1 . Two new residents in Aarwangen, a small village in Swiss, filed complaints with the village council about the constant ringing of cowbells. They asked for the cows’ bells to be _________ at night so they could sleep.

Long-term residents, and the village’s remaining farmers were _________. They thought it was a(n) _________ on their traditional culture. “We want to _________ and maintain our lived traditions in the future,” they say.

Cowbells have been used in rural Switzerland for centuries. They were once useful for _________ cows on the hill side in summer. Farmers say they can _________ each individual cow by the sound of its own bell. _________, in modern times, many farmers have switched to using electronic chips _________ bells.

Over the past few decades, many new _________ have arrived here from large cities. They are less __________ to the agricultural way of life.

This year’s battle is not the first time residents have __________ cowbells. In 2015, a Zurich appeals court __________ a farmer to remove the bells from his 27 cows from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., since they were safe in a small farm and keeping the neighbors __________.

Next month, Aarwangen’s villagers will gather for a public meeting to vote on the __________ of their bells. They will decide how the sound of the bells can __________ without breaking noise pollution laws.

1.

A．marked

B．watched

C．fastened

D．removed

2.

A．angry

B．proud

C．frightened

D．excited

3.

A．effect

B．comment

C．attack

D．reliance

4.

A．study

B．preserve

C．record

D．restore

5.

A．counting

B．tracking

C．entertaining

D．feeding

6.

A．catch

B．contact

C．spot

D．hear

7.

A．Besides

B．Therefore

C．However

D．Meanwhile

8.

A．instead of

B．thanks to

C．regardless of

D．according to

9.

A．residents

B．researchers

C．tourists

D．pioneers

10.

A．attracted

B．accustomed

C．opposed

D．devoted

11.

A．thought over

B．gave up

C．put on

D．complained about

12.

A．hoped

B．promised

C．ordered

D．refused

13.

A．alive

B．asleep

C．ashamed

D．awake

14.

A．future

B．number

C．tone

D．design

15.

A．rise

B．continue

C．spread

D．return

2 . Reading poems is not exactly an everyday activity for most people. In fact, many people never read a poem once they get out of high school.

It is worth reminding ourselves that this has not always been the case in America. In the nineteenth century, a usual American activity was to sit around the fireside in the evening and read poems aloud. It is true that there was no television at that time, nor movie theatres, nor World Wide Web, to provide diversion. However, poems were a source of pleasure, of self-education, of connection to other people or to the world beyond one’s own community. Reading them was a social act as well as an individual one, and perhaps even more social than individual. Writing poems to share with friends and relations was, like reading poems by the fireside, another way in which poetry has a place in everyday life.

How did things change? Why are most Americans no longer comfortable with poetry, and why do most people today think that a poem has nothing to tell them and that they can do well without poems?

There are, I believe, three factors: poets, teachers, and we ourselves. Of these, the least important is the third: the world surrounding the poem has betrayed us more than we have betrayed the poem. Early in the twentieth century, poetry in English headed into directions unfavourable to the reading of poetry. Readers decided that poems were not for the fireside or the easy chair at night, and that they belonged where other difficult-to-read things belonged.

Poets failed the reader, so did teachers. They want their students to know something about the skills of a poem; they want their students to see that poems mean something. Yet what usually occurs when teachers push these concerns on their high school students is that young people decide poems are unpleasant crossword puzzles.

1. Why is reading poems thought to be a social act in the nineteenth century?

A．Because it built a link among people.

B．Because it helped unite a community.

C．Because it was a source of self-education.

D．Because it was a source of pleasure.

2. What does the underlined word “diversion” in Paragraph 2 mean?

A．Stories.

B．Changes.

C．Amusements.

D．Concentrations.

3. What is the main cause of the great gap between readers and poetry?

A．Students are poorly educated in high school.

B．Poems have become difficult to understand.

C．Students are becoming less interested in poetry.

D．TV and the Internet are more attractive than poetry.

4. What does the author try to tell us by writing the text?

A．The history and changes of poetry.

B．The correct way for teachers to teach poetry.

C．The failure of poetry in people’s life nowadays.

D．The reason why people aren’t keen on poetry today.

3 . Books are the most valuable cultural heritage. However, there are many ancient Chinese classics suffering from different degrees of damage due to various reasons.     1    

Bai Yuzhi,a post-90s restorer (修复师) at the Wuhan Library,graduated from Wuhan University in 2016 with a major in restoring ancient books. She is now the fourth generation of restorers at the Wuhan Library, Bai started practicing this technique during her after-class activities at college in 2014.     2     “I’m shy and not good at socializing, so this job suits me very well,” she said

    3     The restoration steps cannot be rushed. When restorers receive an ancient book, their first task is not to directly restore it but to observe it and record the book’s important details. After that, the restorers will open the book,remove every page, and repair it on the back side.     4     It may take one or two days to restore a single page. So it could take at least a month to complete the restoration of a whole book.

Bai has restored about 10,000 pages of ancient books in her over 10 years of work. The most difficult part of the restoration, according to her, is keeping everything under exact control over every stage.     5     If the paste (面糊) is too thin, the repaired pages may easily come off and become broken, which could affect the quality of the restoration. However, if the paste is too thick, the fixed pages will be tough, challenging to open.

With the advancement of science and digital technology, the methods for protecting ancient books have become more various.

A．The task of restoration is demanding.

B．Sometimes the book is badly damaged.

C．Bai works in reader service for ancient books.

D．This led to a new field—restoring ancient books.

E．She officially became a restorer in February 2019.

F．Recording the content of a book demands a restorer’s patience.

G．She gave an example of the challenges in preparing a suitable paste.

4 . Working for a big company in London on a salary (薪水)of over £100,000, you might expect Grayden Reece-Smith to have a luxurious (奢侈)lifestyle, going on expensive holidays or driving a sports car around south London, where he lives. In fact, the 28-year-old lives a very different existence from his colleagues. He gives away everything he earns over £42,000–a figure that he thought he could comfortably live on.

Over the past five years, Reece-Smith has handed over more than £250,000 to organizations such as International Care Ministries, which helps poor families in the Philippines, and the Against Malaria Foundation. He is part of a growing number of young professionals described as “effective altruists”. Effective altruists typically donate regularly to a charity which they think will have a great impact (影响). Some change careers to make more money, which can then be given away.

Reece-Smith considered working in the charity sector after graduating from university, but thought that he could make a bigger difference by donating a large part of his salary. He had volunteered as a teacher at a school in Tanzania, but then realized that earning and giving would be more effective. “The cost of my flights there could have paid the salaries of two teachers for an entire year,” he says. Instead, he could “stay at home, living a nice life and still make a huge difference in the world”.

He is not mean with money-last year he went to Cuba on holiday, and spent several thousand pounds on a new sofa. But his lifestyle isn’t as luxurious as some of the people he works with. “I usually don’t buy supermarket-branded food products, but I don’t own a car. Other people on my salary might have a bigger house. Some of my colleagues have four-bedroom houses, but we only bought what we needed-a two-bedroom flat.£42,000 is more than enough to live on and still save,” he says.

1. How much money does Grayden spend on donation every year?

A．Less than £42,000.	B．Over £100.000.
C．£50,000.	D．Any income over £42,000.

2. What may an “effective altruist” do according to the text?

A．Donate to impactful charities.	B．Make more money to enjoy lives.
C．Create a good public image.	D．Enter a teaching profession.

3. Why did Grayden decide to donate money but not work in the charity sector?

A．To access his inner life.	B．To create a stronger effect.
C．To give away all of his salary.	D．To be a teacher at a school.

4. What can be inferred about Grayden from the text?

A．He leads an expensive lifestyle.	B．He buys food produced by supermarkets.
C．He lives in a four-bedroom house.	D．He balances his life and donation.

5 . T. S. Eliot wrote of “Distracted from distraction by distraction /Filled with fancies and empty of meaning.” T. S. Eliot never had a smartphone.

Neither did I for a long time. No Facebook account; not even email. But according to my date of manufacture, I’m supposed to be a digital native. Perhaps it’s because by the age of 20 I was living in the Welsh countryside with no signal and no Wi-Fi.

When I finally fell into the digital world, I fell hard. Unlike my friends for whom social media and mobile technology had grown and flowered around them, for me it was a sudden immersion. I got Facebook, Twitter and Gmail accounts at the same time that I got an iPhone 4. I would check my phone; five minutes later I would check my phone again. I was addicted and it started to affect my relationships with friends and family

One night, without a word, I abandoned my iPhone and bought a Nokia 3310 and became the talk of the town. Soon I became aware that not only had I stolen secret time back from the hurried days, but somehow a secret space as well. I could stretch out, free to think again, to be wholly creative and to learn meaningfully.

But, wherever I went I got bloody lost. Wandering blindly around London, only to miss appointments, became a frequent pastime (消遣). What did we do before Google Maps? I was useless. The change was worth it, though. I’ll sound like an overstatement but I think it changed my life. My choices are broader and healthier because I’m not being screamed at all day.

I bought a new Samsung phone last week. I had been scared of the rate of progress, crying: “Stop the train! Stop the madness.” But I want to be part of building the future, and to do that, you’ve got to swim in contemporary waters. Rejecting the modern world doesn’t help anyone. It slows you down and I need to be efficient. Time will tell whether I’ve mastered the wisdom to reject constantly checking my phone.

1. What can be learned about the author when she lived in the Welsh countryside?

A．She read a lot of T. S. Eliot.	B．She had no friends to talk with.
C．She had no access to the Internet.	D．She was afraid of the digital world.

2. Why did the author buy the Nokia 3310?

A．She thought she needed a spare phone.	B．She found her iPhone stopped working.
C．She wanted to attract people’s attention.	D．She hoped to break her smartphone addiction.

3. What happened after the author used the Nokia 3310?

A．She led a simple and healthy life.	B．She found her life was in a mess.
C．She spent more time with her friends.	D．She became an example for other people.

4. For what purpose did the author buy the Samsung phone?

A．To seek wisdom.	B．To stop her madness.
C．To keep pace with the times.	D．To get back to the real world.

6 . 选词填空

at present，a number of，result in，as a result，provide...for，in closing

1. _____________________ he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.
2. His car alarm had been going off for two days and, _____________________, the battery was flat.
3. Experts say it’s an invaluable social practice that _____________________ big benefits.
4. _____________________ them have admitted that despite their success, they aren’t happy.
5. Many animal welfare organizations __________________ care and adoption services ____________ homeless animals.
6. _________________________, I want to thank all our sponsors and supporters for what they have done for us.

7 . 根据下面提示，写一篇有关太空探索是否值得的短文。
1. 我们班的学生讨论了太空是否值得探索。(worth)
2. 30%的学生认为太空探索是不值得的，他们认为太空离我们和我们的日常生活太远了。(space exploration)
3. 太空探索会浪费很多钱，而这些钱可以用来解决一些问题。(solve)
4. 70%的学生认为太空值得探索。(worthy)
5. 卫星已被用于通信以及天气预报，这使我们的生活更方便。(as well as)
6. 如果在其他星球上发现了资源，我们地球上的能源短缺问题就可以得到解决。(energy shortage)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8 . Culture shock is the experience that often accompanies moving to an unfamiliar place. It could be marked by feeling lost, anxious or hesitant.     1     You’ll become accustomed to the same things that initially “shocked” you! Read on for tips for overcoming culture shock in a short time.

When deciding to visit an entirely new place, don’t expect the traditions and cultures followed by your current home to be followed by the new land.     2     So keep your expectations low.

Even though it is an unfamiliar environment hosting different cultures and traditions from the one you’re used to, it’s vital to broaden your mind and be willing to try new things. Don’t be quick to form discriminatory judgments just because it is “odd”. Have a go at something different, like a food or clothing — different isn’t necessarily bad.     3    

Social psychologists claim that lack of information is the biggest contributor to prejudices. Talk to the local population and ask them about how their culture works instead of assuming the worst.     4     Plus, you’ll make some friends who can ease your transformation.

Keep yourself open-minded, await new experiences and familiarize yourself with the conduct of the people.     5     Go out there and have fun!

A．Integrity breaks down barriers.

B．You can gain insight into your surroundings.

C．Culture shock will eventually disappear, though.

D．Every city or country has its own values and beliefs.

E．Never do you know where you might find an interest.

F．Consequently, such memories are what you should treasure.

G．As long as you stick to that, you’ll soon adjust to the new culture.

9 . 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。

Researchers have been applying artificial intelligence (AI)to monitor biodiversity and enhance efforts to protect some species from     1     (threaten). Unlike conventional methods, AI has the capacity     2     (analyze)massive amounts of data effectively.

Species are disappearing     3     a rate much faster than that millions of years ago, with up to one million species on the edge of     4     (extinct). In response, the United Nations set a goal in 2020 to safeguard at least 30%of Earth’s land and oceans. “Al is imperfect     5     could promote important discoveries.” says Nicolas Miailhe, Paris-based founder of the Future Society, an international non-profit organization     6     aims to better govern AI. “We badly need human practitioners to design models and interpret data. ”

Besides monitoring biodiversity in real time, AI can also be used to model the impacts of human activities on an ecosystem. Although it     7     (document) that human activities have resulted in biodiversity loss, little is known about which environmental factors have       8       (large) impact.

“Long-term statistics will play     9     essential role in connecting changes in biodiversity with environmental changes. ”says Luisa Orsini, who     10       (study) evolutionary bio-systems at the University of Birmingham, UK.

10 . Being minimalist is about intentionally reducing your possessions to the items you value most and increasing the amount of time you spend on the people and activities you truly enjoy. It can take many forms.     1    . This way you can optimize (优化) your life towards ideal.

Try clearing away your possessions

If you think hard, you will realize that the physical things you own are not the most important parts of your life. In this case you can clear away all but the most essential things in sweeps. Focus on keeping things that you value deeply.     2    . Take a few weeks to live without those things. At the same time, notice if the things you've kept are serving you.   

    3    

You must have many friends, but how many of them are people who motivate and inspire you to grow and learn? Becoming minimalist means that you evaluate how well they fit into your ideal life and maximizing your social time spent on people who lift you up. Then you can also free up more time to spend on other priorities in life.    4    .

Take time for introspection

Introspection, which means you sitting with your own thoughts, is what people are terrified of in so “busy” a world.     5    . You can put your phone on silent, turn off the TV and block out distractions and just sit with your thoughts. You will come face to face with some uncomfortable truths. But pushing through to the other side is where the magic happens.

Even though everyone embraces minimalism differently, each path leads to the same place: a more meaningful life with more time and more freedom. Hopefully you will get there.

A．Have less possessions to enjoy more

B．Anyway, you should make space to think

C．People are eager for another way of living

D．Consider your lifestyle around relationships

E．Get rid of things that you don't need any longer

F．It’s worth focusing your time on people that matter

G．The important part is to figure out your flavor of minimalism