I can’t be late. Not today! Malia thought as she raced across the park. Today her hula (裙舞) teacher would choose some students to dance at the luau (夏威夷派对).
Malia reached the end of the park. “Hello, Uncle Charles,” she greeted her teacher. All the dancers called him “Uncle” in the local way. Malia joined her hula sisters beneath a shady monkeypod tree. She pulled on a colorful skirt.
Uncle Charles knelt on a woven mat and beat a rhythm on a drum. The dancers warmed up with basic hula moves. Malia placed her hands on her waist and stepped back and forth.
“Swing your hips (臀部),” Uncle Charles called out. Malia stood in one spot and swung her hips side to side.
After the warm-up, Uncle took out his ukulele. It was time to practice their special dance for the luau. Malia took a deep breath and bent her knees.
“Remember to use expressions. You want to tell the story with your hands and faces,” Uncle said. Twang, twang went the ukulele. Malia lifted her arms. She and her hula sisters danced in a row across the grass. They stretched out their arms like birds in flight. Their movements matched the meaning of the happy song. There was no time to be nervous. Malia was too busy watching her hand motions and remembering her footwork. She also remembered to smile.
“Together! Watch your line,” Uncle called. Malia’s smile grew. She had made no mistakes. She spun to the rhythm of the ukulele and danced over to one side, as if she were on areal stage. Oh no! Malia had danced in the wrong direction. Malia felt her face burn, but she kept dancing and smiling. She turned in time to the music and danced in the proper direction—two steps behind and two beats late.
The music stopped, and Malia shook her head. “I’ll never be picked now.”
注意：1.续写部分词数应为120个左右；
2.续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好。
Paragraph 1
The class was over for the day.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2
Suddenly, Uncle’s voice interrupted Malia’s thought.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . Self-improvement doesn’t have to be a terrifying task. It can be a fun and exciting adventure that takes you on a journey of discovery and growth. With some simple tricks, you can transform yourself into a better version of you.
First off, remember that self-improvement is a marathon, not a dash.
Start with small, achievable goals. Whether it’s reading a book a week, going for a daily walk, or learning a new skill, these little milestones will help you stay motivated and feel accomplished.
Don’t be afraid to fail. Failure is part of the learning process. If you stumble or fall short of your goals, don’t beat yourself up.
And finally, don’t forget to celebrate your progress.
| A．Choose your circle wisely. |
| B．Seek support and inspiration. |
| C．Instead, dust yourself off, and start out again. |
| D．Make time for activities that will fuel your soul. |
| E．No one can expect to change everything overnight. |
| F．Remember, every step counts, however small it is! |
| G．Every little win is well worth acknowledging and rewarding. |
3 . In order to meet growing food production and energy needs in low-and middle-income countries, solar-powered groundwater irrigation (灌溉) is rapidly gaining ground. More than 500,000 solar pumps (泵) have been set up in south Asia over the last few years and a major expansion is planned across sub-Saharan Africa.
Dustin Garrick, professor in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability, along with an international team, examined the trend toward solar pumps as a clear opportunity for boosting agricultural yields and reducing poverty, but the opportunity comes with risks.
While replacing electric or gas pumps with solar-powered irrigation holds the promise of reducing carbon emissions (排放), it is not guaranteed. Farmers who have access to these pumps may expand production of crops or diversify into other activities, which are not emissions neutral. Solar pumps will increase groundwater pumping efficiency, which may be desirable in regions that support such increases, but this could worsen groundwater lessening in regions that are already stressed. The cheap clean energy of solar pumps may lead to increased groundwater development, without necessarily decreasing overall emissions.
Despite these challenges, the clean-energy boost can serve as a stimulus for positive change in water and energy management but will require enhanced regulation and planning in both low-and high-income settings. Garrick and his team advocate for improved data collection initiatives, with a shift from separated to integrated approaches. They suggest using technology to measure water pumping and collecting remotely sensed data to monitor land use changes. As well, regulatory improvements are crucial, with mounting limits for carbon emissions and groundwater lessening established at various levels.
With groundwater management already a difficult challenge, we must act fast to understand the implications of the clean energy boost and poverty reduction acts to avoid these gains being won away by wells running dry. The rapid adoption of solar irrigation intensifies the urgency, demanding adaptation from governments and institutions to sail through these complexities.
1. According to paragraph 3, there is a conflict between ________.| A．poor farmers and solar-powered irrigation | B．human consumption and clean energy limits |
| C．crop diversity and crop production expansion | D．pumping efficiency and groundwater exhaustion |
| A．Integrating data collection and regulation. | B．Improving carbon emission monitoring. |
| C．Separating data for land use changes. | D．Establishing groundwater levels. |
| A．Perform as the authorities suggest. | B．Act based on further understanding. |
| C．Quicken the adoption of solar irrigation. | D．Challenge the groundwater management. |
| A．The Complexities of Adopting Solar Pumps |
| B．Solar-Powered Irrigation: Farmers’ New Future |
| C．The Promise and Risks of Solar-Powered Irrigation |
| D．Balancing Clean Energy Boost and Poverty Reduction |
4 . For years, scientists have debated whether humans or the climate have caused the population of large mammals to decline dramatically over the past several thousand years. A new study from Aarhus University confirms that climate cannot be the explanation.
About 100,000 years ago, the first modern humans migrated out of Africa in large numbers. They were very good at adapting to new habitats, and they settled in almost every kind of landscape — from deserts to jungles to the icy taiga in the far north.
Part of the success was human’s ability to hunt large animals. With clever hunting techniques and specially built weapons, they perfected the art of killing even the most dangerous mammals.
But unfortunately, the great success of our ancestors came at the expense of the other large mammals.
It is well-known that numerous large species went extinct during the time of worldwide colonization by modern humans. Now, new research from Aarhus University reveals that those large mammals that survived also experienced a dramatic decline.
By studying the DNA of 139 living species of large mammals, scientists have been able to show that the abundances of almost all species fell dramatically about 50,000 years ago. This is according to Jens-Christian Svenning, a professor and head of the Danish National Research Foundation’s Center for Ecological Dynamics in a Novel Biosphere (ECONOVO) at Aarhus University and the initiator of the study.
“We’ve studied the evolution of large mammalian populations over the past 750,000 years. For the first 700,000 years, the populations were fairly stable. But 50,000 years ago, the populations fell dramatically and never recovered,” he says, and continues: “For the past 800,000 years, the globe has fluctuated (波动) between ice ages and interglacial periods about every 100,000 years. If the climate was the cause, we should see greater fluctuations when the climate changed 50,000 years earlier.But we don’t. Humans are, therefore, the most likely explanation.”
1. What do the underlined words “the success” mean in Paragraph 3?| A．The evolution of large mammals. |
| B．The prosperity of various habitats. |
| C．The achievement of human migration. |
| D．The progress in hunting techniques. |
| A．Populations of large mammals significantly dropped. |
| B．Living conditions of large mammals remained stable. |
| C．Global climate dramatically changed. |
| D．A large number of glaciers suddenly melt. |
| A．Species. | B．Place. | C．Time. | D．Climate. |
| A．Climate Impact on Animals |
| B．Changes of Prehistoric Environment |
| C．Evolution of Large Mammal Populations |
| D．Human Influence on Giant Mammals |
5 . Tips on Learning Math
While you are sitting in a math class listening to your teacher multiplying (乘以) and adding endless numbers, math can become boring and uninteresting quickly.
Learn math tricks. There are many tricks in math that save you enormous time. For example, adding up all the numbers from 1 to 100 is a lot of work. But, check out this easy way to do it: 100+1=101 and 99+2=101, right? So does 98+3, 97+4, 96+5, etc. So, if you multiply 101 by the number of these pairs, you’ll get the sum of all the numbers from 1 to 100, which is 5050.
Make math easy. Math can be difficult to learn because students are often taught to learn math by memorizing formulas (公式). However, by learning math this way, students aren’t taught the principles and concepts. But the principles and concepts are needed to understand why a particular formula is being used.
Connect math to everyday life.
| A．They are often interesting, too |
| B．So make math easier by learning them |
| C．Make math fun by using it in the real world |
| D．Try solving some math competition problems |
| E．Explore how math is related to something that you love |
| F．By doing so, you can find a way out of doing extra work |
| G．However, you can beat the boredom by making math meaningful to you |
The Qiang New Year Festival is the most important traditional festival for the Qiang ethnic group
The celebration lasts from three to five days. During the festival, Qiang people wear beautiful traditional costumes to celebrate this grand occasion through a range of folk activities such as dragon dance performances, bonfire (篝火) parties, music and shows, ritual sacrifice
It is also an occasion for the Qiang ethnic group to celebrate the harvest of the year. A series of rituals are held to show their
The festival was listed as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2009 due to its
Peking duck is an icon of Beijing cuisine and enjoying the treat is a must-do in the capital. Among the fast-changing trends of international cuisine, the dish is a rare, enduring classic,
The stories about the origins of Peking duck vary, one of
If diners order roast duck in a restaurant, a chef will come to the table to provide
Taste is only one of the
8 . A rare genetic skin condition has been corrected for the first time using a gene therapy that is applied to the skin.
About 1 in 800,000 children in the US are born with a severe condition called recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (不良性大疱性表皮松解症 RDEB) that makes their skin extremely weak and likely to be torn and blister (长水疱).
“It is very painful,” says Vincenzo Mascoli, 22, who travelled from Italy to the US to have the gene therapy. He had open wounds all over his body, including one covering his entire back that had been there since he was 2 years old. “Sometimes I also get blisters in my eyes and have to keep my eyes closed, and sometimes I get blisters in my throat that make it difficult to eat,” he says. Mascoli and other people with the condition have weak skin because they have an improper version of a collagen (胶原) gene called COL7A1. That means their skin can’t produce the collagen proteins needed to give it structure and strength.
Peter Marinkovich at Stanford University in California and his colleagues developed a way to insert normal COL7A1 genes into the skin of such individuals so they can start producing collagen properly. “All it does is go into the cell and deliver the gene,” says Marinkovich.
The gene therapy was then incorporated into a gel (凝胶) so it could be applied to the skin. It was tested in a late-stage clinical experiment in the US involving 31 children and adults with RDEB, including Mascoli.
The treatment was repeated weekly until the wounds closed. After three months, 71% of the wounds treated with the gene therapy had completely healed, compared with 20% of those who had the ineffective gel applied, and there were no serious side effects.
A US company called Krystal Biotech has partnered with Marinkovich and his colleagues to develop the gene therapy and will apply in the next few months for approval to make it available to more patients in the US.
1. What do we know about RDEB?| A．It is a serious skin disease on children. |
| B．It brings unbearable pain to the patients. |
| C．It makes patients’ skin weak but seldom blister. |
| D．About 800,000 children in the US suffer from it. |
| A．They don’t have the gene called COL7A1. |
| B．They don’t deal with the wounds properly. |
| C．Genes on them fail to provide right proteins. |
| D．They have serious side effects after treatments. |
| A．It was developed by Krystal Biotech. |
| B．It has proved highly effective on all patients. |
| C．It will be applied to patients in a larger scale. |
| D．It has positive effects on patients immediately. |
| A．A biography. | B．A course plan. |
| C．A mathematics paper. | D．A science magazine. |
9 . There are many requirements that need to be fulfilled when students apply to college, but the application essay can be the most difficult. Many students wonder: “
What makes you unique?
Your essay or personal statement is your opportunity to showcase what makes you stand out. This is your chance to humbly brag about your life. Admissions officers look for unique experiences beyond traditional education such as volunteer work, travel, or overcoming personal adversity.
Can you write?
In college, you are going to be spending a tremendous amount of time writing. Your essay provides insight into your ability as a writer.
Your writing should be meaningful and appealing to your reader. The voice of your writing should be similar to the way you speak.
Admissions officers want to know how you will enhance (改善) your community if accepted. Colleges are increasingly aware of the value of cultural diversity in the student body.
| A．What will you contribute to the community? |
| B．What do admissions officers look for in my essay? |
| C．Make sure to pick one specific experience to write about. |
| D．Your writing should be organized well with proper structure. |
| E．Add your academic performance in your high school to your essay. |
| F．If you are an international student, simply saying you are not from “here” is not enough. |
| G．You’d better stress in your essay that your dream is to become an outstanding writer in the future. |
It has been over 500 years
Magellan was following in the footsteps of explorers like Christopher Columbus. He’d traveled from Spain to America in 1492 and encouraged others
In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan set sail from Spain,
After fighting storms, losing ships and many of his men turning against him and returning home, Magellan was killed in the Philippines by local people.
After Magellan’s
The passage Magellan’s team went through, between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, was named after him: the Strait of Magellan, which is 570 kilometers long. His influence on the world did not end there. In 1989, NASA named
