1 . Reading Art: Art for Book Lovers is a celebration of an everyday object — the book, represented here in almost three hundred artworks from museums around the world. The image of the reader appears throughout history, in art made long before books as we now know them came into being. In artists’ representations of books and reading, we see moments of shared humanity that go beyond culture and time.

In this “book of books,” artworks are selected and arranged in a way that emphasizes these connections between different eras and cultures. We see scenes of children learning to read at home or at school, with the book as a focus for relations between the generations. Adults are portrayed (描绘) alone in many settings and poses —absorbed in a volume, deep in thought or lost in a moment of leisure. These scenes may have been painted hundreds of years ago, but they record moments we can all relate to.

Books themselves may be used symbolically in paintings to demonstrate the intellect (才智), wealth or faith of the subject. Before the wide use of the printing press, books were treasured objects and could be works of art in their own right. More recently, as books have become inexpensive or even throwaway, artists have used them as the raw material for artworks — transforming covers, pages or even complete volumes into paintings and sculptures.

Continued developments in communication technologies were once believed to make the printed page outdated. From a 21st-century point of view, the printed book is certainly ancient, but it remains as interactive as any battery-powered e-reader. To serve its function, a book must be activated by a user: the cover opened, the pages parted, the contents reviewed, perhaps notes written down or words underlined. And in contrast to our increasingly networked lives where the information we consume is monitored and tracked, a printed book still offers the chance of a wholly private, “off-line” activity.

1. Where is the text most probably taken from?

A．An introduction to a book.	B．An essay on the art of writing.
C．A guidebook to a museum.	D．A review of modern paintings.

2. What are the selected artworks about?

A．Wealth and intellect.	B．Home and school.
C．Books and reading.	D．Work and leisure.

3. What do the underlined words “relate to” in paragraph 2 mean?

A．Understand.	B．Paint.
C．Seize.	D．Transform.

4. What does the author want to say by mentioning the e-reader?

A．The printed book is not totally out of date.

B．Technology has changed the way we read.

C．Our lives in the 21st century are networked.

D．People now rarely have the patience to read.

2 . According to the Solar Energy Industry Association, the number of solar panels installed(安装)has grown rapidly in the past decade, and it has to grow even faster to meet climate goals. But all of that growth will take up a lot of space, and though more and more people accept the concept of solar energy, few like large solar panels to be installed near them.

Solar developers want to put up panels as quickly and cheaply as possible, so they haven’t given much thought to what they put under them. Often, they’ll end up filling the area with small stones and using chemicals to control weeds. The result is that many communities, especially in farming regions, see solar farms as destroyers of the soil.

“Solar projects need to be good neighbors,” says Jordan Macknick, the head of the Innovative Site Preparation and Impact Reductions on the Environment(InSPIRE)project. “They need to be protectors of the land and contribute to the agricultural economy.” InSPIRE is investigating practical approaches to “low-impact” solar development, which focuses on establishing and operating solar farms in a way that is kinder to the land. One of the easiest low-impact solar strategies is providing habitat for pollinators(传粉昆虫).

Habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change have caused dramatic declines in pollinator populations over the past couple of decades, which has damaged the U.S. agricultural economy. Over 28 states have passed laws related to pollinator habitat protection and pesticide use. Conservation organizations put out pollinator-friendliness guidelines for home gardens, businesses, schools, cities—and now there are guidelines for solar farms.

Over the past few years, many solar farm developers have transformed the space under their solar panels into a shelter for various kinds of pollinators, resulting in soil improvement and carbon reduction. “These pollinator-friendly solar farms can have a valuable impact on everything that’s going on in the landscape,” says Macknick.

1. What do solar developers often ignore?

A．The decline in the demand for solar energy.

B．The negative impact of installing solar panels.

C．The rising labor cost of building solar farms.

D．The most recent advances in solar technology.

2. What does InSPIRE aim to do?

A．Improve the productivity of local farms.

B．Invent new methods for controlling weeds.

C．Make solar projects environmentally friendly.

D．Promote the use of solar energy in rural areas.

3. What is the purpose of the laws mentioned in paragraph 4?

A．To conserve pollinators.	B．To restrict solar development.
C．To diversify the economy.	D．To ensure the supply of energy.

4. Which of the following is the best title for the text?

A．Pollinators: To Leave or to Stay	B．Solar Energy: Hope for the Future
C．InSPIRE: A Leader in Agriculture	D．Solar Farms: A New Development

3 . Live with roommates? Have friends and family around you? Chances are that if you’re looking to live a more sustainable lifestyle, not everyone around you will be ready to jump on that bandwagon.

I experienced this when I started switching to a zero waste lifestyle five years ago, as I was living with my parents, and I continue to experience this with my husband, as he is not completely zero waste like me. I’ve learned a few things along the way though, which I hope you’ll find encouraging if you’re doing your best to figure out how you can make the change in a not-always-supportive household.

Zero waste was a radical lifestyle movement a few years back. I remember showing my parents a video of Bea Johnson, sharing how cool I thought it would be to buy groceries with jars, and have so little trash! A few days later, I came back with my first jars of zero waste groceries, and my dad commented on how silly it was for me to carry jars everywhere. It came off as a bit discouraging.

Yet as the months of reducing waste continued, I did what I could that was within my own reach. I had my own bedroom, so I worked on removing things I didn’t need. Since I had my own toiletries (洗漱用品), I was able to start personalising my routine to be more sustainable. I also offered to cook every so often, so I portioned out a bit of the cupboard for my own zero waste groceries. Perhaps your household won’t entirely make the switch, but you may have some control over your own personal spaces to make the changes you desire.

As you make your lifestyle changes, you may find yourself wanting to speak up for yourself if others comment on what you’re doing, which can turn itself into a whole household debate. If you have individuals who are not on board, your words probably won’t do much and can often leave you feeling more discouraged.

So here is my advice: Lead by action.

1. What do the underlined words “jump on that bandwagon” mean in the first paragraph?

A．Share an apartment with you.	B．Join you in what you’re doing.
C．Transform your way of living.	D．Help you to make the decision.

2. What was the attitude of the author’s father toward buying groceries with jars?

A．He disapproved of it.	B．He was favorable to it.
C．He was tolerant of it.	D．He didn’t care about it.

3. What can we infer about the author?

A．She is quite good at cooking.	B．She respects others’ privacy.
C．She enjoys being a housewife.	D．She is a determined person.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．How to get on well with other family members.

B．How to have one’s own personal space at home.

C．How to live a zero waste lifestyle in a household.

D．How to control the budget when buying groceries.

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。

Going to Mount Huangshan reminds me of the popular Beatles’ song “The Long and Winding Road”.     1     is so breathtaking about the experience is the out-of-this-world scenes. The rolling sea of clouds you see once you are at the top will remind you how tiny we     2     (human) are.

The hot spring at the foot of the mountain is something you must try after the climb. It will     3    (undoubted) help you get refreshed! The amazing thing about the spring is that the colder the temperature gets, the     4     (hot) the spring! Strange, isn’t it? But that’s how nature is — always leaving us     5     (astonish).

What comes next is the endless series of steps. You can’t help wondering how hard it     6     (be) for the people then to put all those rocks into place. Though it is the only unnatural thing on your way up the mountain, still it highlights the whole adventure     7    offers a place where you can sit down to rest your     8     (ache) legs.

As the song goes, this long and winding road “will never disappear”, and it will always stick in the visitor’s memory. It sure does in     9     (I). While you’re in China, Mount Huangshan is     10     must to visit!

5 . According to Jessica Hagy, author of How to Be Interesting, it’s not difficult to make yourself interesting at a dinner party.

    1    , if you’re out of your comfort zone or if you’re wandering into somebody’s house for the first time. So the main thing is just to show up and be adventurous, trying different foods and talking to strangers.

People love to talk about themselves. If you can start the conversation with a question other than “What do you do for a living?”, you’ll be able to get a lot more interesting conversation out of whomever it is you’re talking to.     2    , it can bring in “I have this old, broken-down vehicle” or “I rode the bus with these crazy people who were laughing at silly jokes in the back.” It just opens up conversation.

    3    ? If you can’t take their wine away, you should certainly try to take away their soapbox (讲台). If you’re the host, you can ask them to help you in the kitchen with something and just remove them from the situation.    4    .

And what about that other dinner-party killer: awkward silence? If you’re faced with an awkward silence at a dinner party, the only thing that always gets everyone talking again is to give the host a compliment (赞扬).     5    . Just quickly turn around and say, “This cake is extremely delicious and you have to tell me all about it.”

So being interesting at a dinner party isn’t that hard.

A．How do you know the host

B．The first step is to go exploring

C．If you ask the question “How did you get here?”

D．Be prepared to have awkward conversations with strangers

E．Or turn the conversation into a topic where they have little to say

F．What about that person who had too much to drink or won’t stop talking

G．He or she is the person who is feeling the weight of that awkwardness the most

6 . When almost everyone has a mobile phone, why are more than half of Australian homes still paying for a landline (座机)?

These days you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in Australia over the age of 15 who doesn’t own a mobile phone. In fact plenty of younger kids have one in their pocket. Practically everyone can make and receive calls anywhere, anytime.

Still, 55 percent of Australians have a landline phone at home and only just over a quarter (29%) rely only on their smartphones according to a survey (调查). Of those Australians who still have a landline, a third concede that it’s not really necessary and they’re keeping it as a security blanket — 19 percent say they never use it while a further 13 percent keep it in case of emergencies. I think my home falls into that category.

More than half of Australian homes are still choosing to stick with their home phone. Age is naturally a factor (因素)— only 58 percent of Generation Ys still use landlines now and then, compared to 84 percent of Baby Boomers who’ve perhaps had the same home number for 50 years. Age isn’t the only factor; I’d say it’s also to do with the makeup of your household.

Generation Xers with young families, like my wife and I, can still find it convenient to have a home phone rather than providing a mobile phone for every family member. That said, to be honest the only people who ever ring our home phone are our Baby Boomers parents, to the point where we play a game and guess who is calling before we pick up the phone (using Caller ID would take the fun out of it).

How attached are you to your landline? How long until they go the way of gas street lamps and morning milk deliveries?

1. What does paragraph 2 mainly tell us about mobile phones?

A．Their target users.	B．Their wide popularity.
C．Their major functions.	D．Their complex design.

2. What does the underlined word “concede” in paragraph 3 mean?

A．Admit.	B．Argue.
C．Remember.	D．Remark.

3. What can we say about Baby Boomers?

A．They like smartphone games.	B．They enjoy guessing callers’ identity.
C．They keep using landline phones.	D．They are attached to their family.

4. What can be inferred about the landline from the last paragraph?

A．It remains a family necessity.

B．It will fall out of use some day.

C．It may increase daily expenses.

D．It is as important as the gas light.

7 . A British woman who won a S1 million prize after she was named the World's Best Teacher will use the cash to bring inspirational figures into UK schools.

Andria Zafirakou,a north London secondary school teacher, said she wanted to bring about a classroom revolution (变革). “We are going to make a change, ”she said.“I’ve started a project to promote the teaching of the arts in our schools.”

The project results from the difficulties many schools have in getting artists of any sort - whether an up-and-coming local musician or a major movie star - into schools to work with and inspire children.

Zafirakou began the project at Alperton Community School, her place of work for the past twelve years. “I've seen those magic moments when children are talking to someone they are inspired by - their eyes are shining and their faces light up,” she said. “We need artists . more than ever in our schools."

Artist Michael Craig-Martin said: “Andria's brilliant project to bring artists from all fields into direct contact with children is particularly welcome at a time when the arts are being downgraded in schools." It was a mistake to see the arts as unnecessary, he added.

Historian Sir Simon Schama is also a supporter of the project. He said that arts education in schools was not just an add-on. “It is absolutely necessary. The future depends on creativity and creativity depends on the young. What will remain of us when artificial intelligence takes over will be our creativity, and it is our creative spirit, our visionary sense of freshness,that has been our strength for centuries."

1. What will Zafirakou do with her prize money?

A．Make a movie.	B．Build new schools.
C．Run a project.	D．Help local musicians.

2. What does Craig-Martin think of the teaching of the arts in UK schools?

A．It is particularly difficult.	B．It increases artists' income.
C．It opens children's mind.	D．It deserves greater attention.

3. What should be stressed in school education according to Schama?

A．Moral principles.	B．Interpersonal skills.
C．Creative abilities.	D．Positive worldviews.

4. Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?

A．Bring Artists to Schools	B．When Historians Meet Artists
C．Arts Education in Britain	D．The World's Best Arts Teacher

8 . 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 government has awarded $5 million to three different local nonprofit organizations. The money will     1    (distribute) over a four-year period and is aimed at helping approximately 1, 000 homeless people in the county of Arvada.

One agency,     2    (base) in Woodbridge, is expected     3    (receive) $1. 5 million. The agency director says that they will focus their resources on     4    (educate) the homeless. “We will probably build another school-home with this money,” he said. “A school-home is exactly     5     it sounds like. It is a school and a home. We have already built four school-homes throughout the county. We get the homeless off the street,     6     we educate them so they don’t have to return to the street. We teach them how to be gardeners, painters, carpenters, bricklayers, electricians, and air-conditioning repairmen.”

“You wouldn’t believe     7     success that we have had. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, our office air-conditioning went out. My secretary called a repairman. To our surprise, the repairman     8    (be) one of our first homeless students. He now owns his own air-conditioning business, plus two houses, two cars and a boat! He has a dozen employees. He’s doing better than I am. He fixed our air-conditioning     9     free. I think I might sign up for the air-conditioning class     10    (I). ”

9 . You’ve got mail…and it’s a postcard

Paulo Magalhaes, a 34-year-old Portuguese computer engineer, loves to open his mailbox and find a brightly colored picture of Rome’s Colosseum. Or Africa’s Victoria Falls. Or China’s Great Wall.     1    

“I often send postcards to family and friends.” he says to China Daily, “but you can imagine that after a while, you never receive as many as you send, and you realize that not everyone is into it.     2    ” Seeking other like-minded souls, however, Paulo started looking in a somewhat unlikely place: online. Many would say the Internet is a place for people who have given up on the traditional postal service, but Paulo’s hunch(直觉)paid off.

Today his hobby has developed into the website postcrossing.com, a social network that has grown to 575,217 registered users in 214 countries and regions since he started it 10 years ago.     3    Running the website has almost turned into a full-time job.

Language is certainly a barrier for many people. For postcrossing to work worldwide, a common communication language is needed so that everyone can understand each other. As cool as it may be to receive a postcard written in Chinese, the concept doesn’t work if one doesn’t understand it.     4     So a common language is required and in postcrossing that’s English since it’s widely spoken.

“Many people in China have limited exposure to English.     5     That said, we know of many postcrossing members, including Chinese, who have actually improved their English skills through their use of postcrossing,” Paulo says.

A．And that’s totally fine.

B．That makes it extra hard to learn and practice it.

C．He likes to think of sending postcards as a family-friendly hobby.

D．Many love to make a connection with someone from across the world.

E．On August 5, the number of postcards exchanged by members topped 31 million.

F．Similarly, if you speak only Chinese, receiving a card in Swedish takes part of the fun away.

G．In short, he loves postcards, and the excitement of getting a hand-written note from someone far away.

10 . There has been a very serious decline in the numbers of shallow-water fish as a result of overfishing. People still want to eat fish, so the fishing industry must look at other sources, especially the deep waters of the Atlantic.     1    

Conservation measures will have to be put in place if these deep-sea fish are to survive. Research on five such species shows that numbers have declined by between 87 percent and 98 percent.     2     Many species could well disappear completely if the present trend continues. These are species that have been swimming in our oceans for hundreds of millions of years.

The problem is emphasized by the fact that the decline in numbers happened in less than twenty years. Deep-sea fish take a long time to reproduce and normally live for many years.     3     The average size of such fish also declined, with one species showing a 57 percent decline in average size. This is of particular concern, as large fish tend to produce more offspring than small ones.

    4     The deep-sea species have been caught as if they were the fast-breeding (快速繁殖) fish like sardine and herring. It is like killing elephants as if they reproduced at the same rate as rabbits.

The damage done by overfishing goes beyond the sea environment. Millions of people make a living in the fishing industry.     5     Measures must be taken to not only conserve ecosystems, but also sustain livelihoods and ensure food security.

A．Billions of people rely on fish for protein.

B．Many people now choose not to eat deep-sea fish.

C．Unfortunately, their reproduction rate is very low.

D．This puts them in the category of “critically endangered”.

E．None of these facts has been taken into account by the fishing industry.

F．Overfishing is a major cause of decline in populations of ocean wildlife.

G．This has resulted in a sharp decline in the numbers of many of the species caught.