learning about what divides people, learning why they disagree with us and learning to talk and work together with them. If we readjust our view of arguments — from a verbal fight or tennis game to a reasoned exchange through which we all gain respect and understanding from each other — then we change the very nature of what it means to “win” an argument.
1. What is the author’s attitude toward Carnegie’s understanding of argument?| A．Critical. | B．Supportive. | C．Tolerant. | D．Uncertain. |
| A．They lack debating skills. | B．They may feel bad even if they win. |
| C．They fear being ignored. | D．They are not confident in themselves. |
| A．Defend. | B．Explain. | C．Conclude. | D．Repeat. |
| A．Sense of logic. | B．Solid supporting evidence. |
| C．Proper manners. | D．Understanding from both sides. |
