2 . Beanstalks (豆萁) are burned to cook beans
The beans cry in the pot
We grow from the same root (根)
Why should we boil each other with such impatience?

The poem is thought to be written by Cao Zhi, one of Cao Cao’s sons, Cao, who lived between 192 and 232 during the Three Kingdoms period.

It is said that after Cao Cao’s death, his oldest son Cao Pi became the emperor. Cao Pi was jealous (嫉妒的) of his younger brother Cao Zhi’s talent, so he wanted to find an excuse to kill him. One day, Cao Pi ordered Cao Zhi to make a poem about their relationship within seven steps, and was determined (决定) to have the younger brother killed if he failed. Cao Zhi then made the poem in front of him, which showed Cao Pi’s cruel idea to kill his own brother. Cao Pi, feeling ashamed, let Cao Zhi go in the end.

In China, the poem is taught to primary school students and is often used by people to describe unnecessary competitions or fighting between people, businesses, or organizations who are in the same area or want the same things.

The poem was posted on Tweeter by the CEO of Tesla and Space X Elon Musk, and it was given a title Humankind on purpose by Musk. The post drew tons of attention on both Western and Chinese social media, and internet users have been guessing what it was used for. People thought it could be an answer to the director of UN food organization, who mentioned that world hunger could be stopped if Elon Musk could give away 2% of his wealth.

1. The poem is said to be written by ________.

A．Cao Cao

B．Cao Zhi

C．Cao Pi

D．Elon Musk

2. Cao Pi wanted to kill Cao Zhi because ________.

A．Cao Zhi was one of his brothers

B．Cao Pi was jealous of Cao Zhi’s talent

C．Cao Zhi refused to follow Cao Pi’s orders

D．Cao Pi wanted to become the only son of Cao Cao

3. By writing the poem, the poet wanted to show that ________.

A．his brother was cruel to him	B．he was not afraid of his brother
C．the beans were close to its stalks	D．the beanstalk should die for its beans

4. Which one is TRUE according to the last paragraph?

A．Elon Musk posted the poem on Tweeter for fun.

B．Only Western internet users noticed the poem.

C．The purpose of the poem became a hot topic.

D．Elon Musk is mean and doesn’t care about others.

3 . Directions: After reading 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 fits each blank.

The Time Capsule of Colorado Springs

In 1901, the citizens of Colorado Springs in the USA decided to collect everyday items and to seal (密封) them in a steel box. The box, marked “To be opened after midnight, December 31st, AD 2000”,     1    (store) in the Colorado College library.

One hundred years later, on the appointed day, 300 people gathered to watch the opening of the box. Many in the crowd were the descendants (后代) of people who     2    (place) things inside the box.

When the box was opened after midnight, the contents were     3    very good condition. There were newspapers, photographs, diaries, name cards, family trees, books and dozens of letters, including one     4    (write) by Theodore Roosevelt, who became the president of the USA later that year. One of Roosevelt’s friends lived in Colorado Springs at that time.

Many of the letters     5    (address) to their descendants. They described the hopes that the people of 1901 had for the people of the next century. At that time, Colorado Springs had just a few thousand residents. Now there are nearly half a million people     6    (live) there.

Colorado College Library has scanned the materials and put them on a website. Cecil Muller,     7    grandfather had placed a collection of post-cards in the box, said that the time capsule was a great treasure. “This is such a wonderful educational resource     8    we can learn a lot about our history,” he said. “I never knew my grandfather,     9    now I feel very close to him.”

In April 2001, a committee filled the time capsule with items from modern Colorado Springs and     10    (reseal) it for another hundred years.

4 . Why is the Mona Lisa the most famous painting in the world? Her mysterious smile? The mystery surrounding her identity? The fact she was painted by Renaissance charming boy Leonardo da Vinci? Sure, all of these things helped increase the popularity of the 16th century masterpiece. But what really threw the small, unassuming portrait to international stardom was a daring burglary over 100 years ago.

When Italian handyman Vincenzo Peruggia stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911, he never could have guessed her absence would be the very thing that made her the most recognizable painting on the planet. Suddenly images of the artwork were seen across international newspapers, as the two-year police hunt hit dead-end after dead-end. It wasn’t until December 1913 that Peruggia was finally caught and the Mona Lisa recovered, becoming the best known painting in a time before we shared images on TV, internet, and phones.

   

So how did Peruggia carry out one of the greatest art robberies of all time? The handyman had been hired by the Louvre to make protective glass cases for some of its famous works—including the Mona Lisa. After hiding in a closet overnight, he simply removed the painting, hid it under his smock (罩衣), and was about to waltz out of the building when he discovered the door was locked. Desperate Peruggia removed the doorknob, but still it wouldn’t open—until a helpful plumber passing by opened the door with his key. It was 24 hours before anyone even noticed the Mona Lisa was missing, with artworks often removed to be photographed or cleaned.

Over the next two years, the careless police investigation dragged on, with Pablo Picasso a suspect at one point. The force even interviewed Peruggia twice, before concluding he couldn’t possibly be the man behind the shameless burglary. The head of the Paris police retired in shame.

And then two years later, an art dealer in Florence received a letter from a man saying he had the Mona Lisa. It was signed ”Leonardo.” The man was of course Peruggia. After setting up a meeting with the dealer and the director of the Uffizi gallery in Florence, Peruggia turned up with the painting which had spent years hidden in a trunk in his apartment.

Peruggia, then 32 years old, claimed to have stolen the artwork to return her to her native Italy. He was arrested and eventually sentenced to seven months in jail. He seemed to have genuinely been convinced he would be praised as a national hero and genuinely dismayed to discover he wasn’t.

1. According to the passage, what contributed to the tremendous popularity of the Mona Lisa?

A．The mysterious smile of Mona Lisa.

B．People’s desire to figure out the identity of Mona Lisa.

C．The theft of the painting in 1911.

D．The fact that it was painted by Leonardo da Vinci.

2. What does underlined word “unassuming” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?

A．Humble.

B．Realistic.

C．Magnificent.

D．Objective.

3. Which of the following statements is TRUE about how the Mona Lisa was stolen?

A．Peruggia slipped into the Louvre from the outside after it was closed.

B．It took Peruggia a lot of time to take the painting from the gallery wall.

C．Peruggia’s stealing of the painting would have failed but for the appearance of a plumber.

D．The theft of the painting was immediately discovered by the staff of the Louvre.

4. Peruggia stole the painting because he ________.

A．was defending the honour of his native country	B．wanted to show his appreciation of great art
C．dreamed of making a great fortune by selling it	D．was worried about the fate of the painting

5 . In 1961, President John F. Kennedy Jr. set a goal: he wanted to land a man on the moon to show America’s_________ in the Space Race.

_________ a decade later, Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon on Sunday, July 20, 1969. Aldrin later joined him on the moon’s surface and they_________a US flag, took photographs, and_________ the first samples from our satellite.

The Apollo crew of Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins travelled 240,000 miles in 76 hours to reach the moon. During the mission, the food items the astronauts ate on the surface of the moon in the lunar module_________ the following: beef stew, bacon squares, date fruit cake, and grape punch.

Over 400,000 people supported the_________, including people from the Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. Armstrong’s famous first words “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”_________ on television channels and through newspapers around the world.

After World War Ⅱ_________ on September 2, 1945, a new conflict began between the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States and the Soviet Union had_________ ideologies(意识形态): the United States was capitalist,__________ the Soviet Union was socialist.

The Space Race started when a Soviet missile launched Sputnik(Russian for “traveller”), the world’s first artificial satellite on October 4, 1957. Sputnik became the first man-made__________ to orbit Earth. The US decided to act quickly in order to prove __________. From 1961 to 1964, NASA’s budget __________ by 500 percent. When Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, America was declared the__________ of the Space Race. The US had spent about $25 billion on the program, over $100 billion in today’s dollars.

More than 50 years after Apollo, NASA vows to land the first woman on the moon with the Artemis program and with the help of an increase in NASA’s budget by $1.6 billion by former President Trump. The new mission,__________ the twin sister of Apollo and Greek Goddess of the moon, will be headed to the moon’s south pole where the craters(火山口)hold large deposits of water ice.

1.

A．dominance

B．rule

C．regulation

D．management

2.

A．More than

B．No more than

C．No less than

D．Less than

3.

A．grew

B．rose

C．planted

D．carried

4.

A．brought up

B．brought back

C．brought in

D．brought about

5.

A．persisted in

B．consisted of

C．made up

D．insisted on

6.

A．task

B．landing

C．contest

D．mission

7.

A．were showed

B．were printed

C．echoed

D．expressed

8.

A．stopped

B．ended

C．paused

D．suspended

9.

A．similar

B．special

C．political

D．conflicting

10.

A．where

B．while

C．so

D．when

11.

A．machine

B．facility

C．object

D．equipment

12.

A．superiority

B．ability

C．position

D．influence

13.

A．decreased

B．dropped

C．shrank

D．increased

14.

A．amateur

B．winner

C．competitor

D．loser

15.

A．taken after

B．taking on

C．named after

D．looking after

9 . When gold was discovered in Coloma, California in 1848, news travelled fast and many went there to find their fortune. Before 1849, California was a place focusing mainly on agriculture. As word of the gold discovery spread, many people left their fields to seek their fortune. With more and more travellers arriving, restaurants and hotels were built to feed and accommodate (提供住宿) them.

On the mining sites, men were often forced to cook for themselves since few gold diggers were women. In the early days, both food and riches were plentiful and miners could uncover $2,000 worth of gold in just one day. When it came to food, there were plenty of wild animals to be hunted, and meat, beans and coffee could be purchased at a reasonable price. Times appeared to be good.

Over time, because the majority of food in California had to be imported, it became very expensive. Simple foods like eggs and bread were sold for one dollar a piece in 1849. Besides, fruit and vegetables were scarce (缺乏的).   Therefore, many gold diggers couldn't get enough food, and some even had no food at all at last. But the gold diggers also hated to tear themselves away from their search for gold and turned to quick and simple meals that could be cooked over hot ashes.

During the Gold Rush, San Francisco's famous sourdough (酸面团) bread became a main type of food. Miners would often buy a piece in the morning that would be eaten slowly throughout the day. The Boudin family, who came from France, was partly responsible for putting San Francisco sourdough on the map. The Boudin bakery has used the same sourdough, a piece of so­called mother dough since 1849. And when the 1906 earthquake hit, Louise Boudin managed to save some sourdough, ensuring that each piece of bread that came from the bakery would be linked throughout history. So far the Boudin bakery has remained in California, using the sourdough that is the same as the one in 1849.

1. What change took place in California after 1849?

A．The environment got damaged by gold diggers.

B．Gold diggers from outside became its main population.

C．The gold industry pushed each other forward.

D．Business of eating and living developed due to the Gold Rush.

2. What can we infer about gold diggers from Paragraph 3?

A．Many sadly left without any gold.

B．Many had to bring food from home.

C．Many likely ended up with poor health.

D．Many probably turned to unique ingredients.

3. What's Boudin family's contribution to California?

A．Helping discover lots of gold there.

B．Rescuing many people from the earthquake.

C．Creating a type of tasty bread for Califormans.

D．Passing down some food culture in the Gold Rush.

4. What's the best title for the text?

A．The Origin of San Francisco Sourdough

B．The Historical Changes of California

C．The Tough Life of Early Gold Diggers

D．The Rise and Fall of the Gold Rush