1 . In 1823, a young woman noticed a strange fossil (化石) on a beach near Lyme Regis, England. She dug out the bones and had them carried to her home.She carefully arranged the skeleton(骨架) on a table. Then she saw something extraordinary. The creature’s neck was a meter long-more than half the length of its body. It was unlike any animal living on Earth.

Even at a young age, Mary Anning had a talent for spotting unusual fossils. Her father died in 1810, leaving her family in.debt, so Mary began selling her fossils to collectors. At 12, she made her first major discovery—a crocodile-like skull(头骨) with a long skeleton. It turned out to be a sea creature that lived long ago. Named ichthyosaur, or “fish-lizard”, it was the first extinct animal known to science.

Fossil hunting brought in money, but it was a dangerous job. One day, a rock fall killed her dog and almost buried Mary. Despite the dangers, she continued to look for mew finds The long-necked fossil she unearthed in 1823 was another long-dead sea reptile(爬行动物). Known as a plesiosaur, it would inspire legends—including that of the Loch Ness Monster.

Mary was not only a skilled fossil hunter; she also carefully examined and recorded her finds. However, she wasn’t widely recognized in the scientific community. Only one of her scientific writings got published in her lifetime, in 1839. She was also not allowed to join London’s Geological Society, as membership was only available to men.

Mary Anning died in 1847, but her contributions have not been forgotten. Her finds are now displayed in museums in London and Paris. The beach near her home is a UNFSCO World Heritage Site, known as the Jurassic Coast. Her life continues to inspire visitors hoping to find their own fossil wonders. According to Britain’s Natural History Museum, Mary Anning was “the greatest fossil hunter the world has ever known”.

1. The first paragraph is written to_________.

A．stress the hard work Mary Anning carried out

B．prove the uniqueness of Mary Anning;s finds

C．introduce the readers to Mary Anning;s story

D．show the importance of Mary Anning;s discovery

2. What can be known about Mary Anning’s fossil hunting experience?

A．Her main purpose was to make scientific contributions.

B．She found it hard to make ends meet as a fossil hunter.

C．She made her first major discovery in 1823.

D．She had a narrow escape from a rock fall.

3. Which of the following would the author probably agree with?

A．Mary Anning deserved more credit.

B．More people should join in fossil hunting.

C．The Jurassic Coast is in need of protection.

D．Mary Anning is the greatest scientist in the world.

4. How is the passage mainly developed?

A．By providing examples.

B．By making comparisons.

C．By following the order of time.

D．By following the order of importance.

2 . Ancient Chinese folk paintings and many other art styles have been passed down from generation to generation, and are still practiced in different parts of China. Here's a look at four unique Chinese folk-art forms.

Chinese Opera is the traditional form of Chinese drama. According to incomplete statistics, in China's various ethnic regions there are about more than 360 kinds of operas. The most famous ones include Peking Opera, Kunqu Opera, Yueju Opera, Yuju Opera, Sichuan Opera, Fujian Opera, Hebei opera, Huangmei Opera arid so on, in total more than 50, among which Peking Opera is the most popular in China.

Shadow Play (皮影戏) dates back to Western Han Dynasty in Shaanxi more than 1,000 years ago. The moving figures, usually carved out from leather, are operated by folk artists, accompanied by music and singing. It is the world's first dubbed (配音的) motion picture art form, thus considered the “ancestor” of modern film. Today this art form is still popular in northern China.

Paper-cutting is one of the most popular traditional decorative arts in China with a long history. Paper-cutting can be seen across China and it has even developed into different local genres (流派). They are usually used to decorate gates and windows during festivals.

The Kite was invented by Chinese people. According to legend the earliest kite in China was a wooden bird by Mo Di in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Later his student Lu Ban improved the tech and used bamboo as material to make a kite. Today, various kite-flying activities can be found in different regions of China. Shandong Weifang Kite Festival is held every year and attracts lots of kite lovers and travelers.

1. Which Chinese Opera is the most popular in China?

A．Peking Opera	B．Kunqu Opera
C．Yueju Opera	D．Yuju Opera

2. Why is Shadow Play considered the ancestor of modern film?

A．It has a history of more than 1,000 years.

B．It was operated by ancient folk artists.

C．It is accompanied by music and dances on the stage.

D．It is the world's first dubbed motion picture art form.

3. What was the earliest kite made of in China?

A．Paper	B．Wood
C．Bamboo	D．Leather

4. What is the main topic of this article?

A．Chinese folk art	B．Chinese folk paintings
C．Chinese operas	D．Chinese folk plays

3 . To take the apple as a forbidden fruit is the most unlikely story the Christians ever cooked up. For them, the forbidden fruit from Eden is evil (邪恶的). So when Columbus brought the tomato back from South America, a land mistakenly considered to be Eden, everyone jumped to the too obvious conclusion. Wrongly taken as the apple of Eden, the tomato was shut out of the door of Europeans.

What made it particularly terrifying was its similarity to the mandrake, a plant that was thought to have come from Hell (地狱). What earned the plant its awful reputation was its roots which looked like a dried-up human body occupied by evil spirits. Though the tomato and the mandrake were quite different except that both had bright red or yellow fruit, the general population considered them one and the same, too terrible to touch.

Cautious Europeans long ignored the tomato, and until the early 1700s most of the Western people continued to drag their feet. In the 1880s, the daughter of a well-known farmer wrote that the most interesting part of an afternoon tea at her father’s house had been the “introduction of this wonderful new fruit---or is it a vegetable?” As late as the twentieth century, some writers still classed tomatoes with mandrakes as an “evil fruit”.

But in the end tomatoes carried the day. The hero of the tomato was an American named Robert Johnson, and when he was publicly going to eat the tomato in 1820, people journeyed for hundreds of miles to watch him drop dead. “What are you afraid of ?” he shouted. “I’ll show you fools that these things are good to eat!” Then he bit into the tomato. Some people fainted. But he survived and, according to a local story, set up a tomato-canning factory.

1. The tomato was shut out of the door of early Europeans mainly because ________.

A．it was religiously unacceptable	B．it was the apple of Eden
C．it came from a forbidden land	D．it made Christian evil

2. What can we infer from the underlined part in Paragraph 3?

A．The process of ignoring the tomato slowed down.

B．The tomato was still refused in most western countries.

C．There was little progress in the study of the tomato.

D．Most western people continued to get rid of the tomato.

3. What is the main reason for Robert Johnson to eat the tomato publicly?

A．To make himself a hero.

B．To persuade people to buy products from his factory.

C．To speed up the popularity of the tomato.

D．To remove people’s fear of the tomato.

4. What is the main purpose of the passage?

A．To present the change of people’s attitudes to the tomato.

B．To give an explanation to people’s dislike of the tomato.

C．To challenge people’s fixed concepts of the tomato.

D．To show the popularity of the tomato in Europe

4 . Until recently, several lines of evidence — from fossils genetics, and archaeology — suggested that humans first moved from Africa into Eurasia (the land of Europe and Asia) about 60,000 years ago, quickly replacing other early human species, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans, that they may have met along the way.

However, a series of recent discoveries, including 100,000-year-old human teeth found in a cave in China, have clouded this straightforward statement. And the latest find, a prehistoric jawbone at the Misliya Cave in Israel dating back to nearly 200,000 years ago, which is almost twice as old as any Homo sapiens (智人) remains discovered outside Africa, where our species was thought to have originated from, has added new and unexpected twist.

The find suggests that there were multiple waves of migration across Europe and Asia and could also mean that modern humans in the Middle East were interacting, and possibly mating, with other human species for tens of thousands of years. “Misliya breaks the mould (模式) of existing assumptions of the timing of the first known Homo sapiens in these regions,” said Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural History Museum in London. “It’s important in removing long-lasting-constraint (限制) on our thinking.”

Prof. Hershkovitz, who led the work at Tel Aviv University said, “What Misliya tells us is that modern humans left Africa not 100,000 years ago, but 200,000 years ago. This is revolution in the way we understand the evolution of our own species.” He also added that the record now indicates that humans probably travelled beyond the African continent whenever the climate allowed it. “I don’t believe there was one big departure from Africa,” he said. “I think that throughout hundreds of thousands of years humans were coming in and out of Africa all the time.”

The discovery means that modern humans were potentially meeting and interacting during a longer period with other ancient human groups, providing more opportunity for cultural and biological exchanges. It also raises interesting questions about the fate of the earliest modern human pioneers. Genetic data from modern-day populations around the world strongly suggest that everyone outside Africa can trace their ancestors back to a group that left around 60,000 years ago. So, the inhabitants of the Misliya Cave are probably not the ancestors of anyone alive today, and scientists can only guess why their branch of the family tree came to an end.

1. What does the underlined word “they” refer to in Paragraph 1?

A．Early human species living in Europe.

B．Neanderthals and Denisovans.

C．People first moving from Africa into Eurasia.

D．Ancient people living in Africa all the time.

2. What does the Misliya discovery suggest?

A．Our ancestors were powerful and kind of aggressive.

B．Our ancestors left Africa much earlier than thought.

C．The origins of modern humans are from Europe.

D．Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans once lived together.

3. What can be learned from Prof Hershkovitz’s words?

A．Climate was a big factor in human migration from Africa.

B．There was a large-scale human migration from Africa.

C．Human migration was occasional in Africa 200,000 years ago.

D．The Misliya find is against our understanding of human evolution.

4. What can we infer about those living in Misliya 200, 000 years ago according to the last paragraph?

A．They were ancestors of people living in China.

B．They left evidence for their mysterious disappearance in history.

C．They probably contributed little to present-day people genetically.

D．They could be traced by their remains left on their travelling route.

5 . Football is a popular sport with fans all over the world. There is, however, an indoor version of the game     1     (know) as “table football”. It was invented in 1921 and people     2     (get) great pleasure from it since then. The game is played on a special table. Players control their “team” by turning sticks, to which the “players” are attached. As in real football,     3     (point) will be awarded when putting the ball in the other players’ goal. Table football requires using hands and eyes together excellently, which is really exciting.

6 . Argentina in the late nineteenth century was an exciting place.Around 1870,it was experiencing an economic(经济的)boom,and the capital,Buenos Aires,attracted many people.Farmers,as well as a flood of foreigners from Spain and Italy,came to Buenos Aires seeking jobs.These jobs didn’t pay well,and the people felt lonely and disappointed with their new life in the city.As the unhappy newcomers mixed together in the poor parts of the city,the dance known as the tango(探戈舞) came into being.

At the beginning the tango was a dance of the lower classes.It was danced in the bars and streets.At that time there were many fewer women than men,so if a man didn’t want to be left out,his only choice was to dance with another man so that he could attract the attention of the few available women.Gradually,the dance spread into the upper classes of Argentinean society and became more respectable.

In Europe at this time,strong interest in dance from around the world was beginning.This interest in international dance was especially evident in Paris.Every kind of dance from ballet(芭蕾舞) to belly dancing could be found on the stages of the Paris theaters.After tango dancers from Argentina arrived in Europe,they began to draw the interest of the public as they performed their exciting dance in cafes.Though not everyone approved of the new dance,saying it was a little too shocking,the dance did find enough supporters to make it popular.

The popularity(流行) of the tango continued to grow in many other parts of the world.Soldiers who returned to the United States from World War Ⅰ brought the tango to North America.It reached Japan in 1926,and in 2003 the Argentinean embassy in Seoul hired a local tango dancer to act as a kind of dance ambassador,and promote tango dancing throughout South Korea.

1. The origin of the tango is associated with 　　　.

A．belly dancers

B．American soldiers

C．a Spanish city

D．the capital of Argentina

2. Which of the following is TRUE about the tango?

A．It was created by foreigners from Spain and Italy.

B．People of the upper classes loved the tango most.

C．It was often danced by two males in the beginning.

D．A dancer in Seoul became the Argentinean ambassador.

3. Before World War Ⅰ,the tango spread to 　　　.

A．America	B．Japan
C．France	D．South Korea

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．How to Dance the Tango

B．The History of the Tango

C．How to Promote the Tango

D．The Modern Tango Boom

7 . 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。

The Silk Road was a passage for the transportation of silk in ancient times. Lots of relics on the road can still     1     (see) now. From the relics, tourists can see the outline of the ancient metropolitan(大都市) areas along    2       fantastic road. In the tour packages, tourists can imagine     3     (they) to be ancient merchants by riding camels in deserts.

The Silk Road is a long route,     4     Xi'an in the east to Gansu province and Xinjiang region in the west. If it is your first trip to China, we     5    (sincere) suggest you should spend at least ten days visiting Beijing, Xi'an, Dunhuang, Urumqi and Kashgar. You could get to know about the history of China and experience     6     (color) scenery along the Silk Road.

If you are an experienced traveler         7       (want) to explore China fully, it is recommended       8     you travel to Dunhuang, Zhangye, Jiayuguan, Turpan, Kashgar and Urumqi to follow the footprint of Marco Polo. This route may take about 15 days. If you have only a one-week holiday, the     9     (choose) of three most famous cities will be fit for you.

Along the Silk Road route, Xi'an and Gansu province are suitable to visit all-year round. The best time     10     (visit) Xinjiang region is from May to October because the weather is mild.

8 .     1    People use money to buy food, furniture, books, bicycles and hundreds of other things they need or want. When they work, they usually get paid in money.

Most of the money today is made of metal or paper.    2    One of the first kinds of money was shells.

Shells were not the only things used as money. In China, cloth and knives were used. In the Philippine Islands, rice was used as money for a long time. Elephant tusks, monkey tails and salt were used as money in parts of Africa.

The first metal coins were made in China. They were round and had a square hole in the centre.    3    

Different countries have used different metals and designs for their money.    4    Sweden and Russia used copper (铜) to make their money. Later some countries began to make coins of gold and silver.

But even gold and silver were inconvenient if you had to buy something expensive. Again the Chinese thought of a way to improve money.    5    The first paper money looked more like a note from one person to another than the paper money used today.

Money has had an interesting history from the days of shell money until today.

A．The first coins in England were made of tin (锡).

B．But people used to use all kinds of things as money.

C．No one knows for certain when people began to use money.

D．People strung (串连) them together and carried them from place to place.

E．Money, as we know, is all made of paper.

F．They began to use paper money.

G．Today anyone will accept money in exchange for goods and services.

9 . The third theme of geography is movement. As people travel around the world, exchanging goods, ideas and interests, the global community is transformed. Take surfing, for example, the sport originated in Hawaii centuries ago. Today, the cry “surf up!” can be heard along coastlines everywhere.

Europeans were the first Westerners to observe the sport. In 1779, Captain Cook, a British explorer, and his crew sailed around the Sandwich Islands ( Now Hawaii ). Near the rocky coast of the Big Island, they witnessed a man riding a wave while standing on a board.

Cook was stricken by what he saw. Hawaiians would pray for good waves and hold ceremonies when building surfboards. Their boards were built according to rank: Chiefs used long boards (16 to 18 feet long ), while commoners used shorter ones (6 to 8 feet long ).

After the arrival of Europeans, Hawaiian surf culture declined. Many Hawaiians died of European-borne diseases. Also, Christian missionaries (传教士) spread the belief that surfing was “ignorant (愚昧的)fun”.

These conditions changed after Hawaii became a United States territory in 1900( It became a state in 1959.) Travelers to the islands brought back stories of wave riding. Tales of the thrilling sport spread across the U.S., then to the rest of the world.

Today, surfing is the king of board sports. According to wannasurf.com, the world has nearly 8,000 “surf spots” in 136 countries on 6 continents. The Association of Surfing professionals (ASP) holds an annual world tour in which top riders compete for millions of fans on the waves.

Top-5 countries with surf spots country NO. of Sports

United States   1375

Australia          1160

South Africa       575

France             352

New Zealand     338

1. According to the passage , surfing originated in________.

A．Britain

B．Europe

C．America

D．France

2. Which of the following is TRUE?

A．Captain Cook was interested in surfing.

B．There are no surf spots in Asia.

C．In Hawaii, everyone was equal in sports.

D．Surfing is the third theme of geography.

3. The underlined word in the fourth paragraph probably means________.

A．excited Europeans	B．gradually lost its strength
C．died out	D．became more and more popular

4. What would be the best title for the text?

A．The spread of surf culture.	B．The history of surf culture.
C．The rebirth of surf culture.	D．The advantages of surf culture.