1 . Each year, 150,000 people hike Scotland’s Ben Nevis — Britain’s highest mountain. Many choose to take the so-called tourist trail, the rocky path which winds its way to the peak. Few realise that this path was initially carved out in 1883 for a very unique scientific expedition.
In the late 19th century, a key question of science was how depressions, storms and other severe climatic events form in the atmosphere. By 1875 mountain observatories were being established across the US, Mexico, India, France, Germany and Russia. Keen to gather similar data for Britain, the Scottish Meteorological Society decided to build a weather station at the top of Ben Nevis.
And so began a remarkable experiment. From 1883 to 1904, a few hardy individuals lived year-round in a small stone hut, surviving on tinned food and making hourly recordings of everything from atmospheric temperature to humidity (湿度), wind speed to rainfall. In total they made almost 1.5 million observations.
“They were living in very severe weather conditions: 100mph winds were not uncommon, and the temperature would drop to -15°C at times. The main danger they faced was that they were very close to the edge of the cliff (悬崖). If you weren’t careful, you would disappear off the cliff completely,” says Ed Hawkins, professor of climate science at the University of Reading.
However, by 1904, the Scottish Meteorological Society could no longer afford the observatory’s running costs. It was closed down and the data largely has remained hidden in the dusty pages of archives (档案馆) ever since.
Today, plans are underfoot to build a new modern observatory on the ruins on the former site — with automatic measuring devices rather than human data collectors. “We haven’t had any long-term observations up there for a long time now, and this would give us information straight away on how the climate at the top of the mountain has changed,” Hawkins says. “We think that the high altitude regions are some of the places where we’ve seen the largest changes in temperature. This could tell us a lot.”
1. Why was the weather station at the top of Ben Nevis built?| A．To attract visitors to Ben Nevis. |
| B．To study the formation of extreme weather events. |
| C．To provide weather forecasts for the whole Britain. |
| D．To compete with weather stations in other countries. |
| A．The geographical features of Ben Nevis. |
| B．The extreme climate on top of Ben Nevis. |
| C．The achievements made by the weather station. |
| D．The bad working conditions of the station workers. |
| A．It will take a long time to build. |
| B．It will need many human data collectors. |
| C．It will have archives for the old weather station. |
| D．It will detect climate change at Ben Nevis’ peak quickly. |
| A．To argue. | B．To inform. |
| C．To advertise. | D．To appeal. |
2 . “They tell me that you’d like to make a statue of me — is that correct, Miss Vinnie Ream?”
The deep, gentle voice helped calm the nervous girl. Asking a favor of the President of the United States was no casual matter, especially for a seventeen-year-old girl.
“Yes, sir,” she replied, her dark eyes meeting his. “I wouldn’t have dared to ask you, but my teacher, Mr. Mills, says I am ready. I plan to make it in an admirable manner.”
President Lincoln smiled.“Painters, sculptors — they’ve all tried to make the best of this ordinary face, but I’m afraid there’s not much hope. What did you have in mind, Miss Ream? A bust (半身像)?”
Before Vinnie could say yes, the President hurried on, a shade of apology in his voice. “Of course — I shouldn’t have asked. A full-length pose would be much too big a project for a young woman your size.”
Vinnie’s face turned red. She realized she looked like a child, with her tiny figure. “Small does not mean weak, sir,” she defended herself. “I was born in the country of Wisconsin. I’ve driven teams of horses and carried water. Making a full-length clay (黏土) figure would not exhaust my strength — and that is what I intend to do!”
The President’s eyes, brightened at her show of spirit. “Sorry, madam, I have underestimated you as I didn’t know your background.”
But his smile faded as he rubbed his beard with bony fingers, in thought. “Miss Ream,” he sighed, “I’d like to let you do it, but as you know, we are in the middle of a war. How could I possibly take the time to pose for a sculpture now? I hardly have a minute to myself.”
Vinnie glanced around and noted the size of his office. “I work quickly,” she said. Her voice was soft but confident as she pointed to the corner near the windows. “If I were to bring my clay here and work for three hours every afternoon, I could complete most of the project while you are at your desk.”
The President seemed to consider her idea seriously. He got up and shook Vinnie’s hand warmly, “I’ve heard that you are a talented young woman, and I have found you charming and intelligent as well. I cannot make my decision immediately, but you will hear from me soon.”
The very next day, Vinnie received an invitation from the President.
1. How did President Lincoln first respond to Vinnie’s request?| A．Doubtful. | B．Thrilled. |
| C．Regretful. | D．Pleased. |
| A．her experience from other projects |
| B．the heavy labor she had done before |
| C．her innocent childhood in the country |
| D．the skill she picked up in Wisconsin |
| A．avoid disturbing the president’s work |
| B．keep all her tools within easy reach |
| C．observe the President at a right angle |
| D．achieve effects of natural lighting |
| A．Ups and downs make one strong. |
| B．Experience helps to promote excellence. |
| C．A strong-willed soul can reach his goal. |
| D．Devotion requires enthusiasm. |
3 . In 1944, 730 representatives from 44 allied (同盟) nations met in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, just as World War Ⅱ was ending. They were attending an important conference. This mostly forgotten event shaped our modern world because the Bretton Woods Conference agreed on the establishment of an international banking system.
To make sure that all nations would be successful, the United States and other allied nations set rules for a postwar international economy. The Bretton Woods system created the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF was founded as a kind of global central bank from which member countries could borrow money. The countries needed money to pay for their war costs. Today, the IMF promotes international trade by guaranteeing the stability of the international currency and financial system.
The Bretton Woods system also set up the World Bank. Although the World Bank shares similarities with IMF, the two institutes remain distinct. While the IMF keeps an orderly system of payments and receipts between nations, the World Bank is mainly a development institution. The World Bank initially gave loans to European countries ruined by World War Ⅱ, and today it lends money and technical assistance specifically to economic projects in developing countries. Its goal is to “bridge the economic divide between poor and rich countries.”
These two specific accomplishments of the Bretton Woods Conference were major. However, the Bretton Woods system particularly benefited the United States and it placed the U.S. dollar as the global currency. A global currency is one that countries worldwide accept for all trade, or international transactions (交易) of buying and selling. Because only the U.S. could print dollars, the United States became the primary power behind the IMF and the World Bank. Today, global currencies include the U.S. dollar, the euro (European Union countries), and yen (Japan).
The years after Bretton Woods have been considered the golden age of the U.S. dollar. More importantly, the conference deeply shaped foreign trade for decades to come.
1. For what purpose was the Bretton Woods Conference held?| A．To shape our modern world. | B．To set up IMF and the World Bank. |
| C．To help allied nations to pay for their war costs. | D．To guarantee the success of all allied nations. |
| A．Their accomplishments. | B．Their functions. |
| C．Their founders. | D．Their influence. |
| A．The foundation of IMF and the World Bank. | B．The international currency and financial system. |
| C．Currency cooperation and financial stability. | D．Developing countries and the entire word. |
| A．Bretton Woods increased U.S. economic influence around the world |
| B．the IMF and the World Bank work closely together to guarantee success |
| C．the conclusion of World War Ⅱ had little influence on events at Bretton Woods |
| D．the conference organizers recognized the need for markets to function in-dependently |
4 . Anxiety sweat. Horsehair Wet grass and soil after a rain. Gunpowder. Perfume （香水） containing rosemary and bitter orange. A touch of leather.
This might have been what Napoleon's withdrawal from the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 smelled like. At least, these are some of the elements that Caro Verbeek, an art historian and olfactory（嗅觉的）researcher, tried to combine when she was reconstructing the smell. “Wars are extremely smelly,” Dr. Verbeek said. “Soldiers don't write about their injuries as much as they write about the terrible sounds and smells. So we know more about them. We also know that it had rained the night before the battle, that anxiety sweat smells different from normal sweat, and that there were thousands of horses on the field.” These were some details Dr. Verbeek relied on during the reconstruction, which is part of a project called “In Search of Lost Scents（气味）.” The scent is offered in the Rijks museum as part of tours- -on pieces of paper or in a necklace with tiny pumps- alongside Jan Willem Pieneman's 1824 painting of the scene.
Dr. Verbeek approaches past smells by attempting to recreate versions of them, as she did with the Battle of Waterloo, making a perfume of sorts that might be associated with historical events, people and works of art. Bringing smell into a museum context can be one way to make art more accessible. Marie Clapot, associate museum educator, has worked over the last few years to bring smell into the museum “It's not just about ‘Oh, it's nice to smell something.’ It's one way you can make an art objet accessible” It is also a way, she said, to bring a number of people into the conversation about art who might not be moved by traditional art history.
1. What did Dr. Verbeek's reconstruction depend on?| A．Personal experience in the war. | B．Pure imagination for the past. |
| C．Great talent in descriptive writing. | D．Detailed facts about the history. |
| A．To inform visitors of the project of nice smells. |
| B．To promote the popularity of traditional art history. |
| C．To get visitors to know wars and battles in history. |
| D．To combine various elements from different fields. |
| A．What does history smell like? |
| B．How was a project carried out? |
| C．The Battle of Waterloo: a smelly war |
| D．The Rijks museum: a creative museum |
5 . Rosie the Riveter was a World War II nickname for women who worked in factories and shipyards all across the country. The two women talked about here were not like Rosie. They, and four others, were working on a machine at the University of Pennsylvania, called ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). It was designed to do difficult calculations related to ballistics (弹道), but the war ended before ENIAC was put into use.
Work on it continued, though. The room-sized computer was completely electronic, so it should have been far faster than the other big war-time calculator, the Mark I, developed by IBM. The Mark I, driven by electricity, had moving parts that slowed it down but its instructions could be stored on a paper tape, which gave it a big advantage. In ENIAC, however, every calculation involved putting cables (电缆) into a board.
To program ENIAC, the women had to first analyze hundreds of equations (公式) involved in a particular calculation. Then, they determined which cables should go where, so the machine would do the right steps in the right order. They understood both mathematics and the machine.
Programming was in its early stage in the 1940s; in fact, the term, “to program95 came from the ENIAC team. Women held many of these early jobs. The six ENIAC programmers had been selected from a group of women with degrees in mathematics who worked on other big war-time calculators. Today, computer jobs are controlled by men. Women hold only a quarter of the tech jobs in the United States, though they account for half the workforce. Only 18 percent of computer science graduates today are women. Often the explanation is that girls don't like math, or don't do well in it, but the experience of these earlier women proves otherwise.
1. What can we learn about ENIAC from the first two paragraphs?| A．It was much more advanced than the Mark I. |
| B．It could do calculations of ballistics all by itself. |
| C．It was invented by the University of Pennsylvania. |
| D．It never served its original purpose during the war. |
| A．They stored instructions on a paper tape. |
| B．They corrected errors of a particular board. |
| C．They learned hundreds of equations by heart. |
| D．They decided where to put cables in calculations. |
| A．Women were not so interested in computer science. |
| B．Women are good at computer programming like men. |
| C．Women are always in the minority of the workforce in US. |
| D．Women were not as well-accepted as men in programming jobs. |
6 . Dancing until you drop is a wellknown saying, but would you really be able to dance until you dropped dead? In 1374, in some European towns, people did exactly that. They were struck by a dancing plague (瘟疫) that forced them to dance.
This phenomenon (现象) was reported to have happened throughout parts of Western Europe, affecting people from the 14th to the 17th century. Hardly stopping to eat or even sleep, they would dance, sometimes for days on end, making this one of the strangest sicknesses in Western history.
Over the next century, there were only a few outbreaks. However, in the summer of 1518, it reappeared in the city of Strasbourg, France. It all began with a woman called Mrs. Troffea, who started to dance crazily in the street.
She was soon joined by 34 people within a week; by the end of the month, the crowd had increased to 400, most of whom were women. Again, people were dancing until they could no longer continue, with some finally dying from heart attacks or exhaustion. One report shows that the plague was killing around 15 people per day.
As the plague worsened, concerned nobles (贵族) turned to the advice of local doctors, who said that the plague was a “natural disease” caused by “hot blood”. So the nobles encouraged more dancing.
The reason behind their actions was they believed the dancers could only recover if they danced continuously night and day. The nobles even paid for musicians to keep the moving.
Then, as before, it disappeared almost as suddenly as it had come.
While these events may sound highly unbelievable, there is clear written evidence that it did happen.
Now, historians and scientists are still trying to find out the true cause of this phenomenon.
1. What do we know about the plague?| A．It cost some people's lives. |
| B．It took place twice in history. |
| C．It affected people of all ages. |
| D．It stopped in the 16th century. |
| A．To see the hot blood. |
| B．To kill the dancing people. |
| C．To free people of the plague. |
| D．To prove the doctors' words. |
| A．For no reason. |
| B．With local doctors' help. |
| C．With Mrs. Troffea's help. |
| D．Because of some natural power. |
| A．To show the history of dancing. |
| B．To introduce a wellknown English saying. |
| C．To provide information on the dancing plague. |
| D．To explain the reason behind the dancing plague. |
7 . Victor Hugo, 1802 -1885, was a celebrated French literary giant. After the British and French invaders(入侵者) bad burnt the Winter Palace(圆明园) in October, 1860, he wrote a reply to an officer named Bartlette one year later.
Sir, you ask me what I think of the expedition(远征) to China. You must feel that it was laudable. In your opinion, the expedition, performed under the joint banner(联合旗帜) of Queen Victoria and Emperor Napoleon, was nothing short of a British-French glory. Therefore, you would like to know to what extent I appreciate this glory. Since you ask, I will answer as follows:
In a corner of the world there existed a man-made miracle - the Winter Palace. Art has two sources: one, an ideal, from which has come European art; two, fancy, from which has come Easter art. The Winter Palace belongs in the art of fancy. The Winter Palace, indeed, was the fruit of all of the art that an almost superman race could have fancied.
For whom was the Winter Palace built, after all? Eventually, for the people. Because as time passes by, all that the people has made remains in the possession of mankind. Great artists, poets, philosophers - they all knew about the Winter Palace. Voltaire once talked about it. Many people at different times compared the Winter Palace to the Parthenon, the Pyramids, the Arena, the Notre Dame. If they could not see the Winter Palace with their own eyes, they could dream about it- as if in the distance they saw a breath-taking masterpiece of art as they had never known before – as if there above the horizon of European civilization was towering the outline of Asian civilization.
Now, the miracle is no more! One day, two pirates broke into it One of them robbed; the other set every building and everything in it on fire! Judging by what they did, we know that the victors could degenerate into robbers. The two of them fell to dividing between themselves the treasure. What great victories they had won! What a heaven-sent fortune! One stuffed his pockets full to overflowing; the other filled in his bags with treasure. Then, hand in hand they made of, laughing happily.
Incidentally, I must thank you for giving me the opportunity to accuse. The rulers commit crimes but the ruled do not. The government becomes a robber, but the people will never.
France has gained a large portion of the treasure. Now, she thinks herself the rightful owner of the property财物), and she is displaying the riches of the Winter Palace! I can only hope that there will come one day when France will disburden herself of the heavy load on her conscience and clean herself off the crime by returning to China all the treasure taken from the Winter Palace.
Sit, such is my praise of the expedition to China.
1. Mr. Hugo wrote this letter mainly to_________.| A．show his praise of the expedition to China in reply to Bartlette’s request |
| B．persuade French officers to return the treasure taken from the Winter Palace |
| C．prove people hold different attitudes towards the burning of the Winter Palace |
| D．express his anger and condemnation over the burning of the Summar Palace |
| A．praiseworthy | B．violent | C．unreasonable | D．abundant |
| A．compare different architectural styles |
| B．praise European and African civilization |
| C．introduce some more famous buildings to Bartlette |
| D．emphasize the civilizational value of the Winter Palace |
| A．Bartlette and his fellow | B．Bartlette and Great Britain |
| C．France and Great Britain | D．the rulers and the ruled |
| A．satisfied | B．proud | C．disappointed | D．frightened |
8 . World War II began when the UK and France declared war on Germany, after German troops led by Adolf Hitler had invaded Poland on 1 September 1939 to claim land there as their own. Hitler had already invaded Austria and Czechoslovakia, so the war began over his plan to take more land for Germany.
The Siege of Leningrad is a famous event during World War II. For 900 days—from 8 September 1941 to 27 January 1944—the city of Leningrad in Russia was surrounded by German troops. That meant everyone inside the city had to stay there, and that there wasn't any way for food or other sources like medicine to get in. Many hundreds of thousands of people died during this time because there wasn't enough food or heating to go around, but the people who lived in Leningrad refused to surrender to the Germans.
In 1940, the French port of Dunkirk was the location of a big turning point for the Allie：in World War II. Hitler's armies bombed Dunkirk heavily, and many Allied troops were waiting on the beach to be rescued because they didn't have the resources they needed to fight back. From 26 May to 4 June, over 550, 000 troops were ferried to safety across the English Channel-the code name for this was 'Operation Dynamo'. Some British civilians（people who weren't in the army）even used their own boats to help save as many people as they could. The rescue operation helped to boost morale（士气）in Britain, where they really needed some good news. This helped in going into the next major event in World War II, the Battle of Britain.
June 6,1944 is also known as D-Day. On that day, the Allied forces launched a huge invasion of land that Adolf Hitler's Nazi troops had taken over. It all began with boats and boats full of Allied troops landing on beaches in the French region of Normandy. They broke through the German defences and carried on fighting them back through Europe for the next 11 months until they reached Berlin, where Hitler was then hiding.
1. What led to the outbreak of the second World War?| A．UK and France's declaring war on Germany. |
| B．German troops' invading Poland in 1939. |
| C．Hiter's starting an attack on Austria. |
| D．Hiter's plan for occupying more land. |
| A．This event lasted about two and a half years. |
| B．German troops cut all the supplies to Leningrad. |
| C．Many people were killed by German soldiers. |
| D．Leningrad was finally occupied by Germans. |
| A．The Siege of Leningrad. | B．Operation Dynamo. |
| C．The Battle of Britain. | D．The D-day Landings. |
| A．Causes of WWⅡ. | B．Hitler's Invasion. |
| C．Great Wars in WWⅡ. | D．War and Peace. |
9 . America’s first transcontinental railroad, completed 150 years ago today at Promontory Summit in Utah, connected the vast United States and brought America into the modern age. Chinese immigrants contributed greatly to this notable achievement, but the historical accounts that followed often ignored their role.
Between 1863 and 1869, as many as 20,000 Chinese workers helped build the dangerous western part of the railroad, a winding ribbon of track known as the Central Pacific. At first, the Central Pacific Railroad’s directors wanted a whites-only workforce. When not enough white men signed up, the railroad began hiring Chinese men for the backbreaking labor. Company leaders were skeptical of the new recruits’ ability to do the work, but they proved themselves not only capable but even superior to the other workers.
Chinese workers cut through dense forests, filled deep narrow steep-sided valley, constructed long trestles(高架桥) and built enormous retaining walls(防护墙) -- some of which remain complete and undamaged today. All work was done by hand using carts, shovels and picks but no machinery. However, progress came at great cost: an estimated 1,200 Chinese laborers died along the Central Pacific route.
Despite these facts, Chinese workers were often left out of the official story because of their identity of foreigners. On the transcontinental railroad's 100th birthday, the Chinese workers were still not honored. It was another fifty years later that their role was gradually highlighted. To celebrate the railroad’s 150th anniversary in 2019, the California assembly passed a resolution in 2017 to recognize and honor the Chinese railroad workers by designating May 10, 2017, and every May 10 thereafter, as California Chinese Railroad Workers Memorial Day.
1. What might be the best title for the text?| A．The Birth of the Central Pacific Cost Dearly |
| B．May 10--A Special Day for Chinese Immigrants |
| C．Chinese Workers’ Contributions Gained Recognition |
| D．The 150th anniversary of the Central Pacific Railroad |
| A．Chinese laborers. | B．White workers. |
| C．Company leaders. | D．Railroad directors. |
| A．To prove Chinese workers’ superior skills. |
| B．To stress the danger and difficulty of the work. |
| C．To describe the grand scenery along the railroad. |
| D．To show notable achievements made by Chinese workers. |
| A．None so blind as those who won’t see. | B．No pains, no gains. |
| C．Truth will come to light sooner or later. | D．Doing is better than saying. |
10 . A ship that sank off the coast of California decades ago was recently reconstructed in detail. The 3D digital model even included hundreds of sponges (海绵动物) that have gathered on the ship’s surface since it sank.
Named American Heritage, the supply ship sank in Santa Monica Bay on May 4, 1995, and for decades its exact location was unknown. Researchers with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) spotted a strange shape in that area in 2008. But it wasn’t until May 2018 that MBARI scientists identified its exact location and mapped the site in detail, showing what appeared to be a shipwreck (失事船只).
Even then, the identity of the shipwreck was uncertain. Yet another MBARI team revisited the location to do further exploration. They sent remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and took photos of the damaged ship. Though it was covered with deep-sea sponges and other animals, the scientists were able to spot letters spelling out its name, confirming that the shipwreck was American Heritage.
As one of the MBARI scientists who found American Heritage, chief ROV pilot Knute Brekke had worked on the ship before. And he was on duty with the diving company American Pacific Marine — the owner of American Heritage — the night the ship began taking in water and eventually sank.
MBARI spokesperson Kim Fulton -Bennett said to Live Science about the discovery, “The model is not complete, as floating ropes and poor visibility kept the pilots from getting too close to the wreck. But the 3D reconstruction is detailed enough to show that American Heritage is now home to thousands of sponges. Shipwrecks often turn into the shelter for diverse communities of ocean life.”
1. What is the main idea of the text?| A．A valuable treasure was discovered. |
| B．Special sponges were found under sea. |
| C．3D model reconstructed a sunken ship. |
| D．A sunken ship was gotten out of water. |
① Something strange was found in the area.
② ROVs were sent under sea to take photos.
③ A ship sank in Santa Monica Bay.
④ The identity of the ship was confirmed.
⑤ Scientists tried to locate the shipwreck.
| A．②③⑤④① | B．③①⑤②④ |
| C．⑤③①④② | D．④③①②⑤ |
| A．He was familiar with the sunken ship. |
| B．He was in charge of a diving company. |
| C．He was responsible for the rescue work. |
| D．He was the first one to witness the accident. |
| A．Critical. | B．Doubtful. | C．Amazed. | D．Objective. |
