1 . If you think about World Heritage Sites, you probably think of places associated with ancient art and culture and historical buildings. And of course, many of these are on the World Heritage List (WHL). These include remains of ancient cultures like Cuzco in Peru or the rock city of Petra in Jordan as well as old city centers such as Rome in Italy. Also common are places of artistic or cultural significance, like the Stonehenge stone circle in England. But the WHL contains a lot of sites that are not so obvious. Let’s look at a few of the more unusual sites on the WHL and why it is important to preserve them.
Citadel of Haiti
These monuments were built at the end of the 19th century when Haiti became independent and the many thousands of black slaves in Haiti were free for the first time. These ex-slaves built the monuments, which the WHL describes as “a universal symbol of liberty”.
Borders of France and Spain
This is an area of great natural beauty and the mountains have many interesting geological formations.
But it is also an area of small farms. The WHL has listed the site because it shows us about past European society through its landscape of villages, farms, fields, up land pastures and mountain roads.
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway
This railway in India was opened in 1881 and is still operating today. It crosses a difficult area of mountain landscape and it is a great example of railway engineering. The WHL says that it is “the first, and still the most outstanding, example of a hill passenger railway.”
The city of Brasilia
Brasilia is a capital city that was created from nothing in 1956. The WHL calls it “a land mark in the history of town planning”. The different areas of the city and the buildings themselves were all designed at the same time so that they would harmonize with each other.
1. What’s the function of the examples of World Heritage Sites in paragraph 1?| A．To highlight the importance of WHL. |
| B．To exemplify sites of artistic and cultural value. |
| C．To compare the differences between various sites. |
| D．To draw readers’ attention to more unique sites on the WHL. |
| A．Former slaves. | B．Citizens in Haiti. |
| C．Active revolutionaries. | D．Haiti government. |
| A．Citadel of Haiti. | B．Borders of France and Spain. |
| C．The city of Brasilia. | D．The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. |
2 . Taking exercise can be boring. The good news is that there are some tips which we can apply to our everyday fitness routines
•Have an objective.
When we’re playing a game, there’s always an objective. It helps us focus on the task at hand and motivates us to keep playing until we win the game. Exercise should be no different. Create a clear fitness goal.
•Add an element of whimsy (奇思妙想)
Some people love video games because there’s a lot of unexpectedness and surprise.
•
In a study, a team of researchers challenged 602 overweight workers from a single company to take part in a step-tracking challenge. The group asked to compete against other workers ended up walking more steps than any other groups in the study. If we’re seeking a similar motivation, look into fitness programs that encourage friendly competition.
•Team up with others.
| A．Compete against others. |
| B．Aim to walk 10,000 steps a day, for example. |
| C．Play against a friend to get competitive. |
| D．No one wanted to let their team members down. |
| E．And there are plenty of digital tools that can help with this. |
| F．We can copy these features into our own fitness game designs. |
| G．Getting a group to work together is also an effective way. |
3 . There are many great independent bookstores in North Carolina. If you’re looking for some good books to read, you can visit the bookstores listed below.
Purple Crow BooksIt’s a literary meeting place right in historic downtown Hillsborough. It was opened in 2009. You can find new books, used ones or the latest works by local authors. Because it specializes in local writers, Purple Crow Books is a favorite tourist destination. It’s a great place to grab a signed copy of a book by your favorite local author.
109 West King Street, Hillsborough, NC 27278
Quail Ridge BooksThis is an independent bookstore with friendly staff dedicated to (致力于) providing the best customer service. Founded in 1984 by Nancy Olson, the store provides a wide variety of carefully selected books, events, discussion groups and town hall meetings. The owner Lisa Poole bought the store in 2013 and is dedicated to serving the locals.
4209-100 Lassiter Mill Road, Raleigh, NC 27609
Pomegranate BooksThis bookstore is located in the historic Borkenhagen House in the Winter Park neighborhood of Wilmington, North Carolina. It has been finding good homes for great books since 2005. It stocks a carefully selected collection of literary and life-enhancing titles for all ages and also features locally-made cards and gift items.
4418 Park Ave, Wilmington, NC 28403
Scuppernong BooksThis bookstore was opened on December 21, 2013 and has been an important part of the rebirth of downtown Greensboro ever since. It features fiction and poetry along with a remarkable children’s section and a broad range of general interest titles. Within the store is a busy cafe serving coffee, wine, and beer sourced primarily from local small businesses.
304 South Elm Street, Greensboro, NC 27401
1. What is special about Purple Crow Books?| A．It holds various reading activities. | B．It mainly sells books by local writers. |
| C．It focuses on selling second-hand books. | D．It is supported by local small businesses. |
| A．Quail Ridge Books. | B．Purple Crow Books. |
| C．Pomegranate Books. | D．Scuppernong Books. |
| A．People loving non-fiction books. | B．People liking handmade cards and gifts. |
| C．People enjoying a very quiet environment. | D．People fond of buying collections of poetry. |
4 . When temperatures climb, many people reach for ice-cold beverages (饮料) to cool down. But others put the kettle on: Hot tea is a go-to beverage year-round in countries such as Bangladesh, China, Japan and Saudi Arabia. Many people find hot tea refreshing on hot days. Can hot drinks really cool you down on a hot day?
According to Peter McNaughton, a professor at King’s College London who studies thermoregulation (温度调节), hot drinks really can cool you down. “It seems totally counterintuitive (反直觉的，违反直觉的),” McNaughton said. “Drinking a hot drink really does make you drop your temperature if it’s not too humid out.”
“If a drink is warmer than your body at first, obviously, that drink makes you hotter,” McNaughton said. But humans, like all warmblooded animals, are constantly adjusting to maintain a consistent internal temperature. McNaughton found that hot drinks activate a receptor (接受器) in our nerves called TRPV1, which tells the body it needs to cool down. In response, humans sweat.
“Sweat pooling on skin is uncomfortable, but add a breeze or a fan, and the air blowing past helps sweat evaporate (蒸发), taking heat with it,” McNaughton said. “In general, your life depends on sweating. Sweating can help humans survive in some of the highest temperatures documented on Earth, at least in dry heat. Sweat is less effective in high humidity because the air is already full of water vapor and can’t absorb as much from the skin, that’s why in high humidity, the survivable temperature is much lower.”
A 2012 study in the journal Acta Physiologica found that when sweat fully evaporates, hot drinks can help cool people off overall, at least temporarily. That study looked at cyclists biking quickly enough to create their own breeze in a climate with no humidity: ideal conditions for sweat evaporation.
In the reverse effect, cold drinks lower body temperatures and then make the brain reduce sweating in order to bring body temperature back to its baseline. A 2018 paper suggests that with less wind, more humidity, or other barriers to effective sweating—like the heavy clothing worn by firefighters—it may make more sense to cool off by drinking crushed ice.
1. What do we know about people in Bangladesh, China, Japan and Saudi Arabia?| A．They like ice-cold beverages on hot days. |
| B．They favor hot tea over cold drinks year-round. |
| C．They doubt whether hot tea can help cool them down. |
| D．They believe ice-cold beverages are harmful to their health. |
| A．TRPV1 helps adjust blood temperature. | B．Blood helps add heat to the human body. |
| C．Sweating helps increase our body temperature. | D．TRPV1 sends signals related to body temperature. |
| A．To show the danger of high humidity. | B．To reveal why some people sweat more. |
| C．To tell us about the function of sweating. | D．To display how people survive extreme heat. |
| A．Drinking enough water benefits our bodies. |
| B．We should avoid cold water in high humidity. |
| C．Hot water cools us down better than cold water. |
| D．Hot drinks help cool the body under certain conditions. |
5 . Maximalism, as a design aesthetic (审美), is rooted in cultural shifts throughout history. In the mid-20th century, minimalism dominated social aesthetic, which laid great emphasis on the idea of less was more. In the late 1960s, postmodernism challenged the ideas of minimalism and embraced a more playful approach to design.
Today, maximalism has become a noticeable design style characterized by celebrating individuality,embracing the unexpected, and creating st unning and expressive spaces.
The living room unfolds with patterns and decor items, creating a dynamic and cozy atmosphere which is all about individuality and comfort.
Breaking free from regular kitchen aesthetics, maximalism transforms kitchens into exciting and inspiring environments. Using unexpected kitchen lighting options can add some home atmosphere.
As an interior (室内的) stylist, I encourage you to get the best from your home and the possessions you already have by displaying what you love most. This will spark joy everywhere you look, and this concept is at the heart of maximalism.
| A．Delicate table lamps may work well. |
| B．Your home should be a celebration of all you are. |
| C．Many interior designers are advocates of maximalism. |
| D．Maximalism breathes life into often-overlooked corners. |
| E．You can find a variety of ways to bring it into your home, too. |
| F．Maximalism emerged as a reaction against the idea of simplicity. |
| G．There is a mix of different patterns through throw pillows and curtains. |
6 . When I was a little boy growing up, my Mom, Dad, brothers and I lived in my Nana’s old house. It was surrounded by four huge vegetable gardens. And around the house so many flowers were planted. It was so beautiful there in the spring and summer. That wasn’t all, though. On the back porch Nana had dozens of potted plants hanging on hooks. She watered them, talked to them and nurtured them. And in the winter she would carry them all inside and set them on shelves near the windows of our enclosed front porch. There with a little water and a lot of love she kept them alive, green, and growing even during the coldest, darkest months.
As a boy I was puzzled by all the effort she put into them. I understood the vegetable gardens. They helped to feed the family all winter long. I even understood the flowers around the house. They were pretty and smelled so sweet in the summer months. The reason she put so much effort into caring for those potted plants, however, eluded me. They didn’t give us any food and they rarely had any flowers on them. They remained a mystery to my child’s mind.
Now as I’ve grown older I am beginning to understand why my Nana had those potted plants. It is the same reason I have so many pictures of sunrises and forests hanging in my home. They remind me during the dark, cold, winter months full of bare trees and yellow grass that light, love, and growth still exist. They remind me that Spring will come again. They remind me that God loves us and is still with us even when the earth doesn’t show it.
Today I see Nana’s potted plants in a new light. They are worth every bit of the love and care she put into them. But what tells me most about light and love is Nana herself. She is light to my soul even in my darkest times. And her love lives on in my heart even if she is in Heaven. May we all learn to love as she loved, shine as she shined, and live as she lived.
1. Which of the following is close in meaning to the underlined word “eluded” in paragraph 2?| A．Upset. | B．Misguided. | C．Confused. | D．Distracted. |
| A．They were a sign of hope. | B．They resembled sunrise and forests. |
| C．They constantly kept Nana company. | D．They were portable and easy to nurture. |
| A．To advocate growing potted plants. | B．To sing the praise of Nana’s spirit and love. |
| C．To stress the benefits of a positive lifestyle. | D．To recall beautiful memories spent with Nana. |
| A．A non-fiction. | B．A book review. |
| C．An agricultural leaflet. | D．A celebrity biography. |
7 . I was surfing the Internet, planning for our 15th-anniversary trip when a perfect spot attracted me: The Shire of Montana, a “hobbit house”, which Jim my husband had dreamed about. I knew he’d be impressed. And our six-year-old daughter, Aurora, would like it, too. I was about to book our reservation when I saw a note on the website: No kids allowed. That ruined everything!
Luckily, there was an email address on the site. I plucked up the courage to contact the owner. Soon, a reply arrived, saying, “If you promise that your daughter is responsible and will not touch, she can come.” I was relieved, thinking Aurora was a good kid. “This will be okay,” I wrote back.
The day finally arrived. We piled into the car. I couldn’t help being excited, imagining Jim and Aurora’s reactions. We passed a sign that read, “The adventure begins …” Turning onto the Hobbit Lane, I felt a pan g of anxiety. As soon as we got out of the car, I pulled Aurora aside. “Children aren’t usually allowed here,” I said. “So you have to be very, very careful. You can look at everything, but don’t touch.” I explained the rule and how terrible it would be to damage anything. Aurora’s eyes widened at my no-nonsense tone. “I promise, Mom,” she said.
Obviously, my concern was superfluous. We spent several days at The Shire. Aurora was delighted at each discovery but she never disturbed a thing. She took her responsibility to protect the owner’s work seriously. It turned out that respecting boundaries didn’t take away the beauty and wonder, it allowed The Shire to remain beautiful and wonderful into the future.
Not so different from a marriage, I thought. Now I understood why we went to this place to celebrate our fifteenth anniversary. Jim and I moved through life side by side as a couple, and we’d learned to accept each other’s individuality and boundaries as well. Marriage is full of surprises, challenges and adventures. The key to making it work is respecting each other.
1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?| A．The author met a problem while planning a trip. |
| B．The author and her husband had been married for 6 years. |
| C．Aurora didn’t want to take a trip to The Shire of Montana. |
| D．The trip was ruined because the author didn’t reserve a room. |
| A．She felt it a burden to take care of her daughter. |
| B．She doubted if her daughter would behave well. |
| C．She worried her daughter wouldn’t be admitted. |
| D．She wasn’t sure whether her husband would like the place. |
| A．considerable | B．important | C．unnecessary | D．common |
| A．Don’t give up until you try your best. |
| B．Good role models are essential for teaching kids. |
| C．Respect contributes to a happy and lasting marriage. |
| D．Obeying the rules is important when dealing with people. |
8 . In a fascinating discovery, western lowland gorillas (大猩猩) at Zoo Atlanta have been caught summoning their keepers using a strange cough-sneeze mixture, which researchers have called a “snough”. Only two other species have displayed this ability to create new vocalizations to attract our attention: zoo-housed chimpanzees and orangutans. Now, we can add gorillas to that list.
As many of us know, Koko put a spotlight on gorilla intelligence in the 1980s and 1990s with her incredible ability to communicate with humans using sign language. She was trained and worked hard at it, but now it seems gorillas have taken it upon themselves to establish unique communication with us in their own way.
Roberta Salmi, a biological anthropologist at the University of Georgia, and colleagues ran an experiment to confirm the purpose of the “snough”, by placing eight of the zoo’s gorillas in three different situations. In the first, only the keeper was present; in the second only the food was present; in the final one, the keeper was holding the food. The food and keeper were in sight but out of reach. The gorillas involved used the “snough” vocalization most when there was a human present with food, indicating the call is likely an attempt to get the keeper’s attention.
This complex vocal learning — the ability to produce unique calls — is rare in the animal kingdom and confirmed only in some species of birds, bats and elephants. But they all do so by imitating. The analysis showed the gorilla’s “snough” is a unique sound, not an imitation — although they are certainly capable of imitating us in other ways.
“These results demonstrate that gorillas can change their calls to produce a novel sound and furthermore confirm that they can produce their calls and gestures intentionally to change the attention state of their caregiver,” the team concluded in their paper. We’ve clearly long underestimated these clever souls.
1. Which of the following can replace “summoning” underlined in paragraph 1?| A．pleasing | B．calling | C．finding | D．warning |
| A．By ordering the gorillas to make the “snough” vocalization. |
| B．By training the gorillas to attract their keepers’ attention. |
| C．By comparing the gorillas’ reactions in different situations. |
| D．By gathering information about the gorillas from their keepers. |
| A．To illustrate gorillas can imitate humans in other ways. |
| B．To confirm only gorillas have the ability to produce unique calls. |
| C．To prove the animals can produce unique calls through imitation. |
| D．To show gorillas’ ability to invent the new vocalization is uncommon. |
| A．Some animals have the ability to make new sounds. |
| B．Gorillas can create a new sound to draw zookeepers’ attention. |
| C．Some intelligent animals try to attract attention by imitating. |
| D．Gorillas are able to communicate with humans using unique gestures. |
9 . I’m not a good traveler. Without curiosity to get out and
It would be kind to say that I have a low sense of
South Africa was the biggest surprise. I had never really
Once I was
I’ve always been a very
| A．exercise | B．experiment | C．explore | D．research |
| A．dangerous | B．painful | C．suitable | D．enjoyable |
| A．nervous | B．happy | C．angry | D．curious |
| A．humor | B．adventure | C．direction | D．responsibility |
| A．excited | B．serious | C．disturbed | D．hesitant |
| A．plans | B．dates | C．boundaries | D．projects |
| A．surprise | B．introduce | C．express | D．teach |
| A．refused | B．failed | C．feared | D．wanted |
| A．actually | B．usually | C．mainly | D．hardly |
| A．respect | B．appetite | C．passion | D．understanding |
| A．attracted | B．encountered | C．missed | D．helped |
| A．patient | B．brave | C．shy | D．generous |
| A．wonderful | B．tiring | C．boring | D．different |
| A．build up | B．brush off | C．catch sight of | D．run away from |
| A．accept | B．develop | C．find | D．lose |
10 . The age-old chore of dusting could soon be a thing of the past. Scientists are developing “self-cleaning” surfaces that make dust particles unable to stick to them. Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin say the particles instead stick to each other and simply roll off the surfaces with nothing more than the assistance of gravity.
The scientists altered the geometry (几何构造) of flat surfaces at a level invisible to human eyes. The team made a tightly-packed nanoscale (纳米级) network of pyramid-shaped structures on the surfaces which made it difficult for dust particles to stick to the material. Instead, the particles stick to each other before rolling off the material due to gravity.
The study, funded by a grant (拨款) from NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program, tested the material by piling lunar dust on their engineered surfaces before turning them on their sides. The team found that just two percent of the surface remained dusty, compared with more than 35 percent of an unaltered smooth surface. The new surface could provide a passive solution to removing dust, as opposed to more active methods like using wipers and fluid to clear dust from a car windscreen.
“What we’ve demonstrated here is a surface that can clean itself,” says lead study author Chih-Hao Chang. “Particulates aren’t able to stick to the surface, so they come off using just the force of gravity.”
Study authors hope the material provides a solution to space dust, which can be extremely harmful in such a high-risk environment and is almost impossible to clean out. Space dust has previously caused great damage to NASA’s human spaceflight Apollo missions and has even caused rovers on Mars to malfunction and fail. “There’s not much you can do about lunar dust in space—it sticks to everything and there’s no real way to wipe it off,” says Samuel Lee, a lead author of the study. “Dust on solar panels of Mars rovers can cause them to fail.”
However, the researchers also believe the discovery could prove useful on Earth, preventing solar panels from collecting dust and losing efficiency. These surfaces may even protect our screens and windows from irritating dust.
1. How did the scientists alter the flat surfaces?| A．By putting thin paint on them. | B．By creating a special network on them. |
| C．By making particles stick to each other. | D．By making them invisible to human eyes. |
| A．Over 35% of the surfaces were dusty. |
| B．Just two percent of the surfaces remained dusty. |
| C．The surfaces still needed to be cleaned with wipers and fluid. |
| D．The surfaces attracted more dust particles than common ones. |
| A．To show the material can be very helpful. | B．To prove irritating dust exists everywhere. |
| C．To show the importance of space exploration. | D．To explain why NASA supported the research. |
| A．Dust threatened missions in space. | B．Scientists developed self-cleaning surfaces. |
| C．Self-cleaning surfaces proved useful on Earth. | D．Scientists developed a material for rovers on Mars. |
