1 . I didn’t quite know what I was looking for when I flew to Mongolia for a term abroad. I just needed something different, far from the late-night libraries of my college town. Most different, I hoped, would be my rural homestay: two weeks in central Mongolia with a family of nomadic(游牧的) herders.
I was studying Mongolian at the time, but still, there was so much I couldn’t say or understand. As we walked in the snow behind the goats, my host mom would ask me if I was cold, then giggle (咯咯地笑) and copy a big shiver to make sure I understood. In the evenings, she showed me how to make dumplings with her fingers. My host siblings would talk with me, speaking too fast for me to understand, as we explored the rocks around our tent; I’d listen and nod.
This verbal(言语的) barrier was strangely freeing. In the crowded dining hall at home, meeting new people made me anxious. I’d stay quiet, measuring out my words, struggling for something to say that wouldn’t expose me as unfunny or boring. In Mongolia, I couldn’t perfect my words. I could only smile, and try out one of the phrases I’d mastered: “May I help?” “Where is the dog?” “Are you tired?” My host family laughed at my pronunciation, at the way I threw up my hands and eyebrows in a frequent gesture of confusion. But in their laughter, I felt safe, unembarrassed.
With my Mongolian family on the grassland, I found a feeling of ease I’d never felt before. We were so different, they and I, and not just in language. Their skin was hardened and darkened by sun; I’d been hidden under hats and sunscreen since birth. My host siblings(兄弟姐妹) grew up drawing water from frozen streams and jogging behind herds of sheep; I spent summers at tennis camp.
For me, these gaps made all the difference. Without shared social measures, I wasted no time wondering how I was measuring up. Only real things—kindness, helpfulness—mattered.
1. Why did the author go to Mongolia for a term abroad?| A．She dreamed of living a nomadic life. | B．She was tired of studying late at night. |
| C．She had to study Mongolians’ normal life. | D．She was collecting information for libraries. |
| A．Hug. | B．Smile. | C．Attack. | D．Shake. |
| A．She felt at ease in the crowd. | B．She usually weighed her words. |
| C．She asked a lot of funny questions. | D．She often made others laugh with jokes. |
| A．You are judged wherever you go. | B．Nature makes humans feel insignificant. |
| C．Appearance reflects one’s standard of life. | D．Being kind is the common social standard. |
6 . Many people love to listen to music while driving. Thanks to the world’s musical roads, drivers now don’t need to turn the radio on.
A musical road can create music when a car tires go over grooves (凹槽) on the road. To produce beautiful music, drivers must pass over the grooves at a certain speed. Signs often tell drivers the right speed.
In Hungary, there is a musical road in honor of one of the country’s most popular musical performers — Laszlo Bodi. Bodi was the lead singer for the band Republic.
| A．Musical roads are also keeping drivers safe. |
| B．There is not any music road in Eastern countries. |
| C．Musical roads help improve the road safety greatly. |
| D．But they can also enjoy music while taking road trips. |
| E．Formed in 1990, the group is one of Hungary’s biggest acts and is still active today. |
| F．The first musical road was created in Gylling, Denmark, in 1995. |
| G．For example, in Japan, there are many musical roads throughout the country. |
7 . In a small, rough shipyard on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, a small team is building what they say will be the world’s largest ocean-going clean cargo ship.
Ceiba is the first ship built by Sailcargo, a company trying to prove that zero-carbon shipping is possible, and commercially available. Made largely of wood, Ceiba combines both very old and very new technology: sailing masts stand alongside solar panels, a uniquely designed electric engine and batteries. Once on the water, she will be capable of crossing oceans entirely without the use of fossil fuels, which sets her apart.
“The thing that is striking is the fact that she’ll have one of the largest marine electric engines of her kind in the world,” Danielle Doggett said. The system also has the means to capture energy from underwater propellers (螺旋桨) as well as solar power, so electricity will be available for the engine when needed. “Really, the only limit on how long she can stay at sea is water and food on board for the crew.”
Despite some hold-ups due to the global disaster, the team hopes to get her on the water by the end of 2024 and operating by 2025, when she will begin transporting cargo between Costa Rica and Canada.
“There are actually loads of innovations happening that could transform shipping emissions, but few companies are willing to apply them to building ships like Ceiba.” says Lucy Gilliam. “So it’s not that we don’t have great ideas. The problem that we have is that fossil fuels are still too cheap. And we don’t have the rules to force people to take up the new technology.”
When it comes to promoting this kind of boat, it has to be said that Ceiba is small for a cargo ship — tiny in fact. She will carry around nine standard shipping containers. She is also relatively slow. Being a world-first, there are some aspects of Ceiba’s design that have yet to be proven at sea.
1. What is unique about Ceiba as a cargo ship?| A．It is the world’s largest. | B．It is environment-friendly. |
| C．It is wooden with old technology. | D．It is modern with unique equipment. |
| A．The size of the sail. | B．The weather of the ocean. |
| C．The power of the electric engine. | D．The quantity of the living supplies. |
| A．The rules are disobeyed. | B．The fuels are affordable. |
| C．The bigger ships are preferable. | D．The innovations are distrusted. |
| A．Objective. | B．Doubtful. | C．Critical. | D．Favorable. |
