1 . In about a week I will start one of my most expected adventures ever. Sarek National Park will be a mission. It is not a place for the unprepared. It is a place for adventurous hearts who are looking for solitude (独处), wildness and a connection with nature that is hard to find on our planet these days. High up in the north of Sweden at the border with Norway, it is called the last European Wilderness.
The preparation for this trip started a few months ago. I tried to prepare in the best way possible as this is uncharted territory for me. It will be the first hike really off the beaten path. I will not go into details until I get back and actually know what I am talking about.
There are a few things to keep in mind when you plan to hike in Sarek National Park. First of all, there are no huts or any accommodation. If you are at the heart of Sarek you will be at least a 4-5 days hike away from the next mountain hut. So this means I will have to carry everything I need for 8-10 days. The biggest part of the load will be food. There are no paths or waymarks. I will have to make my own route with GPS and maps.
In addition, the weather can be very challenging. Sarek is the area in Sweden with the heaviest rainfall. It is also known for strong wind and there’re not many places to shelter from it because there are hardly any tees. It is important to bring professional hiking gear (装备). Finding and choosing a good campsite might take some time as well.
1. What kind of destination does the author consider Sarek National Park to be?| A．Popular and convenient. | B．Busy and well-connected. |
| C．Remote and forest-covered. | D．Attractive and demanding. |
| A．Not explored. | B．Not accepted. | C．Not vast. | D．Not dangerous. |
| A．Make a map of Sarek. | B．Build shelters for tourists. |
| C．Reach the depths of Sarek. | D．Measure the rainfall of Sarek. |
| A．To explain why there are few trees there. |
| B．To recommend ways of finding good campsites. |
| C．To discuss causes of heavy rains and strong wind. |
| D．To remind possible travelers of the challenging weather. |
2 . When Kurt Benirschke started collecting skin samples from rare and endangered animals in 1972, he didn’t have a plan on what to do with them. As a researcher at the University of California San Diego, he believed that one day the tools would be developed to save those animals. A few years later, he moved his collection to San Diego Zoo, and called it the Frozen Zoo. Today, the Frozen Zoo is the world’s largest animal cryobank (生物冷库), with samples from over 10,500 individual animals from 1,220 species.
Since the Frozen Zoo was founded, Oliver Ryder, a geneticist at San Diego Zoo, says many achievements have been reached in the field of genetics, starting with the cloning of the first animal -- a sheep named Dolly in 1996. Since 2001, four endangered species have been cloned using genetic material from the Frozen Zoo: the Indian Gaur, a humpbacked Asian wild ox; the Banteng, a Southeast-Asian species of cattle; Przewalski’s horse and the Black-footed ferret.
In recent years, the clock has been ticking for many species in danger. According to the WWF Living Planet Report 2020, as a result of loss of habitat due to human activities, one million species -- animals and plants -- are threatened with extinction over the coming decades and centuries. With the current rate of biodiversity loss, some scientists believe collecting samples from species that might not be here tomorrow is a scientific must-do.
One of the main challenges will be persuading conservation agencies that cryobanking is a reasonable strategy and worth funding. “Many of us are doing this without any national or government support beyond donations,” says Lisa Yon, an associate professor of zoo and wildlife medicine at the University of Nottingham. “Cryobanking is increasingly being recognized as an important resource, so it’s a bit puzzling that there isn’t more funding support.”
1. Why did Kurt Benirschke start the Frozen Zoo?| A．To attract more visitors. | B．To find new tools for research. |
| C．To sell samples more conveniently. | D．To help save endangered animals. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Positive. | C．Unclear. | D．Uncaring. |
| A．Biodiversity is in great danger. | B．WWF is working with the Frozen Zoo. |
| C．Wildlife population is getting bigger. | D．The Frozen Zoo has stored 1,220 species. |
| A．The efforts of Kurt Benirschke. | B．The development in cloning. |
| C．The importance of the Frozen Zoo. | D．The problem of genetic technology. |
3 . Are you new to experiencing relationships? Well, let me give you advice on how to have a healthy and possibly long-term relationship.
Be an honest person with them.
Make sure you give them respect. Now respect isn’t just simply treating them nicely. There’s a lot more to it. You have to learn to get used to their liking. Basically, learn to study your partners’ moods, wants and needs.
Make sure you are encouraging your partner.
Make sure you have a good sense of humor with them.
| A．Do not hide things from them, and do not lie. |
| B．Show them your personality. |
| C．Laughter is the key to happiness. |
| D．Always be willing to help and encourage them. |
| E．Make sure the communication is good. |
| F．Don’t start to neglect them and make them feel unwanted. |
| G．Don’t just think about yourself, but think about what your partners need out of it as well. |
4 . A new study, published in The Journal of Experimental Psychology, found that communication interactions that included voice, like a phone call or video chat, created stronger social bonds than communication through typing, like text messaging or email.
In the study, researchers used various experiments to gauge (测量) connectedness. In one, they asked 200 people to make predictions about what it would be like to reconnect with an old friend by email or by phone and then assigned people at random to do one or the other. Although people predicted that a phone call would be more awkward, hearing someone’s voice actually made the experience better. However, people who participated in the experiment reported that they did form a significantly stronger bond with their old friend on the phone versus email, and they did not feel more awkward.
In another experiment, the researchers had strangers connected by either texting, talking over video chat, or talking using only audio(声音). They found that both forms of voice communication — whether video or audio only — made the strangers feel significantly more connected than when they communicated via text.
Sabrina Romanoff, a Harvard trained clinical psychologist based in New York City, says people tend to text or email instead of calling because of convenience, as they see it as a controlled form of communication where they can express thoughts without being disturbed.
Romanoff says that in reality, texting can make it hard to determine the true meaning behind a conversation. A phone call is actually more convenient when considering the net effects of the message. In face-to-face communication, people are able to gauge the meaning behind the content more easily without thinking the endless possible meanings behind words and punctuation.
1. What is the purpose of the study?| A．To encourage people to let their fingers do the talking. |
| B．To introduce the effects of verbal and non-verbal communications. |
| C．To show the strengths and weaknesses of making phone calls. |
| D．To compare connectedness of communication through voice and typing. |
| A．Typing a letter. | B．Sending an email. |
| C．Texting a message. | D．Having a video chat. |
| A．It’s easy to express the true meaning of a conversation by texting. |
| B．A phone call can convey information more exactly than texting. |
| C．It’s not a good way to communicate face to face. |
| D．Texting is more convenient than calling. |
| A．Being more formal. | B．Being less awkward. |
| C．Being more straightforward. | D．Being less expensive. |
5 . Retired couple May Proctor, 71, and her husband Rod, 73, have transformed their garden into a fairyland(仙境) themed light show for local kids to enjoy. May and Rod came up with the concept last year but this time is to be the biggest display yet. The mystical (神秘的) garden is open for children to walk through and upon entry they will find a “fairy world” filled with pizza shops, very small shops and a magical forest. This year the home itself has been transformed according to Alice in Wonderland.
May says she is a fairy fan and that the huge amount of decoration is worth it for the magic. “I’ve always liked to make a bit of a magical garden, but this year I’ve just been excited.” she said.“Especially it’s just magic at night, absolutely amazing.”
An ex-dinner lady, May Proctor, the native, said she and her husband never planned on doing the light display this year. Then as autumn approached, the couple felt that they had to show something. So they decided again to go on to create a light display.
The topic for this year’s fairy display—Fairy Lane in Wonderland—is inspired by the mystical world of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
Throughout the house and garden, visitors will go down a rabbit hole into a fantastic kingdom. “Last year it was just outside, but this year it’s inside, and it’s just amazing,” May explained.
“Outside, I’ve made my own fairies and they were hung with the flowers, so it looks like a real Christmas fairyland. But inside, we’ve got some stage properties—so we’ve got a mirror with all Alice in Wonderland features around it. The kids absolutely love it, but I only let ten to twelve inside at a time due to the pandemic (流行病), where they can sit down and have their pictures taken.”
1. What can we know about May Proctor from Paragraph 1?| A．She lives in a fairy land. |
| B．She is familiar with Alice in Wonderland. |
| C．She has many small shops in the town. |
| D．She has many children and grandchildren. |
| A．Satisfied. | B．Regretful. | C．Worried. | D．Expected. |
| A．Walking through the house. |
| B．Walking through the garden. |
| C．Going down a rabbit hole. |
| D．Going through a magic mirror. |
| A．The garden was really small. |
| B．She was concerned about their health. |
| C．The hole is too narrow to get into. |
| D．There were not many kids enjoying the display. |
6 . Handwritten Chinese characters (文字) can be beautiful. I still remember looking at Chinese and not understanding anything it said and yet feeling a strong attraction. In fact, some students start learning Chinese because of the characters. After having studied Chinese for a while, I realized that handwriting in Chinese takes a very long time to learn.
Living as we do in a digital era (数字时代) with smartphones and computers, most students sooner or later ask themselves this question: Is it really necessary to learn how to write by hand in Chinese? When using smartphones or computers, we can use phonetic input (语音输入) systems, which choose the characters we want for us as long as we can remember how they are pronounced. Since we enter different characters, we seldom need to be able to recognize the difference between characters in detail; the computer makes the right choices for us. Do we really need to write Chinese by hand at all?
I think most people agree that you should learn to write at least some characters at some point as a student of Chinese, although not necessarily straight away and not necessarily all the characters that you can say. But unless you don’t care about written language at all, you should learn the basics of handwriting. Without it, it will be very hard to understand characters. You don’t need to be a calligraphy master (书法大师), but you do need basic handwriting skills to do this. Simply looking at things is, as usual, a bad way of learning.
I think learning the most common 500 characters or so is a good idea for all students. If you actually want to write by hand, increase that to 1, 000. Then learn to handwrite characters outside of the 1, 000 most common on a need-to-know basis.
1. What does the author think of Chinese characters?| A．They are less communicative than English words. |
| B．They attract some foreigners to learn Chinese. |
| C．They show the greatness of Chinese culture. |
| D．They are not really that difficult. |
| A．Characters are very difficult for foreigners to learn. |
| B．People believe learning to write characters is important. |
| C．People doubt the necessity of learning to write characters. |
| D．Characters may disappear with the development of society. |
| A．Understanding characters. |
| B．Being a calligraphy master. |
| C．Keeping a good learning habit. |
| D．Learning basic handwriting skills. |
| A．Uncaring. | B．Worried. |
| C．Supportive. | D．Surprised. |
7 . Everybody knows that Massachusetts is a great place to see fall leaves. But surely there are other places to catch the leaves turning green to reddish-golden? The short answer is yes.
Aspen, Colorado
Aspen—as its name suggests—doesn’t fail to impress with its backdrop of majestic snow-capped mountains. Head to the Maroon Bells to look into mirror-like lakes to see double: on a calm day, the mountains and trees are reflected in the still waters.
Bavaria, Germany
Take a trip into a Brothers Grimm fairytale. Not only can you catch breathtaking views—such as castles emerging from red, green and golden trees—but you can experience the region’s fall traditions, such as the “Almabtrieb” event, bringing in the cattle from the grasslands, and local parish (教区) fairs, called “Kirchweih-Feste” where beer is everywhere.
Catskills, Upstate New York
If spotting fall in one state isn’t enough, head to the Catskills, where you can see five states at once. Head to the Northern Catskills of Greene County, to the “Five State Lookout” in Windham, where you can view treetops in New York, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, as well as beautiful scenery of the Hudson River Valley.
Edinburgh, Scotland
This city is made for fall with its tree-lined streets and big open parks. Head to Princes Street Gardens, which is home to some of the city’s most typical monuments, such as the storybook-style Gardeners’ Cottage and the Scott Monument, or take a hike through Holyrood Park, marveling as the russet tones (红褐色) cover the rolling hills which climb up to the famed Arthurs Seat offering full views of the city and beyond.
1. What is a special view of the Maroon Bells?| A．Typical monuments in Scottish style. |
| B．Beautiful castles among golden trees. |
| C．Clear lakes with reflections of surroundings. |
| D．Mountains completely covered with snow. |
| A．Aspen, Colorado. | B．Catskills, Upstate New York. |
| C．Bavaria, Germany. | D．Edinburgh, Scotland. |
| A．To explain how to develop hobbies in the fall. |
| B．To stress the importance of traveling in the fall. |
| C．To introduce some places to appreciate fall leaves. |
| D．To describe how lo enjoy fall leaves with your own eyes. |
8 . Think back to the last time you shopped for fruits and vegetables. You may have noticed some items labelled with the word “organic”.
“Organic” refers to the way food is grown. To be labelled as organic, food production must meet strict guidelines. These can be different depending on where you live. In the United States, organic foods must be grown or raised without using pesticides or chemical fertilizers.
The organic movement was started to get back to the old traditional ways of farming. Why? Many believe the chemicals and pesticides used in modern farming can be harmful to your health.
Have you ever compared organic and non-organic foods at the grocery store? If so, you know that organic food tend to cost more. This happens for many reasons. Organic farming produces fewer crops.
Is organic food worth the extra cost? Some people believe it is. They may think it tastes better or just prefer to eat food that has not been grown using chemicals.
| A．Have you ever wondered what that means? |
| B．The cost of production is also usually higher. |
| C．For most of history, almost all food was organic. |
| D．Many people are willing to pay more for organic food. |
| E．Some also think organic foods are naturally more nutritious. |
| F．Are you wondering if organic food is right for you? |
| G．Scientists have studied organic and non-organic foods for many years now. |
9 . A herd of 15 Asian elephants has been making its way North across China since March 2020, and nobody is quite sure why.
The herd has covered more than 500 kilometers since they wandered out of their home in the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve, located in southwestern China along its border with Laos and Myanmar. Authorities in China have tried to keep the animals away from populated areas with piles of fruit and vegetables and physical barriers. The herd was spotted last week on the outskirts (郊区) of Kunming.
“One potential explanation for the elephant migration is overcrowding in the nature reserve these animals once called home,” says George, an elephant specialist at Colorado State University. Asian elephants are endangered, only around 300 surviving in China, but the population living in the reserves of the Xishuangbanna region has been growing in recent years. George says this wayward (任性的) group might have set out to find a new home with less competition for resources.
“We’ve seen elephants expanding their range for decades now, as their populations increase, and they search for more food for the growing herd,” says Becky Chen, a conservation scientist at the Zoological Society of London who has studied elephant-human interactions. Other experts wonder if this is an example of a herd being misled by an inexperienced leader, or if the decision to roam was an almost random choice.
Authorities have instructed residents along the route to stay inside if the elephants are nearby and avoid disturbing the herd. If the animals can’t be turned back to their former forested home, scientists and land managers may need to make provisions (准备) for the elephants to live permanently in Kunming.
Chen says she hopes the situation will raise awareness of human-elephant conflict and elephant conservation. “What we have to learn is not how to solve the problem, but how to increase tolerance,” she says. “How can we use this event to let everybody pay attention to coexistence between people and animals?”
1. Which is the possible reason for elephant migration?| A．The population of people. | B．Inhabitant loss. |
| C．Annual migration. | D．An act of a misleading head. |
| A．Settle. | B．Wander. |
| C．Leave. | D．Accompany. |
| A．It takes long to live in harmony with animals. |
| B．It is important to reflect on how to live with animals. |
| C．The increasing elephants threaten human’s settlement. |
| D．The endangered elephants migrate due to human development. |
| A．Nature. | B．Health. |
| C．Entertainment. | D．Life. |
10 . Do you get nervous thinking about a coming math test? If yes, you are far from alone. Math anxiety has become a common condition among students around the world. Students in countries with higher levels of math anxiety tend to achieve lower math grades, according to a study published by the National Academy of Sciences on Feb 15.
Math anxiety — a negative emotional reaction to the core subject — causes fear, physical suffering and behavior problems among young pupils, according to a University of Cambridge study. Some people also experience physical symptoms such as sweaty palms or a racing heart. They may then try to avoid every situation involving numbers, meaning they are held back from pursuing careers related to this subject, such as technology or engineering, according to The Guardian.
Relief comes from the fact that those with math anxiety aren’t destined (注定的) to be bad at math. “If a child has math anxiety, don’t assume that they’re not good at math. They may have had a really bad experience with math and there are ways to improve math achievement,” Daniel Ansari, the senior author of the study told The London Free Press.
Also, there are ways to manage your stress related to math. If you’re feeling stressed before a math exam, it may help to spend a few minutes exploring those feelings before the exam begins. “It’s about making sure you’re interpreting your feelings correctly,” Sian Beilock, a cognitive (认知的) scientist told the BBC. “Just because you have a fast heartbeat and sweaty palms, that does not necessarily mean you will fail.”
Math doesn’t come easy, no matter how clever you are. Leonardo da Vinci, the famous Italian artist, was a huge fan of mathematics. But his notebooks show that Da Vinci couldn’t do fractions (分数). He could never grasp, for instance, that dividing a number by one-quarter is the same as multiplying by four, resulting in a higher number than the original.
1. What do we know about math anxiety?| A．People who are good at math don’t experience math anxiety. |
| B．It is most commonly seen among teenagers. |
| C．It can cause unpleasant symptoms both mentally and physically. |
| D．Math anxiety leads to people struggling in their career. |
| A．Math anxiety may contribute to better grades. |
| B．Students with math anxiety may have higher cognitive abilities. |
| C．Math anxiety does not reflect the ability to solve math problems. |
| D．Bad experience with math can cause cognitive disadvantages. |
| A．Practice more before you take math exams. |
| B．Learn to understand your feelings. |
| C．Ask cognitive experts for help. |
| D．Take all nervous energy as a challenge. |
| A．To show that math definitely isn’t easy. |
| B．To explain why math is a particularly difficult subject. |
| C．To show da Vinci’s math anxiety is very serious. |
| D．To suggest a way to solve math anxiety. |
