1 . Last year I attended the annual autumn saffron (藏红花) harvest festival on a trip in Italy, known as the sagra. Giovannina Sarra and her family ________ me at their home. Early the next morning, we ________ among the fields and participated in the harvest.

Saffron , taken from the stigmas (柱头) of the saffron flower, is a(n) ________ crop. Also called red gold, it is a(n) ________ from Spain, first introduced into the region around the 13th century. Saffron is ________ in the hours just before ________, while the petals (花瓣) are closed. This helps protect their precious stigmas and makes the flowers easier to ________, especially preferred by the acquirers (收购商). Later, on the same day, the stigmas — three ________ strings per flower — are separated from the petals. It’s a delicate ________ that takes hours with a skilled and ________ hand. In the evening, over an open wood fire, the stringlike stigmas are ________ to make saffron powder to add to the richness of the color and the flavor, which brings considerable income.

Now sitting at a mouth-watering plate of Risotto alla Milanese, a dish cooked with saffron, I ________ the freezing morning with Sarra and her family. There’s no ________ that it is the families like the Sarras that stick to the many ________ that have survived from generation to generation. ________ more people will join them.

1.

A．interviewed

B．accompanied

C．hosted

D．recognized

2.

A．fell behind

B．fanned out

C．sat around

D．hung around

3.

A．profitable

B．tropical

C．unavailable

D．unaffordable

4.

A．technology

B．patent

C．investment

D．import

5.

A．harvested

B．stored

C．watered

D．monitored

6.

A．noon

B．sunrise

C．dusk

D．midnight

7.

A．bloom

B．tend

C．grow

D．sell

8.

A．frozen

B．sticky

C．tiny

D．wet

9.

A．object

B．issue

C．adventure

D．process

10.

A．rough

B．careless

C．patient

D．sweaty

11.

A．boiled

B．dried

C．fried

D．warmed

12.

A．recall

B．remind

C．cherish

D．record

13.

A．doubt

B．evidence

C．reason

D．chance

14.

A．wonders

B．platforms

C．traditions

D．relations

15.

A．Fortunately

B．Immediately

C．Gradually

D．Hopefully

2 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. How many years has Reshma Kosaraju lived in California?

A．About 5 years.

B．About 7 years.

C．About 12 years.

2. What did Nihal’s organization do to protect Mother Earth?

A．They created a way to predict forest fires.

B．They helped save sharks.

C．They recycled batteries.

3. What can people buy on Miles Fetherston-Resch’s website?

A．Some clean water.

B．Some clothes.

C．Some masks.

3 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

World Olive (橄榄) Tree Day takes place     1     26th November every year. It was established     2     (official) at the 40th session of the UNESCO General Conference in 2019.The olive tree, especially the olive branch, holds an important place in people’s mind. Since ancient times, it     3     (symbolize) peace, harmony and     4     (wise) .It is important not just to the countries     5     these noble trees grow but also to people and communities worldwide.

Protecting and growing the olive tree is     6     increasingly urgent thing as the world fights against climate change. The conservation of cultural and natural heritage is one of UNESco’s     7     (center) goals, and marking World Olive Tree Day strengthens the efforts to achieve it.

World Olive Tree Day is set up     8     (encourage) the protection of the olive tree and stress the values it symbolizes,     9     (inspire) people to appreciate its important social, cultural, economic and environmental significance to humans.

There is much to learn, share and celebrate on World Olive Tree Day, and UNESCO encourages everyone to participate in     10     (activity) such as debates, conferences, cultural events and exhibitions organized worldwide.

5 . What are pillows really stuffed with? Not physically, but symbolically? The question occurred to me with the photos in the news and social media from the 50 cities around the world that staged public celebrations for International Pillow Fight Day. Armed with nothing more than bring-our-own sacrificial cushions, strangers struck heavily each other in playful feather from Amsterdam to Atlanta, Warsaw to Washington DC. But why? Is there anything more to this delightful celebration?

As a cultural sign, the pillow is deceptively soft. Since at least the 16th Century, the humble pillow has been given unexpected meanings. The Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu tells a famous story about a wise man who meets a depressed young scholar at an inn and offers him a magic pillow filled with the most vivid dreams of a seemingly more fulfilling life. When the young man awakens to discover that his happy 50-year dream has in fact come and gone in the short space of an afternoon’s nap, our impression of the pillow’s power shifts from wonder to terror.

Subsequent writers have likewise seized upon the pillow. When the 19th-Century English novelist Charlotte Bronte poetically observed “a ruffled (不平的) mind makes a restless pillow”, she didn’t just change the expected order of the adjectives and nouns, but instead she made unclear the boundaries between mind and matter — the thing resting and the thing rested upon.

It’s a trick perhaps Bronte learned from the Renaissance philosopher Montaigne, who once insisted that “ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head”. On Montaigne’s thinking, intelligence and happiness confront each other forever in a pillow fight that only one can win.

With the words of Tang. Bronte, and Montaigne, we can perhaps more easily measure the attraction of the global pillow fight. Like a ritual of release, the annual international pillow fight amounts to a kind of cleansing, a brushing off of daily worries: an emptying of the world’s collective mind. Rather than a launch-pad for weightless rest, the pillow is a symbol of heavy thought: an anchor that drags the world’s soul down — one that must be lightened.

1. The example of Tang Xianzu is used to illustrate that ________.

A．pillows give people satisfactory dreams

B．dreams are always wonderful while the real world is cruel

C．people’s impression of pillows changes from wonder to terror

D．pillows symbolically convey the meaning in contrast to their soft appearance

2. From the passage, we can learn that Charlotte Bronte ________.

A．wrote poems about pillows

B．regarded pillows as reflections of our minds

C．shared the same viewpoint as Tang Xianzu on pillows

D．was likely to have been influenced by the thoughts of the Renaissance

3. The underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 “ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head” most probably means ________.

A．pillows give us comfort

B．pillows make people more intelligent

C．people with too many thoughts have less inner peace

D．people can easily fall asleep when they know nothing

4. According to the author, why is Pillow Fight Day so popular around the world?

A．Because it is a ritual release.

B．Because it makes life delightful.

C．Because it comforts restless minds.

D．Because it contains a profound meaning of life.

7 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

The Perfect Christmas Tree

In our house in Middle Cove, Newfoundland, the tradition was to find the perfect tree before Christmas Eve. And this year, my brother Gilbert and I were being trusted to do it entirely on our own. And we took the challenge very seriously. So, axe in Gilbert’s hand, saw in mine, we set out for all the spots we imagined we might find a magnificent fir (冷杉树).

We were young, but we knew the rules. Trees could not be taken from personal land and not near any road.

We started out with the best of intentions. We were on Pine River Lane, and looking at the firs in the fields, but none of them looked quite good enough. It was getting dark but we still had no luck. On the way home, it was Gilbert who stopped, grabbed my arm and said, “I see it!”

“You see what?” I said.

“Right there, look. It’s perfect.”

And he was right. It was a young tree, two metres tall, standing alone. It was the classic Christmas tree. In all my years, I had never seen such a perfect one.

Perfect except for one small problem. The tree was pretty close to the road. Also, it was behind a fence, so the tree was in someone’s yard. And not just any someone. It was in the yard of Timmy Green, my best friend.

        However, the chances of our finding another one like it were slim to none.

“You stand guard,” Gilbert said. And with that, we were over the fence and on our bellies crawling toward the target. I lay in the snow and put the Greens’ house under surveillance (监视). I was to whistle or cough if I saw anyone coming.

Within a few minutes, it fell.

“Grab the end,” Gilbert said, and we lifted it over the fence. Now we were on the road.

注意：
1.所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2.续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；

Suddenly Gilbert’s eyes widened. “Our footprints!” he said.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So it shocked me when I found Mr. Green in our house with my parents, drinking tea on Christmas Eve.

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8 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

I was four years old in 1993, when my family emigrated .(移民) from the United Arab Emirates to Toronto. Young enough to be changed by my new home, but old enough to know I was different from everyone around me. I was the only Arab and only Muslim in my junior kindergarten class. Beyond those obvious differences, Canadian life proved to be quite distinct in other ways. And I discovered another surprise that December.

Overnight, everything was suddenly covered in red and green. My classmates talked excitedly about cookies and what gifts they’d asked Santa for that Christmas. At some point, I must have asked myself, “What is Christmas?” There’s nothing quite like it in the Muslim world. The closest comparison might be Eidal-Adha, which translates from Arabic to “Festival of sacrifice”. While both holidays show the same spirit of sharing with the less fortunate and spending time with loved ones, Eid meant new clothes and a family dinner. And that was about it. No tree decorated with ornaments (装饰物), and no gifts covered in wrapping paper.

Christmas was completely foreign to me, but then my parents unexpectedly informed me that Santa would be paying us a visit on Christmas Eve. “But aren’t we Muslim?” I asked.

“Yes, but Santa loves all children equally and gets them all gifts,” my mother replied.

So on that first Christmas Eve in Canada, she hung oversized red and white stockings, each one customized with our names, off our bedposts. I have a distinct memory of the restless expectation that kept me awake long after bedtime and my joy when I got up on Christmas morning to find my stocking filled with gifts.

Still in my pyjamas(睡衣), I ran over to the kitchen to tell my parents that Santa had indeed visited us last night. I asked if they’d seen him, and Mom said, “Of course!” Mom offered Santa a cup of coffee, as is the Arab custom when hosting guests. He needed the energy for the long night ahead, she told me.

When I returned to school after the holidays. I had a story to share with my classmates. Santa had visited me too! I could show off gifts while other kids showed off theirs.

注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
My parents kept our Christmas tradition going for years, until I was too old to believe in Santa anymore.
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As an adult. I’ve come to realize creating a sense of belonging is joining in traditions.
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