1 . Many libraries around the world are as amazing in their architecture and organization as they are in the huge amount of knowledge they contain. With shelves and shelves of books, various collections and amazing historical and cultural displays, there are plenty of undiscovered wonders. More information of them is just a click away.
Beinecke Rare Book Library (New Haven, Connecticut)
Yale University has one of the most beautiful college campuses in America, and one of its most interesting features is the Beinecke Rare Book Library. It is one of the largest buildings in the world devoted to rare books and manuscripts of famous people. From 2015-16 the library building was closed for 18 months for major improvement. Inside there is a statue of its main founder that rises up high.
Vennesla Library (Vennesla, Norway)
Located near the southernmost tip of Norway, Vennesla Library is more than a collection of books — it’s a city cultural center and meeting place. The building hosts a coffee shop, open meeting spaces, classrooms for children and adult education courses, and a cinema. It is mainly built out of wood. The long, thin beams on the inside were designed to look like the inside of a whale.
Suzzallo Library (Seattle)
Among the many beautiful features of the campus at the University of Washington, such as its cherry flowers and a light rail station, Suzzallo Library was built in the Collegiate Gothic style. Its buttresses are decorated with 18 statues featuring famous academics and writers such as Plato, Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci, Dante, Galileo, Beethoven, Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.
Library of Muyinga (Muyinga, Burundi)
A school for deaf children, the Library of Muyinga in Burundi was built with local techniques and traditions. A rope hammock that hangs between the first and second floors of the library serves as part of the children’s reading room, a great place for indoor activities.
1. What makes Vennesla Library different from others?| A．It is built in the shape of a whale. | B．It is mainly intended for children |
| C．It is a kind of culture complex. | D．It is located within the campus. |
| A．Vennesla Library. | B．Beinecke Rare Book Library. |
| C．Library of Muyinga. | D．Suzzallo Library. |
| A．A travel brochure. | B．A culture magazine. |
| C．A historical book. | D．A website. |
2 . When I was 12 years old, I already knew that my teen years were going to be the worst years of my life. I was a total outsider, bullied (欺凌) at school. I felt completely alone in my small town.
But by starting to do volunteer work when I was 14, I turned my problem into a passion for helping others. The opportunity to practice kindness made me feel like my life had a greater purpose. The more positive energy I shared, the more kindness and appreciation I received. I realized that my purpose in life would be to reach out to people, specifically teenagers, and help them feel less alone.
Books were my true friends back then. I was so thankful that the authors wrote those books. The kindness they offered me with their books saved my life. One of my biggest dreams was to become an author so I could write books that would help other teenagers the way those books helped me.
After surviving terrible experiences at school and at home, I made a choice to take the optimistic, positive road in the next steps of my journey. My dream career, one I thought was only possible for the authors I loved, is what I am doing now. I have been a full-time author of teen novels since 2007 and am grateful for this amazing opportunity to reach out to readers every single day.
Kindness saved me when I needed help the most. Even small acts of kindness can change someone’s life. You never know what someone else is going through. But by practicing daily kindness, you become an architect of positive change.
1. What was the author’s life like when he was 12?| A．Boring. | B．Peaceful. | C．Painful. | D．Meaningful. |
| A．It made him popular in his town. | B．It helped him find the meaning of life. |
| C．It helped him understand others’ lives better. | D．It helped to shape his dream career. |
| A．He was inspired by his teacher. | B．He could pass positive energy to readers. |
| C．He wanted to share his school experiences. | D．He found he had a talent for writing. |
| A．Say “no” to bullies bravely. | B．Make positive changes in their lives. |
| C．Treat others with kindness in daily life. | D．Learn to care more about others’ feelings. |
3 . For the past 15 years, Denise has taught at a community school where students face significant economic and language challenges. In 2016, Denise met Dr. Jane Goodall at an event in the Bronx. Like Dr. Jane, Denise, who has a background in forestry, is always connected with nature and animals. Soon after, she started a Roots &Shoots program at her school. “I love to inspire that same connection in my students, ”said Denise.
To kick off their project, Denise introduced her group (19 first graders and 8 fifth-graders) to community mapping. “Where do you live?What’s the name of your county?What’s the name of your state?”she asked. “So it starts in your own backyard, ”she explains, “and it progresses across the street to the park, where you see urban wildlife, and finally you start to look at the bigger picture. ”Students then observed homeless cats outside their school, and together, they took action to return them to where they were found.
The students led the entire project. “I was just a guide, "says Denise. “But that’s the point:They are going to love science and animals. They know they are the future and that they are the people who are the keepers of this planet. ”She also notes that students come to understand what positive choices can have: They discover their own strengths and even weaknesses. They identify partners’ efforts and they form friendships and bonds.
But ultimately, says Denise, “my goal was to try to teach compassion, namely sympathy. That’s the biggest payoff she tries to convey to her students.” For other educators with a willing heart, she offers a few words of advice: Get students outside—even just to walk around the school grounds, guide them to build trust and put themselves in other’s shoes, and never give up!
1. What does the underlined phrase “that same connection” probably refer to?| A．Love for nature and animals. |
| B．Desire for a higher social status. |
| C．Denise and Goodall’s relationship. |
| D．Courage to explore the unknown. |
| A．There are many homeless cats to handle. |
| B．A bigger picture is built on urban wildlife. |
| C．Change may start from small things around. |
| D．Every kid should know their own county. |
| A．Ways to brave hardships in life. |
| B．The project’s impact on students. |
| C．Links between human and nature. |
| D．Challenges to face in the future. |
| A．Being sympathetic. | B．Remaining responsible. |
| C．Staying determined. | D．Keeping sharp-minded. |
| A．if | B．that | C．whether | D．what |
| A．whether | B．what | C．if | D．that |
6 . William Lindesay, a famous Great Wall expert and conservationist, and his wife Wu Qi have traveled the globe by the back paths, providing their sons with a unique growing environment. Sun hats, backpacks and sneakers (运动鞋)—these are the day-to-day must-haves for the family.
Most of their trips seem far from relaxing—cultural study in the hot and dry desert, a 53-kilometer hiking tour of New Zealand, a one-day climb to three English mountaintops and a six-day train ride from Beijing to Moscow.
Many assume the family must be wealthy and can afford their global travel, but they are not. Lindesay says they just choose to spend money on travel and eschew pricey hotels and restaurants where possible. Lindesay mentions the trip to Moscow as an example. Instead of taking a taxi from the railway station to the hotel, they took the subway. “We crossed the city for saving money, communicated with local people, and saw they are people just like us, everywhere. We arrived at our destination feeling comfortable.”
However, their journeys, which can last weeks or months, have sometimes been inconsistent with their children’s schooling. Wu remembers once Lindesay let their elder son ask for leave so that they could go to New York for a 45-day lecture tour. Therefore the son missed his final exam. Things like that bother the family all the time.
Lindesay attaches great importance to learning out of the classroom, saying that children might score well on school tests, but traveling outside, in distant lands with different languages, cultures, and political structures, is the real test. “You can only get streetwise on the street. You can only get worldly-wise when seeing the world,” he says.
1. How can we describe the Lindesays’ trips?| A．Pleasant. | B．Challenging. | C．relaxing. | D．Dangerous. |
| A．Avoid. | B．Visit. | C．Compare. | D．Evaluate. |
| A．They suffer from a tight budget. | B．They have scheduling conflicts. |
| C．They are faced with language barriers. | D．They hold different educational ideas. |
| A．Nothing is so necessary for travelers as languages. |
| B．There is no royal road to learning. |
| C．Actions speak louder than words. |
| D．Man who travels far knows more. |
7 . Austrian-based food-tech startup Revo Foods announced this week that its 3D-printed vegan fish filet (素食鱼片) was heading to European grocery store shelves — a first for 3D-printed food. According to the company’s September 12 press release, the arrival of the “Filet” represents a key moment in sustainable food, with 3D-printed consumables ready for industrial mass production. Revo Foods Filet is likely to be just the first of many other such 3D-printed edible (可食用的) products to soon hit the market.
“Despite dramatic losses of coral reefs and increasing levels of poisons and micro plastic polluting fish, consumer demand for seafood has skyrocketed in recent decades,” the company announcement explains, “One promising solution to provide consumers with sustainable alternatives that do not contribute to overfishing is vegan seafood. The key to the success of these products lies in recreating a real taste that appeals to consumers.”
The composition of the Filet provides a meat-like texture (口感). 12 ingredients (成分) compose Revo’s Filet, such as pea proteins, plant oils and algae extracts. With its high protein and Ornega-3 contents, eating a Revo Filet is still very much like eating regular salmon. And thanks to its plant-based ingredients, the Filet has a three week shelf life, a significant improvement over regular salmon products.
“With the milestone of industrial-scale 3D food printing, we are entering a creative food revolution, an era where food is being made exactly according to the customers’ needs,” Revo Foods CEO Robin Simsa said via this week’s announcement.
While Revo’s products are currently only available for European markets, the company says it is actively working to expand its availability across the globe, with Simsa telling PopSci the company hopes to enter US markets around 2025.
1. What can we infer from the second paragraph?| A．Revo’s Filet will be eco-friendly. | B．Revo Foods is popular in Europe. |
| C．Edible fish have decreased sharply. | D．Most people refuse to accept seafood. |
| A．It is a kind of seafood. | B．It has a longer shelf life. |
| C．It has the same taste as salmon. | D．It has no food quality problems. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Disappointed. | C．Optimistic. | D．Worried. |
| A．A short story. | B．A research paper. |
| C．An advertisement. | D．A news report. |
8 . When I mentioned to some friends that we all have accents (口音), most of them proudly replied, “Well, I speak perfect English/Chinese/etc.” But this kind of misses the point.
More often than not, what we mean when we say someone “has an accent” is that their accent is different from the local one, or that pronunciations are different from our own. But this definition (定义) of accents is limiting and could give rise to prejudice. Funnily enough, in terms of the language study, every person speaks with an accent. It is the regular differences in how we produce sounds that define our accents. Even if you don’t hear it yourself, you speak with some sort of accent. In this sense, it’s pointless to point out that someone “has an accent”. We all do!
Every person speaks a dialect (方言), too. In the field of language study, a dialect is a changed form of a language that is featured by its variations (变化) of structure, phrases and words. For instance, “You got eat or not?” (meaning “Have you eaten?”) is an acceptable and understood question in Singapore Oral English. The fact that this expression would cause a standard American English speaker to take pause doesn’t mean that Singapore Oral English is “wrong” or “ungrammatical”. The sentence is well-formed and clearly communicative, according to native Singapore English speakers’ solid system of grammar. Why should it be wrong just because it’s different?
We need to move beyond a narrow idea of accents and dialects — for the benefit of everyone.
Language differences like these provide insights into people’s cultural experiences and backgrounds. In a global age, the way one speaks is a distinct part of one’s identity (身份). Most people would be happy to talk about the cultures behind their speech. We’d learn more about the world we live in and make friends along the way.
1. What does the author think of his/ her friends’ response in paragraph 1?| A．It reflects their self confidence. |
| B．It reflects their language levels. |
| C．It misses the point of communication. |
| D．It misses the real meaning of accents. |
| A．To support the use of dialects. |
| B．To show the importance of dialects. |
| C．To correct a grammatical mistake. |
| D．To highlight a traditional method. |
| A．Learn to speak with your local dialect. |
| B．Look for an official definition of accents. |
| C．Appreciate the value of accents and dialects. |
| D．Separate our local languages from others’. |
| A．Everyone Has an Accent |
| B．Accents Improve Our Identities |
| C．Dialects Lead to Misunderstanding |
| D．Standard English Is at Risk |
Xuan paper is known as the “Paper of Ages”. The term Xuan paper first appeared in On Famous Paintings through the Ages, a book written by Tang Dynasty (618-907) scholar Zhang Yanyuan, in
The traditional craft of making Xuan paper is
Xuan paper
Papermaking is a crystallization (结晶) of wisdom of the ancient Chinese, and Xuan paper is the peak of papermaking.
10 . The sky began to show red in the early morning as we drove across the Minnesota state line to New York for my new PhD program. The move was good for me professionally, but I worried about my husband and daughters. I also feared that I wouldn’t be able to give my kids the childhood they deserved.
Anne, our first daughter, came into the world when I was a junior majoring in biology in college. It was challenging to balance classes, work schedules, and being a mom. But I got through it, finding moments of joy along the way. On the nights when I was home, I’d read my class notes out loud with my daughter. She’d respond by asking questions, such as “Mom, what are bacteria (细菌)?” It helped us both learn.
After I graduated, I knew that I would need a PhD to land the kind of job I wanted. I arrived in New York feeling more than the usual new-graduate-student anxiety. I also suffered from a more personal fear that I was being selfish—that my decision to invigorate my career was going to have long- term bad impacts on my kids. So, I made a rule to never be visibly upset about my work in front of my children.
Over the past year, though, I’ve started to let go of some of this worry. I’ve realized that we have not only adapted to our new situation, but things are getting better. My husband landed a job that he is happy with. Anne dreams of becoming a biologist. Recently, while driving past the cancer institute I work at, Anne said, “Thinking about people having cancer is so sad, but I feel better knowing that you are researching it to help.”
Pursuing academic career as a young mother is hard, but it’s also rewarding. My kids are learning to look at the world through science, and watching their mom succeed inspires them. I look forward to seeing them follow my footsteps, whatever path they choose.
1. How did the author feel about the move for her PhD program at first?| A．It was fruitful but boring. | B．It was hopeful but challenging. |
| C．It was the last thing she would do. | D．It was promising for the whole family. |
| A．Advocate. | B．Escape. | C．Evaluate. | D．Prioritize. |
| A．She is proud of her mother. | B．She is interested in biology. |
| C．Her mother takes her job seriously. | D．She is ready to help patients with cancer. |
| A．Ups and Downs in Life | B．Like Mother Like Daughter |
| C．Double Gains of Mom’s Pursuit | D．Generation Gap Narrowed by Love |
