1 . Chinese traditional cuisine is popular and respected all over the world. Chinese meals are famous among foreigners for their colors, ingredients and flavors. The following are four of the Chinese dishes known among foreigners. Click here and see how to cook these dishes.
Spring Rolls
The Chinese food Spring rolls’(Chūnjuǎn) name comes from the Spring Festival in China. Spring rolls are an appetizer that is very famous both in China and the rest of the world. They are made of thin dough filled with meat and vegetables, rolled and fried. They are crispy(脆)and very delicious and go to different sizes.
Chow Mein
Chow mein (Chǎomiàn) is a fried dish with noodles, meat and onions. It has many varieties in different countries. For instance, only in the USA, there are a number of ways to prepare it. depending on the place. It is a most popular Chinese takeout dish. On the East Coast the meal is crispy, while on the West Coast - soft.
Dumplings
Dumplings(Jiǎozi)are one of the most famous and traditional Chinese meals. A dumpling consists of boiled or baked dough filled with meat and vegetables. It has an interesting half-circle shape and curly edges. The filling might be pork, beef and vegetables such as cabbage and onions.
Egg-fried Rice
Egg-fried rice (Dàn chǎofàn) is one of the most popular dishes in the world. Many people eat it regularly, either at restaurants or prepare it at home. The dish has a strong delicious smell and it’s very easy to cook with eggs, vegetables and so on. It can be found in every Chinese restaurant.
1. Which of the following is related to Chinese New Year?| A．Spring Rolls | B．Chow Mein |
| C．Dumplings | D．Egg-fried Rice |
| A．They all have strong smell. |
| B．They have the same cooking methods. |
| C．They are all crispy and very delicious. |
| D．Their ingredients might include vegetables. |
| A．In a magazine. | B．On a website. |
| C．In a travel brochure. | D．In a newspaper. |
2 . Popular topics during 2023 Spring Festival
E-CNY
Currently, 17 provincial-level regions in China have begun the use of digital yuan, or e-CNY. The Tianjin branch of China Construction Bank has also launched a digital yuan promotion activity, offering discounts of up to 50 percent to those who spend digital yuan on shopping during the Spring Festival holiday.
January box-office market
The first month of 2023 took a giant leap and became the highest-earning January of all time in China, selling a total of 201 million tickets for 10 million screenings in over 10,000 cinemas. Insiders said people started a new custom of going to cinemas during the Spring Festival and China’s improvement of COVID-19 control measures further made the January box-office earnings rise.
Tourism market
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said the tourism market recovers remarkably, with an increase of 23.1% compared to the same period last year. As for the income of the domestic tourism industry, travel data showed Chengdu, Shanghai and Guangzhou were the top 3 domestic destinations. It is also said that more than 2.3 million people have crossed the border, with 1.2 million entering and 1.1 million exiting.
The year of the cat instead of rabbit
Why? Legend has it that the cat and the rat were riding across a river on an ox to win the last seat in the zodiac (生肖) when the rat pushed the cat into the water and won the race. However, in the Vietnamese version — where there was no rabbit — the cat could swim and ended up arriving first. Funny as the story is, the change actually has something to do with language misunderstanding, as the word tied to the sign of the rabbit and pronounced mao (卯) is similar to mèo, the Vietnamese word for cat.
1. What may people in Tianjin do during the Spring Festival?| A．Get encouraged to go shopping. |
| B．Use e-CNY to promote an activity. |
| C．Start a new custom of traveling. |
| D．Offer discount to someone in need. |
| A．Bouncing back out of the same reason. |
| B．Encouraging a new trend during the holiday. |
| C．Experiencing a sharp decline several years ago. |
| D．Using statistics to show the industrial recovery. |
| A．Lack of rabbit in their country. |
| B．Different legends about the zodiac. |
| C．Similar pronunciation with certain Chinese. |
| D．Vietnamese’s preference for swimming eats. |
3 . Everyone wants to live a healthier life and be happy. Learning how to live better and feel more positive about the world around you can help you live a happy and meaningful life.
Think positively. This does not mean that you ignore the bad or unpleasant things in life. It simply means that you approach every situation in life, both good and bad, with a positive outlook and a productive mindset.
Manage stress in your life. You cannot avoid stressful situations, but you can find ways to relieve your stress. You can use relaxation techniques, such as meditation, visualization, tai chi, yoga, and deep breathing.
Eat a healthy diet.
Cultivate a healthy lifestyle.
| A．Find purpose in your life |
| B．To start thinking more positively |
| C．Make up your mind to change |
| D．In addition to eating a healthy diet |
| E．Try to find the negative aspects of positive situations |
| F．What you eat can have a huge impact on how you feel |
| G．Try to maintain a positive attitude, even in stressful situations |
4 . According to the World Health Organization, a global group that studies public health, 1.1 billion young adults are at risk of developing hearing loss. Smartphones are largely to blame. Can some headphones really damage your hearing?
Nerves carry messages to each other, such as sounds or sensations. Most hearing loss is the result of nerve wreck. Scientists use decibels to measure volume. You can listen to 85 decibels pretty much all day without causing any damage. That is about the noise level of busy city traffic. Things quickly become dangerous once you get louder than that. The noise level produced at a rock concert or by a chain saw is about 115 decibels. At this level, damage can happen in less than a minute. You might not immediately notice large hearing loss. It will add up over time. Some smartphones can crank (调高) music to 120 decibels. Say: you listen to 10 songs in a row at that volume. You might notice hearing loss by the time you take off your headphones.
What kind of headphones should people use? All of them have different benefits and downsides. Ear buds have a bad reputation because they sit in your ear canal. This allows them to release the sound closer to your ear. That means what you hear is almost the full force of the sound. Big, padded over-ear headphones do not sit as close to your eardrum. They still trap in sound, though. Sound from these headphones also reaches your eardrum at nearly full force. Then there are some special over-ear headphones, the kind with foam (泡沫) earphone covers which are better at blocking noise. They deliver sound around your ear instead of straight into it. It might not sound as good, but it’s healthier for your ears. Solid-plastic in-ear headphones are not very good at blocking out background noise. This might make you want to pump up the volume.
Doctors recommend that their patients get fitted for headphones which will help block background noise. In theory, this should encourage people to listen at lower volumes. But they are not sure it works that way because they think people just have a habit of turning it all the way up.
1. What does the word “wreck” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Loss. | B．Damage. | C．Tension. | D．Decrease. |
| A．Driving at the city center. | B．Enjoying ten songs. |
| C．Using a chain saw. | D．Watching an action movie. |
| A．It is the volume that really damages people’s hearing |
| B．It’s unnecessary to turn down the volume for people with normal hearing |
| C．Picking right headphones has nothing to do with people’s hearing. |
| D．A good pair of headphones can adjust the volume of the smartphone. |
| A．Solid-plastic in-ear headphones. | B．Tiny in-ear headphones. |
| C．Big padded over-ear headphones. | D．Special over-ear headphones. |
5 . World Press Photo
The annual World Press Photo Contest recognizes and celebrates the best photo journalism and documentary photography produced over the last year. Entries for the 2023 World Press Photo Contest will open on 1 December 2022 and close on 10 January 2023. We are excited to welcome a multiplicity of stories and a diverse range of photographers from all over the world to enter the contest!
Regional winners
Every regional winner of the contest receives:
·A monetary prize of 1,000
·Inclusion in the annual World Press Photo year-long worldwide exhibition
·Inclusion in the annual collectible yearbook, available in multiple languages with a worldwide distribution of more than 30,000 copies
·Publication in the online collection and a personal profile on World Press Photo’s website
·A physical award
In addition, winners are often featured in major publications and invited to speak at public events, exhibition openings, and lectures throughout the year.
Global winners
A global jury selects the four global winners: the World Press Photo of the Year, the World Press Photo Story of the Year, the World Press Photo Long-Term Project Award, and the World Press Photo Open Format Award. The global winners will be chosen from the regional winners in their respective categories.
In addition to their regional prizes, global winners will also receive:
·An additional monetary prize of €5,000
·An additional physical award
1. Who would most probably enter for World Press Photo?| A．Storytellers. | B．Photographers. |
| C．Librarians. | D．Celebrities. |
| A．Their works will be exhibited for years. |
| B．A personal profile on any website is allowed. |
| C．30,000 copies of their works will be distributed to other winners. |
| D．They will be invited to deliver speeches throughout the year. |
| A．€1000. | B．€4000. | C．€5000. | D．€6000. |
6 . In Tennessee, you will find a “secret society” that consists of 9 women who call themselves “The 9 Nanas.” Its mission is simple — to spread happiness by performing random acts of kindness for those in need. The Nanas have been together since childhood. Several of them were raised by MaMaw and PaPaw, a couple that were always doing good for the community.
One day when the 9 Nanas got together, they started recollecting the old days with MaMaw and PaPaw. They fondly recalled how MaMaw Ruth used to bake and send pound cakes to families who had recently lost someone. The “sisters” wanted to do good for their community too. So, the “secret society” of “The 9 Nanas” was born.
The ladies kept their ears open as they ran their daily work. Whenever they heard of someone in need, they’d step in to help. A package would be sent, which would always include one of MaMaw Ruth’s pound cakes and a note that said “Somebody loves you.”
Believe it or not, the group operated in secret for 30 years! But by then, the husbands had started to get suspicious. So the 9 Nanas gathered the husbands and spilled the beans. Their husbands wanted in on the fun. That’s when the operation was taken to the next level!
Now, over 5 years since the husbands uncovered their wives’ secret, the 9 Nanas are still going strong. They said, “Not everyone is as lucky as we were to have MaMaw and PaPaw to take care of them. So this is our way of giving back. We want to make sure that happiness happens.”
1. What is the task of the “secret society”?| A．To uncover secrets. | B．To search for lost family members. |
| C．To spread happiness. | D．To attend kids for working parents. |
| A．A thank-you note. | B．Their similar interests. |
| C．A special package. | D．Their common memories. |
| A．Told the truth. | B．Shared snacks. |
| C．Asked for help. | D．Made promises. |
| A．Practical and polite. | B．Humble and humorous. |
| C．Caring and devoted. | D．Outgoing and disciplined. |
7 . When I was 13, I climbed my first mountain--a fairly gentle 3,900-foot peak. I was overweight at the time and out of breath when I reached the summit. But I loved challenging myself. Soon I’d climbed nearly 100 peaks. My parents were happy I’d finally found a hobby.
I often go climbing with my friend Mel Olsen. She and I drove to tackle 11, 240-foot Mount Hood. It’s safer to start winter climbs at night when there’s less risk of the sun melting the snowpack. That day, we started at 3 a. m. At around9 a. m., we reached an ice step. It was about three or four feet tall and sloped al a 75-degree angle. 1 volunteered to go first. I placed my left foot on the ice step.
I gained a sense of the ice when 1 stuck my ax and crampons (鞋底钉) into it, and it felt good. Confident I was safe, I put my full weight on it. Suddenly, I heard a crack, and as the snowpack became thinner, a whole piece of ice broke off the step, right under my foot.
In an instant, I fell backward, bouncing off the rock face and rolling down the mountain as if I were a character in a video game. I remember thinking, This is it. You’re done. I stuck out my arms and legs, grabbing at anything. That stopped my rolling down the mountain, but I was still sliding, After 2 few seconds, I came to a stop on a shallow slope.
I asked myself: Where are you? Mount Hood. What’s the date? December 30. Good. My brain was functioning. Then I checked my body to see where I was hurt. For the most part, I was fine, except that I was suffering from a sharp pain in my left leg. Later I’d learn that I’d broken my femur (大腿骨) and that the bone was slicing into my skin and muscle.
At the bottom of Mount Hood, I was loaded into an ambulance and taken to a hospital. The doctors told me it would be a year before I could climb again, but I was back on the trails within six months.
1. Why did the author and her friend set out at 3 a. m. ?| A．It was the best time to enjoy scenery. | B．It was more challenging to climb at night. |
| C．They wanted to finish the climb before sunset. | D．They hoped to avoid some possible dangers. |
| A．To show her strong character. | B．To make her idea more convincing. |
| C．To help readers imagine the scene. | D．To add to the humor of the description. |
| A．By recalling what had happened. | B．By checking whether she was injured. |
| C．By calling an ambulance for rescue. | D．By asking herself some factual questions. |
| A．She is too brave to pay attention to any danger. |
| B．R She has a strong desire for professional knowledge. |
| C．Setbacks can’t stop her from challenging herself. |
| D．The love for nature sets her apart from her friends. |
8 . Since it is your birthday as an adult, you’ll want it awesome! It can be tricky to plan. Everyone will have various ideas about it. But as long as everyone has fun, the possibilities are endless. Here are some helpful tips.
Brainstorm ideas. The first thing you need to do is come up with some ideas for how you might want to celebrate your birthday. Get together with a couple of closest friends and think as many possibilities as you can.
Decide the number of people. You might want the party small or big.
Pick a theme.
Send out invitations.
| A．Run ideas |
| B．Get some entertainment |
| C．This is a chance to be a bit creative |
| D．Now you have a good idea of the size |
| E．Make sure everybody understands the plans |
| F．Which size works better will depend on what kind of party |
| G．They know you well, and can tell you if you have a really good idea |
9 . As 3D printing technology improves, people keep finding new uses for it. And the latest is pretty sweet: cheesecake. Researchers with the department of mechanical engineering at Columbia University created a seven-ingredient slice of cake using a 3D printer, and they say printing foods could be a new cooking option with several benefits.
Such printers have been used to make organs before, and similar technologies already exist in the food space 一like pizza and bread robots, pasta printers and automatic cake decorators, the researchers say in the study, published in the NPJ Science and Food journal.
The researchers defined printed food as“the controlled deposition(沉淀), of an ingredient; as such, any ingredient that was pushed into paste(酱),” and they say many existing processed foods can be considered “printed” by this definition. So, in order to make the 3D-printed peanut butter -banana cheesecake with a cherry coat, all the ingredients had to be converted into paste-like substances. All seven ingredients were put in to the 3D printer and then printed out in layers into the shape of a piece of cheesecake.
The researchers say 3D printing food could allow cooks to control the nutrient content in a meal and also offer the ability to make more customized meals. It also reduces human contact with food, which could prevent the spread of food-borne illnesses and diseases.
They also see sustainability benefits to printing food, because ingredients can be locally sourced, plant-based meals can be created and the shelf life of the foods could be extended.
Printing food could also help people with swallowing and other digestive disorders,by providing new food options, rather than the bland foods they may be restricted to.
While some processed foods could have better taste, texture, cleanliness and shelf lives, processing foods can also degrade their nutrients. However, the researchers hope developing the 3D printing technology can help prevent nutrient degradation while processing foods.
1. What does the author intend to tell us in paragraph 2?| A．Printing food is not as strange as it sounds. |
| B．Such printers were only used in medical before. |
| C．Printing pizza is similar to printing bread robots. |
| D．This technology gets the approval of many scientists. |
| A．By squeezing them into paste. |
| B．By cutting them into pieces. |
| C．By shaping them into layers. |
| D．By putting them into different printers. |
| A．Increasing human contact with food. |
| B．Making meals become more nutritious. |
| C．Promoting the spread of food-borne diseases. |
| D．Treating the disorders associated with food. |
| A．A diet dairy. | B．A cookbook. | C．A medical magazine. | D．A science journal. |
10 . Here’s a recipe for a good animal rescue story: Take one residential creek (小溪), add one lone dolphin and then bring in 28 determined biologists. Mix well and enjoy the happy ending.
A young dolphin wandered off its usual path and ended up in a creek in Clearwater, Florida. Biologists with Clearwater Marine Aquarium had been monitoring it since Jan. 1. It appeared reluctant to return to open waters via a small opening under a bridge. “Since monitoring began, the dolphin had not left the creek,” the aquarium said last week. “This posed potential long-term problems. Dolphins are naturally sociable creatures, so if they are isolated from other dolphins, they may turn their attention to human interaction.” This can be dangerous, both for dolphins and humans. Humans who get too close to dolphins can find themselves with injuries such as broken bones.
Clearwater Marine Aquarium partnered with NOAA Fisheries and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission to guard the dolphin to safety. A team of 28 biologists got into the water to form a human chain, creating a visual and sound barrier to aim the dolphin out of the creek. It’s not easy to pull off a human chain in a creek. The biologists had to stay shoulder to shoulder and navigate trees and docks without giving the dolphin an opportunity to slip by. The human encouragement worked, though there was a moment of uncertainty as the team members neared the bridge and weren’t sure if the dolphin went through.
The biologists celebrated the dolphin’s arrival on the other side.“It was very exciting after almost 20 plus days for him to finally be out of the canal,” said senior rescue biologist Brittany Baldrica.
The wandering dolphin stands a good chance back out in the wild. “We noted that the animal was in good body condition with normal breathing rates and was displaying normal behavior during observations” the aquarium said.
Happy ending achieved.
1. What attracted the biologists to monitor a young dolphin?| A．Its unusual wandering path. | B．A small opening under a bridge. |
| C．Its interactions with human. | D．A creek with potential problems. |
| A．To experience dolphins’ swim in the creek. |
| B．To avoid heavy injuries from the sociable dolphin. |
| C．To create a barrier guiding the dolphin out of the creek. |
| D．To give encouragement to each other while working in the wild. |
| A．Humorous. | B．Flowery. | C．Informal. | D．Rough. |
| A．A Good Way to Rescue Wild Animals. |
| B．A Human Chain to Save a Dolphin’s Life. |
| C．A Heart-stopping Survival Game in Florida. |
| D．A Celebration of Biologists Studying Dolphins. |
