1 . Here are four events you won’t want to miss this week.

World Classic Opera Gala

Presented by the China National Opera House, the World Classic Opera Gala will present audiences with famous Chinese operas including The Long March, The Red Detachment of Women and Red Guards on Honghu Lake and Western operas including Tosca, Rusalka, Rigo letto and Le Nozze di Figaro.

Dates: Dec 24-25     Place: National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Beijing

Drama The Dream of the Red Chamber

Produced by Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, the drama The Dream of the Red Chamber is based on the Chinese treasured literature classic of A Dream of Red Mansions. After four years of development, the drama was condensed (压缩) into a six-hour visual feast from the 700,000-word masterpiece.

Dates: Dec 25-26     Place: Shanghai Culture Square, Shanghai

2021 Guardian Art Book Fair

Covering an area of 1,400 square meters, the first Guardian Art Book Fair will display more than 5,000 highlight art books from over 40 top art publishing houses both at home and abroad. In addition, as one of the exhibitors, the National Library of China Publishing House will exhibit over 100 books.

Dates: Dec 22-26     Place: Guardian Art Center, Beijing

Musical Story for Kids-The Waltz Kingdom

During his lifetime, Austrian composer Johann Strauss was known as the “Waltz King”, and was largely responsible for popularizing the waltz in 19th century Vienna. In this concert combining music and videos, children and their parents can enjoy lively stories accompanied by the music of   The Waltz Kingdom produced by the Four Seasons Chamber Orchestra.

Date: 10:30 am, Dec 25     

Place: National Library Arts Center, Beijing

1. What is special about the drama The Dream of the Red Chamber?

A．It is intended for opera lovers.	B．It is a 700,000-word masterpiece.
C．It is a drama adapted from a classic.	D．It is held in the city of Shanghai.

2. Which of the following lasts the longest?

A．Drama The Dream of the Red Chamber.	B．2021 Guardian Art Book Fair.
C．World Classic Opera Gala.	D．The Waltz Kingdom.

3. What do we know about The Waltz Kingdom?

A．It was produced by Johann Strauss.

B．It is shown in the Guardian Art Center, Beijing.

C．It has been a popular story since the 19th century.

D．It’ll give the audience a feast for eyes and ears.

2 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

Almost all of my holidays were spent with my grandpa. My grandpa was a retired army officer and the years in the army had made him a very tough person, which helped him a lot in fighting with cancer for a long time. Silver and golden stars on his shoulders and medals on his chest in grandma’s old photo albums reflected the marks of his distinguished service and numerous adventures. Grandpa had fine qualities and was a real personality. He was strict with his family, me included, as well as himself.

In our ancestral house there was a big pond as was common in bygone Bengali homes with lots of trees and bushes. Both my grandparents were fond of our so-called garden. One morning our new neighbor saw my grandpa planting two trees on both sides of our main gate, which still stand tall today. Across the street our new neighbor also got the same kind of tree and planted the trees exactly on both sides of his gate too.

My grandpa didn’t often give enough amount of water to his plants and didn’t always give his full attention to them, while our neighbor gave a lot of water to his plants and looked after them too well. My grandpa’s plants were simple but looked good. But our neighbor’s plants were much fuller and greener.

Normally, during April and May, we have short but violent thunderstorms called “Kalboishakhi”. One late evening during a Kalboishakhi we had showers with strong winds, which continued right throughout that night. Next morning along with my grandparents I came out to inspect the damage to our garden. I saw our neighbor was there in his garden too, but looked upset as his plants were uprooted. But, our plants were not damaged and were standing firm on the ground.

注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式作答。
Seeing this, our neighbor was surprised and curious.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Grandpa’s explanations not only convinced the neighbor, but made me realize something.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

It was the worst day ever and I'll never forget it. The day began as usual. My husband, Alan, entered his office in our home and participated in conference calls. In the kitchen, I could hear him speaking on the phone to his boss. Suddenly, I heard some words that were absolutely alarming.

When he exited his office moments later, my fears were confirmed- Alan had been laid off. I hugged him as my heart sank, and my mind raced: What were we going to do with his unemployment? Would we lose our house if we couldn't afford to pay for it?

“We'll be fine,” he said.

“I know," I responded.

But, frankly, neither of us was very convincing. I wanted to be in bed with covers over my head, but I had to make my way to work. It was an hour into my shift before I received a call from the doctor. I had noticed some strange lumps in my neck, and he'd been performing tests to determine the cause

“You have cancer,” he stated. I distinctly remember my response: “What?” I must have misheard. It sounded like he said I had cancer, but that was completely ridiculous. I had always been healthy and cancer was out of the question. The doctor repeated those terrible words. It was true: Cancer was in my body. He went on discussing future treatment plans and appointments, I think. I really wasn't listening anymore.

As I drove home, I thought about how wonderful things had been up until this day. Now it's time to pay back for all those amazing years. I prepared myself for a hopeless future, or no future at all.

Alan hugged me when I arrived home, and I cried as he held me tight. “Someday in the future, we're going to write about today,” he whispered in my ear, “and we'll call it Worst Day Ever. ”

注意：1．续写词数应为150左右；
2．请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

We cheered ourselves up and stopped feeling sorry.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

All the efforts eventually paid off.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 . Some love speaking in public, while others are scared at the thought of it. Stage fright is perfectly normal.    1     . Stage fright is a constant fear aroused in an individual when required to perform in front of an audience. So how do you overcome stage fright when speaking in public?

    2    

Nothing will stop stage fright more effectively than being prepared. Know your content, your speech and more importantly your audience. If you know what you are talking about then you have no reason to be nervous. Also, should a technical problem occur, you can stay cool as you are already confident on the subject.

Practice,Practice, Practice

    3     . You also need to practice as much as you can before the performance or public speaking d-day. So practice preferably in front of a live audience as much as possible to build your confidence.

Talk Yourself Down

Even though stage fright is “all in the mind,”the fear appears itself in physical ways. The best solution is to change your negative talk. Stop worrying about “What if I forget the content?”    4     . For example,“What if I am great at this?” It may sound too easy, but a positive belief will greatly reduce stage fright.

It Is Not All About You

Though you might feel like everyone is out to laugh, criticize or judge you, that is not the case. Get over the feeling that the world is going to hang on your every mistake. Just focus on your speech, audience and what they deserve from you.     5     .

A．Know Your Stuff

B．Stay calm and cool

C．Change that into positive talk

D．Sooner or later, something will go wrong

E．This will ease the pressure that is already building up

F．To fully overcome it, it is important to understand what stage fright is

G．Knowing your stuff helps, but it doesn't necessarily wipe out the problem

5 . Researchers based in the greater Yellowstone National Park area have found a new way to identify mountain lions-also referred as pumas- by using facial recognition. And it is proving to be effective to monitor these creatures that are highly elusive. “Mountain lions are really hard to directly observe.” said Peter Alexander, a research biologist leading the research project.

One tool they once used is a camera trap, which is attached to something along the animal’s regular path. When motion is detected, the trap gets a shot of the mountain lion as it passes by. The cameras even have an infra-red (红外线的)flash for nighttime photos without disturbing the animal.

Researchers around the world use this type of tool to estimate population numbers of species. But according to Alexander, there’s a problem with this method when it comes to ID’ing mountain lions.

All mountain lion around the world have light, sandy colored fur down their sides. The scientific name for a mountain lion, Puma concolor, literally translates to “one color”. This lack of unique coloration (自然花纹)on the their body sides means researchers like Alexander can’t usually tell if one puma crosses a camera trap five times, or if five individual animals pass by.

However, it’s a different story with their distinctive facial markings. Alexander and his team added some devices to their camera traps so that when motion was detected, a puma kitten call was played. This noise reliably attracted passerby pumas so that they looked up long enough for the camera trap to grab a shot for facial recognition.

Compared to the traditional side angle camera trap, the new attention-getting device was about 92% more accurate. This work was recently published in the journal Ecology and Evolution.

This study is an important step to being able to more confidently identify and track animals. Getting head images of mountain lions also opens up new opportunities to involve AI techniques. Alexander says that this new camera trap method could be used for tracking other wild animals that lack distinguishing side colors but have unique features elsewhere.

1. What does the word “elusive” underlined in Paragraph 1 mean?

A．Difficult to detect.	B．Impossible to control.
C．Reasonable to understand.	D．Convenient to identify.

2. What causes the traditional camera trap’s problem in photographing mountain lions?

A．Their unnoticeable body feature.	B．Their large movement range.
C．Their failure to set off the flash.	D．Their lack of a long state of rest.

3. What’s the purpose of the new device attached to the camera trap?

A．To identify each puma by tracking their movement.

B．To help get head images of pumas for facial recognition.

C．To attract more puma kitten to pass by and be photographed.

D．To engage pumas’ attention for highlighted body side photos.

4. What does Alexander think of the new camera trap?

A．It is a revolutionary invention.	B．It will have promising applications.
C．It helps greatly advance AI techniques.	D．It is more convenient than traditional ones.

6 . Australia is unique in many ways. It’s home to a wide range of landscapes and some of the most unusual animals on Earth. The Land Down Under is also the only place on Earth that qualifies as both a country and a continent. The definition of a continent isn’t as concrete as you might expect, but a few qualities help earn Australia that distinction.

The land mass’s status (地位) as a country is for sure. A country is defined as “a nation with its own government, occupying a particular territory,” and since 1901, the Commonwealth of Australia—as it’s officially known—has fit that description.

Australia’s claim to be a continent is less strong. There’s no scientific definition used to categorize continents. They tend to be large land masses with their own tectonic plates (地壳板块), and isolated enough to produce unique cultures and plant and animal populations. These aren’t hard and fast rules, however. Europe and Asia share a tectonic plate, but their cultural differences justify separating them into two continents (though the boundary separating one from the other is constantly changing). When it comes to what makes Australia a continent, size is the most minor factor. It’s the smallest continent at 2. 9 million square miles, and it’s actually closer in size to Greenland than it is to South America. So what makes Australia a continent and Greenland an island?

Australia’s distinctiveness carries a lot of weight here. Its isolated location allowed it to support native groups of people with distinct cultures as well as wildlife that can’t be found elsewhere on the planet. The native cultures and animals of Greenland, however, can also be found throughout the Arctic.

1. What qualifies Australia as a country?

A．The distinct landscapes and animals it has.

B．The establishment of Commonwealth of Australia.

C．The reputation of the Land Down Under it enjoys.

D．The specifically defined continent where it is located.

2. What can we learn from the paragraph 3?

A．The dividing line between Asia and Europe stays fixed.

B．Size is a major factor in determining Australia as a continent.

C．Each continent occupies a tectonic plate separated from others.

D．The definition of a continent doesn’t necessarily follow set rules.

3. Why is Greenland an island rather than a continent?

A．Because it is much smaller than South America.

B．Because it does not cover a whole tectonic plate.

C．Because it lacks uniqueness in culture and wildlife.

D．Because it is too close and is attached to the Arctic.

4. Which of the following is the best title for the text?

A．How Is Australia Different from Greenland?

B．How Were the Continents on Earth Determined?

C．What Sets Australia Apart from Other Continents?

D．Why Is Australia a Continent as Well as a Country?

7 . A family’s cat has finally been recovered after three weeks of being on the run in Boston’s Logan International Airport. The cat -named Rowdy-had been successfully avoiding airport workers, airline employees, and animal experts since escaping from a pet container. Rowdy was finally caught Wednesday.

“Whether out of exhaustion or hunger we’ll never know, but this morning she finally let herself be caught,”an airport spokesperson said.

Rowdy is to be given a health examination and then returned to her family. “I’m kind of in disbelief,”said her owner, Patty Sahli. “I thought, ‘What are the odds we’re actually going to get her back?’ But I got a call this morning and I am just so shocked. ”

Rowdy’s time on the run began June 24. Sahli and her husband, Rich, returned to the United States from 15 years in Germany with the Army. When their Lufthansa airlines flight landed, the 4-year-old black cat with green eyes escaped her cage. She was chasing some birds in the area.

Soon Rowdy herself was on the object of a chase. Her escape set off a big search involving airport and Lufthansa workers. Construction workers, and animal welfare experts got involved as well. They used wildlife cameras and safe-release traps in an attempt to catch Rowdy. Many people saw Rowdy during her extended airport visit. However, the cat always escaped those who chased her.

Now, with Rowdy safely contained, a little calm has been returned to the airport. “It was such a community effort,” said Sahli, adding, “we’re just so grateful to everyone who helped look for her. ”

1. What finally led to Rowdy’s being caught?

A．The use of wildlife cameras.	B．The attraction of some birds to her.
C．Animal welfare experts’ involvement.	D．Her willingness to cooperate in the chase.

2. What had Sahli expected about Rowdy?

A．Getting away from the family.	B．Returning home safe and sound.
C．Caught by the safe-release traps.	D．Injured and shocked at the airport.

3. What is Paragraph 4 mainly about?

A．The efforts of the cat’s owner.	B．The process of chasing the cat.
C．The cause of the cat’s losing her way.	D．The whole story of the cat’s getting loose.

4. Which of the following best describes the search efforts?

A．Individual and effective.	B．Extensive and combined.
C．Determined but failed.	D．Demanding but overlooked.

8 . Some of the most well-known cities in the world have gone through at least one name change. The new names often exhibit shifts of power, or may honor a specific person. Here are some that were once known by other names.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Saigon became Ho Chi Minh City in 1975 when it joined the Gia Dinh Province of Vietnam after the end of the Vietnam War. It was renamed after a previous communist prime minister, as the new name represented the north’s success. However, many people still refer to the city by its original name.

Mumbai, India

The city formerly known as Bombay officially became Mumbai in 1995 when the Shiv Sena political party rose to power. The Shiv Sena party saw Bombay as a relic of Britain’s colonial legacy (殖民遗产), and Mumbai was just one of many places in the country to receive a non-British name.

Istanbul, Turkey

Constantine the Great originally gave the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire the name of Constantinople, or “City of Constantine. ” The city went by this name or variations of it even after the Ottomans took it over in 1453; it was formally renamed Istanbul in 1930, not long after the Republic of Turkey was created.

Oslo, Norway

A fire destroyed the city of Oslo in 1624, during King Christian IV’s rule. When the settlement was being rebuilt, King Christian IV insisted on renaming Norway’s largest urban center after himself as Christiania (which later became Kristiania). In 1925, the city’s original name was restored to Oslo.

1. What is the former name of Ho Chi Minh City?

A．Gian Dinh.

B．Saigon.

C．Bombay.

D．Kristiania.

2. When did the Ottomans occupy what’s now Istanbul?

A．In 1453.

B．In 1624.

C．In 1930.

D．In 1925.

3. Who once governed Norway?

A．The British.	B．Ho Chi Minh.
C．King Christian IV.	D．Constantine the Great.

9 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容(1个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式。

Residents of Meilisi Daur district in Qiqihar, Heilongiang province, have felt it     1    (easy) to take nucleic acid tests (核酸检测) or enter public venues without smartphone than before since they received a card with their personalized QR code

To help overcome     2    difficulty of scanning codes with smartphones for some locals, especially the elderly,the district government has worked with local public security authorities     3    (promote)the user friendly initiative. Residents can present their cards before entering certain public facilities     4    the staff can scan the code to get the cardholders’ health information, such as a green code.If they show their green code when entering the facility,their visits     5    (record) automatically.

Over 15,000 residents in the district have received their cards after     6    (apply) for one.With data of epidemic(流行病)     7    (prevent) provided by local public security departments, the QR code cards are made for the seniors,students and others who find it difficult to use smartphones. The local government also printed the telephone     8    (number) of the seniors’ direct relatives,which can be useful in emergencies,     9    they plan to promote the cards among all residents aged over 60 and students in all schools     10    kindergartens to senior high schools

10 . A man went to buy fruits and asked the shopkeeper about the _________ of the fruits. The shopkeeper replied that banana was $2 and apple was $4 per kilo. At the same time, a woman came into the shop and _________ the same question. Without a second _________, the shopkeeper answered, “Banana is $1 and apple is $3 per kilo.” Hearing this, the man stared at shopkeeper in _________. The shopkeeper noticed this immediately and _________ him to wait for a while. The woman took the fruits,paid for them and left _________.

After the woman left with a smile, the shopkeeper looked toward the _________ and said, “I didn’t mean to _________ you.” He continued after a brief _________, “The woman lives in my neighborhood. She is a poor mother of four. I have tried many times to help her but she is not __________ to take any help from anyone in our __________· Then I thought of this way to help her. Whenever she comes, I sell her fruits at the __________ price. This way, she won’t feel that she is being helped and __________ on others. This is the only way I can __________ my help. And whenever this lady comes, my sales __________.”

After he learned the story, tears __________ in the customers eyes. He __________ the shopkeeper and bought fruits without complaining or __________. More importantly, he left with a lesson learned that if you want to __________, you will always find a way and your own __________ will come along.

1.

A．quality

B．variety

C．price

D．taste

2.

A．raised

B．addressed

C．examined

D．explained

3.

A．attempt

B．request

C．option

D．thought

4.

A．excitement

B．joy

C．anxiety

D．shock

5.

A．forced

B．signaled

C．ordered

D．encouraged

6.

A．nervously

B．peacefully

C．cheerfully

D．hurriedly

7.

A．clerk

B．customer

C．visitor

D．neighbor

8.

A．cheat

B．harm

C．frighten

D．ignore

9.

A．check

B．comparison

C．stop

D．preparation

10.

A．content

B．grateful

C．excited

D．ready

11.

A．neighborhood

B．community

C．block

D．department

12.

A．reasonable

B．average

C．half

D．minimum

13.

A．concentrating

B．depending

C．focusing

D．pressing

14.

A．extend

B．receive

C．improve

D．recognize

15.

A．disappear

B．decline

C．increase

D．start

16.

A．dried up

B．welled up

C．slowed down

D．settled down

17.

A．forgave

B．hugged

C．comforted

D．begged

18.

A．bargaining

B．arguing

C．comparing

D．weighing

19.

A．explore

B．serve

C．help

D．connect

20.

A．honor

B．relief

C．praise

D．bless