1 . Distance or Face-to-Face Learning: What’s the Difference?

Although many people think it is a modern phenomenon, distance learning has been around for at least 200 years in one form or another.

When comparing the two systems, the first and most obvious area to focus on is the way that learning is delivered. Distance learning is heavily dependent on technology, particularly the internet.    1    In comparison, when learning remotely, technology is the principal means of communication. The flexibility this provides means that students may be better able to learn at their own pace, following their own timetable, but it may also mean that learners have to be well-organized and self-disciplined. They must therefore be highly motivated in order to do well on the distance-learning courses.

    2    . Namely, the teacher is the “knower”, and is responsible for helping students understand the key components of the course. However, the nature of the relationship may differ slightly within the two modes of delivery. With face-to-face learning, the teacher and student have the opportunity to develop a personal relationship through lectures, seminars and tutorials. This is different from a distance-learning course, where the teacher may seldom or indeed never actually meet the student. This may make it hard for teachers to understand their learners’ specific learning needs.

    3    . Generally, students like to meet regularly and talk to people on the same course. However, this kind of interaction on a distance-learning course is less common. Although people can increasingly interact through online conversations and message boards, there is a significant difference between virtual and real interaction. Time and geography must also be considered when contrasting these two types of learning. Face-to-face learning must take place in real time and in one location.    4    .

In conclusion, it is difficult to state whether one form of learning is better than another, as they cater for different audiences. What is important to understand is the different ways in which they operate, and that there are strong similarities between the two systems, which can both produce positive results.

A．Historical examples of long-distance learning include students being sent a series of weekly lessons by post.

B．On the contrary, distance learning can happen at any time and in any location, since the learning is not restricted by geography.

C．On a face-to-face course, students may only require a computer for the purpose of writing an essay.

D．The technological advances of the past 20 or so years have meant that distance learning is now able to rival face-to-face learning as a credible alternative.

E．For many students, interaction with their peers is one of the best aspects of university education.

F．In terms of the teacher-student relationship, the core principles remain the same.

2 .
Let it go

Song: Let it Go（2013）on Disney’s Frozen soundtrack
Meaning: If you “let go” of a bad feeling or memory, you stop thinking about it or being upset by it; literally, if you “let go” of something, you stop holding onto it with your hands.
Example: I know you are upset that she left you, but you have to let it go and get on with your life.

Turn the page

Song: Turn the Page(1973) on the album Back in '72 album by Bob Seger
Meaning: If you “turn the page”, you forget about the past and start your life again after a bad period. Literally, if you “turn the page” while reading, you go to the next page in a book and start reading that one.
Example: “Six months after her divorce, she decided to turn the page and start a new relationship.”

Rock the boat

Song: Rock the boat（1974）on the album Freedom for the Stallion by the Hues Corporation
Meaning: If you “rock the boat”, you do or say something that might upset people or cause problems or trouble. Literally, if you “rock a boat” (a small one), you move if from side to side, often to frighten other people.
Example: during the dinner, I didn’t want to rock the boat, so I kept quiet about the terrible money situation.

Let your hair down

Song: Let your Hair down(2014) on the album Don’t kill the Magic by Magic.
Meaning: If you “let your hair down”, you act more freely than usual and really enjoy yourself. Literally, if someone with long hair “lets their hair down”. they untie it and let it fall freely.
Example: “Come on, this is a party！Let your hair down and have some fun!”

Poker face

Song: Poker face(2008) on the album The Fame by Lady Gaga.
Meaning: If you have a “poke face”, you have a neutral expression on your face that doesn’t show an emotion, and which doesn’t let other people know that what you are thinking or feeling. Literally, during a game of poker ,players often have a “poker face” (a neutral expression)，so they do not give other players any information about which cards they might have.
Example: “It is often useful to keep a poker face during business negotiations.”

1. One can comfort a friend who has failed an exam by saying “_____ ,” as quoted in a 1970s song.

A．let it go

B．let your hair down

C．turn the page

D．keep a poker face

2. What can we infer about “the current money situation” mentioned in the third box?

A．The diners were likely to be short of capital.

B．The restaurant chef was probably in heavy debt.

C．The speaker was confident of an economic boom.

D．The boat owner threatened to withdraw his funds.

3. Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

A．Magic of English Idioms in Animations

B．Idioms-Inspiration for Popular Music

C．Cheer Yourself up in the World of Music

D．Useful Idioms from Popular Song Titles

3 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. stems     B. insecure       C. squeezed     D. individual       E. glued     F. spreading G. head     H. simply        I. distracting        J. spacious     K. originally

You’ll Often Walk Alone

There has been a quiet pandemic (流行病) developing while most people’s attention has been on Covid-19. The lockdown has worsened a problem that has been     1     in many developed nations for decades: loneliness.

Part of the problem     2     from contemporary employment. Globally, two in five office workers feel lonely at work. This rises to three in five in Britain. Gig-economy (零工经济) jobs can leave people with     3     incomes and without the companionship of colleagues. The pandemic has made it more difficult to make, and maintain, friendships, particularly for new employees. Even before the crisis, the hope that     4     offices would encourage greater camaraderie (友情) proved to be false. Many people find the chatter     5     and withdraw with noise-canceling headphones. They then email colleagues who are sitting only a few desks away.

Perhaps loneliness relates to human history. Mass urbanization is a relatively recent development; if the history of human existence was     6     into a single day, the Industrial Revolution did not occur until almost midnight. For much of that time, humans lived in small groups of hunter-gatherers; cities may just overwhelm the senses. Ms. Hertz points her finger at a recent development: social media. The internet has led too much cyber-bullying (although it has also been a source of companionship during the lockdown). And people     7     to their smart phones spend less time interacting socially.

Some changes in behavior are owing to     8     choice. Before the pandemic no one was stopping people going to church or taking part in sports. They     9     preferred to do other things. Indeed, one reason for the decline in communal activities is that men choose to be with their families rather than     10     to the bar; American fathers spend three times as much time with their children as they did in the 1960s. That is surely a welcome development. So recreating a communal society may be difficult.

4 . The Old Man and The Sea

The old man took one look at the great fish as he watched the shark close in.     1    .

The shark closed fast on the boat and when he hit the fish the old man saw his mouth open and his strange eyes and his sharp teeth as he drove forward in the meat just above the tail. The old man could hear the noise of skin and flesh ripping on the big fish when he threw the fishing spear(叉)into the shark’s head at a place where the line between his eyes crossed with the line that ran straight back from his nose. There were no such lines.     2     He hit it with his wet, bloody hands driving a good spear with all his strength. He hit without hope but with determination and complete hatred.

The shark turned over and the old man saw his eye was not alive and then he turned over once again, wrapping himself in the rope.     3     Then, on his back, with his tail still moving and his mouth opening and closing, the shark swam over the water as fast as a speed boat. The water was white where his tail beat it and three quarters of his body was clear above the water when the rope broke.

    4     Then he went down very slowly. “He took about forty pounds,” the old man said aloud. He took my spear too and all the rope, he thought, and now my fish bleeds again and there will be others. He did not like to look at the fish any longer since the shark had bitten it. When the shark had hit the fish, it was as though he himself had been hit. But I killed the shark that hit my fish, he thought. And that was the biggest shark that he had ever seen. And he had seen big ones in his lifetime. It was too good to last, he thought. I wish it had been a dream now and that I had never caught the fish.

A．Finally, he wanted to give up because of lack of strength.

B．It was hard for me to escape from the shark but I will try.

C．But that was the location of the brain and the old man hit it.

D．The old man knew that he was dead but the shark would not accept it.

E．I cannot keep him from hitting me, he thought, but maybe I can get him.

F．The shark lay quietly for a little while on the surface and the old man watched him.

5 . 1. Blood is blue inside your body.

Human blood is the same color inside your body as it is outside: red. Our veins look blue because the tissue covering them changes the way light is absorbed and scattered, which affects our perception of their color.

2. Paul Revere shouted “The British are coming!”

You can thank Henry Weds-worth Longfellow and his poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” for spreading that tale. No one knows what, if anything. Revere shouted through the streets of Lexington, Massachusetts, though we don know he told one guard that “the regulars are coming out.”

3. The hottest part of a chill pepper is the seeds

Capsaicia, a chemical compound that binds to the pain receptors on our nerves to produce that very heat, is most concennrated in the inner white rib of the chili pepper. The seeds don’t actually contain any capsaicin, but they may be coated in it because they touch the rib.

4. Jesus Christ was born on December 25.

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke never mention the date of Jesus’s birth. So why do we celebrate December 25 as the day that Christ was born? It could be because of a Roman Catholic historian from the third century, Sextus Julios Africanus, who believed Jesus was conceived on March 25 - nine months before what is now Christmas Day.

5. The Sahara is the world’s largest desert.

Technically, Antarctica is. The U. S. Geological Survey defines a desert as “arid land with meager rainfall [usually less than ten inches per year] that supports only sparse vegetation and a limited population of people and animals.” Antarctica averages only six inches of rain a year (mostly as snow) and is almost 5.5 million square miles. The Sahara is only 3.3 million square miles.

6. Chameleorts can change their coloring to match any background.

The lizards do adjust their skin tone to camouflage themselves in certain environments, but their color range is limited. The really vibrant hues you see on TV and in books aren’t usually meant for tricking predators. Those chameleons are trying to attract a mate or defend their territory. Male chameleons have even been known to change their colors to appear female, which helps them sneak by other males without the threat or fight.

1. It is _________ that essentially make(s) the pepper taste spicy.

A．the concentration of capsaicin	B．the coating of the seeds
C．the pain receptors on our nerves	D．the size of the inner rib

2. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．The Sahara isn’t seen as the world’s largest desert because it receives less rain than Antarctica.

B．Chameleons change their coloring to serve purposes other than fooling their enemies.

C．Wads-worth witnessed Paul Revere shout “The British are coming” with his own eyes.

D．The absorption of light by the tissue changes the blood inside our body from red into blue.

3. Which of the following might be the best title for the passage?

A．Discoveries That Are Amazing	B．Facts That Are Misleading
C．Findings That Are Significant	D．Myths That Are Unknown

6 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct.
Hi, everyone.

Traditionally,     1     the year winds down, it’s a time for reflections—to give thanks, reconnect with loved ones, and cherish the more meaningful parts of life, removed from our usual day-to-day distractions.

Of course, the events of 2020 haven’t shown a lot of respect for our traditions. In a year of so much tragedy, it can be tough to give thanks when you’re doing your best to get by. And far too many of us will have to gather around a table with an empty chair, if we were able to gather together at all.

One thing, though, we can say about 2020 is that it forced us all to cherish what is most important, what’s most meaningful in our lives. To stop taking things for granted,     2     truly matters. To be grateful for what we have, and to be alive to the pain of those     3     (fortunate).

Throughout this challenging year, I’ve been moved, again and again, by the sacrifices so many were willing to make on behalf of others. The healthcare professionals who risked their lives to save ours. The workers who have kept our lights on and our shelves stocked, always essential to our economy, but finally     4     (recognize) for it. The protesters of every race and age who saw injustice in their streets and their institutions and demanded change. And the less heralded leaders, the quiet change-makers who saw need in their own communities and leapt to address it. They checked in on their neighbors, delivered food and PPE to seniors and those experiencing hardship, offered mental health support to those     5    (recover) from trauma.     6     holes this pandemic tore wide in our social fabric, these emerging leaders stepped forward to patch it up.

These are exactly the leaders Michelle and I started our Foundation to support. We always thought they     7     (lead) us into a bright future, if only we     8     empower them, connect them with each other, and give them a dose of inspiration when they needed it.

What we learned in 2020 is that these emerging leaders aren’t just building a brighter future, they’re safeguarding our present. In hard times, they are the ones who’ve given me solace. It’s     9     sacrifice in which I found hope. And as we begin to close the chapter on a difficult year with encouraging news on the horizon, it’s their leadership     10     will guide us today and tomorrow.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everybody.

—Quoted from Barack Obama’s Christmas speech in 2020

7 . At the top of a hill called Mount Lee in Los Angeles on the west coast of the USA is a very famous sign, recognizable to people around the world. My job is to look after this sign.     1     The first film was made there in 1907 and by 1912, at least 15 independent studios could be found making films around town.

In the 1940s, TV started to become popular and some Hollywood film studios closed, but then TV companies moved in and took them over. Modern Hollywood was born.     2     If one of them ever fell down I would have to put it back up at exactly the same angle. They follow the shape of Mount Lee and this is part of their fame.

I am responsible for maintaining and protecting the sign.     3     When I first arrived in 1989, security was pretty low-tech-we put up a fence around the sign to stop people messing with it. But people just jumped over the fence. The back of the sign was black with graffiti(涂鸦)there was wire across it, but they still got through. So I decided to improve the effectiveness of the security.

Now we have motion-detectors and cameras. Everything goes via the internet to a dedicated surveillance(监控)team watching various structures around the city. Even so, people still try to climb over the barrier, mostly innocent tourists surprised that you can’t walk right up to the sign. But they can get a closer look on one of my regular tours.

    4     They want to light the sign, paint it pink, or cover it in something to promote their product. You’ll get a really enthusiastic marketing executive call up, terribly excited because they think they’re the first person to think of this or that idea. They mostly get turned down. That’s because we don’t like to change the image and we hope it will have the same significance for generations to come.

A．The letters in the sign weren’t straight and still aren’t.

B．I have been working there for nearly 30 years.

C．People call up with the most ridiculous ideas.

D．It says Hollywood and that’s of course the place where films have been made for over a hundred years.

E．We used to have real problems.

F．Payment must be made for those ideas for commercial purposes.

8 . You’re running late for work and you can’t find your keys: What’s really annoying is that in your search, you pick up and move them without realizing. This may be because the brain systems involved in the task are working at different speeds, with the system responsible for perception(感知)unable to keep pace.

So says Grayden Solman and his colleagues at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. To investigate how we search, Solman’s team created a simple computer-based task that involved searching through a pile of colored shapes on a computer screen. Volunteers were instructed to find a specific shapes as quickly as possible, while the computer monitored their actions.“Between 10 and 20 percent of the time, they would miss the object,”says Solman, even though they picked it up.“We thought that was remarkably often.”

To find out why, the team developed a number of further experiments. To check whether volunteers were just forgetting their target, they gave a new group a list of items to memorize before the search task, which they had to recall afterwards.

The idea was to fill each volunteer’s“memory load”，so that they were unable to hold any other information in their short-term memory. Although this was expected to have a negative effect on their performance at the search task, the extra load made no difference to the percentage of mistakes volunteers made.

To check that the volunteers were paying enough attention to the items they were moving, Solman’s team created another task involving a pile of cards marked with shapes that only became visible while the card was being moved. Again, they were surprised to see the same level of error, says Solman. Finally, the team analyzed participants’ mouse movements as they were carrying out a similar search task. They discovered that volunteers’ movements were slower after they had moved and missed their target.

Solman’s team propose that the system in the brain that deals with movement is running too quickly for the visual system to keep up. While you are searching around a messy house to find your keys, you might not be giving your visual system enough time to work out what each object is. Since time can be costly, sacrificing accuracy on occasion for speed might be beneficial overall, Solman thinks.

The slowing of mouse movements suggests that at some level the volunteers were aware that they had missed their target, a theory that is backed up by other studies that show people tend to slow down their actions after they have made a mistake, even if they don’t consciously realize the mistake.

1. What conclusion has Solman drawn from the first task?

A．More volunteers are needed to confirm the findings.

B．It happens very often that people miss what they intend to find.

C．Computers make negative effects on how people perform at the task.

D．Targets tend to be forgotten after people search for 10 minutes or more.

2. What can be inferred from the third task that Solman’s team created?

A．Cards marked with shapes may become a source of distraction.

B．Fewer errors will be made if people are forbidden to move cards.

C．People may be absent-minded even when they are moving something.

D．Volunteers prefer to use a mouse to control the objects on the computer screen.

3. What does“a theory”(in the last paragraph)refers to?

A．Mistakes will cause people to reduce the speed.

B．Our visual system can’t keep up with the brain system.

C．The faster people move, the more mistakes they will make.

D．People’s actions are independent of the mistakes they make.

4. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A．Better memory, worse search

B．Accuracy speaks louder than speed

C．Hurry up, or you will make mistakes

D．Slow down your search to find your keys

9 . A hundred years ago, the largest city in the world was London, with a population of 6.5 million. Today it is beaten by Tokyo. With barely a quarter the population of London a century ago, the Tokyo metropolitan area has since ______ to 34 million, promoting it to first place in the global city league table. Tokyo’s phenomenal growth is largely due to a single factor: migration from the countryside to the city.

This ______ migration can now be seen in scores of cities around the globe. And it has brought us to a crucial moment in human history. In 1990, most people lived in the countryside, with a little over 10 percent of the world’s population living in ______. From next year, the UN Population Division predicts that for the first time in history, more people will live in cities than in the country, and the biggest growth will be in “mega-cities,” with populations over 10 million.

The ______ of mega-cities - there are now 20 in total - has brought with it huge environmental and social problems. Cities occupy just two percent of the land surface of the Earth but consume three-quarters of the resources that are used up each year. Their residents are making ruinous ______ on soils and water supplies for food and on forests for wood and paper.

______ the world’s population to the countryside isn’t an option. Dividing up the planet into plots of land on which we could all survive self-sufficiently would create its own natural disasters, not to mention being highly unlikely to ever ______. If we are to protect what is left of nature, and meet the demand to improve the quality of living for the world’s developing nations, a new form of city living is the only option. ______, governments, planners, architects, and engineers are beginning to wake up to this idea, and are dreaming up new ways to green the mega-cities. Their approaches ______ two main principles: recycle whatever possible and remove as many cars as possible. So as well as developing energy-efficient buildings, emphasis is being placed on increasing the use of ______ and redesigning how cities are organized to integrate work and living areas into a single neighborhood, rather than ______ cities into residential, commercial, and industrial zones.

Planners and architects now agree that to improve the social and environmental condition of cities the top ______ is to cut car use. They say zero-emission cars running on electricity or burning hydrogen are not ______. What is needed is a wholesale rethink of how new cities are laid out — and how existing ones expand — to ______ the need for cars in the first place. One way of achieving this is to build cities with multiple centers where people live ______ their work in high-rise blocks that are also near public transport hubs. In parts of the world this is already taking place.

1.

A．added

B．mushroomed

C．responded

D．adapted

2.

A．out-of-date

B．rural-to-urban

C．close-to-bottom

D．on-the-site

3.

A．cities

B．migration

C．poverty

D．communities

4.

A．increase

B．advantage

C．management

D．distribution

5.

A．criticism

B．comments

C．demands

D．impressions

6.

A．Promoting

B．Relating

C．Returning

D．Introducing

7.

A．disappear

B．decrease

C．exist

D．occur

8.

A．Generally

B．Naturally

C．Previously

D．Fortunately

9.

A．rely on

B．set aside

C．result in

D．look into

10.

A．self-driving cars

B．public transport

C．green buildings

D．eco-friendly packaging

11.

A．changing

B．arranging

C．separating

D．forcing

12.

A．concern

B．secret

C．reform

D．priority

13.

A．enough

B．possible

C．common

D．scarce

14.

A．emphasize

B．minimize

C．neglect

D．consider

15.

A．eagerly for

B．far from

C．close to

D．ignorantly of

10 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. associated       B. dominant        C. frequent        D. implications       E. inferiority F. interpreted       G. physically       H. predicted       I. potentially        J. seconds       K. vitality

Most people do not realize that dreams take up about 25% of the night’s sleep, and each dream period lasts from five to 20 minutes. These is no doubt that dreams play an important role in our lives. If they can be correctly     1     — and that is a big “if” — we can come to understand ourselves better. Here, we look at three common dreams and what they     2     symbolize.

Dream 1: I can see their laughing faces. laughing at me. But they aren’t as smart. If they were, they’d be up here flying with me!

This dream has both positive and negative     3     . On the positive side, the dream may express a strong desire to travel and get away from everyday routine. It may also symbolize a powerful desire to achieve. On the other hand, this dream can mean the person has a problem or is afraid of something and they wish to escape. The dream could represent a(n)     4     complex, which the dreamer attempts to escape from by literally and     5     putting themselves up above others.

Dream 2: I’m moving fast now, but it’s still behind me. Doesn’t matter how fast I go, I still can’t escape.

Although this is a traditional symbol of health and     6     like the first one, it too can suggest the dreamer is trying to escape from danger. Usually, fear is the     7     emotion. By running hard, the dreamer can possibly escape the threat. However, they can also stop moving. This makes the fear even more terrifying. One possible interpretation suggests that the person is under pressure in their everyday life.

Dream 3: I’m sweating and my heart is beating. I’m trapped, trapped in my own bed.

This symbol is     8     with fear and embarrassment: suddenly the dreamer loses all power of movement. They try hard to move their arms and legs, but they simply cannot. Frozen in a terrifying situation with no escape, they become more and more terrified as the     9     go by. Another     10     context for this dream is failing to do something in public, often something that you are normally very good at, such as your job. Not only is this extremely embarrassing, but it also shows a deep-seated fear of losing a job and a livelihood.