1 . Napoleon Bonaparte by Emil Ludwig (German1881~1948)
Napoleon Bonaparte is an extraordinary statesman, strategist, the founder of the French First Empire. This biography was written by famous German writer Emil Ludwig, and there’s no doubt that the book is a great success. The writer uses his own writing style to show the charming character of Napoleon to the readers of the book.
Cao Xueqin Biography by Li Jianshu, 2009 (Chinese edition)
The book tells the life story of the novelist Cao Xueqin — author of The Dream of the Red Mansions. Cao was born to a rich family but suffered great poverty for most of his life. He drew on his life experiences to write his famous novel, which was published after his death.
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller, 1903
Even though Keller wrote this autobiography when she was only 22 years old, it is considered a great book in American literature. It tells about her dark and silent childhood, and how her teacher — Anne Sullivan opened up a new world to her by teaching her how to communicate.
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, 2011
Isaacson interviewed Steve Jobs over forty times, and interviewed hundreds of Jobs friends, relatives, and rivals to sum up Jobs’ remarkable life. The result is an interesting story of a man driven to succeed and driven to make perfect products.
1. Which of the four books is written by Chinese edition?| A．Cao Xueqin Biography. | B．The Story of My Life. |
| C．Steve Jobs. | D．Napoleon Bonaparte. |
| A．Cao Xueqin Biography. | B．The Story of My Life. |
| C．Steve Jobs. | D．Napoleon Bonaparte. |
| A．Cao Xueqin Biography. | B．The Story of My Life. |
| C．Steve Jobs. | D．Napoleon Bonaparte. |
2 . Hong Kong and Macau are home to several well-known universities that offer diverse courses and programs to students. Here are some of the universities and their key information.
The University of Hong Kong (HKU)
This university is one of the oldest and most prestigious in Asia, offering undergraduate, graduate, and research programs in various fields. Popular majors include business, engineering, law, and medicine. Admission requirements vary depending on the program, but all applicants must have a high school diploma or equivalent and be fluent in English. HKU offers scholarships and financial assistance to both local and international students.
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)
This university is famous for its programs in science, engineering, and business. It also offers programs in social sciences and humanities. Admission requirements include high academic achievement and language proficiency (English). HKUST provides a range of scholarships and financial aid packages to deserving students.
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)
This university offers a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate programs in areas such as business, science, social sciences, and humanities. Admission requirements include academic performance, language proficiency (English and Chinese) and personal qualities. CUHK provides scholarships for students from different backgrounds and regions.
The University of Macau (UM)
This university is the only public comprehensive university in Macau, offering programs in business, science, social sciences, humanities, and education. Admission requirements vary depending on the program, but all applicants must be fluent in English or Portuguese. UM offers scholarships only for local students and does not provide accommodation for any students.
1. What majors are liked and chosen more at the University of Hong Kong?| A．Science, engineering, and business. | B．Al technology and English. |
| C．Business, engineering, law, and medicine. | D．Business, science, social sciences, and humanities. |
| A．UM does not provide financial aid to international students. |
| B．UM is one of the best public universities in Macau. |
| C．UM has the best business program in Macau. |
| D．UM does not admit international students. |
| A．They all have high tuition fees. | B．They all offer great scholarships. |
| C．They all have high-quality dormitories. | D．They all have language requirements. |
3 . Everyone complains. Even if you argue that you are the happiest person in the world, you still complain sometimes. Sometimes you complain without even realizing it, but rarely is it ever helpful.
When you find yourself thinking or saying a negative comment about something or someone, stop and force yourself to say something positive instead. Seek the help of a cheerful friend to change you when you complain and help you to see the positive in the situation.
Make a list of things you are grateful for.
You often complain about the things you don’t have without noticing those things you already have. Be grateful for what you have in your life because you are lucky simply for being yourselves.
Learn to adapt to the changes.
There are many things you can’t change.
Allow yourself to vent (发泄) your feelings every once in a while.
Constantly ignoring negative thoughts could add up. If you are really going through a rough time, don’t be afraid to share your feelings with a close friend or family member or see a therapist.
Find what makes you happy.
| A．Sometimes this list can be easy, full of hobbies you enjoy. |
| B．The best and only thing you can do is to accept them. |
| C．Change the way you think. |
| D．Are you constantly complaining about your present job? |
| E．Set down things you are thankful for and you’ll see that you don’t have any reason to complain. |
| F．Make friends with positive people. |
| G．So how can you manage to force yourselves to end complaining? |
4 . HEALTHY EATING
There is much debate nowadays as to what makes up a healthy diet. For example, scientists have insisted for years that a big enemy of health is fatty food.
Beyond this, you can keep healthy by consuming different categories of fresh foods, especially fruit and vegetables, which are full of vitamins and fibre, rather than processed foods. Besides this, it is also important to have some meat, beans, or dairy products in your diet, as they provide the necessary protein for strong bones and muscle growth. As with everything in life, moderation is key.
Finally, a fundamental key to healthy eating is to eat slowly. It takes about twenty minutes from the time you start eating for your brain to tell your body that you are full. Eating slowly also allows your body to digest your food better, and will allow you to enjoy your food more.
There is no one trick to healthy eating. Rather, healthy eating starts with having a healthy attitude towards food. One question you can ask yourself is,
| A．“Do I eat to live, or live to eat?” |
| B．It is up to you to decide how you want to live. |
| C．In addition, studies show that consistent eating habits. |
| D．Much of this extra sugar comes from sweets and sweet drinks. |
| E．This is true regardless of how healthy the rest of their diet might be. |
| F．The ideal diet is a balanced one, without too much or too little of any one thing. |
| G．However, there is increasing evidence that the real driver of poor health is not so much fatty food, as it is sugar. |
5 . The older you are, the less likely you are to swear (except in the car—studies say most people swear when driving). As we get older, swearing becomes part of the rich lexicon of language that we use to express ourselves, and while we might associate swear words with negative communication. Only eight percent of people actually swear to cause offence. “There are many other reasons that we swear, including positive uses like expressing excitement, emphasis.” says Dr Karyn Stapleton, a senior lecturer in Communication at Ulster University. “And there’s cathartic (宣泄的) swearing, which provides a means of releasing strong emotions, or feelings like anger, pain or frustration.”
Cathartic swearing fascinates scientists as it shows some really interesting facts about bad language. Studies at the UK’s Keele University revealed that when under stress, a person can think of considerably more swear words than someone asked to do the same task when relaxed, and it’s now suspected that rather than being controlled by the normal part of the brain that handles language (the left cortex), swear words are actually processed by the limbic (边缘的) system that normally controls emotional thoughts. Be warned though—the more you swear in general speech, the less effective the cathartic effects of swear words are when you really need them!
What makes a word offensive is also very interesting. “The two main categories of swear words are bodily functions and religion—and that’s not just in English, it’s observed across many languages,” says Dr Robbie Love, lecturer in English Language at Aston University in Birmingham. “It’s like the brain has encoded these words with a special meaning so that it knows they are different in some way. I think there’s almost an innate human need to have some linguistic items that can be used to process intense moments.”
Generally though, we’re swearing less than we used to. Dr Love’s research found the use of 16 common swear words has declined by 27 percent over the last 20 years. According to a survey by the British Board of Film Classification, only 12 percent of those aged 55-64 swear regularly compared to 46 percent of 20-somethings. “It’s possible that as we get older we might have fewer uses for swearing. We don’t need it to bond with coworkers. Also, older adults have often had to spend some time restraining their language around children—no matter how our own feelings about swearing change, we still don’t want to expose children to it,” says Dr Love.
1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?| A．People swear more easily as they get older. | B．People swear merely to release negative emotion. |
| C．Swearing often offends others. | D．Swearing is a way of expressing ourselves. |
| A．person can think less swear words in relaxation than in pressure. |
| B．Swear words come from the brain system that controls emotional thought. |
| C．Bodily functions and religion are two types of swear words just in English. |
| D．People swearing more in daily life may not release their emotions well on necessary occasions. |
| A．Helpful | B．Offensive | C．Special | D．Indifferent |
| A．Young people swear in order to connect with their coworkers. |
| B．Older people may swear less to create better language setting for children. |
| C．There are fewer swear words people use. |
| D．People swear less than they used to. |
6 . CLONING: WHERE IS IT LEADING US?
When it was announced in 2018 that the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai had created the world’s first cloned monkeys, Zhongzhong and Huahua, heated discussions followed online. In fact, cloning has always been with us. It is a way of making an exact copy of another animal or plant. It happens in plants when gardeners take cuttings from growing plants to make new ones. It also happens in animals when identical twins are produced from the same egg. These are both examples of natural clones.
Cloning has two major uses. First, gardeners use it to produce large quantities of plants for sale. Second, it is valuable for research on new plant species and for medical research on animals. Cloning plants is fairly straightforward, while cloning animals is much more complicated and difficult. Over the years, many scientists failed in their attempts to clone animals, but their determination and patience paid off in 1996 with a breakthrough—the cloning of Dolly the sheep.
With the advances of scientific research, cloning will have several major uses in the future. For one thing, it could be used to breed animal species which are endangered, or even bring back species which are now extinct. For another, it could be used to grow human organs or tissue in animals, which could be used for human organ transplants or medical treatments. Finally, cloning could be used to breed animals that will provide us with higher quality meat, milk, or eggs.
While there are technical issues that need to be worked through to make widespread cloning possible, the biggest concerns are moral. For example, if scientists brought an extinct animal back into existence, it would probably end up living in a zoo. That is not very good for the animal. Even worse for the animal is using it as a source of organ transplants—because it will be injured or even die. ln addition, many people worry that eating animal products that result from cloning might be harmful to our health over time. The possibility of using cloning to produce human beings is an even bigger concern. What would happen if such knowledge ended up in the wrong hands?
When it comes to cloning, we wonder, ultimately, whether cloning will help or harm the world. No doubt, we will be talking about this question for a long time to come.
1. Which of the following is not the use of natural clones today?| A．Gardeners take cuttings from the plants to make new ones. |
| B．Identical twins are produced from the same egg. |
| C．Scientists created the world’s first cloned monkeys. |
| D．Gardeners use cloning to produce large quantities of plants for sale. |
| A．Possible uses of cloning in the future. | B．Current uses of cloning. |
| C．Whether cloning is good or bad. | D．Moral and ethical concerns about cloning. |
| A．It might not be fresh. | B．It might not be nutritious. |
| C．It might not be clean. | D．It might be harmful to our health. |
| A．The cloned animals end up living in a zoo. |
| B．The cloned animal is used as a source of organ transplants. |
| C．Using cloning to produce human beings is a bigger concern. |
| D．Someone uses cloning to do immoral things. |
7 . It is 10 in the morning, and I am travelling by raft down the Li River. The sun is already burning hot even though it has not yet reached full strength, but a calm breeze cools my skin. So far the day is wonderful, but the purpose of my trip is not just to have fun: I am following in the footsteps of Xu Xiake(1587-1641), the famous Chinese travel writer and geographer. Though Xu was from Jiangsu, he spent more than 30 years travelling throughout the country, and greatly admired my destination today—ox Gorge.
As we flow down the river, we are surrounded by steep hills sticking up into the sky-karsts. Karsts are rock formations made of limestone. They have been sculpted by water and millions of years of erosion into these beautiful natural sculptures. Guangxi is full of karsts, giving it some of the most interesting—and beautiful—scenery in the world. Xu was one of the first people to make a careful study of Guiln’s karsts and their related cave systems. He, like many people today, found them fascinating.
Suddenly, our raft hits some rapids, and I find myself covered in water. I turn to my raftsman and we share a laugh. The water not only keeps us cool, but it is all part of the adventure.
What made someone like Xu spend years traveling thousands of kilometres away from home? Perhaps it’s the same reason as mine: to explore the world and to discover new things. As Xu wrote, “A great man should in the morning be at the blue sea, and in the evening at Mount Cangwu. Why should I restrict myself to one corner of the world?
Xu was not alone. Much like today, the late Ming Dynasty was a golden age of tourism within China. People travelled hundreds of kilometres to visit temples, go mountain climbing, or explore scenery.
Yet, perhaps no one in China travelled farther or longer than Xu Xiake. At least, if anyone did they did not write about it.
1. Why did the author decide to go to the Guilin?| A．Just to have fun and relax himself. |
| B．To explore the world and discover the new things. |
| C．To enjoy the scenery and recall a Chinese famous travel writer |
| D．To travel by raft down the Li River. |
| A．Xu Xiake admired the scenery of ox-Gorge but he had not been here. |
| B．Guilin’s karsts are formed by water’s erosion over the years. |
| C．The author felt frustrated while he fell into the water from the raft. |
| D．People in the Ming Dynasty enjoyed travelling around the country. |
| A．Limit. | B．Control. | C．Improve. | D．Behave. |
| A．Hardworking | B．Adventurous | C．Courageous | D．Ambitious. |
8 . While socializing comes naturally for some, it can be a struggle for others. Shyness is a normal, common personality trait (特征).
Get Excited About A New Adventure
You may have been shy most of your life.
Pay Attention To Your Words
Practice Mindfulness (正念)
Mindfulness involves drawing your attention to the present and being aware of your thoughts, feelings, and surroundings.
Take Small Steps
Getting started can be the hardest part of learning how to be more social for those who are shy.
| A．If so, that’s a part of you that you’re used to |
| B．Sometimes the best path toward addressing a fear is exposure |
| C．Mindfulness can help reduce symptoms of social anxiety disorder |
| D．Taking time to tend to your appearance can make a big difference |
| E．How we communicate and characterize ourselves can be powerful |
| F．However, shyness can make it hard for people to connect with others and achieve their goals |
| G．But engaging with people doesn’t have to be practiced as an important work presentation |
9 . Electrically powered vertical-take-off-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft—flying cars are an idea whose time has not quite yet come, but is fast approaching. Many firms are offering various designs. None of these, however, will be Jetson-like family flying cars. Pivotal, based in Silicon Valley, by contrast has crafted something that people can purchase and pilot themselves. Helix is a single-seat vehicle, so “flying motorbike” might be more accurate. From next year, many people will be able to order one for personal use, though they will not be able to take delivery until June.
Marcus Leng founded Pivotal in 2011, and some back-of-the-envelope calculations he made suggested that electric lift-off of a human-carrying craft, using motors powered by the lithium-ion batteries ought to work. He thus built a model and flew it in the garden of his house in Warkworth, Ontario.
Now, after ameliorating it, the firm thinks it has something marketable. The aircraft has, nevertheless, changed little in its fundamentals over the years. It has two pairs of wings and eight propellers (螺旋桨), making it slightly resemble a squashed “H” when seen in the sky from below. And there is no undercarriage. Instead, its belly is curved in a way similar to a humpback whale’s, so it rocks to stability after landing.
Pilot’s licence or not, buyers will still need some training to fly a Helix. Pivotal insists on this. For the same reason, the craft’s software will stop the pilot doing anything that does not fit its safety rules. And if, despite this, something does go wrong, it is fitted with a parachute（降落伞）.
The Helix’s top speed is a respectable 100 kph, but its range is only 30 km. And refueling it is a bit of a pain. Filling up from the mains takes four and a half hours, though a special high-power system similar to those employed for electric cars can bring that down to 75 minutes. While Helix still doesn’t compare to the flying car from the Jetsons, it could be a step forward.
1. What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?| A．Helix has been used in Warkworth widely. |
| B．Flying cars won’t be allowed for personal use. |
| C．Leng was the first person to design flying cars. |
| D．Helix is only suitable for one person to drive. |
| A．Testing. | B．Driving. | C．Improving. | D．Repairing. |
| A．Helix’s relative devices. | B．Helix’s training process. |
| C．Helix’s safety measures. | D．Helix’s working principle. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Objective. | C．Indifferent. | D．Cautious. |
10 . On July 28, I retired from my position. After teaching for many years, I looked forward to kayaking (划独木舟) with my grandsons, seeing friends and traveling for leisure with my husband. But my body had other plans for me. A broken spine (脊椎) in my back took me down a path that upended my plans.
I have long had back pain. However, I pushed through the pain to do my work, which worsened my condition. Doctors urged an operation when increased disability meant I could not sit, stand or walk for a long time. But I wanted to see whether physical therapy (治疗) could create an easier option.
Indeed, hard work with a great physical therapist has let me improve my mobility, sitting and standing. But X-rays told a different story. My spine was unstable and bending. After careful consideration and a second opinion from another professional, I agreed to surgery yet in the near term. Needless to say, the past months have been tough and the way ahead will be even tougher. Kayaking with my grandsons in the peacefulness of the lake is all out of reach, for now.
When I met my physical therapist for the first time, I was a mess. He listened to me outline my history with tears and then calmly said, “You have to make friends with your body.” I have repeated that line to myself daily and worked to embrace my body. I have focused on gratitude. I’m grateful that I do not have a fatal disease. I’m grateful that the body I have remains alert to the world, loved by family and friends. I’m grateful that I am still myself.
I don’t know exactly how the future will play out. The surgeon assures me that I should be able to get in my kayak by summer. But I may have to make friends with a different body, one that is mine regardless of the shape.
1. Why did the author’s condition become worse?| A．She disliked physical therapy. |
| B．She hurt her back when kayaking. |
| C．She still worked despite back pain. |
| D．She was unwilling to have an operation. |
| A．She forgot to kayak with her grandsons. |
| B．She decided to accept an operation right away. |
| C．She completely recovered after physical therapy. |
| D．She asked another doctor for advice on the operation. |
| A．Her wish to enjoy retirement life. |
| B．Her physical therapist’s advice. |
| C．Her worsening physical condition. |
| D．Her love for her family and friends. |
| A．Learning to accept my body |
| B．Enjoying my retirement life |
| C．Fighting against my back pain |
| D．Being grateful for what I have |
