1 . Grace Choi, whose nickname is Sunny, is a gymnast in America. “I remember her doing cartwheels (翻跟头) when she was a kid,” her brother Jin says.
One night at college, Choi saw members of a breaking (霹雳舞) club dancing by accident. She was immediately attracted to the dance and came to a class. Choi’s gymnastics skills gave her an advantage. After graduating from business school, she began working in the cosmetics (化妆品) industry. But on the side, she kept breaking.
Breaking was added to the Paris Olympics program in 2020. In late 2021, Choi attended a camp. It was for the top U. S. breakers. A coach there asked those who wanted to become Olympians to raise their hands. Everyone’s hand went up except Choi’s. Working full-time while training to make the Olympic team seemed impossible.
But after finishing second at the World Games in July 2022, Choi left the cosmetics industry. In 2023, she was chosen for the 2024 Paris Olympics by winning the Pan American Games.“I’m so much happier,” she says. “I feel lighter. I have more energy for the things I want to do.”
Thirty-two breakers will go to Paris. “Choi has power moves,” says Mary Fogarty, a professor of dance at York University, in Toronto, Canada. “Choi is someone who has enough material to go all the way through.” Choi struggles with self-doubt. She’ll work on her mindset. She’ll lift weights with a strength coach. And she’ll eat a healthy diet.
Choi is confident about one thing: If you give breaking a chance, you won’t be disappointed. “You feel the energy,” she says. “You feel the excitement. You feel the happiness or the anger or whatever emotion that the dancer is expressing in that moment. What’s so cool about breaking is that you get to be really you.”
1. What introduced Choi to break dancing?| A．An accidental chance. | B．Her gymnastics skills. |
| C．Her brother’s encouragement. | D．The camp for the top breakers. |
| A．Her job. | B．Her health. |
| C．Her college education. | D．Her chance of promotion. |
| A．Anxious. | B．Confident. | C．Uncertain. | D．Unexpected. |
| A．A youth is to be regarded with respect. | B．The young thirst for being famous. |
| C．Where there’s interest, there’s success. | D．Curious minds never feel contented. |
2 . Do you know the following fun holidays?
Yellow Pig Day
The unofficial holiday that falls on July 17 was created in the early 1960s by Princeton mathematics students, David Kelly and Michael Spivak, while they were working on the special properties (属性) of the number 17, which is a prime number (质数) that has significance in mathematics.
Mole Day
It’s celebrated every year with a theme by scientists and chemistry students throughout the United States and around the world between 6:02 am and 6:02 pm (18:02) on October 23 because when written in the month-date format (格式), the date and time 6.02, 10/23 include the digits (数字) in Avogadro’s number (602×1023) in honor of the mole, a measuring unit in chemistry.
Tau Day
This has much to do with Pi Day (圆周率日). It has been held every year since 2010 on June 28. The day began as a way to recognize tau. Tau is equal to 2π or 6.283. In recent years, some mathematicians and physicists have argued for the replacement of pi(π) by tau, but it is not yet widely accepted within the scientific community.
Palindrome Day
Palindrome (回文) is a word or phrase that reads the same backwards as forwards, for example madam. Palindrome Day happens when the day’s date can be read the same way backward and forward. Because date formats vary from country to country, not all dates that are palindromic in one kind of date format are Palindrome Days in another. For instance, April 21, 2024 or 4-21-24 is a palindromic date in the m-dd-yy format, but it isn’t if you write the date as dd-m-yy yy (21-4-2024) or dd-mm-yyyy (21-04-2024).
1. What is special about Mole Day?| A．It has a different theme every year. | B．It was created by a scientist. |
| C．It’s the oldest of the four holidays. | D．It’s celebrated only in America. |
| A．Palindrome Day. | B．Mole Day. | C．Yellow Pig Day. | D．Tau Day. |
| A．They’re celebrated several times a year. | B．They each represent a scientific idea. |
| C．They are enjoyed mainly by students. | D．They are accepted by governments. |
3 . In June 1938, writer Jerry Siegel and illustrator Joe Shuster introduced Superman to readers. Since then, the Superman has become a cultural symbol, appearing in films, novels, TV series and more.
On April 4, 2024, a copy of that original 1938 Superman comic (漫画) book — called Action Comics No. 1 — sold for $6 million during a Heritage Auctions sale. It’s now the most valuable comic book in the world.
“Thursday was a historic day for a historic comic book, and we expected no less,” says Barry Sandoval, vice president at Heritage Auctions.
The comic has been given a “very fine” grade of 8.5 out of 10 by CGC, a third-party grading service for pop culture collectibles. It’s one of just 78 copies CGC has graded, though the company thinks around 100 still exist. Just 200,000 copies of Action Comics No. I were published in 1938. The price beats out the previous record-holder, a 1939 issue of Superman No. I that sold privately for $5.3 million in 2022. Until then, the record had belonged to a copy of Amazing Fantasy No. 15 — which introduced readers to Spider-Man in 1962 — that sold for $3.6 million in 2021.
Action Comics No. 1 tells the story of a baby boy who was born on a dying faraway planet. His father places him in a space capsule (太空舱) and sends him away just before his home planet gets destroyed. Finally, the capsule lands on Earth, where a passing driver discovers the sleeping baby and saves him. The child — Clark Kent — grows up and realizes he has superhuman strengths and abilities.
Superman’s popularity skyrocketed in the following decades, and Action Comics continues to this day. “Without Superman and Action Comics No. 1, who knows whether there ever would have been a Golden Age of comics — or if the medium would have become what it is today?” says Sandoval.
1. What do we know about Action Comics No.1?| A．It is based on the writer’s true story. | B．It contains the character of Spider-Man. |
| C．It has a history of more than 80 years. | D．It is the world’s most expensive novel. |
| A．To present a topic. | B．To explain a phenomenon. |
| C．To raise a question. | D．To make a comparison. |
| A．He destroys his home planet. | B．He inspires Siege l to write. |
| C．He is the Superman. | D．He is the passing driver. |
| A．To remember a writer. | B．To introduce a book. |
| C．To promote values of comics. | D．To encourage studies on culture. |
4 . On the surface, Western Australia’s Great Sandy Desert might appear calm. But deep underground, blind moles (鼹鼠), also called kakarratul, covered in silky yellow fur are “swimming” through the sand. These creatures that are considered elusive spend so much of their lives below the surface that they remain largely unknown to wildlife biologists.
Now, Aboriginal rangers (护林员) have made a sight of one of the kakarratuls by the Martu, the local people of central Western Australia. This marks the second kakarratul sight in just six months. Historically, people only see the species five to ten times every decade.
Kakarratuls are very small and can’t see very clearly. Their bodies are covered in soft fur, and they primarily eat worms (蠕虫). They’re also perfectly adapted for life in the tough Australian land. Rather than living in the hot sun, they live almost entirely underground — digging holes as far as 8.2 feet below the surface — where they move through the sand in a unique way. The kakarratul is an amazing creature that “swims” through the sand of Australia’s western deserts. They carve a path and fill it in as they go forward through the sand.
“The creatures can survive by just breathing the air that moves between sand,” wrote Joe Benshemesh, a biologist with the National Malleefowl Recovery Group, for Australian Geographic. “They save energy and resources by allowing their body temperature to reflect that of the surrounding sand,” he added.
The moles periodically come to the surface, especially during periods of cool, rainy weather. But they don’t appear often, so wildlife scientists don’t know their population size. They are regarded as a species of “least concern”. “Local rangers try their best to take good care of kakarratuls, but they aren’t easy to find,” said Lynette Wildridge, a senior Nyangumarta ranger.
1. What does the underlined word “elusive” in paragraph I mean?| A．Dangerous to approach. | B．Difficult to find. |
| C．Expensive to buy. | D．Easy to feed. |
| A．Attractive. | B．Frightening. | C．Unforgettable. | D．Unusual. |
| A．They may appear in rainy days. |
| B．They are well taken care of by the rangers. |
| C．They can find food more easily underground. |
| D．They dig holes to get away from the extreme weather. |
| A．Kakarratuls: Swimmers Through Desert Sand | B．Kakarratuls: Unique Animals to Australia |
| C．Local Rangers Look After Kakarratuls Well | D．Australia Is Trying Hard to Save Kakarratuls |
5 . The saying goes that a dog is man’s best friend, but this companionship isn’t unique to dogs. Even though rabbits are smaller and quieter than dogs, they are also intelligent, outgoing, active, and social and they make great pets. Here are five reasons for adopting (养) a rabbit.
Rabbits are budget-friendly.
Rabbit care is much less expensive than the budget (预算) required for taking care of a dog or cat.
It’s easy to fit a rabbit into the schedule.
Rabbits are awake in the early morning and early evening, and spend most daytime and nighttime sleeping.
Rabbits are clean, quiet, and contained.
Rabbits are clean animals that generally don’t make large messages. Rabbits don’t require as large living spaces as a dog or cat does, so they are apartment-friendly.
Rabbits are intelligent and lovely.
| A．Rabbits don’t make loud noises. |
| B．And a rabbit requires less care time. |
| C．They can always be a good part of the community. |
| D．It costs about $50 monthly to feed and care for a rabbit. |
| E．This works well for someone with a typical day job schedule. |
| F．Rabbits, like dogs, are smart enough to be trained to do all sorts of tricks. |
| G．People should make sure they are ready for the responsibility before adopting. |
6 . Many years ago, my dad was facing a serious heart condition. He was unable to do a steady job. He suddenly fell ill and had to be admitted to the hospital.
He wanted to do something to keep himself busy, so he decided to volunteer at the local children’s hospital. My dad loved kids. It was a perfect job for him. He ended up working with the seriously ill children. He would talk, play, and do arts with them.
One of his kids was a girl with a rare disease that paralyzed (使瘫痪) her from the neck down. She couldn’t do anything, and she was very depressed. My dad decided to try to help her. He started visiting her in her room, bringing paints, brushes and paper. He stood the paper up, put the paintbrush in his mouth and began to paint. He didn’t use his hands at all. All the while he would tell her, “See, you can do anything you set your mind to.” At the end of the day, she began to paint using her mouth, and she and my dad became friends. Soon after, the little girl was sent home because the doctors felt there was nothing else they could do for her. My dad also left the children’s hospital for a little while because he became ill. Some time later after my dad had recovered and returned to work, in came the little girl who had been paralyzed and only this time she was walking. She ran straight over to my dad and hugged him really tight. She gave him a picture she had done using her hands. At the bottom it read: “Thank you for helping me walk.”
My dad would cry every time he told us this story and so would we. He would say sometimes love is more powerful than doctors, and my dad — who died just a few months after the little girl gave him the picture — loved every single child in that hospital.
1. How did the author’s father help the paralyzed girl?| A．He helped her practice walking. | B．He visited her and made a toy for her. |
| C．He showed her that she could still do things. | D．He painted special pictures for her. |
| A．She eventually became a unique painter. |
| B．She was sent home and never seen again. |
| C．She gradually recovered and walked. |
| D．She sent the author’s dad a picture painted with her mouth. |
| A．It’s better to give than to receive. | B．A sick person should not focus on his disease. |
| C．Volunteering is a worthwhile thing to do. | D．Love can sometimes bring great results. |
| A．To make his serious heart condition less serious. | B．To keep himself occupied and pleased. |
| C．To realize his childhood dream. | D．To earn money to pay for treatment. |
7 . Tea drinking was common in China for nearly one thousand years before anyone in Europe had ever heard about it. People in Britain were much slower in finding out what tea was like, mainly because tea was very expensive. It could not be bought in shops and even those people who could afford to have it sent from Holland did so only because it was a fashionable curiosity. Some of them were not sure how to use it. They thought it was a vegetable and tried cooking the leaves.
Tea remained scarce (稀少的) and very expensive in England until the ships of the East India Company began to bring it directly from China early in the 17th century. During the next few years so much tea came into the country that the price fell and many people could afford to buy it.
At the same time people on the Continent were becoming more and more fond of tea. Until then tea had been drunk without milk in it, but one day a famous French lady named Madame de Sevigne decided to see what tea tasted like when milk was added. She found it so pleasant that she would never again drink it without milk. She was such a great lady that her friends thought they must copy everything she did, so they also drank their tea with milk in it. Slowly this habit spread until it reached England and today only very few Britons drink tea without milk.
At first, tea was usually drunk after dinner in the evening. No one ever thought of drinking tea in the afternoon until a duchess (公爵夫人) found that a cup of tea and a piece of cake at three or four o’clock stopped her getting “a sinking feeling” as she called it. She invited her friends to have this new meal with her and so, teatime was born.
1. What do we know about the introduction of tea into Britain?| A．Tea reached Britain from Holland. |
| B．The Britons got expensive tea from India. |
| C．The Britons were the first people in Europe who drank tea. |
| D．It was not until the 17th century that the Britons had tea. |
| A．In the late 19th century. | B．In the 18th century. |
| C．In the 17th century. | D．In the 16th century. |
| A．drinking tea with milk in it | B．drinking tea without milk in it |
| C．drinking tea after dinner | D．drinking tea in the afternoon |
| A．The history of tea. | B．The ways of making tea. |
| C．The birth of teatime. | D．The habit of drinking tea. |
8 . Amblyopia is the most common cause of vision loss in children. In all cases of amblyopia, there’s a stronger eye and a weaker eye, and it’s winner-take-all in the cortex (大脑皮层). The cortex learns to ignore the signal from the weaker eye. By ignoring the weaker eye, the brain doesn’t fuse (融合) images from both eyes. As a result, people with amblyopia can have trouble seeing in 3D.
In an attempt to solve this problem, doctors start treating patients with amblyopia at a young age, while their brain pathways are still developing. The children, usually under 7 years old, are often told to wear an eye patch over their strong eye to force the brain to rely on the weaker. But whenever the eye patch is removed, the competition can start over. For lasting improvement, new treatments need to teach the brain to stop suppressing (抑制) key visual cues coming from the weaker eye, says neuroscientist Dennis Levi of the University of California.
Now, several research teams are taking a new way that aims to get the brain to make better use of the information coming from both eyes, Several companies are working on treatments based on this new angle. One is called Luminopia.
Luminopia’s therapy involves having children watch videos through a virtual reality headset. As the children watch, the headset blocks out certain parts of the display for each eye, so the patients actually have to combine input from the two images to get the full video.
The company conducted a trial showing that children with amblyopia begin to see better on eye chart assessments after three months of one-hour sessions done six days a week, But they have yet to measure improvements in long-term effectiveness. It is believed that if people with amblyopia don’t learn to fuse signals from both eyes from a young age, they never will. So some scientists think attempting to treat adults, whose brains have suppressed signals from their weak eye for decades, is a lost cause.
1. Why does a person with amblyopia have trouble seeing in 3D?| A．His brain is unable to receive images. |
| B．His cortex overlooks signals from the weaker eye. |
| C．His stronger eye can’t send signals to the brain. |
| D．His weaker eye fails to receive signals. |
| A．Ineffective. | B．Temporary. |
| C．Wonderful. | D．Comprehensive. |
| A．Activating the weak eye to get the full video. |
| B．Forcing the brain to rely on the weaker eye. |
| C．Improving the situations with eye chart assessments. |
| D．Blocking out the images received from the stronger eye. |
| A．It has an instant effect. | B．Adults are is main targets. |
| C．More trials need to be conducted. | D．It has long-term effectiveness. |
9 . According to reports, three-quarters of all crops around the world depend on pollinating (授粉的) insects like bees and butterflies. By pollinating, pollinators enable the production of seeds. Without them, crop farming can become extremely difficult or costly threatening food supplies and prices globally.
Research has shown a rapid and consistent decline in pollinator populations. Average butterfly populations have almost halved since 1991 and bee populations in particular face a sharp decline. Given the world’s growing dependence on these insects, we can only expect the problem to worsen if no action is taken.
Much has been written about how intensive farming practices the use of chemical pesticides and pollution are threatening the survival of these helpful insects. To add to the already critical situation, global warming is contributing significantly to the rapid disappearance of pollinators.
Climate change is a major threat to pollinators, with rising temperatures and increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events affecting the food sources and habitats, on which pollinators depend for their survival.
Climate change also changes the timing and availability of lowering plants, leading to mismatches between pollinators and their food sources. A study has found that climate change has shifted plants’ blooming to earlier times and caused certain plants to move to higher areas, resulting in a decline in pollination.
Another study has found that climate change could lead to a decline in the quality of nectar, which is the main food source for many pollinators. As temperatures rise, the sugar content of nectar decreases, making it less nutritious for pollinators. This leads to a decline in the health and reproductive success of pollinators, as well as a decline in the pollination of plants.
Needless to say, cutting global emissions is key. It’s essential that we continue to advocate for emission reductions. From country-level to individual businesses, more concrete roadmaps to net zero are a must.
We must at least minimize, if not prevent, the usage of pesticides, since these chemicals are harmful to pollinators and can have a far-reaching effect on pollination as a whole.
1. What does paragraph 1 try to show?| A．The influence of crop crises. | B．The importance of pollinators. |
| C．The serious challenges faced by humans. | D．The increasing difficulty of crop production. |
| A．Curious. | B．Suspicious. | C．Humorous. | D．Anxious. |
| A．How climate change has affected pollinators. |
| B．Causes of the decline in pollinator populations. |
| C．The importance of pollinators to the ecosystem. |
| D．Why chemical pesticides are harmful to pollinators. |
| A．Starting keeping bees. | B．Reducing pesticide use. |
| C．Increasing the amount of nectar. | D．Building more habitats for pollinators. |
10 . Food festivals are a common occurrence in the UK and take place in all sorts of places and at all sorts of times. Whatever your taste, there’s a food festival to match it — no matter how special.
The Meatopia
This three-day, London-based festival takes place at the end of August or in early September and is a meat lover’s paradise. In addition to a range of legally sourced meat products, from juicy burgers to tender steaks, attendees can listen to live music, watch butchery demonstrations, and attend informal meat-based workshops.
The National Honey Show
If you have a sweet tooth, then it could be that the National Honey Show, which started in 1923, is the place for you. This three-day event attracts many local participants who showcase their sweet golden honey, some of which is sold globally.
The Orange Sauce Festival
Have you heard about a festival that is devoted only to orange sauce? Held in Cumbria, this sweet, fragrant festival has been running for many years. What attracts people most is a competition to find the best homemade orange sauce. There are thousands of participants from over 30 different countries across the globe, bringing their local snacks to share here.
The Ginger (姜) and Spice Festival
If you’d prefer something with a little more kick, then you could attend the Ginger and Spice Festival held in Market Drayton. Unlike other food festivals, it celebrates its town’s historic connection to Robert Clive,who returned from India with ginger. Because of this, people here specialize in baking gingerbread, and sell a range of traditional spices from mild ones to hot ones.
1. What do Meatopia and the National Honey Show have in common?| A．They have a long history. | B．They hold workshops. |
| C．They originated from London. | D．They last three days. |
| A．The Meatopia. | B．The National Honey Show. |
| C．The Orange Sauce Festival. | D．The Ginger and Spice Festival. |
| A．It sells spicy food. |
| B．The ginger used in the festival is from India. |
| C．It has something to do with a historic figure. |
| D．The food is cooked by Robert Clive. |
