1 . In July 2021, astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) planted pepper seeds as part of an experiment to test which plants could be successfully grown in space. The peppers were harvested four months later, and the team celebrated with a party and taste test.

For astronauts living mostly off prepackaged foods for months at a time on the ISS, fresh and flavourful produce is welcomed. With long missions to the Moon and Mars in focus, NASA is working to find sustainable ways for astronauts to enjoy fresh foods, which will add key nutrients to their diets and improve their state of mind.

Astronauts have grown radishes, zinnias and a variety of lettuces on board the ISS before, but this is the first time they grew peppers, which posed a new challenge, reports Elizabeth Howell for Space. com.

Biologists at the Kennedy Space Centre spent two years picking the perfect pepper. They wanted to try peppers because they’re a great source of vitamins and nutrients, and they can be eaten raw or cooked. Plus, peppers are fairly low maintenance to grow.

In June, a carrier delivered supplies to the ISS along with a package of 48 pepper seeds. Astronauts on board planted the seeds in a microwave oven-sized growing container. The conditions in it—such as lighting, watering and air circulation—were controlled by a crew based at the Kennedy Space Centre. On board, the astronauts collected data and offered feedback on the flavour of the peppers.

“This is important because the food astronauts eat needs to be as good as the rest of their equipment,” LaShelle Spencer, a plant scientist at NASA, said over the summer. “To successfully send people to Mars and bring them back to Earth, we will not only require the most nutritious foods, but the best tasting ones as well.”

1. Why did astronauts attempt to plant pepper in space?

A．There were no enough food for astronauts.

B．Only pepper can grow in space.

C．Pepper can grow better than other plants.

D．Humans wanted to test which plants can grow in space.

2. What special benefits does pepper have relative to other plants?

A．It needn’t too much later care.	B．Its nutrients are the highest.
C．The vitamins in it are the most.	D．It improves their state of mind most.

3. What does the underlined word “it” refer to in paragraph 5?

A．Package.

B．Container.

C．Seed

D．Microwave.

4. What can we infer from the text?

A．The idea that pepper is grown in space is silly.

B．Astronaut need special nutrition to keep the best state of mind.

C．Pepper can’t be eaten cooked in space but it can be eaten raw.

D．It is the carrier that is in charge of sending feedback on the peppers.

2 . Top Festivals In Europe

Carnival of Venice

Dates: 12 Feb, 2023—1 Mar, 2023

The Carnival of Venice, which began in 1979 as an effort to revive the culture of this city, is one of the best festivals featuring masks. Each year, almost 3,000,000 people attend this 20-day-long biggest festivals in Europe. There is a water parade, a grand ball with old and modern music, and a popularity contest for best mask design.

Glastonbury Festival

Dates: 22 Jun, 2023—26 Jun, 2023

Of all the famous European music festivals, the Glastonbury Festival has a special place. Held in Somerset, England, since the 1970s, the festival is a major part of the British culture. Major pop act performers are invited to perform and headline. The festival sees as much as 175,000 people in attendance and is the world’s largest greenfield festival.

Tomorrowland

Dates: 22—24Jul, 2023 & 29—31Jul, 2023

For the music lovers, Tomorrowland is one of the largest electronic music festivals which takes place in Belgium. The festival is hosted at the town of Boom, Belgium. First organized in 2005, this festival has become an annual tradition which is visited by people from far and wide.

Sziget Festival

Dates: 10—15 Aug, 2023

The Sziget Festival is one of the best cultural festivals in Europe. Started in 1993 and hosted in an island of Budapest, this festival gives an amazing holiday, with around 400,000 fans from around 70 countries. The festival features the non-stop party and amazing live concerts.

1. What can people do in the Carnival of Venice?

A．Swim in the river.	B．Design different masks.
C．Attend music contests.	D．Watch pop performances.

2. Which of the festivals has the shortest history?

A．Tomorrowland.	B．Sziget Festival.
C．Carnival of Venice.	D．Glastonbury Festival.

3. What do the four festivals have in common?

A．They each have a parade.	B．They take place in summer.
C．They are British festivals.	D．They are related to music.

3 . When I was in my fourth year of _________, I was a high school track coach(田径教练). One year, I had a student, John, who changed to our school from Greece, and seemed to be_________in sports, so I_________him to join our track team. I explained to him that_________he had never taken part in it before, I did believe that he could do well in any _________, and I would be_________to teach him at whichever ones interested him. He_________the offer, and began to work hard at every practice.

About a month_________, I had found out from other ways that John was a first-class tennis player, winning many _________in his home country. I went to him, asking, “John, I really enjoy that you came out for the track team, but why didn’t you__________tennis instead? It seems that would interest you a lot more, since you’re so __________at it.”

John answered, “well, I like tennis, but you told me that you believed in me, and that you thought I could do well in __________, so I wanted to try it for that reason.”

From then on, I often remember my student’s__________ I told it to a friend and she suggested I write it down to __________ somewhere with more teachers. No matter how critical(不满的) students can be of themselves, I’ve found that a simple “I __________ that you can do it!” can go a long way!

1.

A．discussion

B．suffering

C．friendship

D．teaching

2.

A．boring

B．interested

C．anxious

D．confused

3.

A．encouraged

B．disagreed

C．regretted

D．continued

4.

A．because

B．when

C．even though

D．as if

5.

A．goal

B．reaction

C．event

D．impact

6.

A．tired

B．willing

C．ashamed

D．fond

7.

A．ordered

B．accepted

C．hated

D．protected

8.

A．late

B．lately

C．latest

D．later

9.

A．prizes

B．companies

C．inventions

D．ideas

10.

A．help

B．notice

C．play

D．include

11.

A．special

B．good

C．wonderful

D．beautiful

12.

A．schedule

B．plan

C．trap

D．track

13.

A．reply

B．effort

C．goal

D．lesson

14.

A．buy

B．read

C．share

D．collect

15.

A．trust

B．report

C．admit

D．record

4 . This may be the 21st century but when it comes to information communication technology(ICT), the gender(性别)divide between boys and girls, shows no sign of closing.

This is bad news for the ICT industry where men outnumber women by over five to one; the industry needs at least an extra million recruits(新成员)over the next five years. Obviously, women as well as men are going to have to fill these recruitment gaps(空缺).The ICT companies are worried about the shortage of men and women to fill their gaps in the future.

It is believed that women are very well suited to working in ICT-they enjoy working in teams and like looking for creative connections. Many women have the kind of personal skills which are considered important to develop “new technology”. Professionals who work in Information Technology are constantly creating the world around us, and this can’t be done if you don’t know how people work and how they play.

In spite of the fact that ICT jobs are well paid and women are more likely to do well in them, findings show that girls’ opinions of the industry are uniformly negative. Only 5% would consider entering the ICT industry compared to 14% for law and 26% for medicine. Up to the age of 11 girls see ICT as entertaining and interesting but after that age negativity sets in; by the age of 13,this negative view of ICT is confirmed.

After school activities encourage some girls to use Information Technology, and getting ICT staff and other teachers together helps to develop imaginative use of ICT. Imaginative use of ICT especially in music, art, drama, geography and media studies, all helps to open girls’ eyes to the fact that careers in computing can cut across so many different areas.

Students complete the same class task by rote(死记硬背)in the ICT class. Although girls follow successfully, they will achieve enjoyment and excellence if allowed to diversify and be creative. For girls, just pressing buttons is not enough.

Another method is setting up computer clubs aimed at younger girls aged 8 to 14. This is known to inspire girIs to develop their ICT skills and to show them that ICT can be both creative and interesting.

We can’t afford to have girls missing out.

1. What do we know about ICT?

A．It has a serious division between male and female.

B．The ICT companies don’t need to hire more workers.

C．ICT is a more promising career than the cause of law.

D．ICT attracts more women to join in because of its high salary.

2. Why are women more suitable for ICT?

A．Because of their high skills of studying.

B．Because of their creativity of new games.

C．Because their responsibility for their career.

D．Because of their spirit for teamwork and exploration.

3. What will make girls more interested in ICT?

A．Completing the class task by rote in the ICT class.

B．Making competitions in ICT class.

C．Developing imaginative use of ICT.

D．Connecting ICT to their scores.

4. What’s the main idea of this passage?

A．The ICT will have a promising future.	B．Some measures to attract girls into ICT.
C．The advantages of ICT over medicine.	D．The differences between ICT and law.

5 . Habitat loss, pesticides (农药) and climate change are threatening insect populations worldwide. In 2019, Biological Conservation reported that 40％ of all insects species are declining (减少) globally and that a third of them are endangered.

And while it may sound nice to live in a world with fewer bad insects, environmental writer Oliver Milman says that human beings would be in big trouble without insects. That’s because insects play important roles in pollinating (给……授粉) plants we eat, breaking down waste in forest soil and forming the base of a food chain that other larger animals-including humans-rely upon.

“It would be an extremely terrible place to live in-and certainly not something we should ever aim for,” Milman says of an insect-free existence. “You would certainly have mass starvation and social unrest...It’d be a place where there would be smelly waste and dead bodies everywhere because insects that break down those materials would be gone.”

Milman charts the troubling decline of insects in his new book, The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World. He says that while it’s impossible to know exactly what’s happening with every insect species in the world, the overall trends are not good: The butterfly population in North America has declined quickly in the past 40 years, for example, and a U.N. assessment done in 2019 found that half a million insect species are under threat of extinction, some in the coming decades.

“The world, our surroundings, would be far quieter, far duller without insects,” he, says. “When you start kind of digging down into these figures looking at the research, it’s clear that there’s something seriously wrong...There is a straight decline in most insect populations, and that spells major trouble for them but also for us.”

1. What should be the proper opinion about the insects according to the passage?

A．They can benefit the growth of plants.	B．They can prevent plants from harvesting.
C．They are harmful to humans.	D．They can produce a lot of waste.

2. What does Milman probably agree with?

A．The insects might make the world a terrible place to live in.

B．The insects might make much trouble to the dead bodies.

C．People would certainly have mass starvation with an insect-free existence.

D．The insects might produce too much smelly waste.

3. How did Milman prove the serious situation of the insects?

A．By comparing two insects.	B．By giving some examples.
C．By analyzing the data.	D．By using his research.

4. What Milman’s attitude to the future of insects?

A．Positive.

B．Uninterested.

C．Supportive.

D．Worried.

6 . I grew up with a four-year gap between myself and my younger brother. It was a distance in age to keep us close as we got older, but also an age gap to make sure we lived our own lives in completely different ways. Having a younger brother while I was a girl was a lot of work, for there was a lot of fighting.

However, as we’ve got older, we’ve become closer, and I’ve learned several things in life from my younger brother that I didn’t realize I needed before.

My younger brother is one of the most talented and creative souls I’ve known. He’s continually feeding his creativity with new art forms and new instruments. He always seeks to understand and learn more about the world around him. He’s helped remind me through his actions and words that giving up on creativity is something a person should never do.

My younger brother has also been through hard times, but he’s able to focus on learning from the hard times, unlike me, who tends to hold on to every little thing from my life. It’s always been difficult for me to let things go and move on, but my younger brother has been an inspiration for me to try harder at letting go.

My younger brother has always been a more introverted type, and if you speak to him, you’re lucky to get over three words out of him at a time. Because of this, he’s certainly learned the whole “actions speak louder than words” thing. But, I’ve realized from my brother that I needn’t speak to fill the silence. Sometimes, it’s necessary to spend some of your time in silence and reflect in it.

1. What can we know about the author’s childhood according to paragraph 1?

A．The author thought the four-year gap made them distant.

B．The author had to do a lot of work for her brother.

C．There was a lot of fighting between the author and her brother.

D．The author often beat her brother.

2. What does the author’s brother pay most attention to?

A．New art forms.

B．Creativity.

C．New instruments.

D．Talents.

3. What is the difference between the author and her brother?

A．The attitude to hard times.	B．The ability of studying.
C．The aim of future.	D．The way to spend time.

4. What can replace the underlined word in the last paragraph?

A．Depressed.

B．Attractive.

C．Favorite.

D．Quiet.

7 . 假定你是李华，你的外国朋友Chris打算寒假来中国旅游，发邮件向你征求建议。请你回复邮件，内容包括：
1.预订酒店；
2.租用车辆；
3.雇佣导游。
注意:
1.写作词数应为80左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Dear Chris,

Welcome to China in the coming winter vacation,

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours,

Li Hua

9 . Recently, a research on how a new virtual reality (VR) experience educated primary children about the fire disasters was done. It was developed by the University of South Australia, aiming to educate children to learn how to be safer in a fire.

Focusing on children aged 10-12 years, the new VR experience presents a situation where children are tasked to look after a friend’s dog just before a fire event begins to unfold. They participate in a series of problem-solving activities to help save and protect themselves and the dog.

The findings showed that more than 80 percent of children reported that they felt more confident to calmly evaluate the options and make wise decisions to protect themselves from a fire. This is especially significant considering that 91 per cent of participants originally lacked any knowledge of fires, and that 67 per cent had said that they were too young to make safety decisions in a fire.

The researchers believed such immersive (沉浸式的) VR experiences had real potential to engage, educate and empower the young. “As children born in digital times, they are engaged by such technology and they can experience events realistically yet within the safe environment,” said Delene Weber, one of the researchers. “Well-designed VR can provide an opportunity for children to apply newly acquired knowledge, strengthen their learnt concepts, and enable immediate feedback — all incredibly valuable learning tools.”

Meanwhile, because children have fewer life experiences, aren’t as physically strong, and are less likely to have learned much about fire safety, they’re often most at risk. Yet the capacity for children to contribute to fire safety at their household should not be underestimated.

“Children do not need to be passive victims of disasters and with purpose-built virtual reality experiences such as these, we can help empower children to understand the risks but realize they can help,” said Weber.

1. How does the new VR experience try to educate children?

A．By introducing a virtual friend to them.	B．By analyzing the causes of a fire event.
C．By letting them solve virtual problems.	D．By guiding them to ask a dog for help.

2. What did the result of the research about VR experiences show?

A．Many children found it hard to adapt to them.

B．They could greatly help ensure children’s safety.

C．They benefited children with knowledge of fire.

D．Most children had a misunderstanding about them.

3. What does Weber think of the new VR experiences?

A．Unrealistic.

B．Dangerous.

C．Unnecessary.

D．Significant.

4. What can be the most suitable title for the text?

A．VR experiences educate kids to survive a fire

B．VR experiences make learning easier for kids

C．VR education appeals to the young generation

D．VR technology makes no sense in fighting a fire