| A. Chinese traditional B. classical C. country music D. hip-hop |
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1. Why do people write poems?
2. Are poems good for our life?
3. What can we get from poems?
4. What have you learnt from the reading passage?
1. What are they doing?
2. What do you think is necessary for bird observation?
4 . Minor Snow, or “Xiaoxue” in Chinese, is the 20th of the 24 traditional Chinese solar terms, and will last from November 22 to December 6 this year. It is the second solar term of winter, and indicates that snow is about to arrive. From this solar term onwards, people in South China will begin to feel the coming of winter.
Pickling vegetables.
In Nanjing, it’s customary to make pickle during the Minor Snow period, and then salted meat during Major Snow. During Minor Snow,
Eating glutinous (黏的) rice cakes
In many areas of Southern China, people eat glutinous rice cakes during Minor Snow. In these places, there’s a saying: “十月朝，糍粑碌碌烧.” In this saying, “碌 (lu)” means that people use their chopsticks to pick up a glutinous rice cake and roll it like a wheel in a bowl full of sesame and peanut sugar, and “烧 (shao)” indicates that the glutinous rice cakes are steaming hot.
Cooking meat dishes
During Minor Snow, people in many regions of China will kill pigs, while during Major Snow, they will kill sheep. No matter which household kills the animal, neighbors and friends will all come to help. After the animal has been slaughtered (屠宰),
Eating more porridge and soup
Eating more porridge and soup in winter is good for your health. For instance, wheat porridge can nourish the heart, while radish porridge can improve digestion and reduce phlegm that often arrives with the changing weather. Soups also help keep people healthy and can improve the immune system.
Drinking more water
We already know that drinking more water is beneficial for metabolism. During the winter months, it is highly recommended to drink a cup of warm water on an empty stomach in the early morning. In this way, blood viscosity can be reduced, and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases can be prevented. During Minor Snow, honey water, white radish water and pear water are excellent choices, as honey water can moisten dryness and help detoxify, white radish water can clear heat, while pear can moisten the lungs and relieve stubborn coughs.
Staying warm
The weather is cold, but not yet too cold. Therefore, many people forget to put on their hats and scarves,
| A．With the weather becoming increasingly cold, people wait expectantly for the first snow. |
| B．We suggest you prepare several sets of winter clothes. |
| C．which leaves them more likely to catch a cold. |
| D．For instance, fish soup is said to invigorate the spleen, stimulate appetite, and relieve coughs and colds. |
| E．every household will begin to make pickled and dried vegetables. |
| F．From this solar term onwards, the northeast wind will blow more frequently. |
| G．the host will prepare dishes and hold a party, which symbolizes unity, harmony, peace and prosperity. |
5 . Fears over the disruption (干扰) to classrooms from pupils using smartphones have made the government decide to carry out research into the way technology affects behaviour in schools.
Children should not be allowed to use smartphones until they are 16, according to Tom Bennett, the school behaviour expert leading the research. “Children are using smartphones too young,” he said. People ask me, “When should I give my child a smartphone?” and I say “Whenever you’re comfortable with them viewing violence, because their curiosity (好奇心) will take them there.” According to him, teachers should not allow them unless necessary.
Mr. Bennett is already leading another study into how teachers are trained to deal with bad behaviour. He has now been asked to look at the wider challenges of managing modern classrooms. Although technology can improve learning, teachers have reported that the growing number of children bringing smartphones into class is leading to disruption, officials warn.
“We need to make sure the advice we give to schools, and the methods being used are fit for the 21st century when even primary school pupils may be bringing in phones. That is why we have taken the decision to widen Tom Bennett’s research to look at how teachers can deal with bad behaviour,” said Nick Gibb, Minister of State for Schools.
Most schools have some policies about smartphone use. However, the picture is far from uniform (统一的) — from complete bans (禁止) to partial bans. “I think smartphones in a classroom may be a temptation (诱惑) for students, but that isn’t to say that I would ban them. ”said Mr. Bennett. “My personal advice is that schools should think very carefully before allowing them. I think the basic rule should be not to allow them unless teachers invite them in for a certain reason.”
1. Why was the research started?| A．To find out the advantages of technology. |
| B．To learn about children’s behaviour in class. |
| C．To look at how smartphones affect kids at school. |
| D．To prevent children from using smartphones in class. |
| A．To look into students’ behaviour at home. |
| B．To change parents’ attitudes to smartphones. |
| C．To encourage children to attend modern classrooms. |
| D．To make sure that schools use proper methods to teach students. |
| A．Many pupils use smartphones for learning. |
| B．Schools have to try harder to ban smartphone use. |
| C．Students always have a good reason to use smartphones. |
| D．Different schools have different policies about smartphone use. |
| A．It is helpful in teaching. |
| B．Schools should take it seriously. |
| C．It should be banned completely. |
| D．There should be a uniform rule. |
6 . I grew up in the 1950s with very practical parents. My mother washed aluminum foil (铝箔纸) after she cooked in it, and then she reused it.She was the earliest recycle (回收利用) queen before people had a name for it.
My father was no different.He preferred getting old shoes fixed to buying new ones.Their marriage was good and their dreams were focused (集中).Their best friends lived just a wave away.Though my parents have passed away,I can see them now-Dad in trousers,a T-shirt and a hat and Mom in a house dress,lawnmower (割草机) in one hand and dishtowel in the other.
It was the time to fix things-a curtain rod (挂帘杆) the kitchen radio, the screen door, the oven door, and so on. They fixed all things we had.It was a way of life,and sometimes it made me crazy.All that re-fixing and renewing made me want to scream.I wanted just once to be wasteful.Waste meant being rich.Throwing things away meant you knew there’d always be more.I often thought like that.
But then my mother died,and on that clear summer night,in the warmth of the hospital room,I learnt that sometimes there isn’t any more.Sometimes,what we care about most gets all used up and goes away and it will never return. So, while we have it, it is the best that we love it,care for it,fix it when it’s broken and cure it when it’s sick.
This is true for marriage,old cars,children with bad report cards,dogs with bad hips and aging parents and grandparents.We keep them because they are worth it and because we are worth it.
1. We can learn that when the writer was young, she________.| A．thought highly of her parents’ habits |
| B．often helped her parents fix old things |
| C．often threw things away without being noticed |
| D．at times hated it when her parents fixed old things |
| A．Her mother truly loved her. |
| B．She had wasted a lot of money. |
| C．Things may never return once they are gone. |
| D．She had hurt her parents for many times. |
| A．To advise us to love what we have. |
| B．To encourage us to recycle old things. |
| C．To explain why her parents recycled. |
| D．To help us know about life in the past. |
7 . During the summer of 2021, I flew to Greece to learn more about the wildfires there. I wanted to hear people’s stories, to understand what it meant to be displaced by environmental disaster.
In a cafe for people surviving the fire, I met brave children who now have to live with terrible scars, physical and emotional. I met a man who could not even speak to me, his eyes filling with tears.
I was expecting to hear a lot about loss; I was not expecting to learn so much about the attribution (归因) of blame. I came to understand how desperately people needed to blame a tangible entity (实体) –a person, a group of people, the government. Indeed, this was understandable and reasonable. The outbreak and mishandling of the fire needed to be explored, looked into and dealt with.
What surprised me, however, was that the survivors were completely silent over any mention of the climate crisis and global heating. It was made clear to me that this subject was unacceptable. Survivors felt that these issues had nothing to do with what they had suffered, and that the people actually responsible needed to pay.
But when it comes to climate breakdown, blame did not come to just one person, one corporation, one country. In Greece, the fire didn’t rage so hard because someone had set off a spark—— it raged so hard because years of global heating had dried up the land, part of a set of unsustainable (不能持续的) practices and inaction that had set our planet on fire. And now the fires are even worse.
The more I spoke to people, including climate scientists, the more I came to see that there is often a gap that separates science from public awareness. In her book “Engaging With Climate Change” Sally Weintrobe says that “many people who accept global warming continue to regard it as a problem of the future”. To my astonishment, this seemed to apply even to people who had themselves been affected directly by wildfires.
1. What did the author hardly expect to learn in Greece?| A．Kids’ scars. | B．Economic loss. |
| C．Survivors’ blame. | D．Duration of the fire. |
| A．It was closely related to global heating. |
| B．They couldn’t accept its massive destruction. |
| C．The government should be responsible for it. |
| D．It resulted from someone’s setting fire to the forest. |
| A．Much attention has been given to it. |
| B．People don’t consider it serious now. |
| C．Scientists are urged to apply efficient way to it. |
| D．People should make their opinions about it heard. |
| A．To inform readers of wildfires in Greece. |
| B．To encourage readers to donate to survivors. |
| C．To equip people with surviving skills in wildfires. |
| D．To raise people’s awareness about the climate crisis. |
8 . With the weight of its tall buildings, streets and people, New York City is sinking at an average rate of 1 to 2 millimetres each year, a new study says.
The sinking is called “subsidence”. That natural process happens everywhere as ground is compressed (压紧). But the study sought to estimate how the huge weight of the city itself is hurrying things along.
Over 1 million buildings are spread across five boroughs (自治区). The research team found that all those structures add up to 1. 5 trillion metric tons of concrete, metal and glass, equal to the mass of 4, 700 Empire State buildings pressing down on the Earth.
The rate of compression is different throughout the city. Midtown Manhattan’s skyscrapers are largely built on rock, which compresses very little. But some parts of Brooklyn, Queens and downtown Manhattan are on looser soil and sinking faster, the study said.
While the process is slow, parts of the city will eventually be under water. Researchers reached conclusions using satellite imaging, data modeling and mathematical calculations. It will take hundreds of years before New York becomes Venice, which is famously sinking into the Adriatic Sea. But parts of New York are more at risk. A researcher said Manhattan is at risk because of the borough’s large weight.
The ocean is rising at a similar rate that the land is sinking. So the Earth’s changing climate could speed up the process for parts of the city to go under water. Already, New York City is at risk of flooding because of large storms. Storms like Sandy in 2012 caused the ocean to expand inland and flooded neighbourhoods after a lot of rain.
New York City is not the only place sinking. San Francisco, California, is also at risk because of pressure on the ground and the area’s active earthquakes. In Indonesia, the government is preparing for a move from Jakarta, which is sinking into the Java Sea. The government is building a new capital being constructed on the higher ground of an entirely different island.
1. What is the main reason for the different compression rates in New York?| A．Different measurement methods. | B．Different geological(地质的)conditions. |
| C．Different building materials and styles. | D．Different climate changes and impacts. |
| A．Its huge weight. | B．Its distance to the sea. |
| C．Its similar position. | D．Various frequent natural disasters. |
| A．To keep the reader’s attention. |
| B．To improve the atmosphere. |
| C．To show the issue is common. |
| D．To point out the negative effect of sinking. |
| A．New York City Is Slowly Sinking | B．The Flavour of New York City |
| C．Here Comes a Future Venice | D．The Problems Caused by Dropping |
9 . Beijing and Xi’an 5-Day Itinerary
This itinerary is top recommended if you are the first time to China. It connects the two classic must-visit cities that allow you to learn most about Chinese civilization and late-imperial and modern-era history.
■ Day 1: Beijing (visit the Forbidden City with a hutong walking tour)
■ Day 2: Beijing (go to the Great Wall and learn about the sacrificial culture in the Temple of Heaven)
■ Day 3: Beijing (visit the famous royal garden — the Summer Palace, and take & bullet train to Xi’an)
■ Day 4: Xi’an (the Terracotta Army with a hands-on terracotta-warrior-making experience and a walking/biking experience on the City Wall)
■ Day 5: Xi’an (visit a famous pagoda and museum to learn about Chinese history)
In Beijing, discover the imperial past in the Forbidden City, which used to be the home of China’s 24 emperors. Hike on the Great Wall to see the watchtowers and majestic natural mountain views.
Stroll around old hutongs, where you could catch a glimpse of the traditional daily lifestyle of Beijing’s local people.
For a more in-depth travel experience, you could visit a local family’s home and learn some Chinese culture and philosophy of living.
The famous Terracotta Warriors is the must-visit attraction. The highlight of the visit would be a hands-on experience of making your own clay warriors. You would learn more about the making, preservation, and story behind the Terracotta Warriors.
Walk on the 600-year-old Ancient City Wall and catch a full view of the city. If time permits, the sunset time would be the best for a stunning view. For learning about Chinese history, Shannxi History Museum and Big Wild Goose Pagoda are worth visiting.
All our tours can be adjusted based on your needs. Just contact us at https://www.chinahighlights.com/travel guide/.
1. Which is the best means of transportation during the travel?| A．By bike. | B．On foot. | C．By air. | D．In a bus. |
| A．Visiting the Temple of Heaven. | B．Walking Around old hutongs. |
| C．Being a guest in a local family. | D．Producing your own soldier statues. |
| A．An architect. | B．A tour guide. |
| C．A foreign visitor. | D．A Chinese historian. |
10 . In a world ruled by hard exercise and complex fitness programs, the simple act of walking is often ignored(忽略).
Heart Health and Weight Management
Walking is light heart exercise that helps improve heart health by increasing blood circulation(循环).
Pressure Drop and Clear Mind
Taking a relaxing walk or quick walk has been shown to give off endorphins, the body’s natural ”feel-good” materials. This leads to lower pressure levels, improved feelings, and improved mental health. Walking outdoors in nature or in a peaceful environment can provide a refreshing escape from the daily tasks.
Joint(关节)Health and Free Movement
Unlike active sports, walking is soft on the joints, making it a perfect choice for people of all ages and fitness levels.
Social Communication and Connection
| A．It helps oil joints and make them stronger. |
| B．It’s a cheap way to lead a healthier lifestyle. |
| C．So taking a walk can make your mind relaxed and fresh. |
| D．A quick walk after meals has been shown to benefit the stomach. |
| E．It cuts down the risk of heart disease and brings down blood pressure. |
| F．Walking is useful exercise that can easily be turned into a social activity. |
| G．However, walking remains one of the easiest and most useful forms of exercise. |
