1 . A music festival is a community event focusing on live performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme. On the list are the music festivals for fans around the world. Find your favorite now!
Field Day
January 1, 2023, Sydney
Field Day means New Year’s Day for young people in Sydney. Seen as the city’s original multi-stage party, it’s a gathering of friends coming together for a great fun-filled first day of the year. There’s an air of hope and positive energy on a perfect summer’s day.
The Envision Festival
February 27—March 6, 2023, Uvita
The Envision Festival is an annual gathering in Costa Rica that aims to provide an opportunity for different cultures to work with one another to create a better community. The festival encourages people to practice art, music, dance performances, and education. Meanwhile, our connection with nature is expected to be strengthened.
The McDowell Mountain Music Festival
March 2—4, 2023, Phoenix
The McDowell Mountain Music Festival is Phoenix’s musical celebration of community culture. Since its foundation in 2004, it has been the only 100% non-profit music festival designed to support, entertain and educate the community. The festival attracts thousands of visitors each year from around the country, and it is an opportunity to experience true culture.
The Old Settler’s Music Festival
April 20—23, 2023, Dale
The Old Settler’s Music Festival is a nationally known music festival for American music. The festival is held in the country of Texas at the height of the wild flower season. The Old Settler’s Music Festival offers great music and activities for the whole family.
1. In which city can people enjoy a fun New Year’s Day?| A．Phoenix. | B．Uvita. | C．Sydney. | D．Dale. |
| A．It encourages people to receive education. | B．It is not aimed at making money. |
| C．It provides an opportunity for friend gathering. | D．It focuses on cultural exchanges. |
| A．Field Day and the Envision Festival. |
| B．The Envision Festival and the McDowell Mountain Music Festival. |
| C．The Old Settler’s Music Festival and the McDowell Mountain Music Festival. |
| D．The Envision Festival and the Old Settler’s Music Festival. |
2 . What time of day do you feel most alert(清醒的)? Are you more of a morning person? Or does your brain need a few hours to get going? A lot of research suggests that we should pay attention to our body clock. It can tell us what time of day we are best able to perform, according to the Wall Street Journal.
When it comes to the human brain, many people work best later in the morning. This is because the body’s temperature takes time to rise through the day. Taking a warm shower when you wake up can help speed this up.
But everyone’s body clock is different. Morning people will rise early and work better early in the day. Evening people will wake later but their brain will work better toward the end of the day.
Research show that we’re better at some activities at certain times of the day. Physical performance is at its best between 3pm and 6pm, so it’s better to exercise later in the day.
Between noon and 4 pm, people begin to get distracted (思想不集中的). This is partly because our brain becomes less alert after we eat a big meal. Research also shows that we become sleepy around 2 pm.
Finally, it is best to eat during our active periods. This allows our body to burn calories better and stops our blood sugar levels from getting too high.
1. Many people perform best later in the morning because ________.| A．they can’t get up very early. |
| B．they have to take a shower first. |
| C．the body’s temperature needs time to rise. |
| D．that’s when the brain wakes up. |
| A．rise early and work in the morning. |
| B．wake later and work better in the evening. |
| C．rise late and work in the morning |
| D．wake later and work after midnight. |
| A．It’s better to do exercise in the afternoon. |
| B．We perform better after eating a big meal. |
| C．Sleeping at 2 pm is not good for our health. |
| D．Our body burns calories better at night. |
| A．Research about time. | B．The best time to do things. |
| C．Brain performance. | D．Different periods of a day. |
3 . You may have been told in the past that reading to your children can help their development. Now an organization is trying to stress it even more.
The American Academy of Pediatrics is now having doctors encourage parents to read aloud to their children, even at the earliest stages. They say it is an important part of the brain’s development in the first three years of a child’s life.
“Although reading to our children can be a simple thing, it has a huge effect on our children. It can encourage our children to read later on in life and give a good start to their education. It can enhance the vocabulary and other communication skills. We can continue to do something that doesn’t take a lot of time and energy to tell the children that love of reading is so important when they are babies,” said Dr Heidi Stoltenberg at Mayo Clinic Health System.
Reading to your children is very important. Stoltenberg said it is never too early to start. “It may seem kind of unusual because we don’t necessarily think babies are at an age when you would read to them, but immediately when you come home from the delivery (分娩) of your baby is a great time to start that,” Stoltenberg said.
Studies have shown that the poverty level plays a major role in parents who read to their children. Many times, that is simply because the families cannot afford books or other things to read. There are many resources (资源) in our area to help those families get reading materials. The United Way of Freeborn County, and many others across the region, have teamed up with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Many local hospitals, including Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea and Austin, also take part in Reach Out and Read.
1. What does the underlined word “enhance” in the third paragraph mean?| A．Choose. | B．Receive. | C．Increase. | D．Prevent. |
| A．She thinks it is completely meaningless. |
| B．She believes babies may get hurt if you do that. |
| C．She insists that the parents turn to some experts. |
| D．She holds that reading to babies should start as early as possible. |
| A．Being short of time. |
| B．Being short of money. |
| C．The bad family environment. |
| D．The poor education background. |
| A．The importance of reading to children. |
| B．New ways to develop children’s reading ability. |
| C．Reasons that influence children’s reading habits. |
| D．Necessity of paying attention to children’s brain development. |
4 . My biggest problem is that I’m too busy. When I was young, I used to have so much time, but these days I get up early and stay in school all day. Then I go right home and eat dinner before I started high school, I used to spend a lot of time playing games with my friends, but I just don’t have the time anymore.In the evening, I used to watch TV or chat with my grandmother, but now I have to study. I love music, and my father used to take me to concerts. These days, I hardly ever have time for concerts. I do my homework and go to bed. I really miss the old days.
1. What’s my biggest problem?| A．I’m too lazy. | B．I’m too busy. | C．I’m free. | D．I get up early. |
| A．Yes, I have. | B．No, I haven’t. |
| C．I don’t know. | D．/. |
| A．late | B．early | C．don’t known | D．too late |
| A．music | B．football | C．doing homework | D．sleep |
| A．I am older | B．I have lots of friends | C．I miss the old days | D．I have a TV. |
5 . Modern life is impossible without traveling. The fastest way of traveling is by plane. With a modern airliner you can travel in one day to places which it may take a month or more to get to a hundred years ago.
Traveling by train is slower than by plane, but it has its advantages. You can see the country you are traveling through. Modern trains have comfortable seats and dining cars. They make even the longest journey enjoyable.
Some people prefer to travel by sea when possible. There are large liners and river boats. You can visit many other countries and different parts of your country on them. Ships are not so fast as trains or planes, but traveling by sea is a very pleasant way to spend a holiday.
Many people like to travel by car. You can make your own timetable. You can travel three or four hundred miles or only fifty or one hundred miles a day, just as you like. You can stop wherever you wish where there is something interesting to see, at a good restaurant where you can enjoy a good meal, or at a hotel
To spend the night. That is why traveling by car is popular for pleasurable trips, while people usually take a train or a plane when they traveling on business.
1. From the passage, we know the fastest way of traveling is_______.| A．by sea | B．by train | C．by car | D．by plane |
| A．modern trains in the country | B．the travelers in the modern trains |
| C．comfortable seats and dining cars | D．the slower ways of traveling |
| A．make the longest journey enjoyable |
| B．travel only fifty or one hundred miles a day |
| C．travel to a very far place in several minutes |
| D．make our own timetable |
| A．a plane or a car | B．a car or a boat | C．a boat or a train | D．a train or a plane |
| A．FOUR. | B．THREE. | C．TWO. | D．SIX. |
6 . My name is Jack. When my family moved to America, we brought not only our luggage, but also our rules, customs and culture in China. One of the rules is that young people should always respect the elders. Unluckily, this rule led to my very first embarrassment(尴尬) in the United States.
I had a part-time job as a waiter in a Chinese restaurant. One day, when I was serving food to a middle-aged couple, the wife asked me how the food could be served so quickly. I told her that I had made sure they got their food quickly because I always respect the elderly. As soon as I said that, she looked very unhappy. My manager gave me a long lecture about how Americans dislike the word “old”. I then walked back and apologized to the lady.
In my hometown in China, people are proud of being old. Not so many people live to be seventy or eighty, and people who reach such an age have the most knowledge and experience. Young people always respect older people because they know they can learn from their rich experience.
However, in the United States, “old” means that a person is going to retire(退休). Here many people try to keep themselves from growing old by doing exercises. When I told the couple in the restaurant that I respect the elderly, they got angry because this caused them to feel they had failed to stay young.
After that, I changed the way I had been with older people. It is not that I don’t respect them any more; I still respect them, but now I don’t show my feelings through words.
1. Why did Jack serve the couple their food very fast?| A．He wanted more pay. | B．He respected the elderly. |
| C．He was asked to do so. | D．He was a hard-working waiter. |
| A．People there are proud of being old. |
| B．People there dislike being called “old”. |
| C．No people there reach the age of seventy or eighty. |
| D．Young people there show little respect to the older. |
| A．He made friends with the couple. | B．He lost his job in the restaurant. |
| C．He no longer respected the elderly. | D．He changed his way with older people. |
| A．the couple disliked fast service at all. |
| B．the manager apologized to the couple. |
| C．Jack wanted to show his feelings through words. |
| D．Jack knew more about American culture than before. |
7 . When asked about her childhood in the documentary Alive Inside, a 90-year-old woman with dementia replies,“I’ve forgotten so much.” Film-maker Michael Rossato-Bennett then plays music from her past for her. “That’s Louis Armstrong,” she says. “He’s singing When the Saints Go Marching In and it takes me back to my school days.” She then recalls exact details from her life.
Why does it happen? Music tends to accompany events that arouse emotions or otherwise make strong impressions on us—such as weddings and graduations. These kinds of experiences form strong memories, and the music and memories likely become intertwined(紧密相连) in our neural(神经的) networks, according to Julene Johnson, a professor at the University of California. Movements, such as dancing, also often pair with our experience of music, which can help form memories. Even many years later,hearing the music can bring back memories of these long-past events.
As Alive Inside shows,music has this power even for many people with dementia. Researchers note that the brain areas that process and remember music are typically less damaged by dementia than other areas, and they think it may explain the phenomenon.
They also pay attention to elderly people with dementia, especially those in nursing homes. “It’s possible those long-term memories are still there,” Johnson says,“but people just have a harder time accessing them because they’re in a strange place and there’re not a lot of circumstances in which someone could pull out those memories.”
Johnson also notes that music is not universally useful for all people with dementia since there are some people with dementia whose brain area that recognizes music is damaged.
Despite music’s apparent benefits, few studies have explored its influence on memory recall in people with dementia. “It’s really an untapped area,” Johnson says. Petr Janata is a researcher investigating the topic of music and memory. He says that scientists still do not have the answers to why and how music reawakens memories in people with dementia, but this phenomenon is real and it’s just a matter of time before it’s fully borne out by scientific research.
1. What helps the old woman in Alive Inside recall her childhood?| A．The description of her school days |
| B．A film she watched before. |
| C．A song she listened to before. |
| D．The voice of her childhood friend. |
| A．It helps make lasting memories. |
| B．It helps cure patients of dementia. |
| C．It helps arouse emotions in special events. |
| D．It helps remember dance movements easily. |
| A．Send them to nursing homes for good care. |
| B．Provide familiar environments for them. |
| C．Play lots of classical music to them. |
| D．Talk to them about their past. |
| A．It is criticized by Petr Janata. |
| B．It is a ground-breaking study. |
| C．It is supported by solid evidence. |
| D．It applies to all people with dementia. |
8 . Unsolved Mysteries About the Earth
◆Mystery 1: Where did all the water come from?
Water covers 70 percent of the earth’s surface and earns it the nickname “the blue planet”. And where did it come from? The most popular scientific theory states that the H2O arrived in the form of several violent asteroids (小行星)filled with ice. Another suggests that the water actually has been around since the earth’s formation. However it happened, though, it’s certainly worked out well for the earth’s life forms.
◆Mystery 2: What about all the oxygen?
Another thing is the planet’s oxygen. Tiny creatures released oxygen as a waste product, filling the atmosphere with it. After that, the level of oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere went wildly up and down until it finally calmed down around 540 million years ago. Since then, it’s remained at about the breathable level we experience today. But what caused it to be suddenly steady?
◆Mystery3: What caused the Cambrian(寒武纪)Explosion?
The Cambrian Explosion refers to the explosion of complex life that occurred on the earth about 540 million years ago. Before then, life had consisted mostly of bacteria. But at the beginning of the Cambrian period, complex creatures began developing at a rate never before seen. Suddenly, advanced life forms had brains eyes and bones. Most creatures alive today can trace their blood back to the Cambrian period.
◆Mystery 4: Will we ever be able to predict earthquakes?
We still haven’t been able to come up with a way to accurately predict earthquakes, which is practically significant. We can certainly try, but our current technology cannot predict them exactly. We know that earthquakes start when rocks crack underground and send earthquake waves toward the surface, but we haven’t figured out why they happen, or how to predict them.
1. What was created later by tiny creatures on the earth?| A．Water. | B．Ice. | C．Bacteria. | D．Oxygen. |
| A．Mystery 1. | B．Mystery 2. |
| C．Mystery 3. | D．Mystery 4. |
| A．It is the oldest mystery of the four. |
| B．It is a matter that has practical significance. |
| C．It is the most difficult to solve of the four. |
| D．It has already been solved. |
9 . Cape Town, the second-biggest city in South Africa, is now in danger.
How can a city run out of water?
Water covers about 70 percent of Earth’s surface. But most of that is seawater. Freshwater is what we use to drink, take showers and cook food. Less than 1 percent of the planet’s water is fresh and accessible (可利用的).
Usually, freshwater comes from rivers and lakes. But the amount of accessible water changes over time. People build reservoirs (水库) to help store water so that they always have enough water to use.
Underground water is another source of freshwater. For example, water from wells is a kind of underground water.
The ocean can also give us water.
Cape Town’s water problem is due to population growth and a record drought, National Geographic reported.
| A．During rainy times, the reservoir stores water from rivers. |
| B．People are still wasting water every day. |
| C．The city is running out of water. |
| D．Now, people in this city are trying to save water. |
| E．Collecting rainwater is another important way to save water. |
| F．To answer this question, we need to take a look at where our water comes from. |
| G．But we need to get rid of its salt before we can use it. |
10 . A lot of films have tried to describe the afterlife and our memories of family members who have passed away. But few have done as well as Coco, Disney-Pixar’s latest masterpiece animation, which hit the big screen on Nov 24.
Inspired by the Mexican holiday of Dia de los Muertos — Day of the Dead — the film’s team created a young boy, Miguel, who wants his family to understand his love of music. On that year’s Day of the Dead, an accident takes him to the Land of the Dead. While there, Miguel has an unforgettable and adventurous night.
According to the Times, the Land of the Dead is one of Disney-Pixar’s “most visually ambitious worlds yet”. In this land, there are friendly skeletons who can cross a bridge made of flowers on the Day of the Dead to “visit” their living family in the world of the living — that is, as long as their family still puts their photos on the family shrine (神龛). Those spirits who are forgotten by their family will disappear completely.
It’s in this magical world that Miguel gets to meet and discover the truth about his great-great-grandpa. To save him from disappearing, Miguel has to bring his photo back to the living world as soon as possible.
While told with a wild imagination, the story sends out a clear and warm message about family. Family is a concept at the center of Mexican culture. On the Day of the Dead every year, people in Mexico honor their ancestors by putting their photos up on the family shrine, as shown in the film, and share food and drinks to keep the spirits of their family members alive.
“In a time when young people are so easily attracted by celebrities, the film Coco teaches kids to protect and respect the memory of their elders” wrote reporter Peter.
1. According to the passage, in the film Coco, ________.| A．Miguel’s family are very supportive of his love for music |
| B．Miguel was born with the ability to travel to the Land of the Dead |
| C．Miguel has a happy time with the spirits in the Land of the Dead |
| D．Miguel tries to save the spirit of his great-great-grandpa |
| A．It is set in the frightening world of the dead. |
| B．It shows great imagination and visual effects. |
| C．It is full of funny and exciting moments. |
| D．It is based on a real story that is sad but warm. |
| A．It’s important to value the memories of our family members. |
| B．The support from our family helps us to overcome difficulties. |
| C．Family tradition has a big influence on children. |
| D．Family should always come before anything else. |
