1 .

Name of the country	The People’s Republic of China
Capital city	Beijing is the capital of the People’s Republic of China. 43.5 meters above sea level, Beijing covers an area of 16,808 square kilometers and has a resident population of 21.7 million (the year 2017). Under the city’s control there are 10 districts and 8 counties. Beijing’s history as a city can date back to 3,000 years ago. Its time-honored history left Beijing plenty of historical relics and colorful customs. As the center of the country, here gathers the offices of the Party, the Government and the Military, as well as headquarters of national companies, industrial associations and financial institutions. Beijing is in the central place of the nation’s financial decisions and macro-control. It is also China’s most prosperous city in terms of science, education and culture, because it covers all subjects of sciences and has strong research capabilities. Beijing is the communication pivot between China and the international community and, the most important center for international exchanges.
Population	China has a population over 1.39 billion people (the year 2017), and over 58.52% of the total (the year 2017) are distributed in urban area. Strict population controls was in place for several decades, but now two-child policy has been carried out.
Area	China has a territory area of 9.6 million square km, second to Russia and Canada, with a sea area of about 4.73 million square kilometers.
Location	In East Asia, border on the west Pacific Ocean
National flag	The National Flag of the PRC is a red rectangle emblazoned with five stars. The proportion of its length and height is 3 to 2. The upper left of the face of the Flag is set with five yellow five-pointed stars. One of the stars is bigger than the others, with its circumcircle’s diameter being three-tenth of the height of the Flag, and is placed in the left; the other four stars are smaller, with their circumcircle’s diameter being one-tenth of the height of the Flag, surrounding the big star on its right in the shape of an arch.
National anthem	March of the Volunteers (lines: Arise, those who do not want to be slaves! We will use our flesh and blood to build another Great Wall. China has reached the brink of national collapse. All the people have been making their last outcry. Arise! Arise! Arise! All our hearts become one. Let us face the enemy’s gunfire. March on! Let us face the enemy’s gunfire. March on! March on! March on! On!)
National Emblem	The National Emblem of the PRC features Tiananmen Gate beneath the five shining stars, encircled by ears of grain and with a cogwheel at the bottom. The ears of grain, stars, Tiananmen and cogwheel are gold; the field within the circle is red, as are the ribbons festooning the bottom of the circle.
National flower	Peony
National Animal	giant pandas
Ethnic groups	There are 56 ethnic groups in China. The Han people make up 92 percent of the country’s total population, totaling 1159.4 million; and the other 55 ethnic groups, 8 percent, totaling 106.43 million.
Languages	Of the 56 ethnic groups in China, the Hui and Manchu use the same language as Han people, while the rest groups have their own spoken and written languages.
Written languages	23 ethnic groups have their own characters.
Religion	The main religions are Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Christianity, and Catholicism. Chinese citizens’ right of the freedom of religious belief is protected by the Constitution and laws.
Main festivals	New Year’s Day (January 1), the Spring Festival (the New Year’s Day by Chinese lunar calendar), International Labor Day (May 1), and the National Day (October 1)
Currency	Renminbi (RMB) yuan
Time difference	8 hours earlier than the Greenwich
Climate	Most of the country is in the temperate zone, although geographically the country stretches from the tropical and subtropical zones in the south to the frigid zone in the north.
Topography	High in its west and low in its east: mountain areas 33.3%, plateaus 26%, basins 18.8%, plains 12% and hills 9.9%.
Mountains	Among the 19 mountains over 7,000 meters high in the world, seven are in China. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, known as “the roof of the world”, has many high mountains. The Himalayas, with an average elevation of 6,000 meters, have the world’s highest peak Mount Qomolangma, 8,848 meters above sea level.
Rivers	The Yangtze River, 6,300 km long, is the third longest in the world after the Nile and the Amazon. The Yellow River, the second longest in China, stretching 5,464 km.
Canal	The Grand Canal, 1,801 km long, is the longest man-made river in the world. Its cutting began in the fifth century BC.
Lakes	The Poyang Lake on the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River is China’s largest freshwater lake, with an area of 3583 sq. km; the Qinghai Lake on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the country’s largest salt lake, covering 4583 sq. km.
History	China is one of the world’s oldest civilizations with a chronicled history of more than 5,000 years. China has gone over a long history of primitive society, slavery society, feudal society and semi-feudal semi-colonial society and the present socialist society. In 221 BC, Qinshihuang established the Qin Dynasty, the first feudal autocracy in Chinese history, therefore unveiling a 2,000-year period of feudalism which was to last through a succession of dynasties such as the Han, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing, a period which finally met its end in the bourgeois democratic Revolution of 1911 by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. October 1, 1949 saw the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
Famous Tourist Attractions	Tiananmen Square, Badaling Great Wall, the Imperial Palace, the Summer Palace, the Water Cube, Chengde Imperial Summer Resort, Hulunbuir Pasture Land, Shenyang Imperial Palace, the Bund, the Oriental Pearl Tower, Mount Huang, Mount Lu, Mount Tai, the Longmen Grottoes, the Three Gorges, the Potala Palace, figurines of soldiers and horses from the Qin Mausoleum.
Traditional Festivals	Spring Festival, New Year’s Day, Lantern Festival, National Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Festival.

1. Describe the National Flag and its meaning.
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2. Describe the National Emblem and its meaning.
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3. Please list some main festivals of China?
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4. Which time zone does China lie in?
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5. What is The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau known as?
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6. Which is the longest river in China?
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7. Please list some famous tourist attractions in China.
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8. Please list some typical traditional festivals.
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2 .

China is a unified nation consisting of many different ethnic groups. Fifty-six different ethnic groups make up the great Chinese national family. Because the Han people accounts for more than ninety percent of China’s population, the remaining fifty-five groups are generally referred to as “ethnic minorities”. Next to the majority Han, the Mongolian, Hui, Tibetan, and Uygur peoples comprise the largest ethnic groups. Although China’s ethnic minorities do not account for a large portion of the population, they are distributed over a vast area, living in every corner of China.

Particularly since the achievement of China’s opening and reform policy, the central government has increased investment in minority areas and accelerated their opening to the outside world. This has resulted in a rise of economic development in these areas. Each of China’s ethnic minority groups possesses a distinctive culture. The Chinese government respects minority customs, and works to preserve, study, and collect the cultural artifacts of China’s ethnic minority groups. The government vigorously supports the development of minority culture and the training of minority cultural workers, and fosters the development of traditional minority medicine.

The relation among China’s ethnic groups can be described as “overall integration, local concentration, and mutual interaction.” Concentrations of ethnic minorities reside within predominantly Han areas, and the Han people also reside in minority areas, indicating that there have been extensive exchanges among China’s ethnic groups since ancient times. With the development of the market economy, interaction among ethnic groups has become even more active in the areas of government, economics, culture, daily life, and marriage. Linked by interdependence, mutual assistance, and joint development, their common goals and interests creating a deep sense of solidarity, China’s ethnic groups resemble a great national family, together building Chinese civilization. (290 words)

1. How many peoples are there in the People’s Republic of China?
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2. Can you list some minorities of China?
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3. Can you talk about typical character of some minorities of China?
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3 . The world’s population reached five billion on the day I was born. That was in Indonesia back in 1987, and my parents was shocked that there were so many people on the planet.     1     In October 2011, the seven billionth baby was born, and experts predict that there will be ten billion of us before the end of this century.

    2     If you said “hello to a different person every second, it would take you 222 years to greet everyone on the planet. If seven billion people made a human chain with their hands, the chain would go to the moon and back nine times.

The human population has never been bigger, but in some ways the planet seems to begetting unbelievably smaller. In the past, travellers from Europe to Indonesia spent months at sea. Now you just have to sit on a plane for a few hours. When you arrived in another country a hundred years ago, you saw unfamiliar styles of clothing and buildings and discovered a completely different culture. In many places today, clothing and new buildings are very similar, and people enjoy the same things.     3    

Even the languages that we use are becoming more global. There are around seven thousand languages in use today.     4     I grew up in a small village where everyone spoke Baras, one of Indonesia’s local languages. Today, like most of the youth from my village, I live in the capital, Jakarta, and speak Indonesian there. The only regular Baras speakers at present are the older people who have stayed in the country, so the language is threatened with extinction.

A．But the number is decreasing fast.

B．Although we are on different continents, we are starting to live the same lives.

C．The planet might be a lot more peaceful if that were the case.

D．However, since then the population has continued to increase at an alarming rate.

E．A number as big as seven billion is hard to imagine.

F．With only one language left, there will be no culture difference in the world.

4 . COVID-19 shutdowns forced people out of work and pushed tens of millions into poverty worldwide. Governments tried hard to provide aid. It was easy in a small country, but difficult for a country with large population and vast rural areas.     1     Doing a detailed, nationwide, house-to-house survey takes people time and money. Luckily, satellites can see poverty from space.

Researchers have been finding ways to identify areas of wealth and poverty in satellite images. Through some satellite data and aerial images of one town or another, you can sort of tell whether it’s wealthy or not. Wealthier homes tend to have metal roofs while poor homes tend to have thatched roofs. Wealthier neighborhoods have paved roads and bigger plots of lands, more spaced out.     2     The researchers trained artificial intelligence (AI) to recognize these patterns.

    3     The researchers put AI to work studying patterns of mobile phone use in those regions. Rich people will make just more phone calls than poor people. They also might make more expensive international calls. They might use more mobile data because they have smartphones.     4    

The researchers use the system to identify about 60,000 people to receive benefits. The advantage of the satellite imagery and phone data approach is that it’s extremely fast and very convenient.     5     In shocks like climate disasters where there’s no time or way to get detailed information on the ground, satellites mobile phones and AI could help deliver aid quickly to people in need.

A．It was opposite in a big country.

B．How do they locate the neediest people?

C．So there’s a lot of information in the images.

D．Most importantly, it’s very cheap to carry out.

E．Worse still, it’s not so economical as a house-to-house survey.

F．However, in general, poorer people will just have feature phones.

G．What the researchers did next was to target the neediest people in those regions.

5 . Take a battlefield tour of WW I in 1917

On Labor Day, I watched a British movie named 1917. As indicated by the title, 1917 is set in the disorder and confusion of World War I.     1    , separating British and German troops.

Two British young soldiers, Blake and Schofield, are awakened from what could have only been a few minutes of sleep.     2    . A few miles away, another company (连队) including Blake’s brother, has planned an attack in a few hours, designed to push the Germans back even farther following a recent retreat (撤退). However, recent intelligence suggests that the retreat is a trick that will land them in an ambush (埋伏) that will cost thousands of British lives.     3    , so Blake and Schofield are ordered to head on foot to that company in order to call off the attack before it can start, a journey that, will force them to travel through the enemy territory. They witness carnage (大屠杀), and one of them happens to stick his hand into the open wound of a dead body.

The movie is not only known for its unbroken shot (连续镜头) but also for its adaptation of a true story from its director Sam Mendes’ grandfather. Through the eyes of Blake and Schofield, the movie shows the horror of a war that cost the lives of countless innocent people. As US scientist Benjamin once said, “    4    .”

Through this classic and moving movie, we can learn the preciousness of peace and the evil of war.     5    . We ought to always think about how we can prevent war and how we can achieve peace.

A．It can lead to disorder

B．The radio line was down

C．They join the army during World War I

D．There never was a good war, or a bad peace

E．They are ordered to report for a new assignment

F．We also know that we should always try our best to defend the former

G．It takes place in and around the so-called “no man’s land” in northern France

6 . Sharon Estill Taylor has no firsthand memories of her father. The World War II fighter pilot was shot down over Germany in April 1945, when Taylor was just three weeks old. When Taylor was young, her grandmother often shared stories about their fallen hero. “Nana, it’s OK,” Taylor assured her, “I’m going to find him and bring him home.”

Grandmother gave Taylor a silver box containing some 450 handwritten letters between her parents, spanning from their high school to the year 1945. Also included were six months’ worth of unopened letters. Taylor learned that on April 13, 1945, Estill had taken off to attack a railway station and destroy Nazi supply lines. She found a reference to a possible crash site near the town of Elsnig in eastern Germany.

With the collapse of the Berlin Wall, it became possible for Taylor to visit the potential crash site. She connected with German military historian Hans-Guenther Ploes, who agreed to help her try to find and identify any aircraft and human remains. In 2005, a team, accompanied by Ploes and Taylor, led a three-week unearthing. From the moment she set foot on the site, Taylor could feel that her dad was there. DNA analysis confirmed that the remains were his. On a sunny day, Taylor and her family buried her father’s remains at Arlington National Cemetery. Beyond fulfilling her promise to her grandmother, Taylor says her mission has been to get closer to her father and his legacy.

She has also come to realize that there’s an entire population of Americans who’ve lost parents and loved ones in military conflicts overseas and wish they knew more. Taylor shares her story widely, raising awareness of soldiers who never return from war and the significance of recovery efforts. An estimated 81,000 American service members’ bodies remain unaccounted for from past conflicts, but fortunately there are constant efforts to locate the fallen and bring relief to their families.

Taylor will never know exactly what her father’s final moments were like but she feels, in a way, that father has finally come home.

1. What can we infer from the first two paragraphs?

A．Taylor’s father delivered supplies in the war.

B．Taylor got along well with her father as a kid.

C．The battle Taylor’s father attended was documented.

D．Taylor’s grandmother got to know all about the letters.

2. What probably discouraged Taylor from seeking her father at first?

A．No one was willing to assist her.	B．Germany wasn’t reunited at that time.
C．There weren’t any clues about the battle.	D．Science and technology were not advanced

3. Why does Taylor want others to know her story?

A．To help make her grandmother’s wish come true.

B．To let the readers know more about World War II.

C．To pay her respect to fallen heroes like her father.

D．To show the possibility of regaining heroes’ remains.

4. Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?

A．Cherish Parents’ Love	B．Let Heroes Return Home
C．Never Forget the History	D．Meet Grandmother’s Wish

7 . Six months ago, 28-year-old Danny Wallace, who earns his living as a TV comic and “ideas” man, had a great idea. What if he started his own country and invited anyone who wanted to join him to become a citizen? So, naming himself King Danny I and declaring his one-bedroom flat in East London an independent state, he set about taking the necessary steps to make his dream come true. He even documented his progress in his BBC2 series How To Start Your Own Country, which comes to the end of its six-week run on Wednesday.

Over the six weeks, Danny explored the possibilities of forming his own country. The first thing on his agenda was to hand in his Declaration of Independence to the prime minister. With this out of the way, he was free to start thinking about writing a constitution and setting up a government. Then he was off to design his own flag and record his own national anthem and even got someone to design possible postage stamps of his country, with his face on them!

The final thing Danny had to do was to find a name for his country. At his request, citizens sent in thousands of suggestions as to what this new country could be called. Ideas ranged from Flatland to Wallaceland! But, in the end, the final selection came down to just two: Home or Lovely. Aiming to become the most democratic democracy in the world where its citizens have the opportunity to enjoy equality, King Danny achieved a world first and let the people decide. Lovely finally stood out.

Whether the country will continue to grow will very much depend on how busy its creator is. And, as Danny Wallace is much in demand for several other TV projects, it might fall to other members of his government to keep things running. But with elections promised every six months, the creation of the University of Lovely and several sporting events planned over the coming weeks, there are plenty of activities to keep the citizens of Lovely occupied for quite a while yet.

1. What does Danny Wallace’s “great idea” in Paragraph 1 refer to?

A．Making a documentary.	B．Founding a new country.
C．Owning an independent state.	D．Choosing actors for a TV show.

2. What’s crucial to carrying out Danny’s great idea?

A．Drafting a constitution.	B．Getting official approval.
C．Analyzing the possibilities.	D．Composing a national anthem.

3. What can be inferred from the final decision on the name Lovely?

A．Lovely beat Home in the final selection.

B．The world is created by ordinary people.

C．The citizens’ rights of a country are respected.

D．Lovely signals the successful rule of King Danny.

4. What’s mainly discussed in the last paragraph?

A．The future of Lovely.	B．The life of the citizens.
C．The daily routine of Danny Wallace.	D．The establishment of the University of Lovely.

8 . The Most Populous Cities in the World

The cities listed below are the most populous (人口稠密的) in the world, according to a 2018 U. N. report.

Tokyo, Japan

Population in Urban Area: 37,340,000

Population in City Area: 13,960,000

Tokyo is the most populated city in the world and the largest “Megacity” in the world.

The city called the “Capital of the East” is located on the eastern coast of the Japanese main island of Honshu.

Delhi, India

Population in Urban Area: 31,181,000

Population in City Area: 20,591,874

Delhi, also known as the National Capital Territory of India is the largest city in the country. According to a U. N. report, the Indian capital is expected to be the spot of the world’s second most populous city through at least 2030.

Shanghai, China

Population in Urban Area: 27,796,000

Population in City Area: 22,315,474

This is China’s most populated and also wealthiest city. Situated in the Yangtze River Delta, in eastern China, it has a huge business district, two large airports (Pudong and Hongqiao) and the world’s fastest train (the Shanghai Maglev).

Sao Paulo, Brazil

Population in Urban Area: 22,043,028

Population in City Area: 10,021,295

This busy metropolis (大都市) in southeast Brazil, is the largest city of the Southern Hemisphere (半球) and the largest Portuguese-speaking city in the world.

1. How many people are there in City Area of Delhi?

A．10,021,295.

B．20,591,874.

C．22,315,474.

D．13,960,000.

2. Which of the following cities is the richest in its country?

A．Tokyo, Japan.

B．Delhi, India.

C．Shanghai, China.

D．Sao Paulo, Brazil.

3. What do the listed cities have in common?

A．They belong to the same hemisphere.

B．They are the largest cities in their countries.

C．They all have a larger population in their countries.

D．They are all the richest in their own countries.

9 . One of the best ways to understand war comes from studying letters written by soldiers on the battlefront. During the participation in World War II, some soldiers fought across Europe, Africa and Asia. Many soldiers wrote moving letters home about their experiences. The following accounts tell the stories of soldiers who fought around the world and experienced the terror of wars.

Edgar Shepard wrote to the parents of Russell Whittlesey, who saved his life on Guadalcanal, an island in the South Pacific. “Russ and I went through several battles together, never leaving each other’s side. I was hit and dropped to the ground. With Russ’s assistance，I could move a bit. Then we met a group of Japanese soldiers. Russ stood over me with a knife in hand while three guys charged him with bayonets (刺刀). He managed to kill the first two, but he was attacked by the third one in the back. He lay down beside me and said, ‘Well, Shep, I guess this is where we came in’. Then he went to sleep.”

Frank J Conwell, 34 years old, was attracted by the beauty of the Ardennes Forest in Belgium, where so many soldiers died in the Battle of the Bulge. He wrote to his aunt and uncle on February 6,1945. “There’s a lot of snow on the Western Front these days, and the country looks like a Christmas card. But the snowmen are German soldiers. The snowballs are bombs. And when you’re wet and cold there’s no place to go, nothing to look forward to, nothing but snow.”

Lawrence Leonard, was stationed in Japan after the war. On November 3,1945, he wrote to a friend back home. “Here are greetings from downtown Kure. But it really isn’t ‘downtown’ because there just isn’t a town. All that is left of Kure is a pile of ashes and burned steel…”

1. What does the author intend to do by sharing the letters?

A．Prove wars are unavoidable.	B．Call on people to hate wars.
C．Help us to understand wars.	D．Tell the history of World War II.

2. To whom did Edgar Shepard write the letter?

A．His parents.

B．His friend.

C．Russ’s parents.

D．Russ.

3. What can we infer from the 3rd paragraph?

A．Belgium was filled with happy atmosphere.

B．The battle on the Western Front was violent.

C．Frank missed his family while in Belgium.

D．Frank didn’t like Belgium’s cold weather.

4. Whose letter can reflect wars’ destruction to a place?

A．Edgar Shepard’s.	B．Frank J Conwell’s.
C．Russell Whittlesey’s.	D．Lawrence Leonard’s.

10 . Team up with former enemies

Dozens of Israeli climate-tech companies are teaming up with once-unfriendly neighbors in the Arab world, working together to stop the threat that climate change will render much of their region uninhabitable.

“It's a matter of human existence,” said AI Anoud AI Hashmi, chief executive of the Futurist Company in the UAE, whose government-supported project-management firm has been working with Israeli companies and organizations since the relation-normalization deals were signed.     1     “We need to put the same money, the same commitment that we used for war toward an ecosystem for peace and prosperity in the region.”

Elad Levi, the vice president for the Middle East and Africa for the Israeli company Netafim, agreed that “there's an opportunity to work together.” The company invented the world's first drip-irrigation systems, developed at tiny Kibbutz Hatzerim in Israel's Negev desert, which covers half of the country.

    2     They signed peace treaties with Israel decades ago but their relations with the Jewish state long remained chilly. Last month, Israel announced plans to sell 50 million cubic meters of water a year to Jordan, the largest known water sale in the history of the two countries. The arrangement is possible because of Israel's development of desalination plants, which now supply 80 percent its drinking water.

“It's not out of generosity,” said Gidon Bromberg, the Israeli director of the regions environmental organization Eco-peace. “It's out of an understanding that Jordan is particularly vulnerable.     3    .”

Since the normalization deals, Israeli business with the Arab world has risen quickly. Trade between Israel and Arab countries has grown 234%, according to Israel's Bureau of statistics. He agreements “have opened the floodgates,” said Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, deputy mayor of Jerusalem. She estimated that trade just between Israel and the UAE has reached $1 billion.

In Glasgow, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett pledged net-zero emissions by 2050. In a meeting with Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Bennett announced plans for a climate-change working group focused on water solutions and other regional climate issues.     4    

A．It is Israel's own security needs to help Jordan meet its water needs.

B．Despite Israel's advances in climate technology, scientists warned that decades of governmental neglect have left the country unprepared for the coming crisis.

C．He said Israel was committed to exporting its "brainpower" and experience as its main contribution to the global fight against climate change.

D．Over the years, Israel has used technology to transform the vast desert into an agricultural region where high-tech, water-saving farms grow crops.

E．She insists that the region can no longer afford to spend resources on conflicts.

F．The normalization agreements have also given a boost to Israel's economic ties with Jordan and Egypt.