1 . Rain beat against the window, matching my mood. I should have known that my new job at the hospital was too good to be true. Throughout the day, rumors (传言) warned that the newest employee from each department would be laid off. I was the newest one in the training department.

My boss appeared. “You probably know we’re cutting back,” he said. “Administration wants us to offer outplacement classes to help those employees find other jobs, showing them how to act in an interview, for example.” “Fine,” I answered unwillingly, not knowing what else to say.

I decided to go home early that day. In the hall, I met the lady who brought us cookies every Friday. She was a little woman with gray hair. Only her head and the top of her green apron (围裙) were visible over the cart (小车) loaded with cleaning supplies. At least she had a job!

At the final meeting, laid-off workers formed a line at the door. A colleague whispered, “I can’t believe our Cookie Lady is being laid off. We’ll miss her as much as we’ll miss her cookies.” When the colleague spoke to her in Spanish, I knew my classes would be useless for her and I realized how much better off I was than this poor woman.

I decided to do something for her. I wrote to a newspaper expressing how I felt about the unselfishness of the Cookie Lady who needed a job. A few days later, my article appeared in the newspaper and the Cookie Lady was allowed to stay in her position. On the same day, I received a letter, which seemed so unlikely that I read it twice. “An editor of a local magazine likes your piece and wants you to call her next time you’re looking for work…”

1. How did the author feel on that rainy day?

A．Nervous.

B．Excited.

C．Embarrassed.

D．Proud.

2. What was the author asked to do?

A．Take care of patients.	B．Leave earlier that day.
C．Help the laid-off workers.	D．Give up the job in the hospital.

3. How did the author help the Cookie Lady?

A．He offered her a high-paid job.	B．He gave her advice on job hunting.
C．He made her story known to others.	D．He taught her how to pass an interview.

4. What does the story tell us?

A．Good deeds have their rewards.

B．A friend in need is a friend indeed.

C．Little people can make a big difference.

D．Love brings more joy to people than work does.

2 . In January, 2021, the ice-making work on the ”Ice Ribbon“, a landmark venue for the Beijing Winter Olympics, was completed.

In the Winter Olympics, where races can be won or lost by a small time gap, tiny imperfections in the ice can make all the differences. ”It’s not just a hunk of ice like you’d normally think of, like ice cubes sitting in your freezer,“ told Kenneth Golden, a U. S. mathematician who studies the structures of ice. ”It’s a much more fascinating and complex substance than people would normally think.“

The first step for building any ice rink is to purify the water to remove dissolved solids like salts and minerals. Such impurities don’t fit in the regular hexagonal(六边形的)structure of ice that forms as water freezes. The purer the water, the more consistent the ice surface.

In addition to the need for excellence in the raw materials of ice-making, technology is also very important, As one of the most advanced technologies for winter sports venues, a carbon dioxide cooling technology has been applied on a large scale for the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. CO₂ , is not new when it comes to ice-making. However, it has been gradually replaced by the man-made refrigerant, like Freon.

With increasing attention toward climate change, the old refrigerant has come into use again. As an element of the atmosphere, CO₂, doesn’t damage the ozone layer. Although CO₂ is a greenhouse gas, its greenhouse effect is much lower than that of other synthetic refrigerants. The Winter Olympics venues adopted CO₂ instead of Freon as a refrigerant in ice-making, which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions greatly.

”We believe these technological innovations will bring Beijing 2022 to spectators all over the world in a more impressive way.“ told Gao Bo from the Media Operations Department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

1. What is the result of impurities in water for ice-making?

A．The water isn’t able to freeze completely.

B．The quality of the ice will be affected.

C．The ice surface will be more consistent.

D．It’s likely for athletes to fall on the ice.

2. Why has CO₂ cooling technology been applied for the Winter Olympic Games?

A．It’s the most advanced technology for ice-making.

B．CO2 is more efficient than other refrigerants.

C．CO2 is more environmentally friendly than Freon.

D．CO2 has already existed in the atmosphere.

3. What is Gao Bo’s attitude to CO₂ being applied to ice-making?

A．Unclear.

B．Opposed.

C．Doubtful.

D．Favorable.

4. Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?

A．The Beijing Winter Olympic Games Are Coming

B．Beneath Olympic Ice

C．The Use of Refrigerants in Olympic Games

D．The Structure of Ice

3 . It was a village in India. The people were poor. However, they were not unhappy. After all, their forefathers had lived in the same way for centuries.

Then one day, some visitors from the city arrived. They told the villagers there were some people elsewhere who liked to eat frog’s(青蛙) legs. However, they did not have enough frogs of their own, and so they wanted to buy frogs from other places.

This seemed like money for nothing. There were millions of frogs in the fields around, and they were no use to the villagers. All they had to do was to catch them. Agreement was reached, and the children were sent into the fields to catch frogs. Every week a truck arrived to collect the catch and hand over the money. For the first time, the people were able to dream of a better future. But the dream didn’t last long.

The change was hardly noticed at first, but it seemed as if the crops were not doing so well. More worrying was that the children fell ill more often, and, there seemed to be more insects around lately.

The villagers decided that they couldn’t just wait to see the crops failing and the children getting weak. They would have to use the money earned to buy pesticides (杀虫剂)and medicines. Soon there was no money left.

Then the people realized what was happening. It was the frog. They hadn’t been useless. They had been doing an important job—eating insects. Now with so many frogs killed, the insects were increasing more rapidly. They were damaging the crops and spreading diseases.

Now, the people are still poor. But in the evenings they sit in the village square and listen to sounds of insects and frogs. These sounds of the night now have a much deeper meaning.

1. From Paragragh1 we learn that the villagers      .

A．worked very hard for centuries

B．dreamed of having a better life

C．were poor but somewhat content

D．lived a different life from their forefathers

2. Why did the villagers agree to sell frogs?

A．The frogs were easy money.

B．They needed money to buy medicine.

C．They wanted to please the visitors.

D．The frogs made too much noise.

3. What might be the cause of the children’s sickness?

A．The crops didn’t do well.

B．There were too many insects.

C．The visitors brought in diseases.

D．The pesticides were overused.

4. What can we infer from the last sentence of the text?

A．Happiness comes from peaceful life in the country.

B．Health is more important than money.

C．The harmony(和谐) between man and nature is important.

D．Good old days will never be forgotten.

7 . Learning to say “yes, and”

When I first heard about the improvisation (即兴交流) class, I was hesitating. As a quiet and shy girl, I feared improvising in front of strangers. However, I knew I wanted to work as a science communicator after finishing my Ph.D., so it seemed like a perfect chance to learn how to speak and communicate with others effectively. I signed up, knowing the experience would give me help.

During our first class, we learned an important concept of improvisation: “yes, and.” It means that, as improvisers, we’d better accept what fellow performers say. If someone says that rhinos (犀牛) are librarians, for example, then rhinos are librarians. We do not question the logic; we say “yes” and then continue with the scene as if nothing is wrong.

The first few scenes were hard, but as weeks turned into months, I became more comfortable and even started to enjoy our classes. I became better at listening, relating to my conversation partners, and communicating clearly in the moment. Once when I was giving a presentation about my science, an audience member surprised me with a question that didn’t grow out of the information I’d presented. Instead of getting confused and nervous, I took the “yes, and” approach—accepting the question and letting my mind focus on why it was asked. That helped me find an appropriate answer. I got pretty excited about it.

The benefits of improvisation go beyond communication. Before attending the class, I would get stuck when my experiments produced unexpected data, thinking that I had made a mistake. But now, instead of getting discouraged, I will stay open to the possibility that the results are real, keep exploring the data and end up identifying a new type of cell—one that isn’t behaving as expected.

I think all scientists can benefit from this lesson. If the data say rhinos are librarians, then it’s worth finding out whether rhinos are, in fact, librarians. As scientists, our job isn’t to challenge data that support, a preconceived story, but to say “yes, and.”

1. Why did the author attend the improvisation class?

A．To get a different experience.

B．To finish her Ph.D. at university.

C．To give up her job as a science communicator.

D．To improve her speaking and communicating ability.

2. What was the author’s change after attending the improvisation class?

A．She formed her own idea quickly.

B．She came up with lots of creative responses.

C．She paid more attention to the logic of answers.

D．She became a good listener before giving an opinion.

3. The author mentions applying the “yes, and” approach to her scientific experiments to ________.

A．explain the process of using the method

B．prove the benefits of the improvisation class

C．share her own research experiences with readers

D．attract fellow scientists to attend the improvisation class

4. What can be inferred about scientists from the last paragraph?

A．They should attend the improvisation class.

B．They should question all preconceived ideas.

C．They should carry on research by admitting earlier data.

D．They should try to improve their academic knowledge.

9 . It’s a question that has been asked for years: Is a dishwasher or washing dishes by hand greener? Which uses less energy and water?

A few years ago, the answer was that the dishwasher was better but a very careful hand-washer could probably use about the same amount of water and less energy. However, much has changed since then. Technology combined with good design has made the dish washer greatly better over the years, to the point where there’s hardly a question. Studies are showing that modern dishwashers can save more water than most hand-washers.

Dishwashers are even more efficient. Modern dishwashers have pre-heaters that increase the water temperature up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit to sanitize them. The dishwasher also has a timer that lets you set it to turn on at a later time when the power rates are lower.

On the other hand, none of the studies do an analysis of what it takes in terms of energy and water to actually build the dishwasher and replace it every 10 years or so. Nor does it take into account a Swedish study that found that children in families that wash dishes by hand are less likely to develop fever probably due to the “hygiene hypothesis”, which says the reason why kids fall ill is that their surroundings are actually too clean. If you’re not willing to fill up the sinks, the researchers point out that maybe the dishwasher is one labor-saving machine that does a better job than you can especially if you value your time. The researchers write, “When a user’s time spent washing dishes is valued, machine dishwashers pay for themselves within a year of use.”

1. Why does the author raise two questions in the first paragraph?

A．To express the author’s doubts.	B．To introduce the topic.
C．To show different ways to wash dishes.	D．To compare various ideas about dishwashers.

2. What is NOT the advantage of the dishwasher?

A．It is more environment-friendly.	B．It takes less time to wash the dishes.
C．It uses less water to wash the dishes.	D．It is more efficient than hand-washers.

3. What does the Swedish study find out about dishwashers?

A．Their effect on kids’ health.	B．Their effect on water and energy saving.
C．Their help in keeping the environment healthy.	D．Their help in improving kids’ health condition.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．The Advantage Of The Dishwasher	B．How To Choose A Proper Way To Do The Dishes
C．The New Technology For Washing Dishes	D．How Dishwashers Benefit Our Lives

10 . It was a moment carved in her memory. When Liu Jing played the suite of Dream of the Red Chamber, which is based on a novel of the same title written by Cao Xueqin during the Qing Dynasty, in the University of Cambridge as a member of a Chinese ensemble in 2011, something strange happened. As she played A Lovesick Knitted Brow in Vain, which describes the failed love story between two main characters Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu in the novel, an old woman who sat in the first row of the audience burst into tears.

She was curious and asked the woman, at the end of the performance, if she had read the novel. The woman said: “No, but I just felt the melody touched me very much when it was created by your Chinese instrument.”

The experience was one of the inspirations that urged Liu to promote traditional Chinese music and instruments. Many years later, Liu, who is in her thirties now, has shared a series of original music videos featuring traditional Chinese stories and created by Chinese instruments, with her online name Liu Qingyao. They have become hugely popular.

According to Liu, the frequent performances and competitions sharpened her pipa-playing skills. “From grade four at primary school to senior high school, I often completed my homework on my way to other countries during many weekends and vacations,” said Liu.

“In the future, I want to cooperate with more museums, and try to tell the stories of cultural relics in my musical works, so that people enjoy the beauty of both Chinese music and cultural relics, and appreciate Chinese culture,” said Liu.

1. Why did the old woman burst into tears during Liu Jing’s performance?

A．She was moved by the melody.	B．She was saddened by the love story.
C．The performance was heartbreaking.	D．The performance was touching.

2. What do we know about Liu Jing?

A．She wants to promote traditional Chinese literature.

B．She is keen on traditional Chinese music and culture.

C．The music videos that she shares online are rarely created by herself.

D．She benefited little from her frequent performances and competitions.

3. What does the underlined word “They” in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A．Traditional Chinese instruments	B．Chinese stories
C．Music videos created by Liu Jing	D．Chinese cultural relics

4. What might be a suitable title for the text?

A．The importance of learning traditional Chinese culture.

B．The melody of Chinese cultural relics.

C．Liu Jing: A girl of imagination

D．Tips on promoting traditional Chinese music and instruments.