1 . Wholesale prices for gas and electricity are increasing suddenly across Europe,raising the possibility of increases in already-high utility (公共事业）bills and further pain for people who have taken a financial hit fromCOVID-19.

Governments are struggling to find ways to limit costs to consumers as scant natural gas reserves present yet another potential problem, exposing the continent to even more price increases and possible shortages if it’s a cold winter.

In the U.K., many people will see their gas and electricity bills rise next month after the nation’s energy regulator approved a 12% price increase for those without contracts that lock in rates. Officials in Italy have warned that prices will increase by 40% for the quarter that will be billed in October.

There are multiple causes for the price increases, energy analysts say, including tight supplies of natural gas used to generate electricity, higher costs for permits to release carbon dioxide as part of Europe’s fight against climate change, and less supply from wind in some cases.

Analysts at S&P Global Platts say electricity prices have risen due to strong demand from places like data centers and electric cars, but above all because of the rise in the price of natural gas used in generating plants. Utility companies’ exposure to natural gas prices has increased as high-emission coal plants have been retired, while utilities face higher costs for carbon allowances required by the European Union’s emissions trading system, which is aimed at reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

The tight gas market could bite even more sharply if there’s an unusually cold winter. That’s because European distributors did not refill reserves reduced during last winter as they typically had done in summer months. In March 2008, when the freeze named “the beast from the east” hit Europe, industrial users in the U.K got a notice that there was a risk of interruption, although it didn’t come to that.

Could Europe run out of gas? “The short answer is Yes, this is a real risk,” said James Huckstepp, an analyst at S&P Global Platts. “Storage stocks are at record lows and there isn’t currently any spare supply capacity that is exportable anywhere in the world.The longer answer is that it’s hard to predict how it will play out given that Europe has never run out of gas in two decades under the current distribution system.”

1. What does the underlined word “scant” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．Total.

B．Additional.

C．Limited.

D．Regular.

2. What has actually led to the rise of electricity prices?

A．The closure of some coal plants.

B．The great demand for electric cars.

C．The competition between utility companies.

D．The change in the emissions trading system.

3. Why could an unusually cold winter make the gas market tighter?

A．More natural gas will be needed for industrial use.

B．European distributors don’t make good preparations.

C．It is not easy to fill reserves during the cold weather.

D．Utility companies work can be easily interrupted.

4. What can we learn from James Huckstepp’s words in the last paragraph?

A．Europe is expected to seek help from other countries.

B．It is hard to control the gas price in Europe at present.

C．Europe might face a serious shortage of gas in the future.

D．There’s something wrong with Europe’s distribution system.

2 . The Timber rattlesnake is now on the endangered species list, and is extinct in two eastern states in which it once ______.

A．thrived

B．swelled

C．prospered

D．flourished

3 . Ahh... Fish, chips and mushy peas! There is nothing more British than fish and chips. Freshly cooked, boiling hot fish and chips, topped with salt and seasoned with vinegar, packed in newspaper and eaten out-of-doors on a cold and wintry day — it simply cannot be beaten!

    1    

Both Lancashire and London claim to be the first to invent this famous meal. Chips were a cheap, basic food of the industrial north while fried fish was introduced in London’s East End.     2     So was born our national dish of fish and chips!

    3     Mr. Lees sold fish and chips from a wooden shelter in the market. Later he moved the business to a permanent shop across the road. However in London, it is said that Joseph Malin, a Jewish immigrant, opened a fish and chip shop in Cleveland Way within the sound of Bow Bells in the 1860s.

Fish and chip shops were originally small family businesses, often run from the front room of the house and were commonplace by the late 19^th century. Through the latter part of the 19th century and well into the 20th century, the fish and chip trade expanded greatly to satisfy the needs of the growing industrial population of Great Britain. Fish and chips became vital to the diet of the ordinary people.     4    

In 1999, the British consumed nearly 300 million servings of fish and chips. That equates to six servings for every man, woman and child in the country.     5     That’s eight for every one Burger King restaurant, making British Fish and Chips the nation’s favourite take-away.

A．It quickly became a favourite of the workers.

B．People soon decided to put fried fish and chips together.

C．John Lees owned a restaurant and sold the famous pairing.

D．So how, when and where did this British dish come about?

E．There are now around 8,500 fish and chip shops across the UK.

F．Some shops had to employ doormen to control the queue at busy times.

G．The first fish and chip shop in Lancashire is thought to have opened in 1863.

4 . The program is 90 minutes of_____ Indian folk dance, live music and storytelling.

A．diplomatic

B．heroic

C．dynamic

D．specific

5 . HANDSTITCHED WORLDS: THE CARTOGRAPHY OF QUILTS

Quilts (床罩) are a narrative art; with themes that are political, spiritual, communal, or commemorative, they are infused with history and memory, mapping out intimate stories and legacies through a handcrafted language of design. Handstitched Worlds: The Cartography of Quilts is an invitation to read quilts as maps, tracing the paths of individual histories that illuminate larger historic events and cultural trends.

Spanning the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries, this insightful and engaging exhibition brings together 18 quilts from the collection of the American Folk Art Museum, New York, representing a range of materials, motifs, and techniques from traditional early-American quilts to more contemporary sculptural assemblages. The quilts in Handstitched Worlds show us how this too-often overlooked medium balances creativity with tradition, individuality with collective zeitgeist. Like a road map, these unique works offer a path to a deeper understanding of the American cultural fabric.

Number of Works:18 quilts

Organized by: American Folk Art Museum, New York

Approximate size:175-200 linear feet

Security: Moderate security

Participation Fee: Please inquire

Shipping: IA&A makes all arrangements; exhibitors pay outgoing shipping costs within the contiguous U.S.

Booking Period:12 weeks

Tour: June 2021—August2024

Contact: TravelingExhibitions@ArtsandArtists.org

Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI

June 12, 2021—August 29, 2021

Washington State Historical Society, Tacoma, WA

September 17, 2021—January 23, 2022

Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT

February 19, 2022—May 14, 2022

Fort Wayne Muesum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN

June 18, 2022—September 11, 2022

AVAILABLE

October 2022—January 2023

Dane G. Hansen Memorial Museum, Logan, KS

February 17,2023—May 14, 2023

AVAILABLE

June 2023—December 2023

Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, MS

January 30, 2024—April 21, 2024

AVAILABLE

May 2024—August 2024

All tour dates can be customized to meet your scheduling needs. Please contact Traveling Exhibitions @ Artsand Artists.org for more information.

1. What is the purpose of the exhibition of Handstitched Worlds: The Cartography of Quilts?

A．To promote creativity and individuality thorough the engaging exhibition.

B．To provide an opportunity for visitors to learn to make quilts stitch by stitch.

C．To give visitors an insight into the history and culture of America in specific periods.

D．To enrich the understanding of the American culture by a tour visit to museums across America.

2. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the article?

A．The exhibition is free both for the exhibitors and for the visitors.

B．Exhibitors that are interested can choose whatever dates they want.

C．The artistic and historic value of handstitched quilts used to be neglected.

D．Exhibitors that are interested can book the exhibition 12 weeks in advance.

3. The article is written to _________.

A．exhibitors

B．visitors

C．artists

D．historians

6 . 唯有重视科学民主之进步，方可在那个艰苦卓绝的年代造就勇于担当勇攀高峰的青年。（汉译英）

7 . In some cities of North China, the noise pollution is as pronounced as that in Tokyo.

A．contemptuous

B．contagious

C．conspicuous

D．presumptuous

8 . One of the roles of the Nobel Prize for literature is to shine a light on someone who has been less visible than they deserve. That role was _______ this year in the announcement of Abdulrazak Gurnah as winner.

Unlike previous popular recipients living in Britain, he is not a _______. He could, as he said after the announcement, have reached more readers, but his publications _______ to grant him that. His publisher felt sorry for the fact that he “is one of the greatest living African writers; yet no one has ever _______ him,” but with this he did not agree: “I didn’t think I was ignored.”

There is a(n) _______ , here, that has to do with who is doing the looking, and what counts as officially being noticed. There is also a point of _______: calling Gurnah an African writer. In fact, while that seems to broaden horizons, it narrows and distances what he is doing. Gurnah was born in Zanzibar, and left for Britain when he was 18, _______ regional conflicts for what he hoped would be calmer waters, which turned out to be stronger dark current. He has lived in Britain ever since.

He began and stuck to writing to _______, to himself, of the shock -- of racism, rejection, poverty and loneliness. His ten novels return to it _______, which begins in 1996’s Admiring Silence. His work exists because of Britain as well as Zanzibar; it may ________ both or wholly neither. It arrives out of a(n) ________ of English literature (Gurnah is professor of literature at the University of Kent), and his first language, the rhythms and stories of Islam.

________, many of the UK's thirteen Nobel-winning writers were born elsewhere as by 2019, 14% of the UK’s population were born abroad. People might also be astonished at how many of those countries were once part of the British empire. Gurnah has spoken of how much of the world is still processing the wounds that colonialism ________, especially the experience of “losing your place in the world”-- where place is not just ________, but also belonging, status and culture.

In this sense, Gurnah’s work, which ________ those who might not have been remembered in history--shopkeeper, homemakers, students and refugees, could not be more British. But, more importantly, it could not be more universal.

1.

A．assumed

B．fulfilled

C．interpreted

D．handled

2.

A．household name

B．black horse

C．new face

D．walking dictionary

3.

A．demanded

B．tended

C．qualified

D．failed

4.

A．cast doubt on

B．shown sympathy for

C．taken any notice of

D．put trust in

5.

A．bridge

B．gulf

C．opposition

D．association

6.

A．illustration

B．definition

C．navigation

D．accusation

7.

A．prizing

B．initiating

C．fighting

D．escaping

8.

A．take care

B．take charge

C．make sense

D．make sure

9.

A．repeatedly

B．periodically

C．scarcely

D．accidentally

10.

A．bother with

B．contribute to

C．consist of

D．admit to

11.

A．spite

B．knowledge

C．empathy

D．necessity

12.

A．Obviously

B．Naturally

C．Consequently

D．Strikingly

13.

A．imposed

B．healed

C．received

D．examined

14.

A．psychological

B．geographical

C．ideological

D．demographical

15.

A．discounts

B．awards

C．spotlights

D．evaluates

9 . Giorgio, now fifteen, and Lucia, also in her teens, were reaching the ______ of their adolescence.

A．crisis

B．criterion

C．causality

D．credibility

10 . No supportive words could ever_____ for the pain of being separated from her children for 10 years.

A．compensate

B．compromise

C．commence

D．compliment