1 . Scientists have solved a puzzle about modern humans, after research showed that a famous skull of a human ancestor found in South Africa is a million years older than experts thought. This discovery has changed what we know of human history.
The skull, which scientists have named “Mrs Ples”, is from an ape-like human relative from a species called Australopithecus africanus (南方古猿). It was found near Johannesburg in 1947 and, based on evidence from its surroundings, was thought to be between 2. 1 and 2. 6 million years old. This puzzled scientists, because although Mrs Ples looks like a possible early ancestor of early humans, the first true humans had already evolved by the time she apparently lived. For this reason, scientists had decided that Australopithecus afarensis, a similar species from East Africa that lived about 3.5 million years ago, was our most likely ancestor instead.
To get a more accurate age for Mrs Ples, a team led by Professor Darryl Granger of Purdue University in Indiana, US, used a new method to date the sandy rocks where the skull lay. They measured the amount of certain chemicals in rocks, which form at a steady rate when they are exposed to cosmic rays (宇宙射线) on Earth’s surface. Once rocks are buried, these chemicals stop forming and slowly disappear;the surviving amount reveals how much time has passed since the rock (or bones) were on the surface.
The new study shows that Mrs Ples and other australopithecine bones nearby are between 3.4 and 3.7 million years old. This means they lived at the same time as their East African relatives, so that either group could have given rise to modern humans. However, team member Dr Laurent Bruxelles pointed out that over millions of years, at only 2,500 miles away, these groups had plenty of time to travel and to breed with each other. In other words, the groups could quite easily have met, had children together and both been part of the history of modern humans.
1. What can we learn about Mrs Ples from the first two paragraphs?| A．It is a skull found in East Africa. |
| B．It is the most possible ancestor of humans. |
| C．It is a million years older than scientists expected. |
| D．It is proved to live between 2.1 and 2.6 million years ago. |
| A．By studying the effect of cosmic rays. |
| B．By calculating the forming rate of chemicals. |
| C．By locating the sandy rocks where the skull lay. |
| D．By measuring the surviving amount of chemicals. |
| A．Modern humans came into being in East Africa. |
| B．Mrs Ples travelled and had children with East African relatives. |
| C．The history of modern humans might begin 3.5 million years ago. |
| D．Ape-like species from Africa could have interacted with each other. |
| A．Historical Puzzle Unsolved | B．Ancestor Mystery Solved |
| C．Mrs Ples: The Earliest Human Being | D．Mrs Ples: A Famous Skull |
2 . We think of history as a time line — a series of events stretching thousands of years into the past. It’s time to think bigger. Instead of a line, imagine a web of endless connections interacting over billions of years, linked together to create everything we’ve ever known. From the clothes we wear to the rise and fall of empires (帝国) to the revolution of language, it’s the horse that links them all.
6, 000 years ago, the early people in central Asia spoke an ancient language known as “Proto-Indo-European.” Their words would eventually spread, change and develop, branching into French, Italian, Spanish, Greek Russian, Hindi, German, and English, giving us the languages spoken by nearly half the world. The reason is that these are the first people on earth to ride horses, which creates highway for their words.
2, 000 years ago, Romans traditionally wore tunics, but it’s hard to ride a horse in clothes like this. As Romans moved north to conquer the barbarians (野蛮人), they noticed their enemies wore something different into battle: pants. Pants are warmer and a lot more comfortable to wear on horsebacks The Roman army made the switch and soon so did men everywhere. Horses are a key reason why millions of people around the world wear pants.
For 6, 000 years, horses have been the primary way of conquering, making large empires possible. Horses helped Rome expand from Britain to North Africa. But why didn’t these enormous ancient empires grow even bigger? The evidence suggests a surprising theory that ancient empires have a size limit determined by the horse. If the borders of an empire are more than 14 days’ ride from the capital, it becomes a struggle to continue control. Speed of communications is essential for an empire. You must be able to get messages to and from the border within a reasonable time. If you can’t do that, you can’t respond to attacks.
On the scale of big history, it’s hard to think of any other mammal that’s had such an influence on human history as the horse.
1. What do we know about “Proto-Indo-European”?| A．It was the first language in the world. |
| B．It was spoken only by the horse riders. |
| C．It constructed a highway between France and Germany. |
| D．It developed into languages used by about half the world. |
| A．Ancient empires could grow as big as they wished. |
| B．Horses determined the location of empires’ capitals. |
| C．Horses had little impact on the expansion of ancient empires. |
| D．Timely messages are vital for ancient empires to keep control. |
| A．To express the author’s love for horses. |
| B．To introduce the development of clothes. |
| C．To provide a new way of looking at history. |
| D．To encourage the interaction between animals. |
3 . A fresh and gentle wind on your face, soft sand under your feet and blue waters as far as the eye can see. Is there any other Olympic sport that is played in such pleasant conditions as beach volleyball？
“I’ve gone to a lot of beautiful places, and met a lot of beautiful people. That wouldn’t have happened if I had been playing another sport.” said Randy Stoklos, America’s most famous beach volleyball player.
The sport began as a four-a-side game on beaches in Southern California in the 1920s. The first recorded two-man game took place there in 1930, and the first tournament (锦标赛) was held in Los Angeles 18 years later. The winners were awarded a case of Pepsi. In the 1950s, women started playing and the sport soon spread to Europe and South America. Yet at that time, beach volleyball was more an entertainment show than a sport, with beauty contests included. The Association of Volleyball Professionals was founded in 1983 and beach volleyball developed into a fast, athletic sport. Its world-wide popularity won beach volleyball a place at the 1996 Olympics in Atalanta, where 24 male teams and 16 female teams took part. At present, the US and Brazil are the best in the world at beach volleyball.
The game came to China in the early 1990s and there have been national tournaments since 1994. It became an official event at the Eighth National Games in 1997. China’s You Wenhui and Wang Lu finished ninth in the women’s beach volleyball world championships in Brazil.
1. The passage is mainly about ______.| A．the history of beach volleyball |
| B．how to play beach volleyball |
| C．the importance of beach volleyball |
| D．women’s beach volleyball in China |
| A．Beach volleyball was first played like other Olympic: sports. |
| B．Beach volleyball has always been an entertainment show rather than a sport. |
| C．Beach volleyball began on beaches in Souther California. |
| D．Women started playing beach volleyball in South America in 1945. |
| A．In 1948, | B．In 1996. | C．In 1950. | D．In 1997. |
| A．in 1996, beach volleyball became an official event in China |
| B．China’s beach volleyball team is the best in the world |
| C．China’s beach volleyball players won the first place in Brazil |
| D．beach volleyball came to China in the early 1990s |
4 . 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 |
| 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. |
| A．Paper | B．Wood |
| C．Bamboo | D．Leather |
| A．Chinese folk art | B．Chinese folk paintings |
| C．Chinese operas | D．Chinese folk plays |
5 . 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
6 . Zoos have been around for centuries — and they’ve changed a lot over the years. In the Middle Ages, wealthy people kept animals in their gardens. Public animal parks appeared in European cities in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The Philadelphia Zoo, the first in the United States, opened in 1874.
Until a few decades (十年) ago, most zoos were organized by creatures — monkeys in one area, cats in another, birds somewhere else, just like museum collections. In recent years, zoos have instead begun grouping animals that would normally interact (互相作用) in the wild. Moreover, instead of closing animals behind bars, designers are creating landscapes like the environments in which these creatures would naturally be found. Nearby signs provide information about the animals and their habitats in parts of the world where they normally live.
The Denver Zoo’s new Predator Ridge exhibit, for example, aims to teach visitors about Africa. Eight acres of land provide homes for 14 animal species, including lions, porcupines, cranes, and wild dogs. Plants from the region grow alongside African-like landform. Ten-foot-tall mounds (土墩) give lions a place from which to survey their surroundings, just as they would do in the wild.
Landscape design makes visitors to the Denver Zoo’s Predator Ridge exhibit feel like they’re really in Africa.
Animals in Predator Ridge can’t actually be mixed with one another, for safety reasons. But hidden deep channels and other smart features allow visitors to see all the animals at once. Different species can see each other too.
1. What is the passage mainly about?| A．The safety problem of zoos. |
| B．The living habits of zoo animals. |
| C．Changes of zoos over the time. |
| D．Protection of zoo animals. |
a. Different species were kept in a group.
b. Zoos were organized by species.
c. Natural environments were created in zoos.
d. Animals were kept in people’s gardens.
| A．b; d; c; a | B．d; a; c; b | C．b; d; a; c | D．d; b; a; c |
| A．protect the safety of visitors |
| B．create a natural environment for lions |
| C．separate lions from other animals |
| D．offer visitors a better view of lions |
| A．the Denver Zoo | B．the Predator Ridge exhibit |
| C．Africa | D．the ten-foot-tall mounds |
| A．the earliest zoos were probably rich people’s gardens |
| B．the Philadelphia Zoo is the first zoo in the world |
| C．the new Predator Ridge exhibit is held in Africa |
| D．more animals will be kept in zoos in the future |
7 . I visited Elba last June, joining Mary and John on a cycling vacation. They made the arrangements for the car, hotel and bicycles. I studied the history of the island, which of course particularly features Napoleon.
Napoleon picked Elba as a place for peace when he was forced to give up the throne as Emperor of France in 1814. Far from being a prison island, Elba is beautiful with towering mountains, thick forests and sweeping bays and beaches.
It is also an island filled with treasures. Very early on this island, the locals discovered rich deposits of iron. Soon outsiders, too, discovered the iron and 150 other valuable minerals on this little piece of land. Long before Etruscans and other Greeks set foot on it, Dorians had moved in by the tenth century B.C. and were mining the island. The Romans ruled next, obtaining the minerals and building grand houses overlooking the sea. From the twelfth century until the nineteenth, the island was traded back and forth and was passed to France in 1802. Then came Napoleon, the new ruler of Elba.
I was eager to visit his house in Portoferraio. The Emperor lived with his court and his mother, but his wife, Marie Louise had ensconced herself in the splendid Viennese palace of her father, Emperor of Austria. She lived safely there and showed little interest in visiting her husband in his mini-kingdom. Apparently, Napoleon wasn't troubled much by this. He was too busy riding everywhere on horseback, building roads, modernizing agriculture and, above all, sharpening his tiny army and navy into readiness for his escape.
In the formal gardens behind the house, it seemed to me that I could imagine the exiled (流亡的) conqueror's anxious thoughts. He might gaze over where I stood now, toward the lighthouse of the Stella fort, the sandy bay, and across it, the green mountains of the Tuscan coast. Napoleon spent only ten months here before making his victorious return to France and the throne.
1. Who might be the earliest outsiders to Elba according to the text?| A．Napoleon and his army. | B．Etruscans and other Greeks. |
| C．Dorians. | D．Romans. |
| A．Settled. | B．Locked. | C．Cured. | D．Controlled. |
| A．Beautiful views on Elba. |
| B．Terrible living conditions on Elba. |
| C．Napoleon’s ambition to regain power. |
| D．Hardship of Napoleon's return to France. |
8 . The first organized system for sending messages began in Egypt around 1500 B.C. This system developed because the pharaohs frequently needed to send messages up and down the Nile River in order to keep their empire running smoothly. Later, the Persians developed a more efficient system for sending messages using men and horses. Messages carriers rode along the road system stretching from one end of the Persian Empire to the other. Along these roads, fresh men and horses waited at special stations to take and pass along any messages that needed to be sent. The stations where riders passed messages back and forth were built 23 kilometers apart, so the men and horses were able to travel quickly between them. The Romans later took up his idea and improved it by using a more advanced and extensive road system.
In China, however, Kublai Khan had built up his own system for delivering messages. This system worked in the same basic way as the Roman system. The difference was that Kublai Khan kept 300,000 horses along the roads of this delivery lines. There were over 10,000 stations where a message would be passed from one rider to another with a fresh horse. In this way, Kublai Khan could receive messages from anywhere in the country in only a few days.
It was not until the 1500s that a well-organized postal system appeared again in Europe. One family, the von Taxis family, gained the right to deliver mail for the Holy Roman Empire and parts of Spain. This family continued to carry mail, both government and private, throughout Europe for almost 300 years.
In 1653, a Frenchman, Renouard de Velayer, established a system for delivering post in Paris. Postal charges at that time were paid by the recipient , but de Velayer's system was unique by allowing the sender to pre-pay the charges, in a similar way to the modern stamp. Unfortunately, de Velayer's system came to an end when jealous competitors put live mice in his letter boxes, ruining his business. Eventually, government-controlled postal systems took over from private postal businesses, and by the 1700s government ownership of most postal systems in Europe was an accepted fact of life.
The thing that all these early systems had in common was that they were quite expensive for public use, and were intended for use by the government and the wealthy. However, in 1840, a British schoolteacher named Roland Hill suggested introducing postage stamps, and a postal rate based on weight. This resulted in lowering postal rates, encouraging more people to use the system to stay in touch with each other, His idea helped the British postal system begin to earn profits as early as 1850. Soon after that many other countries took up Mr. Hill's idea. And letter writing became accessible to anyone who could write. Today, the Roland Hill awards are given each year to "encourage and reward fresh ideas which help promote philately" (stamp collecting).
1. What is the main topic of the passage?| A．How international letters travel. | B．A surprising method for delivering mail. |
| C．The history of postal systems. | D．Changes in the methods of communication. |
| A．His was a government-controlled system. |
| B．His competitors destroyed his business. |
| C．His system lasted for hundreds of years. |
| D．In his system, the person who received the letter paid the postage fees. |
| A．Egyptian. | B．Chinese. |
| C．de Velayer's. | D．von Taxis's. |
| A．He made letter writing accessible to the average person. |
| B．He made a lot of money for the British postal system. |
| C．He made stamp collecting a popular hobby. |
| D．He won an award for letter writing. |
9 . How did we get the alphabet? It was a long process, covering thousands of years.
The first people to write things down carved symbols onto rocks or shells. These symbols represented people or things.
These people who lived a long time ago had simple lives with simple needs. One of the most basic needs was food. Before the introduction of agriculture, people were called HunterGatherers because they hunted animals and gathered nuts and berries for food. To tell each other about how to hunt animals or where to find them, these people drew on cave walls or on animal hides. Soon, people were growing their own crops. They were also using a system of symbols to stand for people, places and things. The best ancient example of this was found in Egypt, where hieroglyphs (象形字) were used. These people believed in many different gods. Each god had its own symbol. Symbols were also used to stand for water, buildings, food, and other parts of life.
But these picture drawings and hieroglyphs represented whole words, not just sounds. How did we get an alphabet? Recent research suggests that the idea of an alphabet was first used in Egypt about 1900 BC. Civilizations that traded with or fought against Egypt were exposed to this alphabet, and the idea spread.
The ancient Greeks adapted this alphabet and created their own. The ancient Romans polished it up to a state almost like our modern alphabet. The idea of stringing letters together to make words was born. You can see by looking at letters from the Roman alphabet that these letters survive almost unchanged in our modern English alphabet.
This was the case in the Western world. Actually, a similar thing also happened in the East. You can see many examples in such areas’ language development.
1. Why did HunterGatherers use drawings?| A．To assist them in searching for food. |
| B．To put a series of symbols into a system. |
| C．To warn their companions to hide safely. |
| D．To record some methods of growing crops. |
| A．The difficulties ancient people have learning languages. |
| B．The different kinds of religious beliefs in the same god. |
| C．The poor living conditions and agricultural development. |
| D．The needs of ancient people to survive and communicate. |
| A．They made improvements to it. |
| B．They created it all by themselves. |
| C．They managed to keep it unchanged. |
| D．They turned it into the modern one. |
| A．The effects of the alphabet on global languages. |
| B．Why the alphabet grew better in Western world. |
| C．How the alphabet appeared in the Eastern world. |
| D．A number of examples of language evolution. |
10 . While many countries love their tea, UK citizens are particularly proud of being “tea people”. The average UK citizen consumes nearly 2 kilograms of tea each year.
Tea only made its way to England in large quantities in the first years of the 17th century. Tea from China and a few other Asian countries was being sold more widely in England at that time. Then tea was getting more and more popular among different social classes.
There are many varieties of tea. Black tea mixtures are still the most common type drunk in the UK. Black tea is dark in colour, because the leaves have been allowed to oxidize (氧化) before drying. This is why we usually serve it with milk, although it is not uncommon to drink it black or with lemon. You may still find tea made with loose tea leaves, served up in a pot, and poured into the best china cups with saucers (茶托) for visitors.
Tea is still a large part of daily life in the UK today, but it seems to be on the decrease. The amount of tea sold in the UK fell by more than 10% in the five years leading up to 2012, and has been dropping ever since. Tea sales fell by 6% in 2018 alone, and most restaurants report selling more than twice as many cups of coffee as they do tea. More than ￡1 billion was spent on coffee in high street stores in 2017, more than twice what was spent on tea bags.
Still, what goes around comes around; it’s sure to become fashionable again.
1. Which of the following is true according to the first three paragraphs?| A．Tea made its way to England in the early years of the 16th century. |
| B．The UK usually serves black tea with lemon. |
| C．Tea from China was being sold more widely in England now. |
| D．UK citizens take pride in being “tea people”. |
| A．Tea sales fell by 6% in 2018 alone. |
| B．Since 2012, the sales of tea has been on the decrease |
| C．In 2017, the money spent on tea was ￡3 billion |
| D．Most restaurant like selling tea than coffee. |
| A．It can never succeed again | B．The tea can become popular again |
| C．Coffee is more popular than tea | D．The tea is becoming less popular |
| A．To introduce tea in the UK |
| B．To show the author’s preference for tea |
| C．To introduce the functions of tea |
| D．To compare tea in China and UK |
