1 . I didn’t quite know what I was looking for when I flew to Mongolia for a term abroad. I just needed something different, far from the late-night libraries of my college town. Most different, I hoped, would be my rural homestay: two weeks in central Mongolia with a family of nomadic(游牧的) herders.
I was studying Mongolian at the time, but still, there was so much I couldn’t say or understand. As we walked in the snow behind the goats, my host mom would ask me if I was cold, then giggle (咯咯地笑) and copy a big shiver to make sure I understood. In the evenings, she showed me how to make dumplings with her fingers. My host siblings would talk with me, speaking too fast for me to understand, as we explored the rocks around our tent; I’d listen and nod.
This verbal(言语的) barrier was strangely freeing. In the crowded dining hall at home, meeting new people made me anxious. I’d stay quiet, measuring out my words, struggling for something to say that wouldn’t expose me as unfunny or boring. In Mongolia, I couldn’t perfect my words. I could only smile, and try out one of the phrases I’d mastered: “May I help?” “Where is the dog?” “Are you tired?” My host family laughed at my pronunciation, at the way I threw up my hands and eyebrows in a frequent gesture of confusion. But in their laughter, I felt safe, unembarrassed.
With my Mongolian family on the grassland, I found a feeling of ease I’d never felt before. We were so different, they and I, and not just in language. Their skin was hardened and darkened by sun; I’d been hidden under hats and sunscreen since birth. My host siblings(兄弟姐妹) grew up drawing water from frozen streams and jogging behind herds of sheep; I spent summers at tennis camp.
For me, these gaps made all the difference. Without shared social measures, I wasted no time wondering how I was measuring up. Only real things—kindness, helpfulness—mattered.
1. Why did the author go to Mongolia for a term abroad?| A．She dreamed of living a nomadic life. | B．She was tired of studying late at night. |
| C．She had to study Mongolians’ normal life. | D．She was collecting information for libraries. |
| A．Hug. | B．Smile. | C．Attack. | D．Shake. |
| A．She felt at ease in the crowd. | B．She usually weighed her words. |
| C．She asked a lot of funny questions. | D．She often made others laugh with jokes. |
| A．You are judged wherever you go. | B．Nature makes humans feel insignificant. |
| C．Appearance reflects one’s standard of life. | D．Being kind is the common social standard. |
2 . Many people love to listen to music while driving. Thanks to the world’s musical roads, drivers now don’t need to turn the radio on.
A musical road can create music when a car tires go over grooves (凹槽) on the road. To produce beautiful music, drivers must pass over the grooves at a certain speed. Signs often tell drivers the right speed.
In Hungary, there is a musical road in honor of one of the country’s most popular musical performers — Laszlo Bodi. Bodi was the lead singer for the band Republic.
| A．Musical roads are also keeping drivers safe. |
| B．There is not any music road in Eastern countries. |
| C．Musical roads help improve the road safety greatly. |
| D．But they can also enjoy music while taking road trips. |
| E．Formed in 1990, the group is one of Hungary’s biggest acts and is still active today. |
| F．The first musical road was created in Gylling, Denmark, in 1995. |
| G．For example, in Japan, there are many musical roads throughout the country. |
3 . In a small, rough shipyard on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, a small team is building what they say will be the world’s largest ocean-going clean cargo ship.
Ceiba is the first ship built by Sailcargo, a company trying to prove that zero-carbon shipping is possible, and commercially available. Made largely of wood, Ceiba combines both very old and very new technology: sailing masts stand alongside solar panels, a uniquely designed electric engine and batteries. Once on the water, she will be capable of crossing oceans entirely without the use of fossil fuels, which sets her apart.
“The thing that is striking is the fact that she’ll have one of the largest marine electric engines of her kind in the world,” Danielle Doggett said. The system also has the means to capture energy from underwater propellers (螺旋桨) as well as solar power, so electricity will be available for the engine when needed. “Really, the only limit on how long she can stay at sea is water and food on board for the crew.”
Despite some hold-ups due to the global disaster, the team hopes to get her on the water by the end of 2024 and operating by 2025, when she will begin transporting cargo between Costa Rica and Canada.
“There are actually loads of innovations happening that could transform shipping emissions, but few companies are willing to apply them to building ships like Ceiba.” says Lucy Gilliam. “So it’s not that we don’t have great ideas. The problem that we have is that fossil fuels are still too cheap. And we don’t have the rules to force people to take up the new technology.”
When it comes to promoting this kind of boat, it has to be said that Ceiba is small for a cargo ship — tiny in fact. She will carry around nine standard shipping containers. She is also relatively slow. Being a world-first, there are some aspects of Ceiba’s design that have yet to be proven at sea.
1. What is unique about Ceiba as a cargo ship?| A．It is the world’s largest. | B．It is environment-friendly. |
| C．It is wooden with old technology. | D．It is modern with unique equipment. |
| A．The size of the sail. | B．The weather of the ocean. |
| C．The power of the electric engine. | D．The quantity of the living supplies. |
| A．The rules are disobeyed. | B．The fuels are affordable. |
| C．The bigger ships are preferable. | D．The innovations are distrusted. |
| A．Objective. | B．Doubtful. | C．Critical. | D．Favorable. |
4 . A songbird jumps around in the woods near Washington, D. C. On its back it carries a very small, lightweight electronic device called a tag (标签). Ecologist Emily Williams watches from behind a bush. On this clear spring day, she says, “Now I’m watching to see whether he’s found a mate.” The bird has moved to a nearby tree where there is another robin. When the bird leaves, this new device it carries will send data about its position to a special satellite, then back to Williams’ computer.
The Georgetown University researchers have been attaching tracking (跟踪) tags on birds and animals for many years. But, the International Space Station and the involved satellite now provide new ways to receive the information sent by the tags. The new system permits scientists to watch songbird movements from a faraway place in much greater detail than before.
“We’re in a sort of golden age for bird research,” said Adriaan Dokter, an ecologist at Cornell University, adding that the technology is improving as the tags are made smaller and smaller. “We can track a robin by satellite with smaller and smaller chips. The device that the robin wears can report its immediate place on Earth, within about 10 meters. Ten years ago, that was unthinkable,” said the scientist, who is not involved in Williams’ study.
A second new device, for only the heaviest robins, provides more information about the bird’s movements; future versions may also measure the humidity and barometric pressure of the space the bird occupies. The devices are known as ICARUS tags.
Martin Wikelski is director of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. His scientific team is working to improve the ICARUS technology. He hopes that more and better devices could help develop what he called “an Internet of animals”—a collection of sensors around the world giving us a better picture of the movement of life on the planet.
1. What is Emily Williams doing in the woods?| A．Trying to catch a songbird. |
| B．Observing a bird with a new device. |
| C．Playing a bird game on the computer. |
| D．Taking an adventure trip in the nature. |
| A．Find the exact place of the robins quickly. |
| B．Take control of the robins easily. |
| C．Collect all the information from the satellite. |
| D．Communicate with the robin in a faraway place. |
| A．By explaining the reasons. | B．By making a comparison. |
| C．By listing two new devices. | D．By analyzing the data. |
| A．People can use more devices to keep healthy. |
| B．Technology can give better ways to track animals. |
| C．Human beings and animals can live in harmony. |
| D．People will know more about animals from the Internet. |
5 . It is often said that the best teachers are those who are able to form a sincere relationship with their students. This was never a problem for my second-grade teacher, as she viewed all of her students as family. Of course. in my case, it was actually true, because my second-grade teacher was my mother.
I won’t lie and say the year was easy. At times, there were difficulties starting the school day as teacher and student when there had been an issue at home as mother and son. The same can be said for after school when my mother just happened to know every little thing that happened during the school day.
My mother decided to move me up to the third-grade reading class. I used to joke that it was simply because she wanted me out of her classroom for part of the day, but I knew better. She had too much respect for education to do such a thing.
Even as she was ill and had a long stay in hospital, my mother, the teacher, still made me check in to see how her students were doing as the school year wrapped up. She also continued to press me about my future writing projects to make sure that I never gave up on my dreams, as well as checking that the plots all made sense.
I know that some people might refuse the idea of having their mother as a teacher as I did at first, but looking back, I can tell you I am grateful for that opportunity. While telling time and counting change are important lessons, they pale in comparison to the lessons Mom taught me about faith, love, and family. Those lessons are at the core of who she was and are cornerstones (基石) of my beliefs because of her. She was my favorite and best teacher.
1. What challenge did the author face with his mother as his second-grade teacher?| A．The difficulty of getting along with his mother at school. |
| B．The challenge of separating the two identities of his mother. |
| C．The pressure of his mother knowing everything about him. |
| D．The struggle to focus on studying with his mother in the same classroom. |
| A．He understood his mother very well. |
| B．He thought it was a poor decision. |
| C．He was angered by this arrangement. |
| D．He thought his mother was only joking. |
| A．Strict. | B．Patient. | C．Knowledgeable. | D．Responsible. |
| A．It gave him a sense of duty. |
| B．It enabled him to work hard. |
| C．It taught him valuable life lessons. |
| D．It made him have a good education. |
6 . ※ Brown Girl Dreaming
By Jacqueline Woodson
As a winner of the National Book Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, and a Newberry Honor Book, in her book, Brown Girl Dreaming, the author uses poetry to tell her true story of growing up as a black woman in the 1960s and 1970s. Woodson’s beautiful language explores big ideas while describing her family, her growing awareness of race and the civil rights movement, and her life in South Carolina and New York City.
※ When You Were Everything
By Ashley Woodfolk
Cleo and Layla have been best friends for years. But in their second year of middle school, everything changes. Layla starts hanging out with her new friends, and the two girls’ friendship slowly ends. Cleo is still trying to make sense of what happened as she tries to make new friends. Told across two timelines, Cleo’s story of sadness surrounding a lost friendship will be relevant for many 8th graders trying to deal with past middle school friend drama and looking forward to high school.
※ The Hound of the Baskervilles
By Arthur Conan Doyle
The famous detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend Watson set out to look into a new case in Dartmoor, England. A man is dead, with many dog paw prints leading to his body. Holmes and Watson arrive in Dartmoor to find several unexplainable events and clues. Together, they start to figure out a puzzle that has defined mystery and detective fiction ever since.
※ The Hobbit
By J. R. R. Tolkien
This story is an opener to the longer and more challenging The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It’s an adventure story set in a fantasy world. With dwarves (小矮人), hobbits, sword fights, wizards and dragons, the book’s plot and humor have stood the test of time.
1. How is Brown Girl Dreaming different from the other books?| A．It focuses on city life. | B．It uses clear language. |
| C．It has won many awards. | D．It tells humorous stories. |
| A．Friendship and growth. | B．Lost love and gained hope. |
| C．Learning to be more independent. | D．Dealing with pressure from schoolwork. |
| A．The Hobbit | B．Brown Girl Dreaming |
| C．When You Were Everything | D．The Hound of the Baskervilles |
7 . It was a cold May morning when I received an email from an old friend inviting me to join a 10-day all-girls surf trip. I knew I had to say yes. The trip seemed simple enough. 10 women aged 30 to 45, all complete strangers, were to meet on the coast of Portugal to try something new: surfing in the Atlantic Ocean. I have always loved traveling, so I eagerly sent an email to my boss asking for time off to make the trip.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over my past 33 years, it’s that adults typically spend their days mastering the things they’ve done before. It seems like we pride ourselves on becoming experts in whatever field we’ve fallen into, knowing more about less. Now, in theory, this is a great strategy, as it allows you to become really good at one particular thing, but it also kind of ends up leaving some skills lacking.
I met my new surfing companions on the grass of the hotel lawn in a small surf town called Ericeira. Despite our different personalities and backgrounds, we were all united in a strong desire to challenge ourselves, learn, tackle and grow.
The shores at Ericeira, where the beginners learn to surf, are shallow and covered with slippery rocks. They make for softer waves but are difficult to ride.
Guided by our amazing coaches, together, we faced the waves. Sometimes, it poured with rain, and the waves crashed around us, but we were still out there. And with every slip and fall, words of encouragement filled the air. Honestly, I probably spent most of my days frozen to the bone, but that didn’t matter because a new level of genuine joy and personal achievement had been unlocked.
Learning a new skill taught me the humility (谦虚) that can come from doing badly at something new, and the pride that develops when you finally manage to grasp something you’ve been working on. While surfing might not be my lifelong passion, trying it out inspired me to take more risks in life. You never know what you’re capable of if you don’t go out there and try.
1. What inspired the author to join the surf trip?| A．Her love for seashore surfing. | B．Her desire to make new friends. |
| C．Her need to take a break from work. | D．Her passion for exploring something new. |
| A．It hurts one’s pride. | B．It narrows one’s potential. |
| C．It promotes one’s career success. | D．It broadens one’s view of the world. |
| A．Relaxing but dangerous. | B．Tough and uninteresting. |
| C．Challenging but rewarding. | D．Surprising and unforgettable. |
| A．She used to lack confidence in herself. |
| B．She determined to become an expert surfer. |
| C．She discovered her lifelong passion after the trip. |
| D．She was more willing to try new experiences in life. |
On a windy day, Emily invited Nora to play football in her garden, “I go first!” Nora shouted as she kicked the ball towards Emily.
“Is that all you got? Watch me, the champion, hit the ball. It will travel off to infinity (无穷大)!”
Emily ran like the wind to the ball and kicked it so hard that it flew over the fence of her garden and into the neighbor’s house. There was a sharp cracking sound.
“Uhoh...what did you do?” Nora asked, feeling afraid.
“I...I don’t know. Ohno! I think I broke my neighbor’s window, “Emily cried as she dashed across her garden and hid behind some cherry bushes. Nora faded into thin air.
Terror was written all over Emily’s face. She saw the neighbor, Mr. Mason, picking up the pieces of sharp glass. There was anger, as well as panic, on his face.
The sun was setting. Emily knew that it was not secure for her to stay out so late. Eventually, as the light faded, she returned home, keeping her eyes wide open for the neighbor.
Her heart was shaking as she cautiously arrived home. Her mother saw the sweat on her face. She knew, her daughter had done something wrong. Mothers at next to Emily on the comfortable sofa and then asked, “Emily, are you okay? Is something wrong?”
Emily held her mother’s hands. Her eyes were wet with tears. “Mom, I did something bad, but it was unintentional. I hit the football so hard that it flew out of our garden and broke Mr. Mason’s window.”
Mother listened to her patiently as she calmed her and wiped her tears away. Then she held a sharp-tipped pencil. “Do you know why pencils have erasers?” Mother asked, surprising Emily since she wasn’t expecting such a question.
1. 根据语篇内容填写表格(每空不限词数)| Where | In the garden |
| Who | Emily, Nora, Mr. Mason, Emily’s mother |
| What | . On a windy day, Emily invited Nora to play football in her garden. Emily . Emily was so frightened that . Emily saw her neighbor Mr. Mason, . Emily arrived home . Mother calmed Emily and asked her |
按情节推进，用完整句子回答问题
2. How did Emily react when realizing what her mother wanted to say?
3. What did Emily decide to do to make up for her mistake?
4. What did Emily do to reduce her nervousness before knocking on the door?
5. How did Mr. Mason react to Emily’s late but sincere apology?
6. How did Emily feel when she got forgiveness from Mr. Mason?
9 . Love it or hate it, we live in the digital age and there’s no going back. Distracted by endless notifications and emails, we can hardly focus on our tasks. To stay focused, we probably need some apps to keep us on track.
1. Rescue Time
Rescue Time helps you to find out how much time you’re really on-task. Label activities as productive and non-productive so you can block your biggest distractions. Get a categorized breakdown of how you spend your time.
Price: Free(Web)
2. Pomodoro Time Tracker
The Pomodoro Technique keeps your mind sharp and prevents you from becoming tired. It in volves working and taking breaks at set intervals (间隔).This popular time management method asks you to alternate focused work sessions with frequent short breaks to promote concentration.
Price: Free(Web)
3. Freedom
Freedom allows you to block the Internet, social media, and apps that eat up your time.
*Categorize how you spend your time, decide how long you Freedom need to work without interruption, and block items that take you off track. Freedom is superior to many other blockers because you can block applications-not just websites.
Price: One month free trial, $6.99 monthly (Mac, Windows, X and iOS)
4. Forest
Forest turns productivity into a game. “Plant” a virtual tree at the beginning of your work time. If you maintain focus for the duration of the timer, you’ll grow a tree to add to your “forest”.
Forest makes you think twice about traveling down Internet rabbit holes when you’re supposed to be working.
Price: $1.99(iOS and Android), Free (Chrome extension)
| A．Manage our time. | B．Arrange our tasks. |
| C．Prevent all distractions. | D．Combine work with rest. |
| A．It blocks websites. | B．It is completely free. |
| C．It blocks applications. | D．It brings us to the track. |
| A．Forest. | B．Freedom. | C．Rescue Time. | D．Pomodoro Time Tracker |
10 . Dr. Tatiana Erukhimova is a physics professor at Texas A&M who aims to show her students, especially the young women, that there are no limits.
Only 25% of physics undergraduate students are female. Perhaps it is because boys grow up playing with machines and making drawings of fast cars and rocket explosions. But girls are just as curious about the way the world works — they just haven’t jumped into the culture of chemical reactions, energy and magnetic force with as much enthusiasm. That is, until they see one of Tatiana’s videos showing the science behind real life’s magic. Tatiana is really one of the few living female examples they could follow.
Her videos get millions of views. She is a ball of energy with a short haircut, a Russian accent and a lively personality that makes physics accessible to the younger audience. Young girls are attracted to Tatiana’s attractive demonstrations the way they flock to pop concerts. This is real. This is science they can participate in. This is an open door to endless possibilities.
“These short clips are the spark that inspires,” Tatiana says with so much excitement that it lights up the room. Everything she does involves students. She believes the magic in learning is when your peers are part of the demonstration, when you are part of the teaching process.
“She wants everything to be a celebration of science,” says one of Tatiana’s former students. And indeed, the classroom is in a party atmosphere, with students cheering when amazed by Newton’s law of motion, demonstrated by a spinning bicycle wheel held upright by the professor. It’s hard to tell who is more delighted, Tatiana or her students. She is an attraction for female students who are graduating college and working in the sciences in higher numbers than ever before.
Dr. Tatiana’s story began in Russia and her parents were both physicists. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Tatiana moved to Texas with her husband, also a physicist. They both teach at Texas A&M, and when Tatiana isn’t in the classroom, she is doing outreach with schoolchildren, amazing them with spinning lights that soon form words, liquid oxygen that shrinks objects and chemical reactions that expand matter to 10 times its size. But most importantly, she is expanding the audience of female physicists.
1. According to the passage, why do girls sometimes hesitate to jump into the culture of physics?| A．Lack of interest in chemical reactions. |
| B．Cultural differences in curiosity. |
| C．Absence of female role models. |
| D．Fear of liquid oxygen demonstrations. |
| A．They were made by a female physician. |
| B．They feature engaging demonstrations. |
| C．They are meant for Tatiana’s homeland. |
| D．They have received millions of likes online. |
| A．Appealing to students with fascinating demonstrations. |
| B．Teaching students some difficult physics concepts. |
| C．Explaining the history of Newton’s law of motion. |
| D．Encouraging girls to attend parties and pop concerts. |
| A．Female Professor Rejecting Gender Barrier |
| B．Russian Physicist and Female Scientists |
| C．Physics Professor Stimulating Girls’ Passion |
| D．The Significance of Online Short Videos |
