1 . Let’s celebrate some festivals in summer.
The Cariwest Festival
It is one of Edmonton’s most colourful summer festivals! It’s three days of fun as Caribbean Canadians share their music, cuisine and carnival culture! Local performers bring you amazing dance, music and fun. Bring Cariwest atmosphere into your home this year with these amazing online events.
Indigenous Festival
The annual Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival (SSIF) in Edmonton has done a wonderful job to make their annual off-line festival a number of online events this year because of COVID-19. The events take place from June 1 to 21. SSIF has partnered with BMO to provide Education Days for students to learn together about indigenous history. These classes for which only a small fee will be charged include art workshops, book readings and museum tours.
Bluegrass Festival
Just 45 minutes from the heart of downtown Edmonton is the town of Stony Plain that works hard to keep ties to its agricultural background, and here you’ll see old-styled lamp posts and historical wall paintings with a long history everywhere. It’s also the site of Western Canada’s largest bluegrass festival, which has been a main attraction for more than 25 years and in July every year draws in all the big names, including Grammy winners.
Cowboy Festival
You like poetry, music, art and cowboys? Then you can’t miss it. Heading into its 24th year, Cowboy Festival in Stony Plain in August is a showcase of the cowboy life. The events include good old-fashioned BBQ meals and some other entertainment.
1. What is true about SSIF?| A．It takes place in two cities. | B．It focuses on students. |
| C．It is annually held online. | D．It is free of charge. |
| A．It’s a city with modern appearance. | B．It has produced many musicians. |
| C．It has deep roots in agriculture. | D．It often hosts national festivals. |
| A．Cowboy Festival. | B．Indigenous Festival. |
| C．Bluegrass Festival. | D．The Cariwest Festival. |
Jenny and Lisa are close friends. They’re studying in high school now. One day about half a year ago, Jenny went to Lisa’s house after she finished her homework.
After entering Lisa’s home, Jenny found that Lisa was chatting on her cell phone. Jenny was surprised as she didn’t know Lisa had gone downtown to buy a cell phone.
After Lisa finished talking over the cell phone Jenny asked her, “When did you get your cell phone?”
“I bought it yesterday. Look! How lovely it looks!” said Lisa. Jenny looked at the cell phone. It was pink and looked really lovely. Jenny wished she also could have such a cell phone that day, after Jenny came back home. She saw her father sitting on the sofa reading a newspaper Jenny approached him and said, “Dad, could I have a cell phone? Many of my classmates have their own cell phones now.” “Of course, you can have one,” said Jenny’s father.
Hearing that, Jenny became very happy. “Thank you, Dad,” Jenny said happily. Then she asked, “when shall we go downtown to buy one?” The father looked up. Then he said, “Oh, no, dear! I’m not going to buy you a cell phone. If you really want one, you should make money to buy one yourself.” Jenny immediately became upset. But she knew her father was serious. She walked away and went to her own room. The following day, Jenny went to school as usual. When Lisa saw her at school, she looked a bit upset. Lisa came to her and asked why she was wearing a long face that day. Jenny said, “I asked my dad to buy a cell phone for me, but he said I should work for one myself.”
But Lisa didn’t seem to be surprised at all, and she said, “Don’t get surprised, because that’s how I bought my own cell phone.” Hearing that, Jenny remembered Lisa once told her she was helping to look after the Smiths’ one-year-old son in the past summer. Now she knew why she worked part-time that summer. Lisa wanted a new cell phone and she worked to make money for it.
Paragraph 1:That day after Jenny came back home from school, she went to her father.
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Jenny started to work part-time.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Known as the “father of hybrid rice”, Yuan Longping is one of China’s most famous scientists, who considers himself a farmer despite his fame and influence. To tackle the crisis of food
Given that Yuan’s hybrids have made him
4 . It’s common knowledge at this point that the more education you have, the more money you’ll make. But according to a new research released on Thursday, there are also a lot of
Back in high school, Isis Harris never
“College was the big thing in high school,”
After taking some college classes and holding lots of different jobs — Harris
“Wiring that lightbulb, I did it
Now she’s just a few months away from becoming a licensed journeyman electrician in Portland, Ore. She spends her days
Harris says she wishes she had found this path sooner. Back in high school, “nobody ever talked about becoming a blue-collar worker,”she says.“I think there was always a(n)
One thing that could help
That’s how Isis Harris, in Portland, got her training to become an electrician, a career, she says, that helps her feel
| A．achievements | B．connections | C．exceptions | D．possibilities |
| A．regarded | B．prepared | C．regretted | D．imagined |
| A．hard | B．focused | C．dependent | D．impressed |
| A．argues | B．concludes | C．recalls | D．observes |
| A．signed up for | B．referred to | C．set up | D．dropped out of |
| A．introduce | B．taste | C．recognize | D．discover |
| A．involved | B．offered | C．recommended | D．inspired |
| A．swiftly | B．correctly | C．directly | D．apparently |
| A．aim | B．case | C．occupation | D．warning |
| A．inspecting | B．wandering | C．researching | D．working |
| A．profit | B．wage | C．debt | D．expense |
| A．agreement | B．discussion | C．adjustment | D．misunderstanding |
| A．adopt | B．challenge | C．correct | D．deny |
| A．instruct | B．support | C．shelter | D．encourage |
| A．exhausted | B．content | C．relaxed | D．relieved |
Fifteen years ago, I was born in a big family. I had been taught that money couldn't buy everything ever since I was a little kid. My parents are the most hard-working people I have ever seen. As much as my parents tried to teach me these values, some could only be learned through personal experiences.
As a child, I would sit in the church trying to concentrate on the words of the priest (牧师), but my attention was soon attracted by the shining gold and the diamonds worn by the Saturday churchgoers. As my eyes began to wander, I noticed men dressed in their tailored suits and shirts accompanied by women in their designer dresses with matching handbags and shoes.
My family, on the other hand, was the opposite of rich. Our hand-me-down clothes had been washed so many times that the colors had become dull and lifeless. Although this revealed the money struggles of our large family, our faces were always washed and hair neatly combed. When sitting on the old big red and white truck after the service, I pictured the lives led by those driving their brand-new cars, wishing I would be one of them.
I never stopped those fantasies, even when I was in middle school. Since it was a private school, most of the children came from wealthy families. As a result, I constantly felt ashamed. Although I could hide my lack of wealth at school by wearing our school uniforms, my poverty was embarrassingly apparent on weekends with my classmates wearing designer jeans and I had no choice but to wear my sisters’ old jeans. I never fitted in with my classmates. To my relief, there was only one girl named Julie who opened her heart to me. I was attached to her like a shadow. Soon, her birthday was approaching. Julie invited me to attend her birthday party.
注意：1．所续写短文的词数应为150左右；2．续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好。
Paragraph 1：
However, I grew upset as I couldn't afford a gift.
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When she opened the gift box, my heart was too nervous to beat.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________6 . I was born without hands and feet. It’s a rare condition. Living with that adversity has made me who I am today.
My parents helped me develop tools to overcome my challenges. When I was two, my dad decided that my family would stop helping me eat. He knew that one day I’d live on my own, so I’d have to look after myself. I learned to eat with a spoon, and then with a knife and fork. It gave me a huge sense of accomplishment.
My darkest moment came when I was 10. My family had moved from Indiana to Georgia. In Indiana, friends treated me as normal. But in Georgia, it was different. I felt very aware of my disability. I worried I’d have to live at home forever. I felt hopeless about the future.
My world changed when I got into sports. I started playing football. Everything came together when I made my first tackle at age 11. It was my first real achievement.
Everyone I played against was able-bodied. At first, I struggled. But I threw everything I had into learning to be the best player. I turned my lack of height into a weapon.
Then I decided to start wrestling(摔跤). I lost 35 games, but then I had a breakthrough. I had an amazing coach who helped me invent moves that took advantage of my strength. My different body type was a psychological advantage — opponents（对手）didn’t know how to handle it. I eventually finished 12th in the 103-pound weight class in the championships.
I keep going in the face of obstacles(障碍). Instead of thinking about the ultimate(最终的) goal, I focus on the immediate future. When I’m climbing a mountain, I’m down on all fours looking at the ground. It’s not going to do me any good to look up at the summit(山顶).
I just figure out how to do the best I can with the next few feet in front of me.
1. Why did the parents stop helping the writer eat?| A．To give him a sense of achievement. |
| B．To push him to be more independent. |
| C．To let him get used to the new tools. |
| D．To prepare him for his new life in Georgia. |
| A．Excited | B．Relaxed |
| C．Anxious. | D．disappointed |
| A．By giving up playing football. |
| B．By learning from different opponents. |
| C．By developing a psychological advantage. |
| D．By learning how to better use his strength. |
| A．He concentrates on what’s directly ahead. |
| B．He highly values the ultimate goal. |
| C．He is pessimistic about his future. |
| D．He dreams big despite his disability. |
7 . Dancing with your grandma for 15 minutes a week promotes positive feelings and improves her state of mind, a study claims. Doctors from Israel are encouraging younger family members to have a regular visit to their grandmas and have a dance with their grandmas.
And they found a 15 minute boogie (布吉舞) once a week lifted the spirits of the elder family members and helped strengthen the familial bond. In fact, it is called Dance Movement Therapy (DMT). DMT across the generations, complete with eye contact, was found to promote positive feelings and improve spirits for the elderly.
The grandparents reported a bright state of mind, happy memories and uplifted spirits. Dancing has also previously been linked to improved muscle strength, balance and endurance (耐力). For the grandchildren in the study, the weekly boogie changed how they view aging and allowed them to come to accept the eventual death of their elderly relatives.
The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, assessed how dance affected general health of 16 dance movement therapists (治疗师) and their grandmothers. DMT was taken seriously due to the fact that it is easily accessible and does not cost more to practice. The researchers were eager to examine a low-cost method to treat issues commonly faced by an aging population— such as limited mobility and depression(抑郁症). Grandchildren were instructed to make eye contact and encourage playfulness and touch. They were also told to mirror their grandmothers’ movements and give them time and space to rest when needed.
The sessions were recorded and then analysed while diaries and interviews captured the opinions and feelings of the participants. As well as the benefits to the health of the senior, the experiment also changed the idea of the younger family members.
1. What should the young people do when dancing with their grandmas?| A．Follow the grandmas’ steps. |
| B．Look at the grandmas’ eyes. |
| C．Move the bodies as long as possible. |
| D．Talk with their grandmas in gentle voice. |
| A．Dancing brings the young happy memories and uplifted spirits. |
| B．Dancing enables the senior to accept aging and death of their old relatives. |
| C．Dancing benefits both the senior and the young in the new study. |
| D．Dancing is linked to improved muscle strength and balance in the new study. |
| A．Inexpensive. | B．Relaxing. |
| C．Attractive. | D．Pleasant. |
| A．What does DMT Mean? |
| B．Dancing: a Good Way to Stop Being Senior. |
| C．Why Don’t You Dance 15 Minutes Every Week? |
| D．Dancing with Grandparents is Good for Health and Family Ties. |
8 . French Universities to Offer More Classes in English
France aims to bring more foreign students to its universities by offering more classes taught in English.
France is home to famous universities like the Sorbonne in Paris and several leading business schools.
Under the new plan, France will ease student visa requirements.
France will use the extra money to build better education facilities and increase the number of scholarships for foreign students.
| A．Student visa applications also will be available online. |
| B．That's why we need to welcome more foreign students. |
| C．The country is a popular choice among non-English-speaking students. |
| D．That is still much less costly than some other European countries, however. |
| E．Increasing the number of foreigners studying in the country would help build French influence overseas. |
| F．France also plans to increase the costs for students who come from outside the European Economic Area. |
| G．Between 2011 and 2016, the number of foreign students studying at French universities fell by 8.5 percent. |
9 . Almost none of us have the time to read everything we’d like to read. Yet we lose countless hours to daily activities that bring us little joy like taking buses and waiting in line. What if we could turn these little blocks of unoccupied time into precious and rewarding moments for learning and reflection?
Founded in 2012, iReader, a micro-learning app on mobile phones, brings the biggest ideas from best-selling books through 15-minute audio (音频) and text. So far, more than 3,000 books have been included, ranging from psychology and parenting to management and economics, with new titles added every day.
Reader is pioneering a new method of reading, with over 9 million users enjoying the benefits already. According to the Pew Research Center (PRC), the British read just 4 paper books a year and over 25% haven’t read a single paper book this year, but reading isn’t dying. There are now more ways for the British to read than ever before, due to the widespread use of e-books and audio books.
The books in iReader are rewritten to ensure it is easy to remember the main content. The way the content is edited has been specifically designed to ensure it is useful in practice. Besides, the content is rewritten with relevant examples in real life, which means users are more likely to remember and apply what is helpful to them.
Holger Seim, German co-founder of this app, declares, “iReader gives you the biggest ideas in the shortest possible time. It transforms great ideas into little packs you can listen to or read in just 15 minutes.”
1. What does the author suggest people do in the unoccupied time?| A．Read and think. |
| B．Write and share. |
| C．Avoid taking buses. |
| D．Bring joy to daily routines. |
| A．The British benefit a lot from reading. |
| B．Reading methods are more important than before. |
| C．Digital technology are taking the place of paper books. |
| D．New forms of books are changing the way the British read. |
| A．By bringing fun to it. |
| B．By making it useful. |
| C．By using artistic designs. |
| D．By taking users as examples. |
| A．iReader Prevents Reading from Dying |
| B．iReader Unites Worldwide Book-lovers |
| C．iReader: The Best New App Creation |
| D．iReader: Big Ideas in Small Packages |
