1 . Falcons are powerful birds that may be trained to hunt in cooperation with humans. The art of training falcons as “hunting dogs of the skies” is called falconry (训鹰术). It was developed in the ancient Arabian Desert around 4000 B. C. In the past, falconry mainly involved hunting with falcons to supplement one’s diet. But now, it has become the favorite sport and pastime in the Arabian Peninsula.
Falconry includes three major processes: acquiring the falcons, training them, and hunting with them. Every year, falconers begin capturing wild falcons in June and July, the migration season. The best birds to catch are the ones with naturally nurtured hunting skills, aged one or two years. Once the falcons are captured, their heads are immediately covered with a leather hood. This is essential because they imprint as their master whomever they see first after the hood is removed. Right after a bird is caught, the training process starts. It begins by depriving (剥夺) the bird of food to make it easier to tame. The birds are taught to know their own name and respond to their master when called. Arab falconers live with their birds day and night in order to build a strong relationship with them.
By the end of October or mid-November, the trained falcons are ready to hunt in the desert. They have excellent vision, 2. 6 times greater than that of a human. They are also the fastest divers on the planet. One hunting technique that sets them apart from other animals is that they can be trained to deliver their prey, without killing it first. This is vital in Islamic culture because animals used for food must still be alive to ensure that the meat is halal, that is, properly prepared according to Islamic law.
Falcons have played such a crucial role in traditional Islamic cultures that a number of countries in the Middle East have made them their national bird. Falconry has grown so popular that specialist hospitals have been established to take care of these magnificent birds. Falcons are even issued their own passports. They are the only animals in the United Arab Emirates that are legally allowed to travel inside planes, enjoying a level of luxury that some humans can only dream of.
1. What is the main reason for Arabic people to hunt with falcons today?A.To serve as entertainment and exercise. |
B.To supplement their diet. |
C.To replace the practice of hunting with dogs. |
D.To honor their national bird. |
A.Falconers don’t give food to falcons in order to capture them. |
B.Falcons are not allowed to see their masters during the training process. |
C.Wild falcons with natural hunting skills are ideal for falconers to catch. |
D.The trainers’ names are written on the hoods covering the birds’ heads. |
A.Falcons keep their prey alive before delivering it to falconers. |
B.Falcons can form a strong bond with their owners quickly. |
C.Falcons’ vision is particularly suitable for hunting in deserts. |
D.Falcons are relatively easy to train for specific hunting. |
A.Free air ticket. | B.Passports issued by the King. |
C.Expensive meals. | D.Access to specialized medical care. |
Every year the Weifang International Kite Festival
Kites
The Weifang Kite Festival is not only the best platform
3 . It’s been nearly two decades since the traditional clothing style Hanfu first started to reemerge in China. Since then it has gone from a small cultural movement celebrating an ancient fashion to a trend that is booming on social media, having been adopted by China’s Generation Z as a means of connecting with their past. Instead of following other cultures blindly, Generation Z now have different opinions about what trend is by promoting local culture while having an objective view of exotic cultural products.
The new tastes of Generation Z—young people born after 1995—are well represented on Bilibili. In the recent New Year’s Eve gala presented by Bilibili, it attracted more than 100 million views within 48 hours with a colourful set of programmes ranging from Peking Opera to classical Chinese cartoons. The same is also true of movie industry. Last year, for the first time, the top 10 most viewed films in China were all domestic films, while the ticket sales for imported films have dropped to only 16.28 percent.
”Generation Z grew up with the rapid development of China and under good economic conditions. With the development of the Chinese Internet industry, they have more access to diverse international information and culture, which bring them a much broader vision and makes them more open and confident in analyzing foreign culture. Apart from taking pride in China’s rapid development, this generation also pursues individuality and values devotion to the country,“ Professor Zhang Yiwu said.
He also noted that the popular rock and punk culture pursued by the 70s and 80s generation is more of a challenge against real life and local culture. Some people who were born in the 1970s and 1980s did not grow up in the Internet age—they experienced the transformation of China going from poor to rich first-hand. This kind of longing and admiration of the West came from a lack of confidence.
However, Generation Z now have the confidence to look at Western culture with equal status. This kind of cultural confidence will result in China being more active and creative in its development on the international stage in the future.
1. What does the underlined word ”exotic“ in Paragraph 1 mean?A.Foreign. | B.Fashionable. | C.Traditional. | D.Elegant. |
A.To confirm the rise of new media. |
B.To promote Chinese Internet industry. |
C.To highlight the popularity of domestic art. |
D.To show the popularity of New Year’s Eve gala. |
A.They have a stronger cultural identity. |
B.They are longing for cultural diversity. |
C.They have made China develop rapidly. |
D.They are more fond of foreign culture. |
A.Confident China, Better Future |
B.China’s Progress Results in Cultural Confidence |
C.China’s New Generation Redefine Local Culture as Trendy |
D.Hanfu Style, Connector of Ancient Fashion and Modern Trend |
4 . My family first moved to Colorado 22 years ago. Los Angeles was too expensive and it was difficult to find well-paying jobs and affordable housing. Colorado became our next dream place. Settling into a small town in the Front Range, my parents found hard jobs.
Growing up in this small town, I remember my parents working hard to get past the language barrier. My mom, especially, tried her best to ensure she knew all that she needed to know about like my parent-teacher meetings and extracurricular (课外的) activities. One of those extracurricular activities that I signed up for was football. At that age, football was cool and all, but I was more into playing Pokémon and other video games. Football didn’t draw me in.
Big football tournaments (联赛) would come around like the World Cup, the Copa América and the Gold Cup, and the Mexican National Team would play in these tournaments. I would sit there in our living room and unmindfully watch the games while my parents would go crazy with enthusiasm ( 热情). I would sit there and play my game. My dad would look over and tell me that I should be paying attention carefully to the game and that I should care more about whether Mexico would win the match than my video games.
Both of my parents’ workspaces were crowded (占满的) with other workers. My mom worked with people from all over Latin America. Everyone’s topic of choice at work would always turn to how their national football team was doing. It was a way to show pride in the countries where they had grown up.
I grew up loving football more and more. The more I learned about my Mexican roots (根), the more I tried to find ways to express pride in them in the United States.1. Why did the author’s family move to Colorado?
A.To make a better life. |
B.To attend more activities. |
C.To follow their football dream. |
D.To receive a better education. |
A.It was amazing. | B.It was important. |
C.It was uninteresting. | D.It was difficult. |
A.Remind the author to watch them carefully. |
B.Play video games with the author. |
C.Learn English in their living room. |
D.Guess who would be the winner. |
A.build a closer friendship |
B.express their homesickness |
C.share a common topic |
D.show their pride in their motherlands |
5 . Imagine driving behind a huge truck shooting clouds of smoke into the air while your new fully electric vehicle cleans up its carbon emissions (排放). This dream may soon be a reality. A team of students in the Netherlands has created an electric car that not only doesn’t produce carbon dioxide when driving, but actually pulls it out of the air.
The two-seater sports car was designed and built in less than a year by a team of 32 students at Eindhoven University of Technology. Called “ZEM”, which stands for “zero emission mobility”, the car is equipped with special devices that remove carbon dioxide from the air as it drives. The team says if ZEM is driven about 32,000 kilometers, it can remove 2 kilograms of carbon dioxide from the air. That’s not a huge amount. The team calculates that 10 ZEM cars on the road for a year would remove as much carbon dioxide as a typical tree does during that time. However, they also point out that there are over a billion passenger cars in the world that could be using this technology. And if a billion cars were removing carbon dioxide instead of producing it, the result would be huge.
ZEM also has several other innovations that help to make it more capable of being sustained: the car’s frame and panels (面板) are 3D printed to reduce waste; it was built using recycled and recyclable materials; and it can be easily taken apart so that many of its parts can be reused. ZEM’s battery is also reusable, and has another handy feature: it can be charged with solar panels on the car’s roof—and can even be used to provide power to your house when the car isn’t on the road.
According to the statistics, transportation was responsible for over 20% of global carbon dioxide emissions in 2020—and of those emissions, cars were responsible for 41%. The Eindhoven team says its goal is to challenge the electric car industry: If 32 students can build a car like this in less than a year, then surely car manufacturers (生产商) are expected to adopt these innovations, too.
1. What is special about ZEM?A.It can end the world’s CO2 release. |
B.It can cut the truck’s CO2 emissions. |
C.It can reduce the level of CO2 in the air. |
D.It can absorb dirty air as well as CO2. |
A.To demonstrate a superb vision of ZEM cars. |
B.To explain how ZEM removes CO2 as trees do. |
C.To illustrate the ongoing change in car making. |
D.To show the influence of ZEM on the car market. |
A.They are of high quality. | B.They are easy to process. |
C.They are convenient to print. | D.They are environmentally friendly. |
A.Sharp decline in fuel consumption. | B.Mass production of ZEM cars. |
C.Big success in beating other car makers. | D.Dramatic changes in transportation. |
6 . Many people lead busy lives and think they barely have time to work out every day.
Require Less of a Time Commitment
Committing to exercising for a certain amount of time per week can be difficult, especially when you do not have the time or motivation to work out for an extended period. Microworkouts are good alternatives. They take up only 10 to 30 minutes of your day. Many people spend much longer scrolling through social media each day.
Make Scheduling Workouts Easier
It can be challenging to commit the time needed to exercise every day,but it can also be hard to fit a workout into a tight schedule. However, a study suggests that it may be possible.
Need No Equipment
Investing in expensive home gym equipment can be a real burden. When you decide to domicro workouts, though, you don’t need a bunch of equipment.
A.Ready to get moving? |
B.You just fit it into your routine. |
C.Fitness should be simple and convenient. |
D.So it should be a relatively easy time commitment. |
E.If you feel this way, you may be interested in micro workouts. |
F.Can micro workouts give the same benefits as longer workout sessions? |
G.Instead,you can use things around your home to empower your workout. |
My parents and I had been planning my brother's birthday party since the beginning of March. Johnny would be six years old in two days. My mom was going to bake her special chocolate cake with white icing. As I watched her, I thought, Gee, I wondered what I can do to make my brother's birthday special.
I knew my parents had already bought a present for me to give to Johnny, but I wanted to buy him something I had chosen myself and with the money I had saved. After giving it some thought, I wanted to buy him the paintbynumberkit (数字涂色小套装) I had seen at the store around the corner, which I hope must make him delighted.
I decided to empty my coin jar and see how much money I had saved. However, I was disappointed to find there was much less than I had imagined. “Oh, no, I only have about three dollars,” I muttered to myself. The set cost more than I have saved.
Suddenly a “great” idea occurred to me. I slid into my parents' bedroom where my dad kept loose change (零钱) on top of the dresser. I stood on my tiptoes and saw some dime, nickels, and a few quarters. I carefully counted out what I needed to make up the difference. I'm sure Dad won't mind just this once, I thought.
However, I was soon overcome by guilt. Even though there was no one else in the bedroom, I felt like I was being watched. Mom was always telling us about the importance of honesty. Maybe my plan wasn't such a great idea after all, I thought. I jingled the change around in my pocket while wondering what to do.
I grabbed my jacket from the closet and headed toward the door. “Where are you going, honey?” Mom asked, “Oh, just up to the corner store,” I replied. “Well, don't stay out too long. Daddy will be home soon.” “Okay, Mom.” I ran out of our house.
Once I got to the store, I took the paintbynumber kit from the shelf.
“Can I help you, young lady?” the salesclerk asked.
“No. I'm just looking, thank you,” I said.
“That's a really nice paint kit. We sell a lot of them and, as you can see, that's the last one.” she said.
Paragraph 1:I nodded my head in agreement, with my mind racing.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
I would just have to wait until I saved the extra money I needed.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________8 . Smart Kids is a collection of one hundred events scheduled in October. This year, it is experimenting with Pay What You Decide (PWYD). That is, you can decide to pay what you want to or can afford, after you have attended an event. You can pre-book events without paying for a ticket in advance. Here are some of the director’s picks.
Walk on the Wild Side
Not ticketed, Free
Join storyteller Sarah Law to hear science stories about animals. Along the way you’ll meet all sorts of beautiful creatures and discover life cycles and food chains. Best suited to children aged 5-9. Children under 8 must be accompanied by an adult.
Introduction to Waves
Pre-book, PWYD
Subjects range from sound waves to gravity waves, and from waves of light to crashing waves on the ocean. Mike Goldsmith explores the fundamental features shared by all waves in the natural world.
Science in the Field
Not ticketed, Free
This storytelling night features a scientist sharing his favourite memories of gathering first-hand data on various field trips. Come along for inspiring and informative stories straight from the scientist’s mouth. Join Mark Samuels to find out more in this fun-filled workshop.
Festival Dinner
Pre-book, £25 per person
Whether you want to explore more about food, or just fancy a talk over a meal, join us to mark the first science festival in London. Which foods should you eat to trick your brain into thinking that you are full? Find out more from Tom Crawford.
1. In which event can you decide the payment?A.Introduction to Waves. | B.Walk on the Wild Side. |
C.Science in the Field. | D.Festival Dinner. |
A.Mike Goldsmith. | B.Sarah Law. |
C.Mark Samuels. | D.Tom Crawford. |
A.Family-based. | B.Science-related. |
C.Picked by children. | D.Filled with adventures. |