1 . Luo Dengping has become famous as the only woman in a group of “spider men”who climb cliffs of up to 100 meters high, without ropes or safety equipment of any kind, for the entertainment of tourists in China’s Guizhou Province.

Men of the Miao people, in Southwest China, have been free-climbing steep cliffs for centuries. They originally developed this skill as part of a custom, to lift coffins(棺材)of relatives up the cliffs and place them in small caves or just hang them on the cliffside, like the Tana Toraja tribe, in Indonesia. The Miao spider men continued climbing the vertical cliffs of Ziyun, in order to collect rare medicinal plants. Today, only a few members of the Miao people still practice this ancient tradition, and one of them is a woman.

Traditionally, only Miao men were considered brave and skilled enough to become spider men, but Luo Dengping had no choice but to break social norms and take up the practice. As the daughter of a skilled spider man, and with no brothers to carry on her family’s tradition, Luo began climbing the cliffs near the village when she was just 15 years old. In the beginning, she felt scared and could barely move on the precarious cliffside, but as time went by, she perfected her skills and, eventually, making her way up the giant rocks using nothing but her hands and feet became routine.

In her late teens, Luo Dengping left the village and became a migrant worker at a construction site in Guangzhou. She returned in 2000, married a villager and had two children. To support her husband, who drives freight trucks for a living, she occasionally climbed nearby cliffs in search of medicinal plants to sell. Then, in 2015, the local government decided to promote the karsts mountain as a tourist attraction, and started hiring spider men to practice their skills for entertainment purposes.

1. Why did Luo Dengping work as spider woman at first?

A．To make more money.	B．To carry on her family’s tradition.
C．To support her husband.	D．To collect medicinal plants.

2. What does the underlined word “precarious”in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Famous.	B．Wet.
C．Dangerous.	D．Unsteady.

3. What is Luo Dengping’s husband?

A．A migrant worker.	B．A performer.
C．A distributor.	D．A driver.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．China’s Only “Spider Woman”	B．The Promotion of Ancient Skills
C．A Hobby Makes “Spider Woman”	D．Spider Men Becomes a Must-see

2 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

In the state of Oaxaca. Mexico, you'l1 find the lively town of San Martin Tilcajete. The town is rooted in     1     (it) ancient Zapotec culture. The Zapotec people have been living in the area for     2     (century).

Look around, and you'll see     3     (amaze) colorful wooden animal carvings. These figures are called tonas, and creating them is a Zapotec tradition.

But slowly, Zapotec culture is dying. Young people are leaving Oaxaca     4     (find) work in larger cities. As     5     result, fewer people have the knowledge and skills     6     (need) to make tonas.

An organization called Jacobo y Maria Angeles hopes to change that. It teaches kids as young as five how to make tonas. The carvings take time and skill to create. They're made of soft wood from copal trees,     7    grow in the area.

After school, kids come to Jacobo Maria Angeles to learn the craft     8     teachers, or masters. Some of the masters have been making tonas for 50 years. In these workshops, kids learn about the copal tree. They learn to “see” an animal in a piece of wood before it's carved. Then the kids     9     ( give) a tona to decorate(装饰).

Some of these students might one day become masters. Those who do will help protect Zapotec culture through teaching the young people the ancient craft of     10     (make) tonas.

3 . If Confucius(孔子)were still alive today and could celebrate his September 28 birthday with a big cake, there would be a lot of candles. He'd need a fan or a strong wind to help him put them out.

While many people in China will remember Confucius on his special day, few people in the United States will give him a passing thought. It's nothing personal. Most Americans don't even remember the birthdays of their own national heroes.

But this doesn't mean that Americans don't care about Confucius. In many ways he has become a bridge that foreigners must cross if they want to reach a deeper understanding of China.

In the past two decades, the Chinese studies programs have gained huge popularity in Western universities. More recently, the Chinese government has set up Confucius Institutes in more than 80 countries. These schools teach both Chinese language and culture. The main courses of Chinese culture usually include Chinese art, history and

philosophy(哲学). Some social scientists suggest that Westerners should take advantage of the ancient Chinese wisdom to make up for the drawbacks(缺陷)of Western philosophy. Students in the United States, at the same time, are racing to learn Chinese. So they will be ready for life in a world where China is an equal power with the United States. Businessmen who hope to make money in China are reading books about Confucius to understand their Chinese customers.

So the old thinker's ideas are still alive and well.

Today China attracts the West more than ever, and it will need more teachers to introduce Confucius and Chinese culture to the West.

As for the old thinker, he will not soon be forgotten by people in the West, even if his birthday is.

1. The opening paragraph is mainly intended to______________.

A．provide some key facts about Confucius

B．attract the readers' interest in the subject

C．show great respect for the ancient thinker

D．prove the popularity of modern birthday celebrations

2. We can learn from Paragraph 4 that American students___________.

A．have a great interest in studying Chinese

B．take an active part in Chinese competitions

C．try to get high scores in Chinese exams

D．fight for a chance to learn Chinese

3. What is the best title for the passage?

A．Forgotten Wisdom in America

B．Huge Fans of the Chinese Language

C．Chinese Culture for Westerners

D．Old Thinker with a Big Future

4. The passage is likely to appear in__________.

A．a personal biography	B．a history paper
C．a cultural newspaper	D．a philosophy textbook

4 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

The Hezhen is one of the smallest minorities in China. Early Hezhen people developed methods     1     producing clothes, bedding and thread out of fish skin. But over time, there has been a loss of Hezhen culture, including     2     (make) clothing from the skin of fish. Besides, few young Hezhen wanted to learn the skill. Fish-skin clothing is also not     3     Hezhen people wear today.

Knowing this, You Wenfeng, a now 68-year-old woman, started to share her knowledge with local Han Chinese women in the 1990s. Her followers also learn the Yimakan,     4     kind of storytelling that uses both speeches and songs in the Hezhen language. They also memorize songs sung by the Hezhen people. For environmental     5     (protect), You Wenfeng has decided to buy fish from the market and use a special sewing tool and cotton thread. The first step is to remove the fish's skin     6     (cautious) and dry it. The skin is then repeatedly passed through wooden “teeth” to soften it. The process takes a month, and sewing it then requires about twenty     7     (many) days.

So far, fish leather     8     (inspire) some high-end clothing design houses, including Dior and Prada, to use it in their clothes. But the material     9     (be) still not common. In 2006, Hezhen fish skin clothing was listed by China as intangible cultural heritage（非物质文化遗产）, which means a special effort is made     10     (preserve) the tradition.

5 . Is it true that British people have a different sense of humor than people in other countries? Let’s have a look at what we laugh at in Britain.

    1     It’s not just politicians who make us laugh, but anyone whose job is to tell other people what to do and who takes themselves too seriously.

We laugh at authority, but also sympathetically laugh with anyone who we think is treated badly.     2     Our clowns are often silly people doing silly things—Mr Bean, for example—while in America, they are often clever people doing clever things and winning.

The fact that we laugh when other people might feel hopeless is one of the oddest things to appreciate about British humor. We do have a strong sense of irony (反讽). “Not very pleasant,” we might say after some terrible experience.     3     “It’s a bit windy today” we might say in the middle of a typhoon, or “There’s a slight problem,” when something has gone very seriously wrong.     4    

Another thing that can make it difficult to understand British humor is that we don’t always laugh or even smile when we say something funny.     5    

Do you think the British sense of humor is unique?

A．In addition,we tend to play things down.

B．We often keep a straight face even when we’re making a joke.

C．Culture plays a big part in how funny you may find something.

D．We know they can’ t win,but if they do so sometimes,it’s even funnier.

E．Brits don’t express extreme feelings;we just“keep calm and carry on”.

F．Brits turn to laughter as a form of medicine when life knocks them down.

G．To the British,powerful and important people are often sources of laughter.

6 . World Wildlife Day

Celebrated annually on March 3rd, World Wildlife Day is a holiday that not only celebrates the diversity of the world's wild animals and plants but also raises awareness about the dangers they face due to human activities. Wildlife today faces many different challenges, which include, but are not limited to, loss of habitat, industrialized farming and commercial development.     1    

While extinction is a natural phenomenon, many scientists estimate that we are losing around 10,000 times the number of animals that are naturally caused by extinction.     2     As many as half of all current species may be extinct by the mid-21st century.

Proposed by Thailand at a United Nations General Assembly, World Wildlife Day was established as an international holiday on December 20th, 2013.     3     That is the day on which the Convention on International

Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was adopted.

Since World Wildlife Day is a U.N. sanctioned(认可的)observance day and not a public holiday, then schools, businesses, and government buildings are not closed on this day — if it falls during normal operation hours.     4     There are usually all different kinds of seminars and presentations highlighting the plight(困境)of the world's wildlife. Activities are held to help raise money for the rangers involved with the protection of endangered animals so they can buy new equipment.     5    

A．However, it is celebrated in a variety of different ways.

B．It was decided that it would be celebrated on March 3rd.

C．You can celebrate World Wildlife Day on your own or with others.

D．This means that dozens of species are going extinct every single day.

E．At that time hundreds of endangered species were being endangered every year.

F．There are also a number of other charity drives to raise money for endangered animals.

G．Illegal trade in animal hides, tusks or fur also brings significant risks to several species including tigers, rhinos, and elephants.

7 . Culture shock refers to the anxiety and feelings (of surprise, uncertainty, confusion, etc.) people feel when they have to operate within a different and unknown cultural or social environment, such as a foreign country.

Generally speaking, we could say that there are four stages of culture shock. The first stage is called “the honeymoon”. In this stage, you are excited about living in a different place.    1    

The next stage is “the hostility(敌意)stage”. In this stage, you begin to notice not everything is as good as you originally thought it was.     2    Moreover, people don’t treat you like a guest anymore.

Then you come to the third stage called “recovery”. In this stage, you start to feel more positive.     3    The whole situation starts to become more favorable and you begin to learn to adapt yourself to it.

The last stage of culture shock is called “adjustment”. In this stage, you have reached a point where you actually feel good.   You have learned enough to understand the new culture. The things that originally(起初) made you feel uncomfortable or strange are now things that you understand.     4    

Not all individuals visiting another country will experience all these four stages.     5    It also occurs within cultures as individuals move from place to place or from one setting to another (e.g., from high school to college).

A．You feel that friends should help each other to deal with culture shock.

B．And you come to understand everything you don’t understand.

C．In addition, culture shock is not limited to the overseas visitor.

D．You become tired of many things about the new culture.

E．Now you have adjusted to the new culture and you feel comfortable.

F．You begin to understand you need to travel a lot.

G．And everything seems to be wonderful and everybody seems to be so nice to you.

8 . This holiday weekend will be about more than Thanksgiving treats and extra days off from school for eighth-grader Shreya Nair. Shreya will also spend some of her time conducting an interview that will end up in the Library of Congress.

Shreya, 13, is participating in a StoryCorps initiative called The Great Thanksgiving Listen. The project encourages students to interview family members and friends about their lives in an effort to preserve the stories and voices of an older generation.

“ It would be interesting to see her view on life and how it’s different from mine based on the circumstances she grew up in,”Shreya said about her interview.

StoryCorps' aim is to use audio to preserve the stories of people of all ages and backgrounds. Students will be able to record their interviews using a new app and upload them to the StoryCorps Archive at the Library of Congress.

Shreya’s English teacher decided to get involved in spreading the word about the project, by assigning the interview as homework. Alison Matthews teaches Shreya at McCall Middle School in Winchester, Massachusetts. She incorporated(纳入) the StoryCorps interview assignment into a unit on the book, The Giver. Matthews describes the novel as a“story about this community where there’s one man — the giver — who holds all the memories of the community.”

“The StoryCorps project fit in so perfectly. The Library of Congress is the keeper of our memories. So I asked kids to think about the importance of memory in our society,” Matthews said.

Shreya said that her classmates like the assignment.”It’s an interview that will help us not only understand the book we’re reading right now, but help us later in life,” Shreya said.  “One of the things I like about the project is that you get to hear so many other people’s voices,”she added. “Sometimes in this world it feels like our opinion is the only one, but when you sit down and listen, it’s amazing what it can bring.”

1. Whom might Shreya meet this holiday weekend?

A．Her grandmother.	B．one of her cousins.
C．Her English teacher.	D．one of her classmates.

2. What is the purpose of the project?

A．To start a new tradition.

B．To narrow the distance between people.

C．To record history through oral communication

D．To teach students to communicate more effectively.

3. Why does Matthews support the project?

A．It fits in a lesson perfectly.

B．It is a new teaching method.

C．Her students want to learn about interviewing.

D．Her students want to visit the Library of Congress.

4. What might be the best title of the passage?

A．A Holiday Weekend.

B．A Girl Participating in a New Project.

C．An Interview to the Older Generation.

D．A Meaningful Thanksgiving Day.

9 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。

Frost’s Descent (霜降), the 18th solar term of the year, begins this year on Oct 24 and ends on Nov 7.

Frost’s Descent is the last solar term of autumn, during     1     time the weather becomes much     2     (cold) than before and frost begins to appear. As Frosts Descent comes, the world     3     (fill) with the atmosphere of late autumn.     4     (eat) persimmons (柿子) during Frost’s Descent can help people resist the cold and protect     5     bones.

In south Fujian province and Taiwan, it’s     6     custom to eat duck on the first day of Frost’s Descent. There is a saying in Fujian which goes, “    7     nourishing (滋补) all year is not as good as nourishing the human body on the first day of Frost’s Descent Eating duck is a way for people there     8     (gain) weight.

People in areas such as Daxin county in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region celebrate the first day of Frost’s Descent. In the Frost’s Descent Festival, the Zhuang people offer     9     (sacrifice), dance and sing folk songs.     10     a history of more than 360 years, the festival is to commemorate Cen Yuyin, a heroine in battles against foreign aggression.

10 . Ready to take a gap year？ A "Gap Year" is a period of time when a student takes a break before going to university. It is often spent travelling or working．    1    

Gap years are popular with European and Australian students, but remain less popular in America. However, in recent years, more and more American students are preparing for college by taking a gap year. The advantages of taking a gap year are as follows：

    2    

Although you don't have to go abroad to experience gap years, most gap year students catch the chance to travel abroad. You are able to work out who you are and what you are for. The experiences of different cultures offer you interesting lessons. You can learn more about the world and get to know yourself better．

Face challenges and have fun

A gap year is not only a time to take a vacation, but also a time to face challenges. Gap year students usually work, volunteer or take service projects. You have to learn how to get along in the real world. This process isn't always easy, but it is an important part of growing up．    3    

Save money and improve your college admission chances

There's a common thought that gap years are only for rich students, but it's not true. Actually, taking a gap year can save your money. Gap year students often take a part-time job. Besides, at the end of a gap year, students are much more likely to know what to study in college.     4    

    5    Both of them are excellent and have high grades. However, one student has much practical experience or has volunteered in his vacation. Who do you think the admission officer will choose？

A．Learn about the world and yourself

B．Only in this way can you enjoy life and have fun．

C．Check out your gap year choices before making the right decision．

D．It can give young people useful learning experiences and new skills．

E．Imagine an admission officer trying to admit only one between two students．

F．More students than ever before are taking a gap year before going to university．

G．Clear learning goals can keep the students working hard instead of wasting time and money playing．