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 . It is difficult to name a female architect more iconic than Zaha Hadid, whose name can be translated from Arabic as glorious. She passed away five years ago at the age of 65, but the impact she has left on the world of architecture is profound.
Hadid was born into an upper-class Iraqi family in 1950. At the very beginning, she wanted to become a mathematician and studied science at the American University of Beirut, But at some point she realized that she preferred shapes to numbers. And she turned her concentration to architecture and went to London where she met the famous Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas.
“There are 360 degrees, so why stick to one?” Hadid once said. Despite her abundance of amazing ideas, before the beginning of the 90s, not a single building based on her blueprints had been built. Her highly expressive style, while initially criticized and believed to be crazy, is now regarded as pioneering work. Her striking contemporary architecture, inspired by natural landforms, has graced the skylines of major metropolitan cities.
“Women are always being told, ‘you’re not going to make it; It’s too difficult. You can’t do that Don’t enter this competition; You’ll never win it’,” Hadid said. “They need confidence in themselves and people around them for support.”
Never one to be boxed in by conventions, Hadid proved society wrong. She received her first prize, the “Gold Medal Architectural Design” for her British Architecture in 1982. From then on, the awards kept rolling in. But the true triumph for Hadid came in 2004. Her project for the London Olympics Aquatic Center won her the Pritzker Architecture Prize. She became the first woman and first Muslim to earn the award, making a name for herself and paving the way for female architects.
Hadid’s genius lives on in the array of many other spectacular buildings she has left behind in the world. Among them are the Guangzhou Opera House, the Beijing Daxing International Airport, as well as the Al Wakrah Stadium in Qatar where the 2022 FIFA World Cup will be held.
Hadid may be gone, but her global influence on a new generation of female architects is here to stay.
1. What made Hadid quit science to learn architecture?| A．Her talent in architecture. |
| B．Her interest in architecture. |
| C．Her difficulty in learning science. |
| D．Her encounter with Rem Koolhaas. |
| A．Her architecture was inspired by mathematics |
| B．Her British Architecture won her the Pritzker Architecture Prize. |
| C．Her architecture style was too bold to be accepted at the very beginning. |
| D．Her works can only be found in European countries and the Middle East. |
| A．The talk between Hadid and her colleague. |
| B．The reason why women fail to be architects. |
| C．The prejudice from society against women. |
| D．The difficulty Hadid faced being an architect. |
| A．She formed a unique style. |
| B．She broke away from the convention. |
| C．She received various architecture awards |
| D．She encouraged other women architects. |
3 . The tea that has delighted and fascinated the world for thousands of years has finally received top-level global recognition as a shared cultural treasure of mankind. China’s traditional tea-making was added on Tuesday to the intangible cultural heritage list of UNESCO.
The traditional tea processing techniques and associated social practices in China consist of knowledge, skills and practices concerning the management of tea plantations, picking of tea leaves, manual(手工的)processing, drinking and sharing of tea. Since ancient times, Chinese people have been planting, picking, making and drinking tea. Tea producers have developed six categories of tea: green, yellow, dark, white, oolong and black teas. Together with reprocessed teas, such as flower-scented teas, there are over 2, 000 tea products in China.
Tea-related customs are not only found across the country, but also influence the rest of the world through the ancient Silk Road and trade routes. Tea is ubiquitous in Chinese people’s daily life, as steeped(浸泡)or boiled tea is served in families, workplaces, tea houses, restaurants and temples, etc. It is also an important part of socialization and ceremonies such as weddings and sacrifices. The practice of greeting guests and building relationships within families and among neighbors through tea- related activities is common to multiple ethnic groups, providing a sense of shared identity and continuity for the communities.
In China, 44 registered national-level intangible cultural heritage entries are related to tea. There are over 40 vocational colleges and 80 universities that have set up majors in tea science or tea culture, resulting in over 3,000 graduates specializing in tea production and art every year, according to the ministry.
China now has 43 items on the intangible cultural heritage list, continuing to be the most enlisted country in the world.
1. What can be learnt from the passage?| A．Chinese producers developed 44 categories of tea. |
| B．Tea is quite popular with people all over the country. |
| C．More than 2,000 tea products could be found in China. |
| D．There’ re about 300 graduates specializing in tea production every year. |
| A．rare | B．common | C．temporary | D．available |
| A．By listing figures. | B．By making definitions. |
| C．By giving examples. | D．By making comparisons. |
| A．A textbook. | B．A travel journal. |
| C．A story book. | D．A cultural magazine. |
4 . Award-winning Chinese shoe designer, Huang Qinqin, shares her transformative journey, combining cultural heritage and international design to shape the art of practical wear.
Believing that the value of her products doesn’t lie in business operation, Huang always focuses on how to convey the stories behind her shoes to customers instead.“It is like storytelling, a natural ability I possess,” she said with a smile.
However, Huang’s journey into design was unforeseen and it took her several years to discover her true passion. Huang switched her major from physics to international communications studies at university.While she found great enjoyment in these courses, she still didn’t know what she could do in the future.
“One day, I grabbed a sheet of paper and began drawing some shoe designs I saw online.It was at that moment that the light suddenly dawned.” recalled Huang.
To her astonishment, Huang discovered while international luxury shoe brands like Jimmy Choo and Christian Louboutin are household names, Chinese brands are rarely seen.This finding fueled Huang’s determination to pursue her career as a shoe designer, hoping to fill the blank in the international market.
After returning to China from the UK, Huang established her own shoe brand.“I think Chinese students studying abroad today all share a strong sense of mission—to showcase what China truly has to offer to the world,” Huang said.
Looking back, Huang said that she took a long time to finally find her lifelong passion.“There is a saying that one must achieve fame at a young age, but I believe it is never too late to unlock one’s potential, since everyone operates on their unique ‘time zone’,” she said.
Before her current career path, Huang never stopped trying new things, including garden design and dance.These diverse experiences have all become precious treasures in her life, nurturing her self-directed learning abilities, which have turned out to be essential skills for her startup business today.
1. What does Huang value most about her products?| A．Design concept. | B．Market share. |
| C．Quality standard. | D．Business operation. |
| A．Passion for fashion and design. |
| B．Lack of Chinese brands in the field. |
| C．Desire to challenge conventional norms. |
| D．Love for international luxury shoe brands. |
| A．Creative and flexible. |
| B．Ambitious and easy-going. |
| C．Talented and accessible. |
| D．Responsible and humorous. |
| A．Well begun is half done. |
| B．Think twice before you leap. |
| C．Every step counts in your life. |
| D．It matters much when you succeed. |
5 . At ancient sites across the Amazon River basin, mysterious plots of unusually rich soil dot (点缀) the landscape. Scientists have long debated the origin of this “dark earth”, which is darker in color than surrounding soils and richer in carbon. Some people think this dark earth formed naturally, but the latest research has shown that modern Kuikuro people in Brazil create similar soil around their villages on purpose, which adds evidence to the idea that long-ago Amazons deliberately made such soil too. Perron, an earth scientist at MIT, reviewed interviews of Kuikuro people conducted by a Kuikuro filmmaker in 2018 and found that Kuikuro villagers actively make dark earth by using ash, food bits and controlled burns. “When you plant in hilly land, the soil is weak,” explained elder Kanu Kuikuro in one of the interviews. That is why we throw the ash, manioc peelings and manioc pulp. When comparing soil samples from ancient and modern sites, researchers found “striking similarities” — both were far less acidic than surrounding soils and contained higher levels of plant-friendly nutrients.
Analyses also revealed that dark earth holds twice the amount of carbon as surrounding soils on average. Scans (扫描) of the Xingu region suggest that the area is dotted with dark earth, and that hold as much as about 9 million tons of carbon — the annual carbon emissions of a small, industrialized country. “This number could roughly equal the annual carbon emissions of the United States when all dark earth across the Amazon is taken into consideration,” Perron says.
Figuring out the true value of carbon stored in the Amazon’s dark earth will require more data. Still, the research has significant influences on the Amazon’s future. The technique highlights how ancient people were able to live in the Amazon by developing sustainable farming that doubled as a carbon-storing technique. With more and more greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere, it could also provide a blueprint for developing methods of sustainably locking atmospheric carbon in the soil, helping fight climate change.
1. What can we infer from the dark earth across the Amazon River basin?| A．They are more acidic than surrounding soils. |
| B．They contain more organic nutrients. |
| C．They formed naturally. |
| D．They contain less carbon. |
| A．To explain the difficulty of protecting dark earth. |
| B．To show the wide distribution of dark earth in Amazon. |
| C．To stress the huge carbon-storing capability of dark earth. |
| D．To reveal the large carbon emissions of the United States. |
| A．The importance of developing sustainable farming. |
| B．The advanced farming technology in ancient tomes. |
| C．A possible solution to climate change. |
| D．A way of green agriculture. |
| A．Urgency of Sustainable Development | B．Facts About the Dark Earth |
| C．Advantages of the Dark Earth | D．Wisdom of Ancient Amazons |
6 . Here are four festival s around the world that can offer you special and unique experiences.
Carnival of Oruro, BoliviaAs one of the largest events in South America which has been held since the 18th century, it was recognized by UNESCO as a masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Every year, dozens of groups wear colorful costumes or masks and perform folk dances that draw crowds up to 400,000 annually, celebrating pre-Columbian traditions.
Underwater Music Festival, the USAIt starts from 1985 and its founder took music festival s to a whole new level with the aim to protect the corals (珊瑚). The event houses radio playlists and ocean-themed songs streaming live from underwater speakers along with musician-divers and local people playing instruments with strange shapes.
Day of the Little Candles, ColombiaThis festival can date back to 1854 and Colombia’s windows, balconies, and sidewalks would come alive on the night of every December 7. And houses and streets are decorated with candles in varying colors and paper lanterns by families. Many people also consider it the unofficial start of the Christmas season when cities and towns debut (初次登场) their Christmas lights and decorations.
World Toe Wrestling Championship, EnglandThis competition is not a new competition, with its history going back to 1976. The sport involves two opponents who lock feet in an attempt to pin each other’s foot down in the least time possible, similar to arm wrestling. There are three rounds played on a best of 2 out of 3 bases. Rounds kick-start with the right foot, then left and followed by right again.
1. What do we know about Carnival of Oruro?| A．It features colorful costumes and folk dances. |
| B．It is a time for families to reunite. |
| C．It is no use for the local economy. |
| D．It only has one single presentation. |
| A．Body strength. | B．Colorful candles. |
| C．Underwater creatures. | D．Christmas goods. |
| A．Carnival of Oruro. | B．Day of the Little Candles. |
| C．Underwater Music Festival. | D．World Toe Wrestling Championship. |
7 . The Healing Power of Humor
As a heart doctor, I have to deliver a lot of bad news. Humor is a wonderful tool. Not only can it help lift patients’ spirits up, but it actually helps them recover faster. There is tons of scientific evidence that patients who are depressed after heart operations have a higher death rate, and optimistic patients have significantly fewer wound infections.
It relaxes patients.
Medical operations usually make patients feel nervous. Some may sweat, have chest pain and feel unusually strong or irregular heartbeats.
People are scared of their bodies. Humor can crack through the ice and take the fear away. For example, I have to tell patients about the risk of cognitive impairment (认知损伤) after operations. They’re terrified, fearing the worst.
It eases worries.
After open-heart operation, a patient might say, “Doctor, my chest really hurts.” And I’ll smile and say, “Oh, does it feel like someone opened you up, cut the bone and operated in there?” That tells them the pain is normal and they are going to be fine. So they take their minds off their troubles and worry less.
It helps doctors.
| A．It calms fear. |
| B．It reduces risk. |
| C．So, recovering cognition is important. |
| D．However, humor can be a healing power. |
| E．Breaking bad news is never a pleasant task. |
| F．Others may even feel like they are choking. |
| G．Humor truly is the best medicine in many ways. |
8 . Attention! We need to put a stop to parents doing harm to youth sports. It has gotten out of hand.
A recent study showed 26 million American children took part in non-school sports. By the age of 13, about 18.2 million quit.
No wonder kids are quitting. Many parents show no sportsmanship. They often shout happily at an injury if the injured player is on the other team. My brother Mario Widdowson got hit in the face during a soccer game. The parents from the other team were shouting gladly at his pain. All of the players were down on one knee waiting for Mario to get up, out of respect and it was the right thing to do. The kids did much better than these parents.
There are different types of parents. In the book “Parenting with Love and Logic” the authors describe two different types of parents. The first is helicopter parents, who don’t allow their kid to succeed or fail on their own. The other type is lawnmower parents, who clear anything in their child’s path to make life as easy as possible.
I have observed helicopter parents. When my brother was playing club soccer, one of his teammate’s parents shouted at their son. “Shoot the ball”. It was from about half field. He did it and the coach stopped him from playing and asked him to leave the field.
The parents are trying to coach their kids. The players on the field follow blindly and many mistakes happen. It’s not good for kids’ confidence. What is the purpose of youth sports anyway?
Problems happen in youth sports all over the United States. Parents need to behave themselves. Then the number of students who quit at the age of 13 will drop greatly.
1. What does the author want to show by using numbers in Paragraph 2?| A．American kids are sports lovers. |
| B．Parents can’t behave themselves. |
| C．Most kids give up sports half-way. |
| D．Non-school sports are popular among teens. |
| A．They lent a helping hand. | B．They cheered at his injury. |
| C．They waited for him to get up. | D．They kept shouting at their kids. |
| A．He made a mistake. |
| B．He missed his goal. |
| C．He turned to the coach again. |
| D．He didn’t want to go on with the sport. |
| A．Parents Should Respect Sports. | B．Non-school Sports Is Popular. |
| C．Encouragement Is Important for Kids. | D．Kids Need to Love Sports. |
9 . At 8 years old, Danay Ferguson is the youngest business owner in Fresno, California, where the literacy (识字) rate is shockingly low when compared to the rest of the United States.
“I wanted to share my enthusiasm for reading with other kids, so I asked my daddy if I could open up my business,” Danay says, adding that her father, Dwayne Ferguson, asked her to prove she was serious about taking on such a major project. “He said I had to invite all of his friends on Facebook to the fan page he made for me,” she says. “It took me two days to invite my dad’s 4,000 friends to ‘like’ my page, one by one.”
With the help of her family and team of over 40 volunteers (mostly consisting of kids), Danay strengthened her literacy support in 2014 with her very own no-profit (非营利的) organization named Reading Heart. Danay has worked hard to raise awareness of her organization’s task by giving talks at schools, meeting with city officials and hosting board meetings.
“Her main line is ‘How about you get a book and read it and then share the book with somebody else, and do it again?’ instead of, ‘I give you a book and keep it,’ says Dwayne. “She’s starting a movement on ‘I will give everybody books, but you have to read and share them.’ And she’s trying to do this worldwide.”
And Danay also hopes to break the Guinness World Record for most books collected in a 24-hour period. Danay has a goal of beating the existing record (set at 274,325) with 500,000 donated books, which she is now making possible with a speaking tour that covers 130 schools encouraging kids to read. So far, Reading Heart has collected 90,000 books and given out over 20,000 books, having gifted used and new books to kids in schools, hospitals and in poor areas. “It is the most amazing thing to be a part of,” Dwayne tells us. “My wife and I have to remember that we are her parents because we have great respect for her.”
1. What is Reading Heart intended for?| A．Collect books. | B．Encourage reading. |
| C．Break world records. | D．Make friends. |
| A．To show its achievements and aims. | B．To explain why it is successful. |
| C．To voice Danays’s views on books. | D．To discuss its future. |
| A．Danay’s fan page on Facebook has few followers. | B．Reading Heart offers books to readers for a fee. |
| C．Danay has broken the Guinness World Record. | D．Danay’s parents gave her great support. |
| A．Outgoing and selfish. | B．Warm-hearted and traditional. |
| C．Smart and self-centered. | D．Strong-minded and tireless. |
10 . New research from the University of Portsmouth has shown a marked increase in shipping in the North East Atlantic. Scientists now warn that more monitoring is required to help protect sea life.
Researchers at the University of Ponsmouth have discovered that rates (率) of shipping in the North East Atlantic area rose by 34 per cent in a five-year period. The research is the first detailed survey of shipping activity in the North East Atlantic. Researchers used data from over 530 million vessel (船) positions recorded by Automatic Identification System(AIS). They looked at the change in shipping between 2013 and 2017 across ten different vessel types. In total the study area covered 1.1 million km², including waters off Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany,Iceland, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal. Spain, and the UK.
Lead author, James Robbins said: “This change is likely to put more pressure on the marine (海洋的) environment, and may influence the protection of at-risk species. Renewed monitoring effort is needed to make sure that protective measures are enough to save species under threat in a changing environment.”
Some of the greatest shipping increases were found in areas close to the Spanish coast. The Espacio Marino de la Costa da Morte saw a rise of 413 percent in vessel activity. It is an area used to protect seabirds.
Dr. Sarah Marley, Visiting Researcher at the University of Portsmouth, said: “Shipping is the most widespread human activity in our oceans, carrying a set of threats-from unnoticeable effects like underwater noise pollution to serious results when ships hit whales.”
Professor Alex Ford. from the University’s Institute of Marine Sciences, said: “Given the well-documented effects that shipping can have on the marine environment, it is necessary that this situation continues to be monitored-particularly in areas used to protect vulnerable (脆弱的) species which may already be under pressure.”
1. What can we say about the new research?| A．It started in 2013. | B．It is the first of its kind. |
| C．It was carried out by AIS. | D．It covers the whole Atlantic. |
| A．Rapid population growth. |
| B．Rising global temperatures. |
| C．The huge increase in shipping. |
| D．The disappearance of marine life. |
| A．Shipping plays an important role in the local economy. |
| B．Shipping can be a danger to the marine environment. |
| C．Noise pollution is closely related to human activity. |
| D．Marine areas should be monitored more carefully. |
| A．New waterways across the Atlantic |
| B．The shipping industry in the North East Atlantic |
| C．New research opens windows into life under the water |
| D．Sea life needs better protection from an increase in shipping |
