1 . I have worked as a keeper at the National Zoo for 11 years. Spot and Stripe are the first tiger cubs (幼兽) that have ever been born here. Globally, a third of Sumatran cubs in zoos don’t make it to adulthood, so I decided to give them round-the-clock care at home.
I’ve got two children — the younger one, Kynan, was extremely happy about the tigers arriving — but all of us really looked forward to being part of their lives and watching them grow. I wasn’t worried about bringing them into my home with my wife and kids. These were cubs. They weighed about 2.5kg and were so small that there was absolutely no risk.
As they grew more mobile, we let them move freely around the house during the day, but when we were asleep we had to contain them in a large room, otherwise they’d get up to mischief. We’d come down in the morning to find they’d turned the room upside down, and left it looking like a zoo.
Things quickly got very intense due to the huge amount of energy required to look after them. There were some tough times and I just felt extremely tired. I was grateful that my family was there to help. We had to have a bit of a production line going, making up “riser milk”, washing baby bottles, and cleaning the floors.
When Spot and Stripe were four months old, they were learning how to open doors and jump fences, and we knew it really was time for them to go. It was hard for us to finally part with them. For the first few days, Kynan was always a bit disappointed that the cubs weren’t there.
I’m not sad about it. I’m hands-on with them every day at the zoo, and I do look back very fondly on the time that we had them.
1. Why did the author bring the tiger cubs home?| A．To ensure their survival. | B．To observe their differences. |
| C．To teach them life skills. | D．To let them play with his kids. |
| A．Behave badly. | B．Lose their way. |
| C．Sleep soundly. | D．Miss their mom. |
| A．Boring. | B．Tiring. | C．Illegal. | D．Risky. |
| A．They frightened the children. | B．They became difficult to contain. |
| C．They annoyed the neighbours. | D．They started fighting each other. |
2 . As a kid growing up in a suburb of London. I loved to go looking for the perfect park bench. Some Sunday mornings, my dad could be persuaded to drive to new parks. We’d have a kick-around with a soccer ball, share a bag of Doritos and check out all the benches in the area, reading the words on them.
The good park bench leaves me in a state, somewhere between nostalgia (怀旧) and eager anticipation. Where once I was excited by the words carved on wood, I now find, as a 10-year-old, that I’m more appreciative of each bench’s quiet stoicism (坦然淡定), the way they are willing to wait out their turn in every weather, remaining available to all-comers. Like a good book or piece of music, a park bench allows for a sense of solitude (独处) and community at the same time, which is crucial to life in a great city.
Part of my obsession with park benches is as spaces where history settles. By planting seeds of curiosity, and making space for reflection, park benches become doors to the past. Maybe that’s the greatest power of the park bench: its capacity encourages the art of observation. A good bench catches us in our quietest, most vulnerable (脆弱的) moments, when we may be open to imagining new narratives and revisiting old ones. Our masks are taken off, hung from the bench’s wrought iron. On other nearby benches, babies are being burped. Glances exchanged. Sandwiches eaten. Newspapers read it .
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Which aspect of park benches does paragraph 3 focus on?| A．Design. | B．History. | C．Location. | D．Power. |
3 . Stuck inside his room at an assisted living center, Bob Coleman knew he could not go out in public with the epidemic (疫). But he was not cut off from outside: he shared his love for country music over the Internet. “Hello, everybody. It’s a bright day in Tennessee,” he said into his microphone. “This is Bob Coleman, coming to you from Room3325…”. Then Coleman began to play the music he loves-hits from country music stars. The 88-year-old carefully chooses each song.
Coleman and several other retirees have turned into DJs (流行音乐播音员), for a new online radio hour known as “Radio Recliner.” A marketing company called Luckie came up with the idea of Radio Recliner. Listeners can send song requests in honor of family or friends. For example, listeners might hear a message like this: “Hey, Granny. This is your favorite granddaughter Amy. We just wanted to call in and say we love you.” The 60-minute show started with retirees in middle Tennessee. It has since expanded, with residents of assisted-living centers in other states taking part in the project. Many jumped at the chance to work as a DJ to ease the loneliness of social distancing rules.
Mitch Bennett serves as Luckie’s chief creative officer. He says the idea was to provide a sense of community to older people. “For this generation, radio was the original social media,” Bennett said, “Dedicating a song to someone you love and having them hear it along with everyone else is a special way of connecting.”
In Georgia, 80-year-old Ed Rosenblatt, who had made full preparations for his show, said an hour he spent playing songs on Radio Recliner resulted in a flood of text messages, emails and calls from family and friends, and many of the messages were from people he had not heard from for years.
What’s the best title for the text?| A．Older Adults Need More Care During the Epidemic |
| B．Older Adults, Stuck by the Epidemic, Turn Into DJs |
| C．Older Adults Were Busy With Music During the Epidemic |
| D．Older Adults, Stuck by the Epidemic, Show Music Talents |
4 . My husband and I always wanted to go to the Caribbean but didn’t know much about the islands or how we were going to afford it. By chance, a friend of ours in Australia mentioned “pet sitting” and that it is something you can do all over the world.
We quickly created an account on a pet sitting website and began searching for options. There were only a couple of sits available in that part of the world, but we tried our luck, sent a request, and to our surprise, landed a three-month job in Grenada, so our year was going to be taken up with Caribbean pet sits.
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Why did the author do pet sitting?| A．To cover travel expenses. | B．To raise fund. |
| C．To conserve the environment. | D．To shoot beautiful beaches. |
5 . Eighteen-year-old David Aguilar from Andorra was born without a right forearm due to a rare genetic condition but that has never stopped him from doing anything he wanted to do including typing on a computer with his partial arm.
Like most kids, David was a LEGO fan and he loved building cars, boats, planes, and motorbikes. But David also knew that he looked different and wanted to do something about it. “As a child I was very nervous to be in front of other guys, because I was different, but that didn’t stop me believing in my dreams,” David said. “I wanted to... see myself in the mirror like I see other guys, with two hands.”
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David plans to create affordable prosthetics for people who need them, saying, “I would try to give them a prosthetic, even if it’s for free, to make them feel like a normal person.”
1. How did David feel when standing in front of other kids?| A．Anxious. | B．Natural. | C．Confident. | D．Frightened. |
| A．To be an expert in building LEGO. | B．To become rich by selling prosthetic arms. |
| C．To offer disabled people cheaper prosthetics. | D．To start a company hiring more disabled people. |
6 . We journalists live in a new age of storytelling, with many new multimedia tools. Many young people don’t even realize it’s new. For them, it’s just normal.
This hit home for me as I was sitting with my 2-year-old grandson on a sofa over the Spring Festival holiday. I had brought a children’s book to read. It had simple words and colorful pictures — a perfect match for his age.
Picture this: my grandson sitting on my lap as I hold the book in front so he can see the pictures. As I read, he reaches out and pokes (戳) the page with his finger.
What’s up with that? He just likes the pictures, I thought. Then I turned the page and continued. He poked the page even harder. I nearly dropped the book. I was confused: Is there something wrong with this kid?
Then I realized what was happening. He was actually a stranger to books. His father frequently amused the boy with a tablet computer which was loaded with colorful pictures that come alive when you poke them. He thought my storybook was like that.
Sorry, kid. This book is not part of your high-tech world. It’s an outdated, lifeless thing. An antique, like your grandfather. Well, I may be old, but I’m not hopelessly challenged, digitally speaking. I edit video and produce audio. I use mobile payment. I’ve even built websites.
There’s one notable gap in my new-media experience, however: I’ve spent little time in front of a camera, since I have a face made for radio. But that didn’t stop China Daily from asking me last week to share a personal story for a video project about the integration of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province.
Anyway, grandpa is now an internet star — two minutes of fame! I promise not to let it go to my head. But I will make sure my 2-year-old grandson sees it on his tablet.
1. Why did the kid poke the storybook?| A．He took it for a tablet computer. | B．He disliked the colorful pictures. |
| C．He was angry with his grandpa. | D．He wanted to read it by himself. |
| A．Socially ambitious. | B．Physically attractive. |
| C．Financially independent. | D．Digitally competent. |
| A．He lacks experience in his job. | B．He seldom appears on television. |
| C．He manages a video department. | D．He often interviews internet stars. |
7 . It isn’t easy to climb the Old Man of Hoy, one of the tallest in the United Kingdom. It is even more dangerous if you happen to be a blind climber, as Jesse Dufton is. The 34-year-old was born with a rare genetic disease (遗传病) that left him with less than 20 percent of his vision (视觉), which then kept dropping over the years. He chooses to climb, because it’s better than sitting at home feeling sorry for yourself, right? Climbing is not the most dangerous thing I do on an average day; crossing the road on the way to work is far more risky than Hoy.”
Dufton has been climbing mountains since childhood. As a skilled climber, his father would take him out at weekends. He was always physical then, always up for adventure. He played sports at school, though quickly grew frustrated (沮丧) with many of them. Badminton was a joke for someone like me, and even blind cricket — with a ball with a bell in it — annoyed me. “Instead he was attracted to climbing and skiing, and insists that climbing is one of the safer activities for a blind person to undertake. “True, you can’t see the handholds, or the footholds. You can’t see where the opportunities are, or where to place your hands and your gear (齿轮), so you just have to take it slowly. You search around until you can feel for something to hold onto, and then basically repeat the process over and over again. To keep calm in these situations helps.”
It was Jesse himself who made a documentary happen. He told the filmmaker Alistair Lee about his pastime, believing it might be worth capturing on film. I realized my story was quite unusual,” he says, adding that he felt almost duty-bound to share it. If somebody like me watches it, and they find it inspirational, then it wouldn’t be right for me to keep that from them, wouldn’t it?”
1. What is more dangerous in Jesse Dufton’s eyes?| A．Losing eyesight gradually. | B．Daily routines in his life. |
| C．Climbing the Old Man of Hoy. | D．Staying at home all day. |
| A．show his unique talent for climbing |
| B．inspire more people with disability |
| C．give credit to the brave climbers |
| D．educate people about risky sports |
8 . On the outside, 12-year-old Luna seems like your average kid. It’s not until you get to know her that you learn that Luna is anything but average.
Born with a heart defect (缺陷) called dextrocardia, Luna has had three open-heart operations and continues to pursue her interests in art and fashion. But when Luna was approached by athletic shoe company Saucony to design a shoe for sale across the country, it came as quite a surprise.
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“Rather than just a donation, we wanted to create an experience and a moment that would not only raise money, but also awareness to highlight all the amazing work that’s being done at BCH,” says Chris, Saucony’s vice president. “Specifically, we wanted to give some of the BCH kids an opportunity to share their story and their talents with the world.”
1. What can we learn from Chris’ words?| A．It’s unwise to raise money. |
| B．It’s optional to seek donations. |
| C．It’s wonderful to study art. |
| D．It’s necessary to show kids’ talents. |
| A．Gifted and determined. | B．Generous and serious. |
| C．Grateful and helpful. | D．Creative and sensitive. |
9 . Hey! You have a hairless spot on the back of your head! " Mom’s alarmed cry hit me like a shock.
I tried to shrug it off. “It’ll grow back.” I worked to sound
At first, the loss was minimal.
As days went by, my hair started to fall faster and more.
We went to see a doctor, who diagnosed my condition as alopecia (脱发症) . He recommended an injection to try, which would be
I had to wear a wig to school every day, worried it might slip one day and that everything would
I came to realize that what had happened was not my fault, and not something I should feel
| A．mid | B．calm | C．upset | D．relieved |
| A．Checking | B．Polishing | C．Clearing | D．Covering |
| A．sense | B．chance | C．sign | D．way |
| A．wonder | B．panic | C．expand | D．relieve |
| A．Reaching | B．Shifting | C．Feeling | D．Running |
| A．delay | B．avoid | C．cease | D．keep |
| A．attached | B．connected | C．guided | D．applied |
| A．After all | B．Worse still | C．In brief | D．By contrast |
| A．motion | B．procedure | C．routine | D．mission |
| A．break out | B．draw to a close | C．fade away | D．come to light |
| A．reveal | B．restrict | C．distribute | D．highlight |
| A．Instead | B．Furthermore | C．Anyway | D．Thus |
| A．blow | B．credit | C．exception | D．miracle |
| A．proud | B．ashamed | C．fond | D．guilty |
| A．evaluation | B．introduction | C．acceptance | D．dependence |
1. Why did the police drive the couple back to the parking lot?
| A．To look for the car there. |
| B．To ensure their safety. |
| C．To get evidence. |
| A．The lost car appeared. |
| B．The car window was broken. |
| C．There was a baby in the car. |
| A．His good will. | B．His apology. | C．His thanks. |
| A．To rob them of their house. |
| B．To meet them at the concert. |
| C．To make up for the inconvenience. |
