1 . Not every author has been bestselling and beloved, but that’s Judy Blume for you.

The One in the Middle Is the Green Kangaroo

Sometimes life as a middle child can feel unbearable — and I would know. Life in the middle can be tough, which is exactly the experience Yong Freddy struggles with in this warmly written 1969 story about the second - grade boy who has begun to feel like “a great big middle nothing”. He has two problems, as far as he can tell: his big brother and his little sister. So what does a kid like him need to do to feel or be special?

The Pain and the Great One

All’s fair in love and war — and siblings (兄弟姐妹) are well familiar with both. The Pain and the Great One, first published in 1974, centers on a third-grade sister and her first-grade brother, each of whom has plenty to say about the other and about the child their parents love best. The short story gives each sibling the opportunity to state just how much of a pain the other is or how “great” they think they are. Of course, in building their rather funny cases, they also point out some very lovable things about each other.

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

Fourth-grader Peter’s life would be good, no question, if it weren’t for his 2-year-old brother, Fudge, who has a talent for ruining everything. How can one little brother do so much damage? And even if he is rather cute when he sleeps, how can Peter love him when he’s awake, breaking Peter’s hopes and dreams?

1. What do we know about middle children from the first book?

A．They are in low spirits.	B．They want to be noticed.
C．They have problematic brothers.	D．They care little about anything.

2. What is a feature of The Pain and the Great One?

A．Humorous cases.	B．Fancy structure.
C．Romantic settings.	D．Lovable language.

3. What do these books have in common?

A．They are intended for parents.	B．They are about adventures.
C．They are related to family life.	D．They are newly published.

2 . Looking for the best music festivals in California in 2024? Well, you’ve come to the right place.

Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival

When: April 12 — 14 &. April 19 — 21, 2024

Where: Empire Polo Club, Indio, California

Coachella is one of California’s oldest and most impressive music & art festivals, and will certainly be a weekend experience that you’ll never forget. Every year it brings an unbelievably quality line-up covering different kinds of music, massively beautiful stage production, and a really fantastic festival atmosphere.

Outside Lands Music Festival

When: August 9 — 11, 2024

Where: Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California Outside Lands is Northern California’s biggest and best music festival, and is definitely an event you’ll fall in love with! While it may be one of the pricier events on the list, it’s worth every penny! The line-ups are always impressively diverse, and the production is truly the best.

Bottle Rock Napa Valley

When: May 24-— 26, 2024

Where: Napa Valley, Northern California

Featuring one of the largest and most diverse line-ups brought to Northern California, Bottle Rock Napa Valley is an annual 3-day festival featuring music, wine, food, and beer! 80⁺ bands on five music stages, great sight lines throughout the event, and tasty food from the Napa Valley’s finest chefs and restaurateurs make every festival-goer feel like a VIP.

Hard Summer Music Festival

When: July 12 — 14, 2024

Where: San Bernadino, California

This annual mega-festival has been a Southern California favorite for over a decade, and always manages to put together an unbelievably impressive line-up, incredible stage production, and overall amazing festival experience. There are exciting events like HARD Day of the Dead, Holy Ship, and HARD Red Rocks. Attending one of their events will always impress!

1. Which of the four music festivals begins the earliest?

A．Bottle Rock Napa Valley.	B．Outside Lands Music Festival.
C．Hard Summer Music Festival.	D．Coachella Valley Music&-Arts Festival.

2. What is special about Outside Lands Music Festival?

A．It lasts for a whole week.	B．It is open to all festival-goers.
C．It charges more for the tickets.	D．It is recognized as the oldest one.

3. Where will Hard Summer Music Festival be held?

A．In Napa Valley.	B．In San Bernadino.
C．At Golden Gate Park.	D．At Empire Polo Club.

3 . 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。

A boy called Mike Duncan came into my school one morning in oversized hand-me-down clothes and worn-out shoes. He was a black-letter sight, standing at the front of our second-grade class. He shifted (转换) from foot to foot as our teacher, Mrs. Lydia wrote his name in the roll book. We weren’t sure what to make of the newcomer in worn-out clothes.

“Attention! This is Mike Duncan,” Mrs. Lydia said with as much enthusiasm (热情) as possible. Looking around and smiling, Mike hoped somebody would smile back. Although nobody did, he kept on laughing from ear to ear anyway.

Unfortunately, Mike had found a firm footing at the bottom of our school’s social ladder (阶梯) by the end of his first week. In fact he was pleasant to be around and was by far the most energetic boy I knew. After lunch each day, we joined forces to conquer (征服) the playground, moving from monkey bars to swing set to sandbox. As we lined up behind Mrs. Lydia for the march back to class, I made up my mind that Mike would remain friendless no longer.

I said one night as Mother pushed me into bed, “Mum, tomorrow is his birthday; and he’s not going to get anything. Mike’s mother worked all day in the orchards (果园) . His special day would go unnoticed.” “Don’t worry,” Mum said as she kissed me good night.

I wished Mike a happy birthday in the next morning; and his smile showed me that he was glad I had remembered. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a terrible day after all. By mid-afternoon I had almost decided that birthdays weren’t that big a deal. Then, as Mrs. Lydia was writing on the blackboard, I heard a familiar sound coming from the hallway.

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。
A voice I knew was singing the birthday song.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Mike generously shared his cake with the class.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Layue falls on the     1     (twelve) month of the traditional Chinese calendar. The Chinese character “La” holds historical significance,     2     (appear) in ancient texts such as Book of Changes and Rites of Zhou.     3     (original), “La” meant “cured meat”. Layue is also the month with the richest traditional customs in one year.

The eighth day of Layue marks the Laba Festival, whose custom on this day is to enjoy Laba porridge. It is a delightful     4     (mix) of grains, peanuts, chestnuts, red dates, lotus seeds, and other ingredients (配料), all of     5     are mixed together to make it a main course of the Laba Festival. In the northern part of China, there is a saying, “Children, don’t be too eager; right after Laba, the new year is     6     its way.” Celebrating Laba means the approach of the Chinese New Year.

The Kitchen God Festival is a widespread custom     7     (observe) across the country. On this day, people would hang images of the Kitchen God     8     his wife around the kitchen stove (炉子). Today, many rural areas still uphold this tradition.

Layue     9     (regard) as preparation for the upcoming Spring Festival. If the Spring Festival is considered the most joyful celebration of the year, many would agree that the joy, noise and expectation of Layue are no     10     (little) significant than the main event.

5 . 4 Reasons Why Wild Animals Are So Important

As we know, the earth gives us food, medicines and materials, often through wild animals. These wild animals are important to our existence. Sadly, they are becoming extinct at an alarming rate. We need to change this loss of nature and create a future where wildlife and people thrive (蓬勃发展) again.     1     Here are some reasons why wild animals are so important to the world at large.

Wild animals keep balance in ecosystems.

    2     If any part is threatened or becomes extinct, this has a knock-on effect on the whole ecosystem. sending shock waves through the environment. For ecosystems to survive and perhaps even thrive, we must protect all of our wildlife.

Diversity (多样性) means healthier ecosystems and healthier wild animals.

When there is a wildlife issue, you’ll often hear the term biodiversity, which refers to the number of species in an ecosystem.     3     Why do we consider this important? A wide variety of animals means greater productivity and better health. If there are fewer animal species, a disease that affects any species spreads faster and more effectively.

    4    

All of the food that we eat comes from an animal or plant. Living without various food sources causes our nutrition (营养) to suffer. Protecting wildlife and its natural habitats strengthens food safety for humans around the world.

Wildlife helps medical research.

Wild animals have helped us find important medicines that help with many diseases.     5     Many medical systems like Chinese traditional medicines still rely on herbs and spices, but even Western medicine have made great progress with wildlife research.

A．All living things are interconnected.

B．Healthy ecosystems mean a lot of diversity.

C．Or we will lose these animals to future generations.

D．People worldwide depend on wildlife for their snack.

E．Wildlife provides important nutrients for the human race.

F．The human race has always turned to nature for medicine.

G．We should notice the influence caused by wildlife on culture.

6 . Researchers have developed a new soft robot design that conducts itself with three behaviours at the same time: rolling (翻滚) forward. turning like a record and following a path that goes around a central point. The equipment, which operates without human or computer control, holds promise for developing soft robots that can be used to AA-head and map unknown environments.

The new soft robots are called twisted ring-bots (扭曲环机器人) . They are made of something like the ribbon (缎带) and then joined together at the end to form a ring.

When the robots are placed on a surface that is at least 55 degrees Celsius, which is hotter than the surrounding air, one part of the ribbon touching the surface becomes smaller, while one part in the air does not. This induces a rolling movement: the warmer the surface, the faster the robot rolls. “The ribbon rolls on its horizontal axis (横轴) , giving the ring forward strength,” says Jie Yin, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

The twisted ring-bot also turns along its central axis. And as the twisted ring-bot moves forward it travels in a path around a central point, basically moving in a large circle. However, if the twisted ring-bot meets a boundary- like the wall of a box-it will travel along the boundary.

The twisted ring-bots are examples of equipment whose behaviour is governed by physical intelligence, meaning their actions are determined by their structural design and the materials they are made of, rather than being directed by a computer or human.

“Soft robotics is still a relatively new field.” Yin says. “Finding new ways to control the movement of soft robots in a repeatable and engineered way moves the field forward. And advancing our understanding of what is possible is exciting.”

1. What makes the robot roll faster and faster?

A．The ribbon.	B．The central axis.
C．The shape and material.	D．The higher surface temperature.

2. How does the author introduce the new soft robots?

A．By explaining the robot’s working ways.	B．By quoting experts’ opinions.
C．By making some comparisons.	D．By offering reasons and results.

3. What is Yin’s attitude towards twisted ring-bots?

A．Unclear.

B．Favourable.

C．Negative.

D．Doubtful.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．The New Soft Robots	B．Ribbons and Their Rolling
C．Three Creative Movements	D．Twisted Rings and the Axis

7 . The African continent has seen its average monthly temperatures rise by 0.5 — 2 degrees Celsius over the past century, with up to another two degrees of warming projected for the next 100 years. The changing climate will break historical rainfall patterns, but which of these, temperature or rainfall, will have the most impact on a species, like rhinos (犀牛) ?

“Generally speaking, most, if not all, species will. in one way or another, be affected by the changing climate,” says lead author Hlelowenkhosi S. Mamba, who completed this research. It is therefore important to catch tendency (趋势) and model futures for some of the world’s weakest species. It can help prepare to reduce climate change’s effects, hence reducing global biodiversity losses.

To understand how our changing climate will affect rhino populations, Mamba and Timothy Randhir, professor of environmental protection, focused their efforts on the five large national parks that are home to most of the rhinos.

Mamba and Randhir then modeled two scenes for each of the parks: the IPCC’s high-emissions (排放) scenes and a more moderate (适度的) emissions scenes. They projected temperature and rainfall for each of the scenes out to 2055 and 2085 to arrive at a possibility that each park would remain suitable for the rhinos.

Nearly every park will become increasingly drier as emissions increase. This is all very bad news for the rhinos, because the team also found that, though the change in rainfall will not be most suitable for the rhinos, the changes in temperature are greater than what the species can bear.

“The temperature conditions in all study parks will become increasingly unsuitable for the species. And under the high-emissions scenes, the possibility of occurrence of the species falls to zero by 2085,” the authors write.

But to be forewarned is to be prepared in advance. “We propose that park managers think now about increasing water supplies, tree cover, watching for stress and planning to allow rhinos to move from one place to another place as the world warms,” says Randhir.

1. Why does the author ask a question in Paragraph 1?

A．To show an evidence.	B．To stress the main idea.
C．To lead in the topic.	D．To offer some background.

2. What does the second paragraph mainly focus on?

A．The means of the research.	B．The content of the research.
C．The process of the research.	D．The significance of the research.

3. What can we know about the research from the text?

A．Changes in rainfall have a greater effect on rhinos.	B．Each park will have no rhinos in 2055.
C．Changes in temperature affect rhinos more.	D．Each park will be warmer by 4. 5℃ in 2085.

4. What does Randhir mean in the last paragraph?

A．Rhinos are better suited to natural growth.	B．Rhinos are in great danger in the five parks.
C．Park managers should plan to protect rhinos.	D．Park managers must pay more attention to nature.

8 . Four Places to Listen to Free Music Online

Pandora

Pandora is a popular Internet radio service that lets users create personalized stations and listen to music. To use Pandora, you will have to create an account using your email address and a password. As you find music you like, you can save songs to your collection. However, you can’t download any specific tracks to your computer or phone.

LiveOne

On LiveOne, you’ll mostly find big artists, bands and songs along with interviews and news. While you won’t be able to stream all songs on demand for free due to licensing restrictions (限制) , you will be able to create a station of similar tracks/artists from nearly any song. There’s a tab (标签) named “My Library” where you can save and share your favourite music.

iHeartRadio

iHeartRadio is a great website or app for listening to live radio stations. You can find local stations or check out stations from around the country. You won’t have to create an account to begin listening on iHeartRadio. but you can make one for free to save stations and playlists. Whether you decide to create an account or not. you won’t be able to download music from iHeartRadio.

Spotify

If you’re looking for free music online, you’ve most likely come across Spotify already. This resource is great for streaming popular hits while discovering new favourites. You can keep track of what you’ve recently played, and “favourite” songs. In addition to music. Spotify offers playlists of its most-played songs and information on local upcoming concerts.

1. Which is a must before using Pandora?

A．Saving some songs.	B．Creating an account.
C．Calling other users.	D．Sending a private email.

2. What can you do on “My Library” of LiveOne?

A．Download popular songs.	B．Make new friends online.
C．Share your favourite music.	D．Discover radio stations.

3. What is special about Spotify?

A．It offers news on local upcoming concerts.	B．It requires no membership card.
C．It allows users to download music for free.	D．It features a station of similar artists.

9 . The polonaise is a traditional Polish dance that is being honored by the United Nations. On December 5, the polonaise entered UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The U.N. organization noted that the dance represents cooperation (合作), understanding, and equality.

The dance is believed to have started in the 18th century. It has been performed at parties for the rich and powerful and at village celebrations. The dance developed from a traditional form called the “walking dance”. By the 18th century, it had become popular at honorable European balls, or dance parties.

In Poland, the polonaise has now become the opening dance at high school pre-graduation balls. Nineteen-year-old Kosmal was among the students at one of Warsaw’s high schools who performed the polonaise this month. She pointed out that although there are conflicts (冲突) between students, they come together when they dance the polonaise. “It’s an amazing moment,” she said.

The polonaise is regularly performed during national anniversaries (纪念日), including the November 11 Independence Day. On this day, people are invited to dance in the streets with officials. Natalia Berna is an 18-year-old student who took part in a large street dance in the central city of Lodz last month. She said the polonaise unites people at a time when the community needs it. She added that it is important to keep the tradition alive.

The leader of the Lodz street dance, Janusz Wielgosz, said the polonaise gives people beautiful enjoyment. “It is a dance that is really very simple, with beautiful music and beautiful costumes. It is worth a try,” he said.

1. What can we know about the polonaise from Kosmal’s words?

A．It helps students leave aside disagreements.	B．It improves students’ confidence.
C．It has gone through a difficult time.	D．It should be recognized worldwide.

2. What is the function of the polonaise according to Natalia Berna?

A．Enriching school life.	B．Developing friendship.
C．Bringing people together.	D．Making Poland world-famous.

3. What did Janusz Wielgosz find in the polonaise?

A．Peace.

B．Beauty.

C．Strength.

D．Confidence.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．Traditional Dance Interests Polish People	B．Famous Dance Performed on Polish Holidays
C．Most Popular Dance Among Polish Students	D．Poland’s Traditional Dance Is Honored by UN

10 . How To Be A Good Friend

How to be a good friend is the quest of the day. Now many of us are tied to our phones, leaving people feeling lonelier than ever before. Here are some ways to be a true friend to someone.

Be encouraging

People occasionally have wanted to do something for so long, only to be discouraged by everyone they know. To be someone’s good friend, it’s important to let them know that you support the decisions they make in their life.     1    , your friends would get better for having your support.

Respect boundaries(边界)

This is a good way that helps people acknowledge their feelings, know what a dangerous situation might be, and eventually keep their friendship safe. A lasting friendship needs to ensure that boundaries are always respected to ensure that their friend always feels respected.     2    .

Be a good listener

Listening is an important skill to develop for being a true friend.     3    . You’ll also need to pay attention to the secret messages that you can only read between the lines. And allow people to communicate their frustrations without giving them advice. They just want to get it off their chest. So you just need to make them feel heard.

    4    

While learning how to be a good friend, you have to be honest and tell the truth.     5    . Human is imperfect. So if you do something wrong, just own it, Tell the person that you dropped the ball. They’ve likely made mistakes too so they’ll likely understand.

A．Be honest

B．Be there in tough times

C．But it’s not as easy as just hearing the words they say

D．Even by telling them a simple “you’re going to be okay”

E．Wise people always know boundaries make true friendship

F．You’ll make mistakes and say or do the wrong things sometimes

G．When someone wants to try something new or pursue their passion