1 . Accents are an important part of our identity. An accent gives clues about who we are, and the community we belong to or wish to belong to.
What is the difference between accents and pronunciation?
Accents are about localized ways of speaking a language. A French person may speak English flawlessly (完美无瑕地), just with a French accent.
If you think back historically people were much more localized with generation after generation of families living in the same small villages and few people traveled out of that area during their lifetimes. So over many generations differences in accent emerged and became very distinct to particular areas. Mountainous villages that are not easily accessible often develop very strong and distinctive accents.
How important is it to get an accent right?
If you’re moving to a certain part of a country, you might want to integrate better with your new community.
How to improve your accent?
| A．Where do accents and pronunciation emerge? |
| B．They’re also important for those learning a new language. |
| C．Try to adapt your speech to sound more like the locals’ speech. |
| D．The best way is to learn the specific accent of that region. |
| E．Where do different types of accents come from? |
| F．That’s fine because there is no wrong or right with an accent. |
| G．Learners should first think about which sounds don’t exist in your native language. |
2 . Live-stream marketing: A rural rags-to-riches story?
For many years, quality agricultural products were unable to sell in faraway provinces.
In Yunnan Province, southwest China, live-stream marketing is currently the most popular way of pushing local products to consumers across the country.
| A．There arises a question. |
| B．Government policies and guidance should follow up. |
| C．The expansion of 5G technology is a vital contribution. |
| D．The biggest barrier is lack of efficient marketing channels. |
| E．China has a tradition of intensive cultivation and a huge rural population. |
| F．But we should establish a complete supply chain based on strict standards. |
| G．Once back they can introduce more digitally advanced approaches to agricultural management. |
3 . The Ancient Chinese Game of Go
Weiqi, known in English as Go, is one of the four skills that an ancient Chinese intellectual (知识分子) could possess. It has a history of well over 4,000 years in China and remains popular. Culturally, this activity is really “more than just a game”.
History books have recorded quite a number of ardent Go fans from each dynasty. Today, there are still many in China, Japan and South Korea. Wu Yulin, a professional, explains its attraction, “In Go, you can learn the dialectics (辩证法) and military stratagems.
In fact, all of our minds can benefit from playing Go, which officially has the capacity to make you smarter. Research has shown that children who play Go have the potential for greater intelligence.
Today, the number of Go fans in China is at 36 million and rising. Some universities like Beijing University are even offering courses in Go to undergraduates.
| A．There’s always loss and gain. |
| B．It’s a war between equal powers. |
| C．That is because it motivates both the right and left sides of the brain. |
| D．You can also cultivate your character and improve your intelligence. |
| E．But more often, ancient Chinese played Go to cultivate their mind and character. |
| F．The influence of Go on Chinese society is quite evident in literature works. |
| G．Many people also love this ancient game for the Chinese philosophy it contains. |
4 . The Mona Lisa is the famous Leonardo da Vinci painting of a woman with a mysterious smile. This week, the painting gave up a secret.
Scientists using X-rays to examine the chemical structure of a small part of the painting discovered a technique Leonardo used in the work. An oil paint used for it was a special, new chemical mixture, which suggests that the Italian artist was in an experimental mood when he worked on the painting in the 16th century.
“He loved to experiment, and each of his paintings is completely different technically,”said Victor Gonzalez, a chemist who has studied the chemical element (成分) of several works by Leonardo and other artists. The researchers found a rare lead compound (铅化合物) — plumbonacrite, in Leonardo’s first layer of paint. The discovery proved that da Vinci most likely used lead oxide to thicken and help dry his paint. The paint in the study is about the thickness of a human hair, lying in the top right area of the painting.
The scientists looked into its atomic structure using X-rays, moving particles at the speed of light, permitting researchers to look deeper into the paint structure. “ Plumbonacrite is really a fingerprint of his recipe, as it’s the first time we can chemically confirm it,” Gonzalez said.
Dutch artist Rembrandt may have used a similar mixture when he was painting in the 17th century. Gonzalez and other researchers have found plumbonacrite in his work, too. Leonardo is thought to have put lead oxide powder, which has an orange color, in the oil to make it thicker and dry faster. “What you will get is an oil that has a very nice golden color,” Gonzalez said. “It flows more like honey.”
But the Mona Lisa — said by the Louvre to be a portrait (肖像) of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine silk businessman — and additional works by Leonardo still have other secrets to tell. “What we are saying is just a little brick in the knowledge,” Gonzalez said.
1. What’s the new discovery about the Mona Lisa?| A．A new explanation of the secret smile. |
| B．A new chemical element used in the painting. |
| C．The secret of the woman in the painting. |
| D．The structure of the paint da Vinci used. |
| A．Open secret. | B．Widespread use. | C．Hidden element. | D．Long-term dream. |
| A．It helps to make many things into paints. |
| B．It helps to make paints easy to deal with. |
| C．It helps to keep the paintings last long. |
| D．It helps to make paintings rich in color. |
| A．It has more secrets to tell the world. |
| B．It’s the portrait of a silk businessman. |
| C．It’s well kept in bricks in the Louvre. |
| D．It has a mixture of different art styles. |
5 . There are two kinds of garlic, a kind of vegetable—hardnecks and softnecks.
Plant hardneck varieties in northern areas six to eight weeks before a hard frost(霜). Their heads have a single row of large divisions, formed around an underground stem(茎). They are tastier than softnecks but do not last as long in storage.
Softneck varieties are better for growing in warmer climates. Their heads contain several rows of smaller cloves(蒜瓣) . Since they last longer after harvest, softnecks are usually the kind shoppers find in supermarkets.
Separate the head into individual cloves.
If your winter temperature falls below four degrees Celsius, add a thick cover of straw(稻草) to the garden bed. Water the straw to settle it into place.
It is fine for the garlic plants to send out green growth, during autumn and early winter, even in northern climates.
Remove the straw cover in spring, after the danger of frost has passed. Put a little fertilizer between each row 5 to 10 centimeters from the stems. Keep the bed free of weeds.
Your garlic will be ready for harvest in mid-to-late summer when at least 50 percent of the plant has turned yellow.
| A．Store garlic heads in a cool, dry spot. |
| B．Do not remove the outer part of thin skin. |
| C．Choose the better kind to plant for your climate. |
| D．Carefully dig the garlic out and move off the soil. |
| E．Do not plant the garlic you find in the supermarket. |
| F．Do not worry about possible damage to this growth in cold weather. |
| G．Plant only garlic seeds from the healthiest heads saved from last year's harvest. |
6 . Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, who together identified a slight chemical change to messenger RNA,were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine this year.
Dr. Karikó, the 13th woman to win the prize, had come to the United States from Hungary two decades earlier when her research program there ran out of money. She was preoccupied by mRNA, which provides instructions to cells to make proteins. Defying the decades old belief that mRNA was clinically unusable, she hold the view that it would stimulate medical innovations.
She and Dr. Weissman had their first chance meeting over a copy machine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1998. At the time, Dr. Weissman was desperate for new approaches to a vaccine (疫苗) against HLV, which bad long proved impossible to defend against. A physician who had tried and failed for years to develop a treatment for AIDS, he wondered if he and Dr. Karikó could team up to make an HIV. vaccine.
For years, they were at a loss. Mice vaccinated with mRNA became inactive. Countless experiments failed. They wandered down one dead end after another, But eventually, the scientists discovered that cells protect their own mRNA with a specific chemical modification (修饰). So they tried making the same change to mRNA manufactured in the lab before vaccinating it into cells It worked.
At first, other scientists were largely uninterested in taking up that new approach to vaccination. But two biotech companies soon took notice: Moderna, in the United States, and BioNTech, in Germany. Then the coronavirus emerged. Almost instantly, Drs. Karikó and Weissman’s work came together with several factors of different research to put vaccine makers ahead of the game in developing shot.
Brian Ferguson, an immunologist at the University of Cambridge, said. “The work of Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman in the years prior to 2020 prevented tens of millions of deaths and helped the world recover from the worst pandemic in a century. They richly deserve this recognition.”
1. The underlined word “defying” (paragraph 2) is closest in meaning to “ ”.| A．challenging | B．confirming | C．re-emphasizing | D．stating |
| A．They teamed up for the treatment for AIDS in Hungary. |
| B．They protected their mRNA with a chemical modification. |
| C．They persevered until they made a change to lab-made mRNA. |
| D．They manufactured mRNA in mice despite their countless failures. |
| A．they took no notice of others’ ignorance |
| B．they caught attention of two biotech companies |
| C．their work helped avoid the loss of countless lives |
| D．their work prevented the outbreak of the pandemic |
| A．Chemical Changes Identified in the Pandemic |
| B．Approaches Adopted to Defend Against HLV |
| C．Nobel Prize Awarded to Covid Vaccine Pioneers |
| D．mRNA Manufactured in a University Lab in USA |
7 . Gutiérrez’s life changed after finding a copy of Anna Karenina in the trash (垃圾) 20 years ago. It happened one night when he saw discarded books while driving his garbage truck through wealthier neighborhoods. It ignited his desire to start rescuing books from the trash. He took home about 50 books every morning after his night shift. Eventually, he turned his book collection into a community library for children from low-income families.
Bogota, Colombia’s capital, has 19 public libraries. However, they are far away from where rural and poorer communities live. The option of buying new books is out of reach for families struggling to make ends meet. Gutiérrez’s community library is a true representation of how one man’s trash can be another’s treasure. “I don’t think I’m doing something so great. The library is simply a bridge between people who throw books and those who have no access to books,” he said about his remarkable efforts.
Today, his library, called “the Strength of Words”, contains over 20,000 books and occupies most of his home. Everything from school textbooks to storybooks can be found in his collection. The library is open every weekend, when neighborhood children pour in. “The whole value of the library lies in helping kids start reading. This is important for kids in Bogota where many young people kill time in the streets and fall victim to vices such as taking drugs,” said Gutiérrez.
Gutiérrez grew up poor, and his family couldn’t afford to educate him beyond primary school. Nevertheless, he never lets a lack of formal education stop him from reading. “Books are the greatest invention of human beings. There’s nothing more beautiful than having a book handy,” Guiérrez said. His journey to giving back to his local community is an amazing example of how every one of us can improve the lives of those around us by identifying needs, investing time and finding a simple solution.
1. What does the underlined word “ignited” mean in the first paragraph?| A．Indicated. | B．Satisfied. | C．Limited. | D．Stimulated. |
| A．Caring and humble. | B．Smart and independent. |
| C．Traditional and self-disciplined. | D．Ambitious and easy-going. |
| A．Bogota’s main social problems. |
| B．The library’s rich variety of books. |
| C．The bad habits of Bogota’s young people. |
| D．The library’s significance for the neighborhood. |
| A．Education is the key to success. |
| B．All things are difficult before they are easy. |
| C．Small acts of kindness make a big difference. |
| D．Books are the food for the hungry of great mind. |
8 . The behavior of beavers and other animals has often inspired expressions in English. If someone is very industrious or hard-working in tackling many things at once, we can say the person is “as busy as a beaver.” This phrase hints at one of the characteristics of these wild animals—they are indeed active creatures.
With their large teeth, which are orange due to iron in the tooth enamel (牙齿的珐琅质), beavers can cut down trees and change their environments like no other animals except humans. They use these fallen trees to build dams, creating safe, watery environments. The busy beavers build homes — called lodges — in the ponds created by the dams. The only way to get in and out of lodges is by entering an underwater opening of the structures. This offers beavers protection from predators such as bears, wolves, or coyotes.
It’s also interesting to note that beavers have another reason for cutting down trees aside from building dams. Beavers can digest cellulose, so wood is a significant food source for them, with their diet 15 also consisting of leaves and aquatic plants. Chewing on trees also helps beavers keep their teeth sharp, making it easier for them to keep chopping down trees.
Of course, no discussion about beavers would be complete without mentioning their most noticeable feature their large, flat tails, which have different uses. One is that they act as a rudder, helping them steer in the water. Another is that the animals pound their tails on the water to warn other beavers of danger. Since beavers work so hard building their homes and warning others of potential harm, it’s no surprise that busy as a beaver is a common phrase.
1. Which of the following usages of “as busy as a beaver” correct?| A．My cat is as busy as a beaver since it always lies on the sofa. |
| B．This kind of tree is as busy as a beaver because it takes hundreds of years for it to be used as timber. |
| C．Hanna is having a cup of coffee and listening to music in the living room. She is truly as busy as a beaver. |
| D．Oliver is responsible for two projects and has to train the three new employees, so he has been as busy as a beaver recently. |
| A．What countries beavers are found in. | B．How beavers keep themselves safe. |
| C．The animals that threaten beavers. | D．The food that beavers eat. |
| A．The wood is very strong. |
| B．The water from dams helps beavers digest wood. |
| C．Dams make it harder for other animals to catch. |
| D．Dams provide beavers with lots of water to drink. |
| A．Tail | B．Teeth | C．Paw | D．Head |
