1 . What’s on

Bluedot

Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire, 21-24 July

Bluedot returns for four days of music, art and space science. Among the treats are talks by physicist Jim AI-Khalili, astronaut Tim Peake, space scientist Monica Grady and BBC Sky at Night’s Chris Lintott, alongside a bill of stand-up comedy, art and music by the likes of Bjork and Groove Armada. Day tickets ￡35/visitor, weekend tickets ￡179/visitor.

Late Night Explorer

Kielder Observatory, Northumberland, weekends, 11:30 pm

Wonder at the Moon, planets and galaxies under the guidance of expert astronomers, and use the observatory’s high-quality telescopes. Also enjoy a log-burning stove (炉子) and a hot chocolate. ￡46/visitor.

Herschel to Hawkwind

Observatory Science Centre, Herstmonceux, 2 July, 7:30 pm

Rock guitarist and astronomer William gives an entertaining talk that explores the connection between music and the sky, including live music and a singalong. ￡16/adult; ￡13/child.

Craig Telescope Talk

Bredhurst Village Hall, Gillingham, 29 July, 8 pm

Greg Smye-Rumsby brings to life the story of the Craig telescope, for a brief time in the mid-19th century the largest refracting telescope (折射望远镜) in the world. Was this strange instrument just an expensive folly? ￡18/visitor; ￡24 with food.

1. What might Bjork do for visitors during 21-24 July?

A．Serve them a hot chocolate.	B．Entertain them with music.
C．Give a lecture on the universe.	D．Discuss how music relates to the sky.

2. How much should a young couple pay for William’s talk?

A．￡13.

B．￡16.

C．￡26.

D．￡32.

3. Where should visitors go if they’d like to learn about the Craig telescope?

A．Observatory Science Centre.	B．Jodrell Bank Observatory.
C．Bredhurst Village Hall.	D．Kielder Observatory.

2 . 随着车辆的增加，校门口周边进出交通安全问题愈发严重。假定你是校学生会主席李华，针对“遵守交通规则重要性”向同学们及家长发出倡议。要点如下：
（1）列举校门口常见的交通违规现象及其影响
（2）发出倡议(至少两点)
注意：（1）词数100左右；(开头结尾已给出，不计入字数)
（2）可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
参考词汇：车行道roadway；人行道sidewalk；任意掉头make random U-turns
Dear fellow students and respected parents,
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The Student Union

3 . 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。

How does urban public transport better serve elderly people? Chongqing Trolley Company has added new age-friendly measures onto the buses,     1     a zero-step entrance, lost & found boxes, emergency drugs are available.     2     (additional), it carries out special training regularly for their staff to make bus service more age-friendly.

Chongqing Trolley Company operates     3       large number of bus routes, and the elderly are their major passengers,     4     (account) for 60% in total. To better serve them, the company has installed a zero-step entrance onto buses along 70 routes. The zero-step entrance is an innovation in public transport. In other words, the entrance of the bus will be lowered when the bus     5     (arrive) at the bus stop. Besides, the footrest at the back door can serve as a wheelchair ramp (斜坡) to make the bus more    6     (access) to wheelchair users and other disabled people.

So far, these buses    7     (equip) with priority seats and reading glasses for passengers with special     8     (need). First-aid knowledge training is also carried out regularly among drivers to offer better     9     (serve) to elderly passengers.

In the future, Chongqing Trolley Company will hopefully introduce more passenger-friendly measures     10     try to make the local bus more convenient.

4 . Octopuses (章鱼)are colour-blind and they use camera-like eyes to detect light polarisation (偏振) instead. Light polarisation refers to the plane(平面) at which light waves travel. Unpolarised light waves travel forward in every plane, while polarised light only travels in one plane. Measuring the effects of light polarisation on animal responses is arduous, but University of Bristol researchers developed a technology that made this a lot easier.

Although it was known that octopuses can detect light polarisation, the study is the first to show that octopuses have the highest sensitivity to the polarisation of light, compared to any other animal tested so far.

“We knew that octopuses, like many marine (海洋的) species, could see patterns in polarised light much like we see colour, but we had no idea that they could do so when the light was 2% polarised—that was exciting, but even more unexpected was when we then tested humans and found that they were able to perceive patterns when the light was 24% polarised,”said lead researcher Professor Shelby Temple.

This discovery led to the development of a new medical device that can quickly and easily screen people for low macular pigments (黄斑色素), a strong risk factor for developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD). AMD is the most common cause of incurable blindness, which normally affects people in their 50s and 60s.

This new device opens the door to the regular screening of patients, enabling eye care professionals to better identify and suggest appropriate lifestyle choices to people at more risk of developing AMD. Early screening for macular pigment levels would empower patients to take better care of their eyes by making lifestyle choices, such as eating more fruits and vegetables, and wearing sunglasses.

1. What does the underlined word “arduous” in paragraph 1 probably mean?

A．Adventurous.

B．Necessary.

C．Conventional.

D．Laborious.

2. Which of the following greatly surprised the researchers according to Temple?

A．Octopuses could perceive patterns in polarised light.

B．Humans could see colour much like octopuses saw patterns.

C．Humans could see patterns when the light was 24% polarised.

D．Octopuses could perceive colour when the light was 2% polarised.

3. What does the last paragraph mainly tell us about the new device?

A．Its practical significance.	B．Its widespread popularity.
C．The reasons for improving it.	D．The process of employing it.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Octopus-like Devices Influence our Lifestyle Choices

B．Octopuses’ Camera-like Eyes Detect Light Polarisation

C．Octopus-inspired Innovation Helps Fight Human Sight Loss

D．Octopuses’ Unique Characteristics Attract Attention

5 . The hand-drawn posters kept catching Aviram Cohen’s eye as he walked around his neighborhood in Queens, N.Y. They were colorful advertisements with a distinct style. Cohen, who builds exhibitions in museums and galleries, was eager to uncover who was behind the posters. It wasn’t easy.

“I found them by going from restaurant to restaurant until there was someone that had their phone number,” Cohen, 42, said, adding that he was hoping to ask them to create a sign for his wife’s yoga and Pilates studio in Jackson Heights.

When the artists, Carlos and Miguel Cevallos, met him at his wife’s studio that day in 2018, Cohen was shocked to see two brothers in their 80s, who for decades have spent their days in their shared Manhattan apartment making advertising posters by hand. They had long been relying on word of mouth to attract new clients. Then Cohen suggested they get on social media to preserve their work. “It should be documented so it doesn’t disappear,” Cohen said. Cohen offered to create an Instagram account for the brothers. They were on board with the idea.

The brothers, along with their older brother, Victor, opened a sign shop in Bogota in 1966. Victor taught his younger brothers all he knew about art. After Victor moved to New York in 1969, his brothers eventually followed him. Carlos came first in 1974 and produced posters with Victor in a small art studio in Times Square, and later in Queens. In 2005, Miguel moved to New York. After Victor’s death in 2012, Miguel and Carlos carried on their brother’s legacy(遗产)by continuing to make custom posters. Miguel outlines the letters and images, and Carlos is the colorist.

Recently, the brothers have received requests from potential clients across the United States, as well as internationally. The two have no plans to part with their pens and paintbrushes anytime soon. They intend to make art indefinitely.

1. Why did Cohen try to find the poster designers?

A．To reach out hands for them.

B．To order a sign for his wife’s studio.

C．To collect posters for his exhibitions.

D．To learn the technique of making posters.

2. How did Cohen help the two brothers?

A．He advertised them with posters.

B．He made a documentary for them.

C．He introduced social media to them.

D．He housed them in a downtown apartment.

3. What is the author’s purpose in writing paragraph 4?

A．To show the two brothers’ artistic origins.

B．To present the two brothers’ distinct art styles.

C．To explain why the two brothers’ business is on the rise.

D．To illustrate how the two brothers went through their tough years.

4. What will the two brothers do next?

A．Carry on with their art.

B．Promote their art globally.

C．Pursue their separate interests in art.

D．Attempt to use new tools to do their art.

6 . Dogs may have earned the title of our best friends through their interactions with humans, but now researchers say these social skills could, be present shortly after birth rather than being learned.

To better understand the role of biology in dogs’ abilities to communicate with humans, the researchers studied 375 eight-week-old service dogs. They looked at how these dogs performed in a series of tasks designed to measure their communication skills. The puppies were still living with their littermates (同窝出生者) and had not been sent to live with a volunteer puppy raiser, making it unlikely that they had learned about his or her behavior.

In the first task, a person hid a treat beneath one of two overturned cups and pointed to it to see if the puppy could follow the gesture. Since dogs are good at using noses to find things a treat was also taped to the insides of, both cups. In the second task, puppies watched as the researchers placed a yellow, block next to the correct cup, instead of pointing to indicate where the puppy should look for the food.

The third task was designed to observe puppies’ tendency to look at human faces. The researchers spoke to the puppy in a voice people sometimes use when talking to a baby. They then measured how long the puppy fixed a stare on the human.

In the last task, researchers sealed a treat inside a closed container and presented it to the puppy. They then measured how often the puppy looked to the human for help in opening the container.

The study found that while many of the puppies were responsive to humans’ physical and verbal cues, very few looked to humans for help with the unsolvable task. Researchers said, “This suggests that while puppies may be born knowing how to respond to human-initiated communication, the ability to initiate communication on their own may come later.” The next step will be to see if specific genes that may contribute to dogs’ abilities to communicate with humans can be identified.

1. Why were eight-week-old service dogs chosen for the study?

A．They were the best age to learn.

B．They were cute and safe to deal with.

C．They were unlikely influenced by their mates.

D．They had had little contact with humans before.

2. What is the researchers’ purpose in taping food to both cups?

A．To provide clues for the puppies’ final decisions.

B．To make comparisons between different conditions.

C．To prevent the puppies from making use of their smell.

D．To check the puppies’ preference for a particular color.

3. What can we know from the study?

A．Puppies can understand our body language.

B．Puppies are good at asking humans for help.

C．Puppies are born to arouse communication with humans.

D．Puppies need specific genes to communicate with humans.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．Dogs—talented performers	B．Dogs—humans’ best friends
C．Dogs—born to be able to learn	D．Dogs—born to understand humans

7 . I’ve never had a great sense of direction. And I often wander into shops and, upon coming back out, can’t remember which way I’ve come from — left or right? Many people are like me, and why do some constantly have no idea where they are?

The hippocampus (海马体) is a region of the brain associated with memory and involved in sense of direction. And a nearby region has also been associated with sense of direction. There are four known types of navigation-related neurons (神经元), found in these regions place cells, grid cells, border cells and head direction cells.

In short, you can think of place cells as an internal cognitive (认知的) map; they identify where you are. Grid cells are like a GPS system in our brain; they tell us about the relationship of this place to other places we’ve been to. Border cells respond to the presence of environmental boundaries at a specific direction and distance from us. Lastly, head direction cells are activated when our head faces a specific direction. These cells will fire electrical impulses when we enter familiar locations, with each group of cells relating to a specific place.

Our reliance on GPS and smartphones may have decreased the ability to use our internal maps. Older adults who regularly used GPS had less activity in their hippocampus, compared with those who did not use GPS. They also performed slightly worse in a cognition test. In contrast, a study involving London taxi drivers found they significantly larger hippocampus than ordinary people.

You can improve your way-finding ability specifically by practicing the skill, according to Aziz, PhD of neurology at Temple University School of Medicine. “The more you get out and go to places, the better,” he says. Physical exercise improves the blood flow to the brain, while mental exercise, such as doing puzzles or learning a new language, stimulates the development of new nerve cells and connections in your brain.

1. How does the author introduce the topic of the text?

A．By raising a question.

B．By making a comparison.

C．By stating personal opinions.

D．By referring to scientific research.

2. What can we learn about the four types of navigation-related neurons?

A．They depend closely on each other.

B．They are responsible for different jobs.

C．They will decrease in numbers as one ages.

D．They will fail to function in unfamiliar situations.

3. What will happen it we rely too much on GPS?

A．We will easily be misled.

B．Our hippocampus will get enlarged.

C．Our cognitive ability will be affected.

D．We will have our hippocampus relaxed.

4. What are we advised to do according to the last paragraph?

A．Build up our body.	B．Take training courses.
C．Try different brain exercises.	D．Get out to connect with people.

8 . 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。

As centuries pass,     1     (historian) are still able to remember the achievements attained by the first emperor of unified China. We have to acknowledge that the successes QinShi Huang had were     2     (last) and helpful for the future of China.

When Qin Shi Huang first came into power in 220 BCE, China     3    (divide) into many kingdoms. In order to unify China, he launched a war    4     the other six major kingdoms. By 221 BCE, he was able to unify China under his rule.

Qin Shi Huang had    5    profound impact on China’s culture. He helped dig canals and build roads    6     (facilitate) travel. He started the national road system and created fast roads. He was    7     (extreme) influential in China’s government. Qin declared that the round coin with a square-shaped hole in the center as the currency of China. He named it ban-liang coin. The first emperor was able to create a unified measuring standard for weight, volume and     8     (long).

He asked his Prime Minister, Li Si, to unify the eight calligraphic (书写的) styles     9     were promoted in other states and absorb some     10     (simplify) characters to create the standardized Qin. This was China’s first thorough character standardization movement led by the central government, and the uniform calligraphic style had great significance in pushing forward the development of Chinese characters.

9 . Productivity can be a struggle for many of us. Overflowing email inboxes, housework, social obligations, it can be easy to feel at a loss.     1    . Write them down, do the tasks and cross them off-simple!

    2     Firstly, they help to drown out the chaos and anxiety that come with having never-ending tasks. By writing everything down, we don’t have to rely on our memory.     3    . Secondly, lists provide structure and guidance, giving us a plan to follow. And finally, lists serve as proof of what we have achieved, which can help boost our sense of accomplishment and motivation.

Another possible reason our brains love lists is something called the “Zeigarnik effect”. This is the name psychologists use for when we remember things we need to do better than things we have already completed.     4    . The experiment began with a warm-up task, though it was stopped half-way through, and only some people were allowed to make plans to finish it. The researchers found that the group permitted to plan had reduced anxiety and performed better in the second task. The problem was that the others still had the warm-up task stuck in their active memory-an unticked list of tasks.     5    

All in all, it seems that lists are a valuable tool for staying on top of life!

A．And we can instead focus on the task at hand

B．Keep the list near the phone for easy reference

C．There are three key reasons why lists are beneficial

D．We do not fully understand how the brain is organized

E．So, once we tick something off our list, our brains forget it and we can relax

F．However, one simple tool that helps us stay on top of everything is the to-do list

G．Researchers tested the interference of the “Zeigarnik effect“ on a group of people

10 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

Billy, a salvage (沉船打捞) diver, hunts for unique items that might have historical value During one of his dives earlier this year, he found a sealed bottle containing a handwritten message, which would turn out to have treasured emotional value for a couple 200miles away, who suffered the loss of a son.

Billy first spotted the green glass bottle floating above a sunken boat. It turned on his curiosity because it appeared to contain a letter. Billy took back the floating bottle, then gently removed the enclosed letter with sticks. He allowed the wrinkled and damp paper to dry out. Once dried, he and his boss, Brad, attempted to reconstruct the remaining pieces of the letter, written in the handwriting of a child. They could make out the name, the year and the location: Dahl; 1989; Oxford, Mississippi.

Touched by the letter and the child’s adventurous spirit, Billy and Brad set out to return the keepsake (纪念品) to its rightful owner. “It really just fueled us to go and say, Let’s go find this guy because this is kind of like-minded,” said Brad.

Billy and Brad stayed late that day to contact local schools, searching for clues. That search didn’t result in a match. However, the note remained on their minds and they decided to continue their search using social media. They posted a picture of the note on social media, which instantly generated interest. Others shared the story widely, and it took on a life of its own.

The news of the mysterious message in a bottle soon made its way to Eric and Melanie Dahl, a couple 200 miles away. The couple had an instinct (直觉) that the letter was composed by their late son, Brian. They recalled that, when he was a sixth grader, he was assigned a creative class project that required him to write a message and place it in a bottle.

1.续写词数应为150左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

The couple contacted Billy and arranged to check it out.

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Then the couple took it back.

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