Stepping outside the railway station early
Yet, the breath taking beauty
After 1966, the year of the worst flooding in Venice’s history, the Italian Government started a project to save the city.
But Venice still needs attentive care. The city remains threatened on several fronts—mass tourism, the possible damage of city development
Many years ago, a dance between clay and fire gave rise to a piece of art: porcelain, an artwork
Flames in kilns (窑) around China have been burning since the Xia and Shang dynasties. Along the way, porcelain
Porcelain is ceramic made by heating raw materials, often a mix of china stone and kaolin clay, in a kiln at a temperature as high as 1,200 degrees Celsius. Temperature is key to
Celadon produced in Longquan, Zhejiang Province, with a technique passed down for more than 1,600 years, is a typical example of craftsmen’s pursuit of the perfect green glint. It takes 72 steps
Porcelain began as a practical utensil (器具) and
3 . Situated in the northeast of Jiangxi Province, Wuyuan is located at the junction (交界) of Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Anhui. Wuyuan has been known as “the hometown of book” and “the hometown of tea”. It is a famous cultural and eco-tourism county (县) in China, known as “China’s most beautiful countryside”.
Huizhou Culture is the soul of Wuyuan travel. Since the ancient times, Wuyuan has a culture and popular practice of literature. There are many great men born in Wuyuan, inclu-ding Zhu Xi, a learned scholar. From Song Dynasty to Qing Dynasty, Wuyuan had nurtured 2,665 officials, and 3,100 works. In addition, Wuyuan Museum has thousands of cultural collections, known as “the first library at Chinese county-level”. Folk cultural arts like Nuo dance, tea ceremony are bright and colorful. Historical remains of celebrities and ancient buildings of Hui style in Ming and Qing dynasties are all over the county.
Wuyuan has 16 provincial-level historical and cultural villages, 1 national-level historical and cultural village, 13 Chinese protection units of cultural relics, and 2 ancient villages on the list of candidates for election to the World Heritage Sites. Wuyuan County has a history of over 120 years.
Wuyuan has four distinct seasons and many foggy days. Days throughout the year are times to travel, but spring is the best season, especially in April. In spring, red rhododen-drons (杜鹃花) all over the mountains, green tea trees all over the hills, golden flowers, white walls and black tiles, all of them are harmoniously integrated (成为一体), forming the best picture in the world. In autumn, best seasonal sceneries appear in Huangling, Changxi and so on, among which, landscape of Sun Drying of Crops is one of the highlights of Huangling Scenic Area.
1. What can we learn about Wuyuan from paragraph 1?| A．It is a country with a short history. |
| B．It is filled with traditional libraries. |
| C．It is known as the hometown of dance. |
| D．It is not far from three provinces. |
| A．Pictures of high modern buildings. | B．Ancient artworks. |
| C．Photos of beautiful flowers. | D．Expensive ships. |
| A．By giving reasons. | B．By listing numbers. |
| C．By asking a question. | D．By making a comparison. |
| A．Worthwhile. | B．Tiring. | C．Costless. | D．Limited. |
4 . It’s hard to imagine that just 25 years ago, Berlin was a city split (分开) into two by the Berlin Wall. I’ll never forget how people were excited as the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. Since then, Berlin has become one of the coolest cities in Europe. Here are the main reasons why I think Berlin is cool.
It’s affordable. Berlin has cheap hotels and everyday objects. You don’t have to worry about spending too much money when visiting Berlin.
It has fantastic festivals. Berlin knows how to give parties, and there is a festival here every month of the year. Perhaps the most famous is the Berlin International Film Festival.
It has great architecture (建筑设计). Berlin has beautiful architecture of its own. The Brandenburg Gate, built in the 18th century, is one of the city’ s most famous buildings, symbolizing more than 200 years of history. The TV Tower is as good as the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the London Eye.
The art scene is flourishing (繁荣). Berlin is a city of living art. Artists are allowed to create works of art on the sides of buildings.
If you want to visit an affordable European city with culture and lots of colors, Berlin is the place to be. What are you waiting for? Get to Europe’s coolest city before everyone else discovers it.
1. The underlined word “affordable” in Paragraph 2 means “________” in Chinese.| A．可利用的 | B．可触及的 |
| C．付得起的 | D．用得住的 |
| A．Once a week. | B．Twice a week. |
| C．Once a month. | D．Twice a month. |
| A．Its color. | B．Its history. |
| C．Its location. | D．Its architecture. |
| A．He can’t stand it. | B．He thinks it’s boring. |
| C．He doesn’t mind it. | D．He thinks it’s cool. |
5 . 30 St Mary Axe, commonly known as the Gherkin, was designed by internationally noted architect, Lord Norman Foster. Built in 2004, London’s first environmentally sustainable sky-scrapper was constructed for Swiss-Re, the largest re-insurance company in the world. The Gherkin, which is the sixth tallest building in London, was sold for over ￡600 million in 2007, making it the most expensive location in Britain to have an office. Since its completion, 30 St Mary Axe has won many architectural awards including in 2004 the Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize and in 2006 the BD World Architecture the “most admired new building in the world”.
Lying in the heart of the city, Foster’s building is on the site of London’s historic Baltic Exchange which was severely damaged in 1992. Constructed exactly 100 years before completion of the Gherkin, surviving parts of the Baltic Exchange building were sold and are being re-constructed in Tallinn, the capital of the Baltic country Estonia. The Baltic Exchange, which trades in the sale of merchant vessels and transportation of industrial bulk commodities and originates back to 1744, was started by ship owners and brokers meeting in a coffee house.
At the top of the Gherkin, on the 40th floor, there is a private bar featuring a 360° panoramic view of London. Despite the building being rounded, the “lens” (镜头) shaped glass roof above the bar is the only curved glass in the building, and is similar in design to the glass dome which covered part of the ground floor of the old Baltic Exchange.
The smooth clean lines of the building cover a high tech and environmentally designed interior. To reach the roof bar there is a hydraulic lift, pushed from below, which doesn’t require any machinery above it. Double-glassed gaps in each floor create vertical corridors that help keep warm in the winter and improve air flow in the summer. This, coupled with all the natural light flooding in through the windows, results in the building needing much less energy.
1. What can we know from the first paragraph?| A．Foster isn’t an English architect. |
| B．The Gherkin is very famous in the world. |
| C．The Gherkin is the tallest building in London. |
| D．The Gherkin is the first sky-scrapper in London. |
| A．In the mid-19th century. | B．In the late 19th century. |
| C．In the early 20th century. | D．In the mid-20th century. |
| A．A coffee house. | B．The Baltic Exchange. |
| C．A private bar. | D．A private office. |
| A．By being equipped with double glass. |
| B．By stopping people using electricity. |
| C．By opening all the windows in the summer. |
| D．By asking people to use less air-conditioning. |
Taking a trip is a fine way
Guan’e Grand Waterfall is the most
The 200-meter Emangou 9-D glass bridge spans(跨越) the challenging space
These days, modern buildings are everywhere. But if you want to see
The village of Zhouzhuang in Jiangsu calls
Hongcun,
Fenghuang in Human doesn’t look like a bird,
While most water towns are in the south, Shangdong’s Tai’erzhuang stands out in the north. The town
8 . In the western Los Angeles sits the famous city of Hollywood, known as the global center of movie studios and film stars.
The Selig Film Manufacturing Company was the first major film company to come to Hollywood, shooting its first film entitled The Heart of A Race Tout in 1908. The next year the film company built the first permanent film studio.
Although electric lights existed at that time, none were powerful enough to adequately expose film. The best source of illumination for movie production was nature sunlight. Besides the sunny weather, film producers were also drawn to Hollywood because of its open spaces and wide variety of natural scenery.
Another reason was the distance of Southern California from New Jersey, which made it more difficult for Thomas Edison to enforce his film patents. At that time, Edison owned almost all the patents relevant to film production. As a result, in the East, movie producers acting independently out of Edison’s Motion Picture Patents Company were often accused by Edison. But in Los Angeles, things were different. If he sent his men to California, word would usually reach Los Angeles before they did and the movie makers could escape to nearby Mexico.
In 1911, a second movie studio—Nestor Studios, was founded. At about the same time, many film production companies from New York and New Jersey started moving to sunny California because of the good weather.
The first Academy Awards presentation ceremony took place in 1929 in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Tickets were $10 and there were 250 people attending the ceremony.
From about 1930, five major “Hollywood” movie studios in Hollywood, Paramount, RKO, 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Bros, owned almost all large theatres throughout the country for the exhibition of their movies. The period between the years 1927 to 1984 was considered the “Golden Age of Hollywood”.
1. The word “illumination” in the third paragraph can be replaced by ________.| A．light | B．story |
| C．patent | D．film |
| A．open spaces | B．various scenery |
| C．unique culture | D．sunny weather |
| A．Thomas Edison moved his office to Hollywood to enforce his film patents. |
| B．Movie producers working on the West Coast were never accused by Edison. |
| C．Edison’s Motion Picture Patents Company owned many studios in Hollywood. |
| D．Movie makers in Los Angeles could work independently out of Edison’s control. |
| A．It was held in a restaurant. |
| B．There were 250 people receiving the awards. |
| C．There were 250 people present at the ceremony. |
| D．It was held by five major “Hollywood” movie studios. |
9 . Off the coast of Hawaii’s Big Island swim masses of colorful tropical fish. Some of these fish will be caught and sold, ending up in aquariums around the world. Is the industry putting populations of the fish at risk?
Scientists who have studied the Big Island fishery say it is well managed. Rules put in place more than 15 years ago have helped to protect the fish. Along 35% of the coastline, for example, fish collecting is banned. Two years ago, the state cut the number of fish species for the aquarium trade from hundreds to just 40.
Conservationist Robert Wintner objects to the findings. Wintner, who owns snorkel shops across Hawaii, started the Snorkel Bob Foundation to protect the island’s coral reefs(珊瑚礁). He says he simply doesn’t see yellow tang(刺尾鱼)in the protected areas. “There should be millions of them,” he says. “Where are they?”
Wintner says people believe the numbers in reports. But few people have actually dived into the coral reefs to see for themselves how many fish can be found there. According to Wintner, the coral reefs along the coast should be filled with yellow tang, but they are “virtually empty”. Empty reefs are not good for tourism, Wintner points out, which brings out $800 million yearly. By contrast, the aquarium-fish trade brings out just $2 million yearly.
1. According to Robert Wintner, ________.| A．the yellow tang is sold merely for both food and the aquarium industry |
| B．there are millions of yellow tang off Hawaii’s Big Island |
| C．the yellow tang’s population off Hawaii coast is large |
| D．what the recent report says is wrong |
| A．Worse tourism | B．More fish death |
| C．More hungry people | D．Less swimming events |
| A．Who will Win the Debate? |
| B．Is the Tropical Fish Healthy? |
| C．How Should We Protect Tropical Fish? |
| D．Should the Sale of Tropical Fish be Banned? |
