1 . Popular Countries to Visit in 2024
ZimbabweZimbabwe is a country that travelers all over the world always talk about, not only because it is a friendly country, but also because it is one of Africa’s safest places. In Zimbabwe, you can visit many tourist attractions. For example, Big Five-filled national parks, forested mountains and the Victoria Falls. Here you can see African lions, African elephants, African buffaloes, African leopards, and rhinoceroses, which are called the big five animals.
JordanIf you have a taste for adventure (冒险), you will certainly love Jordan, because there is a 650-km-long path in Jordan and you can have a 36-day hike here. There are several other places for people to visit, for example, the Rift Valley is the best place that attracts travelers fond of adventure to challenge. Besides, the Dead Sea is the lowest point on Earth, which can leave a deep impression on people.
IndonesiaFrom Sumatra to Papua, more than 17,000 islands make Indonesia a multicultural (多元文化的) country. On these islands, there are many kinds of tasty food, which could offer tourists good feelings and experiences. Thanks to heavy investment (投资) in new air, land and sea connections by the government, people from 169 countries can enter Indonesia with free visas (签证) . It has never been easier to explore this warm country.
BelarusBelarus becomes more and more popular because of the relaxed visa requirements. There are lots of art exhibitions, cafes and local parties in Belarus. In its beautiful old towns, people can go to the fashionable bars and join the happy summer street parties. Minsk, the capital of Belarus, has been chosen as the host city for many global events and meetings. 2024 European Games is on the list.
1. Where will you go if you are interested in African animals?A.Zimbabwe. | B.Jordan. | C.Indonesia. | D.Belarus. |
A.The 650-km-long path. | B.The 36-day hike. |
C.The Rift Valley. | D.The Dead Sea. |
A.Indonesia is one of the safest places in the world. |
B.Many foreigners can visit Indonesia with free visas. |
C.Indonesia is famous for its tasty food. |
D.More than 17, 000 cities form the warm country. |
A.Because the visa requirements have been less strict. |
B.Because there are lots of art exhibitions, cafes and local parties. |
C.Because people can get 30-day free visas. |
D.Because people can join the happy summer street parties. |
A.Zimbabwe. | B.Jordan. | C.Indonesia. | D.Belarus. |
2 . Cannes, a coastal city in France, is famous for hosting the Cannes Film Festival every year. It’s also a beautiful place to visit any time of the year. Here are 4 things to do in Cannes.
Stroll (漫步) along the famous La CroisetteEnjoy a stroll down La Croisette — a famous 2-mile waterfront road. It’s the place where the Cannes Film Festival takes place. Take a seat for people-watching or enjoy the beautiful scenery. Discover recreational (娱乐的) places for kids or go to summer music concerts at a low price.
Explore the historic Le SuquetLose yourself in the attractive streets of Le Suquet, the historic old town of Cannes. An impressive 5th century theater will take your breath away. Visit the World Explorations Museum, and enjoy wonderful views from the tower. Walk through narrow streets and discover cafes and wine bars.
Take a tour of Cannes with a screenwriterYou can set foot on a small-group tour, led by a screenwriter and historical researcher. Get fully immersed (沉浸) in the city’s rich film history, and see how it transforms itself into an international film center. Remember to book your tour on the Internet in advance.
Leave for Sainte-MargueriteTake a ship to Sainte-Marguerite, the largest of the Lerins Islands just off the coast of Cannes. Enjoy walks on coastal paths, or relax on the beaches, which are perfect for swimming and picnics. Enjoy local seafood, or go deep into the island’s past with a visit to the 7th century Fort Royal.
1. What can we know about La Croisette?A.It holds free summer concerts. |
B.It offers play areas for children. |
C.It becomes well known for top-class service. |
D.It allows visitors to take photos with film stars. |
A.Stroll along the famous La Croisette. | B.Explore the historic Le Suquet. |
C.Take a tour of Cannes with a screenwriter. | D.Leave for Sainte-Marguerite. |
A.By water. | B.By car. | C.On foot. | D.By air. |
3 . Rising temperatures driven by the climate crisis are cutting the sleep of people across the world, the largest study to date has found.
The researchers used data from sleep-tracking wristbands used by 47,000 people over seven months and across 68 countries. The analysis revealed that because of increasing night-time temperatures, the average global citizen is losing 44 hours of sleep a year.
However, lost sleep affects some groups much more than others. The sleep loss per degree of warming is about a quarter higher for women than men, twice as high for those over 65years old and three times higher for those in less wealthy nations, where people have less access to cooling equipment.
Previous studies have shown that rising temperatures damage health, including increasing heart attacks, mental health crises, and accidents and injuries. Poor sleep has also been shown to have these effects, and the researchers say their new study suggests that disturbed sleep may be a key mechanism (体内机制) by which heat causes these health impacts. The researchers say their data shows no signs of people being able to adapt to hotter nights.
“In this study, we provide the first planetary-scale (世界范围的) evidence that warmer than average temperatures cut human sleep,” said Kelton Minor, who led the research. “It’s very likely the effect is more serious.” Minor added that the research had important implications for policymakers, who need to ensure cities, towns and buildings are well adapted to heat in order to reduce the health impacts.
The data used in the study came mainly from richer nations. The wristbands also tended to be worn by people less prone (易于遭受) to sleep disturbance by warmer temperatures. “Lower-income people are underrepresented in the data and we’re well aware of that,” said Minor. He said more research was needed, particularly in places that are already among the hottest in the world.
1. In Paragraph 2, the author expresses his idea mainly by ______.A.telling a story | B.giving examples |
C.using quotes | D.listing figures |
A.They limit people’s income. |
B.They improve people’s health. |
C.They reduce people’s sleep time. |
D.They lead to poor relationship between people. |
A.Heat’s impacts may be worse than expected. |
B.Policymakers have doubts about the study. |
C.The study adopted a new research method. |
D.Some cities have taken further action to fight the heat. |
A.the study is widely applied in the world |
B.the study is significant in sleeping research |
C.the study has its limitation in some aspects |
D.the study can represent the low-income people |
4 . Discovering the beauty of the science and maths that shape our everyday lives, an experience in Wonder Lab will fuel your imagination and inspire you to see the world around you in new and exciting ways. Come and enjoy yourself!
What to see
Spread across seven different zones, there’re loads of opportunities to get hands on with real scientific phenomena. Observe live experiments at our Chemistry Bar, see lightning strike before your eyes, play with forces on giant slides or travel through space under a canopy (苍穹) of stars. You can also take part in explosive (爆炸) science demonstrations led by our talented team of explainers. With 50 mind-blowing wonders of science to enjoy, Wonder Lab is an experience unlike any other. Besides, a selection of shows will be performed daily in Wonder Lab’s beautiful new show space. They are free of charge and last 20 minutes.
Tickets
Day pass: £ 6 per person.
This ticket gives you day-long access to Wonder Lab, perfect whether you’re planning a special trip to the Museum or simply passing through London and want to feed your curiosity.
There is a ten percent discount for groups of twelve or more, and £ 2 off for students.
Annual pass: £ 10 per person.
For less than the price of two visits, give yourself a year packed full of wonder, curiosity and breathtaking experiences.
Opening times
Open seven days a week, 10:00 — 18:00 (last entry 17:15). Wonder Lab will be closed on December 24, 25and 26 and will be open as usual from December 27. During school holidays our opening hours are 10:00 — 19:00 (last entry 18:15).
1. What can you do in Wonder lab?A.Explore stars. |
B.Produce lightning. |
C.Join in explosion shows. |
D.Conduct chemistry experiments. |
A.18:30 on December 27 | B.14:00 on November 15 |
C.18:30 on November 15 | D.14:00 on December 25 |
A.To attract people to Wonder Lab. |
B.To raise money for Wonder Lab. |
C.To guide students to do experiments. |
D.To call on volunteers for Wonder Lab. |
I work with Volunteers for Wildlife, a rescue and education organization at Bailey Arboretum in Locust Valley. Trying to help injured, displaced or sick creatures can be heartbreaking; survival is never certain. The effort made in vain is unavoidable in some rescue work. However, when it works, it is simply beautiful.
I got a rescue call from a woman in Muttontown. She had found a young owl (猫头鹰) on the ground. When I arrived, I saw a 2-to 3-week-old owl. It had already been placed in a carrier for safety.
I examined the chick (雏鸟) and it seemed fine. If I could locate the nest, I might have been able to put it back, but no luck. My next work was to construct a nest and anchor it in a tree. The homeowner was very helpful. A wire basket was found. I put some pine branches into the basket to make this nest safe and comfortable. I placed the chick in the nest, and it quickly calmed down.
Now all that was needed were the parents, but they were absent. I gave the homeowner a recording of the hunger screams of owl chicks. These advertise the presence of chicks to adults; they might also encourage our chick to start calling as well. I gave the owner as much information as possible and headed home to see what news the night might bring.
A nervous night to be sure, but sometimes the spirits of nature smile on us all! The homeowner called to say that the parents had responded to the recordings. I drove over and saw the chick in the nest looking healthy and active. And it was accompanied in the nest by the greatest sight of all—LUNCH! The parents had done their duty and would probably continue to do so.
1. Why does the author think that the effort is in vain in some rescue work?2. What did the author do to make the chick calm down?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
The young owl in the nest looked healthy and active, and the homeowner’s parents prepared some lunch for the chick.
4. What can you do to help animals in need?(in about 40 words)
6 . Art is a wonderful thing that can enrich our spiritual life. It comes in two main types: realistic and abstract (抽象的). Realistic art aims to show real-life scenes, people, and objects exactly as they appear. It involves paying close attention to details, making things look like photographs.
Realistic art is easy to understand.
Unlike realistic art, abstract art is more about being creative.
As for personal preference, some people prefer the clear stories of realistic art while others are attracted to the mystery of abstract art, interpreting meanings in the shapes and forms. Together, the two kinds of art make the art world various and engaging.
A.Both types of art take skills to make. |
B.Viewers can easily recognize what is pictured. |
C.Mastering abstract art needs more artistic training. |
D.Photographs show imaginary life of people from long ago. |
E.Both ways of creating art have their own value and beauty. |
F.In contrast, abstract art focuses less on realistic appearances. |
G.Artists have the freedom to go beyond real-life representations. |
7 . As we all know, our oceans are filled with garbage. Broken objects, used plastic bottles and so on fill our beaches and cover the ocean floor, doing huge damage to ocean creatures. Many individuals and organizations are working to remove this garbage, and recent technological developments have given them a new tool to do so: the trash-eating robot.
Robots of various shapes have been designed to collect garbage that they find floating in the ocean. For example, the French company IADMEEYS has developed what it calls the jellyfishbot. This small robot gathers up everything it meets, including liquid hydrocarbons (碳氢化合物) such as gasoline and oil. The jellyfishbot is remotely controlled and can clean up to 1,000 square meters per hour. The jellyfishbots’ small size and ability to be easily controlled make them ideal for cleaning up crowded areas such as ports.
For larger, more open areas, a much larger robot called the Interceptor has a similar function. Designed for use on rivers, the Interceptor looks like a boat with a conveyor belt (传送带) that picks up trash. Once a sensor indicates that the rubbish bins are full, the Interceptor automatically sends a text message to onshore operators. These operators collect and empty the rubbish bins, sending the garbage to local waste management facilities.
The Interceptor’s name comes from the verb intercept because its purpose is to prevent trash from getting to the ocean. Most of the garbage in the oceans comes down rivers. Cleaning up trash that litters the ocean is good, but to keep the oceans clean, new garbage must be kept from getting there. Therefore, the Interceptor is used to prevent pollution before it enters the ocean.
The Interceptor is completely solar-powered and operates on its own, which minimizes the need for human involvement.
Robots are able to clean up large amounts of garbage without humans struggling through beach cleanup by hand. Hopefully, they can be a big part of the solution to ocean pollution.
1. The author writes the first paragraph mainly to ______.A.make a definition | B.explain the argument |
C.lead in the topic | D.make a comparison |
A.They are both solar-powered. |
B.They need no human operation. |
C.They can only clean up the crowded ports. |
D.They can play a role in solving ocean pollution. |
A.Check. | B.Stop. | C.Sort. | D.Collect. |
A.The Severe Ocean Pollution |
B.The Development of the Robot |
C.The Hug e Damage to Ocean Creatures |
D.The Promising Tool to Ocean Pollution |
8 . During summer vacations, I often went to the Outrigger Canoe Club on Waikiki Beach to swim, because the club was usually empty at that hour. There was one other club member who would turn up early on summer mornings, though.
One morning when I’d arrived at the club earlier than usual, he walked past me on his way to the water. Then he stopped. “How would you like to swim against me? Just for fun, I mean.” he asked. “Now? Against you?” I looked at him in surprise. “It’s just about 200 yards.” He pointed in that direction and smiled at me. “Okay.” I said.
Teenagers are often very competitive, and I was no different. Though I was confident of winning, I started out as fast as I could go. When we reached the beach wall, I was already about three quarters exhausted. But he didn’t look tired at all. By the end of this game, my legs were in knots. My arms and shoulders were numb. I wanted very badly to quit and walk the rest of the way. But I struggled and made it.
Ten minutes later my friend, Sammy Kauua, arrived. I told him some of what had happened. Sammy laughed. “Are you kidding? That’s Matthew Biondi. He won gold medals at the Olympics. I guess he’s pretty good for sure!”
Several days later when I saw Matthew Biondi on the beach, I talked to him and asked how an athlete could become good enough to win in the Olympics. He told me he did most of his swimming at the beach and then added, “I swam because I liked it. It was always fun, and I was pretty good at it. We trained all right, but mostly we just swam. It was natural. I always enjoyed doing it.”
I was disappointed at the time because there was no easy answer there, no secret for success as an athlete. Thinking back on it now, though, I find the answer he gave me very appealing.
1. How did the author feel about beating Matthew Biondi at first?A.A little afraid. | B.Quite sure. | C.Nervous. | D.Doubtful. |
A.was an Olympic champion |
B.was Sammy Kauua’s good friend |
C.did not spend much time swimming |
D.did not defeat the author in the competition |
A.Swimming at the beach. | B.Support from his family. |
C.A natural swimming ability. | D.Interest in swimming. |
9 . Pindar Van Arman is a painter, but he’s also a software designer. He has built some machines and worked on a DARPA challenge team in California to build a self-driving car. His latest project? A robot painter, BitPaintr.
BitPaintr is Van Arman’s fifth robot in 10 years. Earlier versions included devices that produced simpler paintings with algorithms (算法). But the idea for BitPaintr is simple: A user just uploads a picture, and it can paint totally on its own and develop its own style.
Although his friends joke that he has invented a really expensive, slow, bad painter, Van Arman says teaching a machine how to be creative has helped him get to the bottom of what creativity is — and appreciate it.
“When you’re trying to teach a machine to do something that’s easy for humans, it really makes you sit back and see what humans are doing,” he says.
So what is creativity, then, if a robot with a paintbrush can be — or appear to be — just as creative as a human with a paintbrush?
Mark Riedl, a professor at the Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing, says it depends on how you define creativity. “There is creativity and Creativity,” Riedl says. “Being ‘creative’ usually has something to do with the little things that we do hundreds of times in our daily lives. They could be creative, but usually aren’t. To be ‘Creative’ is to have an imagination that will have a huge impact on a social level — the Picassos and the Mozarts of the world; the people who have produced something that’s taken on this additional level of meaning.”
Riedl admits what robots create is far from human-level quality art, but he sees robots entering the creative process as a positive thing.
“We want the computers to keep up with us,” he says. “And thanks to researchers like Van Arman, it seems like they will, although they will not replace us, but to help us to be more creative.”
1. Which is a new quality of BitPaintr?A.Simplicity. | B.Creativity. | C.Speed. | D.Profitability. |
A.Favorable. | B.Doubtful. | C.Unclear. | D.Hopeful. |
A.They will defeat the greatest artists soon. |
B.They can produce “Creative” things by themselves. |
C.They will learn more from the Picassos and the Mozarts. |
D.They can help us to do daily things in more “creative” ways. |
A.Can BitPaintr-like Robots Replace Artists in the Future? |
B.Why Do People Have Sharply Different Views on AI Robots? |
C.What Is the Difference Between the Two Kinds of Creativity? |
D.Can BitPaintr Be Considered a “Creative” Painting Software? |
10 . Grace Choi, whose nickname is Sunny, is a gymnast in America. “I remember her doing cartwheels (翻跟头) when she was a kid,” her brother Jin says.
One night at college, Choi saw members of a breaking (霹雳舞) club dancing by accident. She was immediately attracted to the dance and came to a class. Choi’s gymnastics skills gave her an advantage. After graduating from business school, she began working in the cosmetics (化妆品) industry. But on the side, she kept breaking.
Breaking was added to the Paris Olympics program in 2020. In late 2021, Choi attended a camp. It was for the top U. S. breakers. A coach there asked those who wanted to become Olympians to raise their hands. Everyone’s hand went up except Choi’s. Working full-time while training to make the Olympic team seemed impossible.
But after finishing second at the World Games in July 2022, Choi left the cosmetics industry. In 2023, she was chosen for the 2024 Paris Olympics by winning the Pan American Games.“I’m so much happier,” she says. “I feel lighter. I have more energy for the things I want to do.”
Thirty-two breakers will go to Paris. “Choi has power moves,” says Mary Fogarty, a professor of dance at York University, in Toronto, Canada. “Choi is someone who has enough material to go all the way through.” Choi struggles with self-doubt. She’ll work on her mindset. She’ll lift weights with a strength coach. And she’ll eat a healthy diet.
Choi is confident about one thing: If you give breaking a chance, you won’t be disappointed. “You feel the energy,” she says. “You feel the excitement. You feel the happiness or the anger or whatever emotion that the dancer is expressing in that moment. What’s so cool about breaking is that you get to be really you.”
1. What introduced Choi to break dancing?A.An accidental chance. | B.Her gymnastics skills. |
C.Her brother’s encouragement. | D.The camp for the top breakers. |
A.Her job. | B.Her health. |
C.Her college education. | D.Her chance of promotion. |
A.Anxious. | B.Confident. | C.Uncertain. | D.Unexpected. |
A.A youth is to be regarded with respect. | B.The young thirst for being famous. |
C.Where there’s interest, there’s success. | D.Curious minds never feel contented. |