1 . Discover all the great Sydney attractions. You’ll find many memorable things to do and fascinating museums to visit in Sydney, Australia.

Australian Museum

The Australian Museum (AM) was founded in 1827 and is well-known as the nation’s first museum. The AM has been transformed and visitors can now enjoy transformed spaces and updated facilities. Free general admission includes entry to all permanent exhibitions and Prehistoric Playground, which is open daily on Level 2 and features a variety of activities for children of all ages including a fossil lab and interactive dinosaur design station.

Art Gallery of New South Wales

Explore five levels of art at one of Australia's most popular art museums, located within beautiful parklands overlooking Sydney Harbour, just 10 minutes’ walk from the city.

See an extensive collection of Australian art，including one of the largest galleries of aboriginal (土著的) art in the country, alongside Asian treasures and leading local and international contemporary art.

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia - MCA

The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia is Australia’s leading museum dedicated to exhibiting, interpreting and collecting contemporary art from across Australia.

Located at Circular Quay, the MCA is housed in the former Maritime Services building, a fine example of late Art Deco architecture.

Australian National Maritime Museum

Located at the waterfront of Darling Harbour, the Maritime Museum is an indoor/outdoor attraction and great entertainment for the whole family. The museum has one of the largest and most diverse in-water fleets (舰队) in the world. The museum hosts six permanent galleries, an ever-changing program of temporary exhibitions, and a 3D cinema, ensuring that there is something for everyone.

1. What is Australian Museum famous for?

A．The lowest price.	B．Contemporary art.
C．Outdoor attractions.	D．The longest history.

2. Where should you go if you want to appreciate treasures from Asia?

A．Australian Museum.

B．Art Gallery of New South Wales.

C．Australian National Maritime Museum.

D．Museum of Contemporary Art Australia — MCA.

3. Which of the following can be seen in Australian National Maritime Museum?

A．A 3D cinema.	B．A design station.
C．Local contemporary art.	D．Late Art Deco architecture.

4 . A very frightening thing happened on the weekend, but luckily a hero saved all. A New Jersey police officer safely caught a one-month-old baby dropped off a second-floor balcony over the weekend, authorities said.

The Hudson County prosecutor’s office said Officer Eduardo Matute was among those called to the Jersey City residence Saturday morning after reports that a man was threatening the baby.

NorthJersey.com reports that he and several officers were positioned below the second-floor balcony as the child was dangled over the balcony fence. Officials said the man dropped the baby after a long negotiation with the officers leader, and to the relief of everyone present, Matute caught the child on the spot.

City spokesperson Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said the child was taken to the hospital. Mayor Steve Fulop later posted a photo on social media of the officer holding the child, who was wrapped in a white blanket.

“Thankfully the baby wasn’t harmed physically,” Fulop said.

It wasn’t immediately clear what charges he would face. Other details weren’t available.

“Kudos to the JCPD and all the officers involved for their heroics and for bringing a safe conclusion to this dangerous situation,” the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.

1. What is the probable meaning of the underlined word “dangled” in Paragraph 3?

A．Hung.

B．Fastened.

C．Exhibited.

D．Thrown.

2. What did everyone present feel about the saving of the baby?

A．Amazed.

B．Relieved.

C．Frightened.

D．Disappointed.

3. What was the result of the baby?

A．It lost its father.	B．It was seriously hurt.
C．It was completely safe.	D．It was without physical damage.

4. What is the best title of this text?

A．An Unknown Hero	B．A Lucky Dog
C．A Police Officer Saving a Baby	D．A Policeman Making a Breakthrough

5 . The term “social distancing” has been at the center of public conversation for a while. But it’s not “social” distance we are trying to promote. It’s physical separation. In fact, preserving social ties — even at a distance — is essential for both mental and physical health. The results of an analytic review done in 2017 indicate that a lack of social support is on a par with smoking cigarettes as a risk factor for health.

Given this fact, how might we best stay connected to others while maintaining physical distance? Would we be better off e-mailing a friend? Making a phone call? Setting up a video chat? In our study, Nick Epley and I tested whether the media through which people interact affects their sense of connection — and how expectations about certain technologies impact the communication media they choose to use.

In our experiment, we asked participants to reconnect with someone that they hadn’t interacted with recently, either through e-mail or over the phone. Participants first made predictions about what it would be like to get in touch if they reached out in these two ways. They generally believed that they’d feel more connected when interacting via the phone than over e-mail. But they also predicted that talking on the phone could be more uncomfortable than sending an e-mail. Although these participants believed that talking encouraged stronger bonds, most of them said they’d rather send an e-mail than call the person up. Fears about awkwardness, it seems, push individuals toward text-based methods for communicating.

In the next part of the experiment, we had participants actually reconnect using one randomly determined mode of communication and then followed up with them after they had done so. We found that people do form meaningfully stronger bonds when interacting over the phone than over e-mail. Importantly, though, there was no difference in the amount of discomfort when reconnecting on the phone.

The next time you think about how best to connect, consider calling or setting up a video chat. Feelings of social connection are preferably facilitated by voice rather than a keyboard.

1. How does the author support his view on the importance of maintaining social ties?

A．By stating a deep-rooted tradition.	B．By citing a published report.
C．By sharing public opinions.	D．By presenting official documents.

2. What did the author and Epley’s study focus on?

A．How technologies impact means of communication.

B．How social media choices affect feelings of connection.

C．Why maintaining social separation is bad for mental health.

D．Why reconnecting with friends over the phone brings awkwardness.

3. What can we infer from the study results?

A．They changed the research objectives.	B．They provided insights for future studies.
C．They confirmed researchers’ expectations.	D．They contradicted participants’ predictions partly.

4. What can be concluded from the text?

A．For stronger bonds, talk instead of typing.

B．Keeping in touch is key to a lasting friendship.

C．Think before you consider contacting an old friend.

D．Text-based methods for communication cause discomfort.

6 . Whether you’re in the final research stages of a major paper, or on a Zoom (a calling app) call for work, a dropped WiFi connection at zero hour is something annoying.     1     One of the most common reasons it happens is that too many devices are connected.

    2     Now, with smartphones, iPads, smart TVs and so much more, it doesn’t take long for WiFi to hop aboard the struggle bus. Actually, even if a connected device isn’t actively sending or receiving data, it will still consume some of the available bandwidth. It means that if you have many devices connected, you can start to see slowdowns or drops in your WiFi connection.     3    

The first and easiest fix is to disconnect unused devices from your WiFi. The easiest way to do this is to simply change your WiFi password, which will kick everyone off. Then, you can allow only certain devices to rejoin.     4     It is workable to stop gaming or downloading a movie.

    5     First, run a speed test to check your current speed. (Google “speed test” to see a list of websites where you can do this.) You may have too many devices connected for the internet speed you’re paying for. If this is the case, contact your internet provider about upgrading to a higher speed. But you may want to try some of our other fixes first before spending the money.

A．What can you do about it?

B．Sometimes that’s all that’s required.

C．Finally, you may need to upgrade your connectivity.

D．People deal with this modern inconvenience all the time,

E．Cutting back on heavy WiFi use temporarily can also help.

F．In general, this is a very good solution to a dropped WiFi connection.

G．Back in the day, the average household had a computer or two to connect.

8 . Eileen Gu got into extreme sports because of an overprotective mother. The older Gu hated seeing her daughter rush down California’s Tahoe ski slopes (斜坡), so she enrolled the 8-year-old in a free-skiing school, not knowing exactly what it involved. However, she was confident that anything would be safer than racing. Little did she know that she would one day watch her child perform death-defying flips, spins and jumps instead. And she never thought her daughter could be one of the sport’s top stars, with golds at X Games.

“I’ve probably been an adrenaline (肾上腺素) addict from day one,” Eileen Gu said. In February, that adrenaline took her all the way to the Winter Olympics in Beijing. It’s where her mom was born and a place she visited regularly during childhood. These are Gu’s first Games. She is just 18 years old.

In China, she is nicknamed “Snow Princess”. She is also academically gifted, graduating from high school a year early despite her punishing training schedule, and scoring 1,580 on her SAT and getting accepted into Stanford for 2022.

It’s a rapid rise that she hopes will inspire others. A speech, which she made to her seventh-grade class, urged her peers to “show the boys that girls are just as powerful as they are”. Naturally, you don’t soar to such heights without getting hurt. After cracking a finger and tearing a ligament (韧带) in her thumb, she was expected to miss last year’s world championships in Aspen. Gu certainly walks the talk: She instead chose to compete without ski poles and took home two gold medals and a bronze.

“Honestly, I’m a little nervous about getting the poles back, because I’ve gotten used to skiing without them.” she said after the event.

1. What caused Eileen Gu to be interested in extreme sports at first?

A．Her special talent.	B．Her strong interest.
C．Her experienced coach.	D．Her overprotective mother.

2. What did Eileen Gu’s mother do to help develop her daughter’s interest?

A．Take her daughter to skiing classes.	B．Watch sports program with her daughter.
C．Give her daughter some skiing equipment.	D．Travel around the world with her daughter.

3. What do we know about Eileen Gu from the text?

A．She has grown up in Beijing.	B．She has graduated from Stanford.
C．She has been to Beijing many times.	D．She has won gold medals in other Olympics.

4. In which column of the magazine could you probably find this text?

A．Fashion.

B．Technology.

C．Environment.

D．Figure.

9 . Houston’s architectural personality

Exploring Houston, you would be forgiven for thinking that the city’s architectural identity is all over the map.

Texas’s Tallest Building

I. M. Pei is most famous for designing the Louvre in Paris. He is also the architect responsible for the tallest building in Texas: the JPMorgan Chase Tower in downtown Houston. The building is 75-storey tall and also boasts the distinction of being the tallest five-sided building in the entire world.

Houston’s Theater District

Houston’s Theater District occupies 17-blocks in downtown Houston and has an entertainment house for every type of art. Jones Hall is home to the Houston Symphony Orchestra. The symphony hall takes up an entire city block and features the outside made of white Italian marble (大理石).

Houston’s Historic Buildings

In 1890, Houston Heights was founded as one of Texas’s earliest planned communities. Today, 19th Street is a funky place where different shops provide endless entertainment for shoppers.

Houston’s unconventional Architecture

Head to 222 Malone Street in Rice Military to see the Beer Can House, a late 1960s home that has been covered with beer cans and bottle caps. It was created by John Milkovisch, who started the project as a way to cover his lawn to avoid cutting it. The Beer Can House is one of the most recognizable pieces of folk art in the Houston area. Today, the Orange Show Center For Visionary Art the Beer Can House is open for tours on weekends with advanced ticket purchases.

1. What information can you get about Texas’s Tallest Building?

A．It is 70-storey tall.	B．Its designer is from Paris.
C．It lies in centre area in Houston.	D．It is the tallest building in the world.

2. Which place especially appeals to concert lovers?

A．The JPMorgan Chase Tower.	B．Houston’s Theater District.
C．Houston Heights.	D．The Beer Can House.

3. Why did John Milkovisch create Beer Can House?

A．To get together with military.	B．To provide a place for drinkers.
C．To make profits by selling tickets.	D．To protect his lawn from being cut.

10 . It was snowing hard outside. Thomas and Mick had to _________ in their house all day. When they went to bed late into night, it was still snowing, and every time they _________ up during the night, they could _________ the wind whistling around the house, and through the branches of the trees.

But the next morning the _________ was bright. What a(n) _________ day! It looked as if the branches of the trees had been covered with gold. “Oh Grandma! Please do make _________ as quickly as possible. We are going out to build a fort (城堡),” cried the boys, running into the _________. Grandma smiled and told them to eat a good breakfast, for building a fort was _________. They were soon out in the snow, and what a great time they had _________, the fort didn’t grow very fast, for they had to ______________ so often to play snow-ball each other. When Grandma called them in to dinner they wondered where the ______________ had gone since breakfast.

After dinner, Thomas was looking out of the window, when he ______________ two little birds standing on a branch of a tree. “Mick! Come here,” he called. “See those ______________ birds. They seem half frozen and so ______________.” “Poor little things,” replied Mick. “Doesn’t it make you feel ______________ to think what a happy time we had this morning out of the snow. Let us get some bread from Grandma and throw it out to them,” said Thomas. The birds soon found the food and ate it quickly. Will other children be as kind as Thomas and Mick?

1.

A．study

B．eat

C．stay

D．sleep

2.

A．stood

B．showed

C．grew

D．woke

3.

A．touch

B．smell

C．hear

D．see

4.

A．house

B．moon

C．sun

D．branch

5.

A．great

B．interesting

C．terrible

D．snowy

6.

A．room

B．breakfast

C．lunch

D．supper

7.

A．library

B．supermarket

C．bedroom

D．kitchen

8.

A．dull

B．hard

C．dangerous

D．exciting

9.

A．Therefore

B．Instead

C．Otherwise

D．However

10.

A．stop

B．jump

C．read

D．rest

11.

A．money

B．time

C．snow

D．water

12.

A．spotted

B．felt

C．realized

D．greeted

13.

A．excited

B．disappointed

C．poor

D．angry

14.

A．happy

B．funny

C．curious

D．hungry

15.

A．scary

B．tense

C．mean

D．talented