The Chinese government recently finalized a plan to set up a Giant Panda National Park(GPNP).
After a three-year pilot period, the GPNP will be officially set up next year. The GPNP
Giant pandas also serve
2 . My husband, our children and I have had wonderful camping experiences over the past ten years.
Some of our
Another time, we rented a boat in Vallecito Lake. The sky was clear when we
Now, every year when my husband pulls our camper out of the garage, we are filled with a sense of
| A．ideas | B．jokes | C．memories | D．discoveries |
| A．camped | B．drove | C．walked | D．cycled |
| A．annoyed | B．surprised | C．disappointed | D．worried |
| A．unhurt | B．unfortunate | C．uncomfortable | D．unafraid |
| A．due to | B．instead of | C．apart from | D．as for |
| A．worked | B．happened | C．mattered | D．changed |
| A．signed up | B．calmed down | C．checked out | D．headed off |
| A．arranged | B．interrupted | C．completed | D．recorded |
| A．wind | B．noise | C．temperature | D．speed |
| A．find | B．hide | C．start | D．fix |
| A．luck | B．answer | C．wonder | D．signal |
| A．patiently | B．tirelessly | C．doubtfully | D．helplessly |
| A．sorry | B．brave | C．safe | D．right |
| A．relief | B．duty | C．pride | D．excitement |
| A．failure | B．adventure | C．performance | D．conflict |
3 . Fitness Magazine recently ran an article titled “Five Reasons to Thank Your Workout Partner.” One reason was: “You’ll actually show up if you know someone is waiting for you at the gym, ” while another read: “
So, how do you find a workout partner?
First of all, decide what you want from that person.
You might think about posting what you are looking for on social media, but it probably won’t result in a useful response.
My partner posted her request on the notice board of a local park. Her notice included what kind of training she wanted to do, how many days a week and how many hours she wanted to spend on each session, and her age. It also listed her favorite sports and activities, and provided her phone number.
You and your partner will probably have different skills.
| A．Your first meeting may be a little awkward. |
| B．A workout partner usually needs to live close by. |
| C．You’ll work harder if you train with someone else. |
| D．Do you want to be a better athlete in your favorite sport? |
| E．How can you write a good “seeking training partner” notice? |
| F．Just accept your differences and learn to work with each other. |
| G．Any notice for a training partner should include such information. |
4 . 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. |
| 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. |
| A．To conserve pollinators. | B．To restrict solar development. |
| C．To diversify the economy. | D．To ensure the supply of energy. |
| 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 |
5 . Tricks To Becoming A Patient Person
Here’s a riddle: What do traffic jams, long lines and waiting for a vacation to start all have in common? There is one answer.
In the Digital Age, we’re used to having what we need immediately and right at our fingertips. However, research suggests that if we practiced patience, we’d be a whole lot better off. Here are several tricks.
●Practice gratitude (感激)
Thankfulness has a lot of benefits: Research shows it makes us happier, less stressed and even more optimistic.
● Make yourself wait
Instant gratification (满足) may seem like the most “feel good” option at the time, but psychology research suggests waiting for things actually makes us happier in the long run. And the only way for us to get into the habit of waiting is to practice.
●
So many of us have the belief that being comfortable is the only state we will tolerate, and when we experience something outside of our comfort zone, we get impatient about the circumstances. You should learn to say to yourself, “
| A．Find your causes |
| B．Start with small tasks |
| C．Accept the uncomfortable |
| D．All this adds up to a state of hurry |
| E．It can also help us practice more patience |
| F．This is merely uncomfortable, not intolerable |
| G．They’re all situations where we could use a little extra patience |
6 . The elderly residents (居民) in care homes in London are being given hens to look after to stop them feeling lonely.
The project was dreamed up by a local charity (慈善组织) to reduce loneliness and improve elderly people’s wellbeing. It is also being used to help patients suffering dementia, a serious illness of the mind. Staff in care homes have reported a reduction in the use of medicine where hens are in use.
Among those taking part in the project is 80-year-old Ruth Xavier. She said: “I used to keep hens when I was younger and had to prepare their breakfast each morning before I went to school. ”
“I like the project a lot. I am down there in my wheelchair in the morning letting the hens out and down there again at night to see they’ve gone to bed.”
“It’s good to have a different focus. People have been bringing their children in to see the hens and residents come and sit outside to watch them. I’m enjoying the creative activities, and it feels great to have done something useful.”
There are now 700 elderly people looking after hens in 20 care homes in the North East, and the charity has been given financial support to roll it out countrywide.
Wendy Wilson, extra care manager at 60 Penfold Street, one of the first to embark on the project, said: “Residents really welcome the idea of the project and the creative sessions. We are looking forward to the benefits and fun the project can bring to people here.”
Lynn Lewis, director of Notting Hill Pathways, said: “We are happy to be taking part in the project. It will really help connect our residents through a shared interest and creative activities.”
1. What is the purpose of the project?| A．To ensure harmony in care homes. | B．To provide part-time jobs for the aged. |
| C．To raise money for medical research. | D．To promote the elderly people’s welfare. |
| A．She has learned new life skills. | B．She has gained a sense of achievement. |
| C．She has recovered her memory. | D．She has developed a strong personality. |
| A．Improve. | B．Oppose. | C．Begin. | D．Evaluate. |
| A．It is well received. | B．It needs to be more creative. |
| C．It is highly profitable. | D．It takes ages to see the results. |
During China’s dynastic period, emperors planned the city of Beijing
In the Ming Dynasty, the center was the Forbidden City,
Hutongs represent an important cultural element of the city of Beijing. Thanks to Beijing’s long history
8 . Human speech contains more than 2,000 different sounds, from the common “m” and “a” to the rare clicks of some southern African languages. But why are certain sounds more common than others? A ground-breaking, five-year study shows that diet-related changes in human bite led to new speech sounds that are now found in half the world’s languages.
More than 30 years ago, the scholar Charles Hockett noted that speech sounds called labiodentals, such as “f” and “v”, were more common in the languages of societies that ate softer foods. Now a team of researchers led by Damián Blasi at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, has found how and why this trend arose.
They discovered that the upper and lower front teeth of ancient human adults were aligned (对齐), making it hard to produce labiodentals, which are formed by touching the lower lip to the upper teeth. Later, our jaws changed to an overbite structure (结构), making it easier to produce such sounds.
The team showed that this change in bite was connected with the development of agriculture in the Neolithic period. Food became easier to chew at this point. The jawbone didn’t have to do as much work and so didn’t grow to be so large.
Analyses of a language database also confirmed that there was a global change in the sound of world languages after the Neolithic age, with the use of “f” and “v” increasing remarkably during the last few thousand years. These sounds are still not found in the languages of many hunter-gatherer people today.
This research overturns the popular view that all human speech sounds were present when human beings evolved around 300,000 years ago. “The set of speech sounds we use has not necessarily remained stable since the appearance of human beings, but rather the huge variety of speech sounds that we find today is the product of a complex interplay of things like biological change and cultural evolution,” said Steven Moran, a member of the research team.
1. Which aspect of the human speech sound does Damián Blasi’s research focus on?| A．Its variety. | B．Its distribution. | C．Its quantity. | D．Its development. |
| A．They had fewer upper teeth than lower teeth. |
| B．They could not open and close their lips easily. |
| C．Their jaws were not conveniently structured. |
| D．Their lower front teeth were not large enough. |
| A．Supporting evidence for the research results. |
| B．Potential application of the research findings. |
| C．A further explanation of the research methods. |
| D．A reasonable doubt about the research process. |
| A．It is key to effective communication. | B．It contributes much to cultural diversity. |
| C．It is a complex and dynamic system. | D．It drives the evolution of human beings. |
9 . Like most of us, I try to be mindful of food that goes to waste. The arugula (芝麻菜)was to make a nice green salad, rounding out a roast chicken dinner. But I ended up working late. Then friends called with a dinner invitation. I stuck the chicken in the freezer. But as days passed, the arugula went bad. Even worse, I had unthinkingly bought way too much; I could have made six salads with what I threw out.
In a world where nearly 800 million people a year go hungry, “food waste goes against the moral grain,” as Elizabeth Royte writes in this month’s cover story. It’s jaw-dropping how much perfectly good food is thrown away — from “ugly” (but quite eatable) vegetables rejected by grocers to large amounts of uneaten dishes thrown into restaurant garbage cans.
Producing food that no one eats wastes the water, fuel, and other resources used to grow it. That makes food waste an environmental problem. In fact, Royte writes, “if food waste were a country, it would be the third largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world.”
If that’s hard to understand, let’s keep it as simple as the arugula at the back of my refrigerator. Mike Curtin sees my arugula story all the time — but for him, it's more like 12 bones of donated strawberries nearing their last days. Curtin is CEO of DC Central Kitchen in Washington, D.C., which recovers food and turns it into healthy meals. Last year it recovered more than 807,500 pounds of food by taking donations and collecting blemished (有瑕疵的) produce that otherwise would have rotted in fields. And the strawberries? Volunteers will wash, cut, and freeze or dry them for use in meals down the road.
Such methods seem obvious, yet so often we just don’t think. “Everyone can play a part in reducing waste, whether by not purchasing more food than necessary in your weekly shopping or by asking restaurants to not include the side dish you won’t eat,” Curtin says.
1. What does the author want to show by telling the arugula story?| A．We pay little attention to food waste. | B．We waste food unintentionally at times. |
| C．We waste more vegetables than meat. | D．We have good reasons for wasting food. |
| A．Moral decline. | B．Environmental harm. |
| C．Energy shortage. | D．Worldwide starvation. |
| A．It produces kitchen equipment. | B．It turns rotten arugula into clean fuel. |
| C．It helps local farmers grow fruits. | D．It makes meals out of unwanted food. |
| A．Buy only what is needed. | B．Reduce food consumption. |
| C．Go shopping once a week. | D．Eat in restaurants less often. |
10 . Grading Policies for Introduction to Literature
Grading Scale90-100, A; 80-89, B; 70-79, C; 60-69, D; Below 60, E.
Essays (60%)Your four major essays will combine to form the main part of the grade for this course: Essay 1 = 10%; Essay 2 = 15%; Essay 3 = 15%; Essay 4 = 20%.
Group Assignments (30%)Students will work in groups to complete four assignments (作业) during the course. All the assignments will be submitted by the assigned date through Blackboard, our online learning and course management system.
Daily Work/In-Class Writings and Tests/Group Work/Homework (10%)Class activities will vary from day to day, but students must be ready to complete short in-class writings or tests drawn directly from assigned readings or notes from the previous class' lecture/discussion, so it is important to take careful notes during class. Additionally, from time to time I will assign group work to be completed in class or short assignments to be completed at home, both of which will be graded.
Late WorkAn essay not submitted in class on the due date will lose a letter grade for each class period it is late. If it is not turned in by the 4th day after the due date, it will earn a zero. Daily assignments not completed during class will get a zero. Short writings missed as a result of an excused absence will be accepted.
1. Where is this text probably taken from?| A．A textbook. | B．An exam paper. | C．A course plan. | D．An academic article. |
| A．Two. | B．Three. | C．Four. | D．Five. |
| A．You will receive a zero. | B．You will lose a letter grade. |
| C．You will be given a test. | D．You will have to rewrite it. |
