1 . San Francisco Fire Engine Tours
San Francisco Winery TourRunning: February 1st through April 30th
This delicious tour goes through the city on its way to Treasure Island where we will stop at the famous Winery SF. Here you can enjoy 4 pours of some of the best wine San Francisco has to offer.(Included in tickets price)
Departing from the Cannery: Tour times upon request.Duration(时长): 2 hours
Price: $90
Back to the Fifties Tour
Running: August 16th through August 31st
This tour transports you back in time to one of San Francisco’s most fantastic periods, the 1950s! Enjoy fun history as we take you through San Francisco for a free taste of ice cream.
Departing from the Cannery: 5:00 pm and 7:30 pmDuration: 2 hours
Price: $90
Spooky Halloween Tour
Running: October 10th through October 31st
Join us for a ride through the historical Presidio district. Authentic fire gear(服装) is provided for your warmth as our entertainers take you to some of the most thrilling parts of San Francisco.
Departing from the Cannery: 6:30 pm and 8:30 pmDuration: 1 hour and 30 minutes
Price: Available upon request
Holiday Lights Tour
Running: December 6th through December 23rd
This attractive tour takes you to some of San Francisco’s most cheerful holiday scenes. Authentic fire gear is provided for your warmth as you get into the holiday spirit.
Departing from the Cannery: 7:00 pm and 9:00 pmDuration: 1 hour and 30 minutes
Advance reservations required.
1. Which of the tours is available in March?
A.San Francisco Winery Tour. | B.Back to the Fifties Tour. |
C.Spooky Hallowen Tour. | D.Holiday Lights Tour. |
A.Go to Treasure Island. | B.Enjoy the holiday scenes. |
C.Have free ice cream. | D.Visit the Presidio district. |
A.Take some drinks. | B.Set off early in the morning. |
C.Wear warm clothes. | D.Make reservations in advance. |
2 . Kids have a lot on their minds. Dealing with school, family, activities, and all of the other big parts of life is hard enough. The recent rise in Omicron cases in the US is causing more stress on them. It can be difficult to think of how to cheer themselves up.
Connect with people you love. Reaching out to friends and family can make a huge difference.
Talk to a trusted adult. If you’re feeling down. Dr. Murthy suggests confiding (倾诉)in a trusted adult.
Help others.
A.Take care of your body |
B.Regular exercise helps body building |
C.It is a good chance to speak out how you feel |
D.This might be a family member, a teacher or a doctor |
E.You don’t have to discuss anything sad with your loved ones |
F.Service is one of the best ways to get out of sadness and loneliness |
G.Vivek Murthy, the country’s top doctor, offers some advice for this purpose |
3 . Hurricanes are large storms that produce winds of 119 kilometers per hour or higher. That’s faster than a cheetah, the fastest animal on land. Hurricanes are not only some of the planet’s most violent storms, but also the costliest natural disasters in the United States, researchers reported in 2019 in the journal PNAS. Ranking (排名) the most damaging hurricanes, however, depends on the measures used: usually, economic cost or lives lost.
Katrina was the most expensive hurricane of all time, causing a huge economic loss when it sabotaged New Orleans and other Gulf Coast areas. The cost was over $186 billion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Katrina’s losses swallowed 1% of the US GDP, or the total value of goods produced and services provided by a country in one year, according to the PNAS study.
John Nielsen-Gammon, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A & M University, told Live Science that the next costliest hurricane was 2017’s hurricane Harvey, which caused $149 billion of damage, mostly due to rainfall that produced widespread flooding across southeast Texas, including Houston.
“Those two storms top the list for economic damage both worldwide and in the US, which is no accidence,” Nielsen-Gammon added. “The most damaging hurricanes are most likely to occur where you have lots of expensive buildings,” he said. “That’s why two United States hurricanes top the list.”
In 2017, Hurricane Maria caused $107 billion in damage in Puerto Rico, placing it third on NOAA’s list of the costliest US storms. Hurricane Sandy, which flooded New York City’s subway tunnels and other areas in 2012, came next on the list ($82 billion), followed by 2021’s Hurricane Ida, which flooded Louisiana. Developing countries also suffered a lot from hurricanes.
1. Why is a cheetah mentioned in paragraph 1?A.To show the fast speed of hurricanes. |
B.To compare the speed between hurricanes and a cheetah. |
C.To state the bad effect on wild animals from hurricanes. |
D.To explain how the fastest animal survives the hurricanes. |
A.Followed. | B.Ignored. | C.Destroyed. | D.Defended. |
A.The reason why Katrina in the US topped the list. |
B.The reason why hurricanes took place in the US. |
C.The effect of two hurricanes on American economy. |
D.The damage to buildings caused by hurricanes in the US. |
A.Types of different hurricanes in Britain. |
B.Countries suffering from hurricanes in 2022. |
C.Ways to prevent hurricanes in developing countries. |
D.The loss hurricanes brought to developing countries. |
4 . In the Chinese lunar calendar, san fu refers to the three 10-day periods that are said to be the hottest days of the year, which are called tou fu, zhong fu and mo fu. San fu is usually between mid-July and mid-August.
When san fu is mentioned, people can’t stop thinking of san futie, which is a bandage(绷带) made of traditional Chinese herbal medicine. Those who have experienced traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) believe that receiving san futie during the hottest summer days is effective for coughs. The treatment is based on the TCM principle of yin and yang, which believes the balance of both elements(要素) in the body is important for good health. San futie contains a paste of herbs that are “hot” in nature.
Tou fu is the first stage of san fu. When the hot days come, people tend to lose their appetites. As the weather in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, is hot with heavy rainfall in summer people there eat chicken especially a rooster during tou fu. They believe that the rooster is “yang” and can clear the damp(湿气). There is an old saying that goes “A rooster at the start of san fu, a healthy body the whole year.” Another favourite food during this stage is jiaozi, which is thought to refresh people’s feelings toward food. In fact, jiaozi is an all-time classic with 2,000 years of history.
The second stage of san fu is called zhong fu, which traditionally is a time for eating noodles because it is believed to help people sweat and remove internal heat.
When mo fu or the third fu arrives, it is still very hot at noon and the sun is very strong. People feel uncomfortable, so they call this period “Autumn Tiger”. During mo fu, people, especially those living in North China, customarily eat Chinese egg pancakes.
During san fu time when yang energy is at its prime, it’s also beneficial to have food which is “cold” in nature, like watermelon and cucumber, according to Chinese dietary therapy.
1. How does san futie work to treat coughs?A.By using a kind of unique bandage. |
B.By using materials for sweating. |
C.By stopping the heat from coming into the body. |
D.By keeping the balance of yin and yang. |
A.San fu is a good time to sell roosters. |
B.Meat from a rooster is delicious. |
C.Eating roosters in San fu is good for health. |
D.People who like eating can avoid catching a cold. |
A.To show the hope for a long life. | B.To let the heat in the body out. |
C.To enjoy the family atmosphere. | D.To feel the moment of excitement. |
A.Customs of San fu | B.Products Sold in San fu |
C.Ways to Learn About San fu | D.The Magical Medicine in San fu |
5 . I am Lucy, a 15-year-old girl from India and I think believing is a great power that can change anything in your life.
When I was 13, almost everyone just thought I was a kid so I did not have to worry about anything. But that was not true because I was bored with everything I was learning. Besides, my mother didn’t understand me.
When I was 14, things changed. My friend encouraged me to learn music and I just found out that I had a strong interest in music so I started spending much time on it. Soon I wanted to be a part of it. So I researched it and then I wanted to be a part of an academy(专科院校) that trains musicians. But the problem was that it was in a different country. Although my parents might not be on my side, I never gave up my dream.
During the next year, I practised my skills in dancing, singing and flexibility. I was in senior high school and had to be a boarder(寄宿生). My mother made me focus on my study. But I was busy preparing for auditions(试镜) of that academy and I was doing everything I could to prove it. To get what I wanted, I had that academy’s photos all over my room and that city’s main monument on my phone’s wallpaper.
After a year in 2022, I finally gave my best audition of that academy on the Internet and I got in! I was happy but sometimes I wondered whether my parents were going to agree to it or not, Fortunately, my parents agreed and I flew to that country to give the last phase of an interview to join that academy. I passed and later was sent there for training.
It was not surprising that I finally got the chance to live in the city of my dream and train in the academy of my dream, as I believed everything was going to work out as long as I held on to my dream.
1. What can we infer about the 13-year-old Lucy?A.She had fun every day. | B.Everyone supported her. |
C.She was unhappy with her life. | D.A dream started in her heart. |
A.Her teacher. | B.Her mother. | C.Her friend. | D.Her father. |
A.Her effort and determination. | B.Her family background. |
C.Her curiosity about new things | D.Her talent for performance. |
A.It was a stage to make her famous. | B.It was within her expectation after hard work. |
C.It made her love her mother more. | D.It was a new way to make friends. |
6 . At the foot of Egypt’s Sinai mountains, once a small fishing town, Dahab is now one of the Red Sea’s top diving resorts(潜水圣地), attracting a lot of nature lovers. It also provides a stress-free seaside atmosphere where visitors can just sit back and enjoy its waters. There are affordable accommodations, tour operators, multicultural restaurants and cafes.
Dahab is also one of the few places in the area with internet access, making it attractive to remote workers looking for a peaceful “office” by the sea. Rahma Zein, who chose to go toDahab on the advice of friends, said, “On a normal day, I wake up, make breakfast, go for a free dive, hang out on the beach, take a hike, eat and then sleep.” she added, “In between sessions, I make phone calls and do my work.”
Located on the edge of the Red Sea, the Blue Hole is one of Dahab’s most famous sites and one of the world’s most famous diving sites. Going down to a maximum depth of 328 feet and easily accessible from the shore, the Blue Hole is not influenced by the currents, so its waters are relatively calm. The conditions here are perfect for free divers, as well as advanced divers looking to push their limits in a race.
To reduce the traffic here, a local group of divers have created an underwater museum filled with giant statues(雕像) made of recycled materials. The most impressive statue is a life-sized elephant weighing 700 kilograms which has gained the attention of countless tourists.
There are also limitless options in shallower waters for those who want to avoid crowded diving spots. Travelers can hike or ride camels to Ras Abu Galum National Protectorate, which covers 400 square kilometers of coastline and offers a better view of sea life.
1. What do we know about Dahab?A.It still is a small fishing town. | B.Life there is full of stress. |
C.It attracts a lot of nature lovers. | D.Accommodations there are expensive. |
A.Relaxing. | B.Boring. | C.Stressful. | D.Lonely. |
A.It is built by the local government. | B.There is a large elephant from Africa. |
C.It aims to offer a better view of sea life. | D.There are statues made of recycled materials. |
A.To recommend a sport. | B.To introduce a scenic spot. |
C.To share a travel experience. | D.To call for environmental protection. |
7 . Ekaterina Sky is a wildlife conservation (保护)artist. She began her art journey at the School of Fine Arts in Yaroslavl, Russia. There, she completed a fine arts program, which gave her the background she needed to become a conservation artist. She also received a scholarship to the Art School of Museum of Tel-Aviv. There, she expanded upon her knowledge and skills, learning to create her own unique style. She combined her love for animals and art to create the works we see today.
Ekaterina painted pictures at wildlife reserves and rescue centers, in high schools and in visitors’centers. She painted a piece for the Burning Man festival, choosing to paint primates(灵长类动物的)eyes since they are closely related to humans. This piece gave her the confidence to start a world tour, as she had never painted a picture that size before.
Ekaterina went on a tour to different countries worldwide, painting pictures of various endangered species. She hoped that her paintings would encourage viewers to look deeply into their own lifestyles and question how they might harm animals. She said, “We all can make a difference if we look at ourselves as a small piece of a greater whole.”
With each picture, she made the audience look directly into the animals’ eyes. She painted pictures to encourage people to show more compassion and care to animals and raise awareness of the importance of efforts in wildlife conservation. “As I believe, we connect through our eyes, which are windows into our soul, and I believe that when we get to meet someone’s soul, we don’t have a heart to hurt them,” she said.
1. What does paragraph 1 mainly tell us about Ekaterina Sky?A.Her art works. | B.Her unique drawing skills. |
C.Her love for animals. | D.Her road to a conservation artist. |
A.The painting gave her confidence. | B.Primates are closely related to humans. |
C.She’d like to make more money. | D.She wanted to expand on her skills. |
A.Pity. | B.Blame. | C.Motivation. | D.Gratefulness. |
A.Reducing garbage thrown by tourists. | B.Introducing various animals worldwide. |
C.Drawing attention to endangered animals. | D.Advertising the school she graduated from. |
8 . Over the past century, science has made lots of advances in understanding the meanings of body language. Here are some of the most useful findings.
Open palm(手掌)
Have you noticed how someone swears to tell the truth in a court of law? He usually puts one hand on a religious book and raises the other hand into the air, palm facing whoever he is speaking to. He does this because an open palm has been associated with truth and honesty throughout our history.
Finger pointing
If someone is closing their palm and pointing with their index finger, then he is trying to display power, though it doesn’t always work out. Psychologists say, the pointed finger is used like a symbolic stick with which the speaker tries to beat his listeners.
Forced smile
Researchers say, smile is all about the lines around the eyes.
In the same way that real smiles shape the lines around the eyes, worry, shock or fear can cause people to raise their eyebrows in discomfort. So if someone praises your new hairstyle or clothes with his eyebrows raised, he or she may not be sincere.
Crossed arms
A.Lowered eyebrows |
B.Raised eyebrows |
C.When he is just pretending to smile, they don’t |
D.We also use this gesture to show that our hands are empty |
E.When someone is smiling joyfully, a lot of lines will appear |
F.Therefore, it usually leads to negative feelings in the audience |
G.It’s easy to detect body-language signs, but it’s important to be aware of the context |
9 . Be it sugar or social media, the response in our brain is the same: It produces a “feel-good” chemical called dopamine. It first brings about pleasure, but it doesn’t last very long. It is then followed by pain so that we have to search for the pleasurable things again.
“This cycle of pleasure and pain made sense in the time of early humans when we had to constantly search for our basic needs-food, water, shelter,” says Dr. Anna Lembke, a Stanford Medical School researcher. “But our brains weren’t adjusted to put out the ‘fire of dopamine’ caused by pleasurable things that are so easily available in modern life.”
In addition, when we’re repeatedly exposed to pleasure-producing things, we’re not able to take joy in the same rewards. Instead, we need stronger and stronger stimulus (刺激) just to feel good. Otherwise, the cycle will lead us to anxiety, depression and many other problems.
“This is a universal problem—not one limited to those struggling with the disease of addiction. If we want to stay mentally healthy, we must rethink how to break the cycle in a dopamine-overloaded world,” says Lembke.
Her suggestions for the addicts?
Take a 30-day break from anything that we rely on for pleasure. This doesn’t mean going cold turkey forever. But this first month is key to breaking the pleasure-pain cycle and it’s a lot easier to cut out an addictive behavior entirely at first. Then re-introduce the pleasurable things little by little, like just a few bites of ice cream at a time or just one hour online a night.
Another strategy is to create physical distance between us and our addiction. That could mean just removing the addictive thing from our personal space. For someone who’s addicted to video games, that could mean a separate laptop for work and one for play.
“In a time of abundance, we have to strike a pleasure-pain balance, which means intentionally avoiding pleasure and seeking the kind of purposeful pain that keeps us healthy, such as exercise,” Lembke says. “By doing so, we will reset reward pathways and eventually be a lot happier. It’s not easy, but it’s well worth doing in the long term.”
1. What can we learn about dopamine from the text?A.It has always been harmful to humans. |
B.It gives us less joy for the same rewards. |
C.It can be caused by anything available. |
D.It can lead to a lasting good feeling. |
A.Abandoning. | B.Waiting. | C.Cooking. | D.Repeating. |
A.Avoid pleasure in life. |
B.Set a strict limit on pleasurable things. |
C.Change reward pathways. |
D.Expose ourselves to repeated rewards. |
A.Ways to Live With Dopamine in Peace |
B.Tips on Getting Rid of Social Media Addiction |
C.Strategies for Making Most of the Modern Life |
D.The Need to Strike a Pleasure-pain Balance |
10 . Humans have long been trying to make sense of our place in the universe. Waiting at a launch site in French Guiana? NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is the latest step forward in that ancient quest (探索).
Using telescopes, astronomers have seen many galaxies (星系) such as the Andromeda Galaxy and the NGC 3227 Galaxy. So far, the most distant galaxy ever discovered, GN-z11, was spotted by the Hubble Space Telescope. To the untrained eye, it looks like a red blob (小点点), but it’s basically like looking back in time about 13.4 billion years ago. That’s just about 0.4 billion years after the Big Bang.
“Hubble is limited in how far back in time it can look, so finding this one was just a lucky break,” says Marusa Bradac, an astronomer at the University of California. “Astronomers only spotted it because decades of using Hubble have let them cover much of the sky, and this particular early galaxy is surprisingly bright although it is 25 times smaller than the Milky Way Galaxy and has just one percent of its mass.”
Already, with that one galaxy, we’ve started to question some of our assumptions about how galaxies grow. The powerful, $ 10 billion James Webb Space Telescope has technology that should let it see back to 0.1 ~0.2 billion years after the Big Bang, the period when the very first galaxies possibly formed.
“If all go well, the James Webb Space Telescope will help us to build up the story of how the first galaxies ever formed and how they grew into galaxies we see today and we live in today,” says Bradac. “But the chances of seeing those first born stars with the new telescope are small. There’s maybe even more of a chance that we might see some of those stars explode. Such information can help us understand how galaxies formed and changed into the familiar shapes and structures seen today. That’s what’s amazing about the new telescope.”
1. When did the Big Bang take place?A.Around 13.0 billion years ago. |
B.Around 13.4 billion years ago. |
C.Around 13.6 billion years ago. |
D.Around 13.8 billion years ago. |
A.The Milky Way Galaxy. | B.The GN-z11 Galaxy. |
C.The Andromeda Galaxy. | D.The NGC 3227 Galaxy. |
A.The great potential of the new telescope. |
B.The need for new scientific breakthroughs. |
C.The cost of the James Webb Space Telescope. |
D.The importance of the Hubble Space Telescope. |
A.Find the first born star in the universe. |
B.Witness the occurring of the Big Bang. |
C.See the explosion of some of the first born stars. |
D.Get a complete understanding of the universe. |