Globe-making is a long tradition, which dates back to the middle of the
The Bellerby & Co. artisans spend months, even years,
Once the map is ready, it’s printed, cut into shapes and painted by hand with watercolour. It’s a very delicate procedure, but once all of the pieces are
The company makes globes in many sizes, from small orbs that will fit on a desk
Due to my unhealthy eating habits, I became fatter and fatter after college. My good friend Anoush was a running enthusiast. So he advised me to lose weight by running. I didn’t agree at first until he promised to accompany me to run although he was busy with his work.
Seven years later, I got more serious about running. And I dreamed to participate in Boston Marathon. Anoush encouraged me to realize my dream. He also said he enjoyed running too and wanted to attend the same marathon with me. Every day we spared our time to practise hard and did about 2 marathons a year, during which time Anoush gave me much professional guidance and encouragement. And then one day, both of us qualified for the 2017 Boston Marathon. We were excited but unfortunately, several weeks before the marathon, we had a serious quarrel. Even I swore never to talk with him in the future.
The day came. Anoush and I stood at the starting line. He said, “Good luck! You will certainly finish the marathon.” Hearing his words, I looked at him, saying, “It’s none of your business.”
Then we started running. I had strong mental confidence by using positive self-talk when running distances, which has helped me finish 18 marathons. Soon, I passed Anoush.
But I struggled in the heat starting at mile 16. I felt most of my oxygen went to the muscle in my legs and less in my brain, which made me feel a bit lightheaded and fuzzy (迷迷糊糊的). I continually encouraged myself. “Just get to the finish, run bold, and you will win,” all phrases that I say to myself didn’t work any more.
Gradually I felt out of breath and had to slow down my pace. As I ran down the famous last stretch of the Boston Marathon on Boylston Street, I fell down on the ground with my legs moving like jello (果冻).
注意：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。
Just then, I felt that someone picked me up.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When Anoush and I crossed the finish line, the audience at present applauded.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3 . The diversity of Australian animals in NSW national parks is extraordinary. Some common species can be found across a range of parks, while others are endemic (特有的) to a specific area. Our national parks are also important shelters for threatened animals, many found nowhere else in the world. The following are some examples.
Albert’s lyrebird
The Albert’s lyrebird is much rarer than the superb lyrebird. Distinguished by its richer brown feather and less delicate tail feathers, it’s protected as a threatened species in NSW.
Cumberland Plain land snail
The endangered Cumberland Plain land snail is only found on the Cumberland Plain, west of Sydney. During drought it digs deep into the soil to escape severe conditions. Its brown shell is thin and fragile (脆弱的).
Australian fur seal The largest fur seal
Australian fur seals are found in isolated rocky outcrops and islands along the NSW coast. They come ashore to form breeding colonies (繁殖地) and can often be seen at Barunguba Montague Island Nature Reserve.
Australian brush turkey
The Australian brush turkey, also known as bush or scrub turkey, can be found in rainforests along eastern NSW. With a striking red head, blue-black feather and booming call, these distinctive Australian birds are easy to spot while bird watching in several NSW national parks.
1. What do Albert’s lyrebird and Cumberland Plain land snail have in common?| A．They live in the soil. | B．They hate dry conditions. |
| C．They have long feathers. | D．They are species in danger. |
| A．They breed on the sea shore. | B．They are red from head to tail. |
| C．They adapt to rainforest climate. | D．They are only seen on isolated islands. |
| A．In a science report. | B．In a personal diary. |
| C．In a tourist brochure. | D．In an educational magazine. |
4 . We went deep into the earth through dark, narrow caves. When I got used to the light, I stood amazed.
A vast lake or even an ocean, spread far beyond where the eye could see. The shore was lined with shining sand, being softly lapped by waves. It was covered with small shells once inhabited by the first living beings. Around this sea stood a huge rock wall being worn away by the endless action of the waves.
I could see far over this great sea because it was being lit up by a strange light. Not sunlight, of course, as we were deep below the surface. Under the “sky”, if it could be called so, being made of rock, were also vast clouds. The light gave no heat, so the place felt rather gloomy (幽暗的). We were shut up inside a vast cave which must have been several miles high.
My imagination was powerless before such wonders. I felt like I was on some distant planet, and was both amazed and rather scared. However, I was energetic by the breezy salty air supplying more oxygen to my lungs. After many days in much narrower spaces, it was a great relief.
We began to walk following the shore. Soon in front of us appeared a tall, dense forest, composed of trees formed like umbrellas. “Mushrooms!” said my uncle. And he was right! There were mushrooms in their thousands, and each at least thirty feet high.
“Now look under your feet!” cried my uncle and I noticed many bones being crushed under our feet as we walked. Might some monsters still roam (漫步) through these gloomy forests? I anxiously surveyed the landscape, but we were the only living creatures here. Thankfully!
Eventually we returned to the cave we had entered from, and I fell asleep with strange thoughts.
— Journey to the centre of the earth
1. What does the underlined word “lapped” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．Caught in. | B．Sought for. | C．Sheltered from. | D．Beaten against. |
| A．Huge, strange and amazing. | B．Sunny, windy and wonderful. |
| C．Salty, narrow and comforting. | D．Cloudy, gloomy and embarrassing. |
| A．A high and thick forest composed of tree-shaped umbrellas. |
| B．Lots of bones belonging to monsters that might have disappeared. |
| C．Thousands of mushrooms measuring no more than thirty feet high. |
| D．A couple of roaming creatures living in the gloomy and distant planet. |
| A．The author kept awake in the cave they had entered from. |
| B．The author thought it strange that he fell asleep in such a cave. |
| C．The author enjoyed the experience though he felt scared sometimes. |
| D．The author encountered with a monster before he returned to the cave. |
1. 你对这句话的理解；
2. 这句话对你的影响。
注意：
1. 写作词数应为80左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
6 . How to Read Candidates’ Body Language in an Interview
Body language matters, especially in interviews.
Reading body language during interviews can provide valuable insights into a candidate’s personality.
Observe extreme behaviour. A candidate’s harmless action doesn’t mean they won’t fitin well at your company. But be careful about extreme behaviours, like a person constantly checking their phone.
Connect the dots.
Candidate experience greatly depends on an interviewer’s body language. Positive body language can make candidates relax and open up. Negative body language can spark (引发) defensive and reserved reactions.
| A．Spot the difference. |
| B．Ask detailed questions. |
| C．It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. |
| D．They don’t necessarily act the same way all the time. |
| E．However, understanding body language isn’t an exact science. |
| F．You can’t always tell what a specific gesture means on its own. |
| G．Be aware of mistakes to preserve a positive candidate experience. |
7 . I was driving down the highway, enjoying the freedom of the open road when suddenly, I heard a loud noise. My car shook
I carefully
I tried to flag down passing cars, but no one seemed to notice me. They drove past me at high speed, as if I were
As the sun started to set, my
Just when I was about to give up, I heard a car
As expected, the man helped
| A．slightly | B．slowly | C．precisely | D．violently |
| A．set off | B．took up | C．pulled over | D．moved on |
| A．chance | B．spare | C．effort | D．spirit |
| A．delicate | B．invisible | C．flexible | D．energetic |
| A．hopeless | B．peaceful | C．proud | D．secure |
| A．admiration | B．determination | C．frustration | D．occupation |
| A．emotion | B．strength | C．innovation | D．rescue |
| A．happiness | B．enjoyment | C．tears | D．bravery |
| A．disappearing | B．approaching | C．fading | D．floating |
| A．rise | B．beat | C．decrease | D．sink |
| A．anxiety | B．humour | C．relief | D．direction |
| A．obtain | B．change | C．unearth | D．destroy |
| A．drove off | B．set up | C．calmed down | D．figured out |
| A．host | B．creator | C．beggar | D．hero |
| A．kindness | B．coldness | C．genius | D．influence |
8 . A school science project by a group of students in Canada has led to an important discovery: EpiPens, which help control dangerous allergic (过敏的) reactions, might not work in space.
An EpiPen is a shot that puts a medicine called “epinephrine (肾上腺素)” straight into a person’s body with a needle. The epinephrine calms the allergic reaction so the person can breathe.
But students in the Programme for Gifted Learners had a question about EpiPens: Would they work in space? The students knew that on Earth, radiation from the sun can change the molecules (分子) of the epinephrine in an EpiPen. They wondered if the same thing would happen when epinephrine was exposed to radiation in space. So the students designed an experiment to test their idea. They wanted to send samples of the liquid in an EpiPen, as well as pure epinephrine, into space to see if anything changed.
Working with a group called iEDU, which offers a programme called Cubes in Space, the students sent two cubes into space — one on a rocket and the other on a balloon. Each cube held a bottle of pure epinephrine and a bottle of EpiPen liquid.
After the cubes returned to Earth, Dr. Mayer tested the liquids in the bottles once more. The results suggested that the students had discovered something big. The bottles that held the EpiPen liquid now had no epinephrine at all. The results from the bottles of pure epinephrine were even more surprising. Only 87% of the liquid was still epinephrine. The other 13% had turned into poisonous chemicals.
The discovery the students made is a big deal. It suggests that EpiPens might not work in space, and might even become dangerous. That’s important information for astronauts with allergies. The students now hope to repeat their experiment a second time, to check their results. They are also working on designing a container that could protect epinephrine in space.
1. What are EpiPens used to do?| A．Help astronauts breathe properly in space. | B．Aid in solving anything urgent in space. |
| C．Avoid exposing astronauts to radiation. | D．Contribute to managing severe allergic reactions. |
| A．To test whether epinephrine changes in space. |
| B．To test the purity of epinephrine in space. |
| C．To test the difference of radiation on Earth and in space. |
| D．To test the disadvantages of epinephrine. |
| A．Astronauts who have some allergies. |
| B．Chemistry teachers in the middle school. |
| C．People who have allergic symptoms in their bodies. |
| D．Experts doing research about space in the lab. |
| A．What Is EpiPen and What Does It Do? | B．Kids Discover Poisonous EpiPen in Space |
| C．Student Scientists Study the EpiPen in Space | D．Useful in Space? A Funny EpiPen Project |
9 . Right now someone is speaking or thinking in a language that is on the verge of disappearing. Of the world’s roughly 7,000 spoken languages, one dies every 40 days, according to one estimate — languages like Babanki, spoken in Cameroon.
And some of the places where rare languages are the most concentrated are also most vulnerable (易受影响的) to climate change. Especially, linguists call global warming the final nail in the coffin (致命一击) for more than half of humanity’s language disappearing.
Let’s take Vanuatu, a South Pacific island nation, for example. It’s very small, but it has 110 languages spoken there, which is the highest density (密度) of languages in the world. It is also one of the countries most at risk of sea level rise and climate change. There, you can often see perfect hurricanes.
So if rising seas or storms force people in Vanuatu to move to Australia, what happens to the language they speak? Well, what often happens is that they aren’t necessarily displaced with the same people in their community, and also, even if they are displaced with other people in their community, they and their children will often adopt the language of Australia, the dominant language there because it’s economically advantageous for them to speak the new language, the dominant language. And their language dies.
However, there is so much culturally lost when a language dies. It is because the language carries so much local knowledge and culture.
In fact, in the 1970s, it was something like 2,000 native speakers of Hawaiian remained. But activists launched some schools where children are taught from birth, usually by kind of grandparents, and now more than 18,700 people speak it. And the same thing happened in New Zealand in the 1970s. Only 5% of young Maori people spoke the language, but now something like 25% now speak it.
1. What do we know about Vanuatu?| A．Its most languages have died out. |
| B．It is sensitive to climate change. |
| C．It witnesses various disasters every year. |
| D．It is the highest density of population in the world. |
| A．They lose their advantages in economy. |
| B．They have few chances to speak their own language. |
| C．They fail to contact people in their previous community. |
| D．They willingly teach their kids the language of Australia. |
| A．Favourable. | B．Concerned. | C．Doubtful. | D．Unclear. |
| A．More languages are faced with dying out. |
| B．It’s a must for kids to learn their mother tongue. |
| C．Grandparents play a vital role in passing down languages. |
| D．More efforts have been made to save endangered languages. |
10 . The very unusual series of events finished as Sondrup was heading home from an extended work shift. She had just completed her fourth continuous night shift, and
While driving home, Sondrup
“It’s
Under what she described as a turn of fate (命运), Sondrup
Sondrup courageously
“I really feel that my guiding
The man Sondrup rescued recently reached out to express his
| A．tiredness | B．happiness | C．stress | D．anger |
| A．description | B．memory | C．opinion | D．request |
| A．believed | B．summarized | C．tracked | D．noticed |
| A．preserved | B．introduced | C．trapped | D．exchanged |
| A．possible | B．different | C．strange | D．interesting |
| A．Obviously | B．Normally | C．Formally | D．Likely |
| A．pulled over | B．turned on | C．looked around | D．worked out |
| A．progress | B．accident | C．reference | D．survival |
| A．watched | B．explored | C．climbed | D．contacted |
| A．struggle | B．contribution | C．experiment | D．wisdom |
| A．recognized | B．encouraged | C．concentrated | D．promoted |
| A．proposal | B．focus | C．goal | D．force |
| A．key | B．awkward | C．spare | D．public |
| A．demand | B．appreciation | C．desire | D．view |
| A．solution | B．title | C．health | D．personality |
