When I first moved to the south of America in the summer holiday before middle school, I realized that I was stepping into a completely different world. New Orleans, Louisiana, was unlike any place I had ever been to. In the French Quarter, tourists walked around all year with long skinny cups in their hands, and there was a popular game going on the streets which were crowded with cars but had few people. What surprised me more than anything, though, was the constant friendliness and compassion of the people of New Orleans.
“What can I get for you, sugar?” a waitress about my age asked me on my first day in New Orleans.
I was taken aback. The waitress did not even know me, but she treated me like family. She smiled down at me as I pointed to an item on the menu.
“Is the pasta good?” I asked her.
“It’s not my favorite,” she admitted with a smile. “But I’m more of a girl who prefers rice!” She shrugged, letting out a loud laughter.
I looked at her in shock. What was I supposed to say to that? I couldn’t believe that the waitress had just prevented me from ordering something. Actually, she had given me her honest opinion, as if we were best friends. She even told me her name—Mary. She even told me that she just worked as a part-time waitress and that she would be a high school student soon.
After a few days in New Orleans, I got used to kind reminders and polite greetings. I also realized how comforting it was to be treated like I belong wherever I went.
As soon as I settled into my new high school, I adapted myself to the school life. I was drawn to the lively music scene that New Orleans was famous for. I was a trumpet (小号) player, and I wanted to join the school music club. However, I was afraid that I was too poor in music to be qualified for the school music club.
注意：1．续写词数应为150个左右；
2．请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
One afternoon, I was surprised to see a group of students including Mary practicing jazz in the school playground.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Finally, with Mary’s encouragement, my hesitation slowly melted away.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . Chinese material scientists have found the soil on the moon may potentially be able to generate oxygen and fuel, a finding that means more possibilities of humans to use lunar resources to further exploration of the moon and beyond.
The researchers at Nanjing University showed that the lunar sample brought back by China’s Chang’e-5 contains active compounds (化合物) that can change carbon dioxide into oxygen and fuel. Initially, they hoped to design a system that took advantage of lunar soil and solar radiation, the two rich resources on the moon, according to a study published on Thursday in the journal Joule.
After analyzing the Chang’e-5’s lunar soil, the team found the sample contained metal-rich substances, which could work as a catalyst (催化剂) to make oxygen using sunlight and carbon dioxide. The team proposed a strategy using lunar soil to electrolyze water from the moon and the astronauts’ life support system into oxygen and hydrogen. The process was powered by sunlight. The carbon dioxide breathed out by moon inhabitants can be collected and combined with hydrogen to produce the fuel, also catalyzed by the lunar soil, according to the study. The researchers said with this method, no external energy apart from sunlight would be used to produce oxygen and fuel to support life on a moon base.
“We use the environmental resources to minimize rocket payload, and our strategy provides a scenario for a sustainable and affordable living environment for life out of the Earth,” said the paper’s first author Yao Yingfang from Nanjing University, expressing his assumption.
“The challenge lies in the fact that catalytic efficiency of lunar soil is lower than catalysts on the Earth,” said the researchers. They are testing different approaches in order to improve the design. The team is looking for an opportunity to test the system in space with China’s future manned lunar missions.
1. What is the main implication of Chinese scientists’ discovery of the moon’s soil?| A．The moon is rich in rare elements. | B．Lunar soil can be used for exploring space. |
| C．The moon can be lived on by human beings. | D．Lunar soil is a new renewable energy source. |
| A．The process of the sun producing light. |
| B．The analysis of China’s Chang’e-5’s work. |
| C．The supportive method producing metal-rich substances. |
| D．The sustainable living strategy employing lunar resources. |
| A．Profession. | B．Contract. | C．Vision. | D．Sponsor. |
| A．The discovery of active compounds on the moon. |
| B．The testing approaches to improving the lunar soil. |
| C．The research on the environmental system of the moon. |
| D．The study of using lunar soil for oxygen and fuel production. |
3 . In the past, music recording was primitive. A recording engineer placed microphones in front of instruments. The producer pressed record and signaled the band to play. There was a human touch to recordings, and this way of recording gave rock music its raw edge. But here we are today. Complex and advanced audio software sits in every recording studio. The higher cost and greater practicality make creating digital music common.
However, the modern recordings aren’t beneficial to a rock record. Let’s not forget, being in a band is laborious. You need like-minded musicians to rehearse for hours on end. Nowadays, this isn’t a necessity.
Programming drums on a computer is as simple as filling cells on a spreadsheet, and there you have it, a drumbeat. Only a few professionals are aware that they aren’t listening to true live drums. Such tech is even accessible on your smartphone. Whether on a train or in a bedroom, you can create a full band track without a live band.
What happened to rock music? With pop and hip hop dominating the charts, it feels like the time for bands is over. Is rock music really dying out? Is it really on its last legs, or are we just not trying hard enough?
Artists, inspired by the great rock bands, seek to put their own spin on this classic genre. The spirit of rock music still remains. One singer mixed soul and rock while one band combined indie rock with elements of techno, both with underlying rock characteristics.
The truth is that fresh rock bands are out there and you just need to dig deeper. A search through online music blogs shows a growing number of new rock bands. While rock bands are now not as popular as before and not receiving mainstream exposure, the flame still burns brightly.
1. Which words can best describe the past music recording?| A．Underdeveloped and low-cost. | B．Easy and time-saving. |
| C．Demanding and complex. | D．Digital and creative. |
| A．Low demands for music. | B．Advanced audio software. |
| C．Deep understanding of music. | D．Help from professional musicians. |
| A．To tell rock music has lost its original attraction. |
| B．To show rock music may be presented in new styles. |
| C．To stress rock music is no longer mainstream music. |
| D．To compare rock music with some other kinds of music. |
| A．Is Rock Music Going Dead? | B．Why Is Rock Music Disappearing? |
| C．A New Kind of Music Is Emerging | D．A Way of Recording Music Is Getting Accepted |
4 . The text from my son said it all: “Dad, there’s an article you were born to write that the world is finally ready for: Bring Back the Handkerchief!” As my son knows, there’s no “bring back” for me. For me, the handkerchief never left.
My mother raised me with several fixed rules. One was that a gentleman always has a clean handkerchief in his right rear pocket, a piece of simple cotton, roughly 15 inches square and less than four inches when folded. I was a dutiful son, but as a child, I had been wondering what it was there for. After 60 years, my body weight now feels wrong if I’m heading out of the house with an empty back pocket.
I am sure this habit has sometimes struck friends but in polite company nobody comments on somebody else’s business. Children like my kids think of my hankie ridiculously old-fashioned and they have their arguments. If you have to be prepared every day for allergies or a cold, why not choose a little packet of tissues, which saves you from that disgusting business of blowing your nose in the thing and then stuffing it back in your pants?
Point taken. But a handkerchief is more durable and has a far wider variety of uses. Can you grab the handle of a pot that’s boiling over with a Kleenex? Or do you recall the cases of skinned knees and drippy noses that hankie wiped? In fact, my wife gave me several new handkerchiefs as gifts. Neither of us can count the number of times her eyes have welled up at a movie, or, as happens, she’s needed to blow her nose.
Yet not even my mother could have anticipated the hankie’s new role as an Essential Public Health Appliance. All of us have learnt how hard it is to follow advice from medical experts about not touching your face. Here is an answer. Use your hankie. In case of emergency, your handkerchief can become a makeshift DIY mask that can be pulled over your lower face like a robber entering a bank.
And it will certainly give me the chance to lift my chin and look at my adult children through one eye, asking in her good-hearted way, “What do you have to say now, smarty-pants?”
1. What kind of person is the author in the eye of his son?| A．His father is a born writer. |
| B．His father lost his handkerchief long ago. |
| C．His father will bring back the handkerchief. |
| D．His father has a habit of using handkerchief. |
| A．They adore it very much. |
| B．They regard it as fashionable. |
| C．They consider it inconvenient. |
| D．They desire to have their own someday. |
| A．The function of handkerchiefs has been updated. |
| B．Handkerchiefs will be taken over by tissues sooner or later. |
| C．The author’s wife feels embarrassed to give him a handkerchief. |
| D．The author was ridiculed by his friends for his use of handkerchiefs. |
| A．Bossy | B．Humorous | C．Pessimistic | D．Critical |
Visitors have flocked from far and wide
One travel guide said: “I’ve always had
6 . “THE ANT AND THE ZEBRA” sounds like the title of a Aesop’s fable. Like all good fables, this one has a moral, which is that tinkering with nature has unpredictable consequences. Unlike the Greek originals, though, this fable is real.
The story plays out in Laikipia county, Kenya. The characters include big-headed ants, an invasive species, the native acacia ants, these invasive ants have gradually been replacing, the whistling-thorn trees where both sorts of ants live, a cast of elephants, lions, zebras and buffalo, and Douglas Kamaru, a Kenyan biologist in the University of Wyoming. As Mr Kamaru reports this week in Science, the ant invasion has set off a complicated chain of consequences which has helped zebras at the expense of buffalo — thus illustrating a phenomenon called “trophic cascade”.
It works like this. Whistling-thorns have co-evolved with the local ants. The trees provide the ants with shelter and food, in the form of large, hollow thorns into which they produce nutritious nectar. The ants, meanwhile, protect the trees by seeing off the chief threat to them, the local elephants, which are not keen to feed on trees crawling with biting insects.
Acacia ants’ habitat are thickly carpeted with whistling-thorns. Big-headed ants, however, are not good at keeping the elephants at bay. The elephants move in and bite the trees, removing much of the area’s cover. That upsets the local lions, which often use this cover to hide when hunting zebra. To compensate, the lions switch to hunting buffalo, which are more dangerous, but less fleet of foot.
Mr Kamaru has put numbers to the process, too. In invaded areas, elephants break trees five to seven times as often as in uninvaded ones. And in those uninvaded places, zebra kills are almost three times as frequent as in the invaded ones. Indeed, between 2003 and 2020, as the big-headed ants have spread, the percentage of local lion kills where the victims was a zebra fell from 67% to 42%. Over the same period, the percentage of kills that were buffalo rose from zero to 42%. Whether the buffalo blame the ants for their misfortune, no one knows.
1. What does the underlined phrase “tinkering with” probably mean in the 1st paragraph?| A．making changes to | B．paying attention to |
| C．finding fault with | D．showing respect for |
| A．animal habitat in a specific area was preserved |
| B．an invasive species suffered a lack of food supply |
| C．certain plants were affected by human activities |
| D．a particular species in the food chain was replaced |
| A．Because it becomes less risky to hunt the buffalo. |
| B．Because greater visibility makes it hard to hunt zebra. |
| C．Because they are not good at keeping the elephants away. |
| D．Because they are upset by the presence of big-headed ants. |
| A．How ants and buffalo defeated lions. |
| B．How elephants landed zebra in trouble. |
| C．How trees changed lions’ dinner menu. |
| D．How ants persuaded lions to eat buffalo. |
1. What will the weather be like on Christmas day?
| A．Dry. | B．Rainy. | C．Snowy. |
| A．On Christmas Eve. | B．On Christmas Day. | C．On Boxing Day. |
| A．Watch the roads when driving. |
| B．Wear warm clothes when going out. |
| C．Stay indoors and drink hot chocolate. |
| A．The weather condition during Christmas period. |
| B．The plan on celebrating the New Year. |
| C．The arrangement on Boxing Day. |
1. Who lives above the speakers?
| A．Mrs. Green. | B．Mr. Black. | C．Mr. Jones. |
| A．In another city. | B．In his apartment. | C．At the fire department. |
| A．Phone for help. |
| B．Break down the door. |
| C．Stop the water from reaching his carpet. |
9 . Every Friday night the Chevron gas station food mart offers a discount on the leftover food. To ensure the best selection, my mother and I pile into our old car and
Chevron shopping
Grocery shopping at Chevron has its
I’m
And that is why I hold on to the idea of
| A．settle down | B．pull up | C．hang about | D．show off |
| A．award | B．share | C．change | D．credit |
| A．continued | B．started | C．ran | D．worked |
| A．encounter | B．match | C．inspection | D．visit |
| A．dismiss | B．develop | C．bend | D．accept |
| A．but | B．so | C．when | D．unless |
| A．purposes | B．drawbacks | C．features | D．grounds |
| A．excited | B．guilty | C．grateful | D．anxious |
| A．declines | B．suffers | C．hurts | D．struggles |
| A．threatens | B．promises | C．agrees | D．pretends |
| A．shocked | B．confused | C．embarrassed | D．bored |
| A．avoid | B．join | C．arrange | D．cancel |
| A．simplicity | B．generosity | C．integrity | D．flexibility |
| A．pride | B．bitterness | C．heat | D．sweat |
| A．figure out | B．wait for | C．agree on | D．break off |
10 . If you want to make a good first impression in that important business meeting, it is no longer about wearing the sharpest suit or the firmest handshake but about making sure that the little Zoom window with your face in it projects professionalism. But this isn’t always easy.
• Don’t hold your phone.
If you absolutely must join the meeting on your phone, then don’t hold it in your hand.
•
How the light falls on our faces counts. So make sure that you don’t have a big, direct source of light behind you, because all it will do is make your face dark and hard to see — and that’s the most important part!
• A professional microphone makes up for bad video.
The built-in microphones inside our computers can be pretty good, but they’re never truly great.
• Don’t rely on the default (默认) camera.
| A．Lighting makes the difference. |
| B．Do put on make-up on your face. |
| C．Instead, obtain a phone stand to hold it. |
| D．The ideal position for your camera is at your eye-level. |
| E．What can you do to ensure a successful business meeting? |
| F．So it’s worth spending the money on a dedicated external microphone. |
| G．So what can you do to make sure your video calls project the right image? |
