1 . Pullman is a superb writer and Seagull is a brilliant communicator. They had a debate after Seagull posted a question on his social media platform: “When you were trying to create an environment for learning, what were your best pieces of classical music to listen to?” He received hundreds of suggestions — and one negative reply, from Pullman: “That’s not what classical music is for. Treat it with respect.”
That did it! Everyone — professional musicians, students, teachers — weighed into the argument, and the majority supported Seagull and were criticizing Pullman.
It’s easy to see why people are annoyed. We all want classical music to be as accessible as possible, especially to the young. If some of them are using Bach or Schubert as a tool to help them study, what’s the problem? They may also develop an attachment to classical music.
So is Pullman ridiculous and supercilious by objecting to classical music being used as background music? At first sight, his idea seems stuffy and extreme. By suggesting that classical music should be “treated with respect” and not used as background music, Pullman seems to be closing classical music of to millions of people.
It’s worth pointing out, however, that he isn’t the first to express concerns about classical music being devalued by becoming too commonplace in today’s technologically shaped world. In Benjamin Britten’s 1964 speech, the composer expressed exactly the same worries as Pullman. Britten suggested, “The true musical experience demands some preparation, some effort, a journey to a special place, saving up for a ticket, some homework perhaps”. In short, it demands as much effort from listeners as from composers and performers.
I don’t agree with such an extreme viewpoint, but I do think it touches on a reality. You will never fully grasp the beauty of classical music if you half-hear it only in the background. That doesn’t necessarily matter. Music can be enjoyed on many levels. What Pullman and Britten are really saying is that, in a drive for “accessibility”, we shouldn’t deny the emotional and intellectual complexity underpinning (构成) much classical music.
1. What did Seagull’s posting result in?A.Great admiration for Seagull. |
B.Public criticism of classical music. |
C.A discussion about learning environments. |
D.An argument over the role of classical music. |
A.Self-important. | B.Open-minded. | C.Impatient. | D.Considerate. |
A.To show his affection for classical music. |
B.To introduce young people to classical music. |
C.To demonstrate classical music is demanding. |
D.To support Pullman’s idea over classical music. |
A.Favorable. | B.Doubtful. | C.Objective. | D.Uninterested. |
2 . The cost of living crisis is causing suffering for millions this winter. One in five people are worried about where their next meal will come from. Parents who live near you are burdened with anxiety about how they will afford to feed their children. Families are struggling and don’t know where to turn. Yet while people go hungry, three million tonnes of surplus(剩余的) food is being wasted every year.
Fare Share is a national charity working to get that food to people who are struggling—but we need your help. A gift of £90 could provide three meals a day to a family of four for a whole month. Plus, you may be entitled to recover 25p of tax on every £1 you give as gift money.
Your gift will help us redistribute food to our network of 8,500 local charities and community groups across the UK. You’ll also help people to access other services and support through these groups, strengthening communities and easing loneliness through food.
WILL YOU DO YOUR FARESHARE? PLEASE HELP PEOPLE GOING HUNGRY THIS WINTER | |||
How could your £90 help feed a family in your community? | surplus food is received from suppliers. | FareShare redistributes the food to local charities helping people in need. | People and families can get healthy meals at day centres, youth groups and community cafes. |
We’d love to keep you up to date on Fare Share’s work including fundraising updates. Please get in touch by calling us on 0300 302 3677 or emailing fundraiser@fareshare.org.uk
To give online, please visit fareshare.org.uk/community 1. For more information please scan the QR code.
1. What is the primary focus of FareShare?A.Providing gifts for families. | B.Redistributing surplus food. |
C.Organizing festival events. | D.Offering tax recovery services. |
A.They will receive a tax refund. |
B.They will help run the local charities. |
C.They will be recognized as organizers. |
D.They will receive free meals for themselves. |
A.A travel blog. | B.A news report. |
C.A community noticeboard. | D.An entertainment magazine. |
3 . It is frequently said that the best camera is the one you already have with you. Amazingly, the cameras on modern phones can take killer images without a professional camera. But if you’re struggling to get the quality you want, try a few of these helpful tips.
Pick the right time of day
There are a variety of lighting options that change throughout the day.
Pay attention to lighting
Look for subjects with natural motion like a waterfall, stream, flowers in the wind, etc., and set your shutter speeds to 20 seconds or more. It is vital to have a small secure support to ensure your camera is as perfectly still as possible during the shot.
Photo editing apps
Don’t limit your photos to what you can capture straight out of camera (SOOC).
A.Long exposure |
B.Consider composition |
C.Try to have access to many creative apps |
D.You can control whether the background is in focus |
E.Photography is often referred to as painting with light |
F.It provides an attractive tone for your subject and scenery |
G.Golden hour is the hour just after sunrise or just before sunset |
4 . Is future you? It might seem like a strange philosophical question. But the answer to how you think about your future self could make the difference between decisions you ultimately find satisfying and ones you might eventually regret.
The brain patterns that emerge on an MRI (核磁共振成像) when people think about their future selves most like the brain patterns that arise when they think about strangers. This finding suggests that, in the mind’s eye, our future selves look like other people. If you see future you as a different person, why should you save money, eat healthier or exercise more regularly to benefit that stranger?
However, if you see the interests of your distant self as more like those of your present self, you are considerably more likely to do things today that benefit you tomorrow. A paper in the journal PLoS One revealed that college students who experienced a greater sense of connection and similarity to their future selves were more likely to achieve academic success. Relationships with our future selves also matter for general psychological well-being. In a project led by Joseph Reiff, which includes 5, 000 adults aged 20 to 75, he found that those who perceived a great overlap (重叠) in qualities between their current and future selves ended up being more satisfied with their lives 10 years after filling out the initial survey.
So how can we better befriend our future selves and feel more connected to their fates? The psychological mindset with what we call ”vividness interventions“ works. We have found, for instance, that showing people images of their older, grayer selves increases intentions to save for the long term. Besides, you might try writing a letter to-and then from-your future self. As demonstrated by Yuta Chishima and Anne Wilson in their 2020 study in the journal Self and Identity, when high-school students engaged in this type of ”send-and-reply“ exercise, they experienced elevated (升高的) levels of feelings of similarity with their future selves.
Letter-writing and visualization exercises are just a couple of ways we can connect with our future selves and beyond, but the larger lesson here is clear: If we can treat our distant selves as if they are people we love, care about and want to support, we can start making choices for them that improve our lives-both today and tomorrow.
1. What’s the function of paragraph 2?A.Generating further discussion. | B.Introducing a research result. |
C.Showing the effect of the finding. | D.Concluding various viewpoints. |
A.By offering relevant statistics. | B.By using quotations. |
C.By referring to previous findings. | D.By making comparisons. |
A.Benefits of befriending our future selves. |
B.Ways of connecting with our future selves. |
C.Methods of changing psychological mindsets. |
D.Possibilities of us becoming our future selves. |
A.Making future plans makes a difference. |
B.Our future selves look like other people. |
C.Getting to know your future self benefits. |
D.Your choice affects the fates of strangers. |
5 . Friends always ask why I, a middle-aged woman with no athletic (运动) talent (天赋), travel to perilous places — the jungles (丛林) of Thailand or Borneo, for example, where the water is often unsafe and the food risky; places with infectious diseases, poisonous snakes and the wildest animals.
I never know how to answer. Nine years ago I suffered a stroke (中风). To prevent another stroke, my doctors told me, I’d have to take dangerously high levels of blood thinner (血液稀释剂) for the rest of my life and any travel would be risky (冒险的).
I had to think about what was important to me: family, of course, and friends. But then what? No matter how many times I thought about it, I could not be happy without travel. Then I had to decide how I might manage the risk.
The first real test of my travel courage came nine months after my stroke when I joined my husband, Jack, on a business trip to China. After we’d toured the remains of a Tang dynasty temple on a high mountain, Jack wanted to ride down on a toboggan (长雪橇).
Before the stroke it would’ve seemed like fun. But now? I hesitated. My mental klaxon (高音喇叭) screamed warnings about the consequences of a cut, a fall, and a crash. Then, gaining confidence from who knew where, I lowered myself carefully into the toboggan, which marked my adventure (冒险) travel come back.
In the years since then, I’ve traveled about twenty-five percent of the time. Through it all, my lucks held out — no deadly falls, no car accidents or serious infections. For me, adventure travel is a risk worth taking. Travel broadens my world and keeps me connected to nature. What’s more, saying “yes” to travel keeps me connected to myself.
1. What does the underlined word “perilous” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?A.Energetic. | B.Dangerous. | C.Romantic | D.Famous. |
A.Do proper exercise. | B.Enjoy the rest of her life. |
C.Spend more time with her family | D.Keep away (远离) from traveling |
A.It was her last adventure. | B.She recovered (恢复) her courage (勇气) through it. |
C.She liked the beautiful scenery in China. | D.It was the most dangerous experience in her life. |
A.A business trip to China | B.Stroke, a dangerous disease |
C.How I overcame the fear of disease | D.Why I still travel to the wild |
6 . I live in Xizhou in Yunnan Province, on the historic Tea Horse Road. I have to admit that when I first heard that Paul Salopek was going to walk the entire globe on his own two feet, I was blown away. I couldn’t imagine that there could be such an unusual person in the world.
Last May, I met Paul. He told me that it was his first time in China. He talked to me with great excitement about the history, migrations, and discoveries in my region of China. He spoke of the Shu-Yandu Dao (the Southern Silk Road), the travels of the 17th-century Chinese explorer Xu Xiake, the Tea Horse Road and the early 20th-century American botanist Joseph Rock. He also talked of Xuanzang. Paul considered many of them heroes and in a sense Chinese pioneers of slow journalism.
I decided to accompany Paul on his walk toward Yunnan. On September 28, 2021, we set out. Our days were simple: walk, eat, sleep, and repeat. We woke up at sunrise, set off in high spirits, and rested at sunset, dragging ourselves into exhausted sleep.
We met many people on the road. Some were curious, surrounding us and watching us; some gave us directions; some invited us into their home to take a rest; some spoke of the charm of their hometown. We met many beautiful souls, simple souls and warm souls. We were walking with our minds.
Together, we were impressed by the biodiversity of the Gaoligong Mountains. As I walked on ancient paths through mountains, I seemed to hear the antique voices of past travelers urging me to be careful on the road.
Looking back on the more than 200 miles I walked with Paul, I came to a realization. Walking for its own sake, while healthy and admirable, is only a small part of the benefit of moving with our feet. A deeper reward is rediscovering the world around us, shortening the distance between each other, and sharing each other’s cultures.
1. How did the writer first respond to Paul’s travel plan?A.Scared. | B.Puzzled. |
C.Disappointed. | D.Surprised. |
A.He was a western journalist. | B.He had a knowledge of China. |
C.He came to China several times. | D.He was Joseph Rock’s acquaintance. |
A.They honored the ancestors. | B.They set off in high spirits. |
C.They satisfied the locals’ curiosity. | D.They built bonds with people. |
A.To share and reflect on a journey. | B.To suggest a new way of travel. |
C.To advocate protection of biodiversity. | D.To introduce and promote Chinese culture. |
7 . It’s been nearly two decades since the traditional clothing style Hanfu first started to reemerge in China. Since then it has gone from a small cultural movement celebrating an ancient fashion to a trend that is booming on social media, having been adopted by China’s Generation Z as a means of connecting with their past. Instead of following other cultures blindly, Generation Z now have different opinions about what trend is by promoting local culture while having an objective view of exotic cultural products.
The new tastes of Generation Z—young people born after 1995—are well represented on Bilibili. In the recent New Year’s Eve gala presented by Bilibili, it attracted more than 100 million views within 48 hours with a colourful set of programmes ranging from Peking Opera to classical Chinese cartoons. The same is also true of movie industry. Last year, for the first time, the top 10 most viewed films in China were all domestic films, while the ticket sales for imported films have dropped to only 16.28 percent.
”Generation Z grew up with the rapid development of China and under good economic conditions. With the development of the Chinese Internet industry, they have more access to diverse international information and culture, which bring them a much broader vision and makes them more open and confident in analyzing foreign culture. Apart from taking pride in China’s rapid development, this generation also pursues individuality and values devotion to the country,“ Professor Zhang Yiwu said.
He also noted that the popular rock and punk culture pursued by the 70s and 80s generation is more of a challenge against real life and local culture. Some people who were born in the 1970s and 1980s did not grow up in the Internet age—they experienced the transformation of China going from poor to rich first-hand. This kind of longing and admiration of the West came from a lack of confidence.
However, Generation Z now have the confidence to look at Western culture with equal status. This kind of cultural confidence will result in China being more active and creative in its development on the international stage in the future.
1. What does the underlined word ”exotic“ in Paragraph 1 mean?A.Foreign. | B.Fashionable. | C.Traditional. | D.Elegant. |
A.To confirm the rise of new media. |
B.To promote Chinese Internet industry. |
C.To highlight the popularity of domestic art. |
D.To show the popularity of New Year’s Eve gala. |
A.They have a stronger cultural identity. |
B.They are longing for cultural diversity. |
C.They have made China develop rapidly. |
D.They are more fond of foreign culture. |
A.Confident China, Better Future |
B.China’s Progress Results in Cultural Confidence |
C.China’s New Generation Redefine Local Culture as Trendy |
D.Hanfu Style, Connector of Ancient Fashion and Modern Trend |
8 . Westminster Abbey is one of the most famous religious buildings in the world. Here are some of the famous people buried at Westminster Abbey.
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens, who died in 1870, is buried in Poets’ Corner, the resting place and remembrance location for writers of all kinds.
Dickens is known for many of his works, and A Christmas Carol and A Tale of Two Cities are two of his most widely known works. It was popular opinion among the people and his fellow writers that Dickens should be buried in Westminster Abbey.
Stephen Hawking
Hawking was a scientist, physicist, and author, who died in 2018. Carved onto his stone is a series of rings, surrounding a darker central ellipse (椭圆). The ten characters of Hawking’s equation express his idea that black holes in the universe are not entirely black but send out a glow that would become known as Hawking radiation.
His epitaph (墓志铭) reads, “HERE LIES WHAT WAS MORTAL OF STEPHEN HAWKING”.
Laurence Olivier
Famous actor Laurence Olivier is also buried in Westminster Abbey. Born in 1907, his career began on the stage in England, and he eventually became a film legend until his death in 1989.
It’s well known that he had won Academy Awards, while also being honoured with special Oscars. Olivier’s grave is located in the South Transept in Poets’ Corner of the Abbey, in front of Shakespeare’s memorial.
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton is considered one of the most important scientists of all time. He was a physicist, mathematician, and astronomer. He formulated the Law of Motion as well as the Law of Universal Gravitation.
Artist William Kent designed Newton’s complex funerary monument, and it was sculpted by Michael Rysbrack.
1. When did the author of A Christmas Carol die?A.In 1870. | B.In 1907. | C.In 1989. | D.In 2018. |
A.They won Academy Awards. | B.They were buried in Poets’ Corner. |
C.They were praised by Shakespeare. | D.They were famous actors and writers. |
A.Charles Dickens’s. | B.Stephen Hawking’s. |
C.Laurence Olivier’s. | D.Isaac Newton’s. |
9 . How to make sure you enjoy your trip
A trip is a planned destination where one arranges in advance in which the main purpose is to search for adventure and to create a memorable moment. Here are the steps on how to make sure your trip is enjoyable.
● Plan it well.
Trips are ideally planned for it to go well.
● Pack necessities.
Bring what you need. Trips are short journeys and belong to the sub-level of travelling. Pack only the things you need.
● Be safe.
To be cautious is smart. No matter what you are up to, surfing, cliff diving, snowboarding, scuba diving, etc., it is always recommended to be safe.
●
You may see delays, a different culture, lifestyle, food, and even a shortage of cash. Sometimes, this is all what travel is about—experiencing things with a new perspective(观点,看法). Once you expect to experience new things, you’ll be a happy traveller and free from stress.
● Save the memory.
A.Travel with an open mind. |
B.Get prepared for everything new. |
C.Seize the moment by taking photos. |
D.This is all we expect from travelling. |
E.Take some time ahead to make a plan for your trip. |
F.It is important to wear protective equipment when advisable. |
G.It is easy to get tired if you have too many things in your package. |
10 . The two-week Harvard Pre-College Program is an intense and exciting experience of the college life. The admission committee is now looking for mature, academically motivated students who will graduate from high school and enter college in 2022.
The Course Experience
With over 30 courses to choose from, you’re sure to find a topic that interests you. Although courses are non-credit and do not have letter grades, you need to attend the class in its entirety. When class is not in session, you can participate in creative and social activities. At the end of the program, you’ll receive a written evaluation from your instructor, as well as a transcript (成绩单).
Time
•July 24 — August 5
How to Apply
Complete an online application and provide supplemental (补充的) materials, including: •The$75 non-refundable application fee.
•Transcripts from 9th grade to fall 2021 grades: This can include progress reports, report cards, and educational summaries from your high school.
•If English is not your native language, submit scores from the TOEFL IBT or IELTS language proficiency exam along with your application.
Cost & Aid
The total fee for a Harvard Pre-College Program 2022 session is$4, 950. The program fee includes tuition, room and board, and activity costs for the full two weeks. There is also a non-refundable $75 application fee and $100 health insurance.
A limited number of scholarships are available to assist students who demonstrate financial need. Awards vary based on need, and a typical award covers part of the tuition.
How to contact us
Interested in learning more about the program? Complete our request form, and a member of our team will contact you.
Phone: (617) 495-4023
Email: precollege@ summer.harvard.cn
1. Which is a requirement for students attending the course?A.Completing 30 courses. | B.Getting required credits. |
C.Having a full attendance. | D.Prioritizing social activities. |
A.Health certificate. | B.Academic conditions. |
C.Financial declaration. | D.Personal integrity. |
A.$4,775 | B.$4,875 | C.$4,950 | D.$5,125 |