1 . It was 4:30 a. m. in Mozambique, a country in Africa. When her three younger sisters were still asleep, 13-year-old Natalia rose and set off into the darkness.
Natalia moved quickly. Her difficult journey would take hours. She had been making this trip two times a day, seven days a week, since she was 10 years old.
Why?
She was not heading to school or to a job. She was going to get the water her family needed to survive.
Natalia is a serious girl who loves learning. But getting water for her family left little time for her education. She was lucky to make it to school one or two days a week. But Natalia dreamed of doing far more, like one day running her own school.
Natalia had plenty of time to think about this dream on her trips to get water. First she walked to the watering holes the villagers had dug into the ground. Then she waited in line for hours.
The water that Natalia brought home was gray and dirty. Natalia’s family boiled it before drinking it. But the water still often made them sick.
There was no other choice, though. The muddy watering holes were the only source of water for many miles around. What Natalia’s village really needed was a well. But digging a well requires expensive machines and many experts. Natalia’s village could not afford these things.
In 2014, an organization called charity: water heard about Natalia’s village. The organization has paid for 24, 500 water projects around the world-277 of those in Mozambique.
In August 2014, large trucks came to Natalia’s village. The workers found the best place for a well and started drilling. Natalia and her neighbors came to watch. The workers covered the hole and put a hand pump on top.
It was a simple pump. But it meant everything.
Life is quite different for Natalia these days. She goes to school. She is a top student who plans to run her own school. She wants to change the lives of other girls through education.
1. Which of the following can best describe 13-year-old Natalia’s life?| A．Hard. | B．Simple. | C．Lonely. | D．Boring. |
| A．Because it was too salty. | B．Because it was too cold. |
| C．Because it lacked nutrition. | D．Because it was gray and dirty. |
| A．Poor education. | B．Large family Size. |
| C．A shortage of water. | D．Separation from the world. |
| A．A well was dug. | B．Many people were sick. |
| C．Charity: water was started. | D．Girls were allowed to go to school. |
| A．Be a doctor. | B．Open a school. |
| C．Make water pumps. | D．Traveling out of her village. |
2 . Have you ever dreamt of being among the people talked about on a celebrity blog? Well 140 junior high and high school students from Edmonton, Alberta don’t have to dream any longer. An inter-school project they worked on was so successful that Perez Hilton blogged about it, which is surprising since his blog is usually for celebrities. They did a flash mob (快闪) in a shopping center with the main message being “stand up to bullying”.
Over 140 students, aged from 12 to 17, participated in the anti-bullying flash mob, dancing to a well-known song called “Loser Like Me” “We actually had almost too many; we had to cut back on the number at each school,” said Kristina Solikowski, one organizer of the event.
“I was just really excited!” said Olivia Brassard, a grade seven student at RS Fowler School. Being one of the younger student dancers, Olivia couldn’t get over her nerves at the start. “I was a little shy because I had to interact with a lot of grade eights and nines, but after, I got more comfortable,” said Olivia.
The reason why Olivia got involved was partly for the fun of dancing but also because she really believed in the message that bullies are bad! “I thought it would be a good way to spread the word about the bullying that goes on in our society,” said Olivia.
Olivia’s friend Allison Wood, a grade eight student at St. Albert Catholic High School, got involved for the same reason as Olivia. “I don t think it’s going to be possible to stop bullying all together, but I think we can certainly decrease it,” explains Allison.
These students have set a good example for kids everywhere. There’s no better way to decrease something bad than by getting people together to do something good, right?
1. Why did Perez Hilton blog about the flash mob in Edmonton?| A．The event achieved great success. |
| B．He has a deep interest in flash mobs. |
| C．There were many famous people taking part. |
| D．He wanted to realize the students’ dream of becoming famous. |
| A．They sang the song “Loser Like Me”. |
| B．They shouted out “stand up to bullying”. |
| C．They danced to the song “Loser Like Me”. |
| D．They gave out posters saying “stand up to bullying”. |
| A．Comfortable. | B．Helpless. | C．Nervous. | D．Excited. |
| A．Agreed with. | B．Took part. | C．Liked. | D．Developed. |
| A．To report a flash mob. | B．To introduce flash mobs. |
| C．To list the harm of bullying. | D．To encourage readers to fight bullying. |
| A．preview | B．provide | C．prevent | D．design |
| A．to visit | B．being visited | C．visiting | D．visit |
| A．feed on | B．work on | C．depend on | D．concentrate on |
| A．who | B．of which | C．of whom | D．that |
| A．apply to | B．refer to | C．contribute to | D．turn to |
（1）英语读书节活动内容（每人须读完一篇学校指定的英文故事，读后活动包括故事复述、读后感交流等）；
（2）对活动感受；
（3）对明年读书节的期待。
注意：
（1）词数不少于100；
（2）可适当加入细节，使内容充实、行文连贯；
（3）开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
参考词汇：
读书节Reading Day
Dear Chris,
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Jin
China's first virtual student developed by Tsinghua University met fans on June 3, 2021 when she opened an account on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo platform.
In the first Weibo post, the female virtual student named Hua Zhibing, greeted Chinese netizens and said that she would start studying in the computer laboratory in Tsinghua University.
A video introducing Hua Zhibing was published in her first Weibo post. In it, a young girl wanders around the campus while a female voice introduces herself.
“I've been addicted to literature and art since I was born. The scientists not only gave me my appearance and my voice but also taught me to compose," Hua Zhibing said, noting said the background music in the video was composed by her.
The girl in the video was a real person but the face and voice were virtually synthesized (合成的), Tang Jie, a professor at the Department of Computer Science of Tsinghua University, one of the major developers of Hua Zhibing, said during a forum on artificial intelligence held recently in Beijing.
Hua Zhibing officially registered and became a student of Tsinghua University on Tuesday. Developers said at the forum that they had high expectations for Hua Zhibing, hoping she could keep learning, exploring and cultivating the abilities of creativity and communication in the future. She might also be employed after graduating from the university, developers said.
Hua Zhibing was based on the latest version of a China-developed deep learning model, Wudao 2.0, which literally means “understanding of natural laws.” It can process 1.75 trillion parameters (亿万参数), breaking the record of 1.6 trillion previously set by Google's Switch Transformer AI language model.
The appearance of Hua Zhibing soon became a hot topic on Weibo. Some are amazed by how China has advanced in the field of artificial intelligence. Some netizens said they were curious whether scientists would create a humanoid robot(人形机器人)named Hua Zhibing, rather than a virtual face and voice. Some joked that if more robots like Hua Zhibing, which can learn and work, are created in the future, population decline would not be a problem in the world.
1. What did Hua Zhibing do in her first video? (no more than 4 words)2. What's the purpose of Hua Zhibing noting that the background music in the video was composed by her? (no more than 8 words)
3. What does the underlined word in Paragraph 6 mean? (1 word)
4. According to Paragraph 7, what do you know about Wudao 2.0? (no more than 10 words)
5. Do you like the idea of creating a humanoid robot in the future? Why? (no more than 20 words)
10 . Why are so many people unhappy in their jobs? There are two primary reasons. First, some people are convinced that earning a living is wasting time that they could spend enjoying themselves or uncovering their true talents.
If this is the case with you, recall your last long vacation. Was it two weeks of complete enjoyment? More likely it was a week and a half of fun in the sun, with another half a week of “Boy, I can’t wait to get back to work.”If you didn’t feel such vacation blues, then imagine taking a leave of absence. You could use it to work on a novel, attend classes or just sit around watching TV. At the end of three months, in all likelihood, your self-respect would be at an all-time low. While all work and no play are not good, all play and no work are disastrous. We need to feel we are accomplishing something. We also need some form of order in our lives.
The second and perhaps more common reason for people not to like their work is that they feel trapped. Once you’ve been at a company for five years and get married, have a mortgage(抵押贷款)and a child, you often feel you have very little choice about jumping ship if things aren’t turning out as you’d planned. A steady paycheck can be the biggest restrict of all. People hate having to do something because they have no other choice.
If you find yourself hating your job, your option takes the form of an up-to-date resume(简历). You might also take a weekly glance through the help-wanted section, and make some visits to industry functions where low-key networking can take place. You’re not giving up on your current job. Rather, you are providing yourself with an option. If things get unbearable at work, you could jump ship.
At the core of adopting a positive attitude to your workplace is, above all, assuming responsibility for your own situation. Most people feel controlled by their environment, but they really aren’t. They have to learn to manage that environment so they can get from it what they need.
1. Why do some people believe that working is wasting time?| A．They think it can’t make them happy and display their natural abilities. |
| B．They think it prevents them from accompanying their families. |
| C．It can’t guarantee they can get the payoff satisfying their needs. |
| D．It makes them have no time to do their private things at will. |
| A．they have been working in a company for too long | B．they have no other way out but to keep working |
| C．they have to work to pay off their debts | D．they are not permitted to change a job |
| A．you have made a decision on your own |
| B．you have done wonders in your current job |
| C．you have chance to choose between two alternatives |
| D．you have chance to glance through the help-wanted section |
| A．thinks holding an “up-to-date resume” is the best way to remove the unhappiness in one’s job |
| B．can hardly tolerate one’s complete enjoyment of life |
| C．believes that one cannot change his/her environment |
| D．will support the idea that one should make a balance between working and enjoying life |
| A．Cautious. | B．Negative. | C．Supportive. | D．Unconcerned. |
