Acting was, is and always will be the first love of the National Peking Opera Company’s new vice-president, Tian Lei, Chen Nan reports.
Huguosi Street was one of Beijing’s
The neighborhood
Tian has been working with the opera company for 10 years. Its premises (处所) are
Confucius was born into a middle class family in Lu State, an area with the modern city of Qufu, in China’s Shandong Province. Now, he
Confucius also lived
Even up to the time of Confucius’s
Yet, his philosophical (哲学的) ideas survived during the later Han Dynasty. Emperor Han Wudi,
One morning, I was waiting at the bus stop, worried about
4 . In China, tea has become an important part of everyday life for thousands of years. As the tea-processing methods and tea culture have evolved over the years, tea sets have also changed to meet the practical and cultural needs.
During the Tang Dynasty(618~907AD), tea leaves were traded across the country and Asia. For the convenience of transportation and storage, tea leaves were pressed into bricks. To prepare tea, drinkers had to cut them into small pieces and boil them in heat-resistant teapots.
By the Song Dynasty(960-1279), drinkers started to turn the hard bricks into powders (粉末) that could be whipped (搅打) in a cup with boiled water. This whipped tea is most commonly associated with Japanese tea ceremonies today.
By the 1500s, tea bricks gave way to the form of rolled leaves. This innovation led to the invention and use of teapots as we know them today. These teapots originally came from the Yi Xing region of China and were soon copied throughout the world. Then Japanese teapot-makers moved the handle from the side to the top of the teapots.
Tea finally reached Europe in the 1600s, along with the necessary tea sets made in Japan and China. As English teapot-makers began to adapt the tea sets to their country men’s tastes, they eventually added a handle to the tea bowl because of the English habit of drinking hot black tea, which was consumed at higher temperatures. The size of teacups also grew to accommodate milk and sugar in their tea.
By the early 1900s, innovations in tea drinking became an American affair. The most revolutionary one was the tea bag, which was accidentally commercialized by Thomas Sullivan. He had been sending customers tea wrapped in silk bags. Rather than take the leaves out of the bags, as Sullivan intended, the customers put the bags into their teapots instead. Not only did the tea bags push the teapot back to the sidelines of tea service, they were also too large for teacups and led to the modern practice of drinking tea from mugs.
1. Which was used to make the whipped tea in Japan?| A．Rolled tea leaves. | B．Freshly picked tea leaves. |
| C．Powdered tea leaves. | D．Loosely pressed tea leaves. |
| A．Tea bags and mugs. | B．Tea bowls with handles. |
| C．Heat-resistant teapots. | D．Teapots with top handles. |
| A．Customers are very creative. | B．Innovations are relatively easy. |
| C．Marketing strategy is critical. | D．Good ideas can be born by accident. |
| A．The Development of Tea Sets | B．Varieties of Tea Leaves |
| C．Various Tea-making Methods | D．The Spread of Tea Trades |
5 . More than 80 percent of global heat is absorbed by the ocean, which has a massive capacity to store and give off heat. High sea-surface temperatures are causing long-term damage to coral reefs (珊瑚礁). Corals are dying. The IPCC (政府间气候变化专门委员会) projects that up to 90 percent of coral reefs could disappear if global warming reaches 1.5℃. Another reason corals are in trouble is because of ocean acidification. Higher carbon dioxide levels have shift ed the chemistry of the ocean, making it more acidic, and corals and sea creatures have trouble growing in acidic conditions.
When ocean water warms, it expands in volume. This is a major cause of the rise in sea levels, along with the water added to the ocean by the melting of land-based glaciers (冰川). The sea level has risen by an average of 20 centimeters since the late 19th century, and the research by scientists studying the last 25 years of satellite data found that the ocean water is rising faster and faster. If it continues at its current rate, the rise in sea level by 2100 will be more than double the current estimates. Sea level rise leads to the destruction of coastal wetlands, flooding and damage to water ecosystems.
Temperature and precipitation (沉淀) are key elements of climate. A warmer climate means that more water rises from both the land and ocean, and a warmer atmosphere holds more of that water. Scientists have noticed that there are more heavy rainfall events. Additionally, higher water temperature in streams, lakes, and rivers lead to lower levels of dissolved oxygen in the water, which impacts the survival and populations of fish and other sea life.
Especially troubling are the extreme weather events that are happening more often around the world. Hurricanes are ramping up in intensity, particularly in North Atlantic. The year 2017 was a busy one for Atlantic hurricanes. Meanwhile, in the western United States, the state of California has had record-setting drought conditions, which began in 2012.
1. What does the author intend to tell us in Paragraph 1?| A．Global warming has little damage to the land. | B．Ocean acidification affects the sea temperature. |
| C．Coral reefs are in danger of disappearing. | D．Corals and sea creatures need critical surroundings. |
| A．Sea level rise has positive effect on sea animals. |
| B．By 2100 the sea level will rise 20 centimeters. |
| C．Global heating is the direct cause of wetlands destruction. |
| D．The rise of sea level is beyond our imagination. |
| A．Increasing. | B．Failing. | C．Appearing. | D．Changing. |
| A．High Sea-surface Temperatures to Creatures | B．Global Warming, What Damages It Causes |
| C．Ways to Stop High Sea-surface Temperatures | D．Extreme Weather Events and Global Warming |
Mai Lin wasn’t doing well enough at school, or at least she wasn’t satisfied with herself. She wished she could do better.
“Let’s review the material we learned in the last unit,” the history teacher said. “Who can tell us what caused the War of 1812?” Mai Lin sat at her desk, staring ahead. She hoped the teacher wouldn’t call her name. They hadn’t studied the War of 1812 at her old school and she didn’t know the answer.
“Alison?” the teacher asked instead. Oh, perfect, Mai Lin thought. Of course Alison would have the answer. She seemed to have all the answers. Alison was the most popular girl in school – always surrounded by millions of boyfriends, best friends, and others. She was like a brilliant sun.
Mai Lin hadn’t made one or two friends of her own so far. Her old school was small and low-key, but a shy person like Mai Lin had a chance there. This new school, however, seemed as big as an airport to Mai Lin, and it seemed very hard to get around in it. She still got lost sometimes in the school.
Mai Lin frowned (皱眉) as Alison answered the teacher’s question. Alison probably never got lost, Mai Lin thought to herself. You could probably put Alison down in the middle of a desert, and within five minutes she’d be able to tell you the best way to get home.
History class finally ended, and Mai Lin headed for the gym. The class had been playing basketball. Alison, who was as tall and thin and attractive as a tree, was very good at it. Beside her, Mai Lin felt like a very small and foolish ant. Today, however, the gym teacher pointed to a thick rope hanging from the ceiling and said, “Everybody! You’re going to climb this rope today.”
注意：
1.续写词数应为 150 左右；2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Hearing the teacher’s words, Mai Lin smiled.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mai Lin stepped forward and got close to the rope.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________7 . Some libraries use unique architecture to encourage visitors to explore the bookshelves and settle down with a new book, or use roving libraries to bring books to hard-to-reach populations. No matter how they achieve it, these novel libraries are keeping the magic of reading alive.
Bishan Library (Singapore)
Built in 2006, this library with skylights and trellises, is meant to invoke a modern glass treehouse. Glass pods of varying colors stick out of the building randomly to create cozy yet airy corners for reading throughout the building. At the same time, a more open-plan children’s room on the basement level invites interaction while preventing noise from filtering upward and disturbing those concentrating in the lofty perches above.
Stuttgart City Library (Stuttgart, Germany)
Opened in 2011, this nine-story public library is characterized by its attractive white color scheme (lit by blue light at night), its bold cubic shape. This cultural center for the city, designed to feel open and full of light, can be entered from any of its four sides, and people can borrow artwork as well as books.
The Camel Library Service (North Eastern Province, Kenya)
To combat low literacy rates in the desert of Kenya, the government created a roaming library composed of nine camels bringing books to villages. The library travels four days a week serving the region’s nomadic people. With more funding, they plan to increase their reach both in distance and the books they carry.
Macquarie University Library (Sydney, Australia)
A wonderful combination of cutting-edge and sustainable ideas, this building was made from recycled materials, features a green roof, and was designed to look like the shape of a eucalyptus tree. It is also state of the art, using robot cranes to bring requested books to the front desk.
1. Which of the following can offer the service of lending artwork?| A．Bishan Library. | B．Stuttgart City Library. |
| C．The Camel Library Service. | D．Macquarie University Library. |
| A．It is intelligent and environmentally-friendly. |
| B．It has a green roof and a eucalyptus tree outside. |
| C．It is like a modern glass treehouse with skylights. |
| D．It opens four days a week serving the local people. |
| A．prevent noise |
| B．recycle old books |
| C．encourage reading |
| D．present beautiful appearances |
8 . When a leafy plant is under attack, it doesn’t sit quietly. Back in 1983, two scientists, Jack Schultz and Ian Baldwin, reported that young maple trees getting bitten by insects send out a particular smell that neighboring plants can get. These chemicals come from the injured parts of the plant and seem to be an alarm. What the plants pump through the air is a mixture of chemicals known as volatile organic compounds, VOCs for short.
Scientists have found that all kinds of plants give out VOCs when being attacked. It’s a plant’s way of crying out. But is anyone listening? Apparently. Because we can watch the neighbours react.
Some plants pump out smelly chemicals to keep insects away. But others do double duty. They pump out perfumes designed to attract different insects who are natural enemies to the attackers. Once they arrive, the tables are turned. The attacker who was lunching now becomes lunch.
In study after study, it appears that these chemical conversations help the neighbors .The damage is usually more serious on the first plant, but the neighbors, relatively speaking, stay safer because they heard the alarm and knew what to do.
Does this mean that plants talk to each other? Scientists don’t know. Maybe the first plant just made a cry of pain or was sending a message to its own branches, and so, in effect, was talking to itself. Perhaps the neighbors just happened to “overhear” the cry. So information was exchanged, but it wasn’t a true, intentional back and forth. Charles Darwin, over 150 years ago, imagined a world far busier, noisier and more intimate (亲密的) than the world we can see and hear. Our senses are weak. There’s a whole lot going on.
1. What does a plant do when it is under attack?| A．It makes noises. | B．It gets help from other plants. |
| C．It stands quietly | D．It sends out certain chemicals. |
| A．The attackers get attacked. |
| B．The insects gather under the table. |
| C．The plants get ready to fight back. |
| D．The perfumes attract natural enemies. |
| A．predict natural disasters |
| B．protect themselves against insects |
| C．talk to one another intentionally |
| D．help their neighbors when necessary |
| A．The world is changing faster than ever. |
| B．People have stronger senses than before |
| C．The world is more complex than it seems |
| D．People in Darwin’s time were imaginative. |
9 . Whenever you pick up an apple and prepare to eat it, you may notice a small sticker attached to the fruit with a row of four or five numbers on it.That string of numbers is something called a Price Look-Up (PLU) code.
From the code, you can also know what specific variety of a particular fruit or vegetable you’re going to enjoy — whether it’s a Honeycrisp apple or a Shamouti orange. And it may tell you the size of the fruit or vegetable.
A volunteer committee developed PLUs in 1988. One important reason why PLUs were invented was to enable supermarkets to tell the difference between conventionally grown fruits and vegetables and higher-priced organic food. As organic produce was being introduced then, cashiers often wrongly sold it at the conventional price.
| A．The function is fairly simple. |
| B．PLU codes have a long history. |
| C．You probably think organic food is healthier. |
| D．The appearance of PLUs helped solve this problem. |
| E．Besides, it shows where the fruit or vegetable comes from. |
| F．The future of fruit and vegetable stickers is still uncertain. |
| G．You can use the PLU search app to know what a particular one means. |
10 . A walk around the workplace is also a trip back in time. The office is where colleagues meet, work and bond. But it is also a time capsule, a place where the traces of historic patterns of working are visible everywhere. The pandemic has heightened this sense of office as a dig site for corporate archaeologists.
The most obvious object is the landline phone(固定电话), a reminder of the days when mobility meant being able to stand up and keep talking. Long after people have junked them in their personal lives - less than 15% of Americans aged between 25 and 34 had one at home in the second half of 2021- landline phones survive in offices.
There might be good reasons for its persistence: they offer a more secure and stable connection than mobile phones, and no one worries that they are about to run out of battery. In practice, the habit of using them was definitely lost during the pandemic. Now they sit on desk after desk, rows of buttons unpressed, ring tones unheard.
Landline phones were already well on their way out before covid-19 struck. Whiteboard charts have suffered a swifter reverse. These objects signal a particular type of pain- people physically crowded together into a room while a manager sketches a graph with a marker pen and points meaningfully to the top-right-hand corner, giving requirements never to be satisfied. This manager is still making graphs but is now much more likely to use a PowerPoint. The crowd is still being tortured but is now much more likely to be watching on the screen. The office still has whiteboards, but they are left in corners and the charts on them are slowly yellowing.
Real archaeologists need tools and time to do their painstaking work: brushes, shovels and picks. Corporate archaeology is easier: you just need eyes and a memory of how things used to be. But you also need to be quick as more and more work places are revamped for the post-pandemic era. Now its time to take a careful look around the office: you may see something that will soon seem outdated.
1. Why does the author refer to the office as a time capsule?| A．You can travel back in time in the office. |
| B．You can dig out what has been buried for years in the office. |
| C．You can easily find some old-fashioned practices in the office. |
| D．You can work with archaeologists to study the history in the office. |
| A．Whiteboard charts went useless due to new technologies. |
| B．More employees prefer online meetings to physical gatherings. |
| C．Landline phones still exist in offices because they don’t need batteries. |
| D．Many employees show a negative attitude to some routine work in companies. |
| A．Transformed. | B．Abandoned. |
| C．Discovered. | D．Reserved. |
| A．The Impact of Pandemic on Workplace | B．The Archaeology of the Office |
| C．Why Landline Phones Went Outdated? | D．The History of Old-fashioned Objects |
