1 . I was 16 years old the day I skipped school for the first time. It was easily done: Both my parents left for work before my school bus arrived, so when it showed up at my house on that cold winter morning, I simply did not get on. The perfect crime!
And what did I do with myself on that glorious stolen day, with no adult in charge and no limits on my activities? Did I get high? Hit the mall for shopping?
Nope. I built a warm fire in the wood stove, prepared a bowl of popcorn, grabbed a blanket, and read. I was thrilled and transported by a book — it was Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises—and I just needed to be alone with it for a little while. I ached to know what would happen to Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley and Robert Cohn. I couldn’t bear the thought of sitting in a classroom taking another biology exam when I could be traveling through Spain in the 1920s with a bunch of expatriates (异乡客).
I spent that day lost in words. Time fell away, as the room around me turned to mist, and my role — as a daughter, sister, teenager, and student — in the world no longer had any meaning. I had accidentally come across the key to perfect happiness: I had become completely absorbed in something I loved.
Looking back on it now, I can see that some subtle things were happening to my mind and to my life while I was in that state of absorption. Hemingway’s language was quietly braiding itself into my imagination. I was downloading information about how to create simple and elegant sentences, a good and solid plot. In other words, I was learning how to write. Without realizing it, I was on the trail of my own fate. Writing now absorbs me the way reading once did and happiness is their generous side effect.
Why did the author skip school on that day?| A．Because her parents left home early. |
| B．Because she was attracted by a novel. |
| C．Because she planned to go shopping. |
| D．Because she missed the school bus. |
2 . Growing Green Thumbs Callie’s Kids by Calloway Nursery
Denton, 940/591-8865; Flower Mound, 972/691-2650; Lewisville, 972/315-3133. www.mytexasgarden.com
LEARN: Kids aged 5-12 can explore and plant in the Calloway gardens with a caregiver’s supervision at 9:30 am on the first or third Wednesdays from June to August. A garden expert will share tips and advice for the best gardening practices during the 45-minute session (beginning on June 2). Preregistration online is required.
COST: Free
Denton Children’s Community Garden
2200 Bowling Green Ave, Denton, 940/349-2883. www.dcmga.com
LEARN: Join the weekend work at the community garden, where caregivers, parents and master gardeners help children of all ages plant new vegetables, water the plants, harvest from the gardens and more. The instructors also lead games about nutrition, good and bad insects and more. 10 am-5 pm on Saturdays.
COST: Free
Coppell Community Gardens
255 Parkway Blvd, Coppell. www.copp11communitygarden.org
LEARN: Kids of all ages (with a parent/caregiver) can volunteer at either the Helping Hands Garden (255 Parkway Blvd) or Ground Delivery Garden (450 S. Denton Tap Road). Children will have the opportunity to till the ground, plant vegetables, harvest from the garden and more. Master gardeners are available on site; all harvested foods are either sold at the community’s farmers’ market or donated to the area food bank. Work begins every Saturday at about 9 am.
COST: Free
To plant in the Calloway gardens, what do kids need to do?| A．To register online before hand. |
| B．To be present every Wednesday. |
| C．To be under supervision throughout the year. |
| D．To visit www.dcmga.com for more information. |
3 . With a name like The Daily Orange in America, you will think the Syracuse University student-run newspaper prints a new issue every day. The newspaper began operating at the Syracuse, New York-based school in 1903. But it only prints a new issue three times a week.
Editor in chief Haley Robertson worries about where she will find companies willing to pay for advertising space. She also worries about having to fire friends. And, she searches out former students willing to donate money so the newspaper can send reporters on the road to cover the university’s sports teams. Media executives many years older than Robertson are facing similar problems. The news industry’s financial difficulties have spread to colleges and universities across the US, which brought challenges to these young journalists. Student reporters train for the future in two main ways. They receive a traditional classroom education from professors. They also put what they learn to use in student-run newsrooms.
Chris Evans is president of the College Media Association, or the CMA. He notes that few college newspapers have shut down the way local newspapers in towns and cities across the country have, considering the central role they are playing. But some have had to cut the number of times they publish each week. Some would find a former student for donation or sell enough advertising to cover it.
The University of North Carolina reports that newspaper newsroom jobs across the country dropped from 52,000 in 2008 to 24,000 today. There are other kinds of jobs in the field, of course, but not a very high number of them. Many journalism educators have wondered whether their students can deal with that. Journalism schools should do more than just equip students for possible media jobs, said Marie Hardin, head of Penn State’s Donald Bellisario College of Communications. She said journalism educators need to teach students communication, critical thinking and writing. Such skills are highly sought in many different fields.
1. It can be learnt that The Daily Orange ________.| A．is a national newspaper |
| B．is seeking sponsorships |
| C．lacks enough reporters |
| D．will go fully Internet-based |
| A．Creating new jobs in the news industry. |
| B．Improving professional skills of educators. |
| C．Preparing students for more job options. |
| D．Encouraging students to turn to other fields. |
4 . Right at this moment, cockroaches (蟑螂) are doing more to save the environment than you are. A big overstatement? Not if you’ve ever thrown away leftovers from your plate or bought more food than you could manage to cook in a week. You’re part of the food waste problem. But just like cockroaches, you can also be part of the solution.
For example, some farmers in Asia and Africa collect tomatoes in big bags, which means that many of them get crushed out of shape and spoiled before they can be sold or eaten. Switching the bags for large wooden containers already lowers the amount of food lost. Similar successes can and have been achieved in various regions with weather-protected storage facilities.
Let’s focus on China for a second. It’s one of the few countries with an innovative approach to minimizing the environmental impact of food waste. How does it do it? Cockroaches. Millions of the tiny creatures are kept in farms in the suburban districts of big cities. Every morning, food waste is delivered by the tonnes and fed to the cockroaches. Just like tiny pigs, they’re not picky and devour everything quickly. After they die, they’re processed into protein-rich feed for animals such as cows or sheep, or used for cosmetic products and Chinese medicine. It’s an efficient and environmentally-friendly alternative to dumping leftover food in a landfill. Cockroaches aren’t going to solve the problem with food waste, but they can serve as an inspiration for finding other similar solutions on a wider scale.
To avoid food waste completely, improvements are needed at every step of the food supply chain, from production to retail. These take time and are often out of your hands as a consumer. But a meaningful reduction of food waste is definitely in your hands. You can not only buy less and shop more often, but also cut down on animal products.
What does the underlined word “devour” in paragraph 3 probably mean?| A．Preserve. |
| B．Transform. |
| C．Grasp. |
| D．Swallow. |
5 . I was fortunate to spend every summer camping with my parents when I was a kid. By the age of 18, I’d visited every province in my home country of Canada. Even today I can still recall an impressive tour vividly.
It took us six people a long time to drive to Newfoundland from Ontario. When we arrived on the island, it poured rain every day. We just kept driving north, hoping to outrun it. We jumped on a ferry to Labrador Peninsula, crossing the Strait of Belle Isle, and moved our way up the coast of this northerly and thinly-populated region.
The scenery in Labrador is beautiful. We saw long white sand beaches along the Atlantic coast that looked inviting, but the water was cold year-round. While standing at the top of a lighthouse, my dad said, “This will be the new Caribbean once global warming hits.”
We soon discovered Battle Harbor, a historic fishing village that can only be reached by ferry. In the mid-1800s it had a population of 350 people and was considered the unofficial capital of Labrador. Now it was more like a deserted town, and I distinctly remember feeling the furthest from anything that I’ve ever felt. Multiple ferry rides and 600 miles separated me from the nearest major city of St. John’s.
If you’re curious about Newfoundland & Labrador (NL), I highly recommend a 2013 film called The Grand Seduction. It’s a delightful comedy about a small fishing village called Tickle Head that’s struggling to figure out its future.
Travelling made me get to know my country so well, which has had a tremendous influence on shaping the person I am now. I hold a solid mental picture of Canada, stretching from sea to sea, which I’ve taken with me to other parts of the world because I have great passion for it.
How does the author’s travelling influence him?| A．He loves his country better. |
| B．He has a passion for the sea. |
| C．He is more open to new cultures. |
| D．He holds a solid picture of his future. |
6 . If a cat or a dog shares your home, I’ll take a wild guess that you don’t refer to the four-footed family member who licks your face, naps in your lap, sleeps on your bed as “it”. You probably call them by a name; and refer to them as “he” or “she” and various nicknames inspired by their personality and habits.
A group of more than 80 people with an interest in animal welfare, including Dr Jane Goodall, have signed a letter calling on the editors of the Associated Press Stylebook to change their guidance so that animals in news stories would be identified as “she/her/hers and he/him/his when their sex is known, regardless of species, and the gender-neutral they, or he/she, or his/hers when their sex is unknown. ”
News organizations often follow the guidance of the AP Stylebook. The signatories of this letter hope that when we write about animals in zoos, shelters, fields, farms, forests, seas and labs, they are recognized as living beings who feel: hunger, fear, happiness and pain. It would mean writing sentences like, “The rat was injected with the virus ... ” or, “The deer was struck by the car ... ” and “he, she or they died”-not it.
The proposed change might seem difficult to imagine right now. But consider how the care we take with personal pronouns for humans has changed over the past several years. Ben Dreyer, copy chief at Random House and author of the bestseller Dreyer’s English. An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, says these changes remind us that thoughtful adjustments to our language don’t have to wait for a stylebook.
Laura Hillenbrand, author of Seabiscuit and other bestselling books, told us that if we don’t refer to animals in personal terms, “we open ourselves to abusing, neglecting, and exploiting creatures whose capacity (能力) for suffering is no less than our own. Referring to animals in personal terms may help us recognize how much of life we share. ”
Which statement is Dr Jane Goodall in favour of?| A．After lunch, my dog used to go to sleep in its doghouse. |
| B．Tom sent his dog to the pet store to cut its hair yesterday. |
| C．Lily’s dog was injured and she was concerned about him. |
| D．Ken bought a parrot, hoping it would greet him every morning. |
7 . Commuting to and from work can be a nightmare. Cars advance slowly in stop and go traffic, crawling from one traffic jam at stoplights to the next. At peak rush hour especially, there is no chance of sailing through a series of green lights. Now, thanks to artificial intelligence, German researchers have found a way to reduce time spent at the crossroads.
Called the KI4LSA project and funded by the Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, the innovation is being tested. Scientists first studied algorithms taken from a busy intersection to learn about traffic patterns and where improvements were most needed. Then, the technology, using high-resolution cameras and radar sensors, more precisely captured the actual traffic situation and detected the average speed of the cars and their waiting times. Finally, the AI uses deep enhanced learning algorithms to calculate the best switching behaviour for the traffic lights and determine the best phase sequence to shorten waiting times at the crossroads.
The results are encouraging when it is being tried out at a busy intersection in Lemgo, Germany. The intelligent lights are said to improve traffic flow by 10 to 15 percent, which results in money saved; the EU estimates that traffic jams create economic damage that adds up to 100 billion euros a year. Aside from reducing commuting time, these traffic lights will reduce noise and CO2 emissions from cars waiting at the crossroads.
Another exciting development in this research is the K14PED project, which studies pedestrians crossing the crossroads. Using AI as well as a 3D points cloud, researchers can identify how many people are waiting at a pedestrian crossing and whether some of the disabled or elder people will need extra time to cross the street. Such a needs-based system could reduce pedestrian waiting time by 30 percent, which could then decrease jaywalking (乱穿马路) by 25 percent.
Researchers are optimistic that it will be adopted by many countries after the tests in the German towns of Lemgo and Bielefeld. This technology is exciting news for pedestrians and drivers alike. It encourages safety, protects the environment, and may even give you more time to enjoy your morning coffee before heading off to work!
What is the main idea of this passage?| A．The intelligent lights offer a blessing to transportation. |
| B．The AI technology is bound to be a promising industry. |
| C．Attentive traffic service lends a helping hand to seniors. |
| D．Digital traffic systems mark the beginning of smart cities. |
8 . DCDIt is an unpleasant extinction that will change the world and how people communicate: within 20 years, two thirds of all the planet’s languages will be dead.
Experts agree that nothing can stop it happening but one academic is trying her hardest to slow it down. Professor Antonella Sorace is one of a growing number who believe learning a second language has enormous potential benefits for the human brain. Research consistently shows that learning a new language could delay the start of dementia (痴呆) for four to five years — a better result than with any medication to date.
It is those benefits of bilingualism (双语) that should encourage us to preserve and protect Europe’s minority languages — Gaelic, Manx, Cornish and Ulster Scots, she says.
Already her work and the project she founded three years ago in Edinburgh, Bilingualism Matters — now expanding across Europe and in the US — have convinced the Scottish government to introduce languages to primary schools. From 2024 all Scottish children will be learning a language other than English in their first year at school, with two other languages to be introduced later.
Just as disappearing forests take with them secrets of undiscovered medicines, disappearing languages can take the key to a longer and better quality of life. The first battle is to remove the popular assumption that bilingualism might damage children’s brains. There were even suggestions that it could encourage schizophrenia (精神分裂症).
“Study after study has shown the opposite to be true,” says Sorace. “These prejudices are deeply rooted, but we are perhaps halfway to persuading people that the brain can cope. Then we have to persuade people that it is actually of benefit.”
What’s Bilingualism Matters intended to do?| A．Find a replacement for English. |
| B．Teach businesses marketing skills. |
| C．Promote minority language learning. |
| D．Influence governments’ policy making. |
9 . The green, natural forest absorbs carbon dioxide from the air through photo- synthesis (光合作用). There is another way of dealing with the climate crisis. That is setting up fields of dark-colored solar panels (太阳能电池板), also known as “solar forests”, which replace power stations that use fossil fuels such as coal and gas to make electricity, thus mitigating harmful emissions (排放) of greenhouse gases.
But since they are both relatively dark, they absorb a lot of solar radiation. Some of the energy is used for photosynthesis in natural forests or to produce electricity in “solar forests”, but most returns to the atmosphere, heating it up. Then what would be the more effective land use option in terms of the climate crisis: planting a forest, or building solar panels? This issue has long been debated by decision-makers around the world. Now, we may have an answer, thanks to a new study.
First, the researchers compared the impact of a forest on the climate crisis in a dry area to that of a solar farm in a similar environment. The researchers found that the albedo effect (反射效应) of both of these “forests” was similar, but that the absorption or prevention of carbon emissions was very different. It turns out that it takes 2.5 years for the heat emitted by solar farms to be balanced by the carbon emissions that are avoided, thanks to the energy they produce. In the case of a natural forest of similar size, it would take more than 100 years of photosynthesis to balance its heating effect.
The researchers also studied how the heating-cooling relationship changed in other climates and found that in more humid environments, the heating effect of planting large numbers of trees is smaller. And the break-even point is reached within 15 to 18 years.
“In dry places, building solar forests seems far more effective in addressing the climate crisis. Meanwhile, forests absorb about a third of annual carbon emissions and play a vital role in the global rain cycle, in maintaining biodiversity and in many other environmental and social contexts. Preventing them from being cut down and planting more trees in humid areas are of great significance,” explains one of the researchers in the study.
What did the researchers find in the study conducted in the dry environment?| A．The natural forest exhibits a stronger albedo effect. |
| B．The solar forest can generate more energy in dry areas. |
| C．The solar forest is superior in balancing the heating effect. |
| D．The natural forest is more effective in solving the climate crisis. |
10 . Seated at the grand piano in MIT’s Killian Hall last fall, first-year student Jacqueline Wang played one piece of Mozart’s music. When she’d finished, Mi-Eun Kim, a pianist and lecturer at MIT, asked her to move to the back of the hall. Kim tapped at an iPad. Suddenly, the music Wang had just played poured forth again from the piano - its keys sinking and rising just as they had with Wang’s fingers on them. Wang stood with a confused expression, taking in a repeat of her own performance.
This unusual lesson took place during a three-week residency (驻留期) of the Steinway Spirio|r, a piano that obtains the data of live performances and offers students new possibilities for studying and experimenting with music.
Wang was one of several participants to have the experience of hearing herself play while watching the data of her performance move up and down across a screen: color-coded rectangles (矩形) indicating the speed and duration of each note, and a moving line charting her use of the damper pedal (阻尼踏板). Wang could even edit her own performance when Kim suggested her rhythmic use of the pedal might be unnecessary. Using the iPad interface to erase the pedaling entirely, they listened to the playback again, the notes gaining new clarity,
For Wang, the session introduced an element she’d never experienced since beginning her piano studies. The visual display of how long each key was played and with what speed gave her a more precise demonstration of the ideas of voicing and evenness.
Playing the piano is one of the most complex activities that humans do with their hands. Some people might think the new technology will replace the pianist. In Kim’s view, that human complexity is complemented by this kind of technical possibility. But it doesn’t mean all of the things that go into learning music will be abandoned. It’s going to be an invaluable third partner: the student, the teacher, and the Spirio | r. It’s going to play a necessary role in lots of musical efforts.
What can be the best title for the text?| A．Making Full Use of MIT’s Program |
| B．The Evolution of Musical Instruments |
| C．Exploring Music with the Steinway Spirio|r |
| D．The Challenges of Learning a New Instrument |
