Xi’an is the most beautiful and historical city in west China,
2 . Onions may be one of the healthiest, most flavorful vegetables on the face of the Earth, but they’re definitely no fun to chop. However, your days of getting teary-eyed in the kitchen may be coming to an end as Japanese company House Foods Group prepares to launch the world’s first tear-free onion to the market.
Properly the onion is named “Smile Ball”, because it puts a smile on your face rather than make you cry, this new type of onion is the result of two decades of research. In 2002, House Foods Group scientists published a paper in which they assumed that tear-inducing enzymes(酶) in onions could be weakened while keeping their full flavor and nutritional value. Last year the company announced that their theory had finally become reality. Although the announcement mentioned that House Foods Group had no intention of producing Smile Ball onions commercially anytime soon, it appears the wonder vegetables will hit Japanese stores this fall.
It has long been known that cutting onions causes tears due to a volatile gas(挥发性气体) given out by onion cells when damaged by the knife. But cutting the Smile Ball onion in any condition is reportedly a tear-free experience.
About five tons of Smile Ball onions were sold in trial runs at Tokyo department stores and online shops this year, but this fall, they will be available at supermarkets nationwide, at a price of 450 yen ($4.30) for a pack of two. That’s twice as expensive as regular onions.
The rate at which the trial batch of 5-6 tons of Smile Ball onions sold out signals that they will be a huge hit when they hit the market.
1. Why do people tear when cutting onions?| A．A volatile gas is given out. | B．People are allergic to onions. |
| C．Onions can hurt people’s eyes. | D．Too many onions are wasted. |
| A．450 yen | B．250 yen | C．＄2.15 | D．＄4.30 |
| A．Strike | B．Success | C．Failure | D．Knock |
| A．A funny research |
| B．The healthiest vegetables |
| C．Crying onion |
| D．Smile Ball |
要求：1.写一封邀请书；
2.告诉他过春节的时间和地点；
3.简单介绍活动内容。
注意：1.词数不少于100；
2.可适当加入细节，以使行文连贯；
3.信的开头和结尾已给出，不计入词数。
参考词汇：炮仗 fireworks 压岁钱 lucky money 农历lunar calendar
Dear Mr. Smith,
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours Sincerely,
Li Hua
4 . Twitter is an online social networking service that enables users to send and read short 140-character messages called “tweets”. I rarely meet a Twitter user who doesn’t want more followers. Therefore, I’d like to share with you how I have built my own follower count to more than 240,000 followers since I began with Twitter.
• Practice strategic following. By this I mean, follow people in your industry.
• Be generous in linking to and retweeting others.
• Avoid too much promotion. Yes, you can advertise your blog posts, products, etc. on Twitter, but be careful.
• Don’t use an auto-responder. I used to use Social Oomph to thank everyone who followed me and provide a link to my “Beginner’s Guide to Twitter”. I thought I was being polite and helpful.
Finally, don’t worry too much about the numbers. If you follow the advice I have given above, the numbers will take care of themselves.
| A．There’s a line you must not cross |
| B．Some of these will follow you back |
| C．As it turns out, I was being annoying |
| D．Twitter advocates a culture of sharing |
| E．Like most things in life, it takes time and patience |
| F．What you should do is to follow as many people as possible |
| G．It’s possible to attract a great number of followers in a short time |
1. 感谢父母的照顾和引导；
2. 不负期望，真诚祝愿。
注意：1. 词数应为80左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
参考词汇：Coming-of-Age Ceremony 成人礼
Dear mom and dad,
Having heard from you at the Coming-of-Age Ceremony,
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
The Yellow Crane Tower is one of the Four Great Towers of China.
7 . A team of volunteers in the UK rescued a dog in a very unusual way, using a drone (无人机) and a sausage.
Millie, a lovely and pretty dog
After she was seen running on busy roads, her
Millie was
After three days of trying to rescue Millie, the team thought of
Emma said it was
| A．fell ill | B．came back | C．ran away | D．turned around |
| A．mother | B．owner | C．coach | D．teacher |
| A．explanation | B．advice | C．information | D．help |
| A．then | B．still | C．only | D．now |
| A．water | B．sand | C．sea | D．food |
| A．happened | B．rushed | C．tried | D．learned |
| A．hired | B．used | C．borrowed | D．expected |
| A．terrible | B．unforgettable | C．unsuccessful | D．illegal |
| A．selling | B．getting | C．eating | D．hanging |
| A．satisfaction | B．safety | C．happiness | D．peace |
| A．cooked | B．loaded | C．washed | D．threw |
| A．lifted | B．spread | C．raised | D．followed |
| A．note | B．bite | C．view | D．photo |
| A．drone | B．eyes | C．arms | D．kayaks |
| A．fantastic | B．tired | C．natural | D．proud |
8 . A study carried out in the United States at the Field Museum in Chicago has found that 52 of the most common and well-known species of birds in that country have shrunk (缩小) in size over a 38-year period.
This shrinking in size follows a rule called Bergman’s rule which states that animals in cooler areas tend to be larger than those in warmer areas.
As global warming affects the planet, animals now have to deal with rising temperatures.
What does this mean to these species? Of course, our planet has been through cycles (周期) of heating and cooling before, and many animals have changed to keep up with changes in their living place in order to survive. The difference in the present cycle of global warming is that it is happening faster than ever before.
When species shrink, other things get affected, too. When an animal’s body shrinks, it may not be able to give birth to as many young as before.
It is possible that scientists haven’t yet fully understood how changes in size may affect the ability of animals to survive. This shows the bigger problem with climate change-we aren’t always able to tell in advance what will happen when the Earth’s temperatures keep rising. And that is the real danger.
| A．However, the shrinking will go on for at least another ten years. |
| B．However, animals may not be able to change fast enough. |
| C．Some animals prefer a cooler climate. |
| D．Larger animals are able to keep warmer. |
| E．This may affect the size of a species’ population. |
| F．Some of them have responded by shrinking in size. |
| G．Scientists who did the study credit that to climate change. |
9 . Manufacturing (批量生产) is a one-way business. Raw materials go into a factory and finished products come out. Once those goods are sold, producers usually wash their hands of them. They normally don’t worry about how the products are disposed of (处理). Most are burnt or rot in landfill. In only 50 years the world’s consumption of raw materials has nearly increased to more than 100 billion tonnes according to the latest Circularity Gap Report from the World Economic Forum. Less than 9% of this is reused. Industry does talk about sustainability and recycling, but much of that is greenwashing intended to improve brand images.
Every car-making country wants gigafactories (超级工厂) that produce batteries for electric vehicles (EVS), which is profitable. Batteries contain valuable but expensive materials that are hard to get. Supply chains are long and complex. Recycling makes sense.
Most gigafactories are designed with recycling in mind from the start. The result is a circular (循环的) production process. The idea is that once batteries reach the ends of their lives, they should go back to a factory, where they can be used again.
Northvolt, a Swedish battery-maker, aims by 2030 to produce batteries enough to power some 2 million EVS from the three gigafacotries. By then, around half its raw materials should come from recycling old batteries. Using recycling and renewable power, CATL, a Chinese EV batteries firm, similarly, thinks it should eventually be possible to shrink the carbon footprint of a battery towards zero.
Carmakers such as the Renault Group and Stellantis, owner of brands that include Chrysler and Peugeot are both setting up circular-economy businesses, not just for batteries, but also for repairing and reconditioning parts and vehicles. Each of these operations will, bosses hope, have annual income of more than 2 billion dollars by the end of the decade.
1. Which of the following statements is right?| A．Circular economy is a one-way business. |
| B．Recycling is an important part of manufacturing. |
| C．Greenwashing helps improve recycling of raw materials. |
| D．Peugeot is setting up circular-economy businesses. |
| A．Gigafactories are making some progress in recycling. |
| B．Northvolt is building 3 gigafactories to power some 2 million EVS. |
| C．Northvolt set up circular-economy businesses to make money. |
| D．CATL has cut down the carbon footprint to zero. |
| A．The Chinese firm is producing EV batteries. |
| B．Carmakers such as the Renault Group and Stellates. |
| C．Repairing and reconditioning parts and vehicles. |
| D．World Economic Forum’s making Circularity Gap Report. |
| A．Gigafactories and Carmakers | B．One-way Business |
| C．Battery Producing | D．Circular Economy |
10 . Birth rates often fall during hard times, but the covid-19 pandemic was no ordinary difficult times. On the one hand, people might hesitate to bear children during such a challenge; on the other, the opportunity to work from home makes parenting much easier. During the dark days, no one knew which of these effects would be greater.
According to the data from an American survey, covid did lead to a small decrease in birth rates. Birth counts fell from 3.75 million in 2019 to 3.67 million in 2021. However, a new study by Martha Bailey, Janet Currie and Hannes Schwandt reaches the surprising conclusion that despite apparent decline, birth rates among women born in America actually rose during the pandemic.
The clue that data on total births might be misleading was the timing of the drop. Birth counts fell in early 2020, but most babies conceived (被怀上) after covid struck America in March 2020 would have been due in 2021. The study suggests that what changed in 2020 was not whether women gave birth, but where.
In 2019, 23% of newborns in America had foreign-born mothers (外籍母亲). Breaking down the data on pandemic-era births by mothers’ origin, the researchers found a striking difference: foreign-born women give birth to 91,000 fewer babies than pre-pandemic-era, whereas native-born ones had 46,000 more.
The study did not assess how much of the fall is from fewer foreign-born women entering the country and then giving birth, and how much from immigrants already in America deciding to leave. But given that America closed its borders for non-essential travel in 2020, a reduction in new arrivals-including those who visit briefly to have an American-citizen child, and then leave-seems more likely.
The researchers figured that the shift to remote work explained much of native-born women’s rise in birth-rate. The increase was most marked (明显的) among the college-educated, who are more likely to be able to work from home, in a country without any paid maternity-leave (产假) or child-care subsidy (补贴).
1. What can be inferred from the passage?| A．The data on all America-born babies might be misleading. |
| B．More babies would have been born in 2021 in America. |
| C．There is paid maternity-leave in America. |
| D．Birth counts did fall in 2021 in America. |
| A．Some foreign-born women could not enter America and gave birth. |
| B．Some immigrants living in America decided to leave for their homeland. |
| C．Some women hesitate to give birth during hard times. |
| D．Some native American women were unwilling to give birth. |
| A．By grouping the mothers based on their origins. |
| B．By researching into the mothers’ education level. |
| C．By looking at the data of birth rates from 2007 to 2019. |
| D．By studying the American mothers’ working place. |
| A．Previous research data on birth rates was not accurate. |
| B．Birth rates fell in America during the pandemic for many reasons. |
| C．Pandemic-era birth rates among America-born mothers rose. |
| D．Covid-19 has greatly affected the place American women give birth. |
