1 . Journey Back in Time with Scholars
Classical Provence(13days)Journey through the beautiful countryside of Provence，France，with Prof. Ori Z. Soltes. We will visit some of the best-preserved Roman monuments in the world. Our tour also includes a chance to walk in the footsteps of Van Gogh and Gauguin. Fields of flowers, tile-roofed(瓦屋顶)villages and tasty meals enrich this wonderful experience.
Southern Spain(15days)
Spain has lovely white towns and the scent(芳香)of oranges，but it is also a treasury of ancient remains including the cities left by the Greeks，Romans and Arabs. As we travel south from Madrid with Prof. Ronald Messier to historic Toledo，Roman Merida and into Andalucia, we explore historical monuments and architecture.
China’s Sacred Landscapes(21days)
Discover the China of “past ages,” its walled cities，temples and mountain scenery with Prof. Robert Thorp. Highlights(精彩之处)include China’s most sacred peaks at Mount Tai and Hangzbou’s rolling hills，waterways and peaceful temples. We will wander in traditional small towns and end our tour with an exceptional museum in Shanghai.
Tunisia(17days)
Join Prof. Pedar Foss on our in-depth Tunisian tour. Tour highlights include the Roman city of Dougga，the underground Numidian capital at Bulla Regia, Roman Sbeitla and the remote areas around Tataouine and Matmata，uique for underground cities. Our journey takes us to picturesque Berber villages and lovely beaches.
1. What can visitors see in both Classical Provence and Southern Spain？
| A．Historical monuments. | B．Fields of flowers. |
| C．Van Gogh’s paintings. | D．Greek buildings. |
| A．France. | B．Spain. | C．China. | D．Tunisia. |
| A．White towns. | B．Underground cities. | C．Tile-roofed villages. | D．Rolling hills. |
| A．which | B．what | C．when | D．that |
French disaster epic Notre-Dame on Fire hits Chinese big screen
This April marks the
NotreDame on Fire, now in Chinese cinemas, is a disaster epic
Presenting a blow-by-blow recreation of the gripping events that
“It was a
“When I saw this movie in Paris last year, it took me a few hours
The French minister announced that 2024 will be the France-China Year of Culture and Tourism and she invited Chinese tourists to travel to France for the occasion, especially to see the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris,
4 . No one is born a winner. People make themselves into winners by their own
I learned this lesson from a(n)
It was a tradition for the school’s old team to play against the
I started doing anything I could to help them build a little
Six months after suffering our
From the experience I learnt a lot about how the attitude of the leader can
Winners are made, but born.
1.| A．luck | B．tests | C．efforts | D．nature |
| A．experiment | B．experience | C．visit | D．show |
| A．operating | B．editing | C．consulting | D．coaching |
| A．successful | B．excellent | C．strong | D．new |
| A．cheer for | B．prepare for | C．help with | D．finish with |
| A．believe | B．agree | C．describe | D．regret |
| A．realize | B．claim | C．permit | D．demand |
| A．reacting to | B．looking for | C．depending on | D．caring about |
| A．decision | B．attitude | C．conclusion | D．intention |
| A．pride | B．culture | C．fortune | D．relationship |
| A．leaders | B．partners | C．winners | D．learners |
| A．rewards | B．vacations | C．health | D．honor |
| A．risked | B．missed | C．considered | D．practiced |
| A．defeat | B．decline | C．accident | D．mistake |
| A．relax | B．improve | C．expand | D．defend |
| A．shame | B．burden | C．victory | D．favor |
| A．chances | B．thrills | C．concerns | D．offers |
| A．surprise | B．serve | C．interest | D．affect |
| A．encouraged | B．observed | C．protected | D．impressed |
| A．honestly | B．individually | C．calmly | D．differently |
5 . Moving into a new home in a new neighborhood is an exciting experience. Of course, you want to make sure that you become an acceptable and valuable part of your neighborhood . the easiest way to accomplish this is to make sure you conduct yourself as a good neighbor should.
Perhaps one of the most important things you can do as a good neighbor is to keep your property(房产) neat, clean, and in good repair.
Second, take the overall appearance of the neighborhood seriously,. When going for a walk. Take a small garbage bag.
| A．In general, keep an eye on their property while they are gone. |
| B．A good neighbor is also one who likes to help out in small ways. |
| C．Being a good neighbor is more or less about considerate behavior. |
| D．Sometimes neighbors may go to the supermarket together to do shopping. |
| E．Should you come across waste paper thrown out of a passing car, pick it up. |
| F．People tend to lake pride in keeping everything in their street fresh and inviting. |
| G．Here are a few tips to help you win over everyone in the neighborhood quickly |
| A．conducted | B．conducting | C．being conducted | D．was conducted |
7 . Down House, home of Charles Darwin:
Fun fact
Charles Darwin, his wife, Emma, and their children lived at Down House for 40 years from 1838. Several rooms appear as if the family still live here: with croquet sets thrown into an under-stairs cupboard, a half-played game of backgammon on a side table and Emma’s knitting(毛线) left on a chair in the drawing room. Upstairs, an exhibition showcases Darwin’s voyage aboard HMS Beagle, including a reconstruction of his cabin. Outside, visitors can explore the sheltered gardens which Darwin used as an open-air laboratory, and the greenhouse in which he planted rare plants and devised botanical experiments.
No room at Down House escaped Darwin’s experiments. In the drawing room he once placed a jar of earthworms on the grand piano to see whether they could hear.
Getting there
A 15-minute drive from the A21/Farnborough. Free parking. The R8 bus from Orpington stops nearby (except Sundays) or the 146 bus from Bromley North and South terminates (终点站) in Downe village, half a mile from the property. The nearest railway stations are Chelsfield or Orpington, about four miles away.
Value for money?
It’s ￡12 (adult), ￡7.20 (child), or ￡31.30 (family with 2 adults). Under 5s go free.
Opening hours
Open daily 10am-6pm from 30 March to 30 September; daily 10 a.m. — 5 p.m. between 1 to 31 October. Opening times vary through the winter (check website for details).
Verdict(评价)
8/10. An unstuffy educational, gentle day-trip attraction with friendly, knowledgeable staff.
1. What can visitors do in Down House?| A．Play the grand piano. | B．Set sail in HMS Beagle. |
| C．Explore Darwin’s work and life. | D．Try food sourced from the garden. |
| A．￡38.40. | B．￡26.20. | C．￡31.30. | D．￡24. |
| A．It is highly thought of. | B．It charges parking fees. |
| C．It has fixed opening hours. | D．It is inconveniently located. |
8 . Does your life ever feel as if you’re pushing a heavy car—one on which you’ve spent much money and that has now broken down? You’ve done everything right: you haven’t invested heavily in a new business or quit your job to pursue your childhood dream of becoming a professional athlete. You have been a sensible adult living your sensible life. So why does it feel like such hard work?
This has been me for the past few months. Earlier this year, I took a long hard look at my sources of income and decided to focus on the ones that provided the most money. I’m lucky enough to have had a good financial year. But despite doing the right thing, it has used up my energy and I’ve worked out why.
Years ago, I realized that I disliked hard work. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind working hard, but hard work isn’t for me. What’s the difference? For a start, hard work feels as if it never really gets going. You can push hard work and it might move a little but there’s no celebratory moment when it gets done. Most importantly, hard work lacks joy. Working hard on a project you feel excited and moved by can be tiring and difficult, but it’s ultimately joyful and that is what I’ve been missing
So I asked myself what would feel scary but joyful and this is the answer. I’m going to write a romance. Of course, being a middle-aged journalist who suddenly decides to write a book is nothing novel. However, for me, it hits the sweet spot between being joyful enough to make me want to do it and scary enough to make me feel it’s worthwhile.
As with all good middle-aged changes, this one hasn’t really been thought through. I know little about writing fiction and even less about what makes a good book. I have the thinnest of ideas for a plot but, for the first time in a while, I’m excited, I will be another Jane Austen with my fantasies which give me life. So now, I have to go and sharpen my pencil.
1. What can best describe-the author’s current feeling about life?| A．A new business makes her feel fresh. |
| B．She has got everything under her control. |
| C．She is conflicted about living a sensible life. |
| D．A childhood dream inspires her to more efforts. |
| A．Living a rather sensible life. | B．Identifying income sources. |
| C．Discovering new life goals. | D．Sorting out the author’s jobs |
| A．Journalism is a career worth working hard. |
| B．Hard work is something either sweet or tiring. |
| C．Writing a romance is difficult but rewarding. |
| D．Working hard rarely brings about satisfaction |
| A．Works like a dream. | B．Middle-aged job crisis |
| C．Celebratory moment. | D．A future Jane Austen. |
For you,the “Clear and Bright” day that falls in every April might be no more than just another holiday — the fact that it comes with three days off school matters to most students
But the UNESCO has recognized the importance of the 24 solar terms. This ancient system that Chinese people have used to keep track of the time of year
For starters, you may have heard your mom say: “The sanfu days are almost over. The heat won’t be here for long.” The sanfu days are a period of time that
In some places, solar terms guide people’s lives through special foods,
But no matter
According to Chinese writer and academic Yu Shicun, unlike many other examples of intangible cultural heritage – Peking Opera and Chinese Zhusuan, for example – the solar terms are neither regional (地域的) nor a type of art or skill. Instead, the system is a philosophy of time,
10 . Black Friday refers to the day after Thanksgiving. On this day, crowds of shoppers flood into stores all over the country to take advantage of the season’s biggest holiday bargains. But the real story behind Black Friday is a bit complicated.
The most commonly repeated story behind the post-Thanksgiving shopping-related Black Friday tradition links it to retailers (零售商). As the story goes, after an entire year of operating at a loss, recorded in red ink, stores would supposedly earn a profit, marked in black ink, on the day after Thanksgiving, because holiday shoppers blew so much money on discounted products. Though it’s true that retail companies used to record losses in red and profits in black when doing their accounting, this version of Black Friday’s origin is not an accurate story behind the tradition.
The true story behind Black Friday, however, is not as sunny as retailers might have you believe. Back in the 1950s, police in the city of Philadelphia used the term to describe the chaos that happened on the day after Thanksgiving, when tens of thousands of suburban shoppers and tourists flooded into the city in advance of the big Army-Navy football game held on that Saturday every year. Not only would the police not be able to take the day off, but also they would have to work extra-long shifts dealing with the additional crowds and traffic.
The term didn’t spread to the rest of the country until much later, however, and as recently as 1985 it wasn’t in common use nationwide. Sometime in the late 1980s, however, retailers found a way to reinvent Black Friday and turn it into something that reflected positively on them and their customers. The result was the “red to black” concept mentioned earlier. The Black Friday story stuck, and pretty soon the term’s darker roots in Philadelphia were largely forgotten.
1. What is usually believed to be the origin of Black Friday?| A．The great profit retailers may gain. | B．The way retailers do their accounting. |
| C．The much money shoppers spend. | D．The biggest bargains on this day. |
| A．They had to compete with more shoppers for bargains. |
| B．They had to give up the big Army-Navy football game. |
| C．They had to work more hours to deal with the chaos. |
| D．They had to advance to suburb to fight against floods. |
| A．to attract more customers to shop | B．to create the “red to black” concept |
| C．to make profits by this special event | D．to change people’s impression of it |
| A．To introduce the real history of Black Friday. |
| B．To explain a term with various meanings. |
| C．To show the biggest shopping holiday in US. |
| D．To remind readers of a forgotten truth of red and black. |
