1 . When I was 9, we packed up our home in Los Angeles and arrived at Heathrow, London on a gray January morning. Everyone in the family settled quickly into the city except me. Without my beloved beaches and endless blue—sky days, I felt at a loss and out of place. Until I made a discovery.
Southbank, at an eastern bend in the Thames, is the center of British skateboarding, where the continuous crashing of skateboards left your head ringing .I loved it. I soon made friends with the local skaters. We spoke our own language. And my favorite: Safe. Safe meant cool. It meant hello. It meant don’t worry about it. Once, when trying a certain trick on the beam(横杆), I fell onto the stones, damaging a nerve in my hand, and Toby came over, helping me up: Safe, man. Safe. A few minutes later, when I landed the trick, my friends beat their boards loud, shouting: “ Safe! Safe! Safe!” And that’s what mattered—landing tricks, being a good skater.
When I was 15, my family moved to Washington. I tried skateboarding there, but the locals were far less welcoming. Within a couple of years, I’d given it up.
When I returned to London in 2004, I found myself wandering down to Southbank, spending hours there. I’ve traveled back several times since, most recently this past spring. The day was cold but clear: tourists and Londoners stopped to watch the skaters. Weaving(穿梭)among the kids who rushed by on their boards, I found my way to the beam. Then a rail—thin teenager, in a baggy white T—shirt, skidded(滑)up to the beam. He sat next to me. He seemed not to notice the man next to him. But soon I caught a few of his glances. “I was a local here 20 years ago,” I told him. Then, slowly, he began to nod his head. “Safe, man. Safe.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Safe.”
1. What can we learn about the author soon after he moved to London?| A．He felt disappointed. | B．He gave up his hobby. |
| C．He liked the weather there. | D．He had disagreements with his family. |
| A．Be careful! | B．Well done! | C．No way! | D．Don’t worry! |
| A．To join the skateboarding. | B．To make new friends. |
| C．To learn more tricks. | D．To relive his childhood days |
| A．Children should learn a second language. |
| B．Sport is necessary for children’s health. |
| C．Children need a sense of belonging |
| D．Seeing the world is a must for children. |
2 . Port Lympne Reserve, which runs a breeding (繁育) programme, has welcomed the arrival of a rare black rhino calf (犀牛幼崽). When the tiny creature arrived on January 31, she became the 40th black rhino to be born at the reserve. And officials at Port Lympne were delighted with the new arrival, especially as black rhinos are known for being difficult to breed in captivity (圈养).
Paul Beer, head of rhino section at Port Lympne, said: “Obviously we’re all absolutely delighted to welcome another calf to our black rhino family. She’s healthy, strong and already eager to play and explore. Her mother, Solio, is a first-time mum and she is doing a fantastic job. It’s still a little too cold for them to go out into the open, but as soon as the weather warms up, I have no doubt that the little one will be out and about exploring and playing every day.”
The adorable female calf is the second black rhino born this year at the reserve, but it is too early to tell if the calves will make good candidates to be returned to protected areas of the wild. The first rhino to be born at Port Lympne arrived on January 5 to first-time mother Kisima and weighed about 32kg. His mother, grandmother and great grandmother were all born at the reserve and still live there.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, the global black rhino population has dropped as low as 5500, giving the rhinos a “critically endangered” status.
1. Which of the following best describes the breeding programme?| A．Costly. | B．Controversial. | C．Ambitious. | D．Successful. |
| A．She loves staying with her mother. | B．She dislikes outdoor activities. |
| C．She is in good condition | D．She is sensitive to heat. |
| A．They had their first born in January. | B．They enjoyed exploring new places |
| C．They lived with their grandmothers. | D．They were brought to the reserve young |
| A．The rhino section will be open to the public. |
| B．It aims to control the number of the animals. |
| C．It will continue to work with the World Wildlife Fund. |
| D．Some of its rhinos may be sent to the protected wild areas. |
I've always loved the ocean. In the
I decided to do something
One day, I saw a commercial for a health-care company. People in the ad were using plastic straws （吸管）. I found the contact information of the company
I kept going. Whenever I heard of businesses using plastic, I'd send an email. One of the biggest companies I wrote to
4 . A Take a view, the Landscape(风景)Photographer of the Year Award, was the idea of Charlie Waite, one of today’s most respected landscape photographers.Each year, the high standard of entries has shown that the Awards are the perfect platform to showcase the very best photography of the British landscape.Take a view is a desirable annual competition for photographers from all comers of the UK and beyond.
| Mike Shepherd(2011) Skiddaw in Winter Cumbria, England | It was an extremely cold winter’s evening and freezing fog hung in the air. I climbed to the top of a small rise and realised that the mist was little more than a few feet deep, and though it was only a short climb, I found myself completely above it and looking at a wonderfully clear view of Skiddaw with the sun setting in the west. I used classical techniques, translated from my college days spent in the darkroom into Photoshop, to achieve the black—and—white image(图像). |
| Timothy Smith(2014) Macclesfield Forest Cheshire, England | I was back in my home town of Macclesfield to take some winter images. Walking up a path through the forest towards Shutlingsloe. a local high point, I came across a small clearing and immediately noticed the dead yellow grasses set against the fresh snow. The small pine added to the interest and I placed it centrally to take the view from the foreground right through into the forest. |
| A．Writers. | B．Photographers. | C．Painters. | D．Tourists. |
| A．They are winter images. |
| B．They are in black and white. |
| C．They show mountainous scenes. |
| D．They focus on snow—covered forests. |
| A．In a history book. | B．In a novel. | C．In an art magazine. | D．In a biography. |
5 . An Australian professor is developing a robot to monitor the health of grazing cattle, a development that could bring big changes to a profession that's relied largely on a low-tech approach for decades but is facing a labor shortage.
Salah Sukkarieh, a professor at the University of Sydney, sees robots as necessary given how cattlemen are aging. He is building a four-wheeled robot that will run on solar and electric power. It will use cameras and sensors to monitor the animals. A computer system will analyze the video to determine whether a cow is sick. Radio tags (标签) on the animals will measure temperature changes. The quality of grassland will be tracked by monitoring the shape, color and texture (质地) of grass. That way, cattlemen will know whether they need to move their cattle to another field for nutrition purposes.
Machines have largely taken over planting, watering and harvesting crops such as com and wheat, but the monitoring of cattle has gone through fewer changes.
For Texas cattleman Pete Bonds, it's increasingly difficult to find workers interested in watching cattle. But Bonds doesn't believe a robot is right for the job. Years of experience in the industry - and failed attempts to use technology - have convinced him that the best way to check cattle is with a man on a horse. Bonds, who bought his first cattle almost 50 years ago, still has each of his cowboys inspect 300 or 400 cattle daily and look for signs that an animal is getting sick.
Other cattlemen see more promise in robots. Michael Kelsey Paris, vice president of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association, said a robot could be extremely useful given rising concerns about cattle theft. Cattle tend to be kept in remote places and their value has risen, making them appealing targets.
1. What is a problem with the cattle-raising industry?| A．Soil pollution. | B．Lack of workers. |
| C．Aging machines. | D．Low profitability. |
| A．Monitor the quality of grass. | B．Cure the diseased cattle. |
| C．Move cattle to another field. | D．Predict weather changes. |
| A．He wants to help them earn a living. | B．He thinks men can do the job better. |
| C．He is inexperienced in using robots. | D．He enjoys the traditional way of life. |
| A．Increase the value of cattle. | B．Bring down the cost of labor. |
| C．Make the job more appealing. | D．Keep cattle from being stolen. |
6 . For nearly a decade now, Merebeth has been a self-employed pet transport specialist. Her pet transport job was born of the financial crisis(危机)in the late 2000s. The downturn hit the real estate (房地产)firm where she had worked for ten years as an office manager. The firm went broke and left her looking for a new job. One day, while driving near her home, she saw a dog wandering on the road, clearly lost. She took it home, and her sister in Denver agreed to take it. This was a loving home for sure, but 1, 600 miles away. It didn’t take long for Merebeth to decide to drive the dog there herself. It was her first road trip to her new job.
Merebeth’s pet delivery service also satisfies her wanderlust. It has taken her to every state in the US except Montana, Washington and Oregon, she says proudly. If she wants to visit a new place, she will simply find a pet with transport needs there. She travels in all weathers. She has driven through 55 mph winds in Wyoming, heavy flooding and storms in Alabama and total whiteout conditions in Kansas.
This wanderlust is inherited from her father, she says. She moved their family from Canada to California when she was one year old, because he wanted them to explore a new place together. As soon as she graduated from high school she left home to live on Catalina Island off the Californian coast, away from her parents, where she enjoyed a life of sailing and off-road biking.
It turns out that pet transporting pays quite well at about $30, 000 per year before tax. She doesn’t work in summer, as it would be unpleasantly hot for the animals in the car, even with air conditioning. As autumn comes, she gets restless—the same old wanderlust returning. It’s a call she must heed alone, though. Merebeth says, “When I am on the road, I’m just in my own world. I’ve always been independent-spirited and I just feel strongly that I must help animals.”
1. Why did Merebeth changed her job?| A．She wanted to work near her home. |
| B．She was tired of working in the office. |
| C．Her sister asked her to move to Denver. |
| D．Her former employer was out of business. |
| A．make money. | B．try various jobs. |
| C．be close to nature. | D．travel to different places. |
| A．She has chances to see rare animals. |
| B．She works hard throughout the year. |
| C．She relies on herself the whole time. |
| D．She earns a basic and tax-free salary. |
7 . I have worked as a keeper at the National Zoo, Paris for 11 years. Spot and Stripe are the first tiger cubs that have ever been born here. Globally, a third of Sumatran cubs in zoos don't make it to adulthood, so I decided to give them round-the-clock care at home.
I've got two children—the younger one, Kynan, was extremely happy about the tigers arriving - but all of us really looked forward to being part of their lives and watching them grow. I wasn't worried about bringing them into my home with my wife and kids. These were cubs. They weighed about 2.5 kg and were so small that there was absolutely no risk.
As they grew more mobile, we let them move freely around the house during the day, but when we were asleep we had to contain them in a large room, otherwise they'd get up to mischief. We'd come down in the morning to find they'd turned the room upside down, and left it looking like a zoo.
Things quickly got very intense due to the huge amount of energy required to look after them. There were some tough times and I just felt extremely tired. I was grateful that my family was there to help. We had to have a bit of a production line going, making up “tiger milk”, washing baby bottles, and cleaning the floors.
When Spot and Stripe were four months old, they were learning how to open doors and jump fences, and we knew it really was time for them to go. It was hard for us to finally part with them. For the first few days, Kynan was always a bit disappointed that the cubs weren't there.
I'm not sad about it. I'm hands-on with them every day at the zoo, and I do look back very fondly on the time that we had them.
1. Why did the author bring the tiger cubs home?| A．To ensure their survival. | B．To observe their differences. |
| C．To teach them life skills. | D．To let them play with his kids. |
| A．Behave badly. | B．Lose their way. | C．Sleep soundly. | D．Miss their mom. |
| A．Boring. | B．Tiring. | C．Costly. | D．Risky. |
| A．They frightened the children. | B．They became difficult to contain. |
| C．They annoyed the neighbours. | D．They started fighting each other. |
8 . Things to Do in Yorkshire This Summer
Harrogate Music Festival
Since its birth, Harrogate Music Festival has gone from strength to strength. This year, we are celebrating our 50th anniversary. We begin on 1st June with Manchester Camerata and Nicola Benedetti, presenting an amazing programme of Mozart pieces.
Dates:1 June-31 July
Tickets:£12-£96
Jodie's Fitness Summer Classes
As the summer months roll in, our Georgian country estate makes the perfect setting for an outdoor fitness session. Come and work out with our qualified personal trainer, Jodie McGregor, on the grounds of the Middleton Lodge estate.
We will be holding a free taster session on 23rd May, at 10 am, to demonstrate the variety of effective and active exercises. There are eight spaces available for the taster session. Advance bookings are required (info@middletonlodge.co.uk)
Dates:23 May-11 July
Tickets: £7.50 per session
Felt Picture Making
Working from an inspirational picture, this workshop at Helmsley Arts Centre will teach you the techniques you will need to recreate your picture in wool.
We will also discuss the origins of felt, what enables wool fibres to become felt and how the processes we use work.
Dates: 12 June-12 July
Tickets: £40 including materials
Figure It Out!-Playing with Math
A new exhibition in Halifax uses everyday activities to explain the hidden math principles we all use on a regular basis. Pack a bag, cut a cake, guess which juice container holds the most liquid, and much more. Discover how architects, product designers and scientists use similar skills in their work.
Dates:7 May-10 June
Tickets: Free
1. What should you do if you want to attend the taster session of Jodie's fitness classes?| A．Join a fitness club. | B．Pay a registration fee. |
| C．Make a booking. | D．Hire a personal trainer. |
| A．£7.50. | B．£12. | C．£40. | D．£96. |
| A．Harrogate Music Festival. | B．Jodie's Fitness Summer Classes. |
| C．Felt Picture Making. | D．Figure It Out!-Playing with Math. |
9 . 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. |
| A．It is particularly difficult. | B．It increases artists' income. |
| C．It opens children's mind. | D．It deserves greater attention. |
| A．Moral principles. | B．Interpersonal skills. |
| C．Creative abilities. | D．Positive worldviews. |
| A．Bring Artists to Schools | B．When Historians Meet Artists |
| C．Arts Education in Britain | D．The World's Best Arts Teacher |
It doesn’t impress like George Washington’s plantation on the Potomac, but Lincoln’s home in downtown Springfield, Illinois,
When the house was built, it was much
Although Mary loved flowers,
