1 . A Michigan farmer Bristle was digging with a backhoe (反铲挖土机) in one of his wheat fields when — bang — it struck a large bone.
Bristle contacted Fisher, a paleontology (古生物学家) professor at the University of Michigan. Fisher rushed to the farm and identified the bone as a fossil of an Ice Age mammoth (猛犸象). Since it was harvest season, Bristle gave Fisher and his students only one day to remove the rest of the fossils from the ground. The team found 20 percent of the animal’s bones, including its skull, tusks, pelvis, and shoulder blades as well as some teeth, ribs, and other bones.
The age of a mammoth can be determined by counting the rings in one of its tusks. Like the rings in a tree trunk, each ring stands for one year of a mammoth’s life. Fisher thinks that the bones are supposed to belong to male mammoth around forty years old. It was probably a rare hybrid of a woolly mammoth and a Colombian mammoth that lived between 11,700 and 15,000 years ago during the Pleistocene lee Age, when ice sheets covered much of Earth’s land.
The bones appeared to have been cut up and some of them were missing, leading Fisher to conclude that early humans must have killed the animal and stored its meat so they could return to it at a later time. Some other indications of human activity include a stone flake (薄片) that might have been from a cutting tool and the arrangement of the neck bones in order. If the mammoth had died naturally, its bones would have scattered randomly.
In the US, fossils found on private property belong to the owner of the land. However, Bristle donated the fossils to the University of Michigan for further study. Fisher hopes to display the bones at the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History, possibly combined with fiberglass models of bones from other Michigan mammoths to form a complete Mammoth skeleton (骨架).
1. Why was Fisher’s time limited to one day?A.Because the mammoth was a small one. | B.Because it was easy to remove the bones. |
C.Because it was the time of gathering crops. | D.Because Bristle was busy planting in the field. |
A.By counting the bones. | B.By judging the living age. |
C.By measuring the ice sheets. | D.By numbering the tusk rings. |
A.How the mammoth died. | B.Where the missing meat was. |
C.How the stone flake was made. | D.Whether the neck bones scattered. |
A.To own the fossils. | B.To study the mammoth. |
C.To complete the skeleton. | D.To promote the university. |
1. How many aspects of the United Kingdom does the man refer to?
A.Two. | B.Three. | C.Four. |
A.Windsor Castle. |
B.The Tower of London. |
C.The National Gallery. |
A.James Bond. | B.Star Wars. | C.Harry Potter. |
A.Badminton. | B.Basketball. | C.Golf. |
3 . If you’ve ever eaten a free doughnut (甜甜圈) on the first Friday in June, you’ve celebrated the Doughnut Lassies — whether you realized it or not. National Doughnut Day was established to honor the Salvation Army volunteers who fried sugary snacks for World War I soldiers on the front line.
When the US entered World War I in 1917, the Salvation Army, a charity organization, sent about 250 volunteers (who were mostly women) to France, where the American army was stationed. The plan was to bring treats and supplies as close to the front line as possible. But the closer the volunteers got to the action, the fewer resources they could access.
Margaret Sheldon and Helen Purviance were credited with bringing doughnuts to the Wester Front. They had a handful of ingredients, including flour, sugar, animal fats, baking powder and canned milk. Doughnuts were one of the few sweet foods they could make without an oven, and once they had a fire hot enough to heat the oil, they could fry them up fast. The women had the pan to cook them in, but for other parts, they had to get creative. For example, grape juice bottles became rolling pins (擀面杖) when necessary.
Sheldon and Purviance’s pan could fit seven doughnuts at a time, and on day one, they made just 150 doughnuts for the group of 800 men. The soldiers even fought over a doughnut. Then they made some changes to their operation, and eventually made 5,000 doughnuts a day. The snacks were so popular that the volunteers earned the nickname “Doughnut Lassies”, while the soldiers they served were nicknamed “Doughboys”.
The Doughnut Lassies’ impact didn’t end with World War Ⅰ. The American soldiers’ experiences overseas made doughnuts a commonly eaten food for them back home.
1. What is the purpose of the Salvation Army in sending the volunteers?A.To learn about life on the front line. | B.To provide French soldiers with food. |
C.To bring food and supplies to the front line. | D.To increase the number of soldiers on the front line. |
A.Soldiers preferred doughnuts. | B.They were best at making doughnuts. |
C.Doughnuts allowed them to be creative. | D.Doughnuts were their best choice then. |
A.They felt hopeless. | B.They were confused. |
C.They were encouraged. | D.They became a bit angry. |
A.Doughnuts were more popular out of the US. |
B.The American soldiers got tired of doughnuts. |
C.The Doughnut Lassies’ impact didn’t last long. |
D.Doughnuts became popular in the US after the war. |
4 . Abraham Lincoln is considered one of the greatest leaders of America by many Americans. Yet people alive when Lincoln was elected in 1860 would probably be surprised by modern-day opinions about him. He had little formal education or government experience. During the presidential campaign, people made fun of his appearance and his simple way of talking.
Born in a poor family, Lincoln taught himself by reading books and eventually became a lawyer. He was known for being tall and strong. And he was honest.
Due to his political beliefs, the support of anti-slavery northerners gave him the presidency.
The war involved the entire country. At least four million men fought in it. Among the soldiers were African-American and Native-American men. The conflict divided families.
A.As promised, Lincoln sent the supply ships. |
B.Brothers, fathers, and sons fought against each other. |
C.The people he defended in the court called him “Honest Abe”. |
D.But the southern, slave-holding states did not support him. |
E.To everyone’s surprise, the American Civil War lasted more than four years. |
F.Some of his opponents-—especially in southern states—had even bigger concerns. |
G.They warned that he was not very intelligent and would harm the nation’s image. |
As a Chinese invention, almost from the beginning, china was a popular item for export to nearby countries. As early as Roman times, china
Much of the china produced by Jingdezhen during this period was made
6 . The Maginot Line was one of the largest military structures (军事建筑) ever built, second only to the Great Wall of China. It was named after the man, French Minister of War André Maginot, who argued for its construction. André Maginot had fought with the French against the Germans in the First World War. Much of this conflict took place along the Western Front, which was a line of trenches (堑壕) across which the two sides faced one another. Both sides dug in deep and each lost many men over little ground.
Maginot never forgot these bad conditions. Thus he wanted to build a line of defences that would give the French an advantage in a similar conflict. He was concerned that the Germans would attack France again. Germany's population nearly doubled France's. The line of defences that Maginot pictured would allow a smaller French army to hold off a larger German force. In1929, Maginot persuaded the French Parliament to agree with his idea.
Though calling it a line makes it seem thin, the Maginot Line was in fact quite deep. It was fifteen miles wide at some points. There were outposts (前哨) guarded by troops, antitank rails planted in the ground, storage rooms armed with machine guns, and large and small fortresses (碉堡) along the line. Each had halls, lots of supplies, and air conditioning. The Maginot Line would give the French a supreme advantage in the case of a head-on (正面的) attack by the Germans.
Unfortunately for the French, the Germans did not attack head-on. They arranged for a small army in front of the line to attract the French. While the French were waiting, the Germans sent a larger force through Belgium, which is France's northeastern neighbor. The French did have some defences along their border with Belgium, but this part of the Maginot Line had not been strengthened. The Germans quickly attacked these defences. Within five days of their initial attack, they were well into France. Once they were in France, the Germans attempted to capture the main fortresses along the Maginot Line. Soon, Paris was taken and the Maginot Line turned into a failed project.
1. What did André Maginot learn from World War I?A.The importance of setting up a defense line. |
B.The ways of getting France out of conflicts. |
C.The secrets of defeating Germany totally. |
D.The urgency of strengthening armed forces. |
A.The French troops. | B.The guns and fortresses. |
C.The features of the line. | D.The military supplies. |
A.It was of poor quality. | B.Part of it looked strange. |
C.It was too long. | D.Part of it was weak. |
A.They bought off some of the French officers. |
B.They attacked the French army from another side. |
C.They fought with the French army head-on. |
D.They convinced the French army to give up. |
Since their discovery about nine decades ago, the 3,000-year-old Sanxingdui ruins
It took eight years
It has a main body and base. It resembles
Nine of these fruits point upward, each with a bird
This tree doesn't seem to belong to this world. It
8 . There are many interesting stories about Chinese fans in historical records, novels, and legends.
The reason why fans evolved into artwork was largely related to men of letters, who liked to paint or write poetry on fans, and gave them to their friends as gifts.
It has been popular to draw fans or write poems about fans, and paint or write on paper fans. There is a story about Wang Xizhi, known for his Chinese calligraphy(书法). Wang once saw an elderly lady selling fans. The business was not so good. She looked very upset, so Wang decided to help her.
It has been popular to paint on fans since Tang Dynasty, and it became even more popular during the Song and Yuan dynasties.
For thousands of years, Chinese people never stopped innovating fan design, and adopted different materials such as bamboo, palm tree leaves, wood, paper, feathers, silk and bones. They made fans of many shapes, such as circular and square shapes.
A.They asked for better decoration of fans. |
B.Feather fans are famous because of Zhu Geliang |
C.Wang Xizhi taught the old woman to draw on fans |
D.In ancient times, fans also served as the symbol of status. |
E.Artwork on fans is also a unique type of Chinese painting. |
F.Some famous ones are the goose feather fan held by Zhu Geliang. |
G.He wrote a few characters on each fan and told the old woman to raise the price. |
Have you ever watched a scene unfold before your eyes? That's
There
Hand scrolls are usually long and continuous. Each scroll is mounted on a wooden roller with a silk
Unlike hand scrolls, hanging or landscape scrolls are vertical. They are unrolled, and can be hung on a wall and viewed
Chinese scroll painting is a very old art. The
A great hand scroll painted by Ma Yuan titled The Four Sages of Shangshan
The most famous one is the 12th-century work Along the River during the Qingming Festival by Song Dynasty artist Zhang Zeduan.
10 . The hula hoop(呼啦圈) can date back to around 1000 BC. Originally, the hula hoop was made of dried grapevines(葡萄藤).
The more modern version of the hula hoop, which is spun around the waist, was first invented in the 1950s. A plastic hoop created by California’s Wham-O toy company had sold nearly 100 million hula hoops by 1960.
Throughout the United States, the hula hoop craze was large and diverse. But by 1980 the use of hula hoops had begun rapidly fading.
Eventually, the hula hoop was introduced into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 1999, showing its important place within the entertainment and children’s toy industries.
A.It was lighter than the bamboo hoops. |
B.This was not the case, however, in China or Russia. |
C.It was just thrown and rolled down hills in children’s games. |
D.As a combined exercise, it is extremely beneficial to the body. |
E.Not all hula hoop games were played for fun and entertainment. |
F.This created what was known as the “hula hoop craze” during the 1950s. |
G.Today, hula hoping is still common among children as it was during the ancient time. |