1 . Rome can be pricey for travelers, which is why many choose to stay in a hostel (旅社). The hostels in Rome offer a bed in a dorm room for around $25 a night, and for that, you’ll often get to stay in a central location (位置) with security and comfort.

Yellow Hostel

If I had to make just one recommendation for where to stay in Rome, it would be Yellow Hostel. It’s one of the best-rated hostels in the city, and for good reason. It’s affordable, and it’s got a fun atmosphere without being too noisy. As an added bonus, it’s close to the main train station.

Hostel Alessandro Palace

If you love social hostels, this is the best hostel for you in Rome. Hostel Alessandro Palace is fun. Staff members hold plenty of bar events for guests like free shots, bar crawls and karaoke. There’s also an area on the rooftop for hanging out with other travelers during the summer.

Youth Station Hostel

If you’re looking for cleanliness and a modern hostel, look no further than Youth Station. It offers beautiful furnishings and beds. There are plenty of other benefits, too; it doesn’t charge city tax; it has both air conditioning and a heater for the rooms; it also has free Wi-Fi in every room.

Hotel and Hostel Des Artistes

Hotel and Hostel Des Artistes is located just a 10-minute walk from the central city station and it’s close to all of the city’s main attractions. The staff is friendly and helpful, providing you with a map of the city when you arrive, and offering advice if you require some. However, you need to pay 2 euros a day for Wi-Fi.

1. What is probably the major concern of travelers who choose to stay in a hostel?

A．Comfort.	B．Security.
C．Price.	D．Location.

2. Which hotel best suits people who enjoy an active social life?

A．Yellow Hostel.	B．Hostel Alessandro Palace.
C．Youth Station Hostel.	D．Hotel and Hostel Des Artistes.

3. What is the disadvantage of Hotel and Hostel Des Artistes?

A．It gets noisy at night.	B．Its staff is too talkative.
C．It charges for Wi-Fi.	D．It’s inconveniently located.

2 . Top Exhibitions to See in London in 2023

Architectural: Vanishing Points

While we like to think of architecture existing purely in the real world, emerging designers and architects are using platforms like Instagram to create structures in the virtual world. This collection of works, which range from the practical to the fantastical, are all by architects who have gathered significant social media followings.

In the Digital Universe at ROCA London. 8 February—31 July, free.

Flowery: Orchids

This annual festival is back in bloom (开花), this time inspired by the beauty and biodiversity of Cameroon. Just like previous years, the orchids are spread throughout the various zones of the Princess of Wales conservatory and accompanied by sculptures that are just as colourful as the flowers on display.

At Kew Gardens. 4 February —5 March, &16.50—entrance to the gardens included.

Female Abstraction: Action, Gesture, Paint

Art history has often shone a light on the men of Abstract Expressionism, such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Well, now’s the time to let the most important women of the movement take the limelight in an exhibition that includes works by American artists such as Lee Krasner and Helen Frankenthaler, but spreads the net wider to include the female abstract artists from Europe, Asia and the wider world, with whom most of us will be unfamiliar.

At Whitechapel Gallery. 9 February—7 May, £ 16.50—concessions available.

Powerful Portraits (肖像): Alice Neel

The largest UK exhibition to date of American painter Alice Neel’s work will bring together her figurative pieces from across her 60-year career. Neel went against the popular grain by painting figures when abstract works were most popular, and she painted subjects that other artists ignored — pregnant women, labour leaders, black children, civil rights activists and strange performers. It’s high time we had a major show of her work in London, and the Barbican has duly provided.

At Barbican Art Gallery. 16 February—21 May, & 18.

1. Which of the following exhibitions is held once a year?

A．Flowery: Orchids.

B．Powerful Portraits: Alice Neel.

C．Architectural: Vanishing Points.

D．Female Abstraction: Action, Gesture, Paint.

2. When can visitors appreciate Lee Krasner’s works?

A．On February 8.

B．On January 7.

C．On April 7.

D．On May 8.

3. What can we learn about the artist Alice Neel?

A．She is 60 years old now.

B．Her works didn’t follow the trend.

C．She often ignored some common subjects.

D．She is the most popular American painter in the UK.

3 . We offer a programme of lectures by members of the MCLL community and other lifelong learning organisations, as well as university faculty members who have been invited to share their research with us on a variety of topics. View Instructions on How to Register Online.

Lecture 1: Social Media and Misinformation
Time: Friday, June 9, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Richard Harris
Attendance: Online

A retired American IT professional, Richard Harris, will take us deep into a social media’s business model, its differences from traditional media, recent examples of its use for misinformation and possible solutions that respect freedom of expression. A lively round-table discussion not to be missed!

Lecture 2: Global Mental Health
Time: Friday, June 16, 1:00 p.m.
Presenter: Marc Laporta
Attendance: Online

Mental health was known to the public quite late. Many countries are finding ways to reduce its impact, but many factors get in the way. However, progress is visible, and hope is justified. Mare Laporta will discuss different aspects of mental health and exchange ideas about ways to improve the situation.

Lecture 3: The Silk Road
Time: Friday, June 23, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: George Lapa
Attendance: Online

The Silk Road refers to a network of routes, covering over 6,400 km, used by traders from the Han Dynasty of China who opened trade in 130 BCE until 1453 CE. The exchange of information gave rise to new technologies and innovations that changed the Western world. Topics such as gunpowder, the compass (指南针), paper-making and printing will be presented.

Lecture 4: South to Textile Factories
Time: Friday, June 30, 10:00 a.m.
Presenter: Muriel Herrington
Attendance: In person

Between 1840 and 1930 a million French-Canadians left Canada to work in the United States. Many were employed in textile (纺织品) factories in the New England states. In these areas they set up communities where they maintained the French language and culture. In this lecture Muriel Herrington will describe their working and living conditions and show their impact.

1. What will the audience attending Lecture 1 do?

A．Build a social media’s business model.

B．Exchange ideas with each other.

C．Enjoy more respect and freedom.

D．Contact the presenter in advance.

2. Who will talk about the great inventions of ancient China?

A．Marc Laporta.

B．Richard Harris.

C．George Lapa.

D．Muriel Herrington.

3. In which lecture will the audience have face time with the presenter?

A．The Silk Road.

B．South to Textile Factories.

C．Global Mental Health.

D．Social Media and Misinformation.

4 . His heart was filled with joy _________of arriving home in a couple of days.

A．having thought

B．when he thought

C．when thinking

D．to think

5 . Literally, overcapacity (产能过剩) pressured operating margins (利润), impacting players that lack scale or management ________to reduce costs.

A．stability

B．fluency

C．persistence

D．expertise

6 . Recently, TikTok’s parent ByteDance has published an update to its corporate structure, mapping out an organization that seems to conflict with Congress’s ________ of how the company operates.

A．pursuit

B．ambition

C．transformation

D．interpretation

7 . They certainly need a ________of the fundamentals of playing their instruments, but learning to collaborate requires understanding how these roles work together.

A．stability

B．grasp

C．acknowledgement

D．manner

8 . The fact that members of one culture do not express their emotions as openly as do _______ of another does not mean that they do not experience emotions.

A．it

B．one

C．that

D．those

9 . Indeed, last year, Google showed off a pair of smart glasses that can translate foreign languages in real time by displaying the ________ text over the lenses.

A．controversial

B．corresponding

C．characteristic

D．subsequent

10 . Catherine Garland, a physics professor, started seeing “the problem” in 2019. She’d laid out the assignment clearly during an engineering course, but student after student was calling her over for help. They were all getting the same error message: The program couldn’t find their files.

Garland thought it would be an easy fix. She asked each student where they had saved their project. “Could they be on the desktop? Perhaps in the Documents folder?” But over and over, she was met with confusion. “What are you talking about?” multiple students inquired. Gradually, Garland came to the realization: the concept of file folders and directories, essential to previous generations, understanding of computers, is gibberish to many modern students.

Garland’s mental model is commonly known as “directory structure”, the hierarchical system (层级体系) of folders used to arrange files. What have caused the mental model to change? It is possible that many students spent their high school years storing documents in the cloud storage like OneDrive and Dropbox rather than in physical spaces. It could also have to do with the other apps they’re accustomed to. “When I want to scroll (滚屏) over to Snapchat, Twitter, they’re not in any particular order, but I know exactly where they are,” says Vogel, who is a devoted iPhone user. Some of it boils down to muscle memory.

It may also be that in an age where every user interface includes a search function, young people have never needed folders or directories. The first internet search engines were used around 1990, but features like Windows Search are products of the early 2000s. While many of today’s professors grew up without search functions, today’s students increasingly don’t remember a world without them.

Some may blame the generational incompetence. An international study claimed that only 2 percent of Generation Z (born from 1997 onwards) had achieved the “digital native” level of computer literacy. But the issue is likely not that modern students are learning fewer digital skills, but rather that they’re learning different ones. Garland, for all her knowledge of directory structure, doesn’t understand Instagram nearly as well as her students do. “They use computers one way, and we use computers another way,” Garland emphasizes. “That’s where the problem lies.”

1. The word “gibberish” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to________.

A．common

B．accessible

C．nonsense

D．fundamental

2. What can be concluded from paragraph 3 and 4?

A．There is no search function in the directory structure.

B．College professors have weaker muscles than students do.

C．Modern students like to store documents in physical drives.

D．The change in mental models reflects the progress in technology.

3. By mentioning Garland’s and Vogel’s stories, the author________.

A．highlights the different mindsets of two generations

B．criticizes modern students’ overuse of online apps

C．shows the difficulty of teaching today’s students

D．calls on a change in the education of physics

4. According to the passage, what can best address “the problem” mentioned at the beginning and the ending?

A．Teaching students directory structure.

B．Improving generational understanding.

C．Enhancing Generation Z’s digital skills.

D．Urging teachers to learn search functions.