1 . At the foot of the Tianmu Mountain in Zhejiang, a homestay (民宿) is attracting travelers from far and wide, which has won architectural medal at the 2021 German iF Design Awards.

The owners of the homestay are a couple in their late 30s who decided to return to their hometown three years ago. Li Xiumei used to be in charge of a division at a company in Hangzhou, and her husband was a sales director. It was an ordinary situation where Li’s husband was on business trips a lot and Li still worked on weekends. City life sometimes is not easy.

In 2018, they quit jobs and went back to Dongtianmu village, which lies in a forest of bamboo. The first time they drove into the village was one late afternoon. The cooking smoke was rising from the foot of the mountain, which gave them a very different feeling from the city.

The homestay was built beside her husband’s old countryside house. The old house is preserved (保留), while a brand-new building was built on its side and the whole site is made up of four courtyards. It has been updated to have a hall, a tea room, a kitchen, a dining room. Japanese cherry trees are planted in the east courtyard. A swimming pool is placed in the west courtyard, with a bar located on one side.

Li and her husband love gardening and music, and their new home gives them enough space to continue their interests and relax in the heart of nature. Li wants to share the quiet country life, so she makes her new home a homestay. In 2019, the homestay became an online hit after guests shared their experiences on social media. “The longer I stay here, the more I feel it was the right choice to come back, and this is more meaningful than making money,” Li says.

1. How did Li feel about city life?

A．Satisfied.

B．Noisy.

C．Attractive.

D．Tired

2. What impressed the couple when first driving to the village?

A．The forest of bamboo.	B．The smoke of cooking.
C．The fresh air in the village.	D．The feeling of loneliness.

3. What can we infer about the homestay from paragraph 4?

A．It is ancient and broken.	B．It can hold many guests.
C．It must have been carefully designed.	D．It has been rebuilt by the couple.

4. What’s more meaningful than earning money according to Li?

A．Continuing their music dream.	B．Living in the countryside.
C．Staying at the old house.	D．Developing a city.

2 . Goolsbee, now a professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, said the rising number of Americans out of work forever paints a troubling picture about the recovery (恢复).

“If we are on path to only be two-thirds recovered,” Goolsbee wrote, “and then have millions of businesses closed down and the jobs there lost fast, there will be years for us to try to get back onto the path we were on before.”

And those everlasting job losses will influence the economy. People out of work may cutback spending or even stop it. They are at risk of falling behind on car payments, credit card bills and bank loan (贷款). Those risks are magnified by the fact that the government has so far failed to provide additional economic recovery policies (政策) — even though the US economy is in great need of them.

“Good insurance (保险) policies for people out of work have helped them pay the loan much more easily,” Principal’s Shah wrote, “but with everlasting job losses clearly rising and still no sign of an additional economic recovery package, the trouble will become more widespread and obvious.”

The hope is that those recognized as jobless at present will in the end get a job somewhere else. Even though some restaurants, shops and small businesses have shut down, new companies are opening each day here and there. But there is a time limit at play because the time of continuously out of job influences the chances of getting another job. “The longer you’re out of the job market,” said PNC’s Faucher, “the more difficult it becomes to find a new one.” Many Americans who had a job loss or had a too long vacation without any payment are eagerly looking forward to another job.

1. What does the underlined word “magnified” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Reduced.	B．Enlarged.
C．Avoided.	D．Unchanged.

2. What’s Shah’s attitude towards the government’s present economy policies?

A．Supportive.	B．Confused.
C．Disappointed.	D．Uninterested.

3. What can we learn about the Americans out of work?

A．Losing jobs gets them out of the job market.

B．They have more opportunities to have vacations.

C．They successfully get offers from new companies.

D．Losing jobs for long makes it harder to find a new one.

4. What’s the main idea of the passage?

A．The jobless usually spend less.

B．Insurance companies offer necessary loans.

C．More job losses suggest a dark economy future.

D．The economy recovery depends on the government.

3 . Screens during meals rob kids of opportunities to improve language and communication skills （storytelling, making jokes, etc.）, as well as to develop patience and even imagination as they entertain themselves waiting for food to arrive.

Meals are an opportunity to connect, to learn more about and enjoy each other. They strengthen the bonds that will bring benefits to the rest of our lives. We squander that opportunity when we stick a screen in front of our kids during dinner.

Of course, we all want to have enjoyable family meals, which is why I love Bruce Feiller's book "The Secrets of Happy Families", in which he devotes an entire chapter to ways to make them fun and meaningful for everyone---such as "fill in the blank" sentences you make up. Sharing something good and something challenging makes for pleasant conversations, too. And I've had fun playing Uno with my daughters until the food arrives in a restaurant.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (小儿科）also offers guidelines to help families manage children's screen time. The academy recommends avoiding digital media for children under 2, except for video-chatting, and limiting screen time to just one hour a day of high-quality programming for children ages 2 to 5.

Fundamentally, we all benefit from more human connection, not less — and that's especially true for children. Schools, airplane trips, most jobs, games, even "social" interaction were all once done without screens but now are filled with them. And while we have gained some advantages, including new connections, we have lost something fundamental, as well.

Less is always more when it comes to screens, even if they are effective at keeping kids quiet. But soon after complaining that they are "bored, ” kids have a natural tendency to fill the screenless void （空虚）with creative games, art, exploration and conversation. There are no studies that warn against having too many hours of those activities.

Let's all work harder to keep family meals special by getting rid of the iPads and nourishing our personal connections as we nourish our bodies.

1. What's the author's attitude to the kids' staring at screens during meals?

A．Disapproving.	B．Favorable.
C．Cautious.	D．Unconcerned.

2. What does the underlined word "squander" in paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．Take.	B．Waste.
C．Expect.	D．Create.

3. What will kids do if they have no access to screens?

A．Keep quiet.

B．Refuse to eat.

C．Feel bored all the time.

D．Find ways to entertain themselves.

4. What is the author's purpose in writing this passage?

A．To introduce the iPads to the children.

B．To stress the importance of family meals.

C．To appeal for family meals without screens.

D．To teach parents how to punish their children.

4 . Directions: After trading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word: for the other blanks, use one word that best Jits each blank.

Marian Bechtel sits at West Palm Beach's Bar Louie counter by herself, quietly reading her e-book as she waits for her salad. What is she reading? None of your business! Lunch is Bechtel's "me" time. And     1     more Americans, she's not alone.

A new report found 46 percent of meals are eaten alone in America. More than half (53%) have breakfast alone and nearly half (46%) have lunch by themselves. Only at dinnertime     2     we eating together, 74%, according to statistics from the report.

"I prefer to go out and be out. Alone, but together, you know?” Bechtel said,     3     (look) up from her book. Bechtel, who works in downtown West Palm Beach, has lunch with coworkers sometimes, but like many of us, too often     4     (work) through lunch at her desk. A lunchtime escape allows her to keep a boss from tapping her on     5     shoulder. She returns to work feeling energized. "Today, I just wanted some time to myself,^” she said.

Just two seats over, Andrew Mazoleny, a local videographer, is finishing his lunch at the bar. He likes that he can sit and check his phone in peace or chat up the barkeeper with whom he's on a first-name basis     6     he wants to have a little interaction. “I reflect on     7     my day's gone and think about the rest of the week," he said. "It's a chance for self-reflection. You return to work     8     (refresh) and with a plan.''

That freedom     9     (choose) is one reason more people like to eat alone. There was a time when people may have felt awkward about asking for a table for one, but those days are over. Now, we have our smartphones to keep us company at the table. "It doesn't feel as alone as it may have before all the advances in technology," said Laurie Demeritt,     10     company provided the statistics for the report.

5 . The poverty line is the minimum income that people need for an acceptable standard of living. People with incomes below the poverty line are considered poor. Economists study the causes of poverty in order to find solutions to the problem.

As the general standard of living in the country rises, the poverty line does, too. Therefore, even with today’s relatively high standard of living, about 10 percent of the people in the United States are below the poverty line. However, if these people had stable jobs, they could have an acceptable standard of living. Economists suggest several reasons why poor people do not have jobs.

For one thing, more than half of the poor people in the United States are not qualified to work. Over 40 percent of the poor people are children. By law, children less than 16 years old cannot work in many industries. A large number of poor people are old. Many companies do not hire people over 65 years old, the normal retirement age.

Some poor adults do not look for jobs for a variety of personal reasons: they are sick, they do not have any motivation, they have family problems, or they do not believe that they can find a job.

Other poor people look for a job, but cannot find one. Many poor adults never went to high school. Therefore, when they look for jobs, they have few skills that they can offer.

At the present time, the government thinks it can reduce poverty in the country in the following ways:

First, if the national economy grows, businesses and industries hire more workers. Some of the poor who are qualified to look for jobs may find employment. Then they will no longer below the poverty line.

Second, if society invests in the poor, the poor will become more productive.

If the government spends money on social programs, education and training for poor people, the poor will have the skills to offer. Then it is more probable that they can find jobs.

Finally, if the government distributes society’s income differently, it raises some poor people above the poverty line. The government collects taxes from the non-poor and gives money to the poor. These payments to the poor are called welfare.

Some economists are looking for better solutions to the poverty problem. However, at the present time, many people depend on welfare for a minimally acceptable standard of living.

1. This passage is mainly about ________.

A．the poverty line

B．how to look for jobs

C．how to raise the standard of living

D．the causes of poverty and solutions to the problem

2. If the general standard of living in the country rises, the poverty line ________.

A．falls	B．does not change
C．rises	D．changes at random

3. Which one is not the reason that poor adults do not look for jobs?

A．They are too sick to work.	B．They have no motivation.
C．They family problems.	D．They are too lazy to find jobs.

4. The underlined word “distribute” means “________”.

A．charge	B．share
C．receive	D．deliver

6 . Car washes are a common sight throughout Nigeria, but Madinat Aliyu's roadside business is very special: she is the only woman car-washer in the north of the country.
“This job has caused me a lot of problems,” said the 27-year-old, checking cars waiting to be cleaned in Gusau, the capital of Zamfara state.
Aliyu took up her work two years ago, hoping to use the 7,000 naira (£28) she earned every month to put her younger sisters and brothers through school following the death of their mother, the only one who made money to support the family. But her family begged her to stop doing this job, and she has received “judgment and warnings” from strangers too.
“My grandmother cried for many days. Some people thought it was a joke to bring more customers (顾客). Others said if she is doing it for money, let's just give her money to stop bringing us shame,” she said as she got water from a well by the roadside. “But I hate laziness or depending on somebody else.”
However, Aliyu has admirers. “Some customers only allow her to wash their cars,” said her colleague (同事) Shamsudeen Mohammed. “I was trained to wash cars by men, and I can honestly tell you women are better to work under,” he added.
Recently another woman came to Aliyu to ask for advice on starting her own car wash. “Unfortunately her family discouraged her. I told her, if you listen to them, you will find yourself begging or marrying a man who is older than your grandfather,” she said.
Though she is considered a pariah (贱民) by many, Aliyu has no plans to stop her work. “I see men doing something and I think I can do it too.”

1. Madinat Aliyu washes cars mainly to _____.

A．make a living

B．learn about cars

C．meet her future husband

D．know the life of the poor

2. From the fifth paragraph, we know Shamsudeen Mohammed _____.

A．thought Aliyu did a good job

B．trained Aliyu to wash cars

C．had more customers than Aliyu

D．liked to work with men

3. As a woman car-washer, Aliyu _____.

A．gets her family's support

B．dreams of going to school

C．is thought highly of by strangers

D．sets an example for the women in Nigeria

4. Which of the following can best describe Aliyu?

A．Shy but smart.

B．Independent and confident.

C．Honest but lazy.

D．Humorous and imaginative.